Ole Pappy
I remember when I was a small boy, my mother would feel my warm head, check out my tonsils and say, “I think you have a virus.”
Never quite sure what the “virus” thing was, I usually continued to go out and play with my friends in the neighborhood.
But in today’s world, a virus is a whole different matter. People can “inject” a virus into ... not you ... but your computer.
And some of them can cause all kinds of damage and havoc. Well mom, “I have news for you ... I have a virus!”
That is, my computer caught a virus. We don’t know exactly how it arrived, but since we get thousands of pieces of mail per week, it’s not far-fetched it was disguised as news and worked its way into the Minneota Mascot.
After working since Sunday on our six-page, full-color special Boxelder Bug Day edition, we were well on our way to having the edition ready to go.
Then, along came this virus, it sat down beside and whisked all our hard work away. (Apology to “Along Came A Spider ...”).
Every single page of the paper and the special edition were locked up tight, never to be seen again.
About 6:30 p.m. Monday night I sat down at my computer with the sad truth that we had to start all over again. I mean, it couldn’t have hit when we had a regular 12-page paper, could it? This sneaky little virus came at the worst time of year and created one huge headache.
The only thing this nasty old virus didn’t count on was it ran smack, dab into one of the greatest staffs anyone could have. Cherri Schmig went to work on the problem, called her husband Nathan (a virtual computer whiz — self learned) and he began to find a way we could get the paper out this week.
Brittany Moorse came in to work late Monday night and got the ads on the pages (again) and got the Mascot in shape for laying out the pages. After a long night building the pages all over again, processing the photos to get them ready to out on pages and the actual construction of pages, we were nearly ready to go again.
By Tuesday morning, we finished the job of re-creating the Bug Day Edition. (A BIG sigh of relief!)
How about this ... “The Bug Day Edition was hit by a BUG.” If you’re reading this column, apparently we succeeded. Brittany and Nathan both proclaimed the virus was caused by a man in Russia — bent on making money.
We were told, if we sent $230 to this guy he’d lend us the key to unlocking the mess and everything would be fine.
Except, of-course, there was a good chance he’d get our money and we’d never hear from him again. And he’d have more of our information so he could create further problems. You can be sure we’re checking into solutions to viruses and we hope to make our computers as safe as possible.
Unlike the virus mom said I had as a kid, this one won’t allow you to go outside and play. This one made heavy work necessary — right now! Kinda makes one think what would happen if the entire network was hit by viruses — like the entire United States. Work would come to a standstill in a second.
One very good thing came out of all of this. Our staff came together like never before and made me understand just how fortunate I am to have such great people working with me. They all seemed to have one common goal — Get the paper out! And when it comes down to it, “YOU” the winner.
Thanks Cherri, Brittany and Nathan. You are THE BEST. Hands down!!!!
LAUGH A LITTLE: Take a break It’s important to make breaks between individual exercises.
I personally stick to breaks of about three-four years. Visit this link for more jokes: https://short-funny.com/funny-sayings.php#ixzz5Qoh9Mfxn
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: As my Ole Pappy used to say, “Nothing is impossible.
The word itself is, ‘I’m Possible.’” I don’t know how many times Ole Pappy told me nothing is impossible. He created in my a positive attitude. Thanks Ole Pappy!