Valentine’s Day happens to be one of those holidays that becomes less exciting once you are an adult with adult children. In my house, not much hoopla surrounds the holiday. Each year I do gift my children something thoughtful, combined with some form of confection. This year, my daughters received snarky-themed socks and a box of chocolates. My original plan was to send a Door Dash meal to my son as he lives on the Fort Drum military base in New York, and being able to send him a Door Dash or Instacart delivery for holidays like this is very handy. Those kinds of deliveries have also been handy when he calls with “Mom, I’m sick...” and I can send a Instacart delivery of cold medicine, vitamin c and soup within the hour from halfway across the country.

Countryside Public Health serves the same five counties as Prairie Five (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift and Yellow Medicine) and we are so lucky to have them in our region. I’ve gone to them for different vaccines and boosters, sampled produce from a community garden they supported, and enjoyed the sights on one of the walks they developed.

This week started off on an active note as a clipper type system brought some snow Sunday night into Monday across parts of Minnesota. Not a lot of snow was associated with it, but it did cause some slick roads at times.

I’m writing this column on a calm Monday afternoon, but by the time it goes to print on Wednesday, it’s more than likely (a 91% chance, at least according to my most recent AccuWeather check) that we will be buried under a foot of snow. Incredibly, a foot is the conservative estimate. I suppose the silver lining is that there will be lots of snow-sculpture-creation material on hand (and around feet, and in boots, and -- if you’re very unlucky -- down the neck of your jacket), so hopefully the yards of Granite Falls will at least get some neat forts and snowmen out of the deal.