Kamikaze Kodak and the 'Big' cat comeback
Well it's great to know there really are students at Tabor College. I got here after classes were over last May and hadn't actually seen a Tabor student until last week. Now there are Bluejays everywhere!
I went to the athletic practice fields last week and took some pictures of the Tabor football and men's soccer teams. You might want to pause for a moment of respectful silence when looking at the soccer picture on the sports page.
Notice the ball coming toward the camera? It smacked my Kodak, Pow! Right in the camera's kisser, and broke it. Kaput.
I didn't know if I had a picture or not until I loaded the data card into my computer. Imagine my delight when I saw that the moment before the camera's final moment was one of its finest moments.
What a lucky shot!
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Thanks to everyone who helped us through our moves to our Hillsboro house recently, especially those who loaned us your prized beater pickup trucks. The only thing better than having a beater truck of your own, is knowing someone generous enough to loan you theirs.
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In the midst of all our moves, our overstuffed Siamese, Mr. Big, apparently in a huff, decided to run away from our new home Saturday.
When he didn't show up for breakfast on Sunday morning, we were concerned. When he didn't show up for lunch, we knew something was wrong.
We looked for his remains all over our new neighborhood, located on the edge of town. We thought perhaps a pack of coyotes might have gotten him. As fat as he was, he could've fed them for a week.
My wife, Claire, grew more desperate and tearful by the hour, because our daughter, Jillian, had entrusted Biggie to our care until she could locate a place to keep him while going to college.
There's some sort of axiom that says you should always check the most obvious spot first. Well one of the last places we decided to look was in the neighbor's garage across the street.
Our new neighbors said they'd seen a big cat in their garage early Sunday morning, which gave us new hope. But we still couldn't find him, and by Tuesday, we were sure he was gone.
My neighbor came to the newspaper office Tuesday afternoon with his young son in his arms, and bearing good news. Mr. Big had somehow slipped back into his garage, and was alive and well.
"Oh, the cat came back. Thought he was a goner, but he didn't stay away
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Finally, for those of you who attend church in this area, if you would like to see a regular religion column on this page, please tell your pastor.
Perhaps because they're very busy, I received only one response from the many letters I mailed to local ministers several weeks ago, inviting them to submit devotional thoughts, homilies, and other faith-related stories to this newspaper.
I believe there's a need for a pastor's perspective in the press, and we have devoted space for this purpose.
I think there's a good chance that my invitations were buried under some very important papers on these pastors' desks.
So in the most considerate way you know how, let your spiritual leader know that they could be a real blessing if they'd share their insights with us all.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE