Start your week with a smile, a laugh, maybe an insight!
January 12, 2026 Good Monday Morning! January 9, 1976…..a very cold day in a cold winter. Never got above zero. But not in sunny California where the Minnesota Vikings were set to take on the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XI. (BTW, why do they insist on using Roman numerals to specify the Super Bowl? I’ve been confused since it got to XL……extra large? But I digress.) It was the last year of our residency, and as seniors, we were all able to get the day off, so……PARTY ON, Y’ALL! This was the fourth Super Bowl for our beloved Bud Grant and Vikes. Surely the Football gods would smile on them this time after three losses in the big game. As host of the party I felt responsible for providing a warm atmosphere and cold beer—the former a task for our poor furnace, the latter easy peasy at five below zero! The first quarter saw our team blow an excellent chance to score after a forced turnover. That proved to be a harbinger as the Vikes continued to play poorly while the Raiders did their juggernaut thing. Halftime saw our guests scurry to their cars to start ‘em up before their batteries went down. A foul mood descended on us as the game wore on. Some of my guests were, shall I say, avid fans with high expectations. “This is sure a great party,” one of them remarked sarcastically. People began leaving at the start of the fourth quarter and when the final gun sounded, my wife and I alone stared at the final score on the TV…..Oakland 32, Minnesota 14.
And that’s why I’ve never hosted another Super Bowl party! Now I just concentrate on the commercials—some of them are quite cute, don’t you know! Have a great week everyone!
January 5, 2026 Good Monday Morning! A lot has changed in the world of ice fishing in the last fifty years! I had a great time fishing with my dad back in the day. If we we were going for an afternoon or evening, we’d take his homemade portable canvas fish house…..a 4 holer with a propane heater. It accommodated two comfortably, three if mom came along, and four if it was really cold and someone else needed shelter! If we were only gonna fish for a couple of hours, say after work, we’d just sit out on the ice on our upturned 5 gallon buckets. Man, he caught a lot of fish. One year when the freezer was filled, he trotted out a recipe for pickled fish and onions. I thought the crappies he preserved that way were better than the traditional pickled herring! We had a great time……and great eats! Turns out, the grandkids wanted to experience ice fishing while they were visiting over Christmas. I was more than willing to help organize a day away from their phones and other devices! I found a house rental on Lake Minnetonka. As we drove up to the palace…..er, ice house, I knew they weren’t gonna get an experience like their great grandfather would have given them! Opening the door revealed a plush couch, table with booth seating, stove and oven, forced air heating, pre-drilled holes, rods and reels with all the tackle and bait we would need, a fish locator, and best of all, an underwater fish camera which displayed on a 20 inch flat screen! How cool is that? For the next 6 hours, we had a wonderful time watching the fish look at our bait before swimming away or……..gobbling it up! We all caught fish while enjoying friendly competition, ice house food and drink, and vowed we would do this again! (Great Grandpa Paul would have approved, I’m sure!) Have a great week everyone! It’s a new year….. time for some new experiences!
December 22, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy is still enjoying his time “offline,” so to speak. This little entry aired on 12/21/2015……..true then, true now!)
If you ever find yourself in a funk at this time of year, you should go see a dance recital. You will see 3–10 year olds strutting their stuff on stage in front of family and friends. OK, mostly family. But I’m talking 10 to 15 princesses at a time, line dancing to rockabilly Christmas music. They were keeping one eye on their off stage instructors until they hit the parts that were well practiced. Whirling and kicking and jumping, they sometimes managed to be right on time with the music beat! What they may have lacked in polish was more than made up for with enthusiasm. Not to mention the cuteness factor! You simply can’t maintain a funk with a stage performance like that.
Chinese medicine teaches us that our emotions are quite neutral. All have their place. But getting stuck in any emotion, positive as well as negative, can lead to trouble. Unfortunately, the world is more than willing to provide bad news to put us into a funk….and keep us there. Don’t take the bait! Don’t get stuck in a foul mood. There are plenty of great things going on around you. We just need to look for them.
Oh, and if a dance recital isn’t available, try an elementary school Christmas program. That will get you going again! Have a great week everyone, and a happy Christmas!
December 15, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: This GMM, chosen at random from the sealed mayonnaise jar that holds the GMM archives, first ran on January 18, 2010……well, maybe it first…. Rode?)
Before the ice and snow started coming, I enjoyed riding my bike to work. It’s an easy flat route, but involves crossing highway 22 – very busy in the morning with all the construction detours. Taking the tunnel under the highway was an obvious choice, but then you gotta go uphill on the other side. Well then, you just have to let it rip going down the hill so you can coast through and up the other side! I suppose I cranked it up to 10 miles an hour going down to the tunnel. One day, just as I got to the tunnel entrance, a bird sprang up from in front of me. I thought I was going to hit it for sure, but I didn’t want to brake and give up my coasting power! But the bird flew directly in front of me as if guiding me through the tunnel. We flew in tandem for a few seconds, and then veered apart at the far end of the tunnel, like flying Blue Angels at an airshow. OK, not quite that dramatic, but it was kind of cool.
We, too, are guides for our patients. Every time they walk through our door they are heading into a health care experience “tunnel,” as it were. All of us have a role in making it a safe and successful journey. And when it all ends well, it’s more than just kind of cool……..it’s fantastic! Have a great week everyone!
December 8, 2025 Goodbye Monday Morning! Yes, you read that correctly! Goodbye Monday Morning! GMM guy, say it ain’t so! What are we going to do without your words of wisdom to start the week? To that, GMM guy says “Relax, y’all! It’s not a permanent thing…..more like ‘hasta la vista’…..till we meet again.” It’s a busy season and lots of things to do, so GMM guy is going to stand down for the rest of December. He has great confidence in y’all to stand up and carry on! (Editor’s note: that’s the second use of the term “y’all” in this post. He likes to think he’s in the South, especially in the winter!) So, for the rest of the month I will be busy as a bee flitting around a flower garden. C u in Jan. In the meantime, some reruns may fill this space. Have a great week, y’all!
December 1, 2025 Good Monday Morning! The Winter Olympics are coming! February 6 is the opening day and I can hardly wait! I love all the events, but figure skating is amazing. All the twists and turns, jumps and pirouettes, and……falls. Yes, many skaters fall—gracefully or not—and get up to carry on like nothing happened. Skiers fall too, but they generally just go through the motions on their way down the hill. Don’t get me wrong….I admire them all. The commitment to excellence that they all have, training schedules that make me tired just thinking of them, and then performing on the biggest stage imaginable. I am so impressed with all of them. I’ve always thought that I could be an Olympian. Laughing you are…..I can feel it! But hear me out…..picture me as the third man on the four man bobsled! I’m short, chubby, but I could get myself in good enough shape for the short sprint at the start of the race. Then just hop in, hunker down, lean right or left as the driver tells me, and enjoy the ride! Cool! I can just picture me on the medal stand…..and I’d be in front ‘cuz I’m short! Have a great week everyone, and be careful on the snow and ice! But if you do fall, make like the skaters and jump up like nothing happened!
November 24, 2025
Good Monday Morning!
(Editor’s note: GMM guy’s creativity—if you can call it that—was all used up in developing a letter! So, that is what y’all are getting this morning in this so-called blog!)
An open letter to Mayo Clinic
Congratulations are in order for your consistent ranking as the number one hospital in the world! You provide such extraordinary outcomes for a variety of medical problems and your use of high-tech medicine is unparalleled. We are very lucky in many ways to live so close to the World Famous Mayo Clinic. As a forward looking corporation, I am sure you assess your future plans and goals from time to time. Do you ever look at your goals to see if they align with the basic goals of Medicine? In 1999, the Hastings Center for Bioethics articulated four basic goals of Medicine:
The prevention of disease.
Relief of pain and suffering
Care of the ill and cure of the ill, and care for those not curable.
Avoidance of premature death. It is no accident that the emphasis of these goals is on the Care of the ill. Cure is important, of course, but we all need care. And who better to deliver that care than your Family Practice physicians and nurses? They are trained to care for all of their patients and to coordinate care with specialists when needed. They develop long lasting personal relationships with patients, families, and community. When cure is no longer possible and death is inevitable, Family physicians work with Hospice to insure that the care of the dying patient is continued. Your Hospice nurses were experts in delivering relief from pain and suffering and in coordinating care with the patients medical team. They were all all about continuity of care while focusing on the patient. You should read the comments of families who have experienced Hospice and get an understanding of the deep relationships the Hospice teams were able to develop in such a short time.
Your recent actions in closing the local Mayo Hospice program and shuttering six primary care clinics—including St. Peter and North Mankato—appear to be a direct antithesis to the Goals of Medicine as set by the Hastings Center. I have not seen a detailed explanation for your actions, let alone being asked for local input before the decisions were made. Such behavior leads one to believe that you don’t really care about us, and I don’t think that is the message you want to convey. It is possible to go down both roads at the same time, where equal emphasis on both cure and care is established. You can be the world’s experts in both, if you choose. Otherwise I think you need to amend your catchy slogan; “The needs of the patient comes first……and we know best what you need!”
November 17, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I loved Sesame Street…..not afraid to say it! I watched with the kids whenever I could. I especially liked the parodies of popular songs, like “Letter B” for the Beatles hit tune “Let It Be,” and characters like Meryl Sheep, an obvious spoof on the actress Meryl Streep. (Ms. Sheep ran an acting school for kids on the show!) It was entertainment for both the kiddos and their parents. But one thing bothered me a little…..the rapid switch from one scene to the next led me to worry about reinforcing a short attention span among the kids. Silly me…..it was reinforcing it in me, too! Have you observed how television ads or most music videos are presented? The video doesn’t stream as much as it flips from one still to another, rapidly! Most scenes or camera angle shots last less than 2 seconds. Go ahead…..time ‘em out. Thousand one, thousand two, …….you won’t get to thousand three unless the video is showing the name of the advertiser. I’m sure it is the same with all the screen time the kids engage in. No wonder my eyes are killing me after watching the Vikings play yesterday. “GMM guy,” you might say, “yer eyes are killing you cuz the Vikings laid an egg on Sunday!” That too….. Anyway, I wish you all a great week. I think I might try those cucumber slices on the ol’ peepers!
November 10, 2025 Good Monday Morning! A historic day, Sunday! The Government shutdown apparently is over!…..and the Vikings façade was ripped off by the Ravens from Baltimore to reveal severe, season ending flaws! All the promise building from the dismal end of last season—even through the ankle injury to J. J. McCarthy—was washed away in an ugly loss. I’m starting to think that we fans are chumps! We drank the Kool- aid..….no, we gulped it down! And Sunday’s game is the reality. But whatcha gonna do come next July? The summer’s heat will have put me in a stupor making me susceptible to the Vikings front office ad men who will sing their praises of the off-season acquisitions and the “lessons learned” from last year. Yada, yada. I’ll probably climb on the train again and head into September with a full head of steam, ignoring the fact that a derailment is coming up. Always has. Four times it didn’t go off the tracks until the end…..Four Super Bowl losses! But usually, the end comes much earlier, leaving a hollow feeling through the winter. Right now, our poor Vikings are at the bottom of their conference. I like to think of myself as a pragmatic optimist, but sometimes I just go for broke! And wildly optimistic folk have a lot of fun before the derailment! Can’t deny that! Have a great week everyone! Remember, football is just a game! And I’m glad the shutdown is ending, but the main disagreements aren’t solved. Aunt Alice once said “I’m not voting for ANY incumbents!”……I’m starting to see her point!
November 3, 2025 Good Monday Morning! November already! Where did the autumn go? Just look in the rear view mirror, then return your eyes to the road. There it is…the signpost up ahead….WINTER! I always think of November as the transition month between fall and winter. And do I like transitions? Well now, I usually rail against them because I like things the way they are. There’s even a word for that….inertia! And to paraphrase Newton’s First Law of Motion, one which I adhere to..…. “A body at rest stays at rest until kicked out of bed by its wife.” But I do like the change of seasons we have in Minnesota and the transition months—February, May, August, November—let me ease into the next phase of the year. Well, maybe not February as it I feels more like a continuation of winter! It was only last week I reminded y’all that the only thing you really control is your attitude! So…..repeat after me…. “I feel good! Winter is fun!….I feel good! Winter is fun” (Truth be told, I sometimes choose a ‘bad’ attitude in the winter! Seems it’s a little too long and hard!)
Anyway, that’s all I got for this Monday morning. Yeah, a little lame, I admit, but in my defense, I’m still half frozen from attending the Gopher—Michigan State football game on Saturday. Seems like I can’t even take the transition weather anymore! I’m staying inside and watching on TV! Have a great week everyone!
October 27, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Sunday was a glorious day, though it was a more than a little windy! (Hey! This is Minnesota, dontcha know? Things are never perfect!) Still, it was a great day to take down the garden……all three tomato plants and one cucumber vine. Tradition states that the remaining green tomatoes are picked and carefully wrapped in sheets of newspaper and placed in a cardboard box. I found an even dozen of the emerald beauties and I wrapped them individually, just as Grandpa Bocky taught me. It’s a time honored ritual to extend the summer……home grown tomatoes on the table in November! Nobody raves about the quality of those tomatoes, but as Gramps said, “They’re a dam site better than the plastic ones at the store!” Of course, he said that about most anything made at home! With the thoughtful part of the job done, it was on to ripping up the plants and piling them up on a tarp, eventually hauling them off to the compost pile. But I always remember the planting in the spring and how small the tomatoes looked then, and I’m always amazed by how large they grew, and all the fruit they produced. And I have so loved the taste of tomatoes, picked from the vine with a little salt…mmm…..mmm good! (Yeah, I still use a little salt even when the doctor tells me not to. What do doctors know anyway!) Have a great week everyone. November is just around the corner and it will surely bring winter down on us all. Remember, all you really control is your attitude!
October 20, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Could be . . . Who knows? . . . There’s something due any day— I will know right away, Soon as it shows. Something’s Coming from West Side Story
Did you ever have the feeling that something was about to happen? It could be something good, like Tony is expecting in West Side Story. Or it could be something ominous just waiting to burst your bubble. Or maybe it’s just that uneasy feeling that things are about to change, and you’re gonna have to wait to know if it’s good or bad! That’s where I’ve been the last few days, and like the horse in Ren and Stimpy, “No sir, I don’t like it!” It just gives me a crawly feeling, leaving me wishing it will come, whatever it is, and get it over with! But what often actually happens is……nothing! The anxious feeling gradually subsides and I’m back to my usual boring life. You’d think I’d get used to it, but I don’t! So if you notice me looking over my right shoulder, or tossing salt over my left shoulder, just tell me that everything will work out fine! There is a lot of stress floating around—our Sarah has moved to a foster home in Mankato—so that accounts for a lot. We are blessed to have such good people willing to do foster care, but at the same time, I’ve grown accustomed to her living with us, and it feels like a huge loss. The rational part of me recognizes that this is the right decision, but the feeling part screams that this is wrong. And I know, like The Rolling Stones so eloquently said, time is on my side! So I will keep that in mind as the days turn into weeks. Just wish it wasn’t winter lurking in the weeks ahead! Have a great week everyone! Halloween is coming up…….I just love those little Kit-Kat bars!
October 13, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I always thought I was a “weekend” type of guy. You know, laid back and kinda lazy. Turns out, I was born on a Thursday! And you know what they say about that….. “Thursday’s child has far to go!” More about that later! I was playing with the calendar on my phone and I wondered how far in the past it would go. And it goes way back! July 4, 1776, was a Thursday, but Tuesday July 2 was the date when the resolution of separation from Great Britain was passed in Congress. The well known Declaration of Independence was an announcement to the world of the July 2 resolution. October 12, 1492–the day Columbus landed in the islands of the Caribbean, (by mistake!)—was a Friday. TGIF! Columbus was probably a weekend guy at heart. Point is, the information on hand—in the palm of my hand—is phenomenal! Years ago, I loved going to the library to find the information I needed for school and for personal interest. Now I can sit in my easy chair as though I was in the world’s greatest library, and the information I want/need is at my fingertips….literally! And wouldn’t it be great if the internet ended right there, instead of being the play place for the worst elements of our society? They use it to spread lies and hate, scam and steal, intimidate and bully, and appeal to the worst in us. Now with the added benefit of AI, they play with the truth like it was a toy. I don’t know if how long it will take, but we simply must get a reasonable control of this behemoth without resorting to censorship, and that will involve cooperation from all. So….. Thursday’s child has far to go I’m on my way but not yet there My secret plan? Go with the flow Enjoy the good stuff everywhere! Have a great week everyone……and don’t go down the rabbit holes in the internet!
October 6, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Wow! GMM guy had the most amazing movie experience ever last Saturday! And it was on old movie, “The Empire Strikes Back,” but shown at Orchestra Hall…with the Minnesota Symphony playing ALL the music, live. The Hall was packed with kids from seven to seventy eight, some in costumes like Darth Vader, some like Obiwan, and all excitedly milling around. The lights dimmed , the orchestra stopped their warm up toots, and all went quiet until the conductor came out carrying not a baton but a light saber! The cheer was thunderous, and she invited the crowd to participate in the film, cheering the heroes and booing the villains, and applauding the music…..anytime …….and we did! I’ve seen the movie several times, of course, as it was one of the family favorites (the whole series was, except for Jar-Jar!) The movie was so familiar that I paid more attention to the music and musicians. They were rock stars, in my opinion. The music flowed from action filled battles to quiet reflective scenes, and even cheesy drama dialogue…… Scene: Han Solo is about to be frozen in carbonite and sent to Jamba the Hut Princess Leia: “I love you!” Han Solo: “I know!” Oh, it was great fun for all and everyone stayed in their seats as the credits rolled to more music, so clear and fresh! After the final note, as the conductor turned to the face the audience, I saw something I’ve not seen at any concert…….the crowd leapt to their feet as one with another thunderous round of applause and cheers! The conductor had two curtain calls while light sabers flashed throughout the concert hall. Like no movie I’ve ever seen! Have a great week everyone! I hear they are going to do “Princess Bride” next! I’m all in!
