Tonight’s WPCA-FM story broadcast was my first short story, Conversations In Absencia, a tale found in The First Gathering Of The Break Time Stories and as an ebook, Four Short Stories. Charlie is a WWII veteran with several pals that gather in Winter at a downtown Duluth, Minnesota coffee shop and on Charlie’s boat, Absencia, when the lake is unfrozen. And they talk. They argue. They care about each other. Charlie hates cowards and bullies and calls Adolf Hitler a great example of both because Hitler committed suicide instead of taking the consequences for what he did. As I listened to the story broadcast, I was struck by the similarity to today: one of the guys opines that the veneer of civilization is very thin; Germany was not an undeveloped country but its people responded to demagoguery and the promise of national glory. Germany would be great again and Hitler would lead them into greatness. Conversations was written almost a decade ago. How did those story characters know what the public discussions would involve today?
The debut of Marina’s book, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, back in October was so talked about that many of the Osceola Seniors Club asked for a return engagement of sorts, so that takes place tomorrow. For the book debut, I’d asked two of our adult kids to read small bits of the book, so daughter Britta, a former radio host, read in Gretel’s female voice and son Aaron, visiting from Portugal, read in Andy’s voice.Unknown to me until I saw them, those two rascals appeared wearing dog ears and black noses. Neither Britta nor Aaron will be with us tomorrow, so I will pinch hit as both dogs–but no black nose or floppy ears. Marina will do her usual compelling talk, off-the-cuff and always very good and without a script.
Marina and I had a quiet Christmas and New Years. Christmas Day we were at daughter Hannah’s and enjoyed all three grandchildren being home at once. It’s the college crowd now, with Klara finishing up at River Falls, Erik at St.Olaf, and Hans at Youth With A Mission that will send him to Colombia this month for evangelism work. Right now there is plenty of snow in Louisville, Kentucky, so he may very well shoveling snow! Colombia will be very different. Daughter Alice and her family hit town between Christmas and New Years and it was great to visit with our three growing (amazingly rapidly) grandchildren.
Christmas Eve we did something different and took in the candlelight service at St.Luke’s United Methodist Church in Frederic, Wisconsin. Marina and I also have taken to baking cookies together and I must say that the results have been quite good and have not lasted long. And as Marina feels I can use some help with house cleaning, we have our first venture with cleaning help when Lacey comes this week. Gotta explain: I do all the outside, including cutting trees and log splitting, as well as mowing the beach and handling repairs at the Luck house, and we do a lot together like cooking, so I get behind on things like dusting and other stuff Marina can’t see. Having an outsider come clean is something we are not used to so we are “tiptoeing” into this.
Later this month I’ll chair our township caucus, a gig I did last year and at least this year I’ll have an idea of what I’m doing. My major task: remember to call for nominations three times. Unfortunately, usually there is no competition for the seats on the board and it is a bit of a thankless task and plenty of work, but somebody has to do the mundane work of seeing to it that our local roads are plowed in Winter and maintained, as well as approve zoning changes and property development. Georgetown Township has several lakes within it and if you know lakes and the people with property on them, there is always a fight going on somewhere. Our Board members must deal with that and, somehow, our people manage to do that with patience, even in the face of angry and very loud and very vocal constituents.
Again, Marina’s book and all four of mine are available in downtown Amery at Bowman Collective and in downtown Luck at Kenneth Larson’s shop. Both of ours also can be found online at Amazon.com and in bookstores. Marina writes as Marine Heide Peacock. In addition, my Mangled Fairy Tales can be found at Pure & Simple on Highway 8 and in the gift shops at St.Croix Health Clinics and Hospital. The Polk County Information Center also has all four of my books.