|
|
I Love It Here!Sauk Centre This Season |
 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
Sauk Centre Journal ArchiveChoose a year
|
2005Wednesday, December 28, 2005. Christmas lights are still on around town. I'd just as soon see the season's celebration go from Lille Julaften to Epiphany, but folks around here generally turn lights on soon after Thanksgiving and don't keep decorations up and lit much past New Year's day. Lille Julaften is Little Christmas Eve, the day before Christmas Eve.
Ice fishing has begun. There's a lone fishing house on Sauk Lake north of the old golf course, and a sort of winter village is growing east of the Highway 71 bridge. Water flows only under the middle part of the bridge, so there's a good-size lane of open water on the west side. Some optimist put a lone ice fishing house near the end of the open water.
First someone shoots a hole in our window, now this. I was shutting things down around the house one night Christmas weekend when I noticed an empty police car parked outside, shining its spotlight on a garage across the street. Now I've heard that there was a drug-related arrest, with a shot fired, in this neighborhood. This is closer than the meth lab that police found near here in January of 2003. There wasn't anything in the local paper this week. Maybe next week. I still like living here. It's not perfect, but this tract of small town America is about as good a place to live as any I've seen.
Sunday, December 25, 2005. It's been a busy weekend for local churches. Our Lady of the Angels had an extra-long Christmas Eve service, which meant extra rehearsals for the choir. The last one was Saturday morning, when over a dozen kids were down in the sanctuary while the choir for the most part stayed safely in the choir loft. The kids were practicing for a procession that evening. They stayed very focused on their rehearsal, aside from the occasional ad lib shaking of the jingle bells.
Over a dozen children on the near side of the altar, and probably a few other folks, said "eee!" when the tree fell neatly on the far side. Then we sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". Nobody was hurt, much, although the priest got clipped as the tree went past him, and the deacon was hit by the star. I asked my oldest daughter what profound meaning we might find in the tree's fall. She answered, "we need a new tree stand."
Wednesday, December 21, 2005. Frost covered branches, wires, and a few fences this morning. The air was still until about noon, so Sauk Centre had a picture-postcard morning today.
Christmas is coming soon, or bearing down on us, depending on your point of view. Folks who sing in choirs have more, and longer, practice sessions to deal with. Someone I know has had a party to go to or put on almost every day this week.
I've heard that Thanksgiving is the big travel holiday of the year, but many households have kinfolk coming for Christmas, too. It's a season for renewing family ties, catching up on each other's experiences, and parking in the wrong place. Someone left a car with North Dakota plates on 9th near the high school. That's a snow route. Next morning, there was something extra on the windshield: not a ticket, but a reminder about Sauk Centre winter parking rules printed on brightly colored paper.
There used to be a Nativity scene in Memorial Park on the Main Street of Melrose, about 10 miles down I-94. Melrose Boy Scouts owned the Nativity set. The park is safely secular now. Three cities in Minnesota got sued by a Wisconsin outfit last year because they put Nativity displays on public property. Melrose isn't big enough or rich enough to afford a big legal department, and they can't afford that kind of trouble. So, no more Nativity on Main. I found an article about this purging in the Melrose Beacon. City administrator, Brian Beeman, said that agents of the Wisconsin group "prey on smaller cities who don't have the resources for a lawsuit", and that he didn't enjoy being forced to remove religious symbols. If it were up to him, he said, he "would say put it there, leave it there, don't mess with it." The good news is that the Melrose Boy Scouts were allowed to set the Nativity scene up at St. Mary's school in Melrose. Sunday, December 18, 2005. Driving around Sauk Centre has been a treat this week. At night Christmas displays lit up the streets; by day fresh snow frosted downtown's garlands; and day or night, traffic polished the best-traveled intersections to a high gloss.
City sand trucks are going around, spinning sand onto the most exciting spots. That makes muddy-looking intersections, but being able to stop is nice.
Christmas is a week away. My family only has an energetic nine-year-old son and a teenage daughter living at home now, so it's relatively quiet most of the time. That changed this weekend when the other kids came to visit. The next day we went to a family get-together in St. Cloud. Judging from traffic on I-94, quite a few other people were doing the same thing. I was back to grilling hamburgers at noon today. You'd think that temperatures around zero would cool my enthusiasm, but watching frozen hamburger turn into table-ready food and tasting the results is too much fun.
Thursday, December 15, 2005. I thought I had a big week, dealing with my day job's new computer network. Then I read a how a bison rancher about a hundred miles up I-94, Harlan Manston, spent Monday through Thursday this week on a four-wheeler, chasing his herd of buffalo.
The rancher, his son, and friends followed the herd of about 75 bison on pickups, all-terrain vehicles, and a snowmobile from Monday to Thursday. The problem was that this wasn't a lonely bison or two, anxious to get back to a herd. This was a herd of buffalo ranging from cows weighing between 850 and 900 pounds up to 5 bulls weighing a ton each. They weren't likely to go anywhere they didn't want to go. After wandering around western Minnesota for several days, the buffalo herd apparently decided that a hay bale dragged by a tractor was more appealing than freedom. All I had to deal with was a new set of hardware, a report program wouldn't talk to its printer any more, data that wasn't always where we expected it to be, and less-than-serene co-workers. Of course, they had to deal with me, too. With all the cybernetic excitement, plus the usual tasks, I see that I didn't get yesterday's entry published. Here it is. Wednesday, December 14, 2005. Schools opened 2 hours late today, for good reason. Snow and wind wuthered around the house last night. This morning a coat of fresh snow sticking to branches had streets in town looking like an old Currier and Ives print. With temperatures right around freezing, the biggest difference between streets in Sauk Centre and skating rinks was that rinks are more consistently slippery. Traction was better when I drove home from my day job, but by then the intersection near the interpretive center had a pool a couple inches deep. I'm glad I didn't have to drive anywhere tonight. McDonalds is getting the ding in its corner fixed, and some re-roofing, too. The framework and plastic sheeting they've got around the brickwork is right at the end of their drive-up lane, which must make take-out traffic interesting.
"Warm" means different things, depending on where you are. Last Sunday evening, the temperature was around 20 above. As my family and I arrived at Soo Bahk Do class, I saw a young man wearing a T-shirt and gum shorts come out of a door in the school. He sauntered across the parking lot to another door, over a hundred feet away. For a Minnesotan, the evening was warm.
Christmas is about a week and a half away. Most households in town are getting ready, one way or another. My wife had me print some more Christmas letters Monday night. I actually finished them Tuesday morning.
A householder on Ash Street was putting part of a nativity scene in place as I drove home this week. A little farther down the street, an already-exuberant display near my home had sprouted red and green flashing beacons. One of that yard's trees has a horizontal halo of lights now, too.
Sunday, December 11, 2005. Two weeks left before Christmas. My wife threatened to stop feeding me if I didn't finish working with the Christmas letter she wrote, and get address labels printed, by Saturday night. I almost made the deadline. Christmas and holiday displays are still going up, or being expanded. Up the street from our house, red and green flashing beacons were added to Rudolph's runway. Other households are content with a few strings of lights, a star, and an evergreen lighted like a Christmas tree. My family and I were doing pretty well to get a Christmas tree up inside.
Thursday dawned with fog. Frost left tree branches shining almost as bright as the sky. Frost flakes were coming off branches when I went to church at noon, and by 1:30 the streets were back to normal.