September 29, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Strange times we’re having, ain’t we? Country divided, political violence, unpopular policies. Have we been here before? Ah, yes……..the 60’s! The great divide then was over the Vietnam War. Hawks and doves, if you want to reduce it to that . But it was more complicated than that. Dad wasn’t a war monger, but neither was he a peace-nik, and we boys took our cues from him. Pa was a Great Depression survivor and a New Deal Democrat, a firm believer in the government’s commitment to honesty in its dealings with the people. But moreover, he told us, “It’s my country, right or wrong!” When circumstances led to the loss of his farm deferral, he was drafted into the Army and served 2 years in a “good fight” against totalitarianism. So when North Vietnam attacked our warship in the Gulf of Tonkin, Pa took it as a sign that it was time for the next generation to protect freedom from the scourge of communism. We boys were not gung-ho for war, but from the moment I heard about the Gulf of Tonkin in August of 1964, I had the strongest feeling that I would be part of the conflict. Just as my dad had given up his deferment, I let my student deferment slide and was drafted. Pa was supportive during several talks with my friends, over cards and beer of course. He warned us once that we might not all make it home intact….it would prove prophetic. My tour of duty lasted a year and then I returned to being a college student. While I was still supportive of our stated goals of insuring freedom for South Vietnam and stopping Communism, my enthusiasm was eroding. So was my dad’s. The years slipped by, the war deaths escalated, and no real progress could be seen. Student protests became more widespread. There were clashes with the police and National Guard, most notably at Kent State. At the U of MN, students shut down the main campus in the spring of 1972 but our class of the Medical School voted to continue classes……the value of medical education to society should trump political differences. But the severity of the protests , the indiscriminate bombing of North Vietnam, the lack of progress in winning the war for the people of South Vietnam, and the slow realization that our government had been lying to the people for years finally flipped my lid……you really hate to admit you have been on the wrong side. I’ve been on a peace journey since then though I’m not anti military. There is still potential for evil regimes that respond only to force. While Pa didn’t join any war protests, he no longer supported the war. “The kids had it right,” he said! And it was no longer “My country, right or wrong!” I guess my point is that we’ve been through tumultuous times, and we seem to be in some again. Keep your wits about you and work through it….you’ll be OK……I hope! Have a great week everyone
September 22, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy has a severe case of rider’s block. No, that’s not a typo…….he took a ride on the Metro Blue line from the MOA to Target field to see the Twins last home game. The seats were so hard that he claims his brain was addled by all the shaking and rattling. But Mr. Editor, you might ask, how exactly would he know when his brain is addled since he has many random periods of scatterbrained thinking! You would be correct, of course, but this is a family blog and I don’t want to push him to upload any pics of bruises on his derrière for proof so I take him at his word. BTW, the Twins stood up and rallied to beat Cleveland and win that last home game of the season. It was Kids Appreciation Day at the ball park and there were at least a bazillion kiddos. It was a perfect day for a ball game and the kids loved every minute of it. The scoreboard cam showed their games, antics, and dancing between the innings and they were as entertaining as the game itself. After the game was over the kids got to “run the bases” with the players on the field…..so exciting! The poor Twins will have to finish the season on the road and then limp into the off-season, hoping to improve individually and collectively so that 2026 will prove to be more competitive. I am excited by play off baseball and always look forward to the World Series, hoping that the Yankees are NOT part of it! I’m sure GMM guy’s brain will be un-addled by next week and he will be back to his normal self, but then, how would we know for certain? Have a great week everyone!)
September 15,2025 Good Monday Morning! Are you having trouble with your sinuses due to all the fall allergens in the air? Are you sneezing and snorting as you try to read the Sunday morning paper? Are you thinking you should’ve put your IRA money into Kleenex stock? Well folks, have I got the solution for you! Go make some horseradish! You don’t know how, you say? Well now, it the simplest recipe ever! (You tube will confirm!) I learned from my grandfather who was always making things in the kitchen. (He wasn’t much of a cook, though…..he left that to grandma who was a great cook and baker!) Trouble was, his eyes were failing him rapidly and I only knew him when he needed help “making things.” That job usually fell to aunt Alice and whichever one of us grandkids she could corral, and that was usually me. But I never complained of a single minute I spent with him. Grandpa was good at digging up the roots, but we had to lead him to the plants. Then auntie and I would wash and peel them in the basement releasing the first whiffs of.…Allyl isothiocyanate, the pungent aromatic in horseradish! Grandpa would grab those roots and start grating them as if it was a timed test on a TV game show! Actually, I think he was trying to get it done before he passed out! The faster he grated, the more the oxygen in the air was replaced by that snot producing chemical. Aunt Alice, coughing and sneezing, retreated upstairs. Grandpa and I hung in there and completed the process by adding water and vinegar, finally placing it in a bottle……with a very tight cover. Now, all we needed was some of grandma’s roast beef for a great sandwich! Our horseradish in the garden had a great summer, growing like a weed. Some might say it is a weed, but no matter, I’m going to make some sauce. Just let me know if your sinuses need clearing and I’ll let you know when I start the grating! Have a great week everyone!
September 8, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Several years ago I won a lottery of sorts…..I was chosen to participate in a backpacking trip on Isle Royale! This was not long after my heart attack and bypass surgery so I was eager to prove I still ‘had it’ when it came to manly things like hiking and carrying loads. However, I needed practice to get my body in shape. I loaded up my backpack with stuff until it weighed 25 pounds, the exact amount our guide said I would carry. I walked through the neighborhood and a trail near some woods where I found wild raspberries! I practiced eating those, too! One of my neighbors spotted me wolfing down the berries and thought I was a vagrant, nearly calling the police before I moved on, I learned later! There were eight of us on this well planned trip, all of us not strangers to the outdoors, but most of us on our first backpacking experience. Our packs were all prepared before boarding the ferry to the grand Isle Royale, so we picked them up when we landed and started our adventure. Despite my “intense practice,” I quickly became the caboose of our little train, often falling back so far that I couldn’t see any of my mates. That’s when one of them would wait for me, ostensibly to point out a flower or rock formation, but really being sure I wasn’t lost! The day became warmer and the trail decidedly more rough, and my memory less reliable. So I’m going to fast forward to the end of the day where I discovered the most comfortable spot on earth! GMM guy would not lie to you, folks. The absolute most comfortable place is a river rock shore on Isle Royale! A backdrop of tall dark pines guard this sun baked beach as the river rocks were beckoning. A light breeze blew in with the breath of the sea and the rocks were…..well, rock hard! “Take a break,” barked our leader, and I didn’t waste any time shedding my pack and lying down. The more I wiggled and settled in, the more I was floating! I was weightless like those astronaut trainees. Would GMM guy lie about something like that? (Editor’s note: OK, that’s twice he’s talked about lying! I must say that GMM guy has been known to stretch the truth a bit!) Something magical happened, though I’m sure I was awake! Folks, I floated away until I hit rock bottom! Next stop….Nirvana! “Up and at ‘em,” shouted Der Leader, and the pillows seemed to collapse as one. “Gotta make 2miles before we camp, and the sun ain’t waiting on ya!” The reverie broken, if that’s what it was. The hours of trudging on the trail with a backpack our leader said was 25 pounds (though me think our leader is dyslexic and my pack was really 52 pounds!) was certainly worth that “other worldly” 20 minutes on a rock beach! Have a great week everyone! Hope your hikes are easy ones!
September 1, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Is it the last day of summer or the first day of fall? “GMM guy,” astute readers might ask, “isn’t this a trick question?” Can’t get anything over on y’all! You’re right! It all depends on your attitude…….do you tolerate sweltering summer months and love the cooler days of autumn? Or are you like me, love summer and can’t stand the impending doom of winter! Yes, I usually feel down on Labor Day. It was the last day of swimming at Tourtellotte Park…….closed it down year after year, I did, when I was as a kid. Always was something to look forward to after helping can tomatoes most of the day. But it was the end of summer vacation that bummed me out. And now I really don’t like the idea of having to wear jackets and boots and wait months for spring to come. But this year is different. I—WE—are celebrating this Labor Day. It’s been 35 years since Terry’s cancer diagnosis. Thirty five years to participate in the ups and downs of life, to help preschoolers get a great start, to see the lives of our amazing children unfold, to hold our grandchildren in our arms! So this year, I’m not going to be downhearted………but I still don’t like the idea of snow coming! Have a great week everyone! Enjoy it all!
August 25, 2025 Good Monday Morning! “Salut! Je vous souhaite une merveilleuse semaine et j’espère que vous trouverez de la joie chaque jour!” Back in high school, if some pretentious French student would blurt out a string of words like this, some smart aleck would answer, “You do, and you clean it up!” French, German, and Spanish were offered at our high school. But I was encouraged to take Latin as I had expressed an interest in pre-med. I did OK, and I’m sure it helped me in assimilating medical jargon, but I wish I had taken a one of the others—and been really good at it! So I could travel and have conversations with people. To me, that would have been so exotic. Our tour guide and most of the people we interacted with were bilingual so there were no real communication barriers…..except for the gas station attendant where I asked for a Lottery ticket. The signs were all in French and the young miss didn’t understand my feeble attempts to communicate, so I just pointed to the one I hoped had the biggest payoff. She gave me the slip—entirely in French!—and what do I do now? I may be a millionaire for all I know! Well, maybe a $722,831.-er, at the current rate of exchange! Anyway, I have a year to cash it in so I’m looking to find some French classes to audit. So far I’ve mastered “Bonjour” (Good Day/Hello) and “passe le beurre” (pass the butter)……it is sweet corn season, don’t ya know! Oh yeah, that opening phrase! It translates thusly……. “Hello! I wish you a wonderful week and hope you find joy in each day!” Have a great week everyone!
August 18, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy is in Canada today and yes, I know it’s Tuesday, but GMM guy has it in his head that since his travel day was so long he somehow crossed the International Date Line……backwards! So to him , today is Monday. If you run into him, don’t say “Good Tuesday” to him, just “Bonjour,” or better yet, “G’day mate!”……that’ll play into his fantasy!) Travel is getting harder. I know this because I forget to bring more essentials with me every time I go somewhere. This time…. 1.The half-read book I was going to finish during the layovers. It’s a story set in the area of Canada we are visiting, so I could say with authority, “Here’s the bistro we want to try!”
2.My hat with the Fleur-de-lis symbol. I thought it might smooth the way in French speaking Quebec. Instead, I had to explain the “half-drunken, rosy cheeked joker” ( translation : “farceur aux joues roses à moitié ivre”) on my hat! He was the mascot of the Baby Cakes, a minor League baseball team from New Orleans.
3.My comfy sandals. I have a painful blister on a toe so I planned to air it out as we relaxed. Instead, I traveled in my semi-dressy shoes and packed my everyday shoes…..the ones that caused the blister!
4.My wife! We had made our way through Canadian customs machines and joined the line for an interview with an agent. I always think I must look like a smuggler, the way they eye me out. She was a stern young lady asking the usual questions….where was I going, where was I staying, was anyone traveling with me….. “Yes, my wife,” I said. I turned to show her my beautiful wife and…..where was she?! I did I full 360 search, nearly losing my balance as I pirouetted, and couldn’t see her. She had vanished! The agent’s eyes narrowed as she gave me an even more penetrating look. “She was just here,” I stammered, and she waited as I anxiously tried to find her. “There she is,” I shouted! She was with an agent 3 stalls away. International crisis averted.
We still have a couple of days to spend in a foreign country, so I’m expecting more adventures, but we will make it back to good ol’ Minnesota eventually………God willing and the creek don’t rise! Have a great week everyone.
August 11, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I met up recently with an old buddy of mine. We were inseparable through high school and the first year or so of college. But then the Army picked us off one by one to serve in Vietnam because, officially, we were not “making sufficient progress toward a degree.” Translation: we were drinking beer and fooling around a lot! I was the first to go and then Mike about a year later. So it was that my tour of duty ended just before his embarked. While he was in Vietnam I wrote him a rambling letter about how I was depressed and lovelorn, ending by betting him five dollars that he would certainly get married before I ever did! (That first year back from the Army was a doozy and it took awhile to get on track.) Well, as things proceeded, I did indeed convince Terry to marry me, I got accepted to medical school, and we were married in 1971. Mike met his future wife in the early 70’s and was married in 1974. He produced the letter and was wondering where his five simoleons were…..plus inflation! $5.00 would be $46.19 in today’s dollars. And if invested properly in 1968 , it would be worth $944.26! I quickly sent a copy off to my lawyers—Dewey, Cheetum, and Howe—to see if I had grounds to wiggle out of that bet. They found evidence that proved depression, that I clearly was out of my mind and therefore not responsible for my actions. Whew! Thank goodness for lawyers! Then I got their bill for $1,000! Have a great week everyone! Next week GMM guy will be on vacation. He’s going to Canada, but he hasn’t called ahead to see if they are still letting Americans visit. He may get held up in customs for who knows how long!
August 4, 2025 Good Monday Morning! MM’s I call them……Memorable Moments. You know, those times that are forever etched in your memory, like where you were when you heard that President Kennedy was shot, or for you youngsters, where you were when you heard Prince had OD’d. A lot of memories are malleable and change, depending on time and audience, to make a story more appealing. (Son Joseph is an expert at this!) But it’s impossible to forget MM’s. A couple of them come to mind as I recall my journey in medicine. You may recall that from earliest memory, I always knew I was meant to be a physician. But then came the nuts and bolts of getting sufficient grades and experience to be accepted in medical school. I was temporarily dismayed by the MCAT test, but I waited to hear from the U of MN. It was a nice autumn day and I had walked home from school to find my mom holding an envelope for me. She was so excited. The envelope was bulging as if it would burst with good news…..or bad news! I held it for awhile before opening it as I was certain of its contents. I’ve always regretted not showing a little excitement for my mom’s sake. She was on cloud nine! Later, as I shared the news with my future wife Terry, we “celebrated” not with champagne but with apple pie and coffee. She, like I, was excited but also sobered by the news. My journey was begun! Another MM occurred a few years after I started private practice. The clinic I joined had a policy of having the nurses rotate among the doctors so that all the nurses would learn the idiosyncrasies of all the doctors, and there were many! That’s an advantage when it comes to vacations and sick days, but doesn’t do much for continuity of care. A decision was made to pair up—one doc, one nurse—and the more senior physicians chose their nurses first. When it was my turn, I did what I always did in those situations….hemmed and hawed! Indecision is my middle name! Finally, a young nurse said “I choose you!”, and it forever changed my practice. Thus FNH (Faithful Nurse Helen Peterson) and I began OUR practice of compassionate, personal care for all our patients, and though we weren’t perfect and it wasn’t always easy, we had the best intentions for everyone. And I’ve been forever grateful that she made that decision! Have a great week everyone! Remember, the fair comes once a year…..in August! And this is the week for Nicollet County!
July 28, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Whew! It was a hot one yesterday. We kinda hunkered down at home……same as we do in January when it’s 20 below! But it didn’t use to be so easy to keep one’s cool. AC was a luxury we didn’t even know existed when we were kids. Summer meant open the windows wide and turn on the one little oscillating fan we owned. We moved that fan from room to room as needed, and Pa got to use it at night. We kids often slept on the floor of the porch. One home we lived in had a second story screened in porch and we moved our beds out there in June. (Six boys…..three double beds!) We would catch a breeze off the trees and have a little relief, but watch out if it stormed! Moved back to the bedrooms in time for school. The first AC we (Terry and I) had was after our first son was born, and it wasn’t in a home. It was in a truck, of all things. Pa and I got together to get a better deal on 2 new Dodge trucks, both with AC. We could turn that standard cab to a refrigerator on the hottest days, and we took long rides to cool off during the heat waves. We were getting soft! Then we splurged on a room air conditioner which could only get the living room comfortable so we moved our mattress out there and closed off our bedroom and the kitchen. One night after putting Matt back to sleep (after he finished his midnight feeding,) I awoke around 2 AM, sweating like the proverbial pig! What’s going on? The AC was running at full blast, but what was that other sound? It was the furnace fan! Oh boy! Instead of turning the furnace off in April when it was no longer needed, I had just turned the thermostat—located next to Matt’s room— down to 50 degrees. Matt never failed to swipe at the thermostat when I carried him back in his crib. This time he must have hit it and turned it up to 88 degrees! The poor little AC was no match for the furnace! Made for a memorable night for sure! (I think that’s why Matt became a scientist—turning up the dial at 7 months old!) Have a great week everyone! The weatherman says it will be cooler by Wednesday!
July 21, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Did you ever see a robin have an existential fight with a night crawler? Well, existential for the worm. We kids hunted night crawlers for fishing and I can tell you they can put up a fight. We had to be quick as they could easily glide back into their holes. And they are slippery little buggers! So watching the robins hunt them early in the morning can be entertaining. I once saw a robins lose his balance and fall over while pulling on a fat night crawler. By the time he got up again, the worm had escaped. A rare victory for worm-kind! I sometimes wonder what that feels like when the bird finally shakes the worm into its gizzard. The worm must continue wriggling around for awhile! Sometimes the young birds seem to have a stunned look on their face, as in “What did I just do?”Sometimes they shake their heads a few times and I envision them saying, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!” Well, it’s interesting to muse about, but I ain’t gonna try it. Unlike our friend Jackie. In those days, we were always daring each to do something or, in this case, swallow something. Jackie was perhaps the bravest—or maybe the most foolhardy—of us all. The rest of us double dog dared him—and promised him a dime—if he swallowed it whole. Imagine that! A whole dime! Anyway, he was the king of the dares for quite awhile after he did just that! This all reminds me of the poor guy who was fishing late one evening on one of our local lakes. His wife wanted one last chance at a big bullhead and wound up for a mighty cast. Only she missed her mark and hooked her husband—right in his lower lip! They were afraid to touch it, so they cut the line and rushed him to my ER, all the while the poor worm was wriggling around on his lip! I can still see the sad look on the husband while Missus appeared bemused. The worm, by the way, looked appropriately anxious! The surgery was successful—we got the hook out—but the worm died. Can’t win ‘em all! Have a great week everyone.
July 14, 2025 Good Monday Morning!
