My alarm clock woke me up at 5 a.m. today, which would be Friday, my head still aching from another Twins loss.

I let it go, though, and got ready for work as quickly as possible.

I was on a mission today, an important one to go along my regular job duties and anything else that would come up.

My mission, which I chose to accept, was to find an idea for this column.

On most weeks, I have two or three ideas swirling around in my head, ideas such as the column I wrote on taking a virtual vacation when it was 24 degrees below zero, or the column I wrote after walking down Main Street just before Thanksgiving to find out what local business owners were thankful for.

Sometimes my column is in the system and ready to go by Wednesday, a full two days before deadline.

Today, on the other hand, I was cutting it close.

At 5 a.m., I still had no column idea, with roughly 12 hours left to spare.

I didn’t worry too much about it, though, because just like with everything in a newspaper,, it will get out — it always does.

I went on with my day in the meantime.

I put on jeans instead of slacks as part of a fundraiser called “Jeans for Genes” to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

I pulled up to work and started laying out pages for today’s paper.

After that deadline, the newsroom staff had its regular morning meeting to finalize the day’s assignments and to make sure Sunday’s and Monday’s papers were covered as well.

After that, I caught up on e-mails, talked to my boss for a few moments and took a lunch at around 11 a.m., like I usually do.

I headed off to Arby’s with a rumbling stomach, but still no column idea.

I ordered a Roast Burger because I like the commercials, and I washed it down with an iced tea because it reminds me of summer.

I then quickly headed home to pack. With plans to visit family this weekend, I wanted to be ready to go after work.

I returned to the office with my bag packed and a column idea. I remembered editing a story this morning about the “America’s Oldest Worker” contest.

It was won in 2008 by Mildred Heath of Overton, Neb., who at the age of 100 still works 30 hours a week for the Overton Observer.

I thought Ms. Heath would make a fine subject for a column, and I did a quick search on the Internet and found both her home number and the number for the paper.

No one answered at either, and it was back to the drawing board.

I then had another pagination deadline, which I met before heading off to do a story for an upcoming issue of Southern Minnesota Magazine.

After the interview, I called back my youngest sister, who had called while I was on the assignment.

She asked me when I was coming over. I told her all I had to do was think of a column idea, write the column, put it on the page and then I would be on my way.

She asked if I could write about anything. I told her I could, and she gave me the idea of writing about how nice of a day it was today.

It was a pretty fantastic day to be sure, although I didn’t think I could write an entire column on that.

As I was pondering that idea, another one hit me.

I could write a column about a day in the life of a journalist.

Another week down, another column written.