I don’t know if any of you paid attention or not, but my hopes of being a hometown girl able to claim a link to a winning team in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day went down in flames when the Florida State Seminoles whomped up on my Northern Illinois University Huskies, a lot to a little. But early on, it was kind of fun doing some cyber fist bumps with former friends and classmates scattered around the country. I even made the acquaintance of NIU fans in Salina, Belleview, Hays, and Wichita. I am proud to say I was the only one with a windsock sporting the NIU logo!
The Kansas State University Wildcats didn’t fare much better in their bowl game and I really had higher hopes for them than I did for the Huskies. Oh well, as they say, each was just a game. You win some and you lose some!
And basketball season is now upon us … yes!
*****
Somewhere between the half-time show of the Orange Bowl and the end of the game, I began to feel a bit peculiar. And then I began coughing almost non-stop and my eyes got runny. I went to bed and only awoke from time to time for necessary personal functions during the next five days. Holy moly. I don’t know what I had, but you do not want it! On Sunday, I was finally able to make a trip to the newspaper office to see if I had missed anything. Oh my.
Apparently many of you think you no longer have a subscription to the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, but are getting an odd version of the Marion County Record instead. Apparently all of you who think that are not too happy. Somewhere in the past issue that you all think is the Marion County Record, I know that it tells you why we followed an accelerated holiday printing schedule and combined our three newspapers to give you more local news in a timely manner because of the way the holidays fell this year.
It would take many more words here than you would care to read to explain it all again. Suffice it say, we did our best to get you a Christmas issue before Christmas — WITH the all important “Letters to Santa” in print just in time — and a New Year’s issue before the bell tolled, with a summary of 2012 and hopes for 2013.
Now is the time to let us know what you think of those attempts because, guess what? Next year Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are just the same as printing day … Wednesday! Shall we send it to you in advance? Or send it to you in arrears? Which do you want? And when WILL Santa read those letters? Ah, the exciting world of print journalism.
*****
Since this is end of my first full day in an upright position and my attention is fading fast, I am going to close here and hope you are as ready as I to embrace the New Year. A Peabody-Burns High School graduate, Roxanne Robinson Van Gundy, is an emergency dispatcher in North Pole, Alaska. She recently shared her goal for 2013. “All I want is to be happy. That is it. I want 2013 to be a happy year, better than the last. I’ll leave it to the Big Guy Upstairs to figure out how … I’m just going to go with it.”
I think she has a pretty good assessment of how we all should roll. As per Roxy, may 2013 be a happy year for you, better than the last. I also am just going to go with it!
— SUSAN MARSHALL