Summer time, and the living is easy The fish are jumpin’, and the cotton is high… “Porgy and Bess” George Gershwin
Confession time—I haven’t seen the play (or movie) in its entirety, but I sure love the music! I am also sure that if Gershwin loved corn as much as I do, he’d have replaced “cotton” with “sweet corn” in those lyrics! In this modern age, we’ve had access to fresh sweet corn for a couple of months already as growers in Georgia and Indiana always get a jump start on us. As for quality and taste, it has improved greatly over the years. It has always been more expensive than local corn which starts coming in about mid July. I don’t get snobby about many things, but I make an exception for sweet corn! Locally grown and fresh off the stalk…….doesn’t get any better! But before you can cook it, ya gotta shuck it. And that was an adventure of sorts when I was young. We kids were put to work on that job. Each ear of corn could reveal a major problem —icky, gooey corn smut!—and there was sure to be a few in every bag. Nobody wanted to handle that so we’d get dad to lop off the bad part with a cleaver. We’d rub the silk off each ear and hand it over to mom who boiled it. Many a summer supper consisted of corn on the cob and tomatoes! It was so good! When was the last time you saw any smut on corn? Or ears that were half full of stunted kernels? Now each and every ear appears to be full-kerneled, right to the tip of the ear! Agriculture seems to have solved a few problems in a very short time. And, like the song suggests, living just got a little easier! Now, if I could just catch a few of them jumping fish! Interesting fact….just heard that a consortium of chefs recommends boiling corn for the best flavor. Forget about the fancy grilling and roasting! Have a great week everyone, and do enjoy the summer!
July 7, 2025 Good Monday Morning! “But it’s alright, it’s alright For we lived so well so long Still, when I think of the Road we’re traveling on I wonder what’s gone wrong I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong….” “American Tune” Paul Simon
The next time you’re in a building, say a hospital, and you’re walking down a long corridor, notice the lights on the ceiling panels. They will usually be evenly spaced and quite bright, casting a circle of light on the polished floor below. Your own GMM guy invented a game to play if you happened to be walking alone and were bored or needed distraction. It’s called “ceiling light slalom.” The object is to avoid the bright light circle on the floor by walking around it, then zigzagging over to the other side to avoid the next circle. You will quickly observe that the circle appears to follow you and nearly force you into the side wall before you can start your weave to the other side. The origin of the game stems from 1998 when I had my coronary bypass. The only memory of the surgery I have was the trip to the OR…. I was flat on my back on a gurney. All I could see was was the ceiling. The lights made quite an impression on me it seems. I was acutely reminded of that day this weekend when I visited the ER. Seems my heart function went sideways for awhile (got short of breath and more angina pains) and I was a little worried that I might need some help. There I was on that gurney again, looking at the ceiling only this time just going for an X-ray. (By the way, the gurney ride was a lot more comfortable…..must have added some shock absorbers or something in the last 27 years!) The tests all showed that, yeah, there was something going on, but since I decided that I didn’t want any more intervention, I could go home and go see my usual doctor to adjust my meds. Woo-hoo! That’s what I like to hear! Actually, any intervention in my situation would be very risky…..and would have low chances of providing any lasting improvement. So that was an easy one. And as Paul Simon said later in this, my most favorite of his songs, “We can’t be forever blessed…” I have been so blessed for so long that the needle on my gratitude-ometer is at maximum! And it’s going to stay there no matter what! So, have a great week everyone. I know I am gonna have an excellent one!
June 31, 2025 Good Monday Morning on Tuesday! (Editor’s note: GMM guy has been feeling a little under the weather lately………literally! I heard him ranting about how awful the weather has been during one of his favorite months. Rain, wind, more rain. Hence the date of this entry…….giving June one more day to straighten up! But it was a little more than just the weather, so he made an appointment to see a real doctor. He still thinks he is seeing “the doctor” when he gets up in the morning and looks in the mirror. I have to gently remind him that he gave up his license several years ago. The doctor—actually a very nice Nurse Practitioner—checked him out, ordered what he considered appropriate tests, and convinced him he wasn’t dying! However, it only takes a little experience with the current delivery of medical care to get GMM guy nostalgic for the way it used to be. “We always saw our own patients,” he muttered. “We didn’t send any of them off to see Urgent Scare!” Again, I had to remind him that it is Urgent Care, not Scare, and it hadn’t been invented yet when he first practiced. Besides, didn’t his favorite singer Neil Diamond declare that “used to be’s don’t count anymore, they just lay on the floor til we sweep them away?” I had to agree with him that care seemed a little more personal in yesteryears, but that technology is adding a lot to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Maybe in the future there will be more recognition of the role of personal care and compassion, like he and Faithful Nurse Helen provided, in the care and outcome of medical problems. In the meantime, just zip it! He reluctantly agreed and then promised to be back at work next week. Have a great week everyone. And a happy 4th of July! Remember, if you come forth with a fifth on the Fourth, you likely won’t come forth on the Fifth!)
June 23, 2025 Good Monday Morning! It was a bad day for the weeds the day Bocky had his second leg taken off! It all started with one toe on his right foot turning gangrenous because of poor circulation caused by diabetes. I was with him when he lopped that off himself using an old wire cutter. “Probably better than the old doc would do!,” Grandpa exclaimed. But when the rest of the foot showed signs of failing blood supply, Bocky relented and had the first leg removed. Though he was in his seventies and had diabetes causing heart, eye, and kidney problems besides circulation, he wasn’t going to let it take away his ability to get around. He got himself fitted with an artificial leg , and with the help of a cane, he was back on his feet and walking…….and gardening! Oh yes, there were plenty of falls, but none not followed by a rising. Not long after that, the second foot showed the telltale signs of small artery disease. He would try to keep it away as long as possible. I helped him with the “shock baths”—a therapy where the diseased limb was dunked in tubs of hot and cold water, alternately, for 10 minutes at a time. We used 5 gallon buckets, and they were sure heavy. I slopped a little on the floor but Bocky didn’t seem to mind. As a therapy, it didn’t help, of course, but it was something to do. The second leg was also lost. But as soon as the wound was healed, we were back to Rochester (Mayo) to be fitted for stump boots! (Prosthetic limbs at that were quite clunky and heavy—even Grandpa couldn’t handle that! I have no doubt that if this was happening today, Bocky would be up and running on a pair if titanium legs!) But he could “walk” on his knees as if they were feet. Just needed a good pair of boots. It was so important for him to take as much care of himself as possible, and those boots helped immensely. Of course it helped that he was strong as an ox.(You do remember, his brother was the”World Champion” wrestler who wound up in Australia!) He could lift himself off the floor and into his chair with ease. He was back to gardening in no time. Only this time a lot closer to the ground! Previously, when he worked in the yard or garden, his hoe also served as his cane. And when he spotted any weeds, they got a good whacking with the hoe. Trouble is, with his weak vision, there wasn’t much difference between the weeds and, say, broccoli, or beets, etc. Grandma had to replant sometimes. But now the weeds were in danger. Bocky was much better when he was closer to his work and using a hand shovel instead of a hoe. I’ve been thinking a lot of Grandpa a lot lately as my shoulder hurts, and my chest pains, and my feet are burning. Wait a minute…..what if I had no feet? Time to be more grateful for what I have, more accepting of what I can’t change…….and DO SOMETHING! Even if it’s just pulling weeds! Have a great week everyone!
June 16, 2025 Good Monday Morning!
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane Ain’t got time to take a fast train Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home My baby, just a wrote me a letter…
“The Letter” by The Box Tops, 1967
In June, 1968, I was getting short, and songs like that took on more intense feelings. I was due for rotation out of Vietnam in early August, so I was becoming a “short timer”. I carried a small stick with me, and when someone wanted to put me on a detail I didn’t like, I’d just show my stick and walk away. Well, that was the theory, but I didn’t use it much. My buddy Aggie was also due to leave for the States at the same time, and we played all the “I wanna go home” songs on his tape player every chance we got. As we drank a warm brewski or two, of course. He was from Michigan, and his favorite song was “Detroit City.” The more beer he drank, the more he played it. I didn’t care for it (too twangy for me) but I tolerated it for his sake. You see, Aggie was the only guy I knew who got a real “Dear John” letter while 8,000 miles away from home. Not a nice letter like the BoxTops sang of. His sweetheart—whom he had talked about nonstop for several months—dumped him, and that was that. Took up with a supposed “friend” to boot. (At the time, I wasn’t in such a relationship, though I was writing letters to my future wife.) Poor Aggie, I felt like somebody had to stay loyal, so I did my best to not let him drown in his beer. About that time, the Army instituted a program that allowed returning soldiers with less than three months of service remaining to be discharged instead of being reassigned to duty. It was called “Early Out.” .Both Aggie and I would qualify if we extended our current deployment to October. We went down to Headquarters to fill out the paperwork. Aggie was set on getting out of the Army as soon as possible, but a big part of me wanted to get out of Vietnam as soon as possible. Aggie signed up while I decided to think it over. Then in July, the Army decided to increase the early out option to 5 months, meaning our original August rotation date would qualify us for immediate discharge. Procrastination, you are my friend! I left for home in August and Aggie marched on til October. I think of him yet, though I’ve lost all contact. Situational friends often end with the situation…. Have a great week everyone. And it’s OK to take your time over eventful decisions, especially any fueled by warm beer!
June 9, 2025 Good Mondays Morning! The point is, he gave it to me freely. I didn’t do a thing! I was merely standing next to his mother who was holding him. He looked right in my eyes, and then he gave it to me. “GMM guy,” you might ask, “what in the world did he give you?” A SMILE! Not just a half smile, or a ponderous one like Mona Lisa. No, it was a full on, bright eyed, rosy cheeked smile…just for me! His mom was talking to Sarah, but he was engaging me. Absolutely made my day. He reminded me of all the babies I had cared for over the years, especially the well baby visits. I got to have a great time interacting with them while I assessed their health…..and then Faithful Nurse Helen had the job of giving the immunizations. (She was so good at it that they often didn’t fuss!) The real point is, we never know when our simple actions or conversations will have a positive effect on someone. Or when you will be surprised and impressed from a simple interaction. Some say that there are no coincidences, that all encounters have a meaning and explanation. I don’t know about that, but I sure had a good day after that smiley interaction with the baby! Have a great week everyone! And keep smiling!
June 2, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Don’t you just love the month of June? When we were kids, it meant the opening of the swimming pool, a thunderstorm at night that brought out the night crawlers (we’d battle the robins for them the next morning!), long bike rides to the river to fish or hikes following the meandering creek, and then enjoying mom’s great bread and rolls after our adventures. It didn’t get any better…..and still doesn’t! Homemade bread remains the star of any meal as far as I’m concerned. Recently, my brother Phil presented me with the family bread knife that we used for as long as any of we six boys can remember. It has a long, thin serrated blade with an attached adjustable guide that controls the thickness of the slice. Oh boy, did that bring back memories. Big, crusty loaves with a soft inside. (Always white bread until we grew up a little……mom baked many different breads later, but the little kids palates didn’t appreciate it!) For some reason, I liked the crusty heel and that meant I always got the first slice! How great is that? I loved watching the butter melt as the steam escaped from the freshly cut bread. Later, if there was any bread left, it was time for peanut butter and jelly. Sunday breakfast is what brought all of this together. Matt and son Anthony baked homemade biscuits, a specialty they love to share. They have such a good time, measuring and mixing, rolling out the dough and cutting the biscuits (including forming the “Frankenstein biscuits” from the scraps!) and finally brushing on a top layer of butter. Mmm-mm! Absolutely the star of the meal! Hope your enjoy this June with all its possibilities. I’m hoping to cherish my time with the family bread knife by firing up the outdoor wood fired oven and get some smoky, rustic loaves to slice! Have a great week everyone!
May 26, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: We are all in the Badlands National Park on our way to Colorado. The weather for our one night stand? Cold, gray, misty at times. GMM guy was bummed. As we know, he can be a little petulant at times, and this was one of them. “If the sun ain’t gonna shine,” he mumbled as he finished his bowl of buffalo chili, “I ain’t gonna write!” I reminded him that this was supposed to be a working vacation, but he was not moved. “I wanted to see the moonlight on the unique rock formations! I wanted to see a sky full of stars, far away from the light pollution of the city!” (Full disclosure—I didn’t inform him that I was recording our conversation! I kinda egged him on and he continued……) “I wanted to sit around a campfire and watch the little sparks try to join the stars in the sky. I visioned drinking a steaming cup of coffee outside the cabin as the sun chased the night back to the underworld. You really need the sun to appreciate the full beauty of this place, and I’m putting my foot down!” And he did……right into a mud pile! Did I mention the mud? With hardly any vegetation, when it rains, mud is everywhere! So we were stuck inside for the night and though he was mollified by the Timberwolves lopsided victory, he still refused to write, but he continued…. “I suppose there’s a lesson in all of this,” he confided. “All those cliches about life giving you lemons and all that jazz, there’s some truth in it. But if you try to make lemonade without sweetener, good luck selling that!” I reminded him that so much of what happens to us in this world is impersonal, and taking it personally causes frustration and pain! Sometimes it is best to go with flow! He mulled that over for awhile before muttering, “Still ain’t gonna write!” Oh well, what can you do. Have a great week everyone. Be the sunshine in your world, then the clouds don’t matter!)
May 19, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Last Tuesday marked the fifth year in a row—drum roll please—that I went in search of Morel mushrooms….and found none! To be truthful, I didn’t search all that long. I was immediately attacked by the brambles and they tag-teamed with the briars to inflict multiple scratches and puncture wounds on my arms and legs. You might say, “But GMM Guy, weren’t you wearing jeans and long sleeves?” Silly you, of course not! It was hotter than a pistol last Tuesday, if you recall. I was in shorts and a T-shirt. I was trying to keep from bleeding to death when I stumbled upon an interesting shelf fungus. I took a picture and with Siri’s help, identified it as Dryad’s saddle……an edible fungus! Who needs Morels? I was about to cut it off when I read a little more ……”Don’t eat any mushroom without checking with a professional!” Rats! The Woods 1, GMM Guy 0! Some years ago, I found so many Morels that I freeze-dried enough to last through winter. Recently, I find more wood ticks on me than mushrooms in my bag. But it’s a tradition…..when the lilacs bloom, the Morels will boom! So I’ll keep looking! Have a great week everyone. Next week from Colorado!
May 12, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I was looking for something fun to do this weekend, something that would energize my “happy gene” for awhile, something the family would enjoy. I figured a Twins game would be a good idea! From the minute we entered the gates, the smiles never stopped. There were reunions going on with plenty of hugs and slaps on the back….little shavers toting gloves nearly as big as themselves, hoping for a chance to catch a foul ball, or maybe a home run……twin toddlers hovering close mom’s knees, but not too shy to return my wave….babies harnessed to dads in front pack carriers giving them the BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE……baseball nerds with sharpened pencils copying the lineup into their scorecards (I can say “baseball nerds” ‘cuz I am one!) There was a buzz of optimism in the air—a six game winning streak didn’t hurt none—but above it all was a pervasive feeling of happiness. Our Declaration of Independence enshrines the “pursuit of happiness” as a basic right, but Target Field and the Twins deliver! I suspect that a lot of people want/need a reprieve from the craziness of this world, and the great American pastime is a perfect place to find it. The only opinion that matters is “do you want sauerkraut on your brat?” Oh yeah, the Twins made it seven straight wins, but really, that wasn’t the clincher for me. Enjoying life, sharing a common interest with like minded folks, and making lasting memories…..that was fun! Have a great week everyone. And Go Twins!
May 5, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Happy Cinco de Mayo! I don’t know about you, but I plan on having tacos tonight! And tomorrow being Taco Tuesday, I’ll get to have one of my favorite meals twice this week! Speaking of International foods, we went to the Festival of Nations in St. Peter on Saturday. It was so much fun to see the diversity of languages, peoples, customs, and food! So many smiling faces….of course, it helped that the sun was also smiling brightly bringing temps in the 70’s. But even beyond the weather, there was a genuine warmth in the air. With all the bad news of wars and hate dominating the headlines, it was a wonderful day that expressed the hope that through getting to know and understand each other, we can live and grow together. That’s my hope and I’m sticking to it! May is also my self proclaimed month of gratitude. It was in May of 1998 that my heart disease raised its alarm, and modern medicine swooped in to save me. And of course, I’m so grateful for all the things done to me that physically healed my heart, but more thankful for the support of family and friends that returned me to a “better normal!” And it’s lasted for 27 years now! To say I’m grateful is an understatement. Have a great week everyone……and enjoy a new world bursting forth…..as it does every spring!
April 28, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Fifty years ago—April, 1975—saw the end of one of America’s longest wars. The fall of Saigon in late April brought an end to the United States 20 year direct involvement in fighting communism in Vietnam. I was there for one year of that stretch—August 1967 to August 1968. My parents had gifted me a Waltham watch for my high school graduation, a very cool self-winding model. (Remember, this was before digital watches with batteries were invented!) But it stopped working the first week I was in my base camp! No amount of fiddling with it got it going, so I tossed it in my footlocker. Over the course of my deployment, out base camp moved three times. Each time, when I was packing up my personal gear, I checked on the watch. Nope, still not working. I likely would have thrown it away had it not been a significant gift. So I kept packing it…….along with my “IN CASE” letter. You know, the letter your loved ones will eventually find when the Army sends them your remaining personal effects, should you end up being KIA. It was a simple letter, explaining how I didn’t feel cheated even though I was only 20 years old…..how I was grateful for my family…..how I felt fortunate to be living in a country that cares about freedom for us and our allies. I threw it away when my orders to return home came through. Then I packed up the rest of my stuff for the last time. And guess what? The watch was running again, keeping accurate time! I slapped it on my wrist and never looked back! Did the watch story have a deeper meaning, like time was standing still while I was soldering? Was it a lost year? Was our purpose at war—literally—at odds with time, and time checked out for a year? I know my feelings about war had changed drastically, especially when all the government lies started leaking out. I still have a lot of conflicts regarding that tumultuous time, but you know what? It’s been fifty years! Maybe it’s time to let some things go! Stay safe today….weather forecast is stormy. But don’t take the bait to always have something to fear! Be aware, but enjoy this wonderful spring! Have a great week everyone!
