GaryOsberg.com

Good morning from Collegeville, 

It is a “10” on the weather chart today in central Minnesota.  I love this early spring.  The pink tulips that I planted on Barby’s patio are starting to bloom.  The ones in Upsala are getting too much shade, but they try anyway.  I hope to get at the garden on Sunday. 

I have a signed purchase agreement on the little yellow house in Upsala and all we need now is for the financing to go through.  That will be a relief. 

Yesterday I attended the funeral of Jim Gilbertson, a friend who I usually saw only twice a year.   Nine couples would set up camp every year on Cedar Lake west of Upsala to celebrate the 4th of July.  We did this from 1974 until 1988.  In 1976 there were 13 rigs, from a two man pup tent to a 35 foot motor home with a color TV.  The pup tent belonged to my brother Geoff.  Jim and his wife Delores brought the motor home with the color TV. 

The group was a blend of city folks and Upsala folks.  Jim was a friend of a fellow that lived in Mpls but had grandparents that lived in Upsala.  Larry and Jim both married girls from Upsala and broke the hearts of a lot of Upsala boys.  Later on we also started to go to the Holiday Inn in St. Cloud on the second weekend in February.  When we started this tradition we had to sneak the food and beverages into the hotel, since the policy of the hotel was no food in the rooms.  They wanted you to eat at their restaurant and use their vending machines.  Now if you go to the Holiday Inn on any weekend in the winter time, the halls around the pools are laid out like a smorgasbord.  Jim was a good old boy who ended up running JR’s with his wife Dee in Ramsey.  He served as the Mayor of Ramsey and loved life.  He will be greatly missed.  I am sure that the “celebration of life” in the dining hall behind JR’s went on for a long time yesterday.

The show this week is a live performance from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey.  It is the 10th annual Talent Tee-Off.  Five lucky bands will get their shot at national bragging rights and the coveted Silver Water Tower trophy, based purely on the listener response both inside the venue and live on the internet.  Special guests include Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks plus the usual gang.  Enjoy the show and enjoy the weather.

“I have never seen a man or a woman who could do real work except under the stimulus of encouragement and enthusiasm and the approval of the people for whom he or she is working.”  Charles M. Schwab