Columns

Tis the season for people all over to make some New Year’s resolutions they intend on keeping for the entire year, but slowly drop as the month of January moves on.

I’m guilty of doing just that—making a ton of New Year’s resolutions I swear I’m going to stick with... and then by February I’ve maybe have one left.

I don’t know about anyone else, but last year I only kept one of my nine-or-something resolutions, and that was to stop drinking soda. Minus a couple of mixed drinks, I didn’t have any soda the entire year of 2019, and although that’s a small feat to accomplish, I’m pretty proud of it.

Maybe everyone else had this figured out, but slowly I realized you can’t just make a resolution such as “I’m going to be more healthy this year,” and expect to stick to it. That was, in fact, one of my resolutions last year, but it’s too broad a statement to make, so I narrowed it down.

Aging makes one think a little differently as the years go by; this year is no different for me. You see, I have a tendency to keep moving and letting the hours and days just fly by. I guess I can chalk that up to the business choice I made long ago.

As I reflect back on the most recent decade of my life, really, the last 11 years of my life, since moving to Clay County, I stand amazed with all that has taken place, and the changes that have occurred.

Since the move from Lincoln to the county in late May of 2009, I’ve made some great, long lasting friends and of course, I’ve lost some along the path since 2009, starting with the loss of longtime friend Jay Kenney, who came to the county with me. There aren’t many days that pass that I don’t remember Jay’s drive and friendship.

To start off 2019 I introduced my top nine moments of 2018, and since we were on a short deadline and by the time you’re reading this Christmas has come and past, I figured this would be a decent time to introduce my top nine moments of 2019 (designated specifically toward work moments).

And yes, this is a cheap and easy way to write a column, but this column is called “Rambles” for a reason... sometimes you never know what I’m going to say.

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EDITORS NOTE: The following article is being published with permission from the original writer of the story, Nathan Arneal, publisher and owner of the North Bend Eagle. We feel it is a very fitting article, and we share Arneal’s sediments, thus we felt that we’d like to share with our readers of the Clay County News.

BY NATHAN ARENEAL,

THE NORTH BEND EAGLE

Don’t let the front page [featuring the headline “What if there was no local newspaper?] scare you too much. We’re still here, and hope to be for a while.

The newspaper business has always been an interesting one. While, yes, the Eagle is a privately owned business, it also provides a public service. It keeps you informed. It keeps you connected with products, services and events offered in the community. We are a group effort, with the whole community contributing to the paper.

Trade is critical to rural states such as Nebraska. Producers, manufacturers, and consumers all benefit from sound trade policies which expand access to international markets. One of the primary reasons I joined the Ways and Means Committee, is to seize opportunities to reduce tariffs, remove artificial barriers, and ensure all Nebraskans can benefit from fair, open markets. Fortunately, within the past week, we received great news on two massive trade wins for the United States, and Nebraska in particular.

Lawmakers hit the ground running when they convene the Second Session of the 106th Legislature next month. They’ll have 80-some bills left over on first round debate from last session to deal with immediately.

They’ll also address those old familiar topics of placement and treatment for troubled youth, a crisis in nursing home care and management and prison staffing and overcrowding. Oh yes, property taxes will likely take a bit of time to discuss as well as business incentives.

But there’s an interesting proposal expected–albeit one that stands a snowball’s chance in hell of being approved. Speaker of the Legislature, Jim Scheer of Norfolk, thinks it’s time to expand the nation’s only one-house, nonpartisan Legislature to 55 members. That’s up from the 49–the smallest Legislature of any state–that has been in place since 1963 when it was increased from 43 to 49.

In reality five years isn’t that long of a time frame, but in hindsight, a ton can happen in five years.

My first official day in Clay County was Dec. 13, 2014; it was 10 p.m. and I was knocking on what I hoped was my landlord’s door (thankfully it was), and by Dec. 14 I was moving all my stuff into my first adult home (I was scared stiff and had no clue what the next year was going to look like, let alone the next five).

On Dec. 16 I covered my first-ever event as a CCN staff member—Clay County Giving Tree (shout out to Robyn VonSpreckelsen for being my first interviewed person and patiently explaining to me what this awesome event was all about). From then on I never looked back.

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Last week I spoke of the “quick change of gears,” from the end of the football season to the start of the winter sports season. For me, it was more like a sputtering start to the winter season.

As we near the end of our second year of operating Printing MD, combine that with the late edition of our winter sports preview and the work involved with our annual Christmas Wishes edition, which comes out next week, the winter sports season kind of fell by the wayside for me last week.

Well, hopefully the ole’ engine within me gets a little more fuel for the fire this week, as December rarely gives me the opportunity to get into the holiday spirit until after our Christmas Wishes edition is done.