April 21, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I don’t mean to brag, but I had a reputation for hiding Easter baskets. From closets to clothes dryer, cabinets to refrigerator, I didn’t make things easy for the kids. The time I replaced a hanging plant with Mike’s basket was classic……he didn’t find that one for a couple of hours! And that, as you know, is like a year to a kid looking for his candy on Easter morning. But I might have gone a little too far the year I hid Sarah’s in the oven. She was 9 or 10, and still a true believer in both Santa and the Easter Bunny. She woke me up so I could help her find her basket. She had already found her brothers baskets—I hadn’t been as creative with their hiding spots since they were not so invested in the EB, so to speak. She showed me all the places she had searched and then muttered, to no one in particular, “Where did that damn rabbit put my basket!” Oh yeah, it was time for this to be over. With a little help from ol’ dad, we found the basket in the oven, and a tradition was started. Yesterday was the 30th Anniversary of an early rising and a cursory search of the kitchen to quickly find the goodies in the oven. That rabbit has been consistent if nothing else! (Sarah always warns me the night before to NOT preheat the oven if I’m going to be up early to bake biscuits! Almost happened once!) Much like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, I like traditions. Something as simple as rutabagas as part of the Thanksgiving dinner, or as potentially dangerous as fireworks on the Fourth of July, traditions are the cement that holds us together in our search for permanence. And most of ‘em are a lot of fun! Easter season is 50 days so you don’t have to be in a hurry to eat up all that candy! Have a great week everyone!
April 14, 2025 Good Monday Morning! “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school It’s a wonder I can think at all! But my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall!” KODACHROME Paul Simon
It was a tumultuous time, the 60’s, and my high school career left me ‘tumultuated,’ so to speak. The first two years found me scraping by, not really applying myself. Oh, I still had that deep rooted idea that I was meant to be a doctor, but I was rebelling against that! I wanted time to explore careers like playing pool and brewing beer, or generally goofing off! If there was such a thing as the Internet back then, I would have looked into being a gamer or an influencer! Point is, I was looking for an escape clause. But then in my Junior year I decided to buckle down and get some good grades—which I knew I was capable of—and got myself elected to the National Honor Society. But by the time spring quarter of 1963 came along, I was getting restless for the start of summer vacation. As fate had it, my older brother won a pair of tickets to a Twins game. A day game on a Thursday in April. He was working and couldn’t use them. Now, if you knew my mom, you knew she did not want to waste anything. Never mind that she didn’t know a home run from a bunt, she wanted someone to use those tickets…….expensive tickets! To say I volunteered would be an understatement…….yes, ma’am, I would do it! I would take brother Roger along, a freshman at the time, and we would use up those freebies. So we called in “sick” and had a wonderful day off. A great escape! And we seemed to get away with it. But I blame Roger to this day…….I think he was bragging to his buddies and one of them ratted us out. I don’t remember if he got into trouble, but the Sisters landed hard on me! Got detention, I did, plus I was removed from the Honor Society! Defrocked! I felt like that poor Sergeant in the old western movie when the commanding officer ripped his stripes off his sleeves. It would, the good Sisters assured me, all go on my “Permanent Record!” Oh well, I guess it hasn’t hurt me none, and I’m doing OK now, but every once in awhile I’d like to take a peek at that permanent record! Have a great week everyone. Spring is for planning escapes!
April 7, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Sorry to be a Debbie Downer today, but I watched a very disturbing report on the war in Gaza last night. Hamas attackers killed over one thousand Israeli civilians and took over two hundred hostages in October of 2023. Israel launched an attack on Gaza and, as of Sunday, over 60,000 Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed! It’s as mind-boggling as it is depressing. Have you seen the videos of the destruction and chaos in the hospitals as the medical personnel try to save severely wounded people in spaces that are half bombed out with dwindling resources and overwhelmed providers. When I was working our ER in Saint Peter, one car accident with two critically injured patients was enough to stretch our response to the limit…..and we had plenty of resources! I just can’t imagine keeping my sanity when wave after wave of traumatic injuries presented for care. The doctors talked of losing patients because there was no blood available, of trying to save the lives of children with limbs blown off only to watch them die, then trying to console the traumatized parents. War is hell, and this one—more than Vietnam, more than Iraq—has invaded our living rooms displaying its horror and anguish. It fills me with admiration for the doctors and nurses who are struggling in an unthinkable situation, and complete disdain for our leaders who won’t/can’t lift a finger to stop this madness. This is hopeless, I thought. I had to turn the TV off. Later , I turned the set on and caught the end of another program—Call the Midwife—that ended with a quote….”Hope ties us, hope sustains us, and life unites us all!” I needed to hear that. We can’t lose hope, even in the face of unimaginable suffering that seems to snuff out all the light. I do wish y’all a good week, but please keep the people of Gaza and Israel in your prayers…..and don’t give up hope.
March 31, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Let me tell you, I was one excited kid! My eleventh birthday was just around the corner and my dad told me and brother Roger that we were going flying! The Mankato airport was sponsoring a “penny a pound” airlift on Saturday and we would be there. I was always fascinated with airplanes and spent many a summer afternoon daydreaming about flying high above this vale of ordinariness! Saturday came, beautiful and bright, and anticipation took center stage. Roger and I were in the weigh-in line and we were discussing ways to cheat the scale a little. We decided if we would “suck in” our guts we could save Pa a few cents! (Yeah, even at eleven I was developing a potbelly. Mom was afraid I was going to starve to death when I was little—a picky eater on steroids!—and she prayed hard that I would start eating. Somewhere around five or six I discovered macaroni and tomatoes, and I was off to the races. Mom never prayed for me to slow down, so this is what ya get!) As it turns out, sucking in one’s gut doesn’t make you lighter. Actually makes you heavier by the weight of the air you suck in! But I digress. The take off was a little bumpy and I was not expecting the noise! But then we were off the ground —airborne for the first time, if you don’t count the first time i jumped off the high board at the swimming pool. Oh, it was a glorious fifteen minute ride around the countryside. Dad had been fascinated with airplanes when he was growing up in rural North Dakota. He remembers the barnstormers still performing in the early 1930’s. At night , he would dream that he was flying, only not in an airplane. He dreamt he was piloting a tractor! His friends joined him and they had a squadron of flying John Deere’s. They could take off and land anywhere…..remember, this is North Dakota flatland! Anyway, he could hardly wait for the sun to go down so he could take to the skies. Fast forward to modern flight…..son Michael got the flying bug when he was in the Navy as part of a flight crew. After his discharge, he took flight training at MSU and now is flying for Flex Jet, a private jet service for anyone who can afford it! He flies all over the country for a week at a time, and then is off for a week. Interesting side note…..while Mike was flying for FedEx in Portland, he rented a plane and took his cousin for a joyride. Chris caught the bug, enrolled in flight school and is now flying for Alaska Air! Mike and Chris, your grandpa would be so proud of you! But he probably wouldn’t let you fly him anywhere……he developed a fear of flying like Coach Madden who had a special bus made for him. (Grandpa had a pickup!) Have a great week everyone. Pleasant dreams to all!
March 24, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I must confess…..I have an addiction. Yes, ‘tis true! I must admit that I’m powerless over popcorn! If I see it, I want it. If I smell it, I’ll track it down like a blood hound. If I even think about it, well, you get the picture. Anyway, I feel better now that I’ve gotten that off my chest! But it got me thinking, in a 60’s sort of free association way. P is the sixteenth letter of the alphabet, and I bet there are sixteen of my favorite foods that start with that letter, starting with popcorn, of course. There’s pizza and pie, peanuts and pears, pineapple and peas, pepperoni and pork. Don’t forget pudding and peppers, peaches and pickles. Pancakes makes fourteen foods starting with P, only two more to think of…..golly gee! Got it! Phrench phries and phried phish will finish the list (just don’t check my spelling!) Grandpa Bocky made popcorn for me when I was a little shaver. I can still see the little sparks shooting out beneath the cast iron skillet as he shook it over the gas range, the bacon grease sizzling as the corn started popping. As the ‘pops’ and ‘snaps’ intensified, so too did the aroma, filling the kitchen with sweet anticipation. Then after a light salting……..OK, OK, a heavy salting……reaching into the bowl, corn still so hot almost burning my fingers, and shoving a handful into my mouth! What’s that they say about West Virginia? Almost heaven? Yeah, that it was, being with Grandpa and Grandma, and popcorn! Terry and I were camping once and I had forgotten a cover for the skillet. No problem! I just took the stem and strainer out of the percolator, fried up a piece of bacon for the grease, put in the popcorn, put on the cap, tuned on the Coleman stove….Voila! Behold the sweet and salty snack of the gods! OK, but the coffee never tasted the same again! Have a great week everyone! Enjoy our transition to spring!
March 17, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Well now, I found myself standing at the corner of Main and Front Streets in Mankato. This was quite a few years ago when the old Saulpaugh Hotel was still standing and Main Street led to the only bridge over the Minnesota River. I remember that storm clouds were forming as I started walking towards the bridge. In fact, I was thinking I should be seeking shelter rather than set out to cross the bridge to North Mankato. I was at the foot of the bridge when I saw what I thought was a flock of geese heading in my direction, flying over and following the course of the river. As they got closer, I could clearly see that it wasn’t a gaggle or geese bearing down on me. It was (and I’m not making this up!) a platoon from the famous BOFTB—Benevolent Order of Flying Teddy Bears! With the storm clouds menacing the skies, the Flying Teddy Bears were cool and calm. They had short stubby arms and legs which both propelled and stabilized their flight. I was impressed as they continued their formation in spite of swirling winds and came to a stop directly above me. (FTBs can fly fast, but they can also hover like hummingbirds!) The leader of the platoon looked right at me…..I think we made eye contact, but it was hard to tell. He was wearing goggles. “Don’t worry,” he said, “everything will be alright! We are here!” And then he smiled at me. That’s when I woke up…..also with a smile! Aren’t dreams fascinating things? Some are so real, so life like, that they can be a real scare. Some, like this one, have enough reality but a good bit of fantasy. I remember it so well! Anyways, when life gets a little stormy for me, I recall this dream ……it helps a bit! Top of the morning to ye, I say! Enjoy this St. Patrick’s day—the BOFTB are patrolling the skies! Have a great week everyone!
March 10, 2025 Good Monday Morning “Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.” Unknown author Terry and I had a real treat this weekend. We scored tickets to a concert by Cantus, an a cappella group from the Twin Cities, performing with the Swingles, an a capella ensemble from Great Britain. Wow! Their voices alone, so clear and vibrant, filled the hall with emotion and satisfaction. Needless to say, this was a concert designed for the audience to relax in their seats.…..and not move a muscle lest they disrupt the enjoyment of their neighbors. No rustling of program pages, no texting or scrolling, no nothing! The unwritten rules of concerts of this nature. One should show rapt attention during the selection, then wild applause at the finish. As it turns out, that wasn’t a difficult task for me as they were so good! A couple of rows in front of us, though, a young man was having trouble obeying these unwritten rules of concerts. When the music started, he started rocking back and forth in his chair. As the music intensified, so too did his rocking. He never uttered a word nor left his seat. Nothing obnoxious in his behavior, and as we were all near the back of the hall, I’m sure the performers saw nothing. At the end of a song he was so happy and appreciative, smiling broadly and exchanging hugs with the two women on either side of him. They certainly knew how to relate to him—must have been relatives or personal care staff—and he was very comfortable with them. Thankfully, he was oblivious to the mean stares from a few of the patrons, stares that reflected the shallowness of their understanding. The young man’s enjoyment of the concert showed precisely that music is a universal language, speaking to all of us……from all cultures……from all walks of life…….from all abilities. They went out to the lobby at intermission and didn’t return. I hope that was for reasons other than those mean stares. Listen to the music of spring this week! Nature has some “beautiful noise” for us, as Neil Diamond says! It’s there for all of us to enjoy! Have a great week everyone!
March 3, 2025 Good Monday Morning! My question for you today……WWYDD? (What Would You Do Different?) More specifically, if you could go back to your formative years, what fun thing would you learn to do that you missed out on? Maybe you’d learn to play the piano, or maybe the oboe. Perhaps it would be crocheting or learning carpentry. I know what I’d do! From November to March you would find me on the ice rink. I’d be learning how to play hockey! I get so jealous this time of year, watching the high school and college hockey tournaments and the Stanley Cup playoffs (not that I’d ever get to play at that level, but who knows?) Just to see these kids flying up and down the ice gets me pumped up! The game itself is so fast with continuous action, end to end. It involves, of course, individual skills of speed on ice, hand-eye coordination, and a slap shot that would put a dent in the goal post! But it also requires plenty of hard work and teamwork. Those kids share the pain….and the victory pile-ups at center ice. I would have loved being part of that scene. Growing up in southern Minnesota in the 50’s, hockey wasn’t part of our vocabulary. We had ice rinks that had a warming house controlled by bullies and a loudspeaker that blared the only record they had—“If I Knew You Were a Coming I’d Have Baked a Cake.” And the hand-me-down skates didn’t fit very well so I mostly slid around on my ankles til I got tired of it and engaged in snowball fights instead. So….even if I could go back, nothing would change! Still like to dream about it! “What would you do” is a little mind game I like to play sometimes. (I’d also go back and learn how to dance, even with the two left feet I was born with!) Try it, if you haven’t already. Have a great week everyone!
February 24, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy is having a bad case of “riders lock”. No, that’s not a typo….he claims he was riding in the back of a bus that hit every pothole between here and the Twin Cities and it bruised some sensitive parts of his anatomy. Besides being quite sore, he claims further that his creative abilities were bounced out of him right good! I recommended he take a long soaking bath in some epsom salts and a little wine to help him relax……he misunderstood me completely as he heard me say “go soak your head, you wino!”……which, in truth, I might have said as I do get frustrated with him at times. Anyway, he told me to pick a “rerun” for this fine Monday morning. This from August 8, 2008…..
Forgive me, but I have to write about the birds again. I was watching a particular bully of a bird at of our feeders as he chased off all the other birds. A real “Mister All Mine!” He appeared rather pleased with himself and enjoyed having it all for himself. I was wishing I could scare him away without bothering the other birds at a companion feeder. As my mind was figuring out a plan to electrify the bird feeders, so I could give that bully a shock, I spied a small bird dive in from atop the shed. Just as the bully bent over to pick up a seed, the small bird dove straight into his tail. As they say, timing is everything. That bully did a backflip worthy of an Olympic diver. He did recover in midair and took off chasing the courageous small bird. I didn’t see the rest of the story, but I hope the little bird got away clean. There are several messages here for us, but I will stick to one…… if you don’t hog the trough, you don’t need to watch your tail feathers! Have a great week at the Nicollet County fair!
February 17, 2025 Good Monday Morning! I don’t recall if I’ve ever told you the story of my great uncle, the World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion! No? Well, I better get busy here. Bert was recognized as one strong dude, growing up on the farm near Madelia in the 1890’s. He whipped all the young strong bucks for miles around, so he decided to try his skills out west. His brother William (who would become my grandfather) became his manager. As they made their way to Seattle, Will would go into a small town tavern and start talking up his brother as a Champion wrestler. He could beat anyone in town, he bragged, and he’d bet good money on it. Now,every little town had a strapping young farm hand, so a match was quickly set up. Grandpa pretended to get a little drunk and tried to call it off, but the locals wouldn’t let him back down. Well, great uncle Bert showed up and made quick work of the poor lad, and the brothers took the money and skedaddled before anyone knew what hit them…….and they were off to the next adventure! Once they reached the west coast, they established Bert as a champion and took all comers. And took a lot of bets, too. Remember , these times were closer to the days of the Wild West than to modern Seattle. Wrestling events were big entertainment, along with track and field events, believe it or not. Lots of money was wagered on these events in the early 1900’s! Anyway, my brothers and I were told that after awhile, Big Bert went out on his own, all the way to Australia to defend his Belt. And guess what? He lost! And he had bet on himself and didn’t have any money to buy passage back home. So, he became an Aussie, married and raised a family, and that’s how I have cousins in the land Down-under! Gramps returned to the Midwest to settle down as a homesteader in South Dakota. So that was the story we grew up with, however improbable. We believed it as gospel. The truth was probably a little less romantic. An internet search alludes to the possibility (probability?) that Bert was in cahoots with some shady characters and may have taken a dive once or twice…….certainly, once too many. He likely changed his name to Bert Hansen and emigrated to Australia to escape any legal ramifications. His grandson Steve is my age, married with three children, and is a Vietnam veteran as am I! Steve was one of the 60,000 Australian troops deployed to Vietnam from 1962-1973. Nowadays, we keep in contact through email. Stay warm everyone, and have a great week. Daughter Sarah has her 41st birthday this week…..now that is hard to believe!
February 10, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Another marker of winter, Super Bowl LIX, is over! And quite a dud it was, in my humble opinion. The game was boring unless you were an Eagles fan (which I am most emphatically not!) The half time show was certainly not aimed at my demographic. The rapper said all his lines flawlessly, but I couldn’t understand any of the words let alone any message he was trying to convey. Probably a good thing, now that I think of it. I did enjoy the opening America the Beautiful byTrombone Shorty and John Baptiste’s rendition of the National Anthem. Otherwise, it was pretty much a bust…..could’ve taken a long nap. And to think that were over 100 million people around the world who were watching. I hope they were more impressed than I was. It wouldn’t have been so bad if not for all the hype of the preceding two weeks. It is, after all, a completely American show, and so it must be showcased by every means possible with every hyperbole available. For me, generally speaking, the more hype preceding an event increases the chances it will be a dud. Unless it’s a Taylor Swift show—she’s awesome…….so I’ve been told. (I’m more a swiffer, not a Swiftee!) Anyway, I’m looking forward to the next icon of winter to come……Valentines day! Have a great week everyone!
