What do you expect?

November 9, 2026

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 ...

Modern day veterans deserve sincere thanks and appreciation

November 7, 2026

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 ...

Raising lung cancer awareness during November

November 6, 2026

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 ...

Vietnam War – Norman Teigen – News from home, special events, and homecoming

November 6, 2026

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 ...

Braxton Seifert off and running in political career at age 21

November 6, 2026

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 ...

The hangover month

November 3, 2026

Of all the months of the year, November most closely resembles a hangover. This is not just because it follows the twin bacchanals of Oktoberfest and Halloween. It’s also due to the fact that here in the Northland average high temperatures are plummeting and days are growing shorter at a ...