Dr. Benjamin Mueller says that fusing L4 and L5 will not work. They are already fusing themselves. My only hope is a Medtronic implant. My appointment with the Medtronic rep and Dr. Marx is next Friday at 2pm. I plan on making a comeback.
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Comments Off on My health status Fisher’s Club is a restaurant next to a city owned swimming beach on the north shore of Middle Spunk Lake in Avon, Minnesota.
George “Showboat” Fisher was a major league baseball player from 1922 until 1932. He played for the Washington Senators and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was 33 years old when he opened Fisher’s Club. The dance floor was added in 1937. It was about that time that they started serving their legendary Fisher’s Famous Walleye. The secret recipe is still used today. The main dining room was added in 1953 and the porch was added in 1954.
When George Junior came home from a construction job in Greenland to work with his dad at the Club, ‘Showboat’ told his son, “Stick around to help me here at The Club or I’m going to sell it.” Junior and his wife Sally took over in 1959. It used to be a bottle club. The lockers that the regulars used to store their liquor bottles in are still on the wall with their names on them. Seeing the names on the wall, one of my guests once asked, “Did this used to be a post office?”
The owners, Cory and Jacob Voss, have added a full service bar. Jacob graduated from Upsala High School in 2011. The summer schedule is to be open Tuesdays through Sunday starting at 11am. Be sure to call for reservations, 320-356-7372. www.fishersclub.com
“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” Yogi Berra
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Comments Off on July 28, 2023 “Crescent Cove offers care and support to children and young adults with a shortened life-expectancy, and to their families who love them. Around the United States, there are over 4,700 hospice homes for adults. Crescent Cove Respite & Hospice Home for Kids is Minnesota’s first and only home designed just for children and their unique needs, and just the third of its kind in the United States. A vibrant and joyful home-away-from home, our goal is to help families feel Embraced, Assured, and Celebrated.” Source: Crescent Cove website
My brother Brian Osberg is a board member of this wonderful organization. On June 29th Cathy Wurzer interviewed Brian and Leo’s mother on MPR News. Here is the link to the story.
If you would like to support Crescent Cove in their mission, simply go to www.crescentcove.org
“In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa
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Comments Off on July 21, 2023 In the summer of 1955, I was 11 years old, and we were living in St. Louis Park. My mother signed me up for bible camp. I have no recollection of where the camp was other than “up north”. I got so home sick, that an older couple was enlisted to drive me to Upsala and my Godfather, Ralph Johnson, drove me the rest of the way back home to 1620 Colorado Avenue in his brand new 1955 Chevy. I turned 12 at the end of August.
The next summer Ma sent me to bible camp once again and this time I remember packing a carton of Pall Malls so that I could make money selling packs of cigarettes to other campers. This was the beginning of my “delinquent years”.
I left this off my resume when I applied for this job at MPR in 1999.
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” Henry David Thoreau
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Comments Off on July 13, 2023 The 39th annual Hagstrom/Osberg Golf Open Tournament, “The H2O”, will be held tomorrow at the Little Falls Golf Course.
My mother’s sister, Leone, Auntie to me, married Duane Hagstrom, co-owner of Hagstrom Chevrolet in Upsala, Minnesota. Between the two families there were 10 cousins. Auntie’s youngest, Kevin, is a very good golfer and for many years he and I won this best ball event every year. For that reason, we named our team ‘Ming’. After all, we were a dynasty.
Because of my back surgery, all I can do is putt. When I was 12 years old we lived at 1620 Colorado Avenue in St. Louis Park. There was a Putt-Putt close by and I spent a lot of time there every summer.
In 2020 I was able to sink a birdie putt on hole number 1 and another on hole number 3, so we were 2 under par after three holes. The rest of the team included Cousin Kevin, my brother Brian and his wife Jean Marie, plus brother Craig and his son Grayson. Craig’s daughter McKenzie drove the cart. We finished 6 under, which meant that the trophy was back is in my living room for the first time since 2009.
After golf we gather at brother Bill’s house near the golf course for a picnic and the award ceremony. We are fortunate to have a number of traditions in our family. I trust that your summer will be filled with many family events as well.
“It’s good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.” Mark Twain
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Comments Off on July 7, 2023 “Put your John Hancock here.” Next week these `United States of America’ will celebrate a 247th birthday. Fifty-six men, members of the Second Continental Congress, signed `The Declaration of Independence’ on July 4, 1776. The largest signature on the `Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America’ was that of John Hancock. Hence the idea that “Your John Hancock” means your signature.
The final paragraph of The Declaration of Independence reads: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.” A signed copy is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. May we all pledge to do the same this coming Tuesday as we celebrate “Independence Day”.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson.
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Comments Off on June 30, 2023 “Happiness is a warm puppy”. Charles Schulz. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The Constitution of the United States of America.
In the February 27, 2006 issue of The New Yorker there was an article on pursuing happiness. It turns out that by nature we have been hardwired to emphasize the negative. Survival depended on being wary. The curious and unwary could be eaten by bears or tigers. “Call no man happy until he is dead” was a popular Greek saying. According to many psychologists, once we are out of poverty, the most important determinant of happiness is our “set point”, our natural level of happiness, which is largely inherited.
Of course, we have no control over our set point. Those of you who have more than one child know that children do seem to be wired differently. Same parents, same conditions and yet so different. However, we can control our attitude. “As a Man Thinketh” by James Allen made quite the impact on me. We also can decide if and how much volunteer work we will do.
Ready for the secret to happiness? Here it is: “Happiness is equal to your set point S, plus your life conditions C, plus a bit of volunteer work, V. H = S + C + V”. If you want a copy of the article, let me know.
