From the editor’s desk: Oh, Baby O!

By mid February my baby was not just due, the little bugger was overdue. The doc and I decided that it was time to be done and on Feb. 19, my husband and I headed to the hospital determined to not come home without a baby.

I already had had two inductions scheduled and cancelled. It was upsetting to say the least. We called the hospital at 5 a.m. that day to see if they had room for me this time.

Once we got settled in they administered the drugs to kick-start this kid’s eviction. That was at 9 a.m. By 9:02 (an exhausting 24 hours later) we heard those three little words we had been waiting to find out since the beginning: “It’s a boy!”

He became “Gary Brian”. I became “mom”.

Though the doctors and nurses did everything they could to stay calm, something was wrong. He was too white. He was too quiet.

The first time I saw him he had an oxygen mask covering most of his face and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit team was rushing him out of the room.

As soon as the epidural wore off I walked down to the NICU where I would spend the most of the next week. They did every terrifying test in the book. They did x-rays on his lungs for pneumonia, ultrasounds on his brain for hemorrhaging, EEG testing for seizures. I learned the meaning of words like CPAP, nasal cannula, and respiration rate. I found out what a brain bleed is and that there are four grades, one being the least worrisome and most common.

I made friends with other moms with little ones in much worse shape, and I prayed more than I have in years.

One by one the tests came back negative. So the doctors turned their focus to me — one lab test after another. My doctor came into the room and explained that I had a serious infection running throughout my bloodstream. No one had any idea how or for how long because, she said, my body had taken over and apparently my immune system was so impressive, no one could tell how sick I was. She said that I should have been on the floor in pain, not walking around as if nothing was wrong.

That’s when they started me in on IV antibiotics.

I was stuck in my bed with an IV drip every few hours rather than being in the NICU feeding my little boy. The nurses had us on a schedule to feed him every three hours, which meant for that half hour or so we got to hold him. They monitored his every milliliter in and every diaper out.

All they could do is treat him for the infection. By day six they decided he was borderline jaundice but could be moved to pediatrics and treated there. We got to stay with him in the family room and finally I got to snuggle my little man any time I wanted to.

This was not exactly the way I wanted my first child experience to go, but we got thrown into the deep end and from here everything else sounds like a cake walk.

It took 41 weeks of pregnancy, 24 hours of labor, a team of doctors and nurses and a number of monitors, electrodes, feeding tube, IVs, pokes, and prods, but on Feb. 29 we finally went home with our baby — as a family.

Allison – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the interim editor’s desk: Secrets to survival

The Internet may come and go but print will last forever.  Well…to a point. Print media is currently on the fence whether or not it should be considered a way of the past or the future.

Did you know that by 2007, there were 6,580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day with 1,456 daily newspapers in the U.S., selling 55 million copies a day?

The newspaper was the only way to know the news besides at the coffee table for many years until finally the radio, television, and computer were invented.

Arguably, a computer and its technology has become an integral part in the grand scheme of creating a print newspaper. Without the Internet or E-mail or a computer, your newspaper wouldn’t get to you.  Could you imagine going back to the old-fashioned way of making a newspaper – messing with ink, tiny metal letters to make words, and clunky printing presses?

This leads in to my next point – how does a small town newspaper survive? My answer: by the skin of its teeth.  It’s a competitive business with every dollar and news story being fought over or overdone. Is a person supposed to subscribe to all their local papers only to find the same thing in every one? I don’t think so.  Variety is also a newspaper editor’s friend.  Controversy can get you by but it can’t keep you fed.

Again, what’s the trick? There are only so many businesses in one area, and we all know how likely it is for a new business to open and actually stay open.  Once you are in a place for 50 years, I think the rule of thumb is to stop advertising. Everyone knows you’re there, why tell him or her?

The secret is compassion and pride. Take pride in your newspaper no matter which one or who runs it. It’s up to the community, not the owners or the editors for a newspaper to succeed.  If you care as a reader, it won’t fail. If you care as a business, it will last a little while longer.

Promote your local newspaper: send it to a family member, sit down with your kids to learn something new, perhaps discuss a new word of the day out of the weekly newspaper.

The success or failure of the Walsh County Press is in the hands of its subscribers and advertisers. That is the bottom-line. Do you have pride in your local paper? Let them know.

