2019 Southwest Vacation

Just plain wrong

I just realized something… I didn’t make any friends in college. I went to UW-Milwaukee for 4 ½ years and I don’t have a single friend from those years. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember a single name of anyone I met in college. That’s pretty sad. In High School I made lots of friends. I knew lots of people’s names, but for one reason or another have not kept in contact with any of them… but in college, I can honestly say I can’t remember anybody. The people I remember from my college days are those friends I already had in High School. I came to this sudden realization after I spent last Friday touring UW-La Crosse with my wife and son. We were there checking out the college Ryan will be attending in the Fall. We spent most of the day listening to facility and students talk to us about how great life is at UW-L. After the listening session, we took a guided tour of the campus and then had an extended tour of the science building and it’s labs. I believe the main reason I never mad...

The Best Years of Your Life

This past weekend we drove up to Wisconsin Rapids to listen to a concert by the Wisconsin Chapter of the National Band Association. Ryan was selected to play in the All-State band. I think there were 90 students from 45 cities in that group. That band was incredible. Probably other than the President’s Own Marine Band, this was the best band I’ve ever heard. The director they flew in to direct this thing was outstanding. Over the short two days of rehearsals, somehow he brought all of these strangers together to make an ensemble that jelled like nothing I’ve experienced in my life. The dynamics, the accuracy and the overall feeling of the music was so uplifting. After something like this, I sure hope Ryan continues on with music in his adult life. If he doesn’t, at least I hope he takes all of these lessons he is learning about working together and uses them to help with all of those life problems he is sure to run into. It’s strange… people use to say to me, “these are the best years ...

I’m sorry Shirley

My words hurt people. I've used them without thinking on so many occasions. The other day my girl came home from school. It was a big day. She had auditions for next year’s placement in the top concert band. I asked her how it went and I could tell instantly by the look on her face that it didn’t go as she planned. She said that she got real nervous and had troubles with all of her scales. I said “What? You’ve been practicing those every night for the last three weeks… How could you screw up? Oh well, welcome to the second band!” Instantly I knew that was a terrible thing to say. My little girl has been worked up about this audition for the longest time and was trying her absolute best – all in a effort for me to be proud of her, and I go ahead and say something stupid like that. She started crying. I tried to tell her I was sorry and how terrible that was for me to say. I tried to make her feel better by saying something like… “I’m sure things will work out, and you’ll...

Soup Talk with Mr. Soup

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