When I ended my column ….
When I ended my column last week, I mentioned the weather forecast as not so good. Holy smokes, what a snowstorm. I don’t ever recall anything like that in my life. From the sounds of it, you got lots more than we did up here. There is just a little here and there along the ditch line.
Thankfully from what I can see, the storm didn’t do any damage to mess up the lawn I mentioned Randy and Tami Cook had in great shape.
ÓÓÓÓÓ
I mentioned the Turtle Lake Depot in my column last week. I never realized they would run another picture this week. It was taken after the train wreck which resulted in the death of the fireman. Back in 1945 there wasn’t television news to learn about it, and the first I knew was the next morning when the bus got me to school. I do recall people talking about the train whistle blowing for nearly a half hour after the wreck.
ÓÓÓÓÓ
I’ve heard about being in high places, but this morning I got the real proof that it might happen soon. Seems a few weeks ago someone came through and wanted to take my picture. This was not just a snapshot, but a posed one and the lady taking it using lots of care to get it just right.
It shows me sitting in a chair alongside a young lady I don’t know. It will be up on a billboard, but don’t let it scare you. Wouldn’t want you to run in the ditch.
ÓÓÓÓÓ
The weather can only be described as changeable, and then extreme. From 80 last week to all the snow and now it is in the mid 30s and the fire lane is wet, so it might have rained again. Makes me wonder if the Amish farmer I mentioned being in the field last week got anything planted.
And just like that, as I ate supper last night it snowed. Now we have a white lawn and field across the highway.
We had a neighbor that always seemed to get started two weeks earlier than we did. I guess my dad always felt the seed was better in the sack than laying in the cold, wet ground.
ÓÓÓÓÓ
Mark today as a red letter day. Maybe it has something to do with the 22nd. I guess I haven’t been this happy in a long time. Shelby, Gary and Hoyt came to visit. When I mentioned cookies, Gary was right on the spot and ran out to the car to get me a package they’d just bought at the Mennonite store. It’s not that I like cookies so much, but might need a quick pick-up during the night. If I start getting a low, it doesn’t take much to bring me around. One night I let it slip by me and hit a 58, which brought the medical people around in a hurry. Not to mention the scary feeling it leaves with you.
The other great thing is they picked up my car and took it home. It has been sitting in the parking lot since the day I drove it back from Domine’s with four brand new tires. Hoyt made a quick check of things I might have left in it. Good thing. There was my Loyal Greyhound cap, my Minnesota Spring Training cap from Florida and most important of all, my Dietsche Dairy cap.
I guess collecting hats or caps is just something to do. A couple I would never think about wearing. They seem a bit out of the price range you’d find at Walmart or Fleet Farm.
One is a Twins hat and I have no idea how I got it. The other Twins cap I bought at a Spring Training game in Florida the year I went to visit Jackie and Rupe.
Then there is the CN railroad hat from Gary and Shelby for Christmas one year. A real prized possession.
ÓÓÓÓÓ
There doesn’t seem to be any water problems up here, but watching the news it appears to be a problem along the Mississippi in some places. Kind of reminds me of a trip we took one year driving along the river. I don’t recall how many times we crossed it forth and back. We had crossed to the west side and in Arkansas stopped at a newspaper office. It was evidence to us to see the huge levies protecting the city from floodwaters.
We mentioned the levies and the question to us was, how much water are you sending?
I don’t recall a huge spring runoff problem. But in mid-June we got a storm with tons of rainwater. The city where we stopped made the news that year when the dikes failed. Just seemed to me that living in the Upper Midwest has some real good advantages. A little snow now and then is a nuisance to us, but the melting snow is going to be a problem for people downstream.