Jitters Java, the eatery with specialty coffee downtown, got its signs up Friday. There's a big oval on a pole near the corner of Main and 4th, and a smaller one over the door. Now when folks give directions to Jitters and say, "you can't miss it," they'll be right.
A couple pieces of really bad news this week showed that this stretch of Small Town America is no haven from trouble. Sauk Centre's high schoolers got an unpleasant surprise when they came to school Wednesday morning. Kamala Rae Fortune, a 17 year old student there, died about 9:00 Tuesday night when her car spun out on I-94, between Osakis and West Union. The Alexandria paper said that she had been traveling east and got broadsided by an eastbound truck. I understand that Kamala Rae's foster parents are the Suelflows. Then yesterday Joseph and Marie Wielenbergs and one of their adult sons were shot in the couple's home, just east of here in Melrose township. At this point, it looks like the son shot his parents and then himself. Still, I'd much rather live here than, say, Pittsburgh or Oakland. On average, this is a fine place to be. Wednesday, December 7, 2005. The Sauk Herald reported that "more than 30" windows on homes, cars, and a school bus from Belgrade got shot out last Tuesday. The article says that two local kids, "between 14 and 18," are in trouble. With a price tag around $20,000, this is way beyond a 'boys will be boys. prank. I'm not looking forward to picking up the tab for this family's share of punctured windows.
There's good news too: "Welcome Home Troops" was on the American Legion/VFW building's sign this week. Five National Guard soldiers from around here left for training in September of 2004, and are coming back from a year in Iraq. I suspect that's why Main Street is lined with flags downtown.
Christmas decorations and early sunsets make driving home from work fun. I took a closer look at the north side Micro Moose and discovered that the northern moose is more of a cousin than a twin to the solitary guardian south of the lake. Micro Moose of the north seems to be a family moose, and swings his antlered head back and forth.
The temperature went down to about zero and stayed there Monday. Finally! I appreciate a winter day with honestly frigid temperatures and snow glittering in pale sunlight. I suppose growing up in the Red River Valley of the North may have something to do with it. Not everyone likes winter, though. A member of my family said, "the only reason that people don't go on one of those protest marches against winter is that it's too cold to." Sunday, December 4, 2005. I've heard that many more people have reported a window with something a whole lot like a bullet hole in it. Apparently, those alternatively-moral kids were busy little shooters. I will be very interested to see how this develops. Much more seriously, the McElveen family up in Little Falls lost a son. Anthony McElveen was one of 10 Marines killed by a roadside bomb in Fallujah this week. We've got quite a few people from around here either in Iraq or on their way. If I remember right, our Charlie Company is near the end of their training now. On my way home from work Friday evening, I ran into a hayride: not literally, of course. A somewhat old-fashioned tractor was towing a wagon down residential streets between downtown and the Lake Wobegon Trail. Hay bales sat on the wagon, folks, including at least one family, sat on the hay bales, and the wagon's metal frame was festooned with tiny lights powered by a small generator. I don't remember hayrides being part of previous Christmas seasons here. I think they were embarking from Marq'ette Floral & Gift, at 6th and Main. Outside the store, someone in a reindeer costume was waving to passing drivers. As I turned onto Main at the Marq'ette corner, this ersatz ruminant playfully rolled onto the hood of a car turning from Main onto 6th. That was a little distracting. The Chinese restaurant downtown seems to be gone for good. Gaps in their newspaper-and-colored-paper window covering haven't changed since they put it up. That's too bad. It was nice, having a place in town that served something besides north-European food.
On a happier note, we're nearing the peak of Christmas displays. I discovered that Micro Moose, that shining alternative to the usual wire-frame reindeer, has a twin on north Main. The northern moose is part of an impressive display of lights, in stark contrast to the one standing in near-solitary splendor with only garden gnomes for company.
Tony Melendez is giving a concert tonight at the High School tonight. It's a pretty big event in town. Sauk Centre's Soo Bahk Do class changed it's Sunday session time to avoid a conflict. Tony Melendez, a guitarist and singer who got global attention when he played "Never Be the Same" for the Pope in 1987. What made him stand out, besides his musical skill and talent, was that he plays guitar with his feet. His mother was prescribed thalidomide, and so he was born without arms. This will be his last stop in the States before going to Mexico and points south. That's not a bad idea, this time of year. Wednesday, November 30, 2005. Well over 20 windows were shot out in Sauk Centre last night, around 9:00. That doesn't count the high school and busses parked there for some activity, probably a basketball game. It looks like the ones who did the shooting used a slingshot and/or a pellet gun. That probably explains why I haven't heard of anyone getting hurt. Someone I know was impressed with the shooter's aim. The hole in her window lined up with her husband's head. One of the houses lost a large part of an energy-efficient bay window assembly that had cost the owner upwards of $5,000. The thing had gas under pressure between panes, so there was quite a bang when it broke. We don't take kindly to being shot at around here. At least one homeowner gave chase. Sauk Centre police and at least one car from the Stearns County Sheriff department caught the kids who apparently did this and sent them down to the detention facility in Willmar. My wife called the police when she located a puncture in one of our windows. Someone from the police department was out taking pictures today, and we got a call from them tonight for some follow-up questions. Aside from that, and the edge of a winter storm passing by, it's been pretty quiet so far this week. The weather has had trouble making up its mind. Sunday's snow was washed away by overnight rains. Then Monday promised freezing rain, wind, and snow. Schools from the Alexandria District to West Central Area Schools didn't open, or closed early. Here in Sauk Centre, I heard announcements on the radio that the schools would close at 1:00 and that they would close at 2:00. They actually sent kids home at 1:30, so the announcements were correct, on average. I-94 was closed from Alexandria to Moorhead on Tuesday. Or maybe it was from Fergus Falls to Moorhead. I've heard it both ways. Power lines were down in Ottertail County, northwest of here, and elsewhere.
Some folks and businesses have upgraded their Christmas displays. A couple of yards are now graced with a sort of giant inflatable snow globe with a snowman inside. I saw something like it in a Fleet Farm catalog. Those things cost over a hundred dollars! That's real commitment to holiday decor.
Sunday, November 27, 2005. It's looking more like Christmas than Thanksgiving outside today. The haze and snow looks nice, but it took me roughly 20 minutes to walk 50 feet outside this morning, getting into church. It's amazing what a thin film of ice will do to a sidewalk.
Thanksgiving is the big travel day for this country; and this year I was one of the travelers. Traffic on westbound I-94 was down to one lane at one point Friday morning. Emergency crews had parked in the right lane and working on what had probably been two semi-trailers earlier in the day. Folks were driving a little closer to the speed limit for miles after passing that scene.
Christmas lights were on downtown and in yards as I drove home last night. A few people have displays that wrap around their houses to the back yard. There's one near where I live that looks like a front-yard display - from the other side of the block. I'm looking forward to seeing those Christmas colors for the next four weeks. Thursday, November 24, 2005. Happy Thanksgiving Day! A few days ago, at the local McDonalds, someone seems to have taken "drive in" the wrong way. There's a dent about a half-foot deep in the brick wall below the north window at the northwest corner. Happily for McDonalds, the window isn't broken.
Signs of the Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year holiday cycle went up this week: Sauk Centre's safely non-committal "Happy Holiday" sign across Main Street and lighted garlands over downtown streets.
