Author: Mark Peacock

And so yesterday afternoon Marina gave her encore presentation of her book, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, as the Osceola Senior Center. It was a potluck, so the good food and good people were there, as well as a few of Marina’s swimming pool buddies. I read a selection of the book in Gretel’s voice (not falsetto) [I Go To The Zoo] and a section of Andy’s [I Go Shopping] and then Marina took questions. Per usual, she did a great job and also per usual, she left people wanting more. She has a compelling way of speaking that draws people in. I am very proud of her.

We began a new chapter in life today when Lacey came for the first time to clean our place . What a difference! Everything sparkles! I find it a pleasure to see people do just about anything extremely well. Mid-cleaning, I absented myself for a mens’ meeting that took up the topic of people who don’t do much of anything well, especially when it comes to people other than themselves.

And as I write this, we–finally–have some snow falling. What a contrast to Los Angeles, where what Marina and I knew has disappeared in flames. Fortunately, the Getty Villa has been spared (so far). It was there in Mr. Getty’s seldom visited home that I had an arts education. It was a cheap date: no admission charge but you had to make a reservation because parking space at the house was limited. Each of my visits featured a tour led by a different docent, who usually came from a University faculty, most often UCLA. Seeing Greek and Roman sculpture through the eyes of different people illuminated new and different aspects of the art form, and learning about the mercury process involved in gilding Louis IV furniture gave me a “by the way” observation that my future boss said instantly focused his attention on what I might bring to the job he eventually hired me to do. So, thank you, Mr. Getty, for sharing your house and your personal taste in the fine arts. I pray that the Getty Villa (which had no sign out front to announce its presence, as I see it has now) will continue to be spared from the flames.

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.

 

Tonight’s WPCA-FM story broadcast was a tale called The Driveway. Revisiting it after time away, I found I liked the descriptions of winter, snow and ice and the reality of the struggle to ascend a very difficult driveway out in the woods with few neighbors nearby. It’s a scenario I know well from our 20 years with a difficult driveway on the west side of Bone Lake. To create a story from reality, one throws in a young and pregnant city girl, a worried mother whose warnings are no help to a person feeling vulnerable, a young professional husband with one foot still in the big city, and a wood stove needing fuel to match the results of simply turning up a thermostat. The Driveway was the second story of the 27 stories I’ve written and I think it reads well. In fact, I’m a bit relieved; I’ve wondered if some women might read the story as a put-down of a female. I don’t think so though, as she learns she is tougher than she–or her mother–thought.

I think The Driveway was appropriate for tonight’s weather, which has light snow falling and the thermometer falling, too, as the wind rises. But, hey! That’s why we live here! I spent most of today installing a vanity and sink at the Luck rental property. The vanity/sink package was heavy; the box said it was a two-person lift. I’d assembled the parts needing assembly in the downstairs Mexican Room, but then had to get the load up the hill to the car. The solution: a sled that’s a legacy from my son Aaron. Instead of whizzing down hills on the sled, however, I’ve used it to sled firewood to the house from the stacks at the back of the property. The sled worked fine for the vanity/sink, too and served well for sliding the load from the car to the kitchen door of the Luck house. This project is one that I didn’t look forward to tackling, but it turned out well and was a definite answer to fervent prayer.

Last week Marina and I enjoyed lunch with our son John at Stillwater’s Lowell Inn, a place that’s still as elegant as it was more than 40 years ago when Miss Alice, then in her 90’s I think, wearing an evening gown, greeted her guests personally and graciously. We had lunch there when Marina’s Tanta Paula visited from Berlin and there were several occasions when, following libations and fondue in The Matterhorn Room, we somehow managed to navigate the country roads back home. Back then, the roads to Stillwater WERE country roads and the town was “way out there” from The Cities. How things change in a few decades! What was then a quaint downtown now has become a concrete canyon and visitors cram the sidewalks, many intent on jaywalking, apparently as a challenge to see how close they can come to getting run down by motorists slow-crawling through town.

