Say What?

I think I may have said this before: the thought of Rachel leaving for college (in just a few days) is bittersweet. Tammy and I are excited for her but it's happening all too quickly. Many of her friends have already departed so it's unusually quiet around our home. The upside is that we're getting more time with her before she leaves. In fact, the two of us spent the evening at Valley Fair together last night while Tammy was working in the office. We had fun reminiscing about coming to the park when she was younger and even before I was ever in her life. She told me about the time she fell out of one of the bumper boats when she was maybe six years old. I'd heard the story before but I didn't mind hearing it again. We laughed and wondered how that could've happened? My new favorite ride: the Renegade. Awesome, especially when it's dark and difficult to see the next bend in the track. The Extreme Swing is also a favorite and probably does the best job of t...

It's been a week of getting in touch with several people I worked with as a specialist at the Flight Service Station in Huron, SD early in my career with the FAA. It began a week ago when Scott and Judy stopped by. They're both specialists at the Flight Service Station in Princeton, MN about 75 miles to the north. Neither are employed with the FAA anymore since their jobs were contracted out to Lockheed Martin a few years ago. Scott and I worked together for a two years in Huron before I transfered to where I am today. Scott has had a love of Corvettes for the 28 years I've known him. His newest (2008) is by far nicer than any other he's owned. We used to golf a lot together. We were competitive with each other and usually enjoyed ourselves most when the other was duffing a shot. A typical remark was something along the line of, "oh, that's unfortunate" then a biting of the lip to keep from laughing knowing full well that the favor would be returned b...

When I had to have Snickers put down several years ago after 15 years of loyal companionship, it was the most difficult thing I'd ever done, and still is. I remember driving home from an after-hours vet in Golden Valley at 3:00AM barely able to see the road through a blur of tears. I came back from a ride a few days ago and Tammy told me that her good friend Sue had to have her dog Emma put down. She read for me an email that Sue had sent her. It was a poem she'd just written about Emma and I listened as Tammy fought back tears reading it to me. Susan does such a beautiful job of capturing all of the small details that define Emma and many of our dogs' character. Thank you, Sue, for allowing me to reprint your words. For Emma, my dog, April 1993 - August 11, 2011 My Little Em That hippity hoppity happiness, you brought when you pranced through my door That piddity paddity paw print, you left on my kitchen floor Your fantastic, fanatic, war...

I attended my 35-year high school reunion over the weekend. It was a quickly arranged get-together but still, maybe a tenth of our class of 700+ was there. I've only made it to one other reunion and that was 10 years ago when my neighbor who was on the planning committee guilted me into going. Both reunions were painless although I couldn't help but go into each with a little trepidation. That feeling usually fades after a conversation or two and the realization that it isn't high school anymore. I was living in Huron, SD for our 10th reunion and had forgotten about it until I saw it mentioned on Johnny Carson; no kidding. I had the TV on in our apartment where I lived with my first wife on the south side of town. The blonde actress Johnny was interviewing mentioned that she was attending her 10 year high school reunion that weekend in Bloomington, MN. That piqued my interest because it was the same weekend as mine. I stopped whatever I was doing to pay close attention an...

I was out in the yard Friday night when I saw Rachel leave in her car. I got a text message a few minutes later saying "at sams". I responded, "OK thanks" and didn't think much more of it. We're glad that she tells us where she's at but Tammy and I are both at a point where we don't feel a need to keep close tabs on her. Still, we're glad she clues us in. I got an excited call from her less than two hours later prefaced with a confession: "Um...we're in Rochester". Before I could say anything she was telling me how they were there to see Mat Kearney who was playing a very-little-notice concert and that they actually got their picture taken with him. They were 45 minutes late for his show and running up the steps of a community college where he was playing in a small auditorium when they realized that Mat and his entourage were just ahead of them. He was late too but happy to accommodate them. The concert was free and part of an...

This is a continuation of a series of writings about my time in the Navy. The first in this series of posts can be found here or go here for the most recent. 2nd week of December 1979. (5 days to go) Jack was strumming his guitar down in our compartment.  There was a song he'd occasionally play that he wrote with a friend which I liked a lot and I asked him if I could hear it one last time. I got out my Panasonic tape player and recorded him. The Whale Song Stan put together a small going away party for me at his apartment a few nights before I left for home. Not that we needed any special reason to get together for beer but it was nice of him. I commented in my journal how some of the talk that night was about the speculation of a coming recession and the prospects for jobs. It's possible I was observing the successes of Navy career counselors doing their best to retain sailors nearing the end of their enlistment but a recession did, in fact, loom just around the co...

11 years gets by much too quickly. Tammy and I celebrated our 11th anniversary at Jax Cafe' in Northeast Minneapolis Thursday night. I can't begin to express the richness and love that both she and Rachel have brought to my life. Dr Laura would never have given us the green light to marry considering how little time we knew each other when we married and because Tammy was a single parent whose primary focus was raising Rachel. I am forever grateful that we listened to our hearts. Tammy was in the office yesterday and I had nothing much on my to-do list so after getting a late morning start I spent most of the day on my bike taking a route I hadn't been on in a few years. My main escape to the northwest (McColl Dr) is under construction so I'm left with county rd 42 or highway 13. I hadn't had my bike on 42 in a while and I probably won't again for another long while, at least not on a Saturday morning. There's way too many people pushing and shoving their...