Well, for sure I’m not ….
Well, for sure I’m not going to write about seeing someone making hay this week. I guess I’ll change the subject and write about snow. At the rate it has been coming, that should keep me busy all winter.
A couple of weeks ago it was just a taste. Got a few flakes but was gone the next morning. Then came this week. At least it was predicted. Waiting for an internet repairman kept me in the house until after lunch on Tuesday. By the time I got free, a few flakes were coming down. I drove by Vita Plus to check if their corn dryer was running too, which it was. Then, by the time I got back downtown, it was snowing a lot and I just decided it best just to go home and wait it out.
All was fine until, just as Jeopardy was coming on, my television dish got covered over, so there went my television watching for the night. Thankfully Sue had brought me Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage” which made for an interesting snowbound evening.
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From the looks of things we are in for a busy few days. Saturday is Halloween, and I still haven’t decided how to handle that. It would have been nice if it could have been cancelled for this year. I’ll probably just play it safe and put a few bars out on the table on the porch and let first come, first serve do it for this year. No use getting exposed to someone wearing a mask, someone I don’t know.
A few weeks ago our neighbor had a garage sale when the event was citywide. I decided I didn’t need anything and just stayed home thinking I would avoid running into the wrong person.
Once Halloween is over it will be time to turn the clocks all back an hour and say goodbye to daylight savings time. It is going to make night come pretty early, but at least for a few days we can have some sunlight earlier in the morning.
Then in a couple of days we have election day. If you are like me, you have already voted and will be anxious to see the results. Best of all we won’t have to watch all the political ads that always go with elections.
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I’ve mentioned before about my computer and how I love it until the day it doesn’t work, then I can grumble on and on and still it doesn’t work. Some of the things that come with it is a program called Facebook. You have friends and my, I didn’t know I had so many.
It is nice in a way, but one has to be very careful what you say. I don’t understand how good, normal people can suddenly start using language that even I would have to say, “excuse me” you shouldn’t talk like that.
On the other hand, you find yourself with friends you never knew before or someone from the past, which is really great. One such individual is Father Tom Lindner, who I have known for lots of years. He was one of our summer student writers a couple of years and I really enjoyed his talents.
Well, now he has his own church in Wausau and recently came on my Facebook as a friend. He had taken us on some great travels and sometimes just comes up with a good one. Like for example this summer when we haven’t had church services, but Pastor Dan has come up with a great idea to bring a message to us every week. Then occasionally he has had an outdoor service, which is neat as well.
Leave it to Father Tom. He announced a few weeks ago they were going to have not an outdoor service but a “Mass in the Grass”.
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I guess you know I like to read newspapers. That is why I read five every week. The TRG of course, then the Port Aransas, Texas South Jetty, just to keep up with things in our winter home of 19 winters and to keep track of how they are coping with rebuilding after the hurricane three years ago.
Then there is the Medford Star-News where Mark used to work, but now I can keep track of his two kids, especially Morgan who is a member of the swim team and gets mentioned often.
There is also the Turtle Lake Times where I began my printing career and where “Over The Back Fence” began. Finally I read the Cumberland Advocate since Cumberland was the town where we did most of our shopping when I was a kid.
Last week they had a couple of stories that interested me. One was a story of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing factory that has been in the community for 70 years.
It all got started in 1950, when 3M officials visited the city and decided to start a plant there, part of a building project following World War II. It was pretty exciting as the community had no year round place of employment. Just the canning factory which was seasonal.
The city built a new building for them and when it was done over 2,000 people turned out for the open house.
Over 1,000 work applications were received and they started in May of 1950 with 25 employees making sandpaper. By November that number was almost up to 150. I had a lot of friends who worked there, or are still there.
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The other item was a report given to the city council by the head of the Barron County Economic Corporation. He filled them in on some projects going on in the city and then covered some things in the county. Like digging sand for the oil fracking industry. It is like so many things and what looks like a good thing when everyone jumps in. He said the sand business is about done as now they have found good sand in Texas, which is less expensive and the transportation costs are not as high.
Therefore, he noted, most of the plants are closing and some have even started to dismantle their equipment. If you travel up Highway 53 from Chippewa Falls there is one just before you get to New Auburn in Chippewa County, then three more in a row between there and Chetek and finally one on Highway 8 just west of Barron and east of Poskin. I was told Canadian National spent a million dollars just to rebuild the rail line to Ladysmith.
Saturday, as I drove to visit Sue and Mark at Holmen, I paid particular attention to those mines along Highway 95. All looked pretty idle. Even Badger Sand, which has been there for years.
