Beating the Ice Storm in Thorpe, WI.

It was two years ago (on the return trip, post-Christmas) that my family took refuge at this AmericInn Hotel in Thorpe, WI during an ice storm. Now we're here again, two Christmases later, headed the other direction, at the same hotel, this time trying to stay ahead of the storm. We could've stayed in Minneapolis tonight and tried to leave tomorrow morning, but the weather looks grim for tomorrow, so at 10PM we headed out Eastbound across Wisconsin. It feels GREAT to get on the road, even though we're only two hours into an eight hour journey.

Tonight was one of those ideal road trip situations for me. My entire family asleep in the car, the highways pretty empty, mostly dry, and safe. I had the iPod rockin' and the shuffle feature was doing its job. Sometimes the iPod on shuffle is pure magic and tonight that's the way it was. Here are some songs I heard as I drove:

Travelin' Prayer - Billy Joel
Save The Planet - Tragically Hip
Spend it on Love - The Rainmakers
There's a Family - The Vulgar Boatmen
Mom Out Dancing - The Silos
Remember - Annie Lennox
Modern Love - David Bowie
Silver Wheels - Bruce Cockburn
Until the Next Time - Peter Case
Old Part of Town - James McMurtry

It was musically delicious.

I've really been enjoying blogging lately, and reading other blogs too (see my faves listed in the right hand margin). What do you readers think? Do you like this new page hosted by Blogger better than my old MySpace location? I read this week's issue of Time magazine cover to cover because the Time Magazine Person of the Year is ME. Well, you know, it's the people who create content on the Internet, of which I am one. Here's a great story about the power of blogs:

On November 22 I blogged about a sermon (over at the old MySpace site) my Pastor preached regarding the traditional Lutheran table prayer "Be Present at our table Lord" and how it has two possible endings: "may strengthened for thy service be" OR "may feast in paradise with thee." Well, yesterday I ran into Pastor Erik who told me he had received a phone call about me. The call was from a woman from the little town of Fertile, MN who had been debating a friend about the two endings of this prayer, and to settle the debate she Googled the words of the prayer. The Google search resulted in a link to my blog, which the woman then read. After discovering that I had heard a sermon about this prayer, the woman linked over to my congregation Edina Community Lutheran Church and got the phone number of the church, and called Pastor Erik. He, of course, had never met this woman (neither had I) but he was pleased to hear the word was out about his preaching, and he was able to email the entire text of that sermon directly to the woman! All because of blogging and Googling. So there's some validation for the Time Magazine cover story.

Okay, it's late. Time for bed, and when I wake up, Paavo and I can hit the pool and hot tub before getting back on the road.

Happy Winter Solstice to all!

Comments

Anonymous said…
The power of blogs, huh?:)

I know that if I quite writing in my religious blogs:

1) I would not be as fulfilled spiritually. God provides amazing messages for me to learn and to write.
2) Others would wonder why I had stopped and might even be worried thtat I did not write!

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