Editorial: Thumbs

To Shelley Gulbrandson.

Way to go. Losing 94 pounds is an amazing success story, and we know you can reach that 100-pounds goal. Indeed, diet and exercise are the keys — especially the exercise part. Congratulations to all people who are working to lose weight and have found success through exercise. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is rewarding. And kudos to all the people who participated in the Fountain Lake 5 and Tiger Trot on Saturday.

To volunteers.

If you want to get something done, ask a busy person. Typically, volunteers are not the kind of folks who have all sorts of time on their hands. They often are the kind of folks who hold down a job, take care of a family, belong to various volunteer organizations in the community and are active in their church. Yet, they raise their hands to say they can step up and get something accomplished for the greater good. The next time you see a volunteer — for instance, parking cars at an event, washing cars on a sunny day or selling concessions at a high school sports contest — be sure to express your thanks. You could say, “Hey, thanks for volunteering.” These are likely the same folks cleaning up highway ditches and city parks and donating funds to youth groups.

To tornadoes.

We could say southern Minnesota has such strange weather this year, but, frankly, the weather is always strange out here on the prairie. The Albert Lea area just went through a hard winter following a stormy summer with destructive tornadoes (though last fall was honest-to-goodness nice.) We don’t mind thunderstorms; the thunder and rain can be calming and relaxing. It’s the severe thunderstorms with straight-line winds that can be so vexing. And the tornadoes are scary. This past week was Severe Weather Awareness Week, which reminds us that tornado season is upon us once again. It seems the weather this spring is going from snowstorms to tornado-producing T-storms lickety-split. We urge people to heed National Weather Service tornado watches and warnings and to stay safe. And we are keeping our fingers crossed that no twisters come our way this year.