Meanwhile, folks are putting glow-in-the-dark Santas, wire-frame lighted reindeer, abstract Christmas tree sculptures, and the occasional Nativity scenes, in their yards.Some Thanksgiving Day travelers start early. It looked like every pump stall at the Holiday station by the Interstate had a vehicle in it this evening, but I might have missed one as I drove by. When I filled the family's mini-van tonight, gas was back down to $1.999. Two of the 46 million or so turkeys raised in Minnesota got lucky this year. Thanks to good feathers and good attitude, Snowball and Blizzard made the final cut, went to the White House, and received a presidential pardon. Minnesota turkeys don't often achieve fame that extends beyond the dinner table. When I heard they came from Melrose, just down the road, I did a little checking. The lucky gobblers grew up on a turkey farm near Henning, up in Otter Tail County. The current chairman of the National Turkey Federation, Pete Rothfork of Grey Eagle, a little over 10 miles northeast of Sauk Centre, got the assignment to raise the birds. He farmed out the job of raising birds to James and Vicki Trites of Henning. Melrose came into the picture on Friday, when Pete Rothfork brought Snowball and Blizzard to the Melrose Area Elementary School. News reports said that Melrose elementary students gave them a musical sendoff that involved a "turkey dance" and an opportunity to meet the regional celebrities. The two fortunate fowl got new names when they got to Washington. The White House held an online poll to decide what their new names would be. Out of five pairs of finalist names, 27% of the 12,726 votes cast were for Marshmallow and Yam. Marshmallow: that's a sticky name. I would have voted for the second most popular pair, Wattle and Snood, but I didn't find out about the poll in time.
For 15 years, the National Thanksgiving Turkeys and their alternates have retired to the ominously-named Frying Pan Park in Fairfax County, Virginia. Our Minnesota birds are bound for the other side of the country: Disneyland, in Anaheim, California. They'll be honorary Grand Marshals for Disneyland's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then, while Minnesotans deal with mosquitoes and blizzards, they'll live out their lives in "the happiest place on earth." Personally, I'm happy to live in Minnesota. I lived on the West Coast for a while, and to someone who grew up in the Red River Valley, the climate there is boring.
Sunday, November 20, 2005. Thanksgiving is less than a week away. This family's two oldest daughters came home this weekend, so we had what I regard as a normal level of activity around the house.
I saw one knot of folks in front of the public library, and another, with the spaniel, across the street by the First State Bank parking lot. The folks by the bank had a 'welcome home. sign and a flag mounted on a pickup, parked on Main, and someone had another sign hung on the Lake Woebegon Trail bridge. The procession slowed and stopped for a minute or two by the group with the spaniel.
Visits to antique stores aren't part of my normal routine, which may explain why I didn't know about a publication that's been around since 1990. "The Old Times" is a 32-page monthly newspaper about antiques and collectibles, published in Sauk Centre. I found out about the paper when I talked to someone I used to work with and found out that he's now the publisher. I picked up a copy at Main Street Coffee Company. Sauk Centre's two specialty-coffee places are quite a contrast. Main Street Coffee Company & Antiques is an antiques-and-collectibles store with a coffee bar at the back, in a slightly-remodeled house. Jitters Java, a few blocks north on Main, looks like something I'd expect to see in an urban 1920s setting. The proprietor calls the look "metro retro" and offers meals as well as a wide assortment of coffee. Most of this season's first snow is gone, but Sauk Lake's ice is still there. The dock at the west end of Sinclair Lewis Park has been pulled to its winter resting place, leaving a re-frozen spot at the public access.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005. Christmas starts early for some households, at least in terms of outdoor decoration. Wreaths or angels are up in some yards, and a house in the neighborhood has lighted stars in the windows, a plastic Santa on the chimney, and a flag near the back door. That Santa must be securely anchored: yesterday's wind didn't blow it off.
The first snow of the season fell Tuesday morning, the wind picked up, and we got an interesting mix of precipitation for the rest of the day. The first snow of the season fell Tuesday morning, the wind picked up, and we got an interesting mix of precipitation for the rest of the day.
I parked at the post office Tuesday afternoon. By then some snow had melted on the sidewalks and streets. I'm slower than usual on icy pavement, or pavement that might be icy. My one-slow-step-at-a-time approach to winter walking is frustratingly slow, but once in a while it allows me to see a pleasant side of humanity. I had reached the curb and was ascending to the sidewalk when a man offered to take my mail into the post office. I had some business inside, so I declined and proceeded across the sidewalk and over to the steps. By the time I reached the door, this helpful Minnesotan was coming out of the post office, and held the door open for me. Inside, a lady asked me if I needed a ride.
There must have been a sunset Tuesday, somewhere above the clouds, but down here the twilight just got dimmer. The wind and ice were bad enough for Christmas choir practice to be cancelled. I didn't mind staying inside and listening to wind wuther around the house.
Sunday, November 13, 2005. A few folks are already getting their outdoor Christmas decorations and lights up. One yard has an artificial tree or two set out, and someone near the high school had a line of colored lights on this week. They may have been testing their bulbs, since it hasn't been on since. South of the band shell, "Micromoose" has reappeared, standing watch by the west wall of his house. "Micromoose" is my name for a wire-frame lighted sculpture shaped like a four-foot-tall moose. That non-reindeer/non-Santa is a welcome example of decorative diversity. My wife tells me that Santa's throne is set up in the Viking Plaza shopping mall in Alexandria. The jolly old elf's appearance was scheduled Friday. The banners on the Lake Wobegon Trail bridge are gone now, including the one wishing Charlie Company well. Yellow ribbons still line "The Original Main Street" and Sinclair Lewis Avenue, though. Those ribbons were joined by flags on Veteran's Day.
I wasn't too surprised to see a few groups crossing Main between crosswalks. Some reminded me of the title character in the classic video game Frogger, as they waited for breaks in traffic before crossing one lane at a time. Others demonstrated a charming confidence in drivers. eyesight and reflexes as they ambled across.
The weather is finally acting autumnal. Yesterday's rain didn't get serious until I was coming in from grilling lunch. We had lightning off and on last night, and the wind knocked over pines in pots in front of Our Lady of the Angels church. When I grilled lunch, I noticed a yellow plastic bag rattling bravely in the wind, about fifteen feet up in a tree.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005. The holiday season is definitely here. Christmas catalogs started arriving last week. I learned that there are solar-powered wind chimes. Gas is selling for $2.169 in town now: not exactly what I expected, after the a-little-over-$3 prices we had in early September. I got curious, and looked into the family van's gas log. Last year I paid between about $1.88 and $2.00 a gallon for gas in October and November, with an average a little over $1.90. One of my nephews blew through a stop sign in his bike last week, got punted by a car, flew through the air, and threw a scare into the extended family. His close encounter with the front end of a car didn't leave much of an impression. He doesn't remember anything about the accident. I hope he remembers what it was like to have a briefly useless hand, and re-evaluates his attitude toward traffic signs. Happily, my nephew's mother saw the accident and was able to reassure the driver that it wasn't his fault. I've got an idea of how that driver felt. Driving down Ash on Halloween evening, I saw a family crossing the street near, but not in, a crosswalk. I might not have seen them at all, if they hadn't been silhouetted against another vehicle's headlights. The whole family was wearing dark clothing. School was out Monday and Tuesday, giving kids a four-day weekend. I have some kind of a bug, and slept through most of Tuesday. It must have been quite a bug. My son had two friends over yesterday. My wife and younger daughter tell me that the three boys, two around nine years old and a five-year-old, were "into everything." The noise only woke me up once. I suppose they stayed inside because of the wind advisory that day. The fire at UAP last Friday made the Sauk Herald's front page. According to Tuesday's paper, employees had the fire out by the time the fire department got there, which left the firemen to find out what exactly what was smoldering inside, and decide how to deal with it. The top news of the week was the capture of a murder suspect near Osakis on November 1. Chad Cottrell, suspected of three murders in rural Indiana, apparently drove off without paying for $40 worth of gas in Melrose. The Sauk Centre police chief joined the chase at the Sinclair Lewis ramp of I-94, and a state trooper ended it with a stop stick on back roads near Osakis. According to the Herald, Chris Swanson, who made the arrest, joined the Melrose police department in December. Sunday, November 6, 2005. I've lived in or near agricultural areas for much of my life, and know that fire is something that you don't want near farm chemicals. That's why smoke coming from the UAP installation, south of Fleet Supply, got my attention Friday afternoon. By the time I drove by Fleet Supply, next door, two Sauk Centre police cars, an ambulance, and assorted emergency vehicles had assembled east of the #5 building. A north breeze carried whitish smoke away from the building's roof and door. This was no fun for folks in the houses between there and the Interstate. A couple of the guys working on the fire sprinted off and came back with forklifts around a quarter to three. I suppose something heavy in #5 had to be moved. I'm looking forward to the Tuesday paper, to learn more about what happened.
Aside from that, it's been a pretty routine week. City crews were out, getting the storm drains ready for winter. Morning frost made a pale shadow on grass and roofs this morning, trailing areas still shaded by a rising sun. The willow in our back yard finally got around to turning color and shedding its leaves. Wal-Mart was in the local news again. It looks like Sauk Centre and Wal-Mart will sign off on a development agreement in March. Providing there aren't any hitches. It sounds like Sauk Centre did a good job with negotiations, even getting Wal-Mart to pay for at least most of the office, legal, and engineering costs we'll have spent on this discussion. I was impressed that Wal-Mart also agreed to pay for utilities upgrades. Since the Wal-Mart entrance will probably be at 12th and Ash, I figured that deciding to put a traffic light there was a no-brainer. Especially since Wal-Mart had offered to pay for the thing if it was installed when the store was built. I'm surprised that the county engineer said that we "should wait and see what happens after Wal-Mart is built." I hope that the local and county powers that be will let Wal-Mart pay for traffic lights at 12th and Ash, instead of waiting to see how often folks get hurt or killed in wrecks there.
Wednesday, November 2, 2005. The Sauk Centre Elementary School gym held a "Fabulous Fall Festival" for families Monday night. The River of Life Church arranged the festivities. Last week, they had small but colorful signs up around town, promising "fun for the whole family" and: "Huge Inflatable Games Including:
Near the bottom, in red, the signs declared, "Non-Violent Costumes Encouraged!" My family and I enjoyed this get-together a year or so ago. This year I took my son trick-or-treating along our usual route. He's the only one of the kids young enough to go, or at least to be interested. We had company, mostly families with young kids, and a few clumps of teenagers. I've seen more people out, in past years. Maybe they were going to that "Fabulous Fall Festival".
As we drove on Ash Street Halloween night, I saw Sauk Centre's water tower flashing colors like red, yellow, orange, and blue. Something this unusual is worth a side-trip, so I drove across town to take a look and take a few pictures. I did a little asking around, and learned that Advanced Lighting Systems was testing its new LED lighting system (a Live LEDTM 100, they told me). They would have liked to cover all sides of the tower, but settled for lighting up the east-southeast side. I hope they do this again next year. I understand that the glowing tower was clearly visible at least as far away as the airport. I wish I'd been able to see it from the Interstate. It should have made a dramatic introduction to this town for drivers clearing the hill east of Sauk Centre.
Tuesday, I drove around a few broken pumpkins on the way to All Saint's Day mass. Some kids in the front pew had dressed up as saints. We may see more of that next year. The post office building's flag was a half-mast today, a mark of respect for Rosa Parks. Her funeral was today. The public library's flag stayed at the top of its mast: of course, the half-mast order was limited to federal installations. At least one apartment at the old city hall building seems to be occupied. At least, the lights were on in a second floor window when I drove by after work recently. Sunday, October 30, 2005. First it was boxelder bugs. Now ladybugs are moving in. It's odd: those ladybugs work their way into a house, and then spend their time around windows, apparently trying to get out again. Yesterday, I counted about four dozen ladybugs, two flies, and a slow-moving boxelder bug on the window where I spend time with the kids on weekends. (I know those black-dotted orange beetles are "Asian lady beetles" and some folks call them Japanese beetles, but they're still ladybugs to me.) It's that time of year. Last night we set clocks back an hour, once again enabling us to experience jet lag without leaving our homes. Along with a lot of other folks, this household is getting ready for winter. We've already got curtains in place at the bottom of the stairs and in a doorway, to keep heat in the part of the house we spend the most time, and have plastic over most of the windows. Fuel costs promise to be spectacular this winter, so we're very, very interested in energy efficiency. Halloween is around the corner. If it's like previous years, we'll see families going up and down the street. Typically, a car or van will park, an adult and three or four kids will get out, walk up and down that block, and drive to their next stop. I'm looking forward to seeing what the trick-or-treaters come up with. Thursday, October 27, 2005. Fall is winding down. Morning frost has covered the grass and many trees deposited the last of their leaves on lawns. On the other hand, some deciduous diehards are just now getting around to turning color. I can remember burning piles of leaves in the fall, and the clouds of smoke that encouraged laws against that sort of thing. What I can't remember is when someone got the idea of printing funny faces on leaf bags.
I ran into interesting Halloween statistics last weekend. According to the National Confectioners Association, 93% of kids in the USA go trick-or-treating, and 90% of parents admit that they sneak treats from their kids. Halloween trick-or-treat bags. Finally, a harangue: The Sauk Centre post office has an unlisted number now. I had a simple question to ask around the middle of October and found an 800 number at the phone book's "Post Office" listing. Since it was either drive to the post office or use the new number, I used the telephone. It might have been faster to drive there and back. Calling the new number, I started a conversation with an automated menu: one of the new kind that understands a few words. My first choice was whether to use English or Español. After five minutes or so of plodding through a not-too-badly-designed menu, I had my information. The old way, I'd have been done at least 4 minutes earlier, and moved on to something more productive than conversing with a menu. This is progress? Sunday, October 23, 2005. With Halloween a little over a week away, the Sauk Centre Jaycees. Monster Manor opened this weekend. It's a sort of annual spook-a-thon down at the fairgrounds. I've never been inside, but drive by on my way home from work. They had a hearse parked outside, so I'd guess they've got a lively show again this year. Someone came up with a new wrinkle in Halloween lawn displays this year. Two statues of deer, standing one of the more thoroughly decorated yards in town, are wearing masks this season.
School was out for the last part of the week, for MEA weekend, which gave kids a few days of free time. One of my daughters had mid-term break at the same time and decided to spend the time here, so we've had a lot of family time at this house. That included time spent talking with me while I grilled lunch. I've been noticing more drivers stopping for pedestrian in crosswalks on Main Street recently. That education campaign a year or so back seems to have had a good effect. We're not perfect, of course: this week I saw a boy trying use a crosswalk on Main. He had to wait for a break in traffic to walk his bike across the street. I think it's the way the weather's been sliding back and forth between clear and damp, warm and cold: Several of my joints have been giving me fits. I shouldn't complain about the weather here: Hurricane Wilma has been chewing up places like Akumal, Cancun and Nuctunich in Mexico, and is heading for Florida. The way Wilma is in the news, it's too bad that Bam-Bam, Fred, and Pebbles didn't make the list this year. I checked: Fred won't show up until 2009, and the rest of the Flintstones neighbors aren't on upcoming lists. Bam-Bam, Betty and Barney couldn't be on the same list, but why not keep the rest of the Flintstones neighbors together?
Wednesday, October 19, 2005. Christmas is third in line after Halloween and Thanksgiving, but a sign of the season is already here in choir practice. The choir at Our Lady of the Angels church starts practicing Advent songs next week. Since there aren't as many people in the parish as there would be in a city, the choir isn't crowded. This week I was the entire bass section.
It's not easy to go downtown and not run into someone who know you in a small town. While checking my box at the post office yesterday, someone doing the same thing turned to me and said, "congratulations on your article." He was talking about a very nice write-up about Brendan's Island in Sunday's St. Cloud Times. I appreciate what he said, but I didn't do much beyond sitting for a while and talking to Mackenzie Ryan, from the St. Cloud Times. (Thanks, by the way!) The post office roofing project is finished in front. They've gone over the peak and are working on the flat roof in back now. It's trickier finding a parking place around the post office now, since there's often equipment sitting at the curb. Jitters Java has a new sign by the door of Jitters Java announcing "We offer free Wireless Internet Service." They've had that service for a while. I go there when I want a seriously fast connection. The coffee there is what a Minnesotan would call "not bad." You can get a pretty good meal, there. It's funny: for most of my life, coffee was either "coffee" or "decaf." Now, with two places I town serving specialty coffee from around the world, I've learned just how much ground coffee covers. The other coffee place is Main Street Coffee Company. They've got coffee, baked goods and sweets at the back of an antiques and collectibles store.
Sunday, October 16, 2005. This was Sauk Centre's homecoming weekend. The school called their get-together in a bus barn Friday night a tailgate party. This "tailgate" party wasn't as loud as the one at Mainstreet Communications, but attracted quite a few people. Folks were still coming, singly and in groups of friends and family, around 7:00 when I dropped by. There was good traffic control outside the bus barn: a good thing, with all those people and vehicles sharing the same parking lot under an October moon.
On a more cultural note, The St. Cloud Area "Singing Saints" Barbershop Chorus, with the Sauk Centre High School Choirs, presented Dale Goenner and Thomas Mulder's Pirates of the Mississippi at the Sauk Centre High School Performing Arts Center yesterday. On my way home from work Friday, I drove by the Chinese restaurant downtown. Sheets of newspaper were up in the windows, and the lights were out. I hope they're doing remodeling. It would be a shame to lose one of Sauk Centre's specialty eateries. Trees in town are taking turns losing their leaves. This week we've got the full range from summer green to winter-ready.
Finally, the steps at St. Paul's Church, near downtown, are almost through. The orange mesh fencing is down, and the only sign of construction is a plastic tape across the steps.
Thursday, October 13, 2005. Halloween season is here. Orange lights festoon some windows, while pumpkins and piles of dried corncobs have sprouted in the more seasonally sensitive front yards. The Palmer House hotel put a harvest display topped by a jack-o'-lantern on their sidewalk, adding country colors to the brick-and-concrete scenery of downtown Sauk Centre.
Boxelder bugs are crawling inside these days. I try to appreciate the beauty of nature in all creatures, but these dirty-black, six-legged crawlers with crimson chevrons on their backs and pinpoint blood-red eyes that seem to glow present me with a challenge. The Minnesota National Guard's Company C from the Sauk Centre area boarded busses and left town at 4:30 Tuesday morning, October 4. They weren't alone. Family, friends, and folks from the community were at the armory to see them off. This week's Sauk Centre Herald devoted the back page of the paper's main section to a local soldier and his family, and the National Guard send off. Company C had an escort of Sauk Centre's firetrucks as their busses drove down Main Street. On their way out of town, they rode between yellow ribbons. I'm told that a spotlight highlighted a sign on the Lake Wobegon Trail bridge over Main Street that reads "God be with you, Charlie Company: We love you!" I couldn't have said it better myself.
Sunday, October 9, 2005. Going into the post office Friday morning, I saw two men working on the roof over the entrance. A woman walking by exchanged a few words with them. I really like living in a place where people know each other. Inside the post office, I met the new-for-now postmaster. His name's Tony, he's usually down the road in Cold Spring, and I understand that he's filling in here for a few months. Further downtown, a crew from a local renovation company was taking the façade off the old Snyder-Ben Franklin buildings. With that sort of faded tannish salmon-pink paneling gone, it's obvious that the double store covered the first floor of a couple of old buildings. Stained glass windows that haven't seen the light of day in a long time are visible now.
Meth was in the news again this week. Just down the road, in Melrose, police seized $700,000 worth of methamphetamine and $112,000 worth of cocaine. An article on KSTP's website quoted Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner as saying central Minnesota's meth dealers used Melrose as a "depot" for. Police arrested fourteen people and are looking for a 15th. Who say small towns don't keep up with the times? On a much happier note, my son and I saw Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and a short subject about commando penguins today. That was a well-spent Sunday afternoon. Hats off to Main Street Theater, for bringing this tale of a dog and his melon to town. Wednesday, October 5, 2005. All right! We've had some normal Minnesota weather. Yesterday was a warm, damp, dark day with rain, wind, lightning, and thunder. Especially rain. By the time I was driving home from work, most of Ash Street's southbound lane around south 7th was a pond, and the weather service was talking about flash flood watches.
I woke to a flashing clock this morning, a souvenir of a little power outage. Parts of the Twin Cities were under water, and a branch thicker than my wrist lay in the street near where I work. Today was a beautiful fall day, with the sky turning from patches of sunlight to patches of cloud.
Tonight, the temperature is falling into the thirties, and we may have snow tomorrow. One reason I like living here is that you don't have to move to be in a different climate. Stay put, and tropic heat, chilling cold, glaring sunlight, torrents of rain, and blankets of snow will wash over you. Wal-Mart is still in the news. The Sauk Herald had a good write-up this week on Wal-Mart's proposed Supercenter here. There are sensible concerns: Traffic from the twenty-something acres of the Wal-Mart complex, plus traffic from whatever gets built on the other forty-plus acres of land involved adds up to a lot of cars. Last week, the St. Cloud Times said that the Sauk Centre Planning Commission decided an Environmental Assessment Worksheet wasn't needed. The Times called the worksheet three months worth of an "in-depth look at environmental concerns that could arise from developing land." The article said a group calling themselves Sauk Centre Area Citizens for Smart Growth is concerned about pollution, and hired a lawyer. Someone may be spending part of the winter doing that worksheet after all. Monday, October 3, 2005. The post office building has a crew working on its roof, and a less cluttered front. That untidy evergreen bush south of the steps was dug up and hauled away this week. The front steps of St. Paul's Church go all the way to the ground, but it looks like there is still work to do. The orange mesh fencing is still up, and the crew's equipment is in place. The War on Terror has gotten a lot more personal for folks around here. We had a deployment ceremony yesterday at the Sauk Centre High School Auditorium for Company C, 1st Battalion, 194th Armor, 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division.
