Stray Thoughts: Flood

As an adult, have you ever had to cry? I don’t mean just for a brief moment when something bad happened, or when a stray tear sneaks down your cheek during an emotional scene in a movie. I mean a real cry…an earnest sobbing when you don’t have any answers and you have no idea what to do.

Letter to the editor

By now, it’s no secret that the aftermath of the July 5, 2022 hail storm has been an expensive learning experience for us all. Even though we have excellent local contractors, the sheer volume of damage and destruction made it impossible for everyone to use our locals’ skills.

Stray Thoughts: The Slideshow

There are at least three versions of you. There is the version you present to the world in which you display what you believe is the best version of you on any given day.

The obituary we print may be yours

It’s spring and time for happy, memorable occasions like high school prom and graduation. I’ll be honest, I get nervous during this time of celebration.

Stray Thoughts: New Bucket List

When I was young, I had teachers who had accomplished amazing things.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Growing up in Michigan, Easter almost always arrived during the first full blush of spring. Our side garden would be alive with daffodils and pastel tulips; our Easter outfits were worn with light jackets and dress shoes. That is decidedly not the case here on the Northern Plains.

I can see clearly now

Johnny Nash may have started his song with “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone,” but what about someone with cataracts. They cannot easily see “all the obstacles in their way” and there are not “dark clouds that make you blind” like in the song, but cataracts do cause vision clouding.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Some years March arrives on the Northern Plains like a lamb and leaves like a lion. Other years it’s just the opposite. This year it was lion from start to finish with no real break between roars.

Parenthood 5

Parenthood, in retrospect, is composed of important moments. While changing my son, I reached across the room for diapers and he shifted from the changing table, falling very hard on his head on the carpet...and I thought I had damaged him forever.

Hillsdale curriculum is not good education

For over two years, right-wing think-tanks and Fox News have railed against CRT (Critical Race Theory) teaching in the schools. Gov.-Noem jumped on the anti-CRT bandwagon in late 2021. Presumably, it was the presence of narratives about slavery that prompted Gov.