25 September 2024

Life on the Eights

 Last week I became 68 years old. Three score and eight. My grandaddy always said "I just want my three score and ten, like it says in the Bible" He got a lot more than that.

Anyway, looking back on the eights, here goes. Roughly as I told it to my kids and their kids after blowing out 68 candles (true). 

When I was eight it was 1964. I lived in Pensacola.  3rd grade. Had a younger brother who was almost six, and a new baby brother. I think my dreams/plans in life were vaguely to 1) be a good Christian 2) Have a good family 3)Not be poor 4)Be somebody. 5) Play for the New York Yankees. Simple difficult goals. 

When I was 18 it was 1974 and I had graduated from HS and moved to St. Petersburg Florida. Sacked groceries at Publix in the Northeast Shopping Center. Started college in early 75. 

From 74-84 I sold Kirby vacuum cleaners door to door. Sold Bibles and kids books door to door. Sacked groceries. Ran a gas station at night. Maintenance crew and dining room crew in college. Landscaping. Day Camp Counselor. Sold Iinsurance. Sold Investments. 

In 1984 I was 28 and one of the toughest periods of my life, thus far, was over. The Dark Years were past. I had written my last hot check. There was a little money in the bank and I owned my first house. Finally found something I could do, which was investment stuff. Started by selling it, later managed it. I was married and my oldest child was four. This was the year I paid off my $2000 student loan, $30 at a time. Doesn't seem like much until you're three months behind and the college is getting ready to turn you over to a collection agency. I was very involved in numerous political campaigns. 

In 1994 I was 38 and lived in St. Louis. My wife Robin and I now have three children. Daughter 14, son 8, daughter 2. A good happy time. My maternal grandparents and my parents were still alive. I had earned a difficult professional designation and had some letters after my name on my business card. Since 1984 a man I knew had been elected President and I had been a delegate to the national convention of our shared political party. Robin and I went to a Christmas party at the White House.  Around this time I stopped my political stuff and focused on family and career. The Soviet Union, that nemesis that had me scurrying under my desk in grammar school, was no more

In 2004 I was 48 and lived in Minneapolis. Career events I did not anticipate sent me north. It was wonderful, eventually. By this time my grandparents and my father had died. My oldest daughter was in Law School. my son was in college and my youngest daughter was in middle school. I was traveling a lot for work and for a professional organization of the investment world. 

In 2014 I was 58 and lived outside Minneapolis, on a lake and thinking about retirement. My son was married and I was a grandfather. My youngest brother had just finished year one of a five year war against cancer. 

In 2024 I am 68. My three children are all happily married. I have 5 grandchildren. I am even more happily married than my children for I have been able to convince a wonderful woman to stay with me for 45 years!!! I have joined the Catholic Church. I am retired. I play the banjo. My youngest brother has died of cancer (One might say the cancer beat him. Welcomed into the glory of his heavenly Father, I doubt he would put it that way.) As I write this I am canning green beans from my garden. 





07 September 2024

College Football. Weekend Two

 It feels odd. Watching employees of the State of Michigan play football against employees of the State of  Texas. Doesn't sound much fun does it? The day is early but all the lead-up to this seems out of place, out of time. 

The old conference structure is gone. Replaced by one that will not last nearly as long as the one it replaced. 

Money has a way of pushing things around. It disrupts, in both good ways and bad. The employees will make demands. The marketplace will make demands. The state will make concessions, for a time. 

Will we still be able to pretend this is "best for the student-athelete"? Probably not. 

Then it will blow up. 

On the street

I see cargo trailers and pickup trucks in front of a house on the street. 

Furniture is loaded into trailers as it is carried out of the house. Perhaps it belonged to one of the people who lived there. 

A man and a woman once lived there together. They don't anymore. They decided to stop having lives in the same building. So they didn't really live together, they sort of declined together. 

On the side of a trailer is the name of a wedding planning company. 

27 August 2024

The Thing: What I saw in Nashville

 A hobo on a park bench reading The Wizard of OZ. 

