Rain, Ducks, Old Song Lyrics: and a Corpus Christi Procession

Sunday, June 22, 2014. It's summer: the season for rummage sales, sunburn, and the occasional tornado warning. We've had quite a lot of rain lately. After a little checking, I learned that July is the only month that hasn't seen snow in Minnesota: since we've been keeping records, anyway.


Conservation Park. I thought the river looked high - - -


- - - and I was right. June 18, 2014.

I saw this anatine pair Wednesday afternoon.


If I see two ducks, is that a paradox? June 18, 2014.


"Love is a many-splendored thing" - - -


- - - "and the world stood still." June 18, 2014.

On a more serious note, our Corpus Christi procession didn't get rained out.


Corpus Christi procession: first leg. June 22, 2014.


Not everybody participated, of course. June 22, 2014.


I'd say "we're approaching St. Paul's" here: but I was across the street, taking pictures. June 22, 2014.

I put other, larger, photos of the procession on my A Catholic Citizen in America blog.

"Walking with the Enemy," Followed by Q&A With Charles Hubbell

Wednesday, May 7, 2014. Main Street Theatre is celebrating their 75th year of operation. The Douvier family has operated the movie theatre since 1976.

This year, "In Conjunction with the 75th Anniversary of Main Street Theatre and the Sauk Centre Premiere of 'Walking with the Enemy' we are Announcing a Special Event for Opening Night on Friday, May 9. Meet one of the actors, Charles Hubbell, a Minnesota Native who will be available for a 'Q&A' following the showing of the film which will continue to run for a 2 week period!"


Advertisement from the May 4th Dairyland Peach.

I won't be there: I don't get out much. But don't let that stop you.

Dairyland Peach ran an article about Main Street Theatre, the Douviers, and a planned attraction, last year. (May 13, 2013)

Minnesota Spring: Another Week, Another Winter Storm.

Sunday, March 30, 2014. It's springtime in Minnesota, with another winter storm due to arrive late Monday night. The parish priest joked that God gave us this climate, so folks living elsewhere wouldn't envy the natural beauty of central Minnesota.

Thursday's storm encouraged the public school to lock up at 4:00 p.m., and cancel all afternoon and evening activities.


About noon, Thursday. March 27, 2014.

I'm just about ready for summer. Most of the snow should be gone by then. Here's a quick look at the week's weather.


Wednesday, and the band shell benches are nearly free of snow. March 26, 2014.


Thursday, 7:47 a.m.: mostly rain. March 27, 2014.


Thursday, 10:29 a.m., and snow has started. March 27, 2014.


Thursday. 1:07 p.m., and we're getting picture-postcard snow. March 27, 2014.


Saturday morning: clear blue sky, sunshine, fresh snow, and the streets have been cleared. March 29, 2014.

I'll say this for this spring's weather: it's kept our snow cover fresh. Here's another look out the front window.


Springtime in Minnesota: noon, March 27, 2014.

I checked the weather, and now we're looking forward to ice pellets Monday night. Either way, I'll be glad to stay inside.

First Day of Spring: Sunshine and Snow

It's warmer than it looks: about 37° Fahrenheit. That's what my webcam (Small Town America: Central Minnesota) saw a few minutes ago.

The calendar says it's the first day of spring: but I'll be putting on a jacket to go outside for a while yet, anyway.

Related post:

• "Spring is Here: Minnesota Style"
  (March 16, 2014)

Heat Advisory, Fun Factory, and Fairs

Sunday, August 25, 2013. There's a heat advisory on for quite a bit of Minnesota. When I noticed it on Friday, Stearns county was on the north edge of the advisory area. The edge has moved northwards since then:

"Heat Advisory"
Statement as of 11:22 AM CDT on August 25, 2013

Minnesota counties involved in the heat advisory, Sunday morning. August 25, 2013.