February 3, 2025 Good Monday Morning! Oh, I know I’m not the only one. Lots of people love the ocean, love to cool off in the heat of the summer, or watch winter storms try their best to wear down a rocky coast. Still, I think it’s deeply personal, this primal urge I have to visit the ocean from time to time……to stand at the water’s edge as the shore birds dip and dart in the surf…..to let the sound of the waves wash out the noise of the world….to scan the horizon as if it were a glimpse into infinity…….to dip my hand in the sea that connects us all……to come home. Yes, I know I was born in Minnesota, as inland as you can imagine. But my fascination with biology introduced me to the study of the origins of life, and later, to the science of embryology. I was so excited to learn that human embryos (in an early stage) have “gill slits!” That must prove we evolved from the sea, I thought, as I touched my neck imagining what those gills would feel like. Wrong-o! Turns out those slits are precursors of other structures ,like the jaw bone, and there are good arguments that life may have started in the air or on the land. But I still felt that pull from the ocean. Home, sweet…..Ancestral home! Of course, there’s another reason to visit the ocean in January, and I think astute readers like you can guess. Minnesota may be home, and I’m a very loyal Gopher fan in spite of all the jokes, but the winters are just too darn long! Gimme a break, I say. A couple of weeks where the temperature stays above freezing will do it! Have a great week everyone. GMM guy will be back in his Minnesota home next week, but makes no guarantees he won’t complain about the weather!
January 27, 2025 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy apologizes, but he is on vacation…..again! {Editor’s translation…..Not Sorry!} Traveling is such hard work, so he told me. AirPort shuttles, TSA, boarding with passengers trying to stuff giant bags into the overhead when you checked a bag half that size and paid thirty-five bucks for the privilege, etc. So he is quite tired and is resting his eyes by watching the waves on the Gulf of Mexic…….er, excuse me, Gulf of America. It’s the place where they got 8 inches of snow last week! He’s imagining what that would look like. Fortunately, it’s not a difficult task for a Minnesotan. Wouldn’t want GMM guy to tax his brain now, would we? Anyway, he said that next week, while he will still be on vacation, he will be able to put some observations into words that are simple enough for him to spell and relay them on to you. Until then, be safe and take care of yourself! Have a great week everyone!
January 20, 2025 Good Monday Morning!
(Editor’s note: Last Monday morning was filled with hope for a magical Vikings playoff run. By the end of the first couple of drives, it seemed like the magic was over. Kaput. Son Joseph was watching the game at a local watering hole in New Orleans when midway through the third quarter, the sound system began playing “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” GMM guy was inspired to rewrite the lyrics. Here is his rendition.)
The Wreck of the Good Ship Called Viking
The legend lives on from the Iron Range on down To the great cities on the Big River The Vikings, it’s said, will always play dead In the last game…no matter….whoever!
The Vikes were the pride of the Minnesota side They yearly did battle with Green Bay The Packers, alas, have played with more class And the Vikes usually don’t win the game.
But this was our year, we played with no fear As the football gods smiled down We won fourteen games, put the Packers to shame And nearly won the North crown!
With fans by the score and sportswriters galore The team made its way to the desert The Vikings and staff were about to be quaffed By the Rams who gave us the Big Hurt!
Ol’ Sam wasn’t quick, could it be he was sick? And the Rams sacked him all of nine times! His passes missed high in the desert air dry And our defensive play was a crime.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes When the fourth quarter drags to a close The Vikes always choke, and they leave us all broke If laying down bets we have chose.
In a rustic old hall they prayed in St. Paul At the Church of the Monday Night Football. The church bell chimed ‘til it rang 33 times For each playoff loss in their downfall!
Have a great week everyone! Enjoy the playoffs now that the Vikings are out of it!
January 13, 2025 Good Monday Morning!
“Come gather ’round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’….” Bob Dylan, 1963 I saw the movie about Bob Dylan last week. It was a good movie, I thought. The story is quite predictable—talented young song writer/singer breaks through to fame and fortune while becoming a complete jerk to the people he uses on his way forward. But it was the music that was so compelling. All of it brought back memories of the 60’s, a decade when I went from a budding teenager listening to the fluff music of the Beatles and Beach Boys, to a high school graduate starting to hear the drums of war and the songs of the civil rights movement, to a soldier in a war zone listening to the protest music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger, and finally to a serious college student rockin’ to the sounds of CCR! But it was Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changin’—it was our anthem, our song of the future, a future where we’d all be equal, and together we wouldn’t make the same mistakes of previous generations. Well,shoot…..that didn’t work out very well, did it?
It was quite bittersweet, watching nostalgic scenes from the 60’s while knowing how it all comes out. But on further reflection, the ideals of my youth weren’t wrong or misdirected. No, they are just not attainable in the way other goals are, say a college degree where your hard work is rewarded with a diploma. Peace and tranquility, equality and justice, love and understanding don’t have a diploma attached to them. They are only attainable through the process of working toward them. It’s a continuous journey, one you never stop! So keep on truckin’!
Have a great week everyone. With the forecast for more cold weather, I may go into hibernation!
January 6, 2025 Good Monday Morning! It’s the first Monday of a new year and isn’t that exciting enough in itself? January 6, 1969 was also a Monday and the first day of my second chance at the pre-med curriculum at Mankato State College, now Minnesota State University. Second chances are not guaranteed, and I was certainly planning to take advantage of this one. I had been discharged from the Army the previous August and used the late summer and all of autumn as a re-entry period. Now I was pumped and ready to return to college. The first class that Monday morning was Organic Chemistry Lab. Fifteen eager students milled about the lab as we waited for the professor. Some of the students were joking with each other and seemed very comfortable, like they had been here before. It was all new to me and I was far from comfortable! Dr. Weberg arrived shortly and started the check in process which included a review of all the lab equipment provided to each student. I looked over the assorted glassware and utensils in my drawer as I waited my turn—none of it looked familiar! (Anxiety level up another notch!) Surely I would be taught the function of all these things, I thought. Now it’s my turn….. “Shores,” he said as he looked over his clipboard. “Hmm…..Were you here last quarter? This is Organic Chemistry II.” Oops! I had taken Inorganic Chemistry I before being drafted. Oh well, time to pull out my Army training and low-crawl out the door……head on over to Drop-Add!
It was an inauspicious start to my second chance! When I finally got to take his classes in the fall of 1969, Dr. Weberg proved to be a fantastic teacher. He quickly became my mentor and advisor. I’m convinced he was instrumental in my acceptance to Medical School. When I returned to practice in this area, he showed up as a patient! I didn’t let him down…..made an important diagnosis that saved him from a major event! Isn’t it amazing how things come together, even in second chances! Have a great week everyone, and stay safe! Minnesota winter doesn’t give “second chances!”
December 30, 2024 (Editor’s Note: While GMM guy finishes his vacation this week, here is another of his self-proclaimed ‘Besties’. Enjoy….or don’t!) Good Monday Morning! I was ready to jump in the shower yesterday and the only bar of soap in the drawer was one of those smell-pretty bars. You know, one of those fancy ones you get as a gift and you just throw it in the drawer. This was one from Christmas, 2002. As I opened it, a fortune slip (like a fortune cookie) fluttered out. “HAPPINESS IS IN YOUR FUTURE!” Dang! Why didn’t I open this back in 2002! Our founding fathers chose their words carefully when they described our inalienable rights. We should all be entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Its not the government’s responsibility to make us happy, but allow us to pursue it….lawfully, of course! A secret they didn’t share, though I suspect they knew, is that many goals are actually attained in the process of the pursuit. Happiness, I believe, comes in living a life directed to goals that are never fully reached. We just need to wisely choose our goals. Parents, is there any job more important than raising the next generation? Co-workers, is there a more rewarding occupation than attending to the the health and welfare of our neighbors and friends? Then after that, do as the song says……”Don’t worry, be happy!” Have a great big happy week, everyone!
December 23, 2024 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy is on vacation. This is one of his favs from yesteryear. He also wants to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!) Little Erin was the first to spot it. “Buh!” she said as she pointed her finger upwards. A ladybug was defying gravity, strolling upside down on our ceiling. Most certainly this was the harbinger of spring that we were all waiting for. Then Erin—all of a year and a half old—quickly pointed to a picture of a ladybug in the book we were reading! Coincidence? I think not! Grandpa thinks she’s the smartest little thing to come along since, well…..since her daddy was that age! Kids have that eager sense of wonderment about the world. Each new day springs up fresh, bringing new things to learn, new opportunities to grow. The world doesn’t change much, so we can easily lose that feeling of awe when we think we have seen it all. The trick is to lose that sense of naivety about the world, but hold dear to the fact that there is something new to learn, sometimes awesome to discover, in each new day. Have a great week everyone
December 16, 2024 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy has gone on vacation! He is physically still in the vicinity but mentally, he’s light years away! So he has instructed me to fill in the next few weeks with selections from years gone by. Kinda like summer reruns, only it’s definitely winter! This one is from December 2015)
If you ever find yourself in a funk at this time of the year you might want to take in a dance recital! “But GMM guy,” you might ask, “isn’t that a girlish thing to be doing on a Saturday afternoon?” Well technically, you would be right and GMM guy usually reserves Saturday afternoon for beer drinking activities like watching football or basketball games. But these kids really get into their dance routines. You will see 3-10 year olds strutting around the stage in front of their families and friends. Well OK, mostly their families. They are dressed in their best princess costumes as they dance to rockabilly Christmas music. The little ones keep one eye on their off-stage instructor until they hit the more well practiced parts. Twirling, kicking, and jumping they even manage to be right on the beat as the music blares from a boombox. What they might lack in polish is more than made up for with enthusiasm. Not to mention the cuteness factor. You simply can’t maintain a funk watching a stage performance like that! Chinese Medicine teaches that our emotions are quite neutral, not ‘good’ or ‘bad’. All have their place. But getting stuck in any emotion can lead to trouble. Unfortunately, the world is more than willing to provide bad news to put us into a funk…….and keep us there! Don’t take the bait! Don’t get stuck in a foul mood! There are plenty of great things going on around you. We just need to be aware. Oh, and if a dance program isn’t available to break your funk, try an elementary school Christmas program! That will certainly get you going! Have a great week everyone!
December 9, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Granddaughter Erin plays trumpet in the high school band……I mean orchestra! A full orchestra with strings, woodwinds, percussion, horns. They gave a concert last week and I was proud to see her perform in such a talented group, making wonderful and complicated music. Such a pleasant surprise! No comparison to the bands (and they were bands!) of my era. I was impressed. One of the drummers—excuse me, percussionists—accompanied the choir in a particularly moving selection. He added so much to the wonderful harmony of the singers. I was reminded of my brief time as a drummer. Yes! GMM guy a drummer! Astute readers will recall that my musical prowess is something less than stellar, so you probably see what’s coming. My piano career lasted a few years at the insistence of my mom. (I did master a few beginner pieces, like “Gooseberry Goose” and “Pickaninny Serenade”—a song title that would never make it today.) I just wouldn’t practice ‘cuz I always wanted to be outside playing. Later, I decided to try trumpet. That lasted about six months before dad pulled the plug on the monthly instrument payments. Same problem……no practice! Still later, my older brother was looking for a drummer for his band. Hey, I could do that! How hard can it be to pound on the drums and cymbals? Turns out, pretty hard. I only lasted 3 months. Do you detect a pattern here? Good thing I didn’t need to make a living in the music industry! All my boys played in the band in High School, and enjoyed themselves! And I’m so happy to see the grandkids do the same. I did take up the piano again during my sabbatical in 2000 and I can play a few tunes. So all was not lost! Have a great week everyone! May the coming days bring you lots of…….pleasant surprises!
December 2, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Well now, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving week, and I sure have a lot to be thankful for! Starting with family, of course. Our oldest son came home for a short pre-thanksgiving visit while his wife and children visited family in Tennessee. A little strange having him all to ourselves without the rest of his family, but they’ll all be here for the week after Christmas. That will be fun……but busy! This visit was slow paced, allowing for old memories to surface…… Matt was a toddler when we first took him to the lake. The minute we set him down on the beach, he toddled straight towards the water, not looking back. All God’s creatures, so they say, are born ready to swim since all life on this planet appears to have arisen from the sea. We were about to find out if that was true as Matt waded forward with no fear. The water was up to his neck when I plucked him out. I coaxed him to play a little in the shallow area, but every chance he had, he took off for the middle of the lake. Some four years later he did the same thing, as it were, only this time with school. I dropped him off for the first day of Kindergarten. He decidedly did not want me to walk him into school. It was a short goodbye and then he ran straight towards that big door, pint sized backpack bouncing around, and again, he never looked back. He stayed in school until he earned a Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. After a post-doc at MIT, he accepted a research position at Colorado State University and now is the Chairman of the Chemistry Department there. And I couldn’t be more proud! One thing I’m not thankful for is this cold weather. When I first started my practice here in St. Peter, my older patients complained of the cold, using words like “bone chilling” and “why-do-I-live-here-anyways!” I always listened politely but secretly, I thought “just embrace it! Find the ‘win’ in winter!” Let’s just say that I didn’t have much experience….. Have a great week everyone! Stay warm and, like the Terminator, I’ll be back!
November 25, 2024 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy finally came clean with me…..he’s been in a mild depression since the election. It wasn’t so much the loss, he said. Like baseball, you win some, you lose some, and some get rained out. Rather, it was the realization that so very many people have a different view of American values than he does. Along with one of his biggest heroes, Superman, he believed that there was a “never ending fight for truth, justice, and the American way.” It was the feeling that the fight was irrevocably lost that was getting him down, making him fearful of the future. What’s going to happen to our country, he worried. Where will we be a year from now, he pondered. And then yesterday he had an epiphany! He readily admits that he sometimes dozes during the weekly sermon but yesterday he listened closely. The pastor spoke words that hit him like a two-by-four upside the head. If recent events (campaign and election) have left you fearful, remember this….all of this political stuff belongs to this world. Your mission in this world is to rise above all the noise and live a life based on peace, love, and justice! If you are steeped in this, you will know how to respond to any government action that is contrary! GMM guy also realizes that he has plenty to be thankful for and promises to return next week with a less heavy load! Have a great week everyone!)
November 18, 2024 Good Monday Morning! I went to a classical music concert at the Ordway last week. It was a pleasant change from all the harsh news swirling around us lately……wars, politics, shootings, what-have-you. Chilling out with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for a couple of hours seemed like a good idea. A family with young children filed into the row right in front of us just before the concert was to begin. I mean little kids….probably 3, 5, and 7. Great! They’re going to be jumping around like Banshees the whole time! But they did not! They sat still, listened to the music, and didn’t make a peep while the orchestra played. I was amazed. Now I’m no Bible scholar, but this all reminded me of a reading we hear at church every once in awhile. I don’t recall all the details, but it involved one of the Prophets giving a blessing to someone, the gist of which was “May your children be as olive plants around your table.” Well, here were the olive plants, right in front of us! One thing is for sure, we were absent when that blessing was given out! Must have overslept that day. No olive plants around our table. Fidgeting, fighting, and flipping frozen fries off their plates was more the norm for our brood. And though we never took them to see the orchestra at that age, we did take them to a Neil Diamond concert, and we all had fun, basically not being olive plants. More like wild onions, if anything. But we all survived and had fun! Hope all your adventures are rewarding and fun! Have a great week everyone!
November 11, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Did you ever look for something, like your keys or a jar of peanut butter, only to get frustrated and angry when it isn’t where it should be? Then, when you are forced to start your search again, there it is, sitting on the counter right where it belongs! What happened? Why didn’t I see it? It’s as if the item you were looking for had a cloaking system, like a Romulan Bird of Prey. I would watch as Captain Jean-Luc Picard stared at an empty screen and suddenly, the Romulan warship would de-cloak! It was there all the time! (Luckily for the crew of the Enterprise, the Bird of Prey wasn’t able to fire their phasers or photon torpedoes while cloaked! But I digress…..) That’s how it was the other day when I was looking for my peanut butter, and if I’d had a phaser, I would have started blasting the other things on the table. Fuming, I sat down, took a swig of coffee, and looked again. Voila! There it was. Peanut butter for my English muffin. It was there all the time. Why was I so blind? I sure don’t understand it…….unless maybe there was a deep meaning……..like I’m not supposed to eat peanut butter anymore? Maybe I’m allergic and that’s why I’ve been sneezing and snorting the last couple of weeks? Yeah, that’s it! I’m allergic! But you know what? I’m having my peanut butter and jelly breakfast anyway and I’ll put my savings into Kleenex! Have a great week everyone! And if weird things happen to ya…….look for the deeper meaning!
November 4, 2024 Good Monday Morning! (Editor’s note: GMM guy has dropped the ball. Fumbled so to speak. He had every intention of writing his blog yesterday but got caught up in the new “national pastime”—watching football on Sunday! From noon to news time, baby! Sit in your recliner and forget about everything (as long as you mute all the political ads.) So many good games, including Detroit vs. Green Bay. You see, GMM guy has two favorite teams in the NFL—the Vikings and….whoever is playing the Packers! So he had a good day as both of his teams were winners. That led to a celebration of sorts that caused him to be very sleepy, and combined with the lingering effects of the major disruption in the space-time continuum caused by the return to Standard Time on Sunday, well………it was just too much for him! I found him fast asleep this morning and so, alas, he apologized, but refused to get up and start writing. Sheesh! You ask a guy to write one paragraph a week and you get excuses like that. Well, at least he apologized, and he did promise to be more diligent, and if he could not do that, he said he’d come up with better excuses! He did want to wish you all a great week, and remember to vote on Tuesday!)
October 28, 2024 Good Monday Morning! It was a different field, of course. After all, fifty years—half a century!—will make for many changes. Gone is Memorial Stadium, replaced by Huntington Bank Stadium, a nice place but lacking the history and tradition of the “Brick House” as Memorial Stadium was known. But the marching band performing on that new field appeared very familiar as did the tunes they played, including the Minnesota Rouser, the Swinging Gates Battle Hymn of the Republic, and my favorite, John Philip Sousa’s Minnesota March. It’s been fifty years since my graduation from Medical School and we celebrated by attending the homecoming game on Saturday. So many changes to the landscape that it was hard to remember how it was. The buildings where I learned basic sciences, the hospital in which I had my first rotation, even the pizza place and the tavern next door—all replaced with new buildings. The apartment complex we lived in and the Chinese Fortune Cookie bakery across the street were cleared for new roads and housing. Am I sounding like an old fogey or what? But that’s not the impression I want to make. Nothing lasts forever, but memories come close. I’m OK with the changes in landscape as the good memories are more dependent on the people who lived them, the ones who shared those games at the old stadium. The new digs are home to a new generation of students making the same kind of memories that I hold dear. I hope that they will be as grateful for this opportunity fifty years hence as I am today! One thing has certainly changed for the better….the football team! They won easily over the Maryland Terrapins (turtles.) Maybe Goldy the Gopher found a mascot he could dominate! Have a great week everyone!