Some boots owned by Hank Williams Sr.

The grave of Johnny Paycheck 

05 August 2024

The Miracle I Saw in Omaha

I saw a basket of wafers and a carafe of wine become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our risen Lord. Jesus Christ. 

Yes, indeed. 

Truly, Truly. 

A basket of wafers and a carafe of wine became, before my eyes, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ. 

Sunday morning August 4. 740 am. Holy Cross Catholic Church. Omaha. 

14 April 2024

Eclipse

 Saw the eclipse on April 8th. Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Amazing. No clouds. Clear sky. Totality for 4+ minutes. 

The advice on viewing was constant. 'Don't look at it or you'll go blind". This is true but something in me wanted to look at it, just to be sure. And so did my four year old grandson, Ben. Like his granddad, he did sneak a peek, but just a quick one and survived, as did I. 

Something about the way that advice is given. You are only told not to stare at the sun when an eclipse is upcoming. I guess that means that we assume people are smart enough on normal days, but somehow turn stupid under the power of the eclipse. 

On a bright sunny day, Moms of the current age might call out to their kids, "put on sunscreen", "don't stay out too long", "drink plenty of water", (in the 60s they said none of these) but she will never cry "Don't Stare at the Sun!!!"

12 April 2024

A Gift from a two year old

 Johanna - This week you let me put you to bed. I wanted to and you did not object. What I really expected was for you to point to your Grandmother. Almost always this is what your brother and cousins would do. But you just went to my arms as if this was the most normal thing. We read both nights, The Lady with the Aligator Purse and Fox in Sox. Each three times. 

The most wonderful part was when it came time to rock you and sing to you. You nestled in my arms as I sang Jesus Loves Me, over and over. I thought of all the times I had held my own children in this wondrous routine. I felt your love and trust and comfort in my arms. I don't have good words for this. To be at your home, to be surrounded by one you trust and have the beginnings of this feeling we call love. To know the comfort that comes when fully cradled in the arms of a grandfather. 

Perhaps it will not happen in this life, but there will come a time when I will once again know this peace. I have long forgotten what this is like, but if there is any good in me, the seeds were planted at times like this. When my Dad, or my Grandad, or my mother held me. When my whole world loved me. It will come again. 

18 March 2024

The things I do when my wife is out for the week

 1. Put dishes in the dishwasher without washing them first

2. Set the thermostat where I want it

3. Keep the TV on hoops all day

4. Leave house with the TV on

5. Watch Sharknado 2

6. Turn the living room into a banjo studio/sports center

7. Refreeze meat I've thawed to cook and then changed my mind

8. Eat her snacks

9. Drink too much coffee

10. Shave on the couch while watching hoops

11. Miss her

27 January 2024

Retail Revisited

Fourteen years ago I wrote a post about places I liked to shop. It's interesting how things, tastes and places changed. 

The 2010 list

Gander Mountain         Costco
Macy's                          Dunn Brothers Coffee
Amazon.com                QT
Bachman's                    Fleet Farm
Tim Horton's                Cracker Barrel 
Valley Park Hardware  Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard

The 2024 List

Costco                         Amazon.com
Nordstrom                   Filson
Aldi                             Cracker Barrel    
Ace Hardware             Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard
QT



05 January 2024

Right at the start

I don't always know right from wrong. Or perhaps better said, I don't always know grey from right or grey from wrong. There are some things I did in my early life, particularly in business, that I had to learn were wrong. I thought they seemed neutral. Some matters that I thought were grey areas I later learned were not. They were not big things, but more technical matters related to my profession. 

There are other human behaviours, that from the time I first heard of them, seemed wrong. They still hold. Almost everthing I thought was wrong when the child me first heard of them, was indeed wrong and twisted. That first impression, that gut sense, stuck with me - even when I was an adult and tried to rationalize them away. When I ponder whether a particular act is morally right or wrong, I find I often revert to a very simple question, "When you first heard of this act, what did you think?"