I've been to the Minnesota State Fair a few times, but this year I'm glad I stayed home:

Dozens Treated For Heat Illness At Minn. State Fair
Stephen Tellier, KSTP.com (August 25, 2013)

"...Regions Hospital officials said there were a few dozen cases of heat-related illness at the fair on Saturday, and at least six people were transported to the hospital as a result...."

The article says that folks who got dizzy, felt faint, or otherwise needed medical attention had something in common. They hadn't brought water, or didn't get around to staying hydrated. I hope the hospitalized folks are okay.

It's about 90° F as I'm writing this, 5:00 p.m. - which isn't all that warm. The problem this week was that the nights weren't particularly cool. It was 64° at 7:00 Monday morning, and 49° at Friday morning, but we didn't have much of a chance to cool of the other nights.

Enough about the weather. The Fun Factory and the 'tractor' part of a semitrailer are all that's left of the portable portions of Stearns County Fair.


Leftover from the Stearns County Fair. August 25, 2013.

I've spent the week inside, staying cool, so the only other photo this week shows sun baked grass and some trees.


Blue sky, a few trees, and tan grass. Those buildings are on Main Street. August 25, 2013.

The heat advisory ends midnight, Tuesday. Not that it'll be particularly cool after that.

Sunshine, Storms, Trees Down: Another Week in Minnesota

Sunday, June 23, 2013. I've had an eventful week:

• "Remembering Giol"
  Through One Dad's Eye (June 22, 2013)
• "A Rabbit This Time"
  Through One Dad's Eye (June 17, 2013)

Coming back from Alexandria on the Interstate, I got a picture of transmission towers being built.

They're using a helicopter to string lines between those towers: but not when I took this photo. June 17, 2013.

Back in Sauk Centre, we're having a fairly normal summer.


Morning in downtown Sauk Centre. June 17, 2013.


Street work near downtown. June 17, 2013.

A strong line of thunderstorms - or is that a line of strong thunderstorms? - rumbled through Thursday evening. Folks south of us had a worse time than we did. I read that upwards of 130,000 people were without power on Friday.

Here in Sauk Centre, I watched trucks go past the house carrying parts of trees to the dump.


Someone found our birdbath bowl, leaning it against a signpost on the corner. Thanks for recovering and returning that. June 21, 2013.


This could have been worse: the tree fell away from the house. June 21, 2013.


That's a nest. It landed in our front yard. I hope the eggs had already hatched and fledglings left by the time it got, ah, relocated. June 21, 2013.

Friday evening, another line of storms was coming through.


Again, most of the excitement was south of us. 6:21 p.m., June 21, 2013.

I'm hoping for a comparatively quiet, uneventful week: but "hope" and "expect" are two different things.

No School Today, Travel Advisories, and All That

The storm didn't look too bad in town, but I'm told we had whiteout conditions in the country. That would explain the early-morning automated phone call, telling us that school was cancelled today. A prudent decision, I think.

I see that folks south and west of us, in and around Worthington, lost power during the storm. That's more than an inconvenience. Folks employed at factories won't have work until power is restored: which could take a day or two. There's the matter of keeping homes warm, too. It's not particularly cold, around freezing, but most heating systems need electricity.

Travel in Benton County, about an hour east, isn't advised. The Sheriff's Office there probably doesn't want to be recovering bodies later on, and I don't blame them.

My wife and #3 daughter stayed home this morning, instead of going to their usual out-of-town destination: again, a prudent decision in my opinion. Some folks may not have had much choice, and had to get somewhere today: or decided that whatever they had planned was worth the risk. The good news is that, as far as I've heard, nobody got killed.

An accident closed Highway 23 near St. Cloud, I-94 westbound near Munich was closed by another crash, two semitrailers hit each other on I-94 near Alexandria: but aside from power outages, travel advisories, and accidents, it's been a fairly uneventful storm.

In the news:

• "Minnesota News Briefs: Winter storm knocks out power in western Minnesota"
  Pierce County Herald (April 11, 2013, 3:09 p.m.)
• "Winter storm causing crashes in Douglas County"
  Al Edenloff, Echo Press, Alexandria (April 11, 2013, 12:10 p.m.)

