I am certain of very many things, but I am never certain that there will be another issue of the Victoria Gazette, not even after 26 years of never missing a deadline or a print date.  Many variables and dependencies keep this monthly paper living only one day at a time.  In this respect, the Gazette is much like its editor.
Even when the presses are rolling and the ink is set, I don't feel a particular edition of the Gazette is a done deal.  Only after all 4,500 issues of a monthly edition (approximately 200,000 pages!) are emptied from the back of my rusty red pickup truck and safely stacked at the U.S. Post Office do I become quite certain that another Gazette has landed.
And even then, when the Gazette should be on the radar screen of others, I get a couple calls from subscribers who didn't receive the paper or who receive it very late, most often because of a postal glitch in downtown Minneapolis.
If I am certain about anything related to the Gazette, it is that it would never happen without many of you.  My gratitude is huge and humbling, and as we approach another Thanksgiving season, I want to try to express that gratitude.
I thank all of the people throughout the community who send information and photographs and letters.  New names and faces continue to live easily in the Gazette with old names and faces.  Perhaps it bears repeating that the community is my staff.  If you want something in the Gazette, it's a matter of getting it to me.  I'm happy to recognize you and your organization, your children, your church, your business, your work, your friends.  Common sense says that an editor can't be all things to all people, and it also says that people can take responsibility for themselves.  The population of Victoria is extremely responsible, considering the number of pages and pictures in each issue of the Gazette.
I thank all of the people throughout the community who write for the Gazette on a regular basis.  How I enjoy Cowboy Tom and Deer Run Tom and Rough Rider Tom and Building Official Tom!  How I smile at the exaggerations and reminisces of Mike Wartman!  I admire the courage of conviction in Ethel Ausink's columns.  I appreciate Gary Delaney's efforts to teach us the basics about being a Carver County Commissioner.  I respect the messages of Pastor Frank, Pastor Tom, Pastor Ken, Pastor Bill, Pastor Maureen, and Father Bob when he gets a round tuit.  I value the information passed on by officers and others of the Victoria Lions Club, Victoria Chamber of Commerce, and the Victoria Senior Citizens.  I tuck away real estate tidbits from Steve and Kathy Schmieg and, most recently, from Mary Leizinger. 
I thank all of the people throughout the community who advertise in the Victoria Gazette.  Regular advertisers become not only neighbors and business partners, but also friends.  It's good to do business with friends.  We want to do business with friends.  Friendship leads to happiness in our personal world and to success in the business world. 
I thank all of the people throughout the community who read the Victoria Gazette and pay the piper a pittance for it each year.  If there were not readers, all of the above would be for naught.  If there is an average of maybe three readers per household, there are at least 15,000 people paging through the Gazette each month -- or approximately 10,000 people from communities outside Victoria.
I thank Kathy Kraemer who has been representing the Gazette on the road for 18 years now.  I thank Barb Hoffman at the Victoria Post Office for handling the paperwork and mailing.  I thank Jerry and others at the Chanhassen Annex for help-ing me unload the heavy hampers.  I thank Mark, Sid, Tom, Cindy, Dan, Keith, Judy, Tod, Donnie, Del, and Dave at Crow River Press in Hutchinson. 
Above all, I thank my family who puts up with the side effects of my pressures in meeting newspaper deadlines.  I suppose that means mainly Allan.  Well, I figure I get partial credit for turning him into a saint.  I thank daughter Jenny for handing in (or faxing) a cartoon every single month for 25 years … always at the last minute and always with a good word for her mama.  I thank son Nick for being the first one in the family to read the Gazette online and say something honest and funny for his mama.
I am filled with gratitude.  That is my certitude.  Thank you, good people, for helping with the Gazette each month.  I hope your turkey is well dressed and your potatoes whipped without lumps, your cranberries jellied, your pumpkin pie perfectly crusted … your hearts tender … your minds mindful … one day at a time.      ~Sue