Just My Opinion - by Mary Kilen
Congratulations Athletes!
I spent last Thursday through Saturday at the State Track Meet in Bismarck. It was a busy couple of days as I had my list of athletes competing from Stanley, NSP, Parshall and New Town. Between the four teams I was pretty busy. Fortunately, I was able to time most of the events so I didn’t miss much. It might have been a bit of sprinting between events, or going back and forth, but I managed to get to all of them on my lists.
Congratulations to all of the athletes first off for making it to the state tournament. The results might not always be what they wanted, but they were also fortunate to be among the best in the state taking their shot at a title.
Meanwhile, there were plenty of athletes that brought home the hardware this year from our little communities.
The Blue Jays’ Ben Hynek placed second in discus and third in shot put. The boys’ 4x400 relay team with members Kolton Longmuir, Logan Longmuir, Oscar Garcia and Zeke Wienbar improved on last year’s finish by taking fourth this year. Zeke also made finals in the 400 meter run and placed ninth.
The Eagles’ Lukas Spotted Bear was third in the 800 meters and ninth in the 1600 meters. Kade Lambert was eighth in the 3200 meters and CJ Freeman was ninth. Their 4x800 meter relay team took second with Kade Lambert, CJ Freeman, Tekoah Hood and Lukas Spotted Bear.
Meanwhile, Mother Nature decided we needed to experience most of the seasons over the three days. Thursday was okay. It was a little cool, but it was also sunny and a great way to get my feet wet with the tournament so to speak.
We all knew Friday was going to be a challenge. It started out cool and cloudy. My phone would happily buzz to give me a weather update on a regular basis. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, it would tell me that “rain was expected to start in the next half hour”. It kept saying that until about 2:00 when it informed me rain should start around 2:30. It was not wrong.
It doesn’t take long standing on the sidelines taking pictures in the rain for it to not be fun anymore. While I might not have enjoyed it, at least I was able to get out of the rain at times. Athletes were spending more time in their “camps”, but they also wanted to be out there cheering on their friends.
Saturday’s sunshine and warmer temperatures were most welcome for all of us. It would be nice, though, if Mother Nature would just make up her mind.
Playing In The Dirt
I spent Sunday at the office, going through the hundreds of photos from State Track and the other pictures I had waiting for me. Then it was off to graduation. We made our way to Erika’s open house and enjoyed that time. I was back at it working on my writing after we got home, while thinking about how I just wanted to start planting the flowers I had waiting for me in the garage.
I was back at the office on Monday morning. Then Dale and I went to Memorial Day services. I went back to the office, finished up my last writing and put pages together.
I finally finished up around 3:00 and then headed home to start working on planting my flowers. We had some work done on the front planter this year, giving it a much needed facelift. Between that and the aggressive attitude of a number of my perennials this year, I didn’t need to plant as many flowers this year. It took me about half the time I usually dedicate to playing in the dirt for that first planting.
I still need to go buy more flowers for my back planters, but those are smaller and I need to make sure I pick out flowers that can handle full sun. I’ve made that mistake a few times before. It would be great if I would remember to write down what flowers I have had success with in the past there, but that would be too easy!
Here’s to all the gardeners out there like me that have been waiting for the weather to be right to plant. The recent rains we received will help with some of that subsoil moisture. I kept thinking it would be nice to get those flowers in before that rain, but there were way too many cool days and nights for them to settle in properly. Now that mine are in the ground, some more rain would be just what the doctor ordered!