Our family was busy for Thanksgiving and we are not up to producing a large meal and hosting many people, so we decided to do something new for us and partake of Bone Lake Lutheran’s Thanksgiving meal. Bone Lake Lutheran is about two miles up County Road I from us and we figured we might meet some people we knew and perhaps make some new acquaintances. And that’s what happened. We secured a place in the far corner so that Andy, Marina’s Seeing Eye Dog (and the hero of her book about him and his predecessor, Gretel) had room to lie down. Several people made the trek to the back corner to visit with us and we met fellow Bone Lakers Deb and Rick, who live down the coast from us. It was a new experience for us and worth doing! On top of all this, the meal portions dished up by the good people of Bone Lake Lutheran were more than generous.

Around here we call the Thanksgiving season “Holy Week”. Much of life grinds to a halt as deer season runs its nine days. (Yes, yes, I know there are more limited seasons for deer like bow hunting and some others.) The men I know enjoy being outdoors and having a break from their usual duties, while some women like the idea of “Doe On The Go”, which involves shopping–a sort-of getting even, I suspect–but an activity that boosts local businesses. And some families rely on deer hunting success to fill the freezer with meat, no small thing when you look at the price of beef and pork these days. I used to schedule coffee with the few guys I knew that didn’t hunt and we had our pick of many tables in any restaurant we decided to visit.

I receive updates from the United Methodists and various ministries that demonstrate the pressure on clergy to offer meaningful Advent and Christmas programs, events, and sermons and I must say that it feels good this year not to have to produce anything. We have a small Christmas tree in the window–Marina got it for a dollar years ago–and our two stockings hang from the loft stairway railing. Marina’s stocking is larger than mine. I won’t make a wisecrack about that. My stocking dates from my childhood. It was large enough then for perhaps some walnuts, a small candy bar, and an orange or apple. Post-war, that was very good. And since those long-ago years, I find I have been very blessed in life, even by the difficult times.

 

Telling a story at the same time a national presidential election is unfolding most likely means no one was listening to my story. Interesting, especially because in the story the lead character tells his disciple how not to get upstaged.  The story, Curtain!, found in The First Gathering Of The Break Time Stories and in the ebook Four Break Time Stories, features a working actor, envious of more successful and famous actors and living his life through noting the mechanics of their performances, passes on to his protege his best instructions. This is complicated by their May-December romance and the age difference troubles him.  Things don’t work out and her career disappears without a trace. And then, later in life, she reappears. It’s a “talky” story that explores the dynamics of actors creating realistic characters and how to live the lifestyle of a performer.

Marina’s Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives Of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, continues to sell well online. The Osceola Seniors want some sort of an encore to the book debut event. Marina’s spoken intro at the event was excellent and there is some video. Since she cannot see to read from the book, we’ll see what can satisfy the “encore” request.

Son Aaron is back in his home in Portugal after a ten day visit. We had a family gathering to remember our late daughter Heide’s birthday. Hannah and Dewey Fansler were our hosts and it was good. Aaron built a cover for our entry ramp with the assurance that it will save me some snow shoveling/ice removal efforts this Winter. I’m sorta ready for the season: the dock and pontoon have been pulled, outside items have been covered or moved to protected areas, and today I’m going to winterize the golf cart batteries.

So yesterday was the debut of Marina’s book, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs. We had the event at the Osceola Senior Center, a venue we worked hard to secure for senior activities and events like the one yesterday. I’d arranged a cake with the photo of Gretel and Andy on it. The cake had to be made over in Amery and was to be delivered yesterday to Dick’s Market in Osceola. Well, “Duck’s Off!” if you’ve ever seen that Fawlty Towers episode about Basil’s “gourmet night”. The cake had been marked for delivery November 25th, not October 25th. I’d been nervous about it and called that morning to reassure myself the cake was in Osceola. It wasn’t. Apparently, Baker Bob called Amery and they got to work right away to create the cake. However, there was no courier to get it to Osceola, so when I showed up to collect our cake, there was no cake. Baker Bob set to work as I stood there and created a cake for us, complete with paw prints. I managed to hustle over to the Senior Center without dropping the cake and arrived just as things were set to begin.

