First DAY of Summer 2009

It is also fathers day today, and some nearly record high temperatures were experience in Duluth Superior Saturday.

I love my children, who are now adults and carving their own way through this world.

They are my daughter, Gianna, and my son, Andrew, whom I love, and with whom I am well pleased.

I love my grand children, and enjoy that they are so honest about their feelings.

I love my Son-in-law, who is a great father to his children, and a great husband to my daughter.

And I love my son's significant other, for being such a beneficient rock for my son.

And I love my wife who made this all possible.

Happy Anniversary

I love being able to say "Happy Anniversary." Happy is good. Anniversary is for celebrating.

To be married thirty six years means I must be kinda old, but my mind is playing tricks on my body, or is it my body playing tricks on my mind.

We are still learning about each other. Nothing stays the same and we grow in understanding and caring and affection.

This is all I will say about this subject in a public forum.

Obligations greater than time.

It seems like we always are having to make choices. That is not so hard when you greatly desire something, and the other choices which are left are not desired as much. And money, or lack of it, forces us into sometimes less than adequate decisions. But what really bugs me is that I only have so much time. The only thing that is mine to really give is my time. Having a job is great, and having a great job is really great, but it uses time. Time with kids, and grandkids, and friends, and old relatives who are dying, and young relatives who are living, and who knows, they might be dying too.
This weekend we went to a funeral of an aunt on my wife's side. I had not seen her cousins since one was an usher in our wedding. Here I am older and grayer, and 5'8" and he is a little younger than me and 6'7" and we got along famously. Another one did not recognize me even sitting with my wife his cousin in the family funeral room.
Their mom was great. She had her funeral all planned out. So it was like she was there.
But that took all weekend. The funeral was in Orange City, Iowa on Saturday, and we started in Danbury, and had to go to Duluth and Back and then down. It just takes so much time.
And next weekend I have a nephew graduating from college, and we are having a day with the grandkids, and both of them are super important to us. Grandkids will win every time, but it still is a choice. So I look forward to eternity where we will be able to fellowship. But in the meantime I only have 30 or forty years left if I am given a long life. Ten years if the averages hold true.
Really short when you think about it that way.
Got to get busy if I am going to finish what I have in my mind.

A Day for Play

St. Louis River Bay with an Ore Boat headed for Missabe Taconite Dock -

The Foreground are Superior Grain Elevators

The Big Falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

Looking Eastward from Silver Cliff -

The Encampment Tunnel entrance in the center of the picture.

Arly searching for Agates on Superior's Shore at Knife River.

Wave Spray on the East side of Stoney Point between Knife River and Duluth.

Religion

I have been challenged to think on the meaning of being alive, and whether or not we are but "goo by the way of the zoo", and what religion has to do with making life better.

So a couple of hundred years ago, an infitesimally insignificant amount of time in the existence of the universe as scientists now date it, there was a guy who said "Let's see, there is a three foot tall anthropod here, and a three and a half foot tall anthropod there, and a four foot tall anthropod over there, and they become progressively more erect, so therefore they must be evolved from each other." He was a poor little kid who actually had the wherewithal to sail around the world, and got this evolution idea while in the Galapagos islands. I know that is oversimplifying, but that is the pigeonhole in my head. And I don't even care. It doesn't matter to me if animals evolved. It doesn't matter to me what religions want me to think. What matters is that I have or don't have a relationship with The Creator of the Universe, not the way it was created.

Religon is 1. Human's rules to get along, 2. Human's attempts to reach god, 3. Human's attempts to control other people.

Christianity has been pillaged and raped and converted into a consumerism in Western Culture of Right Wing Reactionary Political Action or Left Wing Social Liberal liaissez faire. People go to church meetings to get their needs met once or twice or three times a week. I wonder if most North Americans know Jesus Christ know Jesus was a dark skinned Jew?

What about Islam? A lot of rules to follow for a chance to maybe go to heaven. Killing an infidel gives you a better chance. Being a martyr gives you an even better chance.

Where is Nirvana.

What does that have to do with Love.

Why are Turkish Christians considered traitors just because they are Christians.

