Unrequited love is no fun. I know, because I suffer from it. I love fresh flowers. Fresh flowers don't love me. I can't grow them. At all.
Every spring, I plant cute, little seedlings (flowerlings?) in the long window box that sits on the front of our house facing the street for all to admire. Except most years, there isn't much to admire. The wavy petunias I put in with high hopes failed to wave. They just sat there, sulking.

T-shirts have long been a way for people to express themselves. While working in my booth at the fair last week, a fellow walked by wearing one with three simple words that formed a complex statement: Guns Save Lives.

Have you ever wondered how, in the movies, especially old ones, the heroine always wakes up in the morning with flawlessly applied makeup and not a hair out of place? Doris Day, for one, looked incredibly perky in every scene filmed no matter if she was being chased down dark alleys by knife-wielding villains or scrambling out of a murky river escaping from a vicious alligator.

The summer is quickly coming to an end. As an educator, it is a time of mixed feelings. I am excited to get the school year started, however, I will miss the extra time I have had with my wife and kids.
Both North Union and North Kossuth will have new faces in the buildings. It has been a busy summer of hiring multiple positions ....
Read the rest of the column in the Aug. 1 Kossuth County Advance.

Thousands of people will hit the farigrounds next week to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the Kossuth County Fair. Thousands of others will stay home. If you are more likely of the latter, let us issue you an invitation.
Do you like music? There is free musical entertainment throughout the week, and it includes a variety of genres. There is a little someting for everyone.
Find out what else is at the fair in the July 25 Advance

Grumbling is Americans' favorite pasttime. Oh, you won't find it on a list next to baseball, eating pie, driving a Chevy, visiting grandma's house, watching crazed parents at T-ball games, eating corn dogs at a fair or talking about what she wore to the Christmas party.
No, being considered a grumbler is akin to being a leper in bibilical times – a condition in need of a miraculous cure, likely only to be provided by a heavenly source. Yet, most everyone grumbles.

Thank you all for your prayers. In case you've forgotten, I asked you to pray for me because I was feeding a cast of thousands over the July 4 weekend. I also suggested you pray for those I was feeding. For newcomers to this column, if there are any, my cooking skills are pretty much nonexistent. Oldcomers to this column already know that.

When 2020 rolls around next year, we'll hear a lot of talk about the nation's decemmial bowl movement. You might call it the U.S. Census.
The first census was in 1790. Its purpose was to determine the population of the country and the original 13 states in order to allocate representatives to Congress. The requirement for a census is in our constitiution.
Read the whole editorial in the July 11 Advance.

Last Week, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft rule proposing Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) blend levels for conventional biofuels for 2020 and biodiesel for 2021. Reactions came from a wide range of sources:

Today, if you look at the date at the top of the page of this newspaper, it is July 4. Of course, I'm not writing this on July 4, but I do hope you are reading it on July 4. If you're not, please don't tell me – just pretend you are.
I'm writing this last week. But it will appear next week. Very confusing.
I suppose it's my patriotic duty to write something about the Fourth of July.
I hate it.

Summer is one of my favorite times of the year. Grilling burgers, being with family, spending time at the lake and taking part in town festivals are all part of what makes it special.
As a nurse, and even as a nurse executive, I've spent many a July 4 holiday working at Kossuth Regional Health Center. In fact, the hospital's parking lot is a great place to watch the fireworks when they shoot them off at the fairgrounds!

My wife and I sat across the table from the two executives. They were interviewing me for a position with their company some five or six years ago. One of the questions they posed went something such as, "What really bothers you?"
I suppose there is a litany of incidents that would bother me, but the question wasn't about that. I stammered a bit, and my wife chimed in with some words to the effect of, "You really don't like pettiness."

Throughout its history, Iowa has been a place where women break barriers. Time after time, Iowa women have shown if they set their minds to something, work hard and believe in themselves, they can accomplish anything.
On July 2, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Iowans ratifying the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It granted women the right to vote.
Read the entrire editorial in the June 27 Kossuth County Advance.

The end of the school year brings a time to reflect on the past year and prepare for the next school year.
We have some retirees leaving our district with many years of experience. This allows us the opportunity to hire new people with new ideas for the next year. Summer is also a time to clean and refresh for the fall. Our custodians are busy cleaning and organizing West Bend building for our preschool-12th grade students to be under one roof.

It can be said the summer has officially started in Kossuth County. Almost everyone knows that June 21 is the actual kickoff of the summer season, but myself, I go by the number of community events that are coming weekend after weekend to signify the start of the summer season.