"My Crazy Kids"

Growing up ... By Allan Olson As many adults have come to realize over their life-span, growing up is hard to do. Growing up means responsibility, jobs, accountability, and many other big words that are, at times, very hard to swallow. As a parent those two words are not any easier. It means that not only do you have to do all those big words, but you also have to show your child how to become that as well. Yet, as a parent there is another aspect that is just as hard to handle. When my children were born, it was great to watch them learning to grow up, having them recognize you, say your name for the first 100 times (now it’s 100 times a day) and be excited over practically nothing. With all of that they are growing up. As an infant it’s much easier to let them grow up (at least for me it was.) I didn’t like the communication barrier when something was wrong and I certainly could’ve skipped the messy bottoms and the middle of the night feedings ... most of the time....

Our New Friend By Allan Olson We purchased a new friend a couple weeks ago. This little friend is only about four inches wide and tall, is black and has a touchscreen. With that, hopefully you realized that we didn’t actually buy a “friend,” but rather a useful instrument that we hope will continue to be our friend for a very long time. Let me introduce you to him by name: Mr. Lee Garmin. We finally got of the stone ages of using a map; for crying out loud, even my own mother has had a GPS for a couple of years now. I know, some of you are probably scratching your head trying to remember what exactly is this thing you call a map? Some of you might recall that antiquated thing that got crinkled and crammed in the glove box, then usually was lost just before you went on a trip, so you had to go buy a new one at a gas station. Using a map for navigation while driving solo is difficult, especially if you’re driving while trying to look at it, and when it’s unfolded by the front seat passen...

A Shopping Weekend By Allan Olson It was a last-minute plan, my idea. That in itself was something of a rarity, seeing as how I don’t usually think much of last-minute plans. However, it was my idea, and so I had to live with the consequences, since I opened my mouth and suggested it. Last weekend – all three days of it – to some degree, was spent shopping in a large city to the east of Cass Lake. Not only did we go shopping, we went shopping with four children in tow, on at least three different excursions during the weekend. We arrived at our destination late on Friday, but still in plenty of time to get some shopping done – at least we thought it was so. Our first stop was to purchase a new friend – yes, we actually bought a friend – his name is Mr. Lee Garmin, but our adventures with Mr. Garmin will be saved for another column. Since we were at the mall, we were hoping (naively, perhaps) that we could get the majority of the kids’ shopping done (What were we thinking?) that evening...

CLT columnist wins award from MNA Allan Olson, reporter for the Cass Lake Times for over five years, recently received an award from the MInnesota Newspaper Association for the weekly columns that writes for the newspaper. Olson won second place out of 17 entrants in the columnist division for his writings. He accepted his award at the Minnesota Newspaper Association Convention held in Bloomington last Thursday and Friday, January 26-27. Allan’s columns submitted for the 2010-11 contest were: “One Long Day,” published October 6, 2010; “A Fishing Adventure,” published January 12, 2011; and “Yessy, Yessy, Yes,” published June 1, 2011. The judges this year were volunteers from North Carolina newspapers. They described his columns as: “Nice, personal columns about not-so-everyday happenings to a family guy, from fishing with the kids to hitting a deer – lots of laughs here!” He competed against other newspapers in the category of Weeklies up to 1,500 circulation. Allan is a 20...

Oh Wintery Day! By Allan Olson By all accounts, we have been fortunate on the weather front this winter. Of course, