Opinion

Some Like it Hot It’s hot out there. Real hot.

Dave Smiglewski The demolition of Xcel Energy’s landmark NSP Minnesota Valley Generating Plant is slowly proceeding and is sure to become more noticeable in the coming weeks. Nearly all windows in the 1930 brick portion of the plant have already been removed as well as the asbestos that surrounded them.

It always strikes me as odd how you can raise three children in one house and end up with such entirely different personalities. My oldest is a “look before you leap” kind of guy, and while he has a lot of goals, they usually start out with a decision to do something, followed immediately by doing everything he can to just get it done, and get it done quickly. He’s always plowing headlong into the next thing and the next, and I always wonder at how he seems to never take the time to appreciate where he’s at along the way.

A shot across the bow This time of year, the days are long, and the weather is hot. Ahh, summer.

More storms. At this point, we’re so used to the storms it almost feels more like “ugh, this again” rather than “oh no, a storm!” I woke up to the piles of tree branches everywhere Thursday morning - trees on cars, trees on houses.

I mustache you a question. I always thought of the world as kind of divided into two camps: Us and Them.

Lori Sherod, of Odessa, has been advertising heavily through social media in the local area to find host families for foreign exchange students hoping to come to the United States for the 2022-23 school year through the International Student Exchange (ISE) program. Sherod, a Special Education teacher, is driven to find families to host the students, because as she knows - for many of these students in their senior year of high school, the 2022-23 school year is their last chance to take advantage of the foreign exchange program. If families are not found, those students will miss out on the opportunity, she says. Sherod has the opportunity to work with anyone interested in getting started in the program, though she can only supervise the placements in person for those in a 120- mile radius. For those she gets started, she can walk them through the process of meeting the requirements, and then a representative from their area will be assigned to those approved for the monthly visits.

Cookie salad has become my go-to dish to bring to potlucks or picnics – it seems to be a crowd pleaser, gives me a chance to eat my favorite dessert and the opportunity to share a story about a fiasco I had at a chain restaurant’s salad bar! I was thinking about how what I have to share this week will be a bit like a salad bar, a variety of services and programs and hopefully something that looks good to everyone.

This week’s edition contains more of our new feature, and as we use it more, I get more into the swing of things and can work through it rather quickly. I’ve also learned that out here on the prairie, I most definitely need some type of microphone cover for filming because the wind is always present. Always.