This might be one of the craziest things I have thought up yet. Where does a guy go to drive when he has taken himself off of the road because his reactions are too slow and his vision sucks? You guessed it—The Demo Derby! When I shared this fantastic idea with my wife she ixnayed it right away saying that it […]

Before this last week, I thought our family was pretty close. I mean, we share a major hobby, which we all enjoy to varying degrees depending on how sore we are after training. We communicate well with each other most of the time, at least unless the kids are hungry (which, let’s face it, is all the time). And we […]

I took a breath as I flipped the calendar to July. Normally that particular flip is met with an inhale and exhale of relief. In the past, July has meant a return to a slowed-down pace I delight in and look forward to. This year my breath was shaky and shallow. Anxious. A little uptight. I looked below my kids’ […]

What a great community we have! I was so proud of our town this morning as we had over 30 people show up to volunteer to “pick up bricks and lay them straight” on our East Grand Avenue Rebuild Project. It was awesome to see people from middle school age all the way to Baby Boomers (trying to find a […]

M y one year anniversary of working at the Free Press is coming up next week. I have loved this job since the second it sort of fell into my lap. It was one of those situations that I wasn’t looking for, but once it happened, it seemed like exactly what I had been missing in my life. I’ve learned […]

This information comes from the Kansas Press Assoc­iation bulletin. A historian who studied journalism coverage of the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements in the early 1900s, said the journalism industry has an opportunity 100 years later to do better than it did the first time by providing necessary history and context to the public. Did you know: ◼ That women suffragists […]

Always consider the source when reading letters There have been several letters written over the past four months concerning the wind turbine project in Marion County. In reading the letters, all of us must consider the source. 1) Who are they? 2) Where do they live? 3) What is the culture they have grown up in and currently dwell within? […]

“If you don’t own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.” ~ Roger Caras Timing is everything and that has never been more convincingly proven than the last few weeks at our house. For the past year, I’ve been systematically groomed for a second dog. […]

We recently had the privilege of hosting our 18-month-old twin grandchildren for the weekend. While it was an absolute joy to have them spend a couple of nights at our house, we needed the next few days and nights to recover. My son jokes that he should start a business to help prospective parents and grandparents toddler-proof their homes. For […]

In my July 2018 column, I described my first halibut-fishing adventure, in which I thought I had caught the biggest fish in the ocean. (It turned out to be the bottom of the ocean). So, when I went to Alaska this summer, I hoped for a sequel—one that included more fish and less bottom-of-the-ocean. However, it wasn’t meant to be. […]