Standing just outside our living room window next to the patio we have a small “Bird Walmart”. It consists of a six- foot post wrapped in shiny tin to discourage the proverbial squirrel’s attempts to climb the slippery surface and stuff their furry little faces with sunflower seeds. Attached to the post is a metal pole for hanging flower baskets. There are no flower baskets attached however. Instead hanging on one of the hooks is my latest up to date…..
It was fifty years ago this spring that it happened. It was one of those happenings that will stick in your mind until life ebbs and one leaves this earth to be with one’s maker. Kathie and I were fast asleep in our tiny one bedroom house well into our second year of marriage bliss. 🙂 It was 2:00 am April Fools morning when the fire alarm sounded. I remember jumping out of bed and peering out our bedroom window…..
Are the fish running yet? What kind of stupid question is that? I believe that question should be rephrased to ask are the fish swimming yet! In past blogs I have stated that I grew up on a farm that was mostly rocks and sloughs. That explains why ‘running fish’ might confuse me. Then I moved to our present home where sloughs are almost nonexistent and creeks, a river and Lake Traverse replaced the water holding functions of the sloughs…..
How could an old guy living in the middle of Minnesota have any involvement in the Russian/Ukrainian War you are asking yourself? Well it’s kind of a complicated story so bear with me for a few minutes and I’ll explain how I got involved. In 2010 WestBow Press released my children’s book The Easter Sparrows. At that time I was not planning to have it become embroiled in a Russian/Ukrainian War. My plan was to hopefully have the book produce…..
Spring is not for the faint of heart! It’s the only season that teases, mocks and frustrates all of us as it struggles to make its entrance and lead us to the promised land, summer. As I write this blog we are being punished by forty to fifty mile an hour wind gusts with the promise of up to six inches of the white stuff tonight and tomorrow! Our snowbanks are slowly receding and just as we begin to breathe…..
It’s blog time and for the last few days I have been struggling to come up with an idea for a blog topic. Then I went for “caramel roll Thursday” at our local Senior Citizens Building and ‘bingo’ a discussion with a fellow retired teacher triggered memories that are certainly blog worthy. I started teaching in 1967 when many rules that now exist weren’t even thought of yet. Animals in the classroom comes to mind. In today’s classrooms living conditions…..
You may have guessed by the title of this blog that music will be the main topic of discussion. Yes, it is critique time for the concert we attended yesterday evening. I’m not a Bach or Mozart enthusiast. Gaither, country and folk music are really my go to music if I want to kick back and relax. So you can see my trepidation when last evening’s Chautauqua Concert featured five women playing a variety of stringed instruments along with a…..
What a pleasant surprise I received as I stepped into the shower this morning. The warm stream of water was very powerful and actually massaged my back as it cascaded off and disappeared into the shower drain. “That’s right, the Kinetico man was here yesterday,” I murmured to myself as I stood and enjoyed the powerful spray of warm water pelting my back. Our water softener man had made one of his biannual visits to replace drinking water cartridges and…..
I assumed my latest book Nature’s Rhyming Riddles was my first publication in poetry. However, digging through a box of memorabilia the other day I came across a 1976 June edition of the Wheaton Warrior school paper. The school’s mascot “Warriors” caused concern a few years back since it might be deemed racist. But that all quieted down as it must have passed societies’ smell test. If society would have become aware that the Wheaton Warrior’s school paper was called…..
Have you seen the movie American Underdog yet? Kathie and I viewed it a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. The movie tells the story of Kurt Warner and his struggles to play quarterback in the NFL. He was a very successful high school football player in Iowa but when he went to college it wasn’t until his fifth year that he had the opportunity to become the starting quarterback. But even then he had to badger his coach…..