Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I wish you hadn’t told me that.

Well, it’s the truth.

I know. That’s why I wish you hadn’t told me that.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: When driving, it’s a good idea to go one direction at a time. Without weather, we’d have difficulty starting a conversation. Bad weather is gossiped about more than any reality TV star. Everyone has a different definition of bad weather. All I know is that good weather is a day when the wind doesn't blow. We have windy days here and we have days that are even windier.

The cafe chronicles

His name was Gary. That’s a name that has become less and less popular, but he still answers to it. He introduced his wife. He added that her full-time job was correcting everything he said and she was very good at it. He maintained that he wasn’t always wrong. Sometimes he was just confused. He wasn’t a morning person. He might not even have been an afternoon person. He felt that there was something wrong with those who were in good spirits at breakfast. He ate out only when the toaster in their kitchen was on vacation.

"There is nothing like good food. I wish we had some," he grumbled loud enough for the waitress to hear. The waitress smiled, obviously familiar with his routine.

Gary told me that his granddaughter had a message on her arm. His wife corrected him by saying, "It’s a lovely tattoo."

"Lovely girl," said Gary, "but I can’t say much for the message."

I ran in a potato race once. The potato won

Duane Morse of Phoenix told me that he'd run the Twin Cities Marathon a few years ago. He said, "I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy running a marathon."

I’ve never run a marathon. The closest I’ve come has been carrying a teammate up a hill in football practice in a torturous exercise called "carrying a teammate up a hill."

If you see me running, you'd better run, too, because something is chasing me.

A marriage is a work in progress

David Abramson of Meadowlands told me that he drove their motorhome while his wife, Helen, knitted in the passenger seat. He explained that he had to drive. He had never learned how to knit.

John and Jan Menge of Webster, Wisconsin told me that they had been married for 20 years without a single argument. Then their pastor suggested they should attend a retreat concentrating on various forms of marriage counseling. They argued about attending. Their truce had ended. Wisdom dictates that we shouldn’t try to fix that which isn’t broken. That includes marriages.

The wheels on the bus went round and round

The bus driver and I stopped to get gas in a small town in North Dakota. I picked up an iced tea and the local newspaper. The clerk rang up the sale. I thanked her for the bargain price and reminded her that the gas needed to be paid for, too.

She smiled, thanked me in return and said that she’d done the same thing earlier in the week. It resulted in a drive-off without paying for gas, whether it was intentional or not. She said that her boss was mad at her and she worried that she might be fired.

"Maybe the people will come back and pay for it," I offered.

She was quite certain that would never happen.

She was a pleasant woman. I hoped she was wrong.

Rick Draper of New Richland told me one of his favorite jokes. "Does this bus go to Duluth?"

"No, it goes 'beep, beep' like all the other buses."

The bus I rode on went "beep, beep" and ran on gas that was bought and paid for.

Nature notes

My father enjoyed watching birds. That love was passed along to me. Father’s Day comes and goes in a blink, but the memories of my father’s gentle and heartening dealings with nature endure. Dad called the indigo bunting a "blue canary" and the house wren "Jenny Wren." Jenny Wren was a dolls' dressmaker in "Our Mutual Friend," a novel by Charles Dickens. A willing scold, the house wren’s song is exuberant and bubbling. It’s a tiny bird that produces a big sound.

Meeting adjourned

Be kind and be the hero of your own story.

The famous saying of “Go West, Young Man,” applies to a different generation from Genie and me. Thus, we decided to “Go East” and Go East we did.

Early Monday morning, May 11, we set the GPS for Burlington, Vermont, by way of Canada — crossing at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

The first night we stayed at the Bad River Casino and Motel in Odanah, Wisconsin on Highway 2. We visited with my old Navy veteran friend, Norm, who is an Elder of the reservation. Once again, I tried to get a seat on the tribal board (I would be a Norwegian minority representative). Once again, I was turned down. 

The second day was a long straight drive with part of it a little over 100 miles on Michigan Highway 8. We watched to see how many miles it would be before we saw a can or bottle along the Michigan Highway 28. The first one was 32 miles. Minnesota would have been less than a mile. The difference is mainly due to the 10 cents per can or bottle deposit refund law. (Minnesota most certainly would be cleaner if we had a 10 cents deposit law.)

We stayed at Sault Ste. Marie on the USA side crossing into Sault Ste. Marie, Canada the next day.

The third night was stayed in Matawa, Ontario, Canada. Just beautiful, right on the Ottawa River.

