Nostalgia: 1982: My Plans for You are Peace...and NOT Disaster

Friday, September 22, 2006 "My Plans for you are Peace...and NOT disaster; When you call on me...I will answer you." This is one of the bible readings that Don Sheehan had us read as business owners back in 1982. The point for us at that time was the providence of God in our lives, and the dire consequences for us personally if we did not believe that we could and would be survivors. The more I reflected on this saying over the years, the more I reflected in the sense of "Peace" that my father had in his life, and how he achieved it facing the difficulties he did. He faced Parkinsons with courage and grace. It was pretty stunning in retrospect. Rather than focusing on the duplicity, difficulty or just plain evil in the world I found it helpful to review my dad's way of finding peace and trying to do likewise.

Tales From Normal, Mn.----FICTION: Good Kids Don't Chalk Sidewalks: Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Tales From Normal, Mn.----FICTION: Good Kids Don't Chalk Sidewalks: Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Tales From Normal, Mn.----FICTION: Rifle Association Says they can Save Us: Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Tales From Normal, Mn.----FICTION: Rifle Association Says they can Save Us: Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Sermon of the Week: Fr. Kevin Dooley: Sept 14, 2008

Fr. Kevin Dooley: St. Paul's Church: The Religion of Fear vs. the Religion of Love; Why the message of threats might work, but is not what God calls us to.

Tales From Normal, Mn.----FICTION: Rich Might Leave Town, or Country--Locals Rejoice: Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Tales From Normal, Mn.----FICTION: Rich Might Leave Town, or Country--Locals Rejoice: Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Nostalgia:2007: Welcome Failure: Failure is the Breakfast of Champions

THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007 Chinese Fortune Cookie Corner: "Welcome Failure: Failure is the Breakfast of Champions"---a true story Yesterday I had to take my youngest to Janesville for a driver education road lesson. Before the lesson, we had a little time together for her to shop and then to share a bit of Chinese at the Food Court. I have a habit of opening the fortune cookie first--- before the meal. The Fortune Cookie read: " Welcome Failure: Failure is the Breakfast of Champions." I have mentioned in an earlier post, that over thirty years ago, right after a fortune cookie that read, "Not Now, but Soon," I had received a layoff from an employer. Ever since, I have paid strict attention to those fortune cookies. That being said, I wish they were more precise. The vagueness in unnerving. Relax. The driving lesson went fine. I think the Chinese were directing the fortune cookie towards those who did not know that the world of school and life are different. Nobody gets 99.992% success all the time and still ranks at the median of the class. Most folks are blessed with enough failures so they have a balanced view of their strengths and weaknesses. Or at least the whims of the world. After reflection, I feel pretty confident that I have had enough failures thank you. I do not need any more. Then again, maybe the Chinese fortune cookie WAS talking about that planning commission meeting last week---what a devastating failure in the unanimous defeat of the efforts of the community of the 4th Ward to prevent the bar on Exchange Street. Was that what the cookie was talking about? We will never know for sure. The Observer still recommends that this specific fortune cookie be eliminated from the mix till it can be more specific. I hope the Chinese Observer is taking notes. Posted by Evansville Observer at 10:09 AM Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook

Audio; Communion Hymn: " The Treasure"

Audio: Musical Bonus; Guitar Unplugged: "The Treasure."

Memories of Don Sheehan and "Value Investing"

Don Sheehan, a superstar salesman who used to do Dale Carnegie seminars nationwide, used to spend quite a bit of time on teaching sales pros what to concentrate on and what to ignore. To make a point, I remember him whipping off his belt---quite startling in a room packed with people---and then asking everyone to guess what they thought his belt was worth. He then reminded them that he was well travelled---- France, Germany, New York, and San Francisco, and that to remember that this belt was genuine cowhide with a premium belt buckle. He went around the room and asked each person what the belt was worth. The price variation was pretty wide. From $3.99 to $25. "Well," he said, "I bought it at K-Mart just down the street in Richfield. It cost $4.99." We were really shocked. "People are always guessing what you paid for things. It is really none of their business. Let em guess. There is a difference between what you pay for things, and what they are worth. Never forget it." I never have. Thanks Don.

Nostalgia: Audio: Fr. Kevin Dooley: July 19, 2009

Audio; Sermon of the Week: Fr. Kevin Dooley, St. Paul's Church: July 19, 2009----"What is "Want"?

