Columnists

No matter what this life brings

Anticipation can either be good or bad. This week we have been anticipating the weather, how bad will it be? Or that something bad will happen and we won’t be prepared. So we prepare for what might happen or what could be the worst-case, but then we forget about the best-case scenario. What...

Beware of runaway shopping carts

TP’ing with toilet paper is a tradition that’s been around for generations. High school students celebrate special school events by TP’ing the homes of royalty contestants, team players, or even coaches. I know our house has been papered on several occasions. The student living in the house can...

Nature has character

Sammy is our six-year-old Cavapoo; she is our best friend. She doesn't shed and doesn't chew shoes, socks, or furniture. Samantha barks a bit too much at times, and hides under the bed during fireworks, claps of thunder, or a running vacuum cleaner. Any time I run an errand she waits for my...

Always learning

A few hours in Denny Hoehn's ice fishing house along with Scott Beckman was a great learning experience. Using an underwater camera hooked up to a mounted television screen to watch the way the bluegills approach the hook revolutionized my technique. Bluegill fishing requires you to be totally...

Longing to be a part of something

We want to be a part of a team. We want to belong, to know that people value and rely upon us. We want to be needed and know that our actions add to a solution. Our human condition longs to be a part of something that matters. From the beginning of our time on this earth, we have longed to be...

Time is something of a fickle friend

Wallace reached a milestone recently. He has graced the world with his presence for one year as of the third week in January. Not a lot is different at the manor with the change from puppyhood to “teenager”; Wallace still doesn’t know anything. The usual shenanigans still take place and the...

My depth finder lit up with fish

Annual physicals for senior citizens are a great, good health practice. I recently completed mine and left the clinic feeling good. Weight was just fine and blood pressure was great; still waiting for my blood test. When the nurse took my height, I became amazed at how fast I'm shrinking. I...

Talking nobodies at least once

I like books; I debate between buying them and reading them, which are two different passions. There is pleasure in buying books, contemplating their covers, feeling their pages, smelling them, reading the preface, and waiting for the day I can read it if that day comes. On the other hand,...

Acknowledge sin and cast it aside

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of...

A mouse ran up Lisa’s pant leg

I was recently driving up a long driveway to visit a friend south of Waseca. The property is surrounded by set-a-side, cattail sloughs, ditches, and agricultural fields. A caravan of brown critters was plowing across a snow covered field. I pulled out my binoculars–I always carry them–and...