The native walleye fishermen were catching a walleye just about every cast. The Ottawa River is very heavily polluted with mercury – thus the fishermen were mainly catch and release. Some of the walleye were deformed with a bent body. The suggested recommendation is, don’t eat more than one or two of the smaller walleye (10 to 12 inchers) per month.

The mercury level doesn’t bother the loons as they were really noisy at dusk. (Our room had a balcony looking out over the river — fantastic).

In the Boundary Waters of Minnesota and Canada there is a yellow line in the water to tell Minnesota and Canada apart. In the Ottawa River there are a lot of rocks on the bottom painted yellow to tell the border between English speaking Ontario, Canada and French-speaking Quebec, Canada.

The fourth night we stayed at the Quality Inn of Colchester, Vermont.

The next day we moved into the top of the Green Mountain home of Dan and Laurie to babysit their three cats, two birds and one dog while they were on vacation to Kelley’s Island in Ohio on Lake Erie.

The reason we go through Canada and then drop down to their home (1,407 miles) is because the drive is prettier, one toll in of $3 and one toll out of $3.50, compared to the U.S. tolls on the freeway of $40 to $75. It is also a little shorter by way of Canada.

The next two columns will be about our 10 days at their mountaintop home, our seven days at the Quality Inn, Colchester, Vermont, plus our trip back to Albert Lea.

———

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 Vermont. 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.

Now that the referendum has, unfortunately, failed, our school district can put a firm calendar out for 2015-2016. If the building project had passed, the state would have allowed us to begin prior to Labor Day. As it is though, the school year will start September 8, as late as it is possible to start.

And before I go on, allow me to rant a bit about this outdated rule about having to start after Labor Day. Pressure is constantly on the legislature to leave it at that, largely due to resorts. That isn’t really something that affects many people in the southern part of the state, so why not allow schools to start when they like, within reason? It would be nice, at least, to have the kids come Monday-Wednesday. We could still give them a long Labor Day weekend, since many people make plans for one last summer fling.

I’ve heard the State Fair argument as well. Listen, the State Fair goes for two weeks. You can find time to go. If you are showing at the fair, then go ahead and show! The first few days of school are really getting back into the swing of things, and those kids who show at the fair are generally pretty on top of everything. Trust me, people miss school for worse reasons!

My regular readers know I’m in favor at looking at the possibility of a 45-15 schedule (nine weeks of school with three weeks off). The start to that is allowing schools to start earlier. Let’s be honest: the majority of kids are bored out of their minds by the time the Steele County Fair is done. High school athletes are already back at it – why not everyone else?

Anyway, back on task. It’s been a difficult process for the calendar committee this year. We were trying to work multiple calendar possibilities relating to the referendum and also the idea that the legislature was talking about allowing school prior to Labor Day for this year at least. At the end of the day, there are a number of similarities to last year’s calendar, with a few tweaks.

Here’s one thing we heard and made some attempts to change: the nights of the secondary school conferences. Three of the four last year were Wednesday nights, and that bothered some people who were trying to get their kids to church obligations and then run to conferences. This year, only one of the four nights will be a Wednesday, the one during December. There just is no other choice in December. Wednesday is the only evening that doesn’t have an athletic event or concert. The other three quarters we found different evenings, so hopefully that will work better for those who want to attend.

Last year was the first year of switching to one night a quarter instead of twice a year. We moved to midterm so parents with concerns could help put together a plan for the rest of the quarter. It seemed to go over well, and I was frankly surprised that we still had decent numbers for the final quarter conferences.

Christmas falls on a Friday this year, which made scheduling that break a little tricky. With input from the entire staff, it was finally decided to have the last day of school be December 23. Part of the thought process was that if parents wanted to leave that day, it’s often some wrap-up along with activities for the kids. Looking at the big picture, it was either make that a contact day or tack one on in June.

Snow days are always hit or miss. This past year worked well in that the one snow day we had was able to be made up a little over a week later on MLK Day. We’ve left that as another possible make-up day this year, along with one around Presidents Day weekend and one around Easter weekend. We’ve also cut back on scheduled two-hour late starts, down from nine to three this year, another item we heard some commentary about.

Easter has a slightly extended break this year. It fits nicely with the end of the third quarter, so the kids again have one more day off than teachers, since we’ll be in for an end-of-quarter workshop on March 24, again, unless we have to use that day to make up a snow event. The key with make-up days is that we try to keep them in the same quarter so teachers have the same amount of time to complete curriculum. If the weather terrorists stay at bay, kids will have off from March 24-28, a nice long break before the last sprint around the track. (Just wait until the following year though, when Easter falls again in the middle of April. Ugh.)