Back to the 50's: Waiting for President Kennedy

Remember 1950? I have been trying to refresh my memories lately and have been listening to all the old Buddy Holly songs, Elvis, Ricky Nelson etc. But that was after the conversation of 1950 when the troops were coming home from the Korean War---folks were frustrated a little at the slow transition to peacetime employment. I remember the call, and the tears of joy when my dad was coming back from Korea. He was born in 1912, one of many older troops, who at 40 were beginning their peace lives. As a young boy just listening in, I remember the election where Jack Kennedy said he could "get this country moving again". What did that mean? In a nutshell, it had been ten years of adjustment from war to peace. And it would be five years till the 1965 Ford Mustang. So what? Pencil in 10 to 15 years from the time the boys come home from Afganistan as the time when we will adjust to a peace economy. Start when the troops are all home. Adjusting to peace is painful. Are YOU tough enough?

Sermon of the Week: Fr. Kevin Dooley: Sept 14, 2008

Fr. Kevin Dooley: St. Paul's Church: The Religion of Fear vs. the Religion of Love; Why the message of threats might work, but is not what God calls us to.

A Little note about Flogging; Tales From Normal, Mn.: FICTION

Visiting Bearded Monk says flogging is essential to becoming one with the divine: Tales From Normal, Mn.; FICTION Well it has been pretty shocking....today in Normal, Mn. at the Church of the Perpetual Fishermen, a traveling missionary, and some have speculated frustrated by the small collection gathered to support his intense mission, said as he left the small church in this small fishing community, that some of the wayward really did need a flogging every so often just to really experience the full bliss of the Lord....and yes the little old ladies just smiled quietly as they left from Church....it seemed to have brought back memories of their youth when they had learned of such talk as being typical of the "Spanish Inquisition" monks and such....Anyway, they just smiled and moved away from Church, and determined not to enter again and pledge their donations till that missionary had left the state.

2008: Nostalgia: Third Sunday of Lent

Fr. Kevin Dooley: On the Woman at the Well; The Living Water

"All the Clergy are Married in Normal, Mn.: FICTION

All the Clergy are Married in Normal, Mn.: FICTION Well it's spring, and now that the frozen tundra has warmed up, it is time for me to get back up to the cabin in Normal, Mn., the small fishing village near Garrison where I get away from the wild and crazy politics in Wisconsin, and settle in to some peaceful walleye fishing and such, and start each day off at Betty Lou's Cafe, where all the coffee is double strong black, and in a tall blue Minnesota Vikings mug, which are in short supply because Betty Lou is unsure whether the Vikings are going to stay in Minnesota, so the mugs are available for sale, but for $19.95 as a tourist item.....but I digress. I stopped in last Sunday at the Church of the Perpetual Fisherman, and chatted with the resident pastor, who travels between three parishes in Northern Minnesota, but makes his home in Normal, MN with his wife and 3 children...yes he is married, and in fact, he is my hero, along with all of Christ's apostles who were ALL married. Ah if only we could purify the Church and take it back to the days when the focus was on reaching out to spread the WORD rather than whether the proper response is "With your Spirit" or the more correct Hebrew version....." But I digress....and ALL the nuns in Normal, Mn. are Married too....that's the way it always has been in Normal, Mn...Where the nuns have been involved in teaching and such....

2010: Audio; Easter Sunday; Fr. Kevin Dooley; St. Paul's

2010: Audio; Sermon of the Week; Easter Sunday; St. Paul's Church; Evansville, Wi: Fr. Kevin Dooley.

Audio; Communion Hymn: " The Treasure"

Audio: Musical Bonus; Guitar Unplugged: "The Treasure."

Spread the Light: Tales from Normal, Mn.; FICTION

Spread the Light Liturgy Still will be held in Normal, Mn.: FICTION Recently in the frozen tundra, some sensitive congregations of the faithful have been concerned about the Holy Saturday liturgy in that while all those members of the Congregation of the Faithful are spreading the light in the pews, there is..well...some...smoke that is being inhaled...and it might be bad for ones health.... I just got the text from Normal, Mn. Church of the Holy Faithful, that the traditional service of the "Lights" will be held on Saturday night this week, and not withstanding the squimishness of certain Christian sects that are worried about a little smoke, the Light of Christ well be spread as in the traditional liturgy, before the environmental progressives got involved in liturgical development. There is limited seating so arrive early. Lumen Christi

2008: Video: St. Paul's: Graduation Day:

2008: Fr. Kevin Dooley: On "Graduation"

2008: Nostalgia: Third Sunday of Lent

Fr. Kevin Dooley: On the Woman at the Well; The Living Water

Signs for the Ages: "Soglin for Mayor; Nixon's a Crook":

If you walked down State Street in Madison in 1970..and gazed to the right, you would have seen two large signs on the buildings....one proclaimed "Soglin for Mayor" and the second sign on a different building...."Nixon's A Crook". This week without fanfare, Paul Soglin had hip surgery...and someone replaced him at the helm. Paul became mayor again recently and addressed the Edgewater...the Library...the Overture..and the budget for the city of Madison....and he did again what the citizens of Madison have COUNTED on him to do....come thru for them.... Best wishes on a speedy recovery, Paul Soglin. After all these years....we are still counting on you...

