April 15th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
The trip to Arizona was wonderful. Sun City West is a very special place. To be able to walk out in the backyard and pick an orange off of a tree, peel it and eat it on the patio with the juice dripping down your chin, ahh! , it doesn’t get any better than that.
A fellow that helped me to win my one and only run for public office called me on my cell and the four of us met for breakfast at a golf course cafe. When I started going door to door in the 3rd ward of Coon Rapids, I met a fellow working in his yard. I knew that my opponent lived in the neighborhood and the stern look on Loren’s face led me to believe that he was going to give me a tough time for trying to defeat his current councilman. On the contrary, Loren was more than willing to help me to win the election. He and his wife Mary became good friends. The last time I saw them was at my son’s wedding in 2001. The internet is a wonderful tool.
On the way to Sedona we stopped in Anthem to have lunch with Mary and Roger. Mary had my job in Rochester and like my sister, they also have a child who moved to Arizona hence they bought a retirement home. They really stole it, but the price of homes in that area are a good deal for now. Roger says that there are more good deals to be made in Anthem.
Sedona was beautiful and you really should put “Visit Sedona, Arizona” on your bucket list. The stay at The Lodge At Sedona was special as usual. We left Sedona on Thursday morning and on Saturday, Highway 179 from the freeway in to Sedona was closed due to snow.
The show this week is a live broadcast from the historic Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include the Portsmouth progenitor of Blues, Folk and Country Music, Tom Rush and the usual cast of characters. Enjoy the show.
In case you missed the broadcast of Midday when Garrison interviewed John Thorn about baseball, you can listen on the APHC website,
www.prairiehome.org Of course you also can pick up last weeks show in case you missed that.
“What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult to each other?” George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) 1819-1880
April 1st, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
This is taken from today’s The Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor. It says it all. To subscribe go to
www.writersalmanac.com
| |
| |
Long Winter
by Tim Nolan
So much I’ve forgotten: the grass, the birds,the close insects the shoot—the drip—the spray of the sprinkler, freckles—strawberries— the heat of the Sun, the impossible humidity
the flush of your face, so much, the high noon, the high grass
the patio ice cubes, the barbeque, the buzz of them—
the insects,the weeds—the dear weeds—that grow
like alien life forms—all Dr. Suessy and odd—
here we go again¬—we are turning around
again—this will all happen over again—and again—it will—
“Long Winter” by Timothy J. Nolan. Reprinted with permission of the author.
|
Barby and I are going to Arizona tomorrow. We will be visiting my sister and her husband in Sun City West and The Lodge At Sedona. I am so much looking forward to some warmth and sun. There will not be a note next week.
The show this week is live from the historic Broadway Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include traveling Tennessee troubadour Justin Townes Earle and gospel singer Jearlyn Steele. Enjoy the show.
“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
March 29th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
Wild horses could not have kept me from the Williams Arena yesterday to cheer the Upsala Cardinals on in their first trip to The State Tournament in the schools history, but a kidney stone did. Passing a kidney stone is the closest that a man can get to feeling the pain of child birth. Dr. Matsuura says that there is no evidence of any more stones in my kidneys, but I feel like I have been in a car wreck. I am very familiar with that feeling, having been involved in a number of car wrecks in my youth, a total of 7 if you count the time that the ’54 Chevy rolled into a tree at Cedar Lake while we were necking.
The boys did not prevail over the Springfield Tigers, but we are very proud of them anyway. I wish that I could tell you when the welcome home gathering is going to be, but I was not able to get that information this morning.
The show this week is a live broadcast from The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Special guests include the prolific Emmylou Harris, bluegrass madman Sam Bush and master fiddler Stuart Duncan. Former host Sara Watkins and the hip Tennessee duo The Civil Wars will add to the fun. Enjoy the show.
“Think of the poorest person you have ever seen and ask if your next act will be of any use to him”. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
March 18th, 2011 by admin
Good sunny morning from Collegeville,
It is still nippy, but we did hit 51 degrees this week. I am sooo happy to see spring is on its way. I feel for those who are going to have to put up with rising water. Let us hope for the best.
