Opinion

Hi to all our community residents. My name is Rhonda Miller and I am the Regional Accounting Manager for the Minnesota newspapers, and a few others, owned by CherryRoad Media.

Welcome to the first week of the new look of the Montevideo-American News! As I’ve been noting in our newspapers for the last couple of months, this week readers will officially be able to see the first of the changes to come under CherryRoad Media’s ownership. Our team’s efforts have been underway for some time to bring this new look together, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting the point of reveal.

We haven’t looked skyward in this column for a while so here are a few interesting tidbits about what’s going on over our heads. First of all, Happy Spring! Meteorological spring, that is.

Spring Break 2022! They say it’s gonna be epic! But is it? Let us consider. Spring Break is a strangely named week in March wherein the schools, the same ones that were hitherto educating our children, for some inexplicable reason, set them free.

Last week, I wrote about how this week was going to have a whole new look. If you read that, and saw the front page this week, you're probably thinking "what the heck?" (I said heck, yes, because we're probably mostly Minnesotan here). Well, shortly after last week's paper went to print, it was announced that we would be working with the former company's systems for just one more week. Thus, no new look just yet.

March 8 is International Women’s Day. Don’t ask me how I know this. I just do. So let us speak of Woman, specifically the International Woman. I like her. Very much. In my opinion She deserves much more than a day. But time waits for no man. Or woman, it seems. So… let’s get to it.

The next time you’re driving along a highway by a marsh or river, look for a solitary bird perched at the very tip-top of the highest branch. Chances are you are looking at a Northern Shrike, a winter visitor to our area.

I never used to be a morning person, but now that I walk Elizabeth's dog, I get that done as early as possible. On my way back home this morning, it was just "pinking up" in the east. It was really gorgeous.

It’s very common for many people to experience poor mental wellbeing during the winter..and especially true for those providing care to others. I know for myself I have the tendency to lack energy, overeat, and sometimes feel low during the winter months