You're not chunky because you had too many "Olives"

In one presentation on dieting, our instructor went on about the calories in alcohol. Wondering, I raised my hand and asked; " How many olives are there in a serving?" She responded; " Richard, You're not chunky because you have had too many olives. You can have as many as you want. Thus whenever I order a gin martini, shaken not stirred, straight up, I always order "double olives." Then she went on: "When you review liquor, and the calories...what happens when you drink? That's right...you tend to eat MORE. After a drink you might relax and have a second, third or fourth piece of pizza. How true it is. And another thing, when in the drinking scene, pretty soon it gets to the lowest denominator.....Why not light the dinner candles, make the martini with double olives, and then sip it slowly like a special dinner in a castle.....Savor it. And the double olives....

SSS---

Over the past three months, I have plotted what things have contributed to my diet slips......And I have concluded that the term SSS covers it. S is for Stress. Being mild mannered, I have had the tendency to just eat a cheeseberger when faced with challenges I could not solve quickly. I found that holiday stress and kids stress max this out. The second element of stress is work stress...and if one is confined or maybe "caged" is a better term, in a work cubicle, and then stressed with uncontrolled volume of interaction with customers...who might be occasionally unhappy...the result on diet is bad...I am going to change that..... For the second S I have concluded that "Social" or peer presure or whatever one would call it, the types of friends and their attitude toward healthy eating have a profound effect on diet...During football season I need something else but eating, drinking and watching football to do. And it helps to have friends with interests beyond this. And finally, a S can be for structure...On having projects and activities designated so that eating is not my primary hobby. .

The Rise of "Gangsta" Government: Oh the Glories of Little Bohemia

Recently I took a winter pilgrimage of sorts up to Manitowish Waters in Northern Wisconsin to spend a weekend near "Little Bohemia"---the resort where the FBI had that famous gun battle with John Dillinger as depicted in the recent movie. As I approached the lodge in the erie darkness, I was stunned that the very dark display of the film was in fact how it was in real life....we had a wonderful time at dinner there where there are momentos of the Dillenger event and I do recommend everyone to take a trip to see for yourself...but I digress... Those were the days when bold robbers met their fate at the hands of skillfull lawmen of the young FBI....what has happened to those days when bribery and extortion were met with the righteous wrath of the courageous FBI? Take for example the recent event in Madison, Wisconsin where a noted corporation, posing through a middleman, threatened the State of Wisconsin that they would leave for the warm weather of Florida unless they were paid several million dollars to relocate to the nearby Middleton...... How is this different from the famous extortion cons of the wild 1930"s. Very simple. Now we call it Economic Development.

A good kind of DEBT: CALORIC DEBT

America wants to shed debt---but there is a GOOD kind of debt---caloric debt. If one assumes that a human body has a normal burn of 10 times body weight---or that say a person weighing 240 burns about 2400 calories per day to maintain the current weight----then it follows that any consumption of food less than that combined with exercise to burn off calories, will result in a caloric deficit...and if one keeps very good records---you can pretty much calculate how much weight you can lose over time with that deficit---the problem comes in CHANGING ones habits to get that deficit and getting it in a healthy way supervised by health professionals of course. The problem comes in confronting the reality of what one is consuming---it is kind of like confronting accounting...when one puts the budget on the refrigerator and then somehow the ending checkbook balance does not corresponde to the plan. The budget is fiction...ditto for the diet. Diets have to be honest as to what is consumed as well as the amount of exercise and the amounts of calories burned.