I celebrated my 10th birthday on a ship on the Atlantic ocean on the way home from a stint in the Army. My dad was a Sergeant in the 5th Army stationed in Vienna, Austria. I had quite the summer tan, since the trip took almost two weeks. I remember how embarrassed I was when my mother pulled my pants down to show the tan line to Auntie. My dashound Mickey came home by air, but the rest of the family had to take the ship. My first glimpse of television came when my sister and I stuck our heads in a bar in Grand Central Station in New York.
When I started fifth grade in Upsala I was getting around on crutches due to a car accident. I was able to go up the old wooden stairs at school alright, but coming down for the very first time, I swung out on my crutches and tumbled down the stairs. It is a wonder that I did not break my neck too. The basketball heros then included Dave Holmen and the Anderson boys.
Tonight the Upsala boys basketball team will play for the championship in Crosby/Ironton. If they beat McGregor they will go on to the state tournament for the first time ever. Vern Capelle has been the coach of the Cardinals for many years and I am sure that he had a hard time sleeping last night. I hope that the boys can pull if off.
The show this weekend is the last springtime compilation before the the run of live shows kicks off next Saturday in Nashville. Special guests include Raul Melo singing Puccini’s “Che Gelida Manina, Nellie McKay and Brad Paisley plus the usual cast of characters. In the News From Lake Wobegon, Darlene at the Chatter Box Cafe gets a little racy. Enjoy the show.
Next Saturday is the annual Freedom Flight and Honor Flight Fundraiser Raffle and Steak Fry at the VFW Granite Post 428 on 18th Avenue in St. Cloud. For details and to purchase raffle tickets call Luke at 654-1156.
“The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else.. we are the busiest people in the world.” Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)
March 11th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
I heard my first Cardinal call yesterday, but it was not back this morning. It is a very good sign. The temps are going to dip tomorrow and then next week we will have a melt. I love it when a plan comes together.
I brought an old friend home from the hospital yesterday. Mr. Regulator was at the clock hospital. Doc Dom had assisted in getting him back on his feet. The regulator had once belonged to my Dad’s Grandmother Dokken in French Lake. I am not sure when my Dad’s mother Anna inherited it, but it hung in Grandma Anna’s kitchen on the farm outside of Upsala until the late 80’s. The steady beat of the clock and the mournful chime was a source of joy. It still reminds me of country lunches in the summer time which happened mid morning and mid afternoon. Ginger snap cookies, fresh milk and the smell of barn clothes hanging in the entrance way.
Anna passed before her husband Francis Johnson, so the clock moved from the farm kitchen to an apartment in Upsala and then when Francis died in 1988, Dad took the clock to his apartment in a high rise in downtown Saint Paul. In 1998 Dad and the clock moved in with me in the old Parsonage house in Upsala. Now it sits on the kitchen counter in a loft in downtown Saint Joseph. The gentle chime did not wake me once.
I have often wondered how a movie by Steven King written from the eyes of a video camera inside of the clock would play out. What stories that clock must have witnessed while staring at the kitchen table in all those settings the way that it is now.
The show this week is a special Saint Patrick’s Day compilation. Special guests include Martin Sheen, the late Frank Harte, Sean O’Driscoll, Cathal McConnell and The Boys of the Lough. Grab your hankie for a ” Danny Boy” sing-along.
Enjoy the show.
The Ring of Kerry is having a CD release concert at The Paramount Theater in downtown Saint Cloud tomorrow night at 7:30. Tickets are available at the door or by calling 259-LINE or at
www.paramountarts.org
“Good judgment come from experience and often experience comes from bad judgment.” Rita Mae Brown
March 4th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
William Harley Osberg celebrated his second birthday yesterday. The big party is not until March 19th at the cabin, but he had a cake at home last night. I wish that I could have been there. Next year we will celebrate his “golden birthday”. I am thinking of doing the Holiday Inn pool party thing at the St. Cloud Holiday Inn & Suites like we used to do every winter.