KSAX: No More Broadcasts

Well, that's interesting:

"UPDATE: KSAX discontinues broadcasts"
Echo Press, Alexandria, Minnesota (June 29, 2012)

"For many viewers, it’s like losing a long-time friend.

"KSAX-TV, which has provided news programming in the Alexandria area for 25 years, announced Tuesday that it was substantially reducing its operations, effective immediately.

"The local news cut-ins that the station did during Twin Cities-based KSTP-TV nightly newscasts are gone, along with local weather forecasts and locally produced commercials.

"The cutback leaves 17 people without a job. Those employees will receive severance pay and benefits, according to the station’s owner, Hubbard Broadcasting. In addition, KSAX will work with local and state government agencies to help employees with outplacement assistance.

"KSAX's website is also gone. Online viewers are being redirected to the KSTP-TV site...."

My main focus for this blog is Sauk Centre, about 20 miles closer to Minneapolis-St. Paul than Alexandria, Minnesota. Sometimes, though, what happens in the 'big town' down the road shows up here.

In this case, we'll be missing KSAX television here, too: it's part of 'local' cable services.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Earthquake in Alexandria, Just Down the Road"
  (May 1, 2011)
• "Saturday and Seven Below"
  (January 2, 2010)

April in Minnesota: Blue Skies, Blooming Flowers, and a Freeze Warning

As of 4:25 p.m. CDT today, The U.S. Weather Service says that a "freeze warning remains in effect from 1 am to 10 am CDT Tuesday."

The forecast says it'll get down to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit here. Then by Friday it'll get up to about 60, maybe with rain.

All of which is about par for the course here in Minnesota. Like I've said before, our climate isn't boring.

Mother's Day, 2011

Sunday, May 8, 2011. Mother's Day. The week before this one, we had the usual 'Minnesota sampler' variety of weather: dreary rain, relentlessly cheerful skies, and just about everything between.


Thursday afternoon rain, last week. April 27, 2011.


Friday afternoon lilac bud, last week. by. April 28, 2011.

Right - I almost forgot the blooming trees and all that. Springtime in Minnesota. Which is the time of year when the local Knights of Columbus council does our annual 'Tootsie Roll drive,' for places like Camphill Village. I don't know the latest 'correct' term for folks who have (developmental disabilities???).

Which didn't keep me from putting in time at Coborn's, a week ago last Friday. Some of the other fellows handed out Tootsie Rolls at Mass in several churches around here, that weekend. (A tip of the hat to Coborn's in Sauk Centre, for letting us stand there.)


Charity fundraiser at Coborn's: the K. of C. 'Tootsie Roll drive.' April 29, 2011.

Today had it all: gray skies with dreary rain; and bright blue cheerfulness.


Before Mass at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. May 8, 2011.


During Mass at Our Lady of the Angels church. May 8, 2011.

We said a series of prayers for mothers this morning at Our Lady of the Angels church. Since one of my daughters and son-in-law were here for the weekend, I got my first look at Gerard's meeting hall, behind the restaurant. I'd known it was there - but hadn't realized how large it was.


Gerard's meeting room, Mother's Day. May 8, 2011.

There's more - there always seems to be more - but it's getting late, and this will do for this week.

April Showers: Minnesota Style

Sunday, April 17, 2011. I see I missed last week's entry. Sorry about that. Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week - and snow is off the ground. Again.

I'm not complaining: in a way, we're getting spring twice this year. The first week of April was bright, cheery, warm - and saw the street sweeper roaring by, giving the pavement a good scrub and rinse.


A sign of spring in Sauk Centre: the street sweeper roaring by. April 6, 2011.

Then, this week, we got our April showers. Snow showers: rain, frozen stuff, and finally snow.


April showers - Minnesota style. April 16, 2011.

I like living in Minnesota, where our weather isn't the same familiar routine, year after year.