This was an event that I was not sure would bring in anyone, despite a newspaper ad and a news release, but I entered the room and it was full! On top of that, two of our kids, Britta and Aaron, sported doggie ears and black noses so that they were “in character” for reading short bits from the book. Marina spoke off the cuff for 15 minutes or so, keeping people spellbound, per usual. She did a great job! There were questions and then cake, coffee, teas and lots of conversation. Marina had brought 20 books and all but one sold. FYI, locally Amery’s Bowman Collective handles her book and it’s on Amazon under Marina Heide Peacock. I think Marina was a bit stunned by the whole thing. On top of that, her online sales royalties have been mounting nicely. Why, she might be able to support me in the fashion I’d like!

I had the pleasure of reading two stories today at Luck’s Senior Center. The event was sponsored by The Friends of Luck Library and followed the weekly Senior Citizen lunch. I read two stories, the Mangled Fairy Tales yarn Sinner Ella and the somber I Loved That Bike! Sinner drew lots of laughs and I even got a laugh or two out of the bike story.

Reading for small groups is how I began reading my stories. That led to reading in libraries in Polk County and across the river in Minnesota, for larger groups, on the radio, twice as a fund raiser for St.Croix Festival Theater, and also twice for the classic Old Settlers Picnic. The trick now is getting to be not to repeat a story that someone may have heard before at another venue. However, I have 27 stories out there in print so I may not be at great risk of repeating myself. In any event, today was fun, there were good questions (Are you working on another story right now? [No.] (How do your stories develop?) [Between 3-5 a.m. and usually with the dialogue almost fully formed.] (Do you keep a file of ideas?) [No. I used to but not anymore. I still have a few file folders with ideas but I find I never look at them and so I should purge the file drawer.] I said it was fun, didn’t I?

As of today, Marina’s book, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye  Dogs, is available in Amery at Bowman Collective. I was there today and enjoyed a delicious and creative cupcake, part of what the owner Catherine Olson hopes soon will be a full blown coffee and snack shop. She hopes the shop will be a place where people come and feel comfortable just hanging out. There are some comfortable chairs and sofas, just right for someone who wants to quickly get into my or Marina’s book they just bought.

Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, with the story told in the dogs’ voices by Marina Heide Peacock makes its debut on Friday, October 25th at 2:30 p.m. at Osceola’s Senior Center. Instead of doggie treats, guests will be treated to coffee and cake. Gretel will be voiced by Britta Marrinan and Andy’s voice will be Mark Peacock’s. The book is receiving nice reviews and many online sales.

Mark will be sharing two stories on Wednesday, October 23rd at 1:15 p.m. at the Luck Senior Center.

Last night’s story broadcast on WPCA-FM was Lost Wax, one of the six short stories in my paperback Six Short Stories. It’s an effective story that has produced tears at every public reading where I’ve shared it. I think I read it better in public than the radio version, where long pauses just mean “dead air”, which in radio is something to be dreaded. The story is about a painter who becomes a sculptor, aided by a perceptive, hard-working wife with vision and marketing savvy.

Marina’s book just out, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, has garnered several nice five star reviews and has been outselling my books by a big margin. I’m one of Marina’s cheerleaders, so I’m happy about those results. The Seeing Eye Foundation interviewed her last week for a social media posting coming out soon. The interview was followed by the comment that they would like to see her next book, which is about growing in Nazi Germany. Today’s Ukraine War brings back too many ugly memories of when the Russians came into Berlin and how they treated common people. The Gretel and Andy book is told in the dogs’ voices and is both cute and informative.

Winter seems to be rushing our way very quickly but I have been able to get many of the items accomplished that have been on my list. The pontoon boat still is in the water and I hope to be able to give it a run when my elder son, Aaron, arrives from Portugal. I think he would enjoy seeing from the water the shore of the property where he grew up. We have had some downed trees, as well as large branches, because of strong winds, so the chainsaw needs to get fired up again to produce logs for the log splitter. As a concession to age, I’ve pretty much quit splitting logs by hand.

One fun thing recently was catching the Flamenco troupe out of the Twin Cities when they came to St.Croix Falls. We were up close–second row seats–even though there are no bad seats in the Festival Theater’s Black Box space. One of my former Macalester College students had danced with one of the women in this troupe back when he formed Alfredo Y Amigos. It was fun to share a bit of time with a couple of the dancers and the cantor.

