The calendar and events just ….
The calendar and events just keep rolling along. Someone mentioned about the short amount of time between Thanksgiving and Advent. I guess it is what you’d call the luck of the calendar.
With Thanksgiving falling on the fourth Thursday of November, which this year is the 28th, is as late as it can get. We also see deer season opening on Nov. 23 and not ending until Dec 1. Who ever heard of hunting deer in December?
But there are other signs out there telling us winter is coming. The county highway crews have been out putting up posts for snow fences, a certain must with the chance of wind and snow combined to make huge drifts.
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With last week being a quiet week, with just a trip to York Center, I made up for it this week. Actually it was a week from last Saturday when I drove to De Forest, Sue drove from Holmen and grandson John and his friend Breanna came from Milwaukee and we celebrated a day at the Norske Nook. It was an old habit. When John was home and still in high school we often met at the Norske Nook in Osseo.
Then when he moved to Milwaukee to attend the UW there, we met for a few years at Winsdor, just north of Madison. That is until we discovered the Norske Nook so John can get his favorite chocolate pie. Last year they were out of raisin cream pie, so I switched to lingonberry/apple, which really hit the spot. Two years in a row proves the fact.
John has completed his school at the UW and now works for Charter Steel in Saukville. Did you know there was a steel mill in Wisconsin? I didn’t either until John started there. It is a plant that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so we have to pick and choose when he has a weekend free.
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Then came Monday and a hard choice to make. Did I attend the Veterans’ Day program here, or drive to Medford where I have attended the last several years? It was at the invitation of Mark’s son, Aidan, who I discovered had a choice to sit with his former Army grandfather on a chair in the audience or on the bleachers with the rest of the kids.
Since then he has gotten in the band and is learning to play the trumpet. I told him to be sure and learn taps and he might want to do that for me some day. No hurry though, I can wait.
Next year might be different as I’m not sure what the senior high has for their Veterans’ Day observance.
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This year they had two interesting speakers. One was Don Smith of Medford who is a World War II veteran. For his age, he did well and told of growing up on a farm in Iowa. He told of the rationing of gas and tires, sugar and butter and how hard it was for farmers to buy new farm equipment.
When he told of enlisting in the Navy when he turned 18, my ears perked up when he told of getting his basic training at the Naval Training Station in Farragut, Idaho. That was also where my brother Carl went when he was drafted, and was one of those who had a chance to pick the Navy instead of the Army.
Smith was a radioman/gunner on an Avenger dive bomber and flew an aircraft carrier. He told of his training as a gunner and while they used clay pigeons, they shot them at the gunners and not away.
The other speaker was a Medford native who decided to enlist in the Navy after high school as she wasn’t sure of what she wanted to do. Today she is a Lieutenant Commander on a nuclear powered submarine. To compare size, she said there are 5,000 service personnel on board, which is more than the people living in Medford. It is kind of good to hear someone from a small town that goes out and makes good in the military.
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While I enjoyed myself, I did feel a little bad for not attending the Veterans’ Day program here in Loyal. It was noticed and several people checked on me afterward to see if I was alright.
It really made me feel bad when I found out that one of my great grandchildren participated in the program here.
When it was over, it was so nice that I decided to take the long way home. That meant going through Goodrich and Chicago. That’s like in Little Chicago, a place I had never been to before. All I can say is if Marathon County was flattened out instead of all the hills, it would be much bigger than it is.
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My biggest problem the past week was getting my computer or Internet going again. Last Friday I had made sure to have my column done ahead of time before heading out to De Forest. When I got up on Saturday morning, I couldn’t get connected, so instead of sending e-mails to the kids I had to call Jackie to tell her my problem and let her know I was up.
Things have worked pretty good since I bought the new computer and only a few times found it not working. But a simple little thing, like unplugging the telephone wires where they split and reconnecting, made it go again.
I hoped when I got home from De Forest that it would be working, but not so. The same story on Sunday and I was getting nervous about getting my column sent in. Finally, just before the Sunday night football game, I decided to try a recipe that Jackie had suggested one time. I shut the computer down and unplugged it from any electrical connection.
When the game was over, I plugged everything back in and turned it on. BINGO!! I had Internet and e-mail again. So far it is still working and I’ve just decided I am not going to question why and how, just keep my fingers crossed that it is working. I sure wouldn’t want you to open the paper and not find my column there. I did get a little scared a week ago when I went to read Dean’s column and discovered he had one of the accidents when the whole works is wiped out. Let’s not let it happen here.
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Right now, I’m at a point where I might decide to do as several people are doing and quit watching the news. Some days it just gets beyond what I can comprehend. I thought I learned in school that we elect people to Congress or the State Legislature to represent us. What it turns out to be, once they get to Washington or Madison, suddenly they don’t represent us, but whatever political party they belong to. It is unheard of for someone to ignore the routine for fear of getting kicked out of the party, or so it seems.
Which is even worse to see a party like the Republican Party, which I once belonged to, become more of a totalitarian party in which one person seems to have all the say and those who try to follow him are actually making fools of themselves. Like the guy from Ohio who goes around in his shirt sleeves.
There are enough doctors and people who study those things to say our president is not balanced, but why are there so many people willing to let him get by with lying at almost every turn?
