Wednesday, August 26, 2015

FALL DAYS AGAIN

It’s the dog days of August already and all of those things in nature that I wrote so excitedly about last May are moving again, but in the wrong direction. The trees are exfoliating, the flowers have said “enough.” The goslings are all grown up and the fawns have lost their spots.  Along with the memories of this summer are all of those things I was going to get done this season and didn’t. But then I’m at a point in my life when my activities are no longer as regimented as they used to be. It can wait for another day, another summer or maybe it won’t get done at all and that’s all right. “What’s that you say you’re giving up on life?” No, not at all. I’m Just tying to keep things going, in the order of their importance. A year from now no one will remember if I painted the house, or changed the carpeting. I will remember making friends with my new neighbors, or a night I shared with my family at the fireworks in Crosby Ironton on the 4th. Concerts in the park in Crosslake and walks with Pat and our dogs or Chef Andy’s delicious beer can chicken and Monica’s healthy salads.

For me this will be the summer that I will remember my Grandsons wedding and my family being all-together again. The countless conversations I had with old friends under a bright blue summer sky, cruising the chain on Marv’s pontoon. Chats with my neighbor Andrea and conversations with Harry. Coffee with the old coots at Pine Peak’s solving the world’s problems. There are times when you no longer have anything that’s important to say to each other, so you tell some stupid joke you told before, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Just being together is what it’s all about and so often just a smile or a good laugh can say what words simply can’t convey. We all remember all to well an empty chair. Summer accentuates these times, by giving us this beautiful stage to meet on before the cold winds blow once more and we shutter and close the doors or some of us scatter south. I mentioned my new neighbors who have small children and what a breath of fresh air it was this year, in a neighborhood of old people, to hear kids playing in the water and enjoying the lake.

Fall sneaks up on you. At first the changes are subtle. You notice a bite in the air when you go get your paper in the morning. The days grow shorter and sometimes it seems like summer is beating a hasty exit but then you adjust and what was once an eight p.m. walk with the dog, to avoid the heat of the day, is now done at six and then four and suddenly you realize you have milked it for all it was worth and you reach a place in your life where you cross-over from the summer that was --to the fall and winter yet to come. Yes the summer of 15-- now belongs to the ages.


 I have always felt that New Years Day should have been celebrated on May first and not January first. You see, at least for me, that is when so much of life really begins. Someday I hope to chronicle my life and I know now, that so much of my story will have taken place in summer. It’s Sunday evening in late August as I write this and the daily parade of pontoons circling the lake has begun. It’s not a big lake and the trip isn’t far and the parade has dwindled in size. Many of the people have left for the city and their jobs. Some of them say, “There is too much of a chill in the air” and have put their pontoons away already. It’s time to enjoy autumn.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

PUTTING THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE

                                    
I really hate to discuss my illnesses with people in this forum but this spring I was presented with some bladder issues. Until you have this problem you really do not appreciate the complexities of the system that helps you get rid of unwanted water. For years, you simply found an appropriate place to do it and did it and yes for you ladies, I understand the places to do it are not as readily available as they are for us guys but be that as it may be. This is the one advantage in the world they can’t take away from us---right boys.

For most of my life I have taken the elimination of bodily wastes’ for granted. When the urge came upon me, I simple looked for the right facility, or place and accomplished what was needed. Elimination was as second nature for me as thinking and breathing and required neither a lot of skill or practice. People have learned, when changing the diaper on a baby boy, to stay out of range of that thing or risk getting wet. But alas as old age has crept in, certain functions have seemed to lose their way, as well as their pressure and I have had to acquire a whole new set of skills. For you see, you simply can’t just decide not to go. It’s no time to be stubborn.

I used to think the brain was the leader of the pack of bodily organs when it came to the complexities of the human body. That when the brain shut down, all worldly functions seemed to cease to exist. After all, I was taught while being a Firefighter that the absence of brain function was the absence of life and so you were simply declared deceased. This always seemed to me to minimize the importance of other bodily functions, as not really being all that essential to life but old age can tell you different.

You need to think of the body as an old coal fired furnace. As long as you shovel in some coal, add water to the boiler, take out the ashes and relieve the steam, things seem to work okay and you have heat. But quit shoveling in the coal, and get caught with too much water, it chokes itself off and the fire goes out. Quit taking out the ashes and you simply run out of room. You need to keep that perfect balance to maintain a good working body. But as the furnace and boiler get older they sometimes develop leaks or valves that won’t open up at all and trouble starts brewing. Unfortunately you can’t just tighten up the packing nut or throw in a can of stop leak when these things happen.