In January of 2021 I posted this note and mentioned that during the pandemic, it was hard to do much volunteer work. The executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters responded to my email declaring that it was possible to be a Big Brother using Zoom. In May of 2021, I met with my “Little”. On our first outing I told the young man, “I suppose you were hoping for a 27 year old Big Brother, not a 77 year old one.” He simply smiled in response. On June 4th I attended his high school graduation party and his mother gave me a big hug. It was a very gratifying experience. Maybe you should check out www.bigdefenders.org
“Happiness is hard to put into words. It’s also harder to source, much more mysterious than anger or sorrow, which come to me promptly, whenever I summon them, and remain long after I’ve begged them to leave.” David Sedaris
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Comments Off on June 23, 2023 The Osberg Men’s Annual Fishing Trip was awesome. Just like last year, I stayed in the cabin until Monday afternoon. Then our guide Randin Olson, my son Erik, his son Walleye Willie and I headed for the secret lake. One of 1,048 lakes in Otter Tail County. It wasn’t long before I had a bite and I managed to reel in a 27” walleye. Up until then the biggest fish caught belonged to Cousin John, but now I was in the lead. Shortly thereafter, 14 year old Walleye Willie landed a 28 ¾ walleye. Now his name goes on the trophy.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Texas proclaiming that enslaved Black people were free. More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was supposed to end slavery in the United States. Now Juneteenth is a National Holiday.
Later today, Higher Works Collaborative will celebrate the African American Male Forum 26th Annual Juneteenth Event at Lake George Municipal Park in downtown St. Cloud. The event is from 3 pm until 9pm. More detailed information is available online at H W C M N dot org. I hope to see you there.
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.” Martin Luther King Jr.
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Comments Off on June 16, 2023 The second weekend in June is always reserved for a fishing trip with my four brothers, my son Erik, and my grandson “Walleye Willie” plus brother Craig’s son Grayson. This year, Grayson will not be able to be with us. There is a total of 8 Osberg men ages 14 to 79. Cousin John and my great nephew Adam will also join us.
Sometime in the nineties, my youngest brother Craig was invited by his father-in-law, Jim Keeler, to go along on a fly-in fishing trip to Trout Lake in Canada. Over time, my other brothers, who were into fishing, were invited to go along. In 2003 brother Bill offered to pay the way for my son Erik, so I decided to go along.
I am the oldest of five Osberg brothers and it was a wonderful bonding time. I told the camp host, Murdoch, that I would be back every year for the next 20 years. The next year we went to brother Brian’s cabin near Aitkin instead. The year after that we went to Rainy Lake. Erik was working as a weekend sportscaster on WDIO Channel 10/13 in Duluth and he did a story on fishing with the guide and resort owner Woody for his TV show. Erik suggested that we try Woody’s instead of the fly-in in 2005. We had a great time and the greatest part was that Woody had a wonderful pub filled with memorabilia from his hockey days. For many years we went back to Woody’s. We never did do the fly-in again. You can check out Woody’s at www.fairlyreliable.com It is worth the drive just to meet Woody. In 2011 we switched to Brindley’s Resort on Leach Lake. A large home across the road from the marina worked well for the whole gang, but fishing was tough.
In 2017 we decided to try Holly’s Resort on Otter Tail Lake. Erik is an ambassador for Otter Tail County and we reasoned that we would have a better chance to find the elusive walleye. We had a great time. One of the cabins is right on the lake. Brother Bill is the chief cook and bottle washer, so we put him in that cabin along with brother Geoff from Chicago. There is a traveling trophy and the Walleye that I caught last year measured 28 inches. Now the trophy is on my wall and the fish that I caught is the largest one on the trophy. This year I am hiring the same guide, Randin Olson, and going to the same lake to try and retain the trophy.
“Dost thou love Life? Then do not squander Time; for that’s the stuff Life is made of.” Benjamin Franklin
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Comments Off on June 9, 2023 Next Tuesday is the 79th anniversary of “D Day”. If you have seen the movie “Saving Private Ryan”, you have some idea of how bad it was. It is hard to imagine that anyone who lived through that experience would ever be the same. If you survived, the many years of living with those memories had to be tough ones.
Aymer Nelson, a farm boy from Upsala, was there. Aymer was also at “The Battle of the Bulge”, one of the bloodiest of the war. I asked him if he had been wounded in the war and he told me that a 88 mil shell landed next to him in his fox hole, but it was a dud. He lived to the ripe old age of 104. He was truly one of “The Greatest Generation”.
It will also be the 34th anniversary of the day that my son packed all of his worldly goods into his rust free 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and headed back to Minnesota from Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1988 I had taken a position as General Manager of an office furniture dealership in Charlotte and it turned out to be a not so fun experience for my family. Erik had worked many late evenings with an office cleaning service, owned by a woman from Minnesota, to save the $1,000 needed to purchase the vintage Olds. School was out at 2:30 in the afternoon and he headed north at 5 PM. The battery was weak, so I told him to not shut the engine off if he expected to start it up soon after stopping.
Early the next morning he ran over a dead deer and when he was pulling the carcass out from under the car, he heard a knock in the engine. He made it to the Big Foot Gas Station in Shelbyville, Indiana and called me at 6 AM. He ended up finding a backyard mechanic who changed the timing gear for $400. It was the one and only time I have had to use Western Union to wire money. The mechanic fed him supper and allowed him to sleep on the couch. If I remember correctly, he went fishing with the mechanic’s son. They fed him breakfast the next morning and sent him on his way to Chicago to have lunch at Denny’s with my brother Geoff and his wife Susan. Quite the experience.
“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known is private.” Allen Ginsberg
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Comments Off on June 1, 2023 