Opinion

Last week and this week, the Editors of the Minnesota group of newspapers that were purchased by CherryRoad Media began training on how to use the new software system to transition our work over to CherryRoad. Soon, as I've been saying, you'll start seeing the changes in the newspapers, and that will be exciting.

The big game’s a’comin’ and every year there’s a lot of talk about the commercials. Normally commercials are a thing I avoid. During a commercial break, I usually take a stroll or engage in light banter. I might fix a snack or even, on occasion, check the laundry.

Another roller-coaster week. Tuesday it got warm enough to rain. Yes, rain in February. That made the roads and streets terribly slippery. I even had to completely skip walking the dog one day. That hasn't happened in the last 3 years. We both lived through that experience.

The big day is approaching. No time to waste.

I've got to find an address for Mother Nature. Someone needs to bite the bullet and apologize to her. It could be just as well be me. One day the wind blows from one direction and the next it blows from the exact opposite direction. At least the drifts are equal height. I did notice that there was not much wildlife out in the open. Not even many birds on the wing. Except in the area of my bird feeders.

Allow me to take a little detour from the general topic areas for this column. The cold weather is reminding me of past experiences in the frigid outdoors - all perhaps conditioning me for a life in the great frozen north.

Over the weekend I took my daughters to the ocean for the first time in their lives. It was a trip planned for quite some time - before I knew what my current working situation would be. And so, with our non-refundable plane tickets, we boarded a plane late Friday for a weekend in sunny California. I'd decided a while ago that to visit the ocean, they needed to visit somewhere warm and especially during the winter months. Thanks to a lot of help from willing contributors, the three papers were able to get out on time with full coverage of events. It really does take a village, and I'm very grateful to have the help so I could get away for the weekend.

Last week, the new owner of the newspaper was gracious enough to send all of us who wished to go to the Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention. I jumped at this opportunity because working the way we do these days, remotely and with much smaller staff sizes, networking opportunities don't happen very often. I've always found networking opportunities like this to be a match-strike of inspiration. Being able to chat with those in the same industry and hear what others are doing, or the challenges they are recognizing, and how they are overcoming them helps me to mull over my own thoughts and ideas with more perspective.