You know, life here in southern Minnesota really is not so bad.

In fact, it is pretty darn nice.

Now, there may be more picturesque places, places with many more amenities, and some places maybe have better weather, but overall, life here is pretty darn good.

You might wonder what got me thinking about the good life here in good, old Minnesota. Well, the answer is that I talked about this subject with three gentlemen over the past week. One has lived here all his life, and now, facing death, is reflecting on the good life he had here in Faribault County. One is a fairly new resident to the area and marvels at how nice it is here and is surprised at it all. And a third man, like me, grew up in a place far, far away from Minnesota, but now has lived here for a number of years.

He and I made the same “fatal” mistake. We married a girl from Minnesota and thus got “stuck” here for the rest of our lives.

Perhaps I once thought that I was stuck here, but over the years I discovered that this was, and still is, actually a pretty darn nice place to live, work, raise a family and make a whole lot of great friends.

I think there are now more and more other people who are finding that out as well.

People who live in a big metropolitan area are learning that it is nice to have big stores, lots of restaurants, pro sports, and all kinds of other things, but they also have high crime, multiple shootings, and lots and lots of traffic.

Life in a small rural Minnesota town is a whole lot safer, nicer, quieter and the traffic is only busy when there is a town celebration in the summer.

We have seen an influx of people moving to Blue Earth and other parts of southern Minnesota for a variety of reasons from lesser expensive homes to less traffic, more peace and quiet, and friendly people. Well, for the most part anyway.

It is nice that you know most of the people you bump into and they know who you are, too.

Of course, sometimes you pop into the store to get one item and 20 minutes later you leave because you spent time talking to someone in the store who you know.

People in the southern states are also waking up to the fact that maybe Minnesota is an alternative to living in the south. Some folks moved down there for the weather, but now discovered it gets mighty hot there in the summer. And, there seems to be a line of storms that stretches from Dallas, Texas, in the south, up to Chicago in the north, almost every single day, or so it seems. And that line of storms heads east until it hits the East Coast, from Maine to Florida, and exits in to the Atlantic Ocean.

Or so it seems, if you watch the weather every morning.

The number of tornadoes has been incredible, as well. It sure seems like almost every day there are reports of lots of storm damage somewhere.

And don’t get me started on the hurricane season about to start…

I saw a report a little while back about people who have moved to southern states are now rethinking that plan and moving back north. It is becoming a trend, I think I heard.

Multiple days of triple digit temps and a series of violent storms would certainly give you a pause to think things over and consider making a move.

OK, to be fair, we do have some hot, humid days in the summer. And there are some bitter cold days and blizzards in the winter. But lately there don’t seem to be as many of those. Over all, the weather has been pretty decent.

But most of us don’t live where we do just because of weather. There are many other factors. Some of those are good, some not so good, and a few downright bad. Sometimes people think they don’t really have a choice as to where they live. As someone who has lived in several different places in my lifetime, I guess I know where you live is a choice.

So, overall, life in a small town in Minnesota is pretty nice. And we do have amenities like restaurants, nice schools, a great hospital and much more.

And, if you want to see a pro sports game, or big name music concert – and a whole lot of traffic – big cities are just an hour or two away.

So the moral of the story this week, is be sure to be happy wherever it is that you live. But if you are not, you can always check out life in a small town in Minnesota.

I can highly recommend one.