Bursting your bubble

I am about to burst your doomsday bubble for all you doomsdayers out there.......

There have been about 514 leap years since Caesar created it in 458 BC.  Without the extra day every 4 years, today would be July 28, 2013.

Also, the Mayan calendar did not account for leap year... so technically the would should have ended 7 months ago.

I am just saying

Gun control is a very difficult subject to debate. And has been debated for years. But the basic issue is clearly stated in the Constitution in the second amendment -- the right to bare arms.

I remember Hubert Humphrey's (Democratic senator from Minnesota and vice president of the United States) statement because he said it repeatedly, " guns had a place in the home because history has shown that governemnts, even the best of them, have a habit of oppressing people who cannot defend themselves at their own front doors." Can you imagine any politician saying that today.

Guns have played a big part in the development of this country all the way from gathering food to protection.

I can see why millions of urban citizens whose families came from teeming European cities through Ellis Island don't understand the links between settlers roots, guns, survival and patriotism. Guns are scarcely a part of their lives. Unfortunately, utter lack of knowledge and experience doesn't keep nonhunting urban liberals from believing they know what's best for everyone else. Instead of banning guns doesn't it seem more reasonable to take action to heal the social pathology that generates crime than to use gun control as the tool to stop crime and make us safe.

Tribute to Agustav as written by his father

Earlier in my blog I told you about Agustav who had passed away on Sunday.  Marie, the mother is from Beach, North Dakota from where I retired.  Not only is she a friend, but her mother and dad are good friends of mine.  We all attended to First Lutheran Church in Beach.  I watched Marie grow up, get confirmed, go to college and then get married.  She picked a wonderful husband Nathan, the writer of this tribute.  This is a heart felt piece so get the tissues ready.  Agustav was 7 days old when he was taken to heaven.

 

Gone As Unexpectedly As He Came

"Agustav came and went so quickly that it is only now that I am able to sit and reflect about his life. As Marie is at a loss for words, she will most undoubtedly agree that I have too many words when fewer is probably the wiser. It would seem difficult to fill pages writing about a person that only existed 25 and one half weeks and only showed his face to the outside world for one week. But in that time he lived more life than it seems I have in my many years. Agustav Christoph Blomker was a name that weighed more than he did when he was born. He had the name of kings and was the bearer of the King of Kings. His spontaneous leap into existence was a shock to his mother and father. He placed the look of concern on the face of his first doctor. He caused his mother surprise with his energetic frolicking inside her womb. He was a wonder to his father in his apparent anxiousness to participate when battle was joined with Mimi the Pug. He confounded his second very aged and learned doctor who placed him on a helicopter and banished him to the wizards of the NICU. He then vowed that he would no longer be contained. With his legs forward he sprang into the world and fought the wizards valiantly as they tried to bind him with their plastic tubes and elixirs. For one week he lay imprisoned in a plastic tomb; the gaze of the wizards never wavering. Still he filled all of the wizards with amazement at his will to thrive and an even greater amount of bewilderment at his final escape. With that as your story, who can be so arrogant to proclaim one week is too short of time to live. I am reminded of the writing of St. Augustine as a matter of fact. Maybe you knew it or maybe you didn't but in his early adulthood St. Augustine was a tried and true pagan; a heretic; an enemy of the Christian Church. He had a pagan friend; a close friend who, while extremely ill, converted to faith in Christ. When St. Augustine's friend had recovered from his illness, St. Augustine vowed to reclaim him back to his pagan beliefs. Almost immediately after, his friend's illness relapsed and he died. The young Augustine was devastated and described the separation of yourself and a friend, a soul-mate as the greatest human pain possible. However, later, the older Augustine, the Christian Augustine, Bishop Augustine came to realize that the death of his friend was an act of shear grace by God. After the friend's conversion God took him to keep him safe, to protect him... to protect him from Augustine and his pagan vow... for all eternity. It was an act of God's eternal grace that took Agustav so early Sunday morning. Agustav will never know pain or heartache or sorrow or loneliness. He will never know the sin of this world. He will never know us as bad parents or parents with all the shortcomings of fallen humans. He will only know the glory of the presence of God. And in that, I envy him. But his mother and father have hope... the hope of the great day of the Resurrection when we can stand next to Agustav and we can all look together at the shining face of our savior, the Lord Jesus... the true King of Kings. Marie, Agustav, and I thank you for all your prayers. May God bless you as he did us." 

Nathan

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World Day of Prayer

World Day of Prayer is a worldwide ecumenical movement of Christian women of many traditions who come together to observe common day of prayer each year of the first Friday in March.  This year Malaysia wrote the prayer service Let Justice Prevail.  It was held at the Presbyterian Church in Bemidji.
It was a beautiful service, had a great message and of course the coffee and dessert was delicious.  I guess that First Lutheran is not the only drinkingest church that Bemidji has. 