I did a fill-in preaching at Wolf Creek United Methodist Church last Sunday and received a nice warm welcome back. One of the men produced a special mug for me. It reads: “A truly great pastor is hard to find, harder to part with and impossible to forget.” In my six years of pastoring Wolf Creek I was constrained by my personal circumstances and the church’s expectations so I did not get to enjoy the kind of “kitchen table listening” that I used to do; however, I got to know enough to this man’s story to give the mug special meaning. To have been a part of enhancing a person’s spiritual journey is a special blessing for which I am grateful.

I am looking forward to reading stories at the Luck senior Center. The program has been set up by Jill Glover, Luck’s Librarian, and Friends of the Library. The reading will follow the Senior’s potluck lunch on October 23rd. I will do my best not to pig out on the lunch. Kenneth Larson’s shop is just around the corner from the Senior Center and he has all my books for sale. I anticipate Marina’s story will be available there, too.

Tonight’s WPCA-FM reading was the first”mangled” fairy tale I wrote, The Many Trials. You’ll find it in the ebook Four Break Time Stories and in my first paperback story collection,  The First Gathering Of The Break Time Stories. In it, a young man with no resources other than his native cleverness, must solve three near-impossible tasks in order to win the hand of the beautiful princess. She cheers him on through each difficult task and, eventually, after he solves the dilemmas set forth by her father, the king, they marry and settle down to live happily ever after. There’s nothing like a happy ending. How the couple got to that finale is the fun of the story. It was fun to listen to the story being read.

Speaking of stories, Marina’s new book, Gretel and Andy, God’s Gift; The Lives of Two Seeing Eye Dogs, has been receiving very positive comments and a rash of initial sales. Marina is excited; it’s hard to tell what Andy thinks. He’s still recuperating, I think, from being “skunked” in the face a few weeks ago. Today, though, after his “supervision” of Marina’s swim at the Osceola pool, he did a fine job of navigating the aisles of Walmart and its parking lot. That, after getting a treat at the bank. Andy also had a bout with Lyme’s disease and seems better after a month’s worth of treatment. Marina writes under Marina Heide Peacock. The book is available through Amazon.com and other bookstores.

We have our pontoon boat back in the water and it has been out for a couple of runs after being out of commission following a pontoon leak, some welding, and the replacement of the entire ignition system because the sole key disappeared and has yet to re-surface–if it ever does. Finally, after a dismal summer season (lots of rain, then intense heat, then more rain and thunderstorms) we have warm, dry weather. It’s just in time for the cabin people to put their summer stuff back into winter storage and leave us until next Spring. Even after Labor Day, though, most boats and docks remain in the water. Maybe we and the others are simple optimists. Because our property owners as a group lost about a third of our beach in a lawsuit, we have less space for docks to accommodate all the back lots that have lake access, so I have invited Tim and Katie, newcomers, to share our dock. It looks like the arrangement will work out well. (I told him that he could share the dock and buy it when I die. That might be humorous.)

Last month’s calendar for preaching had me at Parkview United Methodist Church in Turtle Lake. Per usual, they were most kind. They are a fine bunch of people. Andy stayed home; his skunk aroma would have tried the sensibilities of even a fine bunch of people, even if he sat and slept (that’s “working”, too) right down front, where no one sits. Next up is Wolf Creek UMC the end of the month. We have been swinging through the Wolf Creek environs every couple of weeks to pick up eggs, including duck eggs, from Michael and Virginia (Villa) Hansen. They tell me the kitchen has been re-done and I’m sure the women did a great job.

Last week we had some very powerful winds hit us. I awoke to the sound of a locomotive, which I understand is the sound of a tornado. Marina was in the shower and because she is totally deaf without her cochlear implant, there was no way I was going to be able to get her to understand what was happening and to get her downstairs with me. We did not have obvious signs of a tornado after the storm passed but I’ve never heard wind sound like that, even the actual tornado that hit us four years ago. However, I found the top third of one of our trees in the back of the property had been spun off, so the chainsaw has been put to use. I’m about a quarter through cleaning up the mess but there will be more firewood for next season.