The Churches of the first century in Revelation are all from Turkey.

USA is doomed, just like the Roman Empire, unless we quit being such arrogant, elitist, empire building, self aggrandizing, others diminutizing snobs.

Oh, and by the way, the "scientific method" evolved out of Christian Universities, I might even assert "Protestant" Universities established for the free pursuit of knowledge. Remember Galileo, excommunicated because of the flap of the world being flat?

How many of the most respected Universities in the world were founded by Christian Churches, such as Harvard, Brown, Yale, Georgetown.

Easter - What ?

Sunday - 10:26 a.m. I have been ill with strep the last 4 days. My natural immunity usually takes care of this but I guess there has been too much stress in my life the last year or two, so this time I used the fruit of the mold to ward off the icky little bugs. Right now is the first time I have felt even since last Wednesday.
So being under the weather, and not wanting to spread it to others, and being too weak to do a six hour morning list of Easter activities with the Danforth Community, where we now usually are to be found on a Sunday morning, and after listening to various news commentators on TV about the meaning of Easter and Passover, on the same day this year, and Religion, I feel like I must comment on my thought.
Passover is the celebration of a horrible event in Egypt during which the Jewish firstborn males were saved from death, while the non Jewish died. Being firstborn in our family, it gets very personal. Had I lived then I would have died. This is an historic event, as well preserved in tradition and writings of antiquity as is Babylon and the Wonders of the Ancient World. About 3,500 years ago.
Easter is what Christians celebrate. About 2,000 years ago Jesus, the Christ, an innocent of any sin, suffered a horrible death of crucifiction. But here is the difference. On the first day of the week after Passover Saturday, he rose again. Now no-one is mandated to die any more. Of course if you don't want to accept that gift, that is up to each person, but it is there for you. Jesus said the greatest commandment was to Love God, and the second commandment, To Love Our Neighbor as Ourself.
There is a problem with Jesus, according to Joe Stowell, MBI, and RBC ministries. The problem is that he said he was God. And that he was the only way to God. Jesus did not say, every other religion is full of all bad things, just that if it is God you are looking to have a personal relationship with, Jesus is the one way. The fact is, the Prophet Mohammed did not say he was God, Budda nor Confucious did not say they were God, Joshua, Elisha, Elijah, nor Moses nor John the Baptist said they were God.
If I did not believe that Jesus actually rose from the death in a human body and then ascended to heaven, I would follow Buddhism. The tenets of oneness, and peace, and love all make sense if there is not a supreme being over the universe.
But because I believe there is a supreme being, because nature cries out that it is so, and then believing there are realms of existance that are not apparant to our five senses, and with not understanding why the most intelligent persons as we measure it only use eight percent of their brain power, I look for this supreme being to send me a message. And on the first Easter he proved he was God.

I love my Wife, my Kids, my Grandkids, and my Kid's partners.
They are all wonderful people. And we don't all believe the same thing about God.

Catch up

I am such a bad blogger. But I have found out now that I prefer Blog to facebook, for what I want to say. So today, through the day i will catch you up.

Help

Gianna,
How do I do the new thing you showed me on blogging?
Dad

Summer Vacation 2008

Summer Vacation
By
George French

I had a fun summer vacation. We planned a vacation trip to the National Grasslands west of the Badlands west of Medora, North Dakota, at Buffalo Gap.

