Winter Storm, No School Monday, and Where I was Sunday

Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Sorry about that! I'd expected to be back in town by Sunday night. Instead, my family elected to stay at this family's newlyweds' home, and watch the Super Bowl. That was a good decision: but it meant that I was up in the Red River Valley of the North when Sunday evening came.

Then, I drove us home yesterday. (More at "Home, at Last! - of a Winter Storm, Interstate Traffic, and Utility Trucks")

I'll be back, Wednesday, with more about Sauk Centre.

Briefly, we've got more snow now than we did before: and there wasn't any school yesterday. Prudent decision, I think. School was two hours late today.

That was quite a storm.

Just a reminder: here's that plug for Haiti again:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

Like I've said before, the folks there can use help. There's the rest of this week to get a check to the American Red Cross, by way of First State Bank.

Fire, Ice, and Haiti

Wednesday, February 3, 2010. I haven't been out of the house since Monday. Nothing serious: and I'm going to keep it that way.

So everything I know about what's happened here in Sauk Centre is either what I've heard, or read in the Sauk Centre Herald.

The big-deal item actually made it to the St. Cloud Times. The good news is that apparently nobody got hurt. The bad news is that Adam Gress is down by a snowmobile, a four wheeler, two cars and a house. The St. Cloud Times seems to say that the fire started in a wood stove. I'll skip the usual stuff about being careful with that sort of heater. I'm just glad everybody got out.

Remember that power outage, a week ago last Friday? The St. Cloud Times says that ice caused the outage. The headline was "Ice breaks pole; Sauk Centre without power". The two accounts aren't contradictory. The St. Cloud Times mentions the fire in their second paragraph.

We've gotten a little more snow since Sunday afternoon. My son cut a path from the driveway to the back yard - but didn't include the grill in his route. I'll be encouraging to get that done. I've mentioned this before: I like to grill.

Now, at the risk of getting dull (duller?), here's that plug for Haiti again:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

If you haven't given yet, there's the rest of this week, and all of next, to do so. From what I've heard, the folks there can really use help.

Fire at a Power Pole, Haiti Fundraiser, Webcam

Wednesday, January 27, 2010. That power outage Friday night affected quite an area. This week's Sauk Centre Herald says the lights were out from the north end of Sauk Lake to the Lynx golf course, south of town, and as far as West Union. All because of a fire at an XCEL Energy pole near mile marker 123 on I-94, between Sauk Centre and West Union.

What's still amazing to me is that there aren't more outages. The power grid is a finely-tuned, continent-wide system, and remarkably sensitive to problems like that fire. That far out of the way, I'm impressed that power came back on after no more than maybe an hour and a half. After reading the paper, I know why there was so much traffic here at South Ash and 9th. There was a boys basketball game at the school Friday night. And, a hockey game at the civic arena. I've yet to be in a public place when the emergency lighting kicks in: and don't mind a bit.


Jitters Java: new sign on the door. New hours, too, I think. At least, I don't remember their being open Sunday, 8:00 to 2:00. January 22, 2010.


Traffic at the corner of South Ash Street and 9th, around 8:50 p.m., Friday night. No street lights. January 22, 2010.

A column in Jitters Java serves as a bulletin board - one of several around town. If you've been meaning to donate to that Haiti fundraiser: there's still time. Here's what I wrote last week:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

I'll admit that I'm emphasizing that Haiti fundraiser quite a bit. My household gave at the second collection at Our Lady of the Angels on Sunday. The folks in Haiti can use help.


Yoga and a weight loss program: and a desert display case in the background. January 22, 2010.


Main Street Coffee Company: with a new menu. Sauk Centre's other specialty coffee shop. January 22, 2010.

Again with what's in this week's Sauk Herald. There's a DVD available, "A Walk to Remember." Dr. Julian Dubois, Jr., walked around Main Street and Sinclair Lewis Avenue with a cassette tape recorder, talking as he went. Pretty good idea, actually. There's more about the DVD and the people who made it in the paper. I'm glad to see that folks are making records of what they remember about this town. It's sort of what I'm doing with this journal.