The final day of school will be June 2, with graduation falling on June 5 – plan now, parents of seniors! The calendar committee always hopes we produce the best calendar from an educational standpoint. And before long, we’ll start working on 2016-2017!

Word of the Week: This week’s word is opisthenar, which means the back of the hand, as in, “The calendar committee member wanted to give his opisthenar to the legislature for not allowing school to begin early.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

The scurs wasted no time taking credit for the warmer weather. They somehow don’t seem to take the blame for the rainy, cloudy days however. Will they own up to it this week or blame a phantom malfunction in the Weather Eye? Starting Wednesday, mostly cloudy with a good chance of morning showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Thursday, mostly sunny becoming cloudy with a slight chance of an evening shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows around 60. Partly sunny with an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Saturday, mostly cloudy with a good chance for showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the low 60’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the upper 50’s. Monday, mostly sunny with highs in the mid-70’s and lows in the mid-60’s. Mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday. Highs in the upper 70’s with lows in the mid-60’s. The normal high for June 21st, the first day of summer, is 81 and the normal low is 60. The scurs will savor every minute of the 15 hours and 28 minutes of daylight because after the summer solstice, the days will begin getting shorter. And we all know what that means.

Warmer weather has definitely been beneficial to crops and they show it. Nodal root systems on the corn continue to expand in search of nitrogen and other nutrients. Soybean rows are puffing out as they continue to move toward their reproductive stages of growth. Corn was largely V6–V8 last week with soybeans being V3–V4. Baling dry hay continues to be a major challenge when it rains every day or two, without sunshine or breezes to boot. Ditto with spraying. With heavy rains predicted last Thursday, it was like watching a bunch of ants with all the balers, sprayers and side dressing rigs moving across the landscape.

The garden at the ranch has benefitted too from the recent warmth. Vine crops are starting to sprawl and run from their original hill placement. Tomatoes actually turned green from the purple and yellow brought on by the cool cloudy weather after they were planted. The bunnies have gotten into the act, chewing off some tomatoes and messing with Mrs. Cheviot’s planters. A customer at her greenhouse job was cursing farmers as she claimed the reason there were so many rabbits in town was the pesticides being applied in the fields. I’d like to know just which pesticides these might be so I could get my hands on some as there is no shortage of the stupid rabbits here.

Birds continue to nest in abundance as well. Robins are well on their way to producing a second brood and barn swallows have eggs in their nest in the lambing barn. One pair apparently has been desperately trying to make a nest over the living room window. On the upper portion of the window frame, it looks like someone has been sticking little wads of Blackjack gum. One of these days it will be time to get out the carwash brush and clean their mess off.

The sheep are loving life with all the lush grass resulting from the frequent rains and moderate temperatures. Belly deep in the grass, some of them even grunt like pigs they have become so plump. We get lots of comments from people who commute daily by the ranch, frequently about the lone black sheep in the group at home. They do stick out in a flock of entirely white sheep to be sure and give people something to talk about apparently.

There’s nothing wrong with being different. Sometimes I think it’s been a recurring theme in my existence. Oh sure, we had IH tractors and equipment growing up, plus Dad was a Buick guy. But we didn’t always have the same things the neighbors had. For instance, not many folks had Co-op or Cockshutt tractors or a Studebaker car. When we were kids I remember spending hours poring over some old car magazines an older cousin had left for us to look at. One couldn’t help ogling the Studebaker Hawks, and even the fish-mouth Packard Hawk was very unique. As mentioned before, Dad knew what he was doing when he bought the Lark VI for us kids to drive to and from school. It was basic transportation and not powerful enough to get many speeding tickets. That experience got Studebaker into my blood however.

Fast forward to last fall: I spotted a restored ’59 Studebaker Silver Hawk in an ad in Turning Wheels, the official monthly magazine of the Studebaker Driver’s Club. The car was in the St. Louis area. I contacted the owner by e-mail and asked some questions about it. It was getting to be late October though and I had contracted the alien, so was unable to take it much further than that. The next month the ad was gone so I assumed the car had been sold. Not so fast. About a month ago I was perusing the ads again and I spotted a car that looked familiar. Was it the same one? I punched the e-mail address into my e-mail search and sure enough, it was a match. I sent more questions and received more positive responses. Should I go take a look at it even though there is still a ways to go on the Lark? Mrs. Cheviot said, “Go for it.” She liked the looks of the car and it would give us a head start on the leaf watching and cruising to the A&W in our hometown, Spring Valley, before completing the restoration on the Lark.