Weight Reflections; "There is nothing funny about CHUNKY"

Back in the late sixties---particularly the 69-70 year when in Madison there were the riots and the leadership of Paul Soglin and the anti war leaders---those were the days... And as a side note, the rebel dj's who filled the airwaves with rock, always predicated their broadcast with the note that they were reporting to the station after an all niter of booze and fun, and in fact, over the years, EVERY single day for the past 40 years they have asserted that the were fully loaded from the night before...and to tell the truth from a stricly content based evaluation....that may have been the case...anyway... \ There has been a proud celebration of alcohol abuse and cheap beer that has been legendary, and along with it has been a celebration of cheap and plentiful drive thru food---and the waist lines of America has showed it. Along with the booze binge, has been a food binge, concentrating on pizza, french fries and greasy food that has left America reeling. Employees gathering around the piles of pizza during the Christmas season resemble cattle gathering around the feeding stations of old. One by one, these same folks have entered the health care system for heart related illness...and their families have suffered the consequences..... There is nothing funny about obesity. There is nothing catchy about a well turned phrase about how fashionably clothes cover butt cracks.....the problem results from not solving the problem of obesity..the killer.

"This isn't a WRITING Class": Weight Reflections

Recently at a weight management class, the instructor opened the meeting asking the class whether they had been writing down the foods they ate each day. Some had been religiously writing down and some had not. "Why do we write the foods down?" she asked. " THIS IS NOT A WRITING CLASS" Her words struck me since I thought I had been doing the writing down pretty well, and loving to write an all. "We write the foods down so we can review them, and CHANGE." \ Yes. It's about changing. And more than that it seems a little like budgeting. It is not enough to live the week and then mark down what happened, but to Plan the week so that it comes out with the caloric deficit that was planned. It is kind of like the old pegboard accounting system where the daily cash outflow was posted and the week and month to date was seen instantly----so if one plans a party on Friday night, one has to plan on the austerity the days before to create the caloric deficit for the party.....this is a concept I had never done before. I had just thrown the overeating over my shoulder.....and it showed. So there it it. It is NOT about the WRITING. That is for writers. It is for CHANGING.

"How Much Does Your Cellphone WEIGH?": Weight Reflections

Recently I have been attending a weight management class as part of a diet management program-the class is at 7am in the morning to fit in with folks who work, and I was running a bit late...as I entered the room, the instructor asked me whether I had my cellphone: "yup...right here I replied." "Here is a weight scale," she replied, "how much does it weigh"----quickly placing it on the little scale, I replied " FOUR OUNCES". As I held the cellphone up high, she said: "Thats your PORTION SIZE". When you have an entre of beef or chicken or fish, simply place the cellphone on it to get the proper amount." What a shock!!!!! Portion Size was a concept that I had never mastered. It was covered in not one class I had ever attended. In fact, I had grown accustomed to the notion that if a little is good...a lot is better.....and that was a concept that I had to discard... So I will just ask you..... "How much does YOUR cellphone weigh?"

"What's in YOUR Trunk?": The Weight Reflections

Recenly I have been attending a weight management class as part of a planned weight loss over the next year or so. I would like to lose about fifty pounds----I got some new eyes with catarect surgery, some better hearing with some new hearing aids, and I am determined to get back to the youthful look of yesteryear----and January is the month of the year that everybody has the same idea---have you been to the Evansville Health Club lately. There is a "Body Transformation Challenge" with the "Blue Team" and the "Black Team". I take my hats off to these folks----in fact, I am sponsoring a person on the "Black Team". I check in weekly to see how the team competition is coming. Check it out.... Anyway. last week, my instructor started out the class by asking the Question: "What's In Your Trunk?" This headline shocked me a bit. I had just buried my beloved "heavy chey" in Minneapolis that my daughter had been driving, and I know vividly the last review of the trunk----I had it loaded with a spare water pump, starter and lots of other parts that I thought for sure would fail...and I wanted to be prepared. When the problem came, it was diagnosed by the big city folks as "electrical" and I had to put the car out of its misery while I could still afford to.... Right in the middle of my quick mental review of "My trunk", my instructor told us what was in her trunk---some tennis shoes, yaktrax, sweats, some party beverages, some snacks for the road to avoid the drive throughs etc. yes even some wine just in case a party broke out. So, in short, planning for party and fun and health. Then I thought about my own "trunk", my stomach that I had been storing up with candy bars just in case I needed a burst of energy in crisis. I could see that all my "trunks" needed to be revamped. So I will just ask you the question: "What's in YOUR trunk?"

Memories of White Bear Lake: Soucheray

http://www.twincities.com/soucheray/ci_19648122?source=rss

The water level of White Bear Lake has been sinking.  Joe Soucheray gives a description of the changes.  His family home was on the Mahtomedi side and near the Eash Shore Dock. Click on the link for Joe's thoughts.