IN APPRECIATION OF FRIENDS

I want to start this blog by talking about a young man that I hold dear - both as a former student when I was his Journalism teacher and now as a good friend who is always so delightful to spend time with.

Kurt Weber works as an eye glass consultant in the Twin Cities. We communicate mostly by e mail as he hates the telephone. I am with him on that! Telephones are a necessary evil. They should only be used to set up a meeting - and that should take only a minute at most!
Kurt drove all the way down to Eau Claire just to have dinner with me at Draganetti's last friday- then turned around and drove back to the Cities as he had to work on saturday morning. How's that for friendship?

He has maintained the same wonderful sense of humor that he had in 9th grade and he always makes me laugh. I th ink what impresses me most about him is his genuine concern about those friends who are close to him. That and the fact that he is a "cat person" makes him more than okay with me!
So thank you, Kurt for going out of your way to brighten my life!

My friend Tiit Raid, who in addition to being one of the best visual artists I know - and a sculptor of sound and rhythm - is also the best observer of life that I know. Just read the e mail I got from him recently:"

It's been raining since I got up this morning. The sky is an even gray, and a hour past high-noon it is still coming down and it looks like it might turn into sleet soon. A day like this is, or can be, a bummer for some. But, it is an amazingly beautiful day.

Gray day colors are seemingly drab. They are simply subtler and require more attention to notice their elegance. Then, add the wetness of rain, and the colors become rich and vibrant. The greens seem greener and the intensity of the now duller fall yellows and organges are 'kicked up' a couple of notches. The tree trunks and branches darken with the rain, creating more contrast in tone, plus the rain makes everything kind of 'glisten' in the wetness.

Being out in this slightly breezy wetness for any length of time may not be the most fun, but looking at it from the warm comfort of the house it is a very enjoyable 'visual trip'.

Tiit

Now that is a man who is really in touch with his surroundings and is squeezing every ounce out of life as if it were as giant grape fruit..

On the other hand, I can't find my other sock this morning and just as I wrote this I reached down to see if my cell phone is really with me on my belt!

It is monday morning and I am over here at the office with a good stoked stove and a hot cup of coffee. Looking out my desk window I see that my favorite maple has done it's quick strip tease and dropped all its leaves, probably during the rain of last saturday.

I spent most of last week cleaning over here with the help of my love, Ms. Wilson, and it is back to being a living space again! I really should take pictures!
Every time i thoroughly clean, i make a vow that THIS TIME i am going to keep up with the picking up of clutter and washing the floors and dusting and yada yada.

i wonder how long that will last this time? Yikes! 10:30 already and I haven't begun to clean up for our lunch meeting with my oldest brother and wife!

Later!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++