KSTP says this is the biggest overseas deployment of the Minnesota National Guard since World War II. I've read that Crookston, Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Grand Rapids, Hutchinson and Thief River Falls are doing the same thing Sunday, with Bemidji and Moorhead recognizing their troops today. Here at the Sauk Centre High School Auditorium, folks started coming by at least 1:30. During the ceremony, we had about a half-dozen officers and dignitaries on the stage, the 64 troops of Company C in the first few rows, and roughly 1,000 folks filling the auditorium. Latecomers lined up on the walkways on each side.
Even with a mayor, a state congressman, and a governor to make speeches, the ceremony only took an hour. Afterward, I saw folks taking pictures of each other with family members who are going overseas. Thursday, September 29, 2005. After a dull gray weekend, we had two days of beautiful weather. Then I came down with something. At least the weather cooperated, providing some chilling winds and gray skies. That made staying inside a more attractive option. Now that I'm going back to work, sure enough: cheerful sunlight. At least it's suitably cool: in the 40s this morning. The post office building was getting a new roof yesterday, and St. Paul's church has more front steps. The crew working on the church steps is building from the top down. It looks odd, seeing a masonry structure started at the top and being built down to ground level.
Sauk Centre has a few wayfarer's trees, and they've had their autumn displays out for a while now. Most folks call them mountain ash.
Sunday, September 25, 2005. Friday was a beautiful early-autumn day. A fresh breeze rushed under a clear sky as I sat inside, staring down a computer. Saturday dawned damp and gray, and stayed that way, as did today.Grilling this noon, I enjoyed hearing drops of drizzle sizzle when falling on the spatula and watching my breath when I wasn't keeping an eye on the burgers. Friday, I passed the MainStreet Communications parking lot on my way home. They were wrapping up their "Tailgate Party." People were milling around the big open-sided tent while a high-yield sound system blasted out a Shania Twain song. The new River of Life church building's frame is up, and a roof is taking shape. I'm glad to see that they chose to put the new church at an angle to the Getty Street assisted care place. This way there's a little drama to that big pole barn of a building. Alexandria's Echo Press, Wednesday edition reported that supplies from Alexandria, Minnesota, had arrived in Alexandria, Louisiana. A Red Cross volunteer down there said that he was "astounded by the neat and orderly condition of the shipment," in an email. I got curious about hurricanes, and looked up NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) records. They had a table that showed how many hurricanes had hit the U.S. mainland since 1850, and how powerful they were. This isn't like the Good Old Days. At least 8 major hurricanes hit the United States each decade during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, and only 5 in the 90s.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005. My joints and muscles were giving me fits today, which seemed odd, since where the sky wasn't clear, it sported decorative buttermilk-sky clouds. Then, later in the afternoon, I heard a tornado warning for Willmar, about 40 miles south of here. I'm creaking a little less, now that the storms have rumbled and flashed their way east. There's an alpaca farm north of town now, and has been for a few years. The Sauk Herald calls the place Pine Ridge farm, and the owners call it Heartwood Farm Alpacas. One of the folks connected with the place was putting up little posters up in some stores, announcing their open house on the first two days of October. They've got a decent website, too: www.heartwood-alpacas.com. I did a little checking, and found out that alpacas look like someone started with an undersized camel and tried to make it into a fuzzy deer. It's nice to run into someone else who appreciates this area. The Heartwood Farm Alpacas. website talks about "the beautiful, fertile prairies in the heart of Minnesota … lush green trees; … and wildlife of all kinds. The serenity is breathtaking." I see they also raise goats. Sauk Centre's proposed Wal-Mart supercenter is in the news again, with another meeting at city hall. This time the Sauk Herald published more numbers. It looks like the supercenter brings somewhere between 140 and 160 jobs with it. Working at Wal-Mart wouldn't be like being a corporate lawyer, supermodel, or NFL star, but a job's a job. The place would cover 145,000 square feet: about the size of two and a half football fields. That's a lot of store. Sauk Centre's Public Utilities Superintendent said that the store would go through about 120,000 gallons of water per month, about the same as 24 homes. He pointed out that Sauk Centre adds about 30 homes each year, and has a water system that can handle another 1,500, so dealing with Wal-Mart won't be too hard. Besides, Wal-Mart's 24-7 operation will make it the town's biggest customer for electricity. Gas prices in town are still going down. This week it was $2.519 a gallon. Using computer modeling, I made a startling discovery! At this rate, gasoline will be free around December 10 this year, and by March, 2006, gas stations will be paying people $2.00 a gallon to fill up. That's one prediction I'm not counting on.
Sunday, September 18, 2005. After a string of picture-postcard perfect weekdays, Saturday slouched in under a sullen sky. Then it rained. I didn't grill that day until suppertime, when things had dried out. The new River of Life church building is taking shape. More of the frame was up Friday afternoon. I understand the utility of pole-barn construction, and I'm not criticizing, but after several decades I'm still getting used to churches that look like big storage sheds with colored plastic windows. I saw some Halloween decorations in a store late this week. With Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas coming up, I suppose it won't be too long before we have a menagerie of cheerful black cats, turkeys, and reindeer grinning at us from store fronts. One year I even saw a pair of plaster frogs, dressed in pilgrim clothes. Last night my son told me that the school had raised about $620 for Hurricane Katrina victims. Good for them. It's a drop in the bucket, but it sounds like a lot of drops are coming from all over the country. I've got some suggestions people who are looking for a way to help folks in the Gulf Coast area. Thursday, September 15, 2005. Tuesday and Wednesday were "typical" September days, complete with blue skies, fresh air, fleecy clouds, and, on Tuesday, the city's Elgin street sweeper roaring by the window at my day job. Today was another one of those clear, well-ventilated days that make it hard to stay inside. One of my co-workers decided that this afternoon was a good time to start a long weekend in northern Minnesota. Wal-Mart was in the local news again this week, along with the Labor Day storm that turned some streets into wading pools. Which reminded me that the proposed Wal-Mart's published location includes a low spot that has been a tillable field some years, and approaches wetland status during others. I hope Wal-Mart's planners are thinking about that. St. Paul's church on Sinclair Lewis Avenue is a step closer to being able to use their main entry. The stone landing just outside the door was in place and being leveled Wednesday morning.
A maple on Ash Street has finally been cut down. Each fall the east half changed color while the west was still green. I finally realized that the trunk was split, weakening the east side of the tree. Other trees are starting to show patches of autumn colors, I trust for less serious reasons.
Monday, September 12, 2005. This morning's thunderstorms have moved on, so I can post yesterday's entry. Lightening fried one modem during the Labor Day weekend's storms, and I didn't want to lose another. Also, I took a little time last night to write down some thoughts about September 11. Sunday, September 11, 2005. It's been a hot, damp weekend. I grilled lunch at suppertime today. Even without noontime sun to help, I worked up a good sweat, standing between the grill and great hot pillows of still air. River of Life's new church is taking shape. Part of the frame was up on Friday.
