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Monday











I was going to post the last cycle ride today but changed my mind.  Whether you have a long week on the road, in the tractor, or babysitting, this is Monday.  Just something about them.  Gotta have 'em, but they're just like appendixes.  And yet that's not accurate either, unless you have appendicitis weekly.  Whatever the weak analogy, endeavor to persevere.  Because tomorrow is Tuesday.  It's not quite as good as Wednesday but its better than Monday.   

It seems like I should have posted something a little more substantial but, frankly, I've been a bit down in the spirits lately.  Last week I learned that my boss at the Mary for 30 years passed away.  Randy Storm hired me and promoted me twice while I was there.  He was someone I spent more time with than my own family.  I have many remembrances, mostly funny.   We golfed together, roomed together at conferences, and I, in my own meager way, assisted him in creating programming and a healthy environment for thousands of broken kids through the years.  He was the only one I ever knew who got into a fight golfing and also knocked a bird right out of the sky with one of his shots.  

For most of that time I like to think I was not only an employee but a friend.  He wasn't a saint.  He wasn't always right.  Who likes hanging with them anyway?  But for almost all of my working life he was the center of the universe.  I have learned that the world skips a beat when someone passes, but then speeds on.  But this time it won't speed on with the same level of joy or humor.   




    
Summer of 2017 we met for a final time while I was in Northlandia.  That's him in the middle.  Go live people.  Life really is short.  Like the fat lady sang, "Monday, Monday."

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