Behind the Scenes: Last week’s chaos is this week’s paper

But there are actual people behind this publication. We’re not robots, but the job requires we act like it, compartmentalizing our personal lives in order to do this work. It’s less 9-5 and more 24/7. We can’t get away from the news, like, ever.

We also can’t get away from the various-sized bumps in the road, both personally and professionally, that inevitably happen. Generally, we “only” have to deal with one or two major hiccups at a time. But friends, we went through it last week.

Both Chelsea Marr and Nathan Wilson were out of the office on Monday (not vacation and vacation, respectively); I ended up succumbing to the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad cold that has been circulating the Gorge Monday morning, but managed to keep it together long enough to send the paper to press at noon. Though it was bad timing with Chelsea and Nate out, I took sick days Tuesday and Wednesday. When I checked in briefly Thursday, I had 180 unread messages. It was too hard to think, so I went back to bed.

Happily, Nate got back Wednesday. Sadly, the hits kept coming. By Friday, we all, in some way or another, had to deal with one or more of the following: health issues; car trouble; unexpected personal news; technical difficulties; migraines; unpacking a delivery truck filled with thousands upon thousands of Resource Guides in the parking lot of our Hood River office with 2 hours’ notice (that included significant others pitching in) and finding places to house them by 5 p.m.; a small fender bender in a company vehicle; AND learning the page designer we’ve been working with from the company Design2Pro — Marat Khusyainov — is moving on.

And some of the sources we were counting on didn’t come through. That seems like small potatoes, though, all things considered. And I hope you see the irony — that compared to the chaos above, putting out this edition was the easy thing.

I mean, THAT only involved attending meetings (online when you’re sick); contacting sources; taking photos; answering phone calls (sorry to everyone I ignored — I just didn’t have the strength); being available for walk-ins; scheduling and attending interviews, writing it all up and putting it online ahead of print; editing of course; following up on obituary submissions; filing stories in InCopy; sorting letters to the editor; three pages worth of sports coverage; and figuring out how to get it all to fit on a finite number of physical pages — and then sending that page plan to Design2Pro so Marat (at least for now) can make it all into a newspaper.

And still. We made it work.

As of this writing, it’s Friday afternoon. I just got up from a nap but hey, my ears just popped, so that’s gotta mean something positive. Chelsea is still out of the office dealing with personal matters but running things via email, Teams, text, and the grim determination to be everything to everyone. Several of us are working from home as we cope with the week’s fallout. I’m expecting a few of us to be out this week as we continue to deal with … just life stuff. (Note to teenagers: being an adult is stupid. Resist.)

Enjoy the paper. We fought hard to get it to you.