Just My Opinion - Mary Kilen
It Is Only March
Admit it. We were spoiled in February with nicer than usual weather. There were some challenges, but overall, we didn’t have it too bad, at least in our corner of the state. Mother Nature seems poised to remind us once again, though, that winter is not over.
While the majority of the recent storms have missed the northwest corner of the state, the southern part of the state has not been so lucky. Our son-in-law Zach is getting tired of moving snow. He bought a new snowblower this year. It’s been getting a lot of use as Bismarck is creeping up on the snowiest winter ever.
At our house, it seems like when Dale makes a purchase like that the snow slows down. The year he bought the Bobcat it had started out with a fury. He made the purchase and it hardly snowed again.
One of my Facebook friends shared a post that read, “It’s like winter is really mad and keeps storming out of the room and then comes back in yelling ‘and another thing.’ That does seem to be the story this year. We get storms and cold, then it warms up and things start melting. The phrase “lather, rinse, repeat” really seems to apply this year.
Watching the weather forecast for this week, it looks like our luck might be running out. It looks like it will be a busy week weatherwise, with chances of snow for most of the week. There’s still plenty of winter left, even if we are in what they keep calling meteorological spring. It is still early March. It would be nice to see spring come early this year and stay, but I’m not holding my breath. Instead, I’ll just sit there and try not to swear at the weatherperson.
It might also be described as the following post I also say on Facebook. It said there are actually eleven seasons: winter, fool’s spring, second winter, spring of deception, third winter, mud season, actual spring, summer, false fall, second summer and actual fall. I’m not sure where we are falling in that list, but I think it might be somewhere around second winter and spring of deception.
An End Of An Era
As the girls’ basketball season has come to a close and the boys’ season is now at the region tournament level, I’m slowly realizing the differences that will come next year for basketball in North Dakota.
With the change to the three class system, this is our last year playing in District 16 and Region 8. It will be different next year for us and many other schools around the state. The announcers were talking about that quite a bit during the Class B Girls Basketball Tournament last weekend.
I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish with the changes, but I’m also a little nostalgic. As I write my column, I’m watching Monday night’s games from the 4 Bears Event Center. I’ll be headed there on Tuesday and Thursday this week for the tournament. It will be a little strange to be covering Stanley’s last Region 8 tournament, but it will also be the same fun it has always been.
Change isn’t always easy, but we can embrace the change and make the most of it. More than anything, it is still “Let’s Go Blue” in Stanley. Fans across the state will still support their teams, no matter what division they are playing in. There will be some familiar faces and some new rivalries that will develop. There will be growing pains and there will be adjustments, for sure, but the three class system is not a new conversation. It is just that the conversation has now turned into a reality.