Say What?

I was in Fleet Farm last week when the guy running the register for the line I was checking out in said "Hi, Kevin" before it was even my turn to pay for my things. Hmmm...do I know him?  I wondered as I studied his face. A quick but obvious glance at his name tag followed. Hey, Doug, how are you? He looked familiar but I was thinking he was someone other than who he was. Then he mentioned my x-wife and it dawned on me who he actually was. It had been probably close to 25 years since I had last seen Doug. Both his wife and my former wife are Thai and we'd occasionally get together. I'm not sure I'd have recognized him if he hadn't made the connection first. We chatted just a bit before he had to resume his work and I walked out to my car. I was back in Fleet Farm a few days ago (it's my most frequented store) and made a point of checking out in Doug's line again. He asked if I had time for a rather "funny request". I said sure . His wife a...

I knew I'd eventually come around to thinking what I've heard from so many retirees before me: how did I ever accomplish all that stuff I did and still work a 40 hour week? I look back on all I used to do in the course of a week and I can't help but be impressed. But I do not want to go back to those days. This new routine is much more reasonable and appealing although it does at times lack in its ability to leave me with a sense of accomplishment. I'll manage. The sun sets so early now that there's little time to waste even in the morning putzing online or whatever because the afternoon soon arrives followed by darkness all too quickly. I spent the weekend working outside putting up holiday lights and mowing the lawn one last time to vacuum up leaves.  I'm pretty happy with the progress I made. The mowers have been washed and put away and I've got the snowblower positioned in its winter spot in the garage ready for use. Bring on the snow! I posted thi...

That little fall I took off my bike in the video I posted  last week proved to be more problematic than it may have looked. I suffered bruised ribs and the pain I experienced only worsened over the next few days to the point where I went to the ER at Ridges Hospital Sunday night out of concern that I had developed a clot and was experiencing another PE (pulmonary embolism). I wasn't.  The nurse practitioner didn't think I had anything to worry about with respect to another PE because I'm anticoagulated so she ordered an x-ray to check for a punctured lung. The results were negative and as we were discussing the findings I mentioned my Factor V condition as being the reason for my increased concern. She said she didn't realize I was Factor V (I mentioned it to the person checking me in) and ordered a CT scan. She said a Factor V situation changes her protocol. The CT scan was clear and I was relieved. I texted Tammy to put her mind at ease. A little after midnight (4 h...

I hate colds! Tammy has been dealing with one for the past week so I knew I too would soon be. It always plays out the same for me—one minute I'm fine and the next I can feel a sore throat coming on. After a day the sore throat is gone and the sneezing, coughing, and congestion take over. They're such a waste of time. I got together with some retired controllers a few days ago. I met Jeff Ofthsun, Ed Whitman, and Dan Abbene at Red Cross in St Paul where they were donating blood. They get together once every couple of months, donate blood then go out to lunch together. Jeff has a list of restaurants on a folded piece of paper that he's crossing off as they visit them. They offered up a few choices to consider and had me choose. I picked Burger Moe's . It was a nice enough day that we could comfortably sit outside on the patio. Not bad for November! No photo of us all. Perhaps next time. Time passes so quickly. Jeff has been retired for over 8 years, Ed for about 6 an...