Skip to main content

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."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Flashback Friday - Cold Case - Part One

53 years ago today, Gordon "Peel" Duncan walked into the dark post office in Seaton Illinois and was brutally assaulted by an individual or individuals.  He died two days later.  The murder was never solved.     Gordon Duncan was one of the publishers of the Seaton Independent, a weekly newspaper in town that started in the late 1800's and stopped publishing in the 60's.     We  boys were just young children when this took place, but we have been fascinated by it ever since.  The imagination of kids, I suppose or maybe the fact that it was unsolved.  Regardless, this was a big deal in our little lives.  For our parents it tended to shatter the idea that Seaton, our town, was safe.  That it could fend off the forces of evil in the world, that in our little universe we would be impervious to harm was gone forever.  For us kids I don't suppose we were old enough to know real fear.  Fear for us was not getting our list ...
2 comments
Read more