Consistent Writing

 I wrote on this blog about a year ago that I was going to be more consistent with writing. Well, how did that go? I wrote a few more blogs after that and then I went silent. I apologize if you were looking for some consistent insight into my world but life/work got in the way. 

Here I am a year later writing again. Hopefully this time I will be more consistent. Please send me messages of things you might like me to write about. I will recap some of the trips I have planned this summer. 

My son graduated from High School this year and will be heading off to college. I decided not to run for city council but throw my support behind some other well qualified candidates. With all that I should have more time to write. 

I'm going to work on some things to write about and I'll be back tomorrow with a list of some topics and dates soo you will know when to read my blog.

Vacation

 I just got back from being on vacation. I spent a week at a lake in northern Minnesota. One tradition my son and I have when we are up there is that we take a day and travel to different parts of the state. My son posts pictures of city halls throughout Minnesota. His goal is to get every city hall in Minnesota. Here is a link to his Instagram account that shows pictures of the ones he has visited. City Halls

The other thing we like to do is check out roadside attractions. On our last trip we saw a number of them. Here are the ones we saw and where they were located. 

Colonel Cobber located in Backus Minnesota. In Backus they celebrate a corn fest every year. 

Lucette Kensack located in Hackensack Minnesota. This is Paul Bunyan's girlfriend

World's largest Tiger Muskie located in Nevis Minnesota. 

World's largest Dilly Bar located outside a Dairy Queen in Moorhead Minnesota. Unfortunately you can't eat this one. But we did get one you could eat, of course it was just the normal size.

World's largest Turkey located in Frazee Minnesota. Don't be fooled by the smaller one by a gas station.

We also saw this big beautiful troll named Alexa located in Detroit Lakes.

We drove from Pequot Lakes Minnesota to Fargo North Dakota and stopped at a lot of little towns in between. On my next post I'll write more in depth about some of the other things we saw and did along the way.

Team of Rivals

 Today I'm going to give you a book review. My favorite books to read are non-fiction books about baseball seasons, baseball players, presidents, or history. The book I'm currently reading and almost done with is "Team Of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin published in 2005. This book is 754 pages and I have 23 pages left so I think I can give you a good indication about the book.

This book is really a retelling of the political career and presidency of Abraham Lincoln as told through extensive research into diaries and memoirs of those who worked closely with Lincoln. I have really enjoyed this book and the writing of Kearns. She is able to piece together all of her information about Lincoln's presidency and life during that time. She gives us up close narratives of the behind the scenes at the White House and his cabinet especially during the civil war.

More often than not Presidents will give cabinet spots to friends. This book shows that Lincoln surrounded himself with not necessarily friends but instead the best person for the job. He chose people who ran against him for the presidency in 1860 because he knew they would do a good job. Not everyone in his cabinet agreed with him on slavery however Lincoln's attitude toward it changed throughout the civil war. The civil war at first wasn't about slavery it was about preserving the union and preventing the southern states from secession. However, it became evident that the one thing that was dividing it was slavery and it had to be dealt with in order the preserve the union. The emancipation proclamation was not only Lincoln's way to free the slaves but also his way to get them to fight for the Union. 

I'm not going to give too much more since everyone should be learning about this stuff in history in school.  I highly recommend this book as a good winter read. Despite 754 pages it reads quickly and the copy I'm reading (paperback) has two sections of pictures which gives you some visuals into how everyone looked. One picture shows troops in the White House and the caption read "Even during the Civil War, ordinary people had nearly unlimited access to the White House. Volunteer troops bivouacked in the East Room in May 1861." Could you imagine if we could "bivouac" in the White House today.

Great book, great writing and you get learn something. Go read "Team of Rivals".