Monday was Labor Day, the first day of September. We packed up our tent, ground cloth, gear, sleeping bags, folding chairs, mattress pads, blankets, pillows, cookstove, dishes, food, clothing and reading materials. We started out on Tuesday and left our apartment at Sandstone at 10:00 a.m. We got to Fargo, NoDak about 2 p.m.
And after a short stop at Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Nobles were on the road again towards Bismark. We got to Bismark about 6 p.m. and it was sprinkling and the weather forecast was for showers. So we were rained out the first night. We walked over to a nearby restaurant for supper, then strolled for a couple miles around the Capitol grounds.
Wednesday we woke up and headed west. I was not feeling the best, and thought it might have been something I ate the night before or being dehydrated, since I have had that issue before. We got to Dickinson and stopped at the local grocery store for our perishable food items and ice for the cooler. This was about nine a.m. When we got done shopping Arly took a look at me and said, you look funny, we are going to the hospital. I was feeling so poorly that I did not even put up a fuss. So by ten we were in the emergency room. By the way they treated me and the questions they asked I could tell they were suspicious I was having a heart problem. So there I was, in hospital gown and BVD’s (Hanes for you younger folks) being prodded and poked and looked at in my eyes, ears, nose and throat. My BP was normal, temp 99, no out ward signs of infection, no pain at all (which was strange, because I usually have a pang here or there). So I wait because I could hear they had more urgent cases in the ER with me, but finally a Dr. comes in. He does a bunch of neuro exams, and finds I have a twitchy right eye, which told him my left inner ear gyroscope was on the fritz. So he goes away and in comes a nurse to do an ekg strip, and a hemo guy to get my blood. Then about ½ hour later the Doc comes in again to tell me I passed, not dehydrated, no heart problem, no hidden infection, and all I need to do is take Dramamine Meclyzine formula for the next six days. Well I had psychological relief from the news but I was still dizzier and spacier than a hoot owl. So The Doc said I would be ok so we headed towards Medora, 37 miles away. As we pull into town about three in the afternoon it starts to rain, continuously, with occasionally heavier showers. So we find another motel room for the night. That worked out ok. On TV it said that we got down to 35 that night with occasional patches of frost.
The next morning we went to Beach. We saw a cowboy riding the range checking out his doagies for fall roundup. The fog was below the tops of the Buttes, We had Breakfast at Rose’s Café. The best meal of the trip. I don’t know how she stays in business. Arly’s Omlette was big enough to serve four. My Haminex was likewise of enormous portions and proportions, meat as thick as Dad’s thumb, with a load of spuds, and a grain car of bread and some of Kenya’s finest to wash it down. Over easy. Dark toast, Strawberry preserves.
So we decided to go to eastern Montana, which was a mile away, and then go south to Baker. Cow country par excellence`!
We had to stop and take a nap cuz we was so plump and the sun was warm. I was still feeling dizzy so Arly was Driving.
We Turned left at Baker and headed back into North Dakota. This was about 79 miles after we had brunch. We came across a ghost of a town that had seen its better days. Manmouth had 10,000 souls in its prime and was the railroad cattle shipping center for three states, Montana, SoDak, and NoDak. It had Sandstone Buildings, and brick buildings, and not much else. We stopped at a store that sold rattlesnake skins and dinosaur bones, paper and clothes, and antiques. That is where we found out about the new NoDak Hillbillies, even without hills. It seems that some of these folk have got so much so fast from the boom that the young folk have to tell grandma, that she needs to deposit them $50,000.00 checks in the banks, cuz they is only good for so long!

Arly bought something. I had to hike around town to find the only public loo open. Nice little Bar, clean and friendly.
We were thinking that since the sun was out maybe we could camp. We headed southeast to Bowman.

Another nice prairie town, but again it started raining. We went north to get out of the rain. It started raining more. Went by the highest point of NoDak, White Butte, and it was raining. Got up to Belfield, and it quit raining but the wind was forty mile an hour from the W/NW and it was aboot 50 degrees. We decided God was telling us to “git oot o’ here” so we hoisted our sail and blew back to Bismarck, 80 miles east. So we did. And ate at a little Italian place I liked that starts with “W”, but Arly didn’t have as good food as me.
So Friday Morning after our commune with God we felt we should go back to Sandstone and finish starting our business.
I am still not feeling well, though I am not feeling sick, either. Sort of a weird limbo.
And that is my summer vacation.

St. John Memorial Day ramblings

I got overextended physically on Saturday, again. The 20 mile bike ride for the first ride of the year probably did it. Running at 9 – 12 mph. So I dehydrated a little and got déjà vu, all over again.
So Sunday was a do nothing day until four o’clock when we went over to see Pat and Arlin and their family that was up at the lake.
We were over there when the tornado hit Hugo.
Today we watched Christmas shoes, a movie with Rob Lowe and other big names, which was great and made me cry and think about the dash of my life, which brought me to St. John. As a result of that movie Arly just asked me if I was doing what I want with my life, or was I just doing what I had to do to pay the bills. She is encouraging me to think in a way I haven’t since college.

