WannaskaWriter

     What a beautiful night just to be alive and outdoors dressed so warmly! I thank the universe for my being in its entirety of no wont nor regret, wholly appreciative of the immediate all around me.

     There were 3-sun dogs earlier; one overhead, but using my cellphone to attempt to capture it proved fruitless. A cranky elderly neighbor once bellered at me after I said I had seen three sun dogs during some bitterly cold days,    "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I'VE ONLY EVER SEEN TWO!!!

I've had quite the time purchasing 'battery-powered lanterns' as of late. This is my 3rd battery-powered lantern, er, flashlight, of different brands  that I have purchased (two of which I returned for refund, to no fault of the store). I had to record this one because it seemed to beg noting.   The bright-yellow and black flashlight I purchased is a Eveready Readyflex Floating Lantern , I guess, for it was only upon very close examination of the label after I got the product home, that I noted there was a facsimile of one floating in water. I don't think I'll test it. I just thought, judging by its low price of five bucks, including two batteries, that it was a no-brainer easey-peasey, plunk the 2 batteries-in job. How difficult could it be?   It has a single 80 lumen LED light and a 4-inch diameter screw-on cap. Two size D SUPER HEAVY DUTY batteries came with it wrapped in adhesive plastic on which was printed two images; one of two batteries side by side, belo...

    Two True Stories 1990-1993 " We didn’t make her fearful, we made her brave."     Bag O' Bonny           Turning in at Bemis Hill, in Roseau County, Minnesota, I snapped a few images of the nicely maintained CCC-era log cabin and its immediate sledding hill. Leaving, I turned west on the road I came in on, then a half mile or so, took the Bemis Hill Forest Road north along the bottom of the Hill when my daughter Bonny called from Ankeny, Iowa, where she lived then, several hundreds of miles away.     I always thought how amazing it was to be in the middle of nowhere and get a phone call. I was  leaning against my car along a remote northwest Minnesota forest road in Beltrami Island State Forest with the steep legendary sledding hill behind me and a 700,000 acre forest around me, possibly making me its sole human occupant for five square miles, conservatively speaking, the thought of which is just aw...

     "OH MY GOD! SVEN IS DEAD!" the new neighbor Jack Krag said, running from his car to the swing set in Sven's yard where Sven Guyson laid prone on the ground, one foot still afloat in the seat of the swing, his face against the sod, his cap ajar.      "SVEN! SVEN!" Krag repeated plaintively, gently turning Sven over onto his back; the imprint of grass and dirt stuck to Sven's open-eye slobbery face.      " HE'S JUST A'FOOLIN' YOU, bon ami! " shouted Monique, Sven's wife of two years and some months from the porch. "He's just workin' up to his expiration date and wants his death to be just a part of our normal routine. He doesn't want to surprise anyone by dyin' unexpectedly. You know what a shock a death can be. He's just tryin' to ease us all into it, one act at a time.       "WHAT??" Krag fairly hollered in disbelief, looking at Monique, then back st Sven, and back to Monique...

My 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser   A life changing event. I've had asthma all my life and it limited me somewhat until 1972, when after an event on a remote Canadian lake I was rushed to Dryden Area Hospital for emergency treatment of a pneumothorax /lung collapse. Early one morning, my dad and I left Des Moines, Iowa on 1530 mile round trip fishing expedition to Stormy Lake, Ontario; stopping in Roseau, Minnesota to join six family members: My uncle  Martin and aunt Irene Davidson of Roseau, their son Jack Davidson and his 8-yr old son, Jeffrey, of Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and Jack's older brother Dean Davidson, and his 11-yr old son, Larry, of Clive, Iowa in addition to their two two vehicles, one with a boat atop it. We were pulling a one-wheeled trailer behind my brand new 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser to handle extra gear. Leaving Roseau as the last vehicle in the three car caravan, we headed off toward the...