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.