Hi from Father Harry

You know, technology continues to amaze me. It's is probably due in part because I'm old. We used to have to get up off the couch to change between our two TV channels when I was a kid. Now we're expend the time an energy to search for the remote for 15 minutes so we don't have to get up to change the channel.
When we wanted to correspond with someone who didn't live with us, we had to hand write a letter, lick the envelope to seal it, and even lick the back of the stamp to mail the letter. After posting my blog late Thursday evening, I awoke about six hours later and I already had a response from Ireland in my email inbox!
Just thought I would post an extra blog this week to share greetings from Father Harry...
Dear Mark,
Thanks for all the kind words in your present article.
You do realize that you'll get me in trouble with Pope Benie with your good Lutheran praise!
Recently, we, living on an island, became isolated because of the close-down of airports due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Iceland has been in the news because the nation owed billions to the Netherlands and United Kingdom. They held a plebesite and voted not to repay it. What is not universally known is that there is no 'C' in the Iceleandic language, So the lenders were not repaid in cash but ash! Bottom of the barrel joke!
Love to Kathy and all the folks we know.
Fr. Harry

Greetings from Ireland

I am absolutely in heaven these days. It does not get better than sunny and mid-60s. It seems like most years we have 40s for six weeks, then mid-60s for two and a half days, then 85 and humid. This year, however, pure grilling-burgers-in-the-back-yard-while-swilling-Diet-Dew weather. Now, if I were just home long enough to mow my lawn. Most of it is a shaggy three-to-four inches, but there is that area around the end of my sump pump hose that is tall enough to hide small children.
If you hear any of my neighbors complaining, tell them I’ll try to get to it Monday…if my mower starts...and if I can shoo those kids out of hiding.
I just wanted to check in with another short and sweet blog this week. I did want to give a shout out to an old friend of mine. Kathy and I got a card this week from a reader who qualifies me to say that my blog is read internationally. Outside of my mom, probably the biggest fan of my old newspaper column since I met him…we got a nice note from Father Harry Behan over in Ireland, my all-time favorite priest. I don’t know how high of praise that is coming from a Lutheran…but it is from the heart.
For those of you who don’t know Father Harry…and I can’t believe there are many of you in the area…he served the Catholic churches in Tyler and Lake Benton for many years. Long ago he started urging me to write my first book, with a promise he would buy the first 50 copies. If that ever happens, he will be offered the opportunity to write the foreward. That, because he also tops another of my lists…funniest Catholic. (Okay, I realize that bar isn’t set too high.)
I heard from Father Harry not too long after I was run out of the newspaper business, telling me he regretted not being able to read my stuff any more. Fortunately, I tracked down an email address from Tony Schwing over in Lake Benton and was able to send him a link to my blog.
The card I received from him last week included a nice compliment about my blog and a mention that he will be spending some time in the U.S. in the near future. Also included was my first ever dividend after a year of blogging. He included a check to treat Kathy and me to a “beer and a brat at the new Target Field.”
So this week’s blog is solely to say thanks to an old friend (I’m sure he would have a comment about me repeatedly referring to him as old) and to say “we miss you.”
And when Kathy and I finally get to Target Field for our first game, you can be sure we will get a picture of us at the game. We’ll be the fans holding a plump, juicy sausage and a cup of Budweiser…compliments of the funniest Catholic I know.
*****
Hey! One more weekend for “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” at the Opera House. This show is a hoot…come on down.

I’m not complaining, okay?

Okay, yeah I know…I’ve been a bit of a slacker when it comes to blogging as of late. I’ve been trying to become a better fellow human being by not whining about how busy I am. It’s kind of like being a crack addict, however, and the temptation is always there… But hey! I’m only telling you this to explain why you haven’t been privy to any lackluster updates on my life here on my blog spot. I haven’t been home except to sleep since about mid-March.
I’m just saying, okay?
In addition, what is left of my spare time I spend answering questions from Hendricks, Lake Benton and Tyler residents on what is happening with the local newspaper, and is it true that I bought the papers. (It is not true.)
Anyway, the reason for my absenteeism over the past few weeks opens Friday night at the Lake Benton Opera House—Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” If you get a chance, come on down for a couple hours of pretty darn good comedy. You don’t even have to get up from your comfy computer chair…you can order tickets by emailing lakebentonoperahouse@gmail.com. Serving up some great comedy will be Stu Melby of Brookings, Dorothy Darveaux of Pipestone, Beth Reams of Brookings and Nancy Stuefen of Volga. (Stu and Beth are pictured.)
Opening night is always a great night—it is when the work ends and the fun begins. I can no longer do any more damage to the production as the director, and unless I agree to something stupid, I’ll be home on Sunday night!!!
I should point out that due to the fact I won’t be home until Sunday, ***this blog has not been proofed by Kathy to make sure I don’t look like an idiot--any typos, grammatical errors or dangling participles are strictly due to my own ineptitude.***
And don’t tell me you haven’t dangled a few of your own in your life…
Talk to you next week…I hope.

Happiness is having friends who give you money

Yikes! That was a nasty run of being gone about 75 consecutive nights…but as of Thursday night when I sat down to start banging out a column, I was staring down the barrel of a glorious three-day weekend. The countdown to Easter dinner has begun.
Thanks to those of you who either participated in or attended the “Broadway Meets Lake Benton” show on Saturday. It makes for a bloated schedule when I am not smart enough to know that I shouldn’t get involved in two Opera House shows simultaneously. When all is said and done, however, I am thrilled I got to spend some time with a few people with whom I love hanging out.
With performing in “Broadway” behind me and directing “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” ongoing, I continue to fill up my evenings spending time with some of these fine people.
Good friends recently have improved my financial outlook for the near future. I have about 20 good friends who next week I’m hoping will reward me for my NCAA picks. Somehow, after Kansas, Kentucky and a host of others ravaged my brackets, I’m tied for second place in the annual pool, with a shot at being in the money. Now if Duke would just win on Saturday and lose on Monday…
I have another dozen or so friends at the office who also are looking at coming up with a bit of cash for me. Back in February, I got in a pool with my co-workers to predict the date that the gigantic snow pile on the north side of our building would be completely melted. I should be counting that bundle about mid-week next week…what great friends I have.
Mom always said, “the only thing better than friends are friends who give you cash.” Well, maybe that wasn’t Mom…it might have been Uncle Maynard.
I get another bonus next week, when I start spending some time with 25 guys I consider my friends because the Minnesota Twins open their 2010 season at the sparkling new Target Field. I’m nearly giddy with excitement.
And speaking of friends with cash, Joe Mauer certainly wouldn’t miss some of his. As a matter of fact, I would marry the guy if he asked me…and, I guess, if we lived in Iowa where that kind of thing is legal. I’ve heard tales of his man-cave Up North that gives me goose bumps. Maybe he needs a man-cave sitter while he is on those long road trips. I wouldn’t charge much.
Here’s wishing you all a Happy Easter this weekend. Have a great time with your families and friends.
If you can, come see “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” at the Opera House. It opens on April 16th with six shows over two weekends. You’ll get to meet some of those friends I’ve been bragging about and get a hint of why I like spending so much time with them.
Now I could just get them to throw in a few bucks and guess when we will have our first 80-degree day in Lincoln County. I’m on a roll…
And Uncle Maynard is smiling down on me…