My family is chock-full of military veterans, including myself, thus the word “VA” is a readily recognized acronym. My first living memory of the VA Hospital was Fargo, 1946, where my Grandpa Bernard (Spanish-American War) had his leg removed (diabetes related). He was 74 then, which happens to be my present age…. In 1957, Grandpa […]
COMMENTS INVITED, both on-line and in e-mail form. Will be added at the end of the post. Sometimes life brings fascinating surprises. Some weeks ago a lady was photocopying something next to me at FedEx, it looked interesting, and I took the bait. It was a tour of the life and times of General William […]
These posts will continue at approximately one per week till the November 4 election. #1 is here. Thursday I was at a meeting that included my State Legislative Representative, Joann Ward, MN District 53A. I asked, off the cuff, how many people live in your District; and how many households (“doors”) there are. Population: 37 […]
Originally published as #889 on May 28. A couple of days ago, daughter Lauri stopped by and noticed: (click to enlarge) Of course, it’s spring in Minnesota, and the State Flower this time of year is the Dandelion, and the Barbary Bush that is aggressively protecting it is very prickly. So, what to do? Besides, […]
RELEVANT ADDITION TO THIS POST, added May 29, Just Above Sunset, here. UPDATE to May 26 post, first paragraph, here. NOTE: Previous 889, Dad’s Flower, will be 890 for May 29, 2014 (click on photos to enlarge them) Today, President Obama speaks at West Point. The previous days he’s been in Afghanistan and at the […]
UPDATE May 27, 2014: Here’s a Facebook album of photos I took at the Veterans for Peace Memorial Day observance at the MN State Capitol Vietnam Memorial yesterday. A very worthwhile summary of the tension which seems to surround the Memorial Day observances (Pro-War or Pro-Peace) can be found here. It is long, but very […]
NOTE: The “Filing Cabinet” for items regarding the Minnesota Orchestra Lockout, including far more than past posts, can be found here. Supplements to the below post can be found at May 25, 2014, at the end of the Filing Cabinet. Feb 14, 2014, very shortly after the lock-out ended, I wrote a brief e-mail to […]
(click to enlarge photos) Tuesday morning we laid Aunt Edith to rest in the St. John’s Cemetery in tiny Berlin ND. Seven family members were there, including Edith’s brother, our Uncle Vince, whose entire 89 years had been spent with his sister, who was 93 when she died February 12, 2014. The next morning I […]
(click on photos to enlarge. blurriness in closeups is free of charge…teachers are animated, hard to catch quiet!) Tuesday night found me in Andover MN, across the table from Robbyn, a lady whose name tag identified her as teaching at Roosevelt Middle School in Blaine. The name tag brought me face-to-face with my own history: […]
My coffee mate Steve and I usually quietly occupy our respective corners by the front window at Woodbury Caribou Coffee. Today he suddenly whipped around to watch the action on the sidewalk the other side of the window. As action goes, what we saw outside wasn’t much. A guy was by with one of those […]