So I started thinking of St. John, North Dakota, where I did really grow up. I adapted to change. I never thought of myself as a white man until age 14. That realization was rough on me. My culture in me is Metis/Ojibway. The culture around Danbury, for the oldtimers, is Ojibway/logger. Flavel Merton Ray French had a lot of Ojibway in him, though not by blood. Arda Roy was my scoutmaster when I started Boy Scouts. But Dad was there a lot. We met in the Izaak Walton League building. They called it a Cabin, but it was really a conventional built building that was a club house for grown up men. It was right across the street from the elementary school. There was a Mounted Moose Head over the door as you walked in.
St. John had a history of development. We had a tennis court with a basketball hoop across the street. Then there was the MBA Hall where the community activities were held, with Dances every Friday night. Dad was the cop who had to keep all in order. That was tough when the “toughs” from Belcourt and Rolla would meet to duke it out on Main Street in St. John.
We had a Veteran’s memorial park where every year on Memorial day until I was 16, I would play taps. When Chuck got old enough he would play, and I would echo. Then Gussie got in on the act too.
The WWII and Korean Vets would be there in uniform, proud of their country, and missing the fallen comrades.
All the Boy Scouts would be there too, and would parade with the Vets to the memorial.

Last night on TV WCCO replayed “The Last Flagraiser”, the story of Chuck Lindberg from Grand Forks, North Dakota, who along with his company of Marines were tasked with raising a flag on the mountain on Iwo Jima. 70,000 marines started to take that island. Over 7,000 died, over 20,000 injured, was the human cost directly, but none of them ever forgot. Chuck was one of the people who raised the first flag. The famous picture, and the Marine memorial, are the second flag raising. Chuck is the last surviving flag raiser. That happened on February 18, 1945, slightly more than five years before I was born.

Joe Jeannotte is a real marine from St. John, North Dakota, now a police investigator in Chicago. Maybe retired in the last couple of years. He was my hero as a kid. He was a Sea Scout in St. John. Think of it. Mike Wanschaffe, Commander, started a Sea Scout group in St. John, North Dakota, 1500 miles from the Pacific, 1500 miles from the Atlantic, 1500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and about 1400 miles from Hudson Bay. But they were shipshape.

We salute all Veterans and service men and women. Including Jacob Flavel French.

Wacky Week

The state legislature published a picture in the weekly session review of March 31, 2008. The caption was regarding the capitol grounds covered with snow from a March snow. It stated that it was the last snow of the season. Soooo wrong. Another snowstorm came on April 1, that covered the north land. Virginia received 32 inches. Danbury received 7 inches. Then this week, on April 10th and 11th Danbury got 17 inches and this tapered off down towards the cities.

Bad news this week. Arly's cousin Keith Carlson died in a farm accident near Sunburg, Mn. He was caught up in an auger on a feed mill powered by a tractor with a power take off. The Funeral is Tuesday. Life is now. We need to plan for the future, but We need to live now, for now is our destiny.
Grief is greater when we are closer.

Arly and I are moving to Sandstone this week. Enough of this being apart.

Pat and Arlin helped yesterday with their trailer. Arlin Got stuck in the driveway in the remainder of the 17 inches of snow, about 12 inches of icy heavy snow. He got out by disconnecting the trailer, using four wheel drive to go through the woods, going out on Hayden Lake Road on the bare tar, and hooking two chains together, and pulling the trailer backwards up onto the road.


I feel, therefore I am.
I am, therefore I feel.

I am blessed, therefore there is a Blesser.
There is a Blesser, thereby I am blessed.

I am, therefore I exist.
I exist, therefore I am.

PS

I see so many deer each day, it is commonplace and I didn't remember to post it!

