So on Saturday I decided to retire, but by Monday morning I came out of retirement and went back to work.

• We used to give “Did Something” awards here in Hillsboro. I think Orville Koehn of Canton, and the group of investors who backed him, should get a big “Did Something” plaque for keeping the grocery store open there.

  Can you imagine what it would be like to have to drive 15 miles anytime you needed to buy groceries?

• The Biggest Loser contest launched last week in Hillsboro by Greenhaw Wellness Center and Anna Woods must be what people are interested in these days. Nearly 160 people have signed up for this event, which will be life changing for some.

  I joined in not expecting to win but as a way of getting into better shape and eating healthier. Actually, we’ve been waging this battle at home for quite a few years already and we know what we should be eating and doing as far as exercise is concerned. Knowing and doing seem to be two separate things.

  I think it makes it easier to try to improve when others are also pursuing the same goal.

• I also signed up for Anna Woods’ exercise class, which meets twice a week at the elementary school gym. The first one was quite strenuous and put some muscles to the test that hadn’t been used for a long time.
• I hit the road for Pella, Iowa, last Thursday for board meetings with the free-newspaper association of which we are members. There weren’t any tulips to look at this time of year, but they had just received about 8 inches of snow the day before I arrived.

  The snow cover and the area reminded me of the winters spent in Minnesota as a kid.

• There is no direct way to get to Pella from here so I headed off on some back roads. I wasn’t familiar with the area, and it didn’t help that all of the road signs were covered with snow and I couldn’t read them.

  Nancy found this hard to believe, but I actually stopped and asked one time if I was on the right path to my destination.

• Iowa has already embraced the idea of harnessing the wind and has quite a few wind farms up and running.

  I passed several trucks that were hauling propellers for wind turbines. Each truck had two of them and I’ve read that these props are hundreds of feet long. It took two counties to get past them.

• I’m always amused when I see FedEx semi trucks and trailers that have the words FedEx Ground painted on them. Of course they are on the ground.
• I mentioned earlier that I am eligible for Social Security. In three years I will be eligible for MediCare. I am a baby boomer and, according to David Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, I and the rest of the baby boomers will put a drain on the system that will not be sustainable long term unless big changes are made to entitlements.Walker has taken his case to the public because politicians are not interested in addressing this problem. If you wish to learn more, go to www.cbsnews. com/ stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226.shtml.

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