Triton Teens Take Out Trash

Students from Triton High School came out yesterday to clean up the littered DNR land near our house. The students are members of E.A.R.T.H, or Environmental Awareness and Responsibility at Triton High. E.A.R.T.H. adviser Allison Horejsi said the land cleanup was a way to branch out beyond the school and get involved in the community. The students cleared out bottles, cans, computer monitors, and flat-screen TVs. Here's what the fire pit at the gravel pit looked like, before and after the E.A.R.T.H. cleanup:

Triton High School is located in Dodge Center and serves the three southeast Minnesota communities of Claremont, Dodge Center, and West Concord. Thank you to Ellery, Mikayla, Thor, Jacob, Amanda, Emily, Devin, Bradley, Gabby, Matthew, Eliseo, and Ms. Horejsi. Also thank you to Rochester stations KTTC and KAAL for covering the cleanup! Watch the KAAL video here. 

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The Little Post Office thatRoared: and Was Heard

Author's note: This post has been corrected to read that the Bruno post office is not closing, but is staying open with decreased hours. I apologize for the error. 

It isn't every day that the town of Kerrick, Minnesota is mentioned on National Public Radio. But there it was in the news, the east-central Minnesota town of sixty-plus residents. Yesterday the Postmaster General reversed his decision about closing rural post offices. And small towns like Kerrick and Bruno are celebrating.

The victory isn't a complete one. The Bruno and Kerrick post offices will stay open for four hours instead of the hoped-for six. But they will still be a wellness checkpoint for seniors who gather there every morning.


The preservation of rural post offices is a classic David-and-Goliath story. If little towns like Kerrick and Bruno can make the Postmaster General reverse a decision, no obstacle is too big or no opponent too formidable.

Terri Stadin, Kerrick's "Post Officer-in-Charge."

People say they value things like small-town living, tight-knit communities, and the ability for older adults to live at home rather than nursing facilities.  Keeping rural post offices open accomplishes all three, at a cost of one percent of the post office budget, according to Debra Stadin, who organized a petition drive to save the Kerrick post office.

To generate revenue, perhaps the post office could partner with a company like Studio 56 to create tabletop collectibles of rural post offices. I can picture the Kerrick post office displayed on a mantel.

Listen to the NPR story here. Follow the blog sand creek almanac by Deb Sewell of Bruno for stories of the good life in east central Minnesota -- made even better by the preservation of rural post offices.

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Here’s a Way for the Vikings to Give Back

I work as a support person for adults who have developmental disabilities. There’s one guy whose bedroom is basically a shrine to the Minnesota Vikings: pennants, purple and gold bedspread and pillows, a Minnesota Vikings blanket. During my training the facilitator said that many residents, or consumers as they’re called, are huge Vikings fans.

As amendments are traded back and forth in order to get the Vikings their new stadium, I’d like to propose one.

Public service for the Vikings.

Have them work with consumers who have developmental disabilities. Visit a group home, either a public or private residence. Hold an autograph session at the new stadium. Have a day when adults or children with developmental disabilities can watch the game for a reduced price.

One of my responsibilities as a DSP, or Direct Support Professional, is to advocate for consumers when they’re out in the community: making sure they get the respect and service that any other person gets. During my training the facilitator shared a story about an event that happened a few years ago. A Minnesota Vikings star (the name escapes me) had an autograph session at the Mall of America, and a DSP brought a consumer to get an autograph. They waited in the long line. When it was their turn, the consumer was thoroughly excited to meet his idol.

He doesn’t need an autograph. He can’t even read, the Viking star said.

The DSP swiftly, firmly, and politely informed the Viking that his assumption was disrespectful. 

I hope I can be equally effective advocate for developmentally disabled individuals. And I hope the Vikings consider giving back to an audience that unconditionally wants them to stay.


These opinions are my own and are not intended to speak for anyone else.

You're an Old Lady Now: Or, Drawing the Line on Bifocals

I found this image on Doris the Great's
delightful blog Aging Disgracefully.

I recently found out that my state-provided health insurance program, MinnesotaCare, doesn’t cover progressive-lens eyeglasses, otherwise known as lineless bifocals. If you’re over 50 you probably wear bifocals, or in my case trifocals, to combine near vision and distance vision in one pair of glasses.

It's not because of vanity that I refuse to wear lined bifocals. I refuse to wear them for reasons of effectiveness and safety.

Several years ago I wore my one and only pair of lined bifocals. I was amazed at the number of activities that involve near and far vision. Scanning an entire grocery aisle while locating a specific product. Wending your way through a berry patch while trying to find the ripest fruit. Even walking downstairs becomes hazardous. I’m surprised that lined bifocals are even made anymore. Lined bifocals, in my mind, are comparable to an old infant car seat that was taken off the market for safety reasons. I also compare lined bifocals to another item that women over 50 will remember.

You're a Young Lady Now

Back in the 1960s, each of the girls in my sixth-grade class received a plain white envelope from the school nurse. Inside was a mimeographed notice inviting us to view a very special filmstrip. Tommy Brooks asked me what was inside the envelope; I showed him. He never showed me his when the boys received their notice to view their own very special filmstrip. But I never thought to ask.

The cover from the 1960s-era booklet,
located at the "odd, funny and
well-researched Web site," www.mum.org.

