Roy's View

It's among my favorite days of the year. The announcement of the Academy Award nominations sets off a sprint for me and my wife. This year we have a head start.

Time spent with family is the true gift of the holiday season. We enjoyed several days with my wife's side of the family in Montana at Christmas.

Our church held its children's Christmas pageant last Sunday. It got me thinking about the times my son was a participant.

My daughter and I were among about 350 people who ran the cold, dark trails of Essex Park in Rochester on Saturday night. We ran in the Night Crawler 10K with temperatures in the 20s.

The media facilities were not where I expected them to be at the new Vikings stadium. But it was still a great view of the action for Owatonna's state semifinal game Friday.

Admit it. The threat of the first winter storm is kind of exciting. The media, radio included, make it sound like the sky is falling. We might be right.

Where were you in the aftermath of the Halloween Blizzard of 1991? I was packing up my apartment in Madison, S.D., for the five-hour drive to begin my job at KRFO in Owatonna.

This must be what time travel feels like. I hopped into my four-cylinder hybrid time machine last Friday and went back 30 years.

Some consider it the next fitness craze. Others think it's a fad. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

My son recently had his final day of high school, though it didn't involve going to a high school. His prep career wrapped up with an early morning final followed by video games.