We had a lake place in the seventies and every year we would invite a bunch of classmates and their families to camp on the beach and celebrate the Fourth of July. It started in 1974 and went on until we moved to Charlotte, NC in 1988. In 1976 we had thirteen rigs from a two-man pup tent all the way up to a 35 foot motor home with a color TV. Ronnie would bring his converted school bus the weekend before the 4th and stay until the weekend after. The kids loved staying up all night and spending the night in sleeping bags around the campfire. Many of them said it was better than Christmas.
Our friends decided to repay us by planning a weekend at a motel with a pool and we ended up at The Holiday Inn in Saint Cloud, always on the second weekend in February. The first year that we did it we had to sneak the food into the hotel, since the hotel policy was “no food or drink in the rooms” Today if you go there on any weekend during the winter months, there is a smorgasbord in front of most of the pool side rooms. It is a blast. Thank you to Dick Anderson for changing the policy and providing a winter break for all of us.
The show this week is the first of the springtime compilation shows with a mix from the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Special guests include superstar Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss, The Dave Rawlings Machine, Cowboy Jack Clement, Buddy Emmons, Johnny Gimble and Kacey Jones. Enjoy the show.
“If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.” Albert Camus
March 4th, 2011 by admin
Good chilly morning from Collegeville,
The trip to Morris to see the APHC show was a wonderful experience. It is an easy drive, if the snow is not blowing and the storm had waited until Sunday. There were very few empty seats in the gym. A reception was held in the Student Center before the show and I met an old friend that used to live in Upsala. John was the banker in Upsala during the 80’s. He and his wife are now retired and live on one of the many lakes in the Alexandria area. We stopped at the Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood for a late supper and the food was great.
My granddaughter is a sophomore at Upsala High and she is starting to receive letters of interest from colleges and universities. One of the letters came from the U of M Morris. It is a lovely campus and I am looking forward to going with Kaylin on a visit someday. Even though Kaylin is an accomplished artist, she is thinking of a psych major instead of an art major. There is something to be said for having a “shrink” in the family.
This week, the newly merged St. Cloud Area Sertoma Club chose Jan Hanson as the recipient of the “Service to Mankind Award”. Jan is the Executive Director of 200 Orphanages Worldwide. She grew up in Albany and her parents allowed her to travel to Lima, Peru on a student exchange program when she was in her sophomore year. In January of 2007 Jan returned to Peru with Cross Cultural Solutions. That experience inspired her to start a non-profit dedicated to building orphanages in poor countries. This Saturday they are having a fundraiser, the 2nd Annual Spring Fever Charity 5K Run and Raffle at Gold’s Gym in Sartell. Details are at
www.200orphanagesworldwide.org
The show this week is from balmy San Diego with a live broadcast from the San Diego Civic Theater, special guests include bright-eyed Bluegrass ambassadors Sara and Sean Watkins, the United States Navy Band Southwest and Jearlyn Steele. Fiddler and mandolin player Richard Kriehn will be sitting in with The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band. Enjoy the show.
“In the best institutions, promises are kept no matter what the cost in agony and overtime.” David Ogilvy
February 18th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
The water was flowing in the streets this week and that gave us some hope for spring. It is a dangerous time of the year. I stepped onto an icy patch on Wednesday morning and my feet were doing things that they were not intended to do. I didn’t know that I was capable of doing a triple axel. The Russian judge only gave me a six. I managed to stay upright but I pulled some muscles that were just simply not used to being employed. Today I feel fine, so no big deal. Do be careful, falling can cause broken bones.
We are taking a day off on Monday to honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Erik and I plan on going out on the ice to sit in a house and try and catch a few walleye. He is a banker in Deer Creek, so he has the day off also and he knows of a spot on Otter Tail Lake that is supposed to be a producer. With any luck we will be back in Wadena that evening with something for the frying pan.
