Right Wisdom

 My son likes to plan trips. One he had planned that we just returned from was a 3-day trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  My wife, son, and I had never been to the UP. Being from Minnesota, I have made many trips to the North Shore of Minnesota enjoying views of Lake Superior and other sites in the area. I assumed the UP would be very similar, and for the most part it was, but there were some differences. I'm going to write about some of the highlights of the trip, and I'll point out some differences that I observed. The first day found us traveling through Wisconsin. Our ultimate destination was Houghton Michigan. Let me tell you about Houghton. HOUGHTON: Right outside our hotel is the visitor center for the Isle Royal National Park. We visited the visitor center but didn't go to Isle Royal. That would be a fun trip to take but if we go we will leave from Grand Portage in Minnesota because you can just spend the day on the island and you don't have to camp. We l...

      The heart is a very fragile organ, and yet it is the most important organ in the human body. Today I'm going to write about the heart. There are a lot of phrases and idioms that have the word heart in them. Some examples of these can be found at the following webpage  https://www.thoughtco.com/heart-idioms-and-expressions-1210654 . I'm sure many of you have used some of these in the past, I know I have. These are fun to use and think about but how many of them actually hold truth. The truth of the matter is that we need to take care of the heart. Treat it like the important organ it is. A little over a year ago, I had an ablation done on my heart because my heart was in Afib for quite a while. Both of those sound scary, but they really aren't too serious. According to the Mayo Clinic, this is what an ablation is.  Cardiac ablation is a minimally invasive procedure for atrial fibrillation (AFib) that creates tiny scars in the heart to block faulty electrica...

 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.

 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 w...

 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 himsel...

 The title of this article is apropos since I haven't blogged in almost 12 years. I plan to start this blog up again and try to blog on a consistent basis. I will also be broadening the topics that I write about. Be sure to subscribe so you can get notifications about when I post. So what have I been up to since that October day in 2013 when I made my last blog? Let me recap for you. When that post happened I was in the middle of my Toastmaster journey and I'm happy to say that I crossed the Toastmaster finish line by earning my DTM. I didn't continue in Toastmasters after that since I changed jobs and took my leadership skills to Mathnasium and started running a Mathnasium in Blaine MN in 2016. I got the opportunity to blend my education degree with my MBA and use it as the Director of the Mathnasium in Blaine. I also had the opportunity to be the director at one in St Louis Park and one in  Andover. I ran these until 2023 when I decided to go back into the classroom and t...