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A day at the circus

It was a rainy, gloomy spring day that didn’t seem good for much of anything. My wife turned to me and asked, “Would you like to do something different?” “I’ll try anything once!” I replied eagerly. And so, we went to see a circus. This is hard to admit, but I had never attended a circus. During my first 40-some years, working on my family’s dairy farm kept me far too busy for such falderol. Then I spent more than two decades working as a newspaper writer and ad salesman, a job that consumed most of my bandwidth. My wife and I have now reached the WC stage of life, ...

No sense in protecting claim sharks

The Minnesota Commanders’ Task Force — a collaboration of The American Legion, AMVETS, DAV, JWV, Marine Corps League, MOPH, PVA and VFW — calls on Minnesota state lawmakers to pass the anti-fraud measures to stop claim sharks taking advantage of our veterans. The time is now. Our veteran service officers across the state and at the federal building at Fort Snelling see claim sharks take advantage of our veterans over and over and over. Claim sharking is a classic numbers game. The sharks typically work under the name of an important-sounding consulting company with the word ...

Encourage Congress to safeguard the Older Americans Act

While Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are being reported on daily about potential changes from the current administration, one topic that is not being discussed is the Older Americans Act (OAA). The OAA has been around longer than Medicare and Medicaid but not being discussed. Which is disappointing, as the OAA supports core programs in our communities. The programs that the OAA supports include congregate meals (senior meals, meal sites are a few names they are known by), home-delivered meals (meals-on-wheels), chore services, transportation, caregiver services, and many ...

Self-regulation and success

There are numerous factors that need to be taken into account if you will be able to achieve your goals and be successful. One of the key factors is self-regulation. Your ability to influence yourself and to develop your ability to control your actions, your emotions, and even what you think will enable you to adapt to new challenges and situations, control the urge to act on impulse, and ultimately to achieve your goals. To be self-regulated, you first need to decide what the goal is. Then you have to do what it takes to move yourself toward that goal while keeping track of your ...

Old Iron escapes the scrap guy

Three springs ago, a despicable derecho ravaged our region. We eventually engaged a scrap iron guy to haul away some of the wreckage the storm had created at my parents’ farm. It was gratifying to think that the steel from our ruined grain bins was going to be recycled, perhaps into new grain bins. Like many farms, ours had a quantity of dilapidated equipment — a wrecked car, an ancient Case combine, other miscellaneous junk — that had been placed into long-term storage in the shelterbelt. I told the scrap guy exactly where these items could be found, instructing him to just ...

Love wins on Easter

As I begin this, I just got home from Palm Sunday Mass. It is a beautiful morning: warming sun, light breeze, hints of green. It is a time of beginnings. It is the beginning of Holy Week which will be near it’s end when you read this. Glorious Easter will follow. It is the beginning of the growing season. The tentative plan here is to begin planting this week. It is tentative, like all farming plans. It will take cooperation from the weather, machines, and soil. As they say, God’s plans are sometimes not our plans. It is the beginning of baseball season. I haven’t played ...