The show this week is live from the Physical Education Center on the campus of the U of M Morris. Special guests include the U of M Morris Concert Choir, fiddle champions Catie Jo Pidel and sisters Deena and Sedra Bistodeau and master of the singing saw, Andy McCormick. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors and the All Star Shoe Band will be there as well. I hope to see you at the show. There are still tickets available.
www.morris.umn.edu
If you don’t want to venture out of town you can take in the Night of the Stars variety show at The Paramount Theater,
www.paramountarts.org in St. Cloud or you can be amazed by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) at Escher Auditorium on the campus of College of Saint Benedict,
www.csbsju.edu/finearts
“A lot of folks buy stuff that they don’t need, with money that they don’t have, to impress people that they don’t like.” EJO
February 14th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
The onboard temperature gauge read minus 23 yesterday. That would be a record low for this winter according to my Gran Prix. The forecast is for some warm up this weekend and it could not be soon enough for this weary one.
I did order some seeds from Comstock, Ferre & Company in Wethersfield, Conn. It will be interesting to see how the harvest from these special seeds will compare to the ordinary ones that I have been getting from The Farm Store in Upsala. I always get my Yukon Gold seed potatoes from Woods, Farmer Seed and Nursery on Division Street in St. Cloud. I had the antique rear tiller tuned up this fall so hopefully I will be able to start it up this year. Last year I had to get along by using only the small Echo tiller. I located a shop in Freeport that can repair the Echo so I should be ready to go when I get back from Sedona on April 9th. Both of these tillers were obtained using the bartering system, so not much has been invested to date.
I attended the Business After Hours at Stearns Bank this week and I won a pineapple along with a fifty dollar bill. It pays to network.
The show this week is live from the John S. Glas Field House in Bemidji. Special guests include Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, jazz guitarist Sam Miltich and the diva of the Dakotas, vocalist Andra Suchy. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott and Tom Keith along with The Guy’s All Star Shoe Band will set the tone for the News From Lake Wobegon. Enjoy the show.
There are still tickets available for the show at The U of M Morris on Saturday Feb 19th. Information online at
In 1987, Garrison decided to retire for a while. If you want to watch a news report from The News Hour on PBS, click on this link.
“A man who picks up a cat by the tail, gains knowledge that he cannot learn in any other way.” Mark Twain
www.morris.umn.edu The show in San Diego on the 26th is sold out.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VE0qMta0Ks&NR=1
February 4th, 2011 by admin
Good morning from Collegeville,
More of the same. The ground hog did not see his shadow, but I doubt if that will make much difference. Barby and I are planning to fly to Phoenix the first weekend in April and that will help me to hang on.
I often wonder what my life would have been like if great grandma Anne Oien had boarded a train heading south out of Chicago instead of one bound for St. Paul, Minnesota. Just think if she had arrived at a railroad station in Louisville, Kentucky in 1893 and met up with a fellow who owned a horse farm instead of hooking up with Fred Anderson who had been drawn to Minnesota with brochures that promised “milk and honey”. Fred begot a girl that they named Laura and they moved to an abandoned log cabin south of Cushing, Minnesota. They had purchased 80 acres for a grand total of $480 and my fate was sealed. Now instead of blue-grass country, I live in the land of ice dams and piles of snow so high that the idea of a garden plot is hard to imagine. I must order those garden seeds today and renew my hope for spring.
We’re looking for classical music talent from every corner of Minnesota! Help us spread the word about Minnesota Varsity, a high school-level Classical music showcase. We are accepting classical and musical theater performance submissions from soloists and small ensembles of Minnesota students. In addition to having their performance heard by our editorial panel (consisting of MPR hosts, conductors like Nicholas McGegan and Sarah Hicks, and others) 15 performances will be recorded by MPR engineers and broadcast on-air and online. 5 soloists/ensembles will perform at the Fitzgerald Theater on April 17 at 2pm in a showcase concert.
Students can submit their materials online at
classicalmpr.org/varsity.
The show this week is live from The Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. This week’s special guests include the man who puts the “sting” in “string”, Sam Bush and Nashville songwriter, Berklee Alumna, plus Biwabik, Minnesota native Emily Shackelton. Jearlyn Steele will join the usual cast of characters. Enjoy the show.
“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.” Dale Carnegie
Category :
General 
Comments Off on April 15, 2011 