Wednesday afternoon, school bus, under-used bird feeder. January 27, 2010.

I took that photo this afternoon, out the north window where I do most of my work. That's also where my webcam is. It may be Sauk Centre's first on-the-street webcam. It's supposed to be on 24 hours a day, with a few minutes down time now and again. Key phrase here is "supposed to" - the thing was offline for quite a while today. I'd say "technical difficulties," but I may have hit the wrong button.

If you want to check out the view, streaming video from the webcam is at Small Town America: Minnesota, the webcam's blog.

Power Outage, Valentine's Day is Coming, a Few Signs and Icicles

Sunday, January 24, 2010. The big deal this week was the power outage Friday night. It lasted over an hour, starting before 9:00 and going until about 10:10 p.m. I'm looking forward to reading what the Sauk Centre Herald has to say about it. As I wrote on the Sauk Centre Journal blog Friday night, lights were on in Alexandria, but not West Union. I've heard that folks in South Dakota had it much worse that we did.


Traffic at the corner of South Ash Street and 9th, around 8:50 p.m., Friday night. No street lights. January 22, 2010.

Aside form that, it's been pretty much business as usual. Except that I just remembered that I've forgotten about my wife's Valentine's Day present. Hoo boy.

Okay. I'm back. I've made a sort of note to myself, about that Valentine thing.


Two of Sauk Centre's businesses. Their vans, that is. January 15, 2022.

Something new in town, coming in the last decade or so: businesses with vans, and advertising on the vans. Well, new to me, anyway.

My wife and #3 daughter are at Soo Bahk Do: and recording the Vikings-New Orleans Saints game. Ain't technology great?


Santa's landing lights: and Valentine's Day decorations. January 22, 2010.


Icicles: the long one's over a yard long. January 23, 2010.

Another 'winter storm' over the weekend didn't do much apart from touching up the snow with a fresh surface.

My household pitched in at the second collection for Haiti at Our Lady of the Angels church today. And, repeating from Wednesday's entry:

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

Fog, Frost, and Fundraisers for Haiti

Wednesday, January 20, 2010. You've heard it before. 'In Minnesota, if you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes: It'll change.' There's something to that old gag.

Like last Friday. The morning was foggy, around 9 and 10. Then, by 11, it was clearing. By noon, we had one of those picture-postcard days. Blue skies, frost on the trees, high swept clouds: the works.


Fog and frost: on just about everything. January 15, 2010.


Frost. Lots of really delicate frost. January 15, 2010.


Around 11:00 a.m., clearing. Not much wind, happily. January 15, 2010.

Once in a while, the road east of town, across the Sauk River to the two big cemeteries, looks really nice. Generally it's a matter of atmospheric effects: just the right amount of haze. Friday, around noon, it was the frost left by fog the night and morning before.


County Road 17, near the Sauk River. January 15, 2010.

I was downtown Friday, having my eyes checked (according to the doctor I have two, and they both work). Flags were up for Martin Luther King Day, this Monday.

Looking in the shop windows, it struck me how Catholic Sauk Centre is. We've got a fair assortment of churches. A Google map I've embedded in the Sauk Centre Journal Blog will give you an idea.

Still, there are a whole bunch of Catholics in town. I came from an area that was quite sincerely not Catholic - and the statuary and artwork, right out there in storefronts, still impresses me sometimes. Positively, that is.


Two-for-one photo: storefront and what's across the street in downtown Sauk Centre. January 15, 2010.


Martin Luther King Day was Monday: They got the flags out early. January 15, 2010.

I see in the Sauk Centre Herald that First State Bank is offering $20,000 in matching funds. Here's what the Herald says, in part:

"To make a donation checks should be made payable to the American Red Cross and dropped off or mailed to First State Bank of Sauk Centre, PO Box 266, Sauk Centre, MN 56378. Contributions will be accepted until Feb. 15."

Sounds good. My household's going to be giving at a second collection this Sunday, at Our Lady of the Angels church: but don't let that stop you from pitching in with what First State Bank is doing. Not that you would, of course.