St. Paul's front steps have most of the stonework back on the sides now. It looks like there's going to be a sturdy center support for the steps after the project's done. Some trees are already changing color, and I think that birds are flocking more than they do in summer. Judging from the lush foliage, the trees could put on a good show this autumn. My family gets the furnace checked out around this time of year. We had a shock when we were told that we should get a new furnace. That proved to be a false alarm, and we're dealing with another company now. I think many people started taking better care of their heating systems after the '70s gave us a new appreciation of energy. Before then, I remember each heating season opening with at least one or two news report of someone whose furnace exploded. That doesn't seem to happen as often now, I suspect because folks are doing a better job with maintenance. The price of gas in town plummeted to $2.799 a gallon last week, a relief from last week's $3.099. The relatively cheap gas was welcome: I went to a Soo Bahk Do clinic in St. Paul with Sauk Centre's group yesterday. It's good to live where a classical martial art is taught. Thursday, September 8, 2005. School opened again on Tuesday, after their pre-Labor Day start. For the next nine months, a tide of school busses will ebb and flow from the school garages, while a sort of gymkhana runs down Ash Street each weekday afternoon. The Holiday Super Stop near the Interstate has fresh asphalt, and pavement from the Interstate to township roads is getting repaired before winter sets in. At the other end of town, a single-story building is going up on the west end of the residential development on Lake Shore Drive. Walls are up on the concrete slab, giving it a visible shape. Whatever it is, it doesn't look like a house. Besides, it's a little unusual for a house to have no basement in this area. Like many people, I've been following what happened when hurricane Katrina turned 90,000 square miles near the Gulf Coast into a disaster area. That storm left a lot of folks with no place of their own to live, at least for a while. As of today, the Department of Homeland Security says that 253,177 people have been evacuated. It says that they're "safely housed in shelters in 17 states and the District of Columbia." An Alexandria TV station had some hopeful news. They reported that Bird Island, a small town about 75 miles south of here, was getting ready to take in 80 folks who survived Katrina, but whose homes didn't. The Bird Island mayor says that for the next year they can stay at the old Spiritual Development Center next to St. Mary's Church in Bird Island, and that there's a former nursing home where 20 more could stay. So far, six churches in the Bird Island area will be seeing to it that the folks get fed. Meanwhile, north of Sauk Centre, in Camp Ripley they're getting ready for maybe 3,000 folks who had to move from their homes at the other end of the Mississippi. The idea is to provide temporary housing and support in dormitories there. I hope someone is letting all these new arrivals know what to expect. Many of them probably spent their lives in a place where a "cold" winter night would be, say, 45 degrees. Now they may be spending a winter in Minnesota, where National Guard arctic maneuvers were once cancelled due to inclement weather. Sunday, September 4, 2005. So far, this has been a good Labor Day weekend. Flags went up downtown on Friday. That afternoon, around 5:00, there didn't seem to be quite as much traffic as usual on Main. Looks like gas prices, and a presidential plea to limit driving to necessary trips, are having an effect..
Saturday was noisy. Thunder started sometime in the morning. We got a downpour and small hail in the afternoon. I drove the van through a few curb-deep pools, watched a miniature rapids on 4th Street, and got soaked to the skin. When I got home, there were these hailstones in the front yard, like little pumpernickel loaves.
A few clouds were still clearing their throats while I grilled hamburgers and a hot dog for supper Saturday evening. There's nothing quite like standing in evening shade by a grill that hisses and sputters while it steams off the day's rain. Today is bright, clear, and muggy. I'm staying inside as much as possible. Except for grilling, of course. There was so much water in the air that I felt as if I'd sweat if I blinked too much: sort of like typical weather down by the Gulf, with an important difference. Here at our end of the Mississippi drainage system, the buildings are still where they were last month. The mess down on the Gulf Coast will probably make a difference here: more than just lighter-than-usual Labor Day traffic and $2.999 gas. Whoops. That's $3.099 now. 1.6 million sacks of coffee beans, tons of java, are sitting in New Orleans warehouses. With the flooding, the jolt-juice beans probably getting cold-perked. I'm afraid there could be a lot of jittery fish in the Big Easy. New Orleans after Katrina reminded me of the 1997 Red River Valley flood, when quite a bit of what wasn't under water in Grand Forks, North Dakota, caught fire. New Orleans isn't like Grand Forks, of course. For one thing, folks in Grand Forks didn't think of shooting at the people who were trying to rescue them. Now that the U.S. Military has landed in New Orleans, established order, fed the survivors, and started evacuating them, it's time to look at helping folks all along the Gulf Coast re-build. I've got some suggestions about that on another page. Wednesday, August 31, 2005. Coborn's seems to have moved into most of its addition. They've got an impressive expanse of groceries now. There's even a rack of school supplies near the checkout, a reminder that school starts tomorrow: just in time for a Labor Day weekend school break. This Labor Day I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend at home, and three straight days of grilling. Wal-Mart is in the paper again. They've defined the acreage they plan to use, and are going through another round of discussion with City Hall. I still have trouble seeing how bringing more people into town to spend money is a bad thing. I don't usually talk about what happens outside Sauk Centre, but what the president called "one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history" deserves mention. When that Cuisinart® of a hurricane, Katrina, puréed the Gulf Coast, it left an incredible mess. So far, the half-million people who lived in New Orleans have been ordered out, and probably won't be going back for at least a couple months. Folks from Biloxi, Gulfport, and smaller places aren't much better off. Tons of debris are giving insects and germs a rare opportunity, and a public health emergency was declared for the whole area. My wife heard that one of our relatives, who lives down there, still doesn't know whether she has a house to go back to. That may be better than the certainty of one of the relative's friends. The friend asked a police officer what it was like where she lived. As my wife put it, "she said, 'I live at this address. and he said, 'you mean that's where you used to live.'" I'm glad I live in Minnesota, where our weather worries generally involve blizzards, floods, droughts, thunderstorms, and the occasional tornado. Lots of good people are helping refugees down there. I'd like to recommend Catholic Charities USA. They're already on the ground in Florida, through local units, and don't have the media resources of the American Red Cross to raise funds. As Catholic Charities puts it, their "niche in disaster relief is to provide long-term recovery work." Because so many of this country's refineries are down there, news reports generally mention gas prices. As of this afternoon, here in Sauk Centre, gas is $2.999 a gallon. Sunday, August 28, 2005. St. Paul's front steps replacement project is moving along. They've got a slab poured, and concrete block supports in place under where the steps will be. We've had the usual sort of weather for late August around here. Thursday's air was too dry to swim through but too damp to breathe. Friday morning featured severe thunderstorms shooting past in the small hours, with the occasional power outage. Then late Friday and Saturday brought picture-postcard weather. My family and I took our van and moved another daughter out of the house this weekend. That's two kids down, two to go. We got back to Sauk Centre rather late on Sunday, so I didn't get this journal entry published until Monday morning. I filled the van's tank in Sauk Centre, at $2.579 a gallon on Friday, and again up in North Dakota the next day, at $2.649 a gallon. That's a lot, but adjusted for inflation it is still comparable to the 73-74 energy crisis prices: but without the purchase restrictions. Driving up I-94, the family saw several small herds of bison in the fields. I think that adopting an animal that's native to this area, and it's memorable winters, as livestock is one of the smarter things that folks have done in agriculture during the last decade or so.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005. Today was one of those beautiful late-summer days with perfect temperatures, perfect humidity, and a perfectly partly cloudy sky. I spent it inside, trying to get over some kind of bug. No need to feel sorry for me: I've been doing that myself. Trucker's Inn Restaurant and Fuel Station, south of the Interstate, is getting a facelift. Most of the restaurant's new front is done. I'm told that when the peaked alcove is done it'll have curtains and other amenities. Right now, sheets of paneling leaning on the inside wall and the sound of electric drills overhead creates a very informal ambiance for patrons. Nobody seems to mind, though, although I have to think that they'll be glad when the project is done.