For my last column, I wanted to address the need of support for local businesses including the local papers.  Should they go by way of the dinosaurs? I don’t think so. You can’t make everyone happy and some may think there is nothing in the paper ever; those in the newspaper business do their best and sometimes can only do so much.

Keep these thoughts in mind as we head into the rest of 2012.  Let’s not forget we aren’t alone in our town or county.  Get behind something you can believe in wholeheartedly.

I bid farewell to the readers of the Walsh County Press and give you back to the ever capable hands of Allison Olimb.

Katrina – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the interim editor’s desk: Practical tips for productive living

As most young people do these days, I was surfing the World Wide Web and decided to Google “truth.”

As I grow and learn, I find myself not wanting to forget life’s lessons that we are supposedly taught for our own good when we are young like why we say please and thank you. Most days I wonder if people are taught anything in school or at home when manners and respect have gone out the window, especially in customer service. There are those rare people who know that a smile and a greeting can go a long way to making someone feel good about other humans on this planet.

In my Google search, I came across a site called http://www.marcandangel.com. It’s a site that promotes “practical tips for productive living.”

One blog entry caught my attention, 101 Simple Truths We Often Forget.  Here are a few snippets:

1.            The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing.  Growing happens when what you know changes how you live.

2.            You can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones.

3.            A good idea without action is worth nothing.

4.            Change is often resisted when it is needed the most.

5.            The most common and harmful addiction in the world is the draw of comfort.

6.            Growth begins at the end of your comfort zone.  Stepping outside of your comfort zone will put things into perspective from an angle you can’t grasp now.

7.            If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions, ideas or plans to get started, you’ll never achieve anything.

8.            Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.

9.            Putting something off makes it instantly harder and scarier.

10.            You cannot change what you refuse to confront.

11.            If you aren’t happy being single, you won’t be happy in a relationship.  You have to create your own life first before you can share it with someone else.

12.            Whenever you hate someone or something, you are giving that person or thing a piece of your heart.  Read The Road Less Traveled.

13.            You have to fight through some bad days to earn the best days of your life.

14.            A harsh fact of life:  Bad things do happen to good people.

15.            Regardless of the situation, the sun rises the next day and life goes on.

16.            You never know how strong you really are until being strong is the only choice you have.

17.            Life is short.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

18.            Making one person smile can change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.

19.            Blowing out another’s candle will not make yours shine brighter.

20.            Regardless of the situation, the sun rises the next day and life goes on.

Katrina – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the interim editor’s desk: Very Pinteresting!

It’s downright pinteresting. From tips on hair and makeup to interior decorating, baking and everything in between, a new web site has taken the world by storm. It’s http://www.pinterest.com and it’s everywhere.  I first heard about it from co-workers, then on a Fargo radio station.  I finally had to check it out for myself.

When you first enter the address and view the page, it may seem a bit daunting. With endless pictures and comments, pinterest allows for a melding of hundreds, possibly thousands of web sites containing blogs, tips, tricks, etc to be at your fingertips all in one place.

If you see an idea you like, such as how to make sassy nails or a cute way to propose, click on the picture and you can see more information about it.  Some ideas on the site are just pictures with no directions, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find the ‘how to do’ list for everything.

There are tons of ideas for recipes though and they do generally come with a link to the directions. Just click on the picture until you find what you are looking for.

A recipe that snagged my interest was the apple rings dipped in pancake batter and cooked on the griddle finished with some cinnamon and sugar.  Now if that doesn’t make you want to buy some apples, I don’t know what will.

Other pinned ideas include mottos, quotes, and sayings to help people get through as well as scenic photos from around the world.

Fair warning: the home page is never the same page twice.  It changes every time you visit the site bringing forth other ideas to the top of the page.  Want a change of scenery? Click Refresh.

I will also add that it is very addicting. Half way through writing this column, I went into pinterest-land and forgot what I was doing. Cheers!

Katrina – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the interim editor’s desk: The Irish and the Norwegians

(Editor’s note: Eugene Loftsgard of Park River ran across this column that gives a history of the approaching St. Patrick’s Day… it was written several years ago by the late Franklin Vikan, publisher of the 13 Towns weekly newspaper headquartered in Fosston, Minn. Gene figures the Norwegians of the area should have a little more insight into the background of their history, and especially why they seem to have an almost insatiable craving for lutefisk. He said he would not attempt to explain the behavior of the Irish.

