Today’s Sound Off is about the lack of joy in our lives.

Dear Heloise: Here is my Sound Off: After two years of pandemic living, colored with shades of sickness, loss of loved ones, loss of jobs and businesses, isolation, masking, conflicting information and fear, I think the fashion designers should dump neutrals — grays, tans and muted pastels — that we have endured for far too long. Please, give us some bright colors to inspire hope, some pretty florals to cheer us up and some bold designs to encourage us to look forward to better days ahead. We need to resist the dreary clouds and fog of the pandemic, and this is one way we can demonstrate that we will not submit.

I read your column in the Mansfield News Journal and formerly in The Columbus Dispatch. Keep up the good work! — Judy N., Mansfield, Ohio

Judy, many fashion designers have gotten the word and are showing some bright colors for this spring and summer. Gray interiors that were so popular a while ago are giving way to cheery colors for home interiors. Interior designers are encouraging many of their clients to paint their interior walls and front doors a happy, bold color.

There will always be tension somewhere in the world. There will always be sickness and death, loss and regret. But we need to keep our heads up, look to the future and live our lives. — Heloise

FAST FACTS

Got company coming this year? Here are a few things to keep in your guest room:

— Travel-size toiletries.

— A box of tissues.

— A nightlight.

— A small flashlight.

— A carafe and water glass.

— Some current magazines or paperback books.

FRONT DOOR AND ­SHUTTERS

Dear Heloise: I decided to replace my front door and to paint it the same color as my shutters. Having a painter do it was rather expensive, so I decided to do it on my own. A neighbor suggested that the best way to paint my louvered shutters would be to skip the brush and bucket of paint and instead use a spray paint in cans.

I leaned the shutters up against a tree and placed the door on top of two sawhorses and sprayed everything in several thin coats of paint, allowing each coat to dry before spraying them with the next coat of paint. It was so much easier and less messy than using a paintbrush. Now the front of my house looks so much better because the door and shutters have a clean, fresh coat of paint. — Carolyn B., San Antonio, Texas

ABANDONED PETS

Dear Heloise: Every day, it seems I read about pets that have been abandoned by someone. Just the other day the police found two starving dogs that had been tied together then to a tree on a rural road in the middle of nowhere! They had no food or water and were without any shelter in this cold weather.

Animal shelters could have taken them, but more importantly, a pet is NOT disposable. They have feelings and suffer when not fed or given decent shelter. There’s no excuse for animal cruelty. — Beatrice K. in Missouri

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Hints from Heloise run occasionally in Lifestyles. Readers may send a hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000, fax it to 210-HELOISE, or email: Heloise@Heloise.com. Letters won’t be answered personally.