Monday the 24th was the start to a pretty routine work week. Andrew spent the week packing for the GR Marching Band trip to Hawaii. On Tuesday, Andrew was a tenor in the Cantus Tenor Bass Festival. I had to work but Tiffany thought it was nice to hear the tenors and basses from area schools come together as the Festival Choir with, Chamber Choir of The College of Saint Scholastica, and Cantus.
Wednesday the 26th marked ninety days since enjoying my last alcoholic beverage. I actually feel like I don’t have the time to enjoy having a drink as much as I have in the past. I’m still looking forward to cold beers and hot summer days on the lake though. 😁
Thursday was a 29-hour travel day for Andrew. ✈️ He, along with the GR Marching Band drove to the High School, boarded a bus to MSP, flew from MSP to DEN, and then on to HNL. I am very excited for his trip and can’t wait to hear all about it.
Friday, there was lots of thunder and lightning in the afternoon while I was at work. ⛈️
Saturday the dive team was called out to assist with the ongoing search at Bello Lake. I, along with Rich, Dan, and Jon, conducted an ice dive to search an area that a cadaver dog had hit on earlier in the day. We didn’t find anything but had a successful dive nonetheless. This was my first dive operation that involved the Sherp UTV to deploy us to the dive site. Four divers (plus driver and copilot) with gear seems to be about maximum. The ice was approximately one and a half feet thick, visibility was three to four feet, and we were close to a shore of an island. I had a bit of water enter my mask, failed to take advantage of my dump valves on bottom of BC, and struggled with comms. The dive felt a bit like confined cave diving between the ice and bottom.
On Sunday, Debra, Steve, Tiffany, and I took a drive to Longville for a meat raffle at Patrick’s on Girl Lake. Debra won a bunch of drink tokens and some hamburger that she gave to us. The trip stirred up a wave of nostalgia, as I attended elementary school in Longville and spent time there while living in Boy River.
I still remember my teachers, Mrs. Lyons and Mrs. Kangaroo, and our gym teacher, who had a habit of throwing his clipboard across the gym in frustration. I got into trouble at lunch for eating all of one item on my tray before moving on to the next. My first introduction to computers was watching someone play The Oregon Trail on an Apple II. Recess had its own unique adventures—some of us would sneak behind a nearby gas station, rummaging through the dumpster for old Playboy magazines with their covers torn off. I was also in class on January 28th, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster unfolded, a moment that left a lasting impression.
The Longville I knew has changed over the years. The elementary school has long been torn down, and landmarks like a popular corner sporting goods store where I sat and sold fishing spinners as a kid, are just memories now. Still, visiting brings back a flood of stories from a time that seems both distant and just yesterday.
End of blog. Thank you for reading!
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