The ancient pine box had probably sat in the upstairs closet of my parents’ farmhouse since the Late Mesozoic Era. At least that’s how it appears. The box’s wood has oxidized into a deep nut-brown and bears more than a century’s worth of scars. It reminds me of a grizzled old cowboy ...
What do you expect from each day? That's a difficult question to answer quickly so why don't we pour a glass of our favorite wine, sit down, sip the wine's goodness, and think about expectations. How many of us have read Charles Dickens' novel “Great Expectations”? Long story short, the book is about an orphan boy who navigates life's numerous challenges. Hopefully, our roads do not involve the many tragedies the boy encounters, but that doesn't mean we don't all have a lot of expectations that require getting through or around them. Our local community has numerous wonderful ...
We have a special holiday coming up next week, one that might be easy to overlook between the election aftermath and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. I’m talking about Veterans Day. It’s a tradition that goes back to the World War I armistice. For more than a century, we’ve set aside a special day to recognize soldiers who sacrificed for our freedom. Each year I participate in a Veterans Day observance. I sing in the Boulder Estates choir, which performs several songs as part of a Veterans Day program. We currently have 17 veterans at Boulder Estates, fewer than in the ...
One of the best things you can do for overall good health is to quit smoking or never start in the first place. November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, and the Great American Smokeout is on the third Thursday of November each year – Nov. 19 in 2026. The good news is that cigarette smoking rates have been declining for decades. Yet lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., accounting for about one in five of all cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers ...
We have been learning about Norman Teigen, who grew up in Mankato, graduated from Mankato State College, and accepted a teaching position at Marshall High School. When notified he would be drafted, he enlisted in the Army and became a chaplain assistant. He deployed to Vietnam in October 1970 ...
Took a detour off of Main Street and headed down Highway 23 to Russell this week to check out the 130th annual Election Day Dinner at Grace First Parish church on Tuesday evening. Think about that for a second. For 130 years, the parish has hosted a dinner for voters. I was there for some ...