We have long held neurologist and brain surgeons in high esteem in the medical world. But I am here to tell you that proctologist and urologists play a very important part in keeping us up and running and unless the back door is taken care of, the front door and what’s above it might just as well close up shop. As for me, I now embrace, what I used to think of as just another bother. As for right now, I have to go-- and quickly I might add.-- I may even have ashes to haul.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

IN A PANIC

                                                           
’Today there was an emergency in my house. My phone went dead and I couldn’t get the charger to work. I have no hard line phone, so I am totally dependent on my cell phone. I was in a panic mode because suddenly I realized I had lost touch with the rest of the world. I was no better off then the diabetic without their insulin or the man whose pacemaker suddenly quit working. What if the president was calling me, or Publishers Clearing house had finally quit teasing me and let me win. What if my daughter was calling me to chat and now having to go to my message center thought, “I m never going to call that old coot again.” What if? What if? What if?

There was time in my life when I was working in Pubic safety and I had to carry a pager, a radio and a cell phone. My, wasn’t I important? Then I retired and not even the wife would talk to me. For the first time in my life however it was peace and quiet. If someone called us, she was always there to answer the phone. In a way I was kind of sheltered from the rest of the world and I thought to myself, “This ain’t too shabby.” Then she passed away and I was on my own again so I bought a cell phone and quit the hard-line phone because---well I didn’t need it and the only people who called me at home were trying to sell something.

My new phone does everything. I threw my alarm clock away because it has one. I threw my camera away because it had a better one. I could block calls without paying an extra charge. I had caller I.D without paying an extra charge.” Want to see a picture of my dog. Here I have forty of them right here in my phone. I even have one where she is smiling. I think she let a sneaker. Which way is north you say? Let me dial up my compass. Can’t add 2 and 2, Let me dial up my calculator. Why is my knee hurting, is there a storm coming? Let me find my weather radar. T.V guide or goggle maps or whatever I need, there is an app for that. There is even an app to help you find the apps. Wow, I am a force to be reckoned with. I’m no longer insignificant or out of touch with the world. Don’t try to sneak one by me cause I’ll know about it.

Then this morning I noticed the battery was low so I plugged it in and nothing. No problem, I’ll call A.T&T in Brainerd. They’ll know what to do. Wait I can’t call anyone without a phone. I’ll just go there but what time do they open? Maybe I can find a pay phone to call them and ask them but the last pay phone I saw was outside of a bar in Nimrod Minnesota and someone had shot it in the heart with a deer rifle. I know I’ll go to Pat’s and use her phone but no, she’ll think I’m nuts, if she doesn’t think that already. Can’t take a chance on that. Good women are hard to find.


Maybe if I just wiggled the cord a little and-- “Oh my God Look at all the lights lighting up and it’s starting to charge. There is a God in heaven and he’s looking out for me. I’ll go to Mass tomorrow, I promise and give thanks for making it right God. But what’s that thing they always say in church at the start. “Please shut off your cell phones.” Oh My. I’m not sure I can do that.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

ABOUT FAMILYS

                                               
Yesterday was our annual family reunion and the thirty-ninth year in a row the Holst Family has gathered together. These reunions are bitter sweet for me, because first and foremost they are a simple reminder of what the ravages of time have done to the charter members, my siblings and me. Sadder yet is the absence of some of them. Mom and dad, our brother Kenny, Kitty and our nephew Jim. But in the end we get together to honor their memory, as well as to renew old friendships.

When Dad passed away, the honorary elder of the family became me, through this cruel act of attrition. I want to say life is kind of like peeling an onion, except it’s not always the outer peel that goes first. Example me. We’re a funny family, the only way you can leave the ranks is to die and then you can expect, were still going to talk about you, but in a kinder gentler way. We give up on no one.

I think what brought me front and center yesterday was my nephew and his wife brought their weeks old baby boy and all I could think was “Yes the beat goes on.” There we stood, the alpha and the omega of the Holst family, at least for now. My father was adamant that these reunions take place every year. Dad could have made a billion bucks and owned the world but it all would have paled in comparison to his love and pride for his family. This was his destiny in life to do as the lord asked him to do, “Go forth and multiply,” and he should get an A+

One of the biggest ills in our society--- No, let me rephrase that-- the biggest ill in our society is the breakdown of the basic family structure. If all the mom’s and dads in this country today had the same sense of pride and satisfaction, as dad had in his family, this would be a far better world for all of us to live in. You can pour all of the money you want into education and social programs and you will never take the place of loving parents or guardians. When I looked at that baby boy yesterday and all of the other children that were there, I shared dads values because nothing, but nothing, is more important then those kids. If we want them to be there for us someday, then we need to be there for them now. We didn’t get this earth from our forefathers; we borrowed it from our kids. Our family isn’t unique; there are lots of good families out there that feel the same way we do about our families but no one is writing about them. The media prefers to write about the bad boys and ignore the good ones.


 I want to leave you with a little human-interest story. I’m grocery shopping a while back and the woman in front of me, embarrassed and upset, doesn’t have enough money to pay for her groceries and she is picking out a few items to return. At the other end of the line from me is a young man bagging the groceries he just paid for and he sees her quandary. He comes over and picks up what money she did have on the counter and puts it back in her hand and gives the clerk his credit card. She looks like she’s going to cry and is shaking her head no. He says ‘I insist on this and don’t take this away from me. “  As for me.-- I want to meet his parents.