October 21, 2024 Good Monday Morning! It was the last game of the soccer season for my grandson and I think (hope!) he was excited to have us in attendance. (We were visiting the Fort Collins branch of the family.) He spotted us from across the field and waved at us….What? Ho!…we were on the visitor’s side! We picked up our chairs and moved to the correct side and joined the small group of parents and siblings on lawn chairs. The game started with young Anthony on the bench as a sub along with his fellow defenseman. It wasn’t long before he was sent in to play and he did a good job of getting in front of the opponent’s attempts to score. I could only have had a better time if my teeth weren’t chattering! Did I mention that it was cold? Even Minnesotans can forget how cold fifty degrees can feel in mid October! (Fifty in January would be absolutely balmy!) Oh yeah, and there was a light drizzle intermittently. But the kids certainly didn’t mind as they raced up and down the field with boundless energy. Anthony was engaged but he kept one eye open for his dad who was delayed by one of those end-of-the-day meetings that always seem to run overtime……. …….My dad didn’t have much time for sports. Not that he disliked them. He just felt there were better things to do outdoors, like fishing and hunting. But he never discouraged me from trying out for anything, as long as school work came first. But with his work schedule, he didn’t have time to attend practice session or games. I understood that completely as his commitment to the whole family came first. But it was the last game of eighth grade football and Pa said he would try to make it. I kept one eye open for him, and sure enough, with a few minutes left in the third quarter, I spotted him going up in the stands. I was never so happy……. Sure enough, in the second half, young Anthony spotted his dad joining our little group on the sidelines and waved enthusiastically. He was definitely happy now! Have a great week everyone! Remember, you never know when you’ll make a lasting impression on someone!
October 14, 2024 Good Monday Morning! The days are getting shorter, the nights colder, and the growing season is all but over as we await that killer frost that is certainly coming. All are signs that it’s time for a bittersweet chore—take down the garden! Since I was a kid helping my grandfather, I’ve always loved it. Pulling on a sweatshirt instead of a t-shirt and pulling up plants instead of weeds. Grandpa had me salvage all the green tomatoes. He let me use his pocket knife to cut each tomato off the vine. Then I’d wrap them, one at a time, in a sheet of newspaper and place them in a box. (They would slowly ripen over the next several weeks, and while they didn’t match the taste of their older siblings, they were “a damn sight better than those store bought things they call tomatoes,” according to Grandpa!) I also hated it! It was, after all, the end of summer, my most favorite time of year. Oh sure, I liked fall football, and winter skiing and sledding were on the horizon, but I loved summertime. So with all these thoughts swimming in my head, I tackled my task of taking down the garden, 2024……..all four containers that held my now dried up tomato plants! Here’s hoping your autumn is off to a great start and all your fall tasks are easy! Have a great week everyone!
October 7, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Our memory, so they say, is pretty darn good for facts, but as for the time you actually learned them, not so much. But sometimes, you remember exactly when and where you learned something! It was seventh grade English class, Sister Marion the teacher, and the assignment was to write a story about summer vacation. Those of you who know me well will recall that my favorite subjects were math and science. But I kinda liked writing, too. I fancied myself a pretty good word smith with an above average imagination. So I wrote a cute little story (I thought) about summer on the farm, ending with “…..and we had fun till the cows came home!” I guessed it was worth an A, even from strict ol’ Sister Marion. (She wasn’t mean, but was a stickler for details!) Shocked I was when I saw a C on my paper, and a big red circle around the last sentence. “What? Are you plowing the ground?” All in red, of course, with “till” underlined. Turns out that “til” is the accepted contraction of “until”, but if you look it up, so is “till”. Yet “till” is used as a field work term all the time. Alas, I didn’t have access to Google back in seventh grade. But I don’t think it would have changed Sister Marion’s mind. “If you’re planning to till the east forty, wait until the cows come home.” So from then on, I keep my farm terms straight, and until our next meeting, have a great week, everyone!
September 30, 2024 Good Monday Morning! “We had joy, we had fun We had seasons in the sun…. “ Terry Jacks, 1974
They knew, these wise old lilac bushes. Knew that it was their last season of showing off their beautiful blossoms. How else can you explain this autumn display of blooms typical of spring? The bushes had been slowly dying back and we decided this summer to have them cut down. Now they are showing those lavender flowers, fragrant as ever, radiant in the sunshine. It’s as if they are desperately trying to change our minds! But it is fall, and next week the men with sharpened saws will come to end their lives. They have had a good life since being transplanted from Grandpa Frank’s backyard 25 years ago! (Lilac bushes have a longevity of 20-30 years!) For a quarter of a century they have watched over our flower garden and the old bathtub-turned-planter (also from Grandpa Frank!) filled with colorful Impatiens! That’s a long time of providing beautiful blooms and soothing aroma, shelter for the birds, and protecting our shrine to St. Francis! Everything in its time, right? Yes, it’s time to take down those old lilacs, but certainly not time to let go of the memories! Life is so connected and the entirety is much more than the sum of its parts! Grandpa Frank’s presence in our lives continues! And who knows? Maybe next spring new shoots will push out at the base of those old giants! Coming up this week is the birthday of Grandpa Frank’s daughter, my wife! Let me be the first to say “Happy Birthday “—May your day be filled with sunshine and love, and lilacs! Have a great week, everyone! October is upon us! How did that happen?!
September 23, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Do you remember the first car you drove? I’m sure you do. I’m only bringing this up because of the news from New York where an eight year old girl drove the family car to a Target store for a morning latte. Think about it……what’s a child of eight doing drinking coffee? Doesn’t she know it will stunt her growth? I started on coffee when I was ten and as a result I only grew to five foot-eight….if I kinda stood on my toes a little bit. Sheesh! I probably could have been a basketball star if I’d stayed on milk for another six years. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree…….or doesn’t grow, in this case. But back to the car. A truck for me, actually. I was thirteen helping out on the farm during harvest. The crew needed me to drive a pickup truck with tools and gear to follow the combine and grain truck in the fields as they harvested the wheat—pretty heady stuff for a city slicker. They tried to give me a crash course (so to speak) in steering and shifting—I was not a fast learner!—but then decided to just let me keep it in first gear! I was slow, but I got there. Later, I learned to drive for real in my family’s 1957 Ford, a three speed manual transmission, and my aunt Louise’s 1958 Chevy Bel Air. She and grandma spent part of the summers with us. Grandma had a stroke a few years earlier and aunt Louise was her main caregiver. Grandma was unable to speak English after the stroke, but she could speak German, the language she was brought up in. And she was just as sharp and observant as ever. And furthermore, she was in charge! No matter who was driving, she called shotgun. So I had another crash course, this time in German. When the stoplight turned green, Grandma was on it. “Jetzt!” she would say. (Now!) If we were approaching a stoplight that turned yellow, she would almost holler “Schnell!” (Hurry!) And she knew exactly where we were going…… “rechts abbiegen” (turn right) or “links abbiegen” (turn left). It was all good as we safely arrived at all of our destinations. I wish grandma was here and I’d chauffeur her around in that cool Chevy, anywhere she wanted to go! Habt alle eine tolle Woche! (Have a great week everyone!) (I had to look that one up!)
September 16, 2024 Good Monday Morning! I was in a distractible mood during church services on Saturday. Not an unusual state for GMM guy, you might say, and you’d be correct! Though I may not always be tuned in 100% to the lessons and sermon, I still come up with some deep, if not profound, thoughts and ideas! This Saturday it was a couple of small spiders who were hiding in broad daylight under the pew in front of me where it made a sharp turn toward the main aisle. My first thought was that the cleaning crew had missed this section for some time as the webs were quite intricate and stable (I bent down like I had dropped something and blew on them a bit. Poor spiders were probably scared that a storm was coming!) I think a spider’s web is a true marvel. Tough and strong, yet intricate and delicate, and nearly transparent to unsuspecting bugs. The spiders were in their waiting game, sitting very still……maybe meditating…maybe, since this was a church, saying a prayer that a tasty insect would wander into his web. After all, what is a spider’s web but a trap? Aren’t we also susceptible to traps, like alcohol and drugs, where we can be caught completely and appear helpless like a bug in a spider’s web? Until some saving grace appears on the horizon and helps one extricate himself. I decided I should meditate with the spiders, and before long, mass was over. I reminded myself of the Buddhist principles I learned and I didn’t interfere with the meditating spiders. Have a great week everyone. September is going by fast and the days are getting shorter. Snow will be flying before we know it!
September 9, 2024 Good Monday Morning! It was a wonderful weekend for almost anything, wasn’t it? I spent some of it at the Rock Bend Music Festival enjoying music and a brewski….or two! People watching was a part of it, too. Yogi Berra once said that you could observe a lot just by watching! Youngsters with their uninhibited dancing caught my eye. So too the old “hippies” who seemed to still “have it”…….whatever “it” was! The little ones were oblivious to the music as the playground held their complete attention. Some of their fun seemed timeless, like the merry go round. Kids would line up their spot from 15 feet away, then sprint and jump onto the merry go round as it turned. Hey, I did that back in grade school! We had a big old merry go round in our recess playground. That was over 60 years ago, and it was great fun…….until it wasn’t. The last time I made that little run and jump was memorable. I lined up my spot and pathway….my takeoff was timed just right….my jump, complete with a half-twist, was flawless…..and I immediately let out a howl as I landed seat first! The other kids brought the merry go round to a stop as I hobbled off the mean machine, with a foot long sliver in my behind! Well, to my eyes it was a wooden stake big enough to kill a vampire. I pull it out myself shortly before the school bell rang. I limped into the lavatory to assess the damage and determined that I didn’t need any help! The fewer eyes on that part of my body the better! Just thinking out loud here, that was my first “surgery”, if you will. And I didn’t even have a license! Have a great week everyone! Enjoy this beautiful time of year!
September 2, 2024 Good Monday Morning! It’s Labor Day…..nuthin’ good about it! It’s definitely my least favorite holiday. Dad always used this day dedicated to his working class life to preserve tomatoes! If our garden didn’t produce enough, he’d get a bushel or two from a truck farm. We—that included mom and all the kids—started at 8 AM, boiling water, cleaning jars, skinning the tomatoes, sterilizing the jars…..and sweating! It was ALWAYS hotter than a pistol. There was nothing on TV except the Jerry Lewis telethon, and how boring was that? We didn’t have a barbecue, no picnic in the park, and we never went to the State Fair. We canned tomatoes! The job was finished by late afternoon and I sneaked away to go swimming one last time. The pool closed for the season at 8 PM, and school started the Tuesday after Labor Day…..ALWAYS! Oh how I hated the end of summer! There was one saving grace in all of this—I really liked tomatoes! My parents were very afraid that I would be malnourished when I was little. I was a picky eater….on steroids! I didn’t like anything. Finally, mom made some elbow macaroni and mixed in some stewed tomatoes. Voila! I was saved! Macaroni and tomatoes (not cheese!) became my staple, like potatoes for the Irish, like poi for the Hawaiians, like vodka for the Russians……well, you get the picture. So when January rolled around, those beautiful quarts of tomatoes provided a delicious taste of summer, as well as saving my life. Have fun on this last day of summer! I certainly will enjoy it, but I won’t be canning tomatoes!
August 26, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Grandson Eddie went off to college last week. He chose to attend U of MN Duluth. Couldn’t have been better for me! That’s my favorite corner of Minnesota, so now we have another reason to visit. I remember starting college. I didn’t have a scholarship or anything, but I applied for a work-study job….and got it! I was appointed Greenhouse Manager! OK, OK, it was more an entry level job, cleaning and stacking the pots, sweeping up the potting soil that missed its mark, watering the flowers. But I did get to help a professor with his research. He was experimenting with pea plants grown in hydroponic water baths with various chemical additives. I measured the length of the plants, number of leaves, and recorded my results. I’m sure I wasn’t mentioned in any of the papers that he published, but Hey! Here I was in the trenches doing groundbreaking research! And that wasn’t my only foray into horticulture experiments. I tried growing peanuts in a state that wasn’t Georgia. Minnesota, to be exact. I cultivated seven plants (all I had room for!) from seed, and harvested precisely……….six peanuts! Didn’t even get my seed back. So, it was in the spirit of scientific research that I once again planned an experiment. All these years I have been battling the weeds with hoe, rake, and Roundup. I actually won once…….it was so dry that nothing grew, including crops and weeds. But I digress . This year I decided to find out if weeding was really necessary. I found seven weeds and watched them closely. I came back a few days later and there were seventy! I was a little alarmed, but not surprised. I had a variable I was about to add to this experiment. You know how we are told to talk nicely to our house plants and they will flourish? Well, what if I gave those weeds a “good talking to,” as my Grandmother would say? Give ‘em a negative self image and they’ll dry up like Death Valley! I gave those weeds the most I had, blistering them as if I had a flame thrower. Oh, that was satisfying for me! I came back a few days later and there were seven thousand! Well, the experiment was called off by my wife who handed me a hoe and a spray bottle of we’d-be-gone. I did have one conclusion, though I probably won’t be publishing it…….if weeds were peanuts, I’d be President of the United States! Have a great week everyone! Stay cool
August 19, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Those of you who are regular readers of this blog—and I hope you are one!—know that I have a firmly held belief that everyone is a natural at something! You just have to find that something and Voila!—you’ll have it made in the shade! Take Derek Jeter. He was as natural a shortstop as there ever was! But not just any shortstop….the New York Yankees shortstop! Best of the best. Oh sure, he had to work hard when he was young, taking grounders every night after supper until the last rays of the sun pooped out, but he was a natural. Y’all have been witness as I have chronicled my sorry list of the things I am NOT a natural at, right here on these pages. Scuba diving, horseback riding, skiing, just to name a few. But I wasn’t done looking. I mean, what good does it do you to find out at St. Peter’s Pearly Gates that you indeed were a natural at, say, Tiddlywinks……..and you never even tried the game! No, no, you gotta keep searching. Recently, I’ve discovered I’m not very good at calligraphy. Ditto for baking cakes. I’m still a work-in-progress for fishing…..actually caught some last year. But I’m not as agile as I used to be, so some things may be off the table…..like the two man bobsled, or the Red Bull Crashed Ice. But in my daydreams, I certainly could be the undisputed Gold Medal Champion of the luge! It just occurred to me…….maybe I’m a natural at daydreaming! That’s too easy, you might say. But what is a “natural” if not an easy-peasy gig? Until something else pops, I’m going with daydreaming! Have a great week everyone!
August 12, 2024 Good Monday Morning! All good things must end, they say. Two of this summer’s favorite things are done on the same day…..the Summer Olympics and the county fair! It was so entertaining watching the athletes compete with each other and the clock! My favorites were the gymnasts who seemed to become contortionists in the air. Absolutely marvelous, and deserving of all the attention. All of the participants showed that focus and determination I like to call “the eye of the tiger!” Win or lose, they gave it their all. Same for the county fair! You can see the effort and perseverance of the entrants presenting their projects, from horses and cattle to chickens and rabbits, from apple pies and cakes to biscuits and tomatoes! Especially the younger 4-H kids…..it’s a culmination of summer projects. And though they rehearsed it many times, judging brings the jitters forward. It’s fun to see the whole process, but especially the smiles at the end! Aunt Alice introduced me to the county fair. Specifically, the Steele County Fair in Owatonna because that’s where the harness racing took place. Auntie grew up with horses and I remember seeing grainy pictures of her with her favorite horse in our album. Turns out she liked to race, too, riding bareback to school and back. Anyway, she enjoyed the racing and I got to go along for company. Harness racing horses are either “pacers”, who move their legs laterally (right front and right hind together, then left front and left hind) or “trotters”, who move their legs forward in diagonal pairs (right front and left hind, then left front and right hind striking the ground simultaneously). Even as a kid I thought it was exciting as the horses came to the finish line where the second or third place horse might break into a gallop to go for the win…… but would be disqualified, of course. Evidently, horses don’t like to lose either! And then there is fair food! What’s not to like about corn dogs, cheese curds, and pork chop on-a-stick? Oh, I think heaven has to be a little like the county fair…..where you see your friends, enjoy familiar sights and sounds, marvel at the many beautiful creatures with whom we share this part of the world, and look down from atop the Ferris Wheel to feel the joy, excitement, and buzz of anticipation! Too bad it only comes once a year! Have a great week everyone.
August 5, 2024 Good Monday Morning! (Editors note: Astute readers of this space will have noted that last week’s episode is missing! This sorry circumstance happened because GMM guy was on vacation……again….this time in Oregon. He promised he’d make up for it but he just doesn’t get it! There are only 52 Mondays in a year, and nobody wants any extras! You gotta do it on time! Whatever, here is this Monday’s offering.) The summer of 1964 was perhaps the last bit of carefree innocence to be experienced by many of us. This was the summer before my senior year of high school and I would revel in it! For me, it ended with the Gulf of Tonkin incident on August 4th. Though the horrific details of the Vietnam war would only slowly unfold over the next 10 years, I knew that I would experience it firsthand. But I wanted to hang on to those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” that Nat King Cole crooned about. As it happened, another big event was going on in the summer of ’64. The New York World’s Fair. (Ironically, it’s theme was “Peace through Understanding”.) My big brother, 4 years older than me and the proud owner of a “new” used car, suggested that we take a road trip to the Big Apple and see what it was all about. Didn’t have to ask me twice! So we set off with a tent, sleeping bags, and a map stuffed into his pride and joy….a 1960 Volkswagen. An adventure it was! We camped in State parks along the way and made meals over a campfire. We took in the sights and enjoyed the late summer weather, watching the countryside slide into our rear view mirror. Just not very quickly. It was a Volkswagen, not a GTO! Though we were pedaling as fast as we could, we discovered that we were not going fast enough to get to New York City and see the fair. We picked an alternate destination……Niagara Falls. We did it up right, including a boat tour where they dressed you in those yellow hooded slickers and galoshes and explored the caves behind the falls. It was outstanding! We made our way home on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes and arrived in time for the start of school. Have a great week everyone! It’s August, but we can still enjoy the summer!