Franklin said in his column that this information came from Mrs. Floyd (Bertha) Mallett of Chicago.)

• We celebrate March 17 in commemoration of St. Patrick’s great and noble deed in driving the Norwegians out of Ireland.

It seems that centuries ago many Norwegians came to Ireland to escape the bitterness of the Norwegian winter. Ireland was having a famine at the time and food was quite scarce.

The Norwegians were eating almost all the fish caught in the area, leaving the Irish with nothing but potatoes. St. Patrick, taking matters into his own hands like most Irishmen do, decided the Norwegians had to go. Secretly he organized the IRATRION (Irish Republican Army to Rid Ireland of Norwegians.) Members of IRATRION sabotaged all power plants in hopes the fish in Norwegians’ refrigerators would spoil, forcing the Norwegians to a colder climate where their fish would keep. They spoiled alright, but the Norwegians, as everyone knows to this day, thrive on spoiled fish.

Faced with failure the Irishmen sneaked into the Norwegian’s fish storage caves in the dead of the night and sprinkled the spoiled fish with lye hoping to poison the Norwegian intruders. But, as everyone knows, this is how Lutefisk was introduced to the Norwegians and they thrived on the lye-soaked smelly fish.

Matters became even worse for the Irishmen when the Norwegians started taking over the Irish potato crop and making lefse. Poor St. Pat was at his wit’s end. Finally on March 17 he blew his top and told all the Norwegians to go to hell and it worked. All Norwegians left Ireland and went to Minnesota.

Katrina – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the interim editor’s desk: Talking Measure 2

This past weekend, the Walsh County Commissioners organized two public meetings in regards to the ever-controversial Measure 2.

According to the North Dakota League of Cities, Measure 2 is “a proposal to amend the North Dakota Constitution to prohibit political subdivisions (cities, counties, school district, townships, park districts, water districts, irrigation districts, fire protection districts, soil conservations districts, etc.) from levying a tax on the assessed value of property.”

In short, no property taxes for those who now have to pay in once a year to their respective county tax offices.  This measure is being met with strong opinions on both sides of the field.

Roughly 40 people were in attendance at the meeting held in Park River, March 3 at the Park River City Community Room; the Walsh County Commissioners and N.D. Senators Joe Miller and Curtis Olafson were present.

In the hour long meeting, a few opinions of the group were expressed. I witnessed a lady state that she is for the measure as it would benefit her as a person who is working hard to make ends meet, just like the rest of us. A few others agreed that times are tough and this measure could certainly appeal to those hit hardest by loss of their job or due to the increase in utilities and gas; both landowners in-state and out-of-state.

Just the mere idea of this measure has spurred N.D. businesses to adjust the way they do business.

Property taxes bring in 816 million dollars every year to the state. Walsh County, alone, levies 13.2 million dollars in property taxes.

The details of the measure appear to be somewhat of an elusive nightmare.  One of the points I took away from the meeting was that the measure would call upon the oil and gas tax collections to fill the void, but not everything that is being funded today would be funded tomorrow (if the measure would pass). Those not for or against the measure would be more comfortable knowing where the funding would be coming from in the event property taxes are eliminated.

More information on Measure 2 can be found at various websites; http://www.ndlc.org, http://www.nd.gov, to name a couple.

Measure 2 will be on the primary election ballot on June 12.

Katrina – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the interim editor’s desk: Duty calls

Duty calls; or rather, Allison called.  When I turned the reins of The Press over to Allison last year, I knew it was in good hands, and I let her know that if she ever needed anything to contact me. Well, here I am, back at the helm once more until Allison gets back from maternity leave.

It’s been a little over a year since I have sat in the manager’s office chair and in front of my good friend iMac.  I found I missed it. I missed the creativity, and frighteningly, the deadlines.

Insanity is almost a job requirement when it comes to deadlines and managing people that go along with those deadlines, but it’s a living.

Just like riding a bike, it only took a few sessions and note taking with Allison to remind myself how the buttons worked on the iMac.

As much as one or two people can do and as a true small town newspaper, The Press has consistently stood by the principles of being upbeat and accurate no matter the topic.

During the next four to six issues, please keep in mind that the office hours of The Press office may fluctuate. You may leave a voicemail at 284-6333, fax 284-6091, or e-mail your inquiry, ad order, story idea, calendar items, and press releases to one of the following addresses: wcpress@polarcomm.com or wcpadvertising@gmail.com.