Birthday Turkeys

Well if it isn't one thing it is another.
This week it has been Turkeys. The week started with me seeing turkeys on the way to Danbury on Sunday. Plus one eagle out by St. Croix State Park. Then on the way to work Monday there were big flocks, including a flock crossing the road precisely where I hit a deer with my car 18 months ago. They were actually following the deer trail. There were about a dozen.
So that afternoon I went to the cities to Maya's birthday party. Met mi esposa and stuck around in the Heavy Snow Warning zone so long that we could not get to Danbury that night, so we stayed and slept in the BIG CITY.
Roads were slippery and wet on Tuesday. It takes about an hour and a half to drive, when you stop for gas and coffee, from New Brighton to Sandstone, from the driveway to the desk.
Without hope in our life, what is the point? Of Anything?
Without hope, does beauty exist?
Eagles are beautiful to me. But why?
Sunsets are beautiful to me. But why?
With the Ropes of the Past We Ring the Bells of the Future. (Evansville Senior Class 1968)

Black Dirt

I live in an area with deep sand, according to the well drillers about 100 feet are sand before rock and clay. This weekend in west central Minnesota the snow is melted, unlike the foot and a half we have near Danbury. What you see is black dirt, or really mud, because it is still wet. Whereas in Oakland Township we welcome the rain because it firms up the sand, the contrary is true here, because when moisture is added to the black loam, Richardson, I believe it is, it turns to a bottomless quagmire. It also warms up faster and retains heat longer, which is why it is supreme cropland.
On an outing yesterday the terns were kiting across the fields in the 15-20 mile per hour breeze. A couple pairs of ducks whizzed by in the 20 minutes we were on the road.
This early morning there were Robins singing and alerting with their two distinct sounds, and the mourning doves were coo, coo, cooing. We could hear the train coming and it took 20 minutes to get to our location.
The low temperature for the night was 36 Farenheit so the puddles from the melted snow were mirror like.
I is a beautiful sunrise, purple to pink to gray.
Promises in the dirt, and in the sky.

A Horse of Any Color

Well today I was heading west down the highway to the river and the sun was coming up in my rear view mirror. It was so bright I had to put the night setting on the rear view mirror to keep from being blinded. As I exited the pine plantation on my right I noticed three deer out in the clover field that is half a mile deep towards the north and stretches for a mile along the road. Then I realized there were more deer, three here, four there, three more, three more, five more and three more until by the end of the field I estimate about 25 to 30 were out there. So then I went through another woods area and came out and there was a horse standing in the ditch. I stopped and shooed it back through the hole in the fence and then went up to the house and told the owner. He was grateful.
Then nothing happened the rest of the way to work, other than a few pairs of geese, and a trio of mallards.
But it was a bright brisk morning.
No snow like they predicted.

I will be in another part of the state for the weekend.

Have a great one, weekend that is.

Two by Two

I stepped out the back door today and heard some spring crows cawing in the distance. You can hear better in the early spring because there are no leaves on the trees except for the dead oak leaves that will fall off as soon as the new growth start. The snow that is left on the ground that is melting during the forty degree days, freezes during the twenty degree nights. So the snow is a perfect sounding board.
Hearing the crows caused me to pause, and then I could hear a brace of geese softly squawking to each other as they glided by, seeing and avoiding me.
As I went down the road I saw a pair of long necked turkey vultures gliding and occasionally flapping their wings in perfect unison.
A cup of coffee made the morning complete.
And then a drake and hen mallard flew by.
The waterfowl are back, and the buzzards are finding the remains of the winter damage.
Life begins again today.
I saw a deer as big as a cow this afternoon. It was sneaking across the highway 300 yards in front of my car, acting as though it thought I did not see it. The sun is setting later, so of course I did.

Could not see the antlers, but, it was a gray old thing.

Later

Eagles and Deer, Spring is Here

On the way home yesterday I was tired. The sun was low in the sky. I saw three deer cross the road ahead of me. Then I turned the corner and saw four more. Two miles down the road I saw six more out in the field. I had to slow down for one that was standing on the road. Then traveling east on 48 I saw a field full of them. So the total was about 40 by the time I got home. I also saw one eagle flying and one sitting in a tree and one on the side of the road.

Today there were more deer, I saw at least fifty. And one Eagle.

There is nothing nicer than the sun shining and snow melting in the spring. Driving with the window down and smelling the freshness of the land.

