Post-holiday thoughts: Still here, thankful for small-town helpers and looking ahead to something new
Here's what's been going on with me since I last posted.
It’s been a minute between posts, so just a few words to let you know I’m still pecking away here. (You do know that October and November were pretty chock full o’news?) Call it a notebook dump:
I’ve been puzzling a while for a way to recharge this space, and over some postelection time off, I had an idea for a post based on an interview. While it’s not necessarily reporting, the talking is done and the percolating has begun. I hope to have something put together next week.
If you don’t follow me on social media, just a few words about our brief holiday … “adventure”? On our way to my in-laws in Nebraska, we were driving at night in northern Iowa when our minivan blew a tire, mere minutes after dinner just south of the Minnesota border. It’s pretty desolate, and AAA wasn’t particularly helpful. We did find some helping hands on the southbound I-35 offramp outside of Hanlontown, Iowa. Kyle was a trucker on his way home who stopped and helped us as we blundered around the vehicle in search of ways to deal with the tire. He was a great sounding board and ultimately saved the day with the number of a local towing company in his phone. Worth County Deputy Kris Hearn stayed around until the tow truck arrived, providing more lights and ideas. Jason from Dick’s Place had us up on the flatbed pretty quickly and deftly handled dropping the four of us at a hotel with what we needed before delivering the vehicle to the local tire shop. And Brad at Glen’s Tire Service in Clear Lake, Iowa, cleared the decks to get a new tire on our van not even an hour after opening, plus coming to pick me up at the hotel to get the ready vehicle. Lots of contrasting words about small towns these days, but I was absolutely happy to be where I was, where I could find these people coming to our aid on the cold road.
I don’t think this is the space to spill about my work in the news industry, other than in the most general of workplace talk. But Monday marked a shift for me: After 30 years of working afternoons and nights, I started a schedule that will have me working pretty much in the daytime. (I’d say daylight, but it’s winter in the North…) I’m starting slowly, thanks to the holiday and a staycation before that, to reset the body clock and cobble together a new routine. The rest of the household is doing its best to adjst to change. What it means is (a return to) more working-with-words editing, less curating and social media updating, and more time in the office. That’s not all bad, but a lot of adjusting on top of the 180 in the hours on the job. It’s been a decade minding the interwebs at night for my employer, and a lot has changed in that time. So perhaps it’s not so bad for me to change as well. And at age 51, maybe staying up after midnight routinely isn’t such a great idea. Stay tuned.
Let me also offer some praise for the previously mentioned staycation. I still have some PTO time to burn and I have a bit more plans for that time. But here’s to being around and available to others, to clearing some decks and catching up on many things, including some projects as well as sleep. I still have to get the top of the desk in the basement cleaned off. But I had a volunteer proofreading project to complete first, and I thought sitting at a cluttered desk might help force me to tackle the desk. But I didn’t want the desk to grab attention away from the project either. Having that time off from the grind also led us to think that leaving town at 5 p.m. for a five- or six-hour road trip, and we saw how that ended.
And while I’m offering thanks, let me offer some thanks to you, the reader. I know why I am here, but you have many outlets for your valuable attention. I appreciate you stopping here and spending your time listening about my mundane world. I hope to give you more in the days ahead.