July 22, 2024 Good Monday Morning! A mid week visit to Winona Minnesota. A sleepy little river town with some eye opening architecture, especially the churches. We marveled at the intricate details and size of the structures. The Basilica of St. Stanislaus is a prime example, and what a beautiful building it is! The red dome is like an “X marks the spot” on the skyline of Winona. And the inside was just as captivating, from the altars to the statues to the wooden pews. It started me thinking…..how did the parishioners afford all this back in the 1870’s? And not just this church, but at least four others of various denominations that we found while driving around. But more than just coming up with the dollars, why did they commit themselves to such a project? Well, they must have had strong spiritual reasons for initiating and following through on such a big project. And not just here! This was happening all across America as communities took on the task of building small frame buildings on the prairie to huge cathedrals in New York, Boston, St. Louis, etc. We rarely see massive Cathedrals or Basilicas being built today. What we do see are huge sports arenas and stadiums going up in city after city. Isn’t ironic that as religious affiliation is waning and attendance at Sunday services are sliding, pro football attendance on the Sabbath is going through the roof, so to speak! And all these new and plush buildings seem to have public financing of some sort allowing the owners of teams and the players to make obscene profits (my opinion!) without much, if any, risk. Sport is King…….and given the adulation of adoring fans, maybe even replacing God! Well, now I’ve done it. I once, in my youth, said that I wouldn’t become a curmudgeon, complaining about this and that. But here I am, so I might as well say it….”We’re going to hell in a hand basket!” Have a great week everyone. I’ll be gone to Oregon next week, so I may slip into vacation mode and sleep in!
July 15, 2024 Good Monday Morning! I visited Fort Snelling National Cemetery last week. First time I was ever there, and I was impressed. It was a wonderfully sunny day and the morning air was fresh with a slight breeze. The day promised to be hot and humid, but for now, all was good. All the uniform white grave stones in impeccable straight rows representing our military veterans and their families. Generals and officers, sergeants and privates, all under the same green grass and at peace. All the inscriptions faced the same direction except one, so I went closer to see. I found it was the name of the daughter of the veteran inscribed on the proper side……she had lived only one day! That must have been an incredibly sad time. I was deep in thought when our group was called forward—we were there to honor my daughter in law’s father. The ceremony, including Taps and a 21 gun salute, was timely and efficient, something you’d expect from the military. But there was time to reflect on life and death, and why it’s important to tell the ones close to you that you love them, this life being so fickle. Later that day, as both the sun and the temperature got higher, we decided to join them……had ourselves a couple of brewskis! (Everything in moderation!) Have a great week everyone……it’s still summer!
July 8, 2024 Good Monday Morning! “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to dissolve the political bonds that have connected them with another….” Thus begins our Declaration of Independence, written in 1776 and commemorated every 4th of July now. We use it as a basis for declaring our rights of the individual. Personal freedom. And rightfully so! We are endowed with “certain unalienable rights” that are important for the expression of our individual lives, our pursuit of happiness. The framers of our Constitution made sure that individual rights were enumerated and preserved, but you should read the Preamble again. I’ll put it right here for you….. “WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” My point is, the authors led not with personal liberties but with the responsibility of government to the common good—form a more perfect union, provide for the common defense, and promote the general Welfare. There has always been tension between personal liberties and the the good of the whole. I’m afraid for our future (as a nation) if we continue to frame the question as personal rights vs. the common good. We must find a way to preserve the former while expanding the latter, since there are many more of us living in the same space. Unless we’re able to colonize Mars quickly! This is all, of course, my humble opinion —protected by Article I of the amendments, of course! Hope you had a wonderful 4th! Have a great week everyone.
July 1, 2024 Good Monday Morning! It’s July! It’s the best month of the year, in my humble opinion. Oh, I know, December has Christmas, and November has Thanksgiving. March gives us a spring in our step and has St. Patrick’s Day……..but July is full-on summer for a whole month! Fireworks on the 4th of July followed closely by my birthday and to top it off, the baseball All Star game. What’s not to like? Growing up, July was synonymous with both baseball field and swimming pool. Baseball in the morning , swimming in the afternoon. There were always towels and swimming trunks flying on our clothesline in the evening, truly the flags of summer. I was the only one of six boys with a birthday in the summer. We would often celebrate with a little picnic of hot dogs and beans. For my 10th birthday, we had a BIG picnic. Grandma and grandpa, aunt Alice, plus all my great-aunts and great-uncles. This was a rare gathering of the local family. Our little station wagon was full of little kids and food, so I offered to ride my bike the half mile or so to the park. (Besides, I kinda wanted to make a grand entrance to the party!) On the way, I must admit I was engaged in my favorite pastime—daydreaming! Probably I was picturing myself crossing the finish line at the Daytona 500. I entered an intersection without really looking and the driver of a car had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting me! Holy cow! The realization that my life could have ended at ten years old was the first of its kind I can remember. Whoa! Mortality is for me, too! It was a little wiser ten year old that made his entrance at the picnic. The other thing I remember about that party was great-aunt Molly’s baked beans! To keep them hot, the big ol’ bean pot was placed in an oversized cardboard box stuffed with crumpled newspaper for insulation—the precursor of our modern day cooler! Enjoy your July, the best month of the year! Have a great week everyone!
June 24, 2024 Good Monday Morning! I saw her from across the room, sitting face to face with her granddaughter on her lap. The total joy and love on their faces could fill a cathedral, I thought. They were near oblivious to anything else going on, each other’s company was the world. And happy I was for them. A flashback then carried me to a time years ago when another baby was upon her lap, producing the same level of joy. This infant would have been the current little girl’s uncle had it not been for a tragic accident. He died….nobody’s fault, no one to blame. Just pain and sorrow…… unfathomable grief that did fill a cathedral as a family and community came together to mourn. It’s a good thing I was so busy in my work life. I just didn’t have the time to try and make sense of these things. Now I’ve come to to the simplest of answers……life is a mystery! We just don’t have enough information to figure it all out, but there is one thing I’m certain of. We need to be present to and for each other as we make our way, muddled as it often is. It’s so hard to see that there is any possibility of good things on the horizon as we are bogged down in sorrow. But there’s no need to be Pollyanna . Just need to show up, to be there for each other. And let the mystery unfold. I don’t think there is anything sweeter than the sound of a little child giggling. Truly music to my ears. I wish I could put a sound bite directly into this GMM, but the best I can do is have you Google this auto commercial with giggling child Have a great week everyone! Summertime, and the livin’ is easy!
June 17, 2024 (Editor’s note:GMM guy is still a day behind ever since vacation last week) Good Monday Morning…on Tuesday! My grandson graduated from high school last week …..MY GRANDSON! Am I getting old or what? As we watched the class march in to the auditorium, his father (my son!) reflected on his graduation years ago. He wondered if we, his mother and father, were relieved that he made it through high school! A little bit, we were, I admitted. You have to know that Mike was a bit of a challenge during his teenage years. No, no, not a juvenile delinquent, as we used to call them. Just challenging. What I failed to tell him that in spite of our worries about his graduating, we never doubted his abilities, we never lost our faith in him. This part was true for all the kids. They were all unique individuals with strengths and weaknesses, talents and skills along with shortcomings. The dad’s job is to help shepherd them through to adulthood, and that involves having more tools than just “the hammer!” Good thing mom was ever present and she was more than effective at softening my mistakes! Actually, we talked a lot about parenting. Raising four kids meant continually individualizing the particular approach to behavior within a framework of values we both held together. Of course, we weren’t sure of much in those days, so we had to constantly reevaluate what we were doing. From my vantage point now, decision making is a process that demands attention to detail so that you can say you made the best choice with the information you had—but you must be reflective and fluid enough to reverse course if needed. Not like General Custer who was about to ride into the Little Big Horn. He was given some up to date information on the strength of the Native American forces by Little Big Man, and dismissed it as not being worth a reversal of a Custer decision! I hope y’all had a great Father’s Day weekend….I sure did! Saw the Twins win a game and got a little sun. Have a great week everyone! P.S. My grandson wasn’t in danger of not graduating….he’s a very good student and on his way to UMD!
June 10, 2024 Good Monday Morning! I should have known better! Let me rephrase that…..I DID know better! I just went ahead and did it anyways. I’m talking about trying all kinds of fad diets over the years. The Mayo Clinic diet, the Atkins diet, the cabbage soup diet (it’s a wonder I still like cabbage in any form after that one.) I didn’t advocate any of these for my patients! Heavens no! I always recommended a balanced diet and daily exercise. Still the best thing for managing your weight , Ozempic notwithstanding! But I figured I could try these “short cuts” myself since I was so savvy about these things. About the time I was a week or so into my Green Bean diet—a can of green beans and toast for breakfast and lunch, then a regular supper—I had a little problem. As the junior partner, I drew the job of assisting a new visiting surgeon with a cholecystectomy (removal of the gallbladder.) It was scheduled for 6:30 AM! That’s why I got the job! I planned to get to work early to introduce myself and all that, but I overslept! No time for anything, especially a green bean breakfast, and I rushed to the hospital. The surgeon was already in the operating room as I furiously scrubbed my hands and arms—something that you simply can’t “short cut”. I got into my sterile gown and gloves just as he was making his incision. Mind you, this was many years ago when a cholecystectomy was real surgery with cutting and snipping and plenty of blood, not a video game with a laparoscope like it is today. My job as an assistant was to minimize the blood loss. He hardly said a word, and I was mad at myself for being late, and I didn’t realize my precarious situation as it developed. With nothing to eat or drink, and the stress of being on this stupid diet, I was volume depleted……and getting ready to faint! I felt it coming on before I face planted into the patient’s belly. I half stumbled to the side of the room where the circulating nurse got me a stool to sit on, and someone else got me a glass of orange juice. I was revived in short order and rejoined the operation in progress. “Seems like I always faint at the sight of blood,” I think I said to the surgeon. I don’t think he was impressed. Have a great week everyone. And don’t skip breakfast, especially if you’re on a diet!
June 3, 2024
Good Monday Morning!
Editors note: GMM will be delayed this week due to technical difficulties. We are sorry for any inconvenience. GMM guy is just sorry. In the meantime, you might try a little Yoga or Meditation. There’s a whole lot of stress out there and it seems like the world might blow at any moment. We just gotta chill a little and regroup! I’ve got the faith that we’re gonna be OK. Be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail!
May 27,2024 Good Monday Morning! More specifically, good Memorial Day morning! Let me say this straight away…..I’m so glad my camping days are behind me! Oh, don’t get me wrong. We had some great times camping, but it seems we always fought with Memorial Day weather….and lost. Always cool and often rainy, even in South Dakota. But whatcha gonna do? Memorial Day weekend is the official start of summer and if I wasn’t on call, we felt obligated to get on with the camping season. And most of the time we came home wet and tired, but not hungry! Always had enough food for a threshing crew, as mom would say. Hot dogs and beans is a gourmet meal when you have it on a picnic table. Don’t forget dessert—camp pies! Canned cherry pie filling between two slices of white bread, cooked over the campfire in those little cast iron pie makers. I never forgot to pack those babies! I never forgot to bring popcorn,too, but one time I failed to pack the campfire popper. Now if there is one word to describe the camping experience , it is improvisation on the prairie. OK, that’s four words, but you get the picture—you make do, another favorite mom saying! The only pot with a cover was my camp percolator. I took out the guts, fried a little bacon to get some grease, put the popcorn in and popped it over the campfire. As I recall, it was quite tasty, but then everything tastes great outdoors! But the coffee never tasted the same after that! Not bad, mind you, just a little funky. Hope your Memorial Day is safe and dry! And that you find some time to reflect on all those who have given the full measure to keep us safe! Have a great week everyone!
May 20, 2024 (Editor’s note: the following piece would have been published last Monday if GMM guy hadn’t been so discombobulated by the computer!) Good Monday Morning! I’m sure you recall some specific things you learned from your first teacher. No, not Mrs. Wagner, your kindergarten teacher. I mean your very first teacher—your mother! I can remember a lot of things, some so clear they seem like only yesterday. Like the way she taught me to wash my hands, her soft hands enveloping mine, rolling the little sliver of soap around in my hands, all warm and sudsy. Later she showed me how to knead bread, again placing her hands over mine as we pushed and stretched the dough to develop—gasp!—gluten! (Who knew that was going to be a thing?) But the best was showing me how to form buns. We’d cut off a portion of dough, roll it into a ball, then stretch and tuck, stretch and tuck until it was satiny smooth. Pinch off the bottom and put it on the pan. Every once in awhile we’d cut off a bigger chunk which really became evident after rising and baking. I’d try to get that one at supper time! Another time she showed me how to write a check, filling out the payee in her beautiful penmanship, spelling out the dollar amount and finishing with that squiggly line. Of course, I don’t write many checks anymore what with credit cards and PayPal, but I remember it so clear. The best thing she taught me wasn’t a ‘thing’ at all. She taught me how to love, and did so by example. She raised six sons, each a unique individual, and each believing he was her favorite! And you know what? We were all correct! You can’t do that without loving unconditionally. Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day! Have a great week everyone! The hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer are near!
May 13, 2024
Good Monday Morning! GMM guy is very frustrated this morning as he can’t figure out the formatting function of the program he is using. As you can see, this is not looking like it should and he can’t clear his mind enough at this early AM hour to straighten it out. He would definitely like to scream at the screen, but that would wake everyone up and he’d have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do! All this computer stuff is so onerous at times…..ya just want to do a simple task and it won’t cooperate one bit. You must do it the computer way……or it’s the highway. We’ll chew on this, computer….BAM! SLAM! CRASH! KABOOM!!…..(I am taking a hammer to you and blowing you up with a stick of dynamite……..virtually, of course. I don’t want to wake anyone up!) He promises that he will work on this during the week so he can do a real entry next week from Colorado where he will be visiting. Unless, of course, he is too Rocky Mountain High to get things together! Have a great week everyone!
May 6, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Mrs. Robin Red Breast insisted on building her nest on top of the floodlight on our deck. I, on the other hand, insisted that she would not! I removed her crude nest three times…..and she started a fourth. What were we to do? It’s not like I could give her a good talking to, or threaten her with a lawsuit. I suppose I could have put up a sign “No nests here!” but my bird lingo is a bit rusty. (Maybe I could have contacted Woodstock, Snoopy’s friend, for advice!) Mrs. RBB, on the other hand, had no qualms about scolding me each time I tore down her nest! Believe me, I know scolding when I hear scolding! Finally, on that fourth try, I moved the nest to a little shelf I had affixed to a pole next to the house, not 20 feet away. The nest would still be high and dry under the soffit, just not in the electrical system and right over the deck. I didn’t see her for a couple of days after that and I assumed she opted for more conventional housing in a tree somewhere. But then I spotted her, first scoping out the nest and then jumping into it, wriggling down to smooth it out. It wasn’t long until Mr. RRB joined her and they made it a real home. Now she is sitting on the eggs and we’re hoping for hatching to take place in two to three weeks. BTW, Mr. RBB doesn’t sit on the eggs at all, but does stand guard over them when mom takes her breaks during the day. When the babies are hatched, both mom and dad carry out feeding duties. Fascinating are the ways of nature! I’m certainly glad for the opportunities to witness them, and very grateful to play a small part in some! Have a great week everyone!
April 29, 2024 Good Monday Morning! The rain came softly at first, and then it seemed to pour. The grass is loving it, so this week’s primary job is to get the lawn mower running. Last year was so dry that we didn’t spend a lot of time mowing. This year might be different. I’m one that doesn’t much care about a great looking lawn. If it’s green and all about the same height, I’m good. Weeds, dandelions, creeping Charlie….I don’t get too worked up. But ever since we’ve been home owners, we’ve had neighbors that take great pride in having a beautiful lawn. I’ve been forced to at least make some effort, including hiring a lawn service to do the fertilizing and aeration. Oh the things I do to keep peace in the neighborhood! Not enough for one neighbor, though, quite a few years ago. She referred to my lawn as a “pasture”, and she wanted nothing to do with it! Well, that’s all I needed to hear. I bought a small windmill and several plastic cows and placed the “herd” next to the property line. We didn’t speak a lot that summer. All the current neighbors are quite OK with our efforts. They enjoy seeing Sarah on the riding mower. I handle the trimmer. She gets about 95% of the grass. In any other subject, 95% would get you an ‘A’, but in lawn mowing……well, I’m still OK with it. The point is, we enjoy it. And we look forward to it every year! Have a great week everyone. Hope your lawn is green as grass!
April 22, 2024 Good Monday Morning! In every job that must be done There is an element of fun… Find the fun and snap! The job’s a game! (Mary Poppins—1964)
Oh boy, is that ever true! Along with the one about a spoonful of sugar, these were major tenets that I wove into my life from early on. Delivering papers, I had great fun rolling each paper tightly, filling my saddle bag baskets on my bike, then riding at breakneck speed as I fired one after another onto the porches of each customer. All the while being chased by wild bandits, mind you. But it was hard to find much fun working in the school cafeteria. It was hot, heavy work with lots of pressure to get things done quickly. Unless you arrived at work first! In that case, you got to be the sprayer—the guy that flushed all the loose debris off the trays and plates. Let’s just say that nobody messed with sprayer guy. When that sprayer was cranked up to max, everyone was in range! If someone didn’t dump their milk box in the garbage can, they might expect a shot. Too much food left on your plate—watch out! Whoever held that sprayer had a chance to correct any perceived wrongs, real or imagined! So much fun! Mary Poppins proved right again. Nowadays, I’m still doing the dishes, but my fun has shifted from spraying to stacking. I love to see how many washed dishes and utensils I can stack up in the drainer. Then when they’re all dried, I can have a game of Jenga putting them away! Have a great week everyone!
