An Inventor, a Conviction, H1N1, Hospice Training and Tortillas in the Grocery

Sunday, November 22, 2009. It looks like work is being done on the house next door north of the one that caught fire on south Birch Street in September. Their siding got badly singed, parts of the roof didn't look the way I'd like: and there was probably damage inside, too. At least their house didn't go up, too. If there's been news about how the fire started, I haven't run into it.

I haven't been out much since Wednesday, so most of what I know about what's been going on is from the Sauk Centre Herald. If you haven't gotten the November 17th issue yet, or haven't read it yet, I suggest checking out page 6: There's a pretty good article on area inventers, including Don Lahr and Dick Zetah.


Sauk Centre Herald, "above the fold," November 17, 2009.

The "above the fold" stories on the front page were mainly medical: about the H1N1 vaccinations at the elementary school, and about a family that's been dealing with the sort of disease most of us never hear about: adrenomyeloneuropathy and Addison's disease.

The H1N1 vaccination program was the top headline this week. I'm not clear on whether my son's one of the kids who's going to get the H1N1 vaccinations tomorrow. The doses are being rationed, something the local school had to do, to get any. As I wrote Wednesday, I put together a set of links to pretty reliable sources of information. ("Swine Flu 2009") From what I've read, getting vaccinated - if you can - is a good idea.

Something I didn't see in the print edition of this week's Herald was on the newspaper's website: Benjamin Delacruz Ajqui, the 22-year-old who was accused of that July rape on the Lake Wobegon Trail (August 2, 2009, July 29, 2009) has been sentenced to 12 years. That probably won't be the end of his trouble. There's a possibility he's in this country illegally, and he may be deported when his sentence is up.


Sauk Centre Herald, "below the fold," November 17, 2009.

On a happier note, one of the "below the fold" articles in this week's Sauk Herald tells about training the St. Michael's Hospice staff is getting, about Hispanic culture. Makes sense, I think. Until a decade or so ago, just about everybody in town were either German- or Irish-Americans: and we'd figured out how to get along. And, more to the point for Hospice, we knew what the neighbors might reasonably expect from a service like Hospice.

That was then, this is now: and there are quite a few Hispanic families in the area: and like everybody else, some of their members are getting into the Hospice system.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, having a new set of people in town has made quite a difference for my family: we're able to pick up prayer candles in the grocery now, for one thing. And, there's a somewhat wider food selection there, too.