Before I was old enough to know the difference between political parties and philosophies, my first impressions ruled. That gut reaction. As I look back its remarkable how the instinct of me the child was nearly always the one I still hold, or have returned to, in my later years. I believe that is a grace of God poured out on his youngest children who are raised in homes that believe in Him. This is a personal belief, not necessarily a theological truth. 


02 January 2024

Cities 2023

Not much in the way of travel this past year. The places where I spent the night were mostly in my home country.  Victoria, MN, MIami, Fl, Belize City, Belize, Webster Groves, MO, Minneapolis, MN, Coralville, IA, Steubenville, OH, Hickory, NC, Roan Mountain, TN, Duluth, MN. 

Books read in 2023

Below is the list of books I read in 2023. I think the best indicator of whether I found them of value is if I kept them. This doesn't mean I liked them, though that is usually the case. There were a couple I didn't like but think I may read again, or want to keep as a reference. There were some books that I really liked but do not think I will ever read again. Basically, it's all over the map. The ones marked with an asterisk are still in my possession. The others are at Goodwill. At the bottom of this list is a couple of best and worst thoughts. 

Margaret Thatcher Vol 1: Not for Turning - Moore*
Margaret Thatcher Vol 2: At Her Zenith - Moore*
Margaret Thatcher Vol 3: Herself Alone - Moore*
Red Rubber, King Leopold II's Regime: The Belgian Slave Trade in the Congo 1890-1910 - Morel
Spark of Life: A Novel of Resistance - Remarque
The Congo Free State: The History and Legacy of the Colony - River
Light of Assisi: The Story of Saint Clare - Carney
Patrice Lumumba: The Life and Legacy of Congo's First Prime Minister - River
True Compass: A Memoir - Kennedy*
Fear: Trump in the White House - Woodward
Rage - Woodward
The Holy Bible (12th or so reading): NRSVCE*
The Room Where It Happened - Bolton
By What Authority? An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition (3rd reading)- Shea*
Will you miss me when I'm gone? The Carter Family and their Legacy in American Music - Zwonitzer
The Broker - Grisham
Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World - Wallace
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir - Thomas
The Dark Side of Camelot - Hersh
No Silent Night: The Christmas Battle for Bastogne - Barron and Cygan*
700 Sundays - Crystal
M Train - Smith
The Civil War, Vol 1:Fort Sumter to Perryville - Foote (3rd reading)*
White Fragility - Diangelo*
The Laws of Brainjo: The Art and Science of molding a musical mind - Turknett*
The Civil War, Vol 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian - Foote (3rd Reading)*
The Practice of the Presence of God (5th reading) - Lawrence*
The Saint Monica Club: How to Wait, Hope and Pray for Your Fallen Away Loved Ones - Green (4th Reading)*
The Civil War, Vol 3 (Red River to Appomattox) - Foote (3rd Reading)*
Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis - McGreevy
The Power Broker - Caro
A Reporter's Life - Cronkite
White Fragility (Second Reading) - Diangelo*
The Return of George Washington: Uniting the States, 1783-1789 - Larson
The John Lennon Letters - Davies
Father Augustus Tolton - Burke-Sivers
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet - Cameron*
This is my Body : A call to Eucharistic Revival - Barron*
The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales - Sacks
Africa and the Early Church, The Almost Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity - Aquilina
Holy Is His Name - Hahn
Love Unveiled: The Catholic Faith Explained - Sri*

Books I gave away and now regret. 
Will you miss me when I'm gone. 
Countdown 1945. 
Spark of Life. 

Just didn't like em
Father Augustus Tolton 
700 Sundays 
The John Lennon Letters

Will likely read again

White Fragility. Very poorly written but for well or ill the book has given me some things to chew on. Still mentally digesting it.  

M Train. Patti Smith just bowled me over. I picked this up on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. What a gifted woman. 

The Civil War. Had I not just finished it I would pick it up now. 

The Holy Bible. Almost every day.