Hope springs a kernel. ~ William Shatner on Boston Legal
[Two years later we were back in the great American Southwest. I must have been experiencing an aversion to water. Back to Tom and Anne’s place in the Hills of Lakeway, Texas . . . ]
[Their place from the outside . . . ]
[And from another part of their outside. Their place was our inspiration for tile floors with in-floor radiant hear and for finished garage floors . . . ]
[Fredericksburg, Texas, as I recall . . . ]
[Yup, in the Texas hill country . . . ]
[Then just a hop, skip, and a major leap to Tucson, Arizona. Sue Detrick was a colleague of the Super’s with the Department of the Air Force . . . ]
[Lotsa prickly stuff in this area . . . ]
[We were heading for a car climb of . . . ]
[Mt. Lemmon . . . ]
[When life hands you Lemmons, make a desert . . . ]
[You have to drive well past Osakis to get a landscape like this . . . ]
[Rather clear why the original pioneers blew right on through . . . ]
[At least one doesn’t have to rake leaves in the fall . . . ]
[I wonder if this air quality cleared during COVID?]
[And now it’s Sun City Grand, Arizona, with old D.C. buddy, Bob Gilbert, and Diane. Bob said he never has to mow . . . ]
[Minnesota tourists . . . ]
[Bob said it rained here once in 1938 . . . ]
[Old golfing buddies, with the emphasis on “old” . . . ]
Many thanks, you guys!
[And then, amazingly, we ran into Basketball Dan in Scottsdale. There must have been a basketball tournament in the area. Anyway, this was considered the chi-chi restaurant in the day (name forgotten in the fog of time), and we sat outside to be away from smokers (both of them extremely sensitive such). But there was a smoker outside a couple tables away and a complaint was registered. I believe the response was, “You must be a couple of Minnesotans . . . “]
[The view from the hotel window, where I have no idea . . . ]
[Downtown Phoenix, the temperature was . . . hot?]
[And finishing again at Uncle Tom’s and Aunt Mary Kay’s place in Desert Mountain . . . ]
[Remember the Echo would put your picture in the paper of you reading the paper in some faraway place with a strange sounding name . . . ]
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. ~ Albert Einstein
The Journey Begins
Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described:
10-26-07-4
“It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits.
~ The Editor, May 9, 2014
p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State.
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Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin!
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