I enlisted the services of Vista’s noted Swedish astronomer, my consultant to the stars for spiritual advice and his trailer and away we went. We arrived at our destination and the car and the owners were just as advertised from our communications. We were invited in for lunch and after a test drive, we negotiated a deal. They were glad the car was going to a good home and I was ecstatic to finally have one of my dream cars. Best of all I had the approval of the noted Swedish astronomer. Then we got dessert! A homemade cake dish made with angel food cake, strawberries, blackberries and whipped cream. Absolutely incredible. We loaded the classic car on the trailer and after saying our good byes, we headed back north. In the meantime I’d called my insurance agent informing her of my purchase. Earlier I’d sent some photos. She loved the photos and her reply was that her grandpa and grandma had owned a car almost identical to it. Swell. Here I thought I was buying a chick magnet. Instead, I’d punched my ticket to old fart-hood. 

See you next week…real good then.

Remembering the life of Shirley A. Burton..

Memorial services for Shirley A. Burton of Albert Lea, formerly of Blooming Prairie and New Richland, will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 21, at the First Congregational Church of New Richland. The Reverend Kent Otterman will officiate.  Interment will be in LeSueur River Lutheran Cemetery. Friends may visit with family from 4-7 p.m. on Saturday at, Friedrich Funeral Home, New Richland,  and one hour before the service at the church.

Shirley died on Monday, June 15, 2015 at Good Samaritan Society in Albert Lea. She was 62.

She was born on January 15, 1953, in Albert Lea, the daughter of Ralph and Margella (Bakken) Besser.

Community Lutheran in Geneva will offer "Campfire Worship" services this summer, starting Wednesday, June 17, at 7 p.m.

These unique worship services will provide you an opportunity to worship our Lord, especially if you will be unable to attend the regular morning worship services on Sunday.

Bring your lawn chairs to the back parking lot of the church and sit back and enjoy the outdoor worship service, which will include some great camp songs.

And we can't forget the marshmallows. Pastor Kristin will have a campfire ready for roasting marshmallows at the parsonage.

One and all are invited.

It worked so well the first time, they’re doing it again.

There will be another volunteer day at the historic hotel building — future home of the Area Food Shelf of New Richland and the New Richland Area Historical Society —  Saturday, June 20 from 9 a.m. to noon.

Plans are to move lumber, drywall, insulation, some cabinets and do some scraping around windows.

Needed are saws, all battery operated if possible, gloves and a lot of energy.

NRHEG Schools Superintendent Dr. Dennis Goodwin has announced his resignation, asking to be released as of June 30. Action will be approved at tonight’s (June 15) board meeting.

Dr. Goodwin had little comment about his action or its relation to the failure of the recent bond referendum.

“I’ve enjoyed the last two years here a great deal,” he told the Star Eagle. “I’m moving in order to be closer to my children and grandchildren.”

Goodwin has accepted a position in Arizona.

NRHEG school board chairman Rick Schultz told the Star Eagle, “We will probably be contacting the Minnesota School Board Association for assistance in acquiring a (temporary) replacement.”

A work session will be called in which the board will decide what action to take. The actual search for a permanent replacement will be discussed at that time.

“Of course we’re interested in finding someone who wants to stay here,” Schultz said.

Look for more details to be revealed at tonight’s board meeting and published in this week’s Star Eagle.

NRHEG presented its 2015 spring sports awards at the recent ceremony in the high school gym.

Named Outstanding Senior Athletes were Spencer Tollefson, Trevor Tracy and Anna Stork.

Other award winners, by sport:

Baseball

• MVP — Tracy

• Golden Bat — John Hubly

• Gold Glove — Hubly

• Golden Arm — Tracy

• Panther Award — Tracy

• All-conference — Hubly, Tracy

• Captains — Tracy, Matt Jensen

On the last day of school, the students in Jenny Stoesz’s Precalculus class finally got word that they are the 2014-2015 Minnesota State TrigStar Champions.

Sixteen schools from around the state participated in the trigonometry contest that awards scholarships and prizes at the local, state, and national level. The NRHEG team won the local contest in Mankato on March 13 with the highest overall local team average score on the one hour, one hundred point exam. The state title is awarded to the school with the highest cumulative point total of the top 10 team members. NRHEG will receive the engraved state traveling trophy to display in school next year.

Individually, there were 250 students who participated in the TrigStar competition statewide.

NRHEG students Eli Lutgens and Torrie Stencel, finished second and third in the state rankings, respectively. For his second-place finish, Eli will receive $250 and a silver medal. Torrie will receive $200 and a bronze medal. The first-place winner from each state moves onto the national competition. Congratulations to all of the TrigStar team members on their state title!