44 thoughts on “September 6, 2012: It’s Back…”

  2. So you had a fantasy draft just two nights ago and had no idea when there was a game? I assume you had no players on those teams?

  3. Yesterday, I mentioned the tragedy that had struck Gettysburg. If you're interested, here is a newspaper report of the matter.

    1. Thanks for the link...it really is a small world. The West Whitlock Resort is where I've stayed when walleye fishing on Lake Oahe. Again, your community is in my prayers - good people out there.

    2. Jeff, life and sudden death have been on my mind lately. My thoughts and prayers are with your community and congregation.

      1. Life & sudden death have been on my mind lately as well. I haven't talked about it here (or anywhere really), but I was on a Boundary Waters trip a few weeks back and had one of my camping companions airlifted out of the wilderness after I pulled his lifeless body out of Basswood Falls. Dumb b*stard tried to shoot the rapids in a kayak without a helmet or skirt. When he swamped and was thrown out, he was caught in the undercurrent and after a few minutes of futilely trying to swim out of it, he hit his head and was knocked unconscious. I jumped in after him and was able to fight the current enough to get a hold of his ankle and pull him out. There was a moment there where I thought the river had me too. It was not an enjoyable feeling.
        I thought he was dead as I swam him across the river; he didn't appear to be breathing and his skin was so unbelievably blue. Another guy who was with us was able to see that he was in fact breathing and thereafter, there was a lot of providence, luck, coincidence, divine intervention...call it what you will, but there was a lot of help. The second two people who happened along the portage were nurses (one a former wilderness EMT) and the third group was a family from Madison; the mother was a family physician. The guy was flown to Ely where he was diagnosed with a concussion. He also broke off half of his front tooth but didn't break any bones, no spinal injuries, no significant head injuries and, the big one, he didn't drown. When we got to Ely, I called my voicemail and was confronted with the news that my MIL had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her lung, liver, spine, and possibly elsewhere. This in a 63-year-old nurse, who exercises every day, has never smoked a day in her life, has had 2 sips of alcohol in her life, eats right and is a healthy weight. Pain in her torso had been misdiagnosed as "walking pneumonia" all summer long.
        The whole thing seems so surreal that I still don't have a very good perspective. However, I do find myself unexpectedly waking up to think about the event and my wife's mother at 2 am. Then, stories like the one Padre shared about this father and son and Twayn's recent experience really drive home how precarious our hold on this world is.

        1. Whoa... and that's why I'm never going to the Boundary Waters! (More seriously, it's because every time I canoe or kayak, the paddling motion screws up my rotator cuff and I'm unable to lift my arm for about two weeks. Also, much, much more seriously, I'm glad to hear about your friend and very sorry to hear about your MIL.)

        3. news that my MIL had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in her lung, liver, spine, and possibly elsewhere. This in a 63-year-old nurse, who exercises every day, has never smoked a day in her life, has had 2 sips of alcohol in her life, eats right and is a healthy weight. Pain in her torso had been misdiagnosed as "walking pneumonia" all summer long.

          My probable-future-MIL had something very similar. She hiked a lot, would walk to work when it wasn't too hot (in Phoenix, so like five days a year), ate healthy, and probably never smoked. I don't remember the details very well, but I think her back pain got worse so she checked herself into the hospital. Tests were done and it was stage four breast cancer. She died less than two weeks later.

          Not that I'm trying to scare you, but it can go very fast.

          1. This March, My FIL had something similar (though he smoked for a lot of years, so it wasn't so as unexpected). Cherish the time you have, obviously, and be there for your wife. I'll be praying for you and the family.

          2. Thanks for the well-wishes and prayers. She's currently down at Mayo trying to learn what type of cancer it is and what, if anything, can be done about it. I definitely appreciate how quickly it can progress and I'm doing what I can to be supportive of my wife and her family. It has been a really sh*tty couple of years for them between deaths, divorces, illnesses, broken engagements and criminal proceedings. Even after 8 years, I don't feel a part of the larger family, but I've certainly been through the grinder with them as of late.

          3. Not that I'm trying to scare you, but it can go very fast.

            This morning, the mother of one of Sheenie's closest friends went outside and discovered the father passed out on the ground. Paramedics were unable to revive him unfortunately. He had been in great health and I'm pretty sure wasn't even sixty. Pretty scary reminder that anyone can go at any time.

        4. My favorite uncle, who has been living on borrowed time for 27 years after a pretty massive heart attack, two subsequent bypass surgeries and a couple of strokes, was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It's bad. They're going to try chemo and radiation and we're hoping for the best but, damn.

        5. One thing my life as a pastor has taught me is that darn near everyone is struggling with something that hardly anyone knows about. It may be physical, it may be financial, it may be emotional, it may be personal. It may be themselves, it may be a family member, it may be a close friend. But darn near everyone is struggling with something than hardly anyone knows about. It has made me much more tolerant of people, because I realize I have absolutely no idea what may be going on in someone's life that makes them act or speak as they do.

          2. Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody. M. Twain (Hartford dude)

  6. First Ave added a second Macklemore/Ryan Lewis show on November 30. Sheenie and I already have tickets for the December 1 show (this will be the fifth time we will have seen him perform in the last two years), and if you're even remotely interested in great, underground hip hop, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

    1. They announced that before the summer started. Sheenie and I went over and saw a couple of movies there about a month ago just to sneak in one last visit.

  8. cc to SBG: I drove by a Mark's Towing on either 35E or 35W on tuesday (Burnsville? Lakeville? can't remember whether it was going to or coming from Northfield) and thought of you.

      1. oh, I know that the proper attribution is to MTiE. But it's not part of a chain?

        anyway, it's the thought that counts. :-0

          1. Most definitely.

            The mrs was breathing down my neck to get to Northfield close to the 8 a.m. starting gun.

            plus, the day before, my nephew's wife was regaling us with stories of her series of psycho roommates her freshman year. Roommate One "entertained" a lot. Roommate Two moved in first, arranging her bed on one side of the room and futon on the other, stuffing nephew's wife's furniture in the closet. Hmmm. Roommate Three was never around -- the police called to ask that nephew's wife contact them in case she ever did drop in. Gotta love those Wisconsin state schools.

            1. My frosh roommate's girlfriend (who was still in HS) broke up with him in October. He became so depressed that he stopped leaving our room for weeks at a time (he seriously stopped going to class, but would email bizarre excuses to his prof's about his attendance while keeping up with his homework and managing not to flunk out). Then, he also decided to stop showering as well. During all this, I contacted his mom, his best friend, and anybody else I could think of to try to get him some help, but he just sat collecting dust at his computer all day. I basically moved into Sheenie's room during waking hours just to avoid the stench and awkwardness.

              Eventually, he apparently got his life together and went to Med School, so good for him.

  10. This story was entitled HOPE FLOATS in the dead tree version of the Fargo Forum. An unfortunate title, to be sure, but it is the story of the daughter of a friend of mine. Worth a read.

    1. “I enjoy swimming with my friends,” Eden Neva said. “I hope I’m an inspiration to others, but I’ll be fine if I’m not.”

      I got something in my eye.

  11. My 1948 Brooklyn Dodgers won the Kiddo Davis Baseball League World Series (on Diamond Mind). I was going to be seriously angry if my OF of Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Stan Musial failed to win the crown.

  12. This just in on the Love Machine PBS broadcast tonite: Tolstoy is not dead, he works for PBS.

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