From Mona’s desk Keep the faith and Bring It On!
You know how it’s said that washing your car will make it rain. Well, someone must have really sudsed up their vehicle last week to have Mother Nature bring on the nearly ten inches (or more!) of snow that we received in the area on Monday.
Mother Nature and the universe in general must like rising to the challenge. I just hope I didn’t personally have anything to do with the challenges we’ve seen so far in the new year.
You see, when we here at the Chief were trying to decide our theme for Progress this year, I thought about all the challenges we’ve faced in the past several years. Drought - check. Fires - check. Flood - check. Locust (if you count drones - check. So no matter what 2021 could throw at us, we are strong! We can handle it! Bring It On!
Thus, we chose our theme for Progress - Bring It On! Little did I know Mother Nature and the universe in general still had some surprises in store.
We had the fall-out from a contentious national election. We had riots at the U.S. Capitol. We have continuing ups and downs with COVID-19. We had a blizzard. And just this Monday, Mother Nature tossed another near foot of snow at us, just to see if we’re paying attention. Hey, we’re paying attention! And we’re still going to work on Progress. Like many businesses, we at the Chief keep moving forward despite the challenges of COVID-19 and the weather. And we’ve adjusted the schedule for our Progress issue to help both our staff and our advertisers.
You’ll see Farming & Ranching next week, Feb. 4 and it will also be in the Feb. 8 X-tra. Health & Education will publish Feb. 11. The third issue of Progress will be Feb. 25, Business & Technology; the fourth issue, Arts & Community is slated for March. 4 . From Feb. 4 to March 4, we will bring you articles and stories of people and businesses who are meeting 2021 head-on, shaking off the negativity of 2020 and looking forward to 2021 with optimism and hope. That’s what we do in Nebraska and especially in Custer County.
So, with the utmost respect to Mother Nature and the universe in general, go ahead, Bring It On! We are strong, we can take it. We’re ready for 2021. (But it’s okay if you want to go a bit easy on us, at least for a while!)
In keeping with the theme of challenges and “Chief,” how about those Kansas City Chiefs! I am excited to see the Kansas City Chiefs going to the Super Bowl. Go, Chiefs! At the risk of alienating some readers, I am no fan of Tom Brady, though I do respect his accomplishments. I wanted to see a Green Bay-Kansas City Super Bowl match-up myself, with a KC win, of course.
Regardless, I will not challenge Mother Nature or football gods with boasts about how great the Kansas City Chiefs are. Heck, I’ve already seen what 2021 can do! Concussion protocol on Patrick Mahomes was reminder enough! Next week, though, some of us here at the Custer County Chief may toss out some predictions on Super Bowl scores with, of course, utmost respect.
On another and ongoing topic, like so many of you, I am alternately worried sick and surprising calm about the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccines. When I heard that Loup Basin Public Health was no longer taking names (see page A1 and A3), I felt panic and desperation, feeling that I let down my husband by not getting him on the list. Then I regained my faith, knowing that so far, either our preventive measures have worked or we have been lucky (or a combination thereof). And so we continue forward. We will register via the DHHS website as soon as the site becomes available. And while Mother Nature and the universe in general and maybe even the football gods may still have tricks up their sleeves, we’ll keep our faith. We’ll keep the faith and know God is watching and protecting, strengthening and comforting. So, bring it on, 2021. We are strong. We can take it.