Waseca County Pioneer
103 S. State Street
Waseca, MN

(507) 837-6767
news@wasecacountypioneer.com

Finding a way to work while sick

Star Gazing March 3, 2023
Another week of “newsing” is in the books. 
I did less because I was sick, but it was still an exciting week. 
Monday evening I stayed home and did not attend the Waldorf City Council meeting. Normally that is Tristan’s responsibility, but she was covering the Waseca Snow Week talent show. 
I was reminded of the last time I was sick in 2022 and the first time I ever got sick after becoming an editor. 
In May of 2022 I came down with “the Covid” and was homebound for a period of time. It was one of my worst experiences being sick. I couldn’t stand up without incredible nausea and lightheadedness. The whole experience rather sucked. A lot. But–a big but–I felt relatively fine if I was laying down. Still sick, but no nausea. So what did I do?
As I say often, I still work when I’m sick, but at home. In this particular case, the entire newspaper was put together while I was lying flat, on my side, with my laptop propped up next to me on a coffee table. 
Early last year I made the decision to upgrade from a 2011 iMac, all-in-one desktop computer to a 2021 Macbook Pro. I’m really glad I did, because this is just one example of a situation in which I don’t know how I could have printed that week’s paper. I couldn’t have worked from home and I certainly couldn’t have sat at my desk and worked. Oof. 
So, the other story I remembered took place about three weeks after I became Editor of the Star Eagle when I was 19, gosh, six years ago. (Wow, time really does fly.)
I took over as editor for my dad who was in the hospital again for his autoimmune disorder which, at the time, had not been diagnosed. He couldn’t do the paper and we didn’t have anyone else who could or would put the pages (the newspaper) together. It wasn’t supposed to be me who did it, but I did.
In the past, when my father couldn’t do the newspaper, Reed, our production manager, would digitally lay out the pages. Well, the previous time this happened, Reed told my mother, who also worked for the newspaper, that, “Next time Jim can’t do the paper, I’m not gonna do it. It’s not my job. I’m old and it’s too much. Next time this happens we’ll have to find someone else to do it or close the doors.” 
That stayed in the back of my mind from the age of 17 until that fateful day in the spring of 2017. So fast forward three weeks, and many hours of copying and pasting, and internet searches on how to use “Quark” our operating system for the newspaper: Bit by bit, I’m getting the hang of it. 
Well about this time I came down with a really bad cold. I was miserable. 
I told Mom that I didn’t think I could finish the newspaper pages. “Can we print late? Can Reed do it?” 
I asked all of the questions. My mother assured me, on press day (deadline day),  Reed could put the finishing touches on the paper, “once I put everything where it should,” and he would send the pages to the printer to allow me to go home and rest.  
I did that and went home and utterly collapsed at about 1 p.m. 
I tossed and turned in my bed, in my sleep, sweating–I was truly and completely sick. 
I awoke at about 2:30 p.m. to a pounding door. “Eli, you have to finish the paper.” 
I thought I was having a nightmare. I opened the door, said, “You’re crazy.” And went back to my bed. 
The pounding continued. 
Followed by some yelling. And, well, I went back to work. 
I asked Reed what the problem was. All he had to do was make sure the spacing between stories was right and click some buttons to send the pages. 
I was furious. I came back to work for this? 
Reed hadn’t done a thing I asked him to do and told me it wasn’t his job, he couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it. 
I learned that day that, hell or high water, the ultimate responsibility for getting the paper to print falls on the editor. 
Thankfully now, there are two other people in our family newspaper operation who know how to lay out the newspaper: my father, who is in good health, and Michael Roy. 
I realized in December I was asking too much of Michael to put the newspaper pages together alongside writing stories, as well as help with literally anything I asked of him.Laying out pages  takes me a fraction of the time because of my 6 years of experience. And, well, I’m pretty anal about how I want the paper to look. So we did some redistribution of work and it allowed Michael to write more. Really, at the end of the day, the stories we share are the heart of the newspaper. 
Oh, this was supposed to be about my week of “newsing.”
Tuesday and Wednesday I finished laying out the Star Eagle and the Pioneer and made a plethora of mistakes. I remind myself that “my best,” looks different when I am sick. I am sincerely sorry for mistakes printed in the newspaper.  
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent following local sports. Senior Kloe Wadd scored her thousandth career point with the Waseca girls’ basketball team. I talked to her after the game and she was very nice. Her–I wanna say–grandfather had called to subscribe to the Pioneer a week earlier. He actually bought two subscriptions, one for himself, and one for another family member. This gentleman asked me, “Are you the newspaper with all the school activities and great sports coverage?” 
“Yes, yes we are that newspaper.” 
That made me smile. 
“Good, because I called and subscribed to the other paper and found out when it came in the mail that it was the wrong one.” 
Another week of ‘newsing’ on the books. 
“If you’re reading this… Congratulations, you’re alive. If that’s not something to smile about, then I don’t know what is.” ~ Chad Sugg

 

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