Ask everyone what they’re getting the senior citizen in their life, and you’ll most likely hear: “I don’t know. They have everything.”
This is true for many folks. When you reach the golden years, you’ve lived a full life and have amassed a lot of stuff. Buying Christmas presents can be difficult.
The pandemic has made our choices harder when our senior citizens have been cut off from the outside world and human contact with loved ones. A new report by Senior Care asked 10,000 seniors if they could have anything in the world this holiday season, what would it be.

This Thanksgiving, like previous years, we will all give thanks.
Unlike past years, this Thanksgiving is a time like no other.
More than 55 million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus, and more than 1.3 million people (almost 250,000 in U.S.) have died as a result of it.
At this time of great sorrow, feeling thankful is a challenge, but I am going to try.
I am happy the tens of millions of people who have contracted the coronavirus have survived it.

The task can seem daunting. Staying positive during the COVID pandemic has felt - at times - like I am climbing Mount Everest.
How can we expect to be positive when officials tell us the pandemic rages on?
We can’t be with family during Thanksgiving.
Our kids’ sports are cancelled, then started again. They play, but then the season ends when kids get sick.
The kids are in school, then are told their distance learning because too many people are getting sick.

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of problems or to perform a computation.
To put it in layman’s terms, an algorithm is what keeps us addicted to our electronic devices.

Sunday, Oct. 25 was a special day.
After long and careful instruction, Bonnie’s and my son, Mecca, along with 11 others, were confirmed in St. John Lutheran Church.
The “affirmation of baptism” is a big event. It was supposed to be witnessed by a lot of family at the church and at home. However, due to this crappy coronavirus, family groups in church were limited to little more than a half dozen invitees.
No thanks to the dumb virus, we also pared down our family party to just a few members, instead of the clan of more than 40.

Sunday, Oct. 25 was a special day.
After long and careful instruction, Bonnie’s and my son, Mecca, along with 11 others, were confirmed in St. John Lutheran Church.
The “affirmation of baptism” is a big event. It was supposed to be witnessed by a lot of family at the church and at home. However, due to this crappy coronavirus, family groups in church were limited to little more than a half dozen invitees.
To see more on this story, pick up the November 5, 2020 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

On Tuesday, Nov. 3, hundreds of millions of Americans will exercise a very important right - the right to vote.
We will cast our ballot on a simple - yet important - piece of paper.
The ballot.
As long as this country has existed, people have had to fight and even die, for our right to vote. Everyone has the responsibility to stand up and vote to preserve this right and to honor those who went before us.
That piece of paper links us to the past as we fill in ovals to determine our future. It is an equalizer that gives every citizen a voice in governing.

I’m not a fan of autumn. Mostly, because I know what season comes after it - the loooong one with only a few hours of sunlight, bitter cold temperatures and snow. Oh, the snow.
The older I get, the more I hate the snow.
However, this year, for some odd reason, it was a good autumn.
Temperatures finally dropped.
Kids were - kind of - back in school. (Big hallelujah!)
After being off, some high school sports were back on. (More applause!)
What is it that makes us fond of fall? Walking outside and hearing dead leaves crunch under our feet?

About every four weeks, my sixth grader, Anna, has to report to her class on a current event. She needs to report on one local, one state, one national, and one world headline throughout the school year. The students present their findings on a rotating basis, so the classroom gets a few “top news stories” each week. After the presentations, students can ask the presenter a few questions and discuss the topic. It’s a pretty cool project.

Life lessons are playing out in front of our eyes. Are we paying attention?
The death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in the custody of a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, has sparked outrage, protests, riots, violence, looting, and arson in Minneapolis and across the United States.

Times are crazy now. The economy is scary. People are protesting over businesses staying closed.
Masks are the recommended new facial accessory.
We aren’t supposed to hug when we see people anymore.
Six feet - that’s as close as we can get when talking to someone.
Kids are frustrated they’re not “in” school, playing sports with their friends.

So much has changed in the world in the last few weeks.
We’re entering unchartered territory in this fight against COVID-19.
Everyone at Suel Printing Company's newspapers (Montgomery Messenger, The New Prague Times, Waterville Lake Region Life and Elysian Enterprise) remains dedicated to providing you with a high-quality newspaper with consistent news coverage and delivery.
That said, we’re doing what we can with the resources we have to keep ourselves, our families, and our sources healthy.

Milliseconds.
Nanometers.
The blink of an eye.
Those flashes are the measures of the most significant events in our lives.
We have all experienced them - and they usually happen when someone passes away. One minute they are here. The next, they’re not.
In a blink.
The lives of many people were changed last week when a Lonsdale family and the Tri-City United family - again - lost one of its own. Blake Ryan Asher, age 17, died tragically in a car accident on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020.

(Editor’s note: Bill Marek has lived in Montgomery for close to 46 years. As an attorney, he and his brother, Scott, own Marek Law Office & Tax Services. In the mid-2000s, Bill was instrumental in the idea of changing the former elementary school on Highway 13/2 to a high school and creating an elementary and middle school campus on Second Street.)

I purchased a piece of Montgomery history a while ago, and it’s pretty cool.
It came by way of Charlene Washa, of Le Center, who was cleaning out a closet when she discovered a “slightly used and aged” Montgomery Messenger cigar box. She posted it online, and Kathy Peterson tagged me on it because it had to do with the Messenger.
Charlene said she didn’t know much about the box, but she received some information from Kathy Heyda, who has extensive history on the Richter family history.

I love to read. One of my favorite books is Mitch Albom's “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” At this time of year, I often reflect on the past 12 months - its ups and downs, joys and sadnesses.
Remembering this book, I thought of the five people I'd like to spend Christmas with again. First and foremost would be my dad. It’s been 22 years ago on September 28 that he unexpectedly passed away.
Even after all of these years, I think about him.
Every. Single. Day.
I talk to him - sometimes out loud (no judging allowed).