It’s Time For the Running of the Words
1. We saw our first robin of the year Monday, February 27, 2023 at Big Island State Park while looking at the nesting pair of eagles in the park. We also saw about 100 turkeys and about 50 deer. The turkeys and deer were feeding on farming land where the soil was exposed. Also one black hawk hunting from an electric wire –– no, it was not a crow. Neither Genie nor I have seen a hawk like this one before.
2. Congrats to neighbor Ron Singewald, the new gambling manager at the American Legion in Albert Lea. Ron is retired Air Force. His boss, Lori, is a native of Albert Lea. She let me know as soon as Ron gets behind the wheel of his truck, he just thinks he is boss. To which I replied, “You’re just like my boss, Genie.”
An unusual thing is both bosses like to go out for Sunday breakfast at least once a month. Guess where Ron and I were told we’re going out for Sunday breakfast!
3. March 1st is traditionally the forecast for the last day of March. You “In like a lamb, out like a lion” or “In like a lion, out like a lamb.” This year, March 1st was “in like a lamb.” Thus, will it be “out like a lion?”
In comparing to the woodchuck prediction. The woodchuck has been right for this area 75% of the time. The woodchuck predicted six more weeks of winter in 2023 as he saw his shadow in Southern Minnesota on Groundhog Day, February 2.
Thus, the “In like a lamb” says “out like a lion,” the woodchuck said, “Six more weeks of bad weather.” The result is both sayings are “winter-like weather” at the end of March.
4. Big ad in the Minneapolis Sunday paper: “Five to 25 acre lots in northern Minnesota bordering smaller fishing lake. Will build year around home to your specifications. Size of boat and motor restrictions on lake. No railroad tracks or trains within 50 miles. Your choice of in a small town or not.”
Do you suspect this has anything to do with the train wreckage in Ohio? (I DO!!)
5. In a February column, I asked if any reader had a good fog story; let me know and I will print it. The following is most certainly a good fog story: (This is as exactly as sent to me at the Star Eagle office in New Richland.)
“My husband and I are retired school employees. When employed we had at least 30-45 consecutive days of off time.
“Our three children were living in different parts of the U.S.A. so we would visit them during this time off, plus see parts of the U.S.A. in our van with the back seat removed and replaced by a mattress and sleeping bags.
“We got on Interstate 90 in Albert Lea heading west. After visiting the badlands, Wall Drug, and Mt. Rushmore, we got off I-90 at Buffalo, Wyoming headed for Yellowstone by way of Cloud Peak, 13,167 feet elevation.
“The day was beautiful, sun shinning, a few lazy clouds as we start going through Cloud Peak. Suddenly, we were in FOG with very limited visibility –– going very slow, just as suddenly the fog disappeared. We stopped, realized we had driven through a cloud, not fog.
“A quick decision was made: my husband turned the van around, drove back through the cloud, turned around, and I drove back through the cloud and on to Yellowstone.
“That’s our fog-cloud story and we’re sticking to it!!
“P.S.: We’re both having medical problems, thus limiting traveling. Our advice: ‘Travel while you can before it’s too late.’”
P.S.: I was the Lutheran agent for Derald Morfitt, Recently Deceased. Both Derald and great spouse Bonnie told me many times the same advice as the fog-cloud lady.
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in New York. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.