The Shawano Community High School cross-country runners went into Thursday’s Bay Conference meet knowing the course just a little bit better than everyone else. They also knew their coach was expecting them to improve on their times from September’s home invitational. “It’s our home course. We ran out here four or five weeks ago,” coach Steve Stomberg said.

Green Bay Packers Next man up The Green Bay Packers have seen this script before. The injuries are piling up. The game-day roster is starting to fill with rookies and free agents. The Packers don’t skip a beat. At least that is what happened in 2010 when the team overcame injuries to win the Super Bowl. The injury bug has hit again, and again the Packers will need the next man up philosophy.

The phrase next man up is back in Green Bay. The Green Bay Packers are once again dealing with epidemic-level injuries.

Harold L. “Hal” Koenig, 87, of Cecil, passed away Wednesday morning, Oct. 16, 2013, at ManorCare of Shawano. Harold was born on Oct. 28, 1925, in Shawano, a son of the late Emil and Hertha (Burhrandt) Koenig. He attended the Shawano schools and was a 1943 graduate of Shawano High School. Following high school, he enlisted in the United States Army and served during World War II.

Donald F. George, 89, De Pere, passed away Friday, Oct. 18, 2013. Family and friends may call on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, from 4-8 p.m. at Cotter Funeral Home, 860 N. Webster Ave., De Pere, where there will be a parish prayer service at 7:30 p.m. Visitation will continue on Wednesday from 10 a.m. until the hour of Mass at 11 a.m. at St. Matthew Catholic Church, 130 St.

Well, it looks like our nice autumn weather is over, and the cold, windy, and maybe even snow flurry weather will take its place. I guess we can’t complain, because, at least at my house, my flowers haven’t even frozen yet, perhaps nipped a bit, but not dead. I think I have been living in a dream world, thinking this would go on forever, or at least a wee bit longer. But here I am, the garage is clean, however my bulbs are not dug.

What a beautiful fall October day! The sun is bouncing off my garland of leaves on the porch railings as they flutter in the breeze. I feel like I should be outside hanging my sheet ghost in the tree. But, here I am, sitting at the computer again, with the Packers game blaring behind me.

As of right now we are done chopping corn and have not yet started picking our corn, as it hasn’t dried down sufficiently. So in the meantime, as we have the chance, we make wood. A couple of years ago I had pushed for an outside wood furnace, promising, promising I’d help make wood. When the notion hit my head about heating our farmhouse with wood, I felt rather like a pioneer woman, living off the land, sort of earthy and self-sufficient.

The annual food drive by Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in Shawano is wrapping up Saturday. Boy Scout Troop 32 last week helped hand out about 4,000 plastic bags throughout the city for the donations, which they will pick up, box up and take to the Shawano Area Food Pantry and Resource Center. “People are typically pretty generous,” said Peter Moesch, co-Scoutmaster of the troop with Pat Bohm. Moesch got involved in Scouting when his oldest son joined