The spring break that wasn't

It’s officially spring. Well, at least that’s what the calendar says. We observed the Spring Equinox on Monday at 4:24 p.m., in the midst of piles of snow and a temperature below the freezing mark.

At least the sun was out in all its glory, blinding me as I made the short trek from New Rockford to Carrington and back home.

Little more than 24 hours later, our area got yet another round of snow, and with it came “challenging travel conditions,” in the words of the meteorologists tasked with giving us bad news nearly every single day this winter. School at NR-S was two hours late for the umpteenth time.

First day of spring, my a**! The memes spread across social media like a speed skater on ice. It sure doesn’t feel like spring, and based on recent events, we have a ways to go before we get a taste of anything even close to spring-like (you know, like green grass and tulips blooming).

The week before, it was spring break for the kids, and it felt strange. NR-S students got their four-day break cut down to three because of, well, snow days, what else?

Macey, meanwhile, had a week off from college classes. She came home, but it wasn’t to relax. She had a 40-hour internship to complete for her business degree, and she chose the Transcript as her site. I guess you could say it was the spring break that wasn’t, at least for her.

She needed to see what it looked like to run a business, day-to-day. Her eyes were definitely opened, as I let her experience all that comes with a career in publishing.

She spent the entire first day on the phone, calling customers about advertising. “It was terrible,” she said, when I asked her what she thought of the sales side (which happens to be one of my favorite things to do).

“Sales is something you have to do in business,” I said. “Without sales, you’ll go out of business.”

“Mom, I’m not gonna call people randomly and ask them, ‘do you want a tattoo today?’” she retorted. Yes, she wants to be a tattoo artist when she grows up. The associate’s degree she’s pursuing now is what will hopefully give her the skills to keep her in business.

“That’s true,” I said, “but you still need to learn how to talk to people on the phone.”

Thus, on day one, she learned that outgoing sales is certainly not for everyone, and is especially not for her.

Throughout the rest of the week she got involved in various aspects of the business.

She finished her 40 hours in true small business owner fashion - in 4 days!

Friday, we braved the wind, ice and blowing snow to Minot for the North Dakota NASP State Archery Tournament. Yes, fortunately for us, it was in the only part of the state where travel WAS advised.

It may not have been relaxing or warm, but something good came out of it – I got to spend time with my family.

I look forward to more family time next month as we travel to the NASP Western National Tournament in Sandy, Utah. Our son, Chaztin, is on the middle school team at NR-S that won a state championship last weekend, so we look forward to making our first trip to nationals.

This is something we have talked about many times, since Lora decided to compete the very first year NR-S had an archery program, in 2017.

Macey qualified for nationals in 2020, only to have the tournament canceled completely due to the coronavirus.

Seven has always been my lucky number. And now, after seven state tournaments, our family has its first shot at making that trip.

Archery is certainly an individual sport, where each archer has the same opportunity to do well on his own. However, the team competition celebrates the archers who have made gains all year, and in some cases who scored a new personal best at the state tournament. In fact, there were 10 middle school archers who scored their personal best at state this year; what an accomplishment!

Congratulations to all the area archers who competed. It is surprising to me that aside from the middle school team, Carrington, NR-S and Midkota-Kensal had a combined 16 archers qualify for the national tournament.

Despite snapping hundreds of shots, I didn’t manage to get one of our family together. Believe me, I tried. “We can do it later,” my kids said when I asked on Saturday afternoon. Now they say, “we can get one at nationals.” Ugh!

A shout out to the coaches for all their hard work, which is about to get harder. We have less than six weeks to put together a 2,000 mile trip, from transportation and tournament fees to lodging and lunches.

A note about newspapers

I hope many of you took the time to check out our FREE e-edition of the March 20 newspaper. For the first time in my career as a publisher, subscriber newspapers in Carrington and New Rockford were delivered late. We spent our first day of spring preparing paperwork and delivering the March 20 edition of the paper to the post office, which arrived in Carrington 72 hours behind schedule due to weather-related transport delays.

Readers, the e-edition of your local newspaper is available online every Saturday morning, regardless of weather. If you want to give it a try, go online to http://www.fosterconews.com or http://www.newrockfordtranscript.com and click “Free Trial.” Once you set up an account, you will get an email every Saturday when the new edition is online.

I know it isn’t the same as holding the print edition in your hand, but it is a chance to grab a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and read the news!

Spring will get here, it just better hurry up!