I've been driving more often than usual lately, mostly on the Interstate. That's taken me past turkey barns, where this year's Thanksgiving dinners spend their days eating, looking out the windows, and whatever else that gobblers do. Sunday, August 21, 2005. My family started harvesting our back yard a few days ago. Even a lawn like ours gets green after the recent rains. Grilling this weekend was more fun than usual, which is saying something. Drier air helped. Standing outside was less of a wade-in-a-hot-tub experience than it was in the humid weather that's oozed past lately. Gerard's restaurant and sports bar had its "Grand Opening" this weekend. A Pepsi banner across from the McDonalds announced the event. There's a little over a week left until school starts in town, and other places too. The second of my daughters is getting ready to go to college. Happily, she and my wife are taking care of most of the preparations. When "number 2 daughter" moves out, we'll be half-empty-nesters.
It's not unusual for traveling families to stop in at a strange church when they're away from home, but what happened a few weekends ago left an impression on me. Almost literally. I was in the choir loft when a woman, a teenage girl who looked like she might have grown a foot recently, and a child came up. I haven't seen this family group before or since. I was standing behind the small wooden pew they were sitting in when the teen stood up, pushing the pew over. In my direction. Someone near me kept it from landing on my feet. The assistance was welcome, although I think I could have slowed it with my cane. As my neighbor and I put the pew back in place, the young woman turned to her mother and declared "it's not my fault!" Wednesday, August 17, 2005. The biggest Minnesota National Guard deployment since WWII is coming in about two months. Some of the 2,600 troops will come from around here, so more businesses and families in and around Sauk Centre will be getting used to doing without key people. More cars than usual were at the pumps when I filled the van's tank again Monday. The station's proprietress told me they'd heard that the price had hit $2.649 a gallon in St. Cloud and they were filling up before the prices jumped here. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of people wanting to live in the not-exactly-inexpensive housing developments at the lakeshore end of the old Minnesota correctional facility on the north side. A sign at the east end of "Lakeridge Community" shows only two lots left to sell. The "W. H. Cates Lakeridge Addition" sign, a little further inland, shows 10 lots for sale and one sold. There's some kind of construction going on at the other end of the developments, near the golf course. Folks who work at Coborn's are moving displays and merchandise while the store is open. I don't envy them. It's quite a job, getting all that stuff moved while making it possible for people to shop. I understand that they're expecting to be done sometime in October. Sunday, August 14, 2005. One of the things I like about living here is that there isn't much privacy. At any rate, not the sort of "privacy" that lets you go into a shop and count not being recognized. Here's what I'm talking about: My wife took her car to a new garage this week. Actually, it's not new, but she hadn't taken a vehicle to that place before. The people there didn't ask what her name was and didn't have her fill out any forms. When one of the guys drove her home, he knew where we live, and asked her how her dad was. It reminded me of what someone said about living in a small town, "if you can't remember what you did today, ask someone: they'll know." The new Riverside Church building is still a pile of metal trusses and a foundation. Construction takes time, especially with a volunteer crew. Our Lady of the Angels. priest, Father Statz, is back. Someone had put up a few signs and balloons, welcoming him back, in the alley on the way to the parish garage. He celebrated the Mass with Fr. Kleinschmidt this morning. Another big deal at church this morning was the 50th anniversary renewal of wedding vows by Bob & Marge Schmeising. I put a picture showing Fr. Statz's return on the "A Walk on the Catholic Side" page. It's been busy at home. Our 2nd daughter is weeks away from going to college. My wife wisely doesn't let me help very much with preparations. On the other hand, she does encourage my grilling. I was out again yesterday and today, enjoying this weekend's near-perfect weather.
Thursday, August 11, 2005. Filling my van's tank at North Star on west Sinclair Lewis Avenue yesterday was a heart-stopping $2.23 per gallon expense. More about gas and bucks later. The folks who run North Star recently re-arranged the retail area inside. Turning the display shelves and moving the counter made the room seem bigger. That, and the new cooler in back, are real improvements. The possible Wal-Mart supercenter in Sauk Centre was worth two articles in the Sauk Herald this week. I don't remember this much of a fuss being raised when Coborn's came to town, or when they started their expansion, and Coborn's is another big company threatening local business. St. Cloud missed setting a record Monday. The high was only 94, just short of 1949's record of 95. Bridge work on westbound I-94 near the Meire Grove exit closed the right lane before noon on Monday. Gusts around 30 miles an hour had blown over traffic cones. A portable sign had fallen onto the left lane, just after the sign telling drivers to merge left. I don't envy folks who drive high-profile vehicles in winds like that. I saw a semi-trailer shy as a gust hit it on the Interstate in that area. Hail the size of softballs hit trees, windshields, windows, and the occasional birdbath near Underwood, up in Otter Tail County, Monday night, but nobody got hurt. The storm concentrated on wind after that, causing power outages from Long Prairie, north of here, up to Lake Superior. I'm not sorry that Sauk Centre missed the excitement. Back to that $2.23 price for a gallon of gas. I remember 1974, when gasoline hit an unheard-of 55¢ a gallon. These days, that would be about $2.18 a gallon, using Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers. Even at today's price, this doesn't measure up to the Good Old Days of 1973-74, when drivers of cars with even numbered license plates could buy gas only on even numbered days of the month, and those with odd numbered ones could only buy on odd numbered days. Sunday, August 7, 2005. The downtown traffic lights were flashing red both ways around noon on Thursday. A crew was cutting into Main Street and snaking cables through a utility hole. It looks like we may be getting traffic sensors. Not a bad idea: Traffic can back up over two blocks during rush hour.
St. Paul's Church front door is sealed, one of the steps is broken, and the masonry railings are missing. It looks like they're getting some major repair or maintenance done. One of my daughters tells me that it's about time. Those stairs were a bit tricky to navigate. I've been using the inside stairway for years when I go to St. Paul's.
The Main Street Coffee Company has a new sign now. I haven't been inside since it went up, but I'd guess that they still have those books and tables in the front.
An Arabian horse show was at the fairgrounds this weekend. I didn't see much of the horses, but spent a few hours each day at a lunch counter, helping with a fundraiser. This will help me and my family go to a Soo Bahk Do clinic in September.
|
Above-freezing
temperatures earlier this week weren't enough to melt the snow, so we had a
white, and slightly damp, Christmas. At least one family took advantage of the
wet snow to make a snowman.
The
Marthaller family is probably having even more fun. SPC Jodi Marthaller came
home from Iraq yesterday, riding down Main Street in fire truck #3, with a
police and fire escort. A small sign posted around town had invited people to
come out, welcome her back, and 'wave flags if you have them.. A dozen or so
people and an enthusiastic young spaniel did just that Saturday afternoon.
The
flags were still up Saturday morning, when I went downtown to the bank and post
office. A line of kids and adults had queued up at Main Street Theatre for the
holiday season morning show. For some reason, quite a few folks were walking
away from the theater right after 10:00.
Thanks
to that idea, folks now can have giant leaf-filled jack-'o-lanterns in their
yard. This year I noticed that some of the faces look like they're chewing
leaves. Now if only someone could develop a leaf bag that you really could set
loose to graze on a leaf-covered yard.
Light
poles downtown sport yellow ribbons, and will for quite a while now, I expect.
Speaking for my family, our thoughts and prayers are with Company C.
Trees around town aren't very organized when it
comes to autumn colors. Some have already shed most of their leaves, most are
still green, some are in full color, and one near where I live is green at the
bottom, orange in the middle, and almost bare on top. I've given it the title "A
tree for all seasons."