Unless it is walking in the spring and listening and hearing, as well as seeing.

MEANWHILE - BACK AT THE CABIN - A Year Later

This has been a good year and a very bad year.

The bad started in Feb 2007 when we found out, primarily by having two snowstorms in a two week period, that Arly is allergic to something in the oaks. We had her tested and the result was, . . . . Arly is allergic to oak mold. So what we have here is oak and no wind, damp moist sand that is permeated with mold from the collections of leaves. We live in oak forest, not oak savannah, so now we are trying to find how to solve the problem.
Normal prescription drugs had no effect so she went homeopathic. The homeopath said he could give temporary relief which he did, but the thing that helped the best was going and visiting a friend in North Dakota for a week. She got better and came back home. Then her dad got sick, and his machine shed burned down, then he really got bad, and in the middle of summer he died. So there was that added insult to her system. Then in early September we went on a wonderful camping trip to the North Dakota Badlands. We love the view, and she kept saying it was so wonderful to breathe.
That comes back later.
Then my boss retired and I tried for her job and didn't get it. Then in the week before Christmas 2007 Arly damaged her eye. I accidently josteled her elbow when I was getting out of bed and she was rubbing her eyes. It turned out that she had been massaging her eyes everymorning for the whole year, except when we were on vacation, and coinciding has had trouble breathing, because her eyelids were sticking to her cornea. Her cornea was ripped and two optometrists and two opthalmogists said the the ripping was caused by dry eye which was caused by her mold allergy.
So since January 2008 she has been living in Kerkhoven , while I have been in Danbury and Kerkhoven.

So we need to move.

It is sad that such a beautiful place can be toxic for her.

We are looking for our next place to live.

Hayden Lake is beautiful.
I saw three eagles today, and I saw three deer this evening.
This is a God thing, and we don't know what God's will is for the next step, but we are taking it by looking for a place to live in or near Sandstone, where I work.

All things change, except God.

Winter, WalMart, Wagging tongues

W 1.
So this is Winter. We are actually below zero Farenheit. So the ice will be thicker than the 6 inches it was last weekend when Arlin and boys were up. And a puffing of snow cleaned up everything, and the cooking sounds and smells Arly is issuing forth, I need to go make some coffee. A bright hot fire in the woodstove toasting my little piggies, all of which stayed home today. Usually they stay together, since they are attached to the rest of my feet.
After a busy week of finding services for people with mental health crisis, this is the way to relax.
A bite of toast, a cup of coffee, a couple blogs, a few good verses, a book of pictures from the olden days (1964) and a dvd about the early 1900's in P.E.I., a magazine about Hunting in Alberta, Canada, and a phone call from a person with pre-cancer reminding me that I am well, a loving wife, children blessed with life and companions, and beautiful grand children, I am blessed. No matter what the other struggles may be.

W 2.
Walmart - Den of evil? If so, not the only one. How about oil companies, Television, restaurants. Try living like, in Bolivia. Where one million people, out of 8 million population, marched in rebellionto the oppressive minority government, which is killing people and taking away religious freedom. Where is the press? http://us.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/15/bolivia.constitution.ap/index.html


W 3.
Wagging Tongues - Gossips in all locations, (gossip = murder). Quote of the week.
"If the Devil can not make you into a out and out sinner, he will make you into a self righteous churchgoer." You see, it causes the same result in people that don't know Jesus, they ditch Christian churches and all that goes with them. Self-righteous Christian is an oxymoron. Self righteousness is a dirty rag to God. No matter how good we are. That is why we need Mercy and Grace. We can't be perfect. But God provided the perfection He needs in us as a gift to us. So we can know Him. And the most valid reason for following the law of love, or the "golden rule" is because Jesus said to do that, and we should Love out of appreciation for what he did for us.

Tracy, TreyC, Tracey

Apology to Tracey for posting her name with the incorrect spelling.

A thoroughly despicable occurence without a trace of redeeming value whatsoever, which, though unintentional, nevertheless can have far reaching consequences which is the reason this writer beseeches Tracey most humbly for her gracious forgiveness.
Puleeze?