Anyway, the filmstrip was about menstruation, the life-changing event that each of us pubescent girls would experience. When the film ended, each girl received a booklet called “You’re a Young Lady Now”  and a pink plastic pouch dotted with rosebuds. Inside the pouch, a sanitary belt and pad. That, I didn't show to Tommy Brooks.

According to the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health (now, there's a name), the sanitary belt was first created in about 1945. From the museum's Web site:

Tabs from a disposable menstrual pad snaked through the buckles of this American menstrual napkin belt, worn around the waist; it's probably from the 1940s. Disposable pads gradually replaced washable pads in America in the 1920s and 1930s. Catalogs and stores of the time, and until the early 1970s, sold dozens of models. Adhesive pads appeared in the 1970s, almost killing the belt-and-tabbed-pad industry.

Like the archaic sanitary belt, lined bifocals are more primitive, more clunky, less effective, and less safe. (We're talking metal buckles.) I'm surprised the belt-and-tabbed-pad industry, as MUM puts it, exists at all.

People will say I shouldn’t complain about MinnesotaCare coverage. Their tax dollars pay for my healthcare, they’ll say. But nowhere in the Constitution are we guaranteed the freedom to pay only for things we agree with. Otherwise, there’d be 282 Republicans in the U.S. Congress whose healthcare payments I’d cut off. Their Gubernatorial counterpart, Jan Brewer of Arizona, recently signed the mother of all anti-abortion bills: Life Begins at Menstruation.

I'm an Old Lady Now

Who knows, perhaps lined bifocals will be the next "geek chic" fashion trend. But until then, I'm drawing the line. What has been your experience with lined bifocals? Old ladies and young, please share!

The Original Necco Wafers Are Back!

An unknown blogger who commented on an old post brought me the best news I’ve heard in a long time:

The original Necco Wafers are back!

The blogger's comment on this post reads:

"And the old packaging is back too!"

Oh man, Susan... I was TICKED when they changed the formula. Part of the 2009 change was to drop the green wafers. Horror! As a native New Englander, I grew up with all the Necco products (Gotta love the Skybar!) I still eat a half a roll of Necco's a day! I cut the roll in half and eat half one day; the other half the next. The GOOD news is that Necco has finally responded to customer pressure (and a sharp drop in sales) and has returned to the former recipe! And the old packaging is back too!

Making Necco Wafers healthier by eliminating artificial colors and flavors was a laudable goal. But chances are, if you’re an advocate of healthy eating, you’re not eating candy in the first place – not even a candy as benign as the 165-year-old rolled wafers.

Actually, the original-recipe Neccos have been back since October 2011: back when I was unpacking and sorting and hunting for lost stuff. I couldn’t find the identity of the blogger who commented on my Necco Wafers post, so I Googled “original Necco Wafers are back” and found this NPR article.  A boston.com article about the iconic New England product  was shared over 350 times.

Thank you, Unknown Blogger, for your comment -- and to typography designer Mark Simonson for being a font of knowledge about the Necco Wafers lettering. Natural-recipe Necco Wafers have joined the category of New Coke, McDonald’s Arch Deluxe, and Crystal Pepsi: ideas that seemed good at the time, but ultimately bombed. What others can you add to the list? 

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Our Cupboards Are Bare No More

The final coat of paint is on our kitchen cupboards.

They're no longer bare like this,














but painted in a high-gloss oil base.

I painted the whole room myself. Mike would come in and point out where a second coat was needed or a spot was missed.

Like that bare baseboard at the bottom.

As it did for the walls, the cupboard color palette evolved. At first I thought of doing the trim in yellow, even going so far as to paint the trim of the cupboards above the sink. But I realized how bright the wall was going to be. So I switched to red, to complement the Twister carpet.

One of these days we'll be back up in Bruno. I want to stop at the thrift store because they have the largest collection of curtains I've ever seen. I can visualize the curtains I want, a red and yellow and brown lava lamp–type print. But the poultry valance will do for now.

And to think the kitchen started like this...

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No Gold Bullion in This Basement, Jim

The afterglow from the buzz of getting health insurance hadn't even worn off yet. The next thing I knew: I had to fill out a survey of our family's means after six months of our son receiving health insurance through Medical Assistance.

Republicans believe that anyone on public assistance is abusing it: spending food support dollars at liquor stores, unemployment dollars for drugs, or riches squirreled away in order to get healthcare. In 2010 Minnesota State Representative Jim Abeler made this observation about people who would qualify for the Medical Assistance (MA) provision:

“I want to remind you who is going to get into this program. And this follows a national plan that was adopted this year with great duress at the federal level. And there is no asset limit. And there is no residency requirement. And so that means the person moves in with a whole basement full of gold bullion or a nice boat or a car and they’re going to get medical assistance and you’re going to pay half of it."

The video from The UpTake is below, which includes a response from DFL Representative Paul Thissen:



"We don't have gold bullion. We don't even have chicken bouillon," said my husband Mike.

This 2010 video is relevant today because Representative Abeler chairs the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee. I am grateful for the health coverage our family is receiving. But I'd also like to point out to Representative Abeler: People who for whatever reason depend on medical support aren't doing it because it's fun. They're not living it up. They're not hiding investments in an offshore root cellar. And they want to be off medical support as soon as possible.

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