A look back at the COVID-19 journey

Collecting and analyzing data at Missouri Breaks for the past 13 years has turned me into a true data nerd. Working with data is not a career path I ever imagined for myself as a young person, but I’ve learned to love it. What I love about data is discovering the stories that each data set contains.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

I’m in the midst of a break up...with my cellphone. It’s not the first time either. Back when my son was a baby, and I still had a flip phone, he practiced his throwing skills on the poor thing one day. As a result I enjoyed a few blissfully unplugged weeks before I broke down and got another phone.

Stray Thoughts: In Due Time

It’s hard to know who we actually are. It’s harder still to know what others think of us.

Hey Doc, Who’s on First?

Many people are familiar with the classic Abbott and Costello comedy skit “Who’s on First?

What does it mean to be an American today?

I just finished a novel by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, The President is Missing. I did not vote for Bill Clinton. I say that with neither pride nor chagrin; a mere statement of fact. And I do not read much of James Patterson; too much violence and intrigue for my kind of reading.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

Somehow a week has passed, and here I am, writing once again, the morning sunlight pouring in. Outside, my husband and the kids work in one of our outbuildings, warmed by a cozy fire in the wood stove.

Stray Thoughts: What we are

What fascinates me is the discovery that we sometimes are only the one thing they see, and that how I know me to you may not be. Most never discover or try to uncover why we are one thing to one and to another some other, whether enemy, friend, neighbor or brother.

LETTER

Dear Editor, "Words matter" — the theme of a recent editorial. Sometimes the unspoken words are more damning than those uttered.

Little Pasture on the Prairie

I’d just started supper when the phone rang. My husband answered. “Really?” He said with the hard laugh he often uses when receiving bad news. “How big are the flames?” he asked, then paused for a beat.

Stray Thoughts: What parents wish

Our son begins college next week and we are both sad and happy to see him go. His future has been patiently waiting and we all know it. These are exciting times for him, but anxious times for us.