Frohn Township

Frohn Township Hall is located about 5 miles East of Bemidji on Roosevelt Road 

The homemakers counsel held their meeting in the Frohn Township Hall Friday.  Our speaker, Iona Johnson, told about the Linus Project.  This is a nationwide project with makes blankets for children in need.  There are 378 chapters which represent all 50 states.  Over 3 million blankets has been donated to children in crisis.  Northern Minnesota has donated 12,558 blankets since March of 2005.  Ben Franklin is the drop off spot for those who want to help.

I thought it might be interesting to learn a bit about Frohn Township.  The following was printed in the Bemidji Pioneer in 1996.

In 1893, I.O. Ungstad came with 12 other men to a settlement where Frohn is now located. They staked claims and went back to Crookston to file them before returning to Dakota.
In 1894, they came again with their families and built their small homestead shacks. Besides Ungstad, J.E. Hanson, G.H. Aakhus, G.G. Moi, John Norbo, O.S. Huset, H. Riese, Paul Kvale, Ole Hegland, Evin Langerak, Paul and Gunufe Froirak, and Ole Vasend, all new Norwegian immigrants, came to take land. They wanted a school for their children and got their permit from Beltrami County's seat over in Detroit Lakes.
To be able to vote for school board members, they had to be U.S. citizens, and in mid-January, 18 went to Park Rapids to become American citizens. They traveled with a team of oxen. It was cold. When they got to Park Rapids, Judge Halender was in court so they waited. They finally got their papers late that afternoon and the next day headed home.
In 1897, after building their Aardahl church, they built their schoolhouse two miles east of Bemidji Township (on County Road 8). Another Settler, Hugo Henry, came by way of Park Rapids to Frohn where he took a claim 1894. In 1895, he brought his wife, three boys and four girls from Alexandria by covered wagon. They forded the Schoolcraft River near where Robert Carr had built his log cabin and they settle close to the Bemidji/Frohn Township line.
Wilhelmina Michel also came in 1894 and founded a German settlement along with the Eichstadt family.
In 1897, after Beltrami County seat was established in Bemidji, Frohn Township people applied for the incorporation of their village. It required voting in a full set of officers and Ungstad drafted the petition. He called it Frohn, after his birthplace in Norway.
Needless to say, after spending several days getting signers, he had some opposition. He explained the Norwegian word Frohn means "something that is living and growing" and that was their community's description. Frohn Township was incorporated March 11, 1898.
On July 24, 1898, the Rev. J. Holstein organized the German settler's church, stressing that the "unaltered Augsburg Confession" would be adhered to. Among those who signed the 1898 Constitution were Albert Graf, Albert Radi, August Burr, Gustav Eichstat, Emil Eichstadt and Johann Eichstadt as well as Adam Burr and John Utech.
Wilhelmina Michel was not able to sign because she was a woman. That same year these settlers constructed a log cabin church that became the founding of the Trinity Church.

        Published in the Bemidji Pioneer, 1996

PBVAC

PBVAC is Paul Bunyan Vintage Auto Club. I joined on Sunday and it was the club's 40th birthday party.  They had a pictorial slideshow of the club's forty years history.  What fun. I was given a plate of forty cookies as I was a new member. These cookies were in the shape of ram's.  They gave them to me as no one owned a Ram.   Now I am looking for a vintage car.  Any ideas?

Surgery

This is the rose that they gave me after my surgery

I just had a colonoscopy.  Anyone that knows me well knows that I do not like procedures.  Preparation was the worse part.  The day before the surgery I had to just have a liquid diet.  Then I had to drink this laxative laced gatorade (64 ounces) as quickly as I could.  It should have all be drank in an hour, but it took me over two hours to get it down.  After cleaning out I needed to keep hydrated and then after midnight nothing at all.  When I awoke from the surgery my throat hurt.  I kept asking why and finally the doctor came in and I asked him how far in did he put that camera. Did he see my tonsils. I told him that my throat was scratched and very sore. He laughed then told me what had happened. They had to insert a respirator in during surgery.  My system went into overdrive to create mucus to protect my body from this invasion and I actually started choking on it. My throat was closing.   It took 2 days before my throat felt okay.  Even now it is a bit scratchy.   I wanted to show you pictures of this procedure, but the doctor told me he didn't take any as I had such a perfect colon.  It was a picture of health.  Well, now you know that I am a perfect asshole.  I guess I will have to live up to my name.  I do want to thank my friend Janet for taking me to and from my surgery.  I was told that I could not drive for the next 24 hours.  Well so much for following directions.  I had to get Dave to dialysis.  Of course there was quilting Wednesday morning at church and then the Lenten services and lunch.  I accomplished everything without getting a DWI.  Well, I am usually not that defiant of the law, but then everyday life gets in the way and decisions must be made.  Well, I am not under the influence any more.  So I am off to lunch with friends and knitting today, my favorite day of the week.