On a side note, Happy Leap Year Day!

A leap year is a year containing one additional day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat in a whole number of days, a calendar that had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is called a common year.

Katrina – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

From the editor’s desk: My maternity swan song

Well, that is it. I am out. There should be a baby by now.

The Press is now in the very capable hands of Katrina Hodny, Terra Linn, and Larry Biri with the occasional writing styles of Tynan Nelson.

Even if the kid didn’t manage to arrive when scheduled (which my husband says proves that he or she will be just as timely as mom) the doc scheduled another day, which would guarantee a bundle of joy.

So, for the next month or so, I will not be taking phone calls, designing ads, running job work, writing, reporting, making appearances at meetings, sitting at my desk, replying to emails, laying out pages, or even thinking about the newspaper business (or at least I am going to make the attempt).

While I do love my readers, (I am not even going to attempt a lie here) I love this little stinker more. Both have given me late nights and heartburn over the past year, but let’s face it, babies much are cuter than any newspaper I’ve ever read.

When I finally decided to clock out, Terra said she was surprised that I stuck it out this long.

allison – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

 This column hit the pages on Feb. 22. The little guy was born at 9:02 a.m. on Feb. 20. 

From the editor’s desk: A show for slackers

So, yes the Superbowl was the highest rated television program ever. Whether you were watching for the commercials (the beer commercial featuring rescue dog Weego was by far my favorite) or if you actually cared about the Patriots or the Giants bringing it on down to the last seconds (which was pretty dang exciting) it happened and you odds are that you were one of millions of viewers.

Enough chicken wings were consumed to circle the planet a couple times.

Thirty seconds of television were worth around $3.5 to 4 million.

And only one mishap occurred during the halftime entertainment involving an unfriendly gesture.

If you were paying enough attention to catch that slight performer malfunction, you may have caught the brief moments during the halftime show where a gentleman wearing a Roman themed getup was doing a flat, trampoline type, tightrope act.

Didn’t know what it was? I don’t blame you.

Didn’t know the underground sport has a link to a couple of guys in North Dakota? Surprise!

The sport is slacklining and it now has hit the national stage. Want to give it a try? There has been a set up at the Grand Cities Mall (you know the one attached to K-Mart) for ages.

There are a few variations to this sport invented in 1983.

•            Urbanlining is performed in an urban area – anything from concrete to a city park.  Urbanliners often use a wider slackline of 2 inches.

•            Waterlining is slacklining over water.

•            Highlining is slacklining in very high places – like across a ravine in Yosemite.

•            Yoga slacklining involves performing yoga poses on a slackline which adds a whole new dimension to yoga practice.

•            Freestyle slacklining uses a longer, slacker line which allows for swinging.

•            Tricklining is another name for the fancy stuntwork.

Well, if you were curious enough to Google around and check the web on slacklining. The website for yogaslackers.com appears. Click around a bit and find that one of the cofounders of Yoga Slackers is Sam Salwei who grew up in Crystal, N.D. Sam is the son of Nancy Salwei and what his web bio calls “a modern day Nomad.”

The slackline is a flat tighrope of 1-inch nylon webbing suspended between two points with a lot of give and a little bounce, which takes even something as calming as yoga to the extreme.

According to their website, cofounders Sam and Jason Magness became quite close in their work and play at the Northern Heights Rock Gym in Grand Forks. In the summer of 2004 Sam came across a slackliner who literally showed him the ropes.

About six months later, Sam and Jason were perfecting poses and appearing in Yoga Journal. And now?

YogaSlackers teach on all seven continents – North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.

While the man on a wire during the Madonna show wasn’t Sam or Jason, the work that trickliner Adam Lewis was performing was an athletic feat that is not so underground anymore.

So maybe you were knee-deep in hot wings by then or perhaps you used the halftime show to use the restroom as to not miss out on anything vital, but I will tell you that you missed out on something pretty unique.

allison – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com

 

Behind the Scenes: I’m Back!

After a brief hiatus I call maternity leave and an even longer hiatus I call sanity check, I have finally got this juggling act down (I think) and can resume posting as usual. Sorry for the delay.
allison – Walsh County Press – wcpress@polarcomm.com