You’ve probably heard similar phrases to the following, “Pictures don’t do it justice. You have to see it in person.” People who say these things have likely been to a one of the many spectacular things nature has to offer that people before my time were smart enough to protect at some point or that earlier generations built on massive scale. There is the option that they also could just take really poor photos too.

I am in my first month of college at Minnesota State University Moorhead as a theatre arts technical emphasis major. My first class of the day is “Acting I,” a base course for any theatre major.
My professor is Dr. David Wheeler, who is a bright and bubbly figure — never mad, never sad, never negative. I get up around 8 a.m. and turn on the TV for a bit quietly as my roommate was still sleeping. I figure it is time to get ready for class so I waddle down to the showers on our floor with my bucket of items, my flip-flops clunking along the way.

I got a message from an ex-girlfriend on Facebook the other day. We actually talk periodically and sometimes manage to play a game of Ticket to Ride or Codenames online. There is a lot to be said about this person, and many people in my life.
The story involving her that I am thinking of now stems back to one of the regular visits she was on here with me. At the time, she lived in Michigan and I lived in the Fargo-Moorhead area, where I went to college. It was her turn to visit me.

I’ve had a gripe for many years that has only become stronger — ticket resellers.
To get one thing out of the way right away, ticket resellers do serve one very small purpose, which has even since been almost eliminated, and that is to resell tickets for people who can’t go to an event for one reason or another. However, ticket companies have introduced ways to resell your tickets on their platform in the last few years, essentially eliminating the one purpose ticket resellers had.

In the history of a few dumb mistakes I have made over the years, these two are some of the more expensive ones
The $340.35 mistake I recently acquired an ultrasonic cleaner. Being a noob at this, I tried a couple of metal objects but couldn’t fully tell if it was working. I mean, they seemed clean but were tarnished and I didn’t have any solution for that.
I figured that I should throw my glasses in there and get all the nooks and crannies clean on them. In a matter of five minutes, it managed to take off about 50% of the coatings on my glasses.

As I sit at the Memorial Day program put forth in Montgomery, I can’t help but see the group that is here — veterans, loved ones of veterans, and a very few outside that realm. The average age is maybe around age 60 or an age where people felt directly affected by the threats of war and that our freedom could possibly be affected personally.

Al Christensen, Tri-County Solid Waste
Hello Everyone. I’m not ready to mow lawn or fight mosquitoes yet but I’m ready for a change or maybe my snow shovel is just begging for mercy! Our hazardous chemicals topic this month was prompted by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), and I was glad they suggested it.
Mercury

When I was a young boy into my preteen years, I loved the outdoors. Dirt, mud, sand, rocks, snow, water, and sludge were all my friends. I also had a lot of time on my hands to explore, a luxury of little responsibility and a product of being born in the very early 1980’s where you were sent outside until it was dark.
It should come as no surprise that a boy with those ambitions would take on the task of making my own ice luge. I know “Cool Runnings” was a popular movie, coming out in 1993. I, however, didn’t get inspired by it.

The names, faces, and stories of all the people I’ve met and interviewed over the course of the last 20 years are flooding back to me as I sit down to write this column.
This will be my final column.
After almost two decades working as a writer for the local newspapers, I’ve decided it’s time for a career change.
Thank you to all of you who have welcomed me into your lives and homes and trusted me to share your stories. It has been an honor.

The world may look at climate change in many different ways. I believe one thing that can’t be denied truthfully is that it is changing.
As president of the Twin Cities Meteorological Society, I have developed a growing annual Minnesota State of the Climate event. I am lucky to be friends with two of the state’s climatologists who are awesome at remaining neutral to the numbers, as well as being supportive of this endeavor.

These are my daughters.
The above photo was taken at the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s (MNA) Annual Awards Banquet last week. They are holding the awards I received at the event, the adults-only event.
Yes. I did the unspeakable.
I registered my 10 and 13-year-olds for the event and brought them, along with my husband, to a professional work event.
It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

A written agenda now accompanies me to the dinner table.
After my family of four eats and finishes chatting about our day, I pull out my list, which sets my daughters’ eyes rolling.
Anna and Ellen, ages 13 and 10, think it’s ridiculous that I now have a “Family Agenda” notebook, but they do sit up and pay attention when I click my pen into action mode.
I begin:
- Are we going to cousin Gus’ basketball game tomorrow. If so, how are we going to make it happen?

I was in much better shape as a child and throughout my young adult life. I played little league, county pee-wee, and varsity baseball. There is one time where I remember running the fastest I have ever run in my life. I WAS running for my life.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t running for my life but I was pretty darn scared of what might unfold if I stopped! Let me explain.

My teenager almost wrote this column for me.
Almost.
Thirteen-year-old Anna did agree to help me out, but then, she received a text from a friend… and I lost her.
She was actually excited to finally share her “version” of Ingebrand family life in this space (after having me write about her for so many years), but she IS a teen and catching up with her best friend after Christmas tops helping me do my job.
So, you get me, again.
It’s the day after Christmas, and I have writer’s block.

If you don’t know from my first column, I am an avid weather guy. Not just the casual “I like to know the weather today” guy. I am the guy who is really into weather, severe weather to be exact.
I’m a storm chaser but it goes beyond that. I am the president and had been the newsletter editor for the Twin Cities Meteorological Society. I am also a lead trainer and board member for Metro Skywarn, which teaches SKYWARN severe weather spotters for the National Weather Service here in the Twin Cities.

One night, a couple weeks ago, I had a nightmare. Dreams or remembrance of dreams I may have had is a rare occurrence for me. In my nightmare, I stood in a hazy old air hanger, gymnasium, or some similar building. Somehow I knew that the Nazis were coming to look for me and take me away, as if I was in Germany. I had at least a little time to prepare. Different indistinguishable people came by and offered me suggestions of how to hide, where to go, and what to do. Finally, it was time, and I remember starting to crawl up warehouse racking and onto roof trussing of this building.