April 15, 2024 Good Monday Morning! I can clearly see her face when I close my eyes.The sun and wind had taken its toll leaving her cheeks and brow quite leathery and tanned. Not to mention the years of smoking which caused wrinkles everywhere. But when she smiled, there was such peace and kindness, a comforting countenance I have rarely seen. If she were your grandma when you were little, you’d never get tired of being rocked to sleep in her lap. But she was sitting in my office now complaining of a nagging cough. We were looking at her X-ray that showed a large tumor in her lung, so menacing that a lay person had no trouble seeing it. I explained that we would need to see a specialist to get a biopsy and see what we were dealing with so that we could fight it with radiation and the right chemotherapy. She gave me that smile, and softly said “No” as she shook her head. I tried to approach it from different angles, and she calmly parried each argument away, with that same soft, kindly smile.I was truly moved……she was living alone as her husband had died several years ago. There wasn’t anyone close to help, so she accepted my offer of a Public Health Nurse referral. She took along a prescription for cough medicine and pain pills, and I would rely on the nurses visits to keep me informed. I never saw her again. I was so smart….I thought I knew all about the stages of dying—Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. I was all prepared to help her through those stages as our treatment would inevitably fail. It never occurred to me that someone could bypass all that pain and crapola and go straight to acceptance, like she was showing me. She only lived a few months, but she lived it on her terms. And I believe she died with that smile of acceptance on her face!
So often we read in obituaries where the decedent fought a valiant long (or short) battle with cancer. Sometimes it seems like to do otherwise—to refuse treatment that would prolong life—is somehow sacrilegious. Don’t get me wrong! I believe that modern medicine has some great treatments (I’m living proof of that!) and sometimes life prolonging treatment has much to offer. But sometimes……perhaps many times……..no treatment is the best. (GMM Guy truly hopes you are not bummed out with this little piece of writing—he is buoyed up whenever he recalls her sweet smile!) Have a great week everyone!
April 8, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Our parish priest got the week off from preaching! The Deacon gave the sermon….a pretty good one, in my humble opinion. He explained the gospel very well, and reiterated the Doubting Thomas story. Finally, he said, we all can rely on God’s mercy….and I said “Amen!” (I know when it’s my turn, I’ll be asking the Lord to overlook a whole bunch of stuff!) Anyway, it got me to thinking about my mother. She tried her best to get me to choose the priesthood as a career. She was under the belief that if one of her sons became a priest, she and Pa would be assured of a straight path to heaven after they died. If I thought Ma really needed my help for salvation, I might have thought about it a little more. But our mother dear was raising six sons, each of whom thought he was her favorite! Now I think you have to be a Saint to accomplish something like that, so I believed her path to paradise was already set. Pa? Well, he might have to take a little side trip to Purgatory, but he was tough and he’d make it just fine. So I told mom that if I became a doctor, I’d be able to preach every day, not just on Sunday! “Thou shalt not smoke! Thou shalt eat thy broccoli! Thou shalt not partake of the hateful cholesterol!” And the rest, as they say, is history! Have a great week everyone! Spring is coming!
April 1, 2024 “Well, hold the phone and beat the drum The sun came out today! We’re born again There’s new grass on the field…” Centerfield John Fogarty-1985
The baseball season started last week, and that has always generated excitement in my corner of the world! Growing up before the Twins burst on the scene in 1961, major league baseball was synonymous with the New York Yankees. I guess I liked to go with a winner. But that all changed when the Twins showed up, and Opening day was just 75 miles away. I was 14 years old, and one of my greatest dreams was to attend a real big league game. But I would have to wait. For that entire inaugural season I would have to be satisfied with play-by-play on the radio and an occasional game on TV. My anticipation only grew the more. Then the big opportunity came in June, 1962. Aunt Alice ‘volunteered’ to take me and brother Roger to a game! (Aunt Alice wasn’t much of a sports fan, but she was a big fan of her nephews!) To be exact, it was Sunday June 24, 1962. And it was a doubleheader with the Los Angeles Angels! I could hardly wait. Our tickets were right behind home plate…on the third deck of the old Metropolitan Stadium. No matter, we’d be able to see the entire field. To get to our seats we had to walk up the switchback ramps to the top of the stadium. It took all I could muster to stay with Aunty and not run on up to get my first view. Finally, we were there, walking out onto the third deck. It was a sight I’ll never forget…..the players practicing on the field looked like ants! The field itself appeared to be the size of a postage stamp! I think we were closer to the airliners flying overhead than to the green grass on the field! This was Major League Baseball?! More like Major Disappointment! Well, I got over it by the time the game started. (A hot dog and a frosty malt helped!) Unfortunately, the Twins lost the first game, and Aunt Alice had baked long enough in the hot June sunshine (no cover on the third deck!) We left in the 5th inning of the second game, and listened on the car radio as our poor Twins lost that one, too. Somewhat devastating to a 15 year old with high expectations! Baseball doesn’t get old. The same dreams and high hopes well up every opening day. I just don’t let my expectations get so high! Have a great week everyone. Fun fact—the Twins beat the Yankees in their first ever meeting, 6-0 in Yankee Stadium, April 11, 1961.
March 25, 2024 Good Monday Morning! LIFE IS VERY SHORT AND THERE’S NO TI-I-I-I-IME FOR FUSSING AND FIGHTING, MY FRIEND…
We Can Work It Out The Beatles-1965
I was steamed! We had just entered Hammond Stadium, the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins when I realized that I had forgot our ‘factory sealed’ water bottles in the car. This item is about the only thing fans are allowed to take inside, and I had made a special stop to get them on our way way to the game. Now, thanks to my always-trying-to-hurry-up, we would be buying exorbitantly priced Evian water if we didn’t want to dehydrate in the Florida sun. (By the way, did you know that ‘Evian’ spelled backwards is Naïve? So true!) I was still berating myself as we explored the stadium and stopped into the souvenir store. Immediately upon entering, those Beatles lyrics playing overhead ‘most knocked me over. Life’s too short. No fussing, no fighting….myself, in this case! It seems I need to be reminded of this quite frequently. So many times I let the little things upset me, blocking me from enjoying the present moment. Forgetting the water didn’t matter a whit to the wonderful atmosphere of the ball park, the beautiful sunny day, or the high hopes for our team. You just have to make like a New Yorker and ‘fuhgeddaboudit!’ But the next time I buy a case of bottled water, I’m going to tie a string around my finger! Have a great week everyone!
March 11, 2024 Good Monday Morning! One of the perks of my job (of which there were many!) was to have time with babies, from newborns to school age. Oh yeah, it could be difficult when they were sick or injured, but for the most part it was groovy, as we used to say in the day. I was reminded of that as I was sitting in a restaurant the other day, waiting for my order. I had made eye contact with a little one sitting at the next table. Usually, I try to play a form of peekaboo, hiding behind a menu, or my hands. It’s too easy, you might say, but it’s so much fun to see their little faces light up in smiles and laughter. Sometimes though, I just see if I can hold that eye contact. Babies will stare unabashedly, like they are looking deep into your soul. So much so that you feel like you should look away, that you’re not worthy of such innocence! But sometimes you are rewarded with a rare response. It’s what I like to call a “love smile.” It’s something you can’t force, or take…..it can only be given. It is so much more than just happy, or joyful. Much more deep and lasting. One soul to another….unconditional love. And when a baby gives one to you, you will know it, for it will melt your heart for sure. GMM guy is going on vacation next week, but if he gets bored, and if he has internet, he may or may not write something next Monday! Have a great week everyone, and if you get the chance, don’t miss any time with babies!
March 4, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Then GMM guy said, “Let us march forth into the dawn of a new age, a time where Minnesota has seceded from winter!” (Get it? March 4th …march forth?) Oh, sometimes GMM guy is just too clever, don’t you think? Anyway, is he right? Is this, the wimpiest of winters in Minnesota history, going to be the norm? Part of me would do a cartwheel if it could…….another part would be cowering in a corner hollering “IT’S THE END TIMES, I TELL YA!” It’s kinda scary, not having real winter. I certainly remember winter as a kid. The snow was piled high over my head as I walked to school, two miles and uphill both ways! Often in a blizzard where I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. I had to drop the reins from the pretend horse I was riding and let him take me home by instinct. There were some close calls, but I knew there would be rutabaga and parsnip stew on the wood burning stove waiting for me! What more incentive did I need? The point is, I survived to this ripe old age and if the winter season now wants to give me a break, why not? I’ll “live in the moment” and embrace the here and now! But I tell you this……if winter makes a comeback next year, I’m going to try hibernation! Have a great week everyone! Enjoy whatever season we are given!
Feb 26, 2024 Good Monday Morning! “Due to technical difficulties beyond our control, your regularly scheduled program is not available!” Growing up with early TV, this was the simple message on the screen, accompanied by a stick figure guy trying to untangle a mess of wires and plugs. GMM guy can relate! Lots of irons in the fire, as his mother would say, and he’s not sure if he is foot or horseback! (Another favorite expression his mom enjoyed.) Anyway, I trust he will be back next week to regale you with some mostly fraudulent memory or keen observation on the general state of things. Until then, may the road rise to meet you, may your heart be strong and your burdens light, and may you find peace and joy in every day!
February 19, 2024
Good Monday Morning!
Do you remember what you were doing 40 years ago today? Think hard……nearing the end of winter…..even numbered year….of course! It was the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia! The Cold War was still going on and this was the first Winter Olympics to be held in a communist country. USA twin brothers, Phil and Steve Mahre, took first and second in the slalom! It was great winter entertainment. And…….our daughter chose that day to enter this world! I wanted to name her Sandra, so she would be called Sandy! Get it? Sandy Shores! Oh, I thought I was so clever, but Terry would have none of it. She won with the name Sarah. Hmmm……what could I do with that? I could give her the middle name “Jevo”! Get it? Sarajevo! Lost that battle, too. Middle name would be Katherine, with no argument. Because she was our fourth child and the only girl, I splurged on a Limousine to drive us home from the hospital. We drove first to the Country Pub for a light lunch where Sarah slept like an angel. I may have lost the Birth Certificate naming rights, but I called her Sarajevo anyway until she was five. Then she announced she didn’t like that name. OK. Fair enough. (Our son Mike had a favorite jersey that he wore all the time with the number “55” on it. I called him “Speed Limit Mike” until he threatened a revolt if I didn’t stop!) Anyway, we had just been to Florida for a winter break so I suggested Sarasota! That lasted a little while, and then she wanted to be called Sarah Katherine, period. And so it is still. But I still sing to her once in awhile, that little ditty about the girl with a curl…..right in the middle of her forehead. She usually says “Shut up, dad!” But I think she secretly likes it! So for her birthday, we had a celebration dinner with two of her brothers, favorites Aunt Becky and Uncle Tom, Sis in law Mignon and niece Erin…..then we went to see Baby Shark’s Broadwave Review, and she enjoyed it so much!
Have a great week everyone. Spring is in the air though the calendar still says winter. And if you even think about slalom skiing down the side of a mountain, we’ll, you should have your head examined!
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February 12, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Dinner time around the Shores table circa 1959 was no time for snoozing! With six hungry boys and two overworked parents, things happened fast! When someone said “pass the bread” there likely would soon be a biscuit flying across the table. Now if you were daydreaming, you might get hit……but Mom’s biscuits were light and fluffy so you wouldn’t be hurt. But if someone said “pass the potatoes,” well, you better hope the passer was as accurate as Pat Mahomes, and the receiver had the hands of Travis Kelce! A baked potato would leave a mark! I certainly learned to eat fast in that environment! After the eating was done, the scramble was on to escape the dreaded job of doing the dishes. The youngest two were exempt, just because of age. So the race was on for the four of us. The first one to the bathroom room would lock the door behind him….safe! Another lucky one would be chosen to help Pa with whatever house project he was working on…..safe! That left two…..a washer and a dryer. And the first one to grab the dish towel and shout “I’ll dry” was the winner of that duo. I mean, who wants to wash pots and pans?! And the dryer can always inspect, and subsequently reject, any dish by throwing it back into the sink. (Whether it was still dirty or not!) Most of the time I got stuck with the washing job. You’d think I would hate that to this day, but no! I actually like it. It’s a very meditative experience, and the warm soapy water feels good on my aching fingers! Besides, it’s a great escape, and I get to pile up the dishes in the drainer, like a reverse game of Jenga! Hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl. An exciting game it was with Tay-Tay doing the final victory dance! Have a great week everyone!
February 5, 2024 Good Monday Morning! GMM guy is on vacation in New Orleans! He is reportedly taking part in the festivities of Carnival time, which involves time with family, attending parades, meeting old friends and making new ones, and yes, imbibing a moderate amount of alcohol! He kinda forgot about his duties for awhile, so I’ll try to cover for him. The origin of the word “carnival” is from the Spanish word “carne”, which translates to “meat” in English. So…..the Carnival time—the period between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday—is a time to eat meat! And celebrate like crazy ‘cuz the time of repentance comes with the start of Lent. Which is certainly the season to give up things like meat and merriment! So it begs the question, what good is Lent if you don’t have something to repent? And it looks like GMM guy will have a good Lent after all! The parades here are a tradition well over 100 years old. They are truly a family affair with kids of all ages enjoying the marching bands, floats, dancers and prancers, horsemen (and women!), motorcycles, cars…..hours long parades! It is something you have to experience to believe. Think of a parade this way—a six mile long block party! Sometimes there are 2 or 3 parades a day. GMM guy alternated between his lawn chair and standing with the crowd trying to catch beads and parade stuff tossed from the riders on the floats. And he was quite successful, he thought, considering his age and sciatica! He caught more beads than he could wear around his neck! So that’s the story from the Deep South. God willing and the creek don’t rise, GMM guy will be back next week on Shrove Monday, just before Fat Tuesday! Have a great week everyone!
January 29, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Do you believe Andy Warhol’s outlook that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes? It seemed a little outrageous at the time, but now that Tik-Tok and YouTube are a part of the landscape, I can see it! But no, don’t go looking for me in those venues…….I had my 15 minutes of fame long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. OK, OK, it was Medical School….but it sure seemed like a different world! And there is film! Somewhere, deep in the archives of the Surgery Department at the U of M, is a movie of a groundbreaking surgery….starring me! OK, I’m exaggerating a bit, but I was a supporting actor! Let me explain. The patient had a life threatening condition involving an abdominal aortic aneurysm which also involved his kidneys, causing them to fail. If the aneurysm didn’t blow, he would eventually die of renal failure. The answer? Take out the best functioning kidney as if it would be a donor, fix the aneurysm with a Dacron graft, then replant the kidney as if it was a transplant. And we had the world’s foremost transplant surgeon in Dr. John Najarian! I was a third year medical student assigned to his service, so I got to “assist.” Ordinarily, this meant you could be in the room, if you stayed out of the way. If you were lucky, you might get to hold a retractor. The real assistants were surgery residents. It was a long surgery, so people came and went as different surgical teams worked the two problems. I happened to come in at the same time as Dr. Najarian—we scrubbed in together! In a flash, I found myself right next to him at the table, which was immediately raised to accommodate his height. I was having a hard time keeping my nose away from his elbow as he was operating. “Hold these,” I heard him say. “These” were the fine sutures attaching the kidney artery to its new home. My job was to keep a steady tension on the strings without jerking them through the tissue, AND keep them from getting tangled when the surgeon started tying them. I couldn’t even see where those strings went, I was so short! All I could do was hold on and pray! And the camera kept rolling. I’m sure it captured my hands! So, at least my hands are famous! The operation was a success! Have a great week everyone. Hope your 15 minutes of fame is a great ride!
January 22, 2024 Good Monday Morning! Well now, what an exciting weekend of football! And much less stressful when the Vikings aren’t a part of it! I used to play football…..sort of. Sandlot touch football, where I would make up plays, diagram them in the dirt with a twig, then play it like I was Johnny Unitas (if I was passing) or Willy Galimore (if I was running.) We had great fun in that old vacant corner lot, right in the middle of the ‘hood! We kept playing pick up games through our college years whenever there were enough of us around. My youngest brother (by 10 years!) did the same thing with his friends, and loved to trash talk me when I was home, even when I was in Medical School! Finally I’d had enough. I challenged him to a game. Actually, I double dog dared him, and he accepted. It would be played on the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. I was able to scrape together a team of buddies, but we hadn’t played together in years. No matter. We would crush them like the young punks they were and be back home for a turkey sandwich lunch. A fresh 1 inch of snow covered our field, and the temperature was a balmy 30 degrees. It didn’t take long for the best team to emerge. While I drew up our plays in the snow instead of the dirt, these guys had set plays that they called in the huddle, and then changed at the line with audibles! Just like the pros! “Three—ninety three,” Danny barked. “Hut hut, HIKE!” He handed off to his running back who started a sweep to the right sideline, then stopped and threw a strike back to Dan who was all alone at the goal line! The rout was on. By the time we finished, I was thoroughly humiliated, with serious pain as well. I certainly wasn’t in good shape for physical activity in the cold—after all, I’d been studying hard for the previous 3months! But I knew the proper term for my muscle pain—myalgia! Thinking back, I believe that was my last football game. For sure, I participated in tossing the seed around in the back yard, but never again would I suit up and taste the bitter tears of defeat! Have a great week everyone! And May all your double dog dares turn out in your favor!
April 24, 2023 Good Monday Morning! Pa was a voracious eater! I think he approached mealtime like he did any job……have a plan and just git ‘er done! He was a little guy, but could he ever pack away a supper of hamburgers and corn. He really loved steak but he could only afford hamburger, what with Mom and six kids needing to eat, too! (After us kids had all moved out and Pa was retired, he forlornly remarked that now, when he could afford the steak, he really preferred the hamburger!) Mom needed a faster way of cooking so Pa bought her a larger fry pan. He ate fast, too. How fast, you say? Well he’d start looking for seconds before Mom had a forkful. (Of course, that’s not saying much because Mom would never start until everyone else had all they needed.) Needless to say, he also liked his food hot. No microwave to re-heat it so it was as hot as it was gonna be when it hit your plate! One evening just after Mom took the potatoes out of the oven, and after we said grace, Pa jumped up and began what I can only describe as the chicken dance! What to do? 9-11 had not yet been invented. Around the table he jigged and jumped ‘til he finally settled and was able to take his place at the table. “Did you ever,” he croaked out, “get a piece of hot potato skin caught right there?”, as he pointed to his neck. Then turning his attention back to the meal he said “Hmmmmm…..potatoes getting cold!” That didn’t slow him down any, and I truly worried that he’d get something else stuck “right there” and not be able to dislodge it. But it never happened, and so another example of useless worrying……..or, could the worrying prevented the event some way? I don’t think so, but……. Anyway, have a great week everyone, and slow down a bit and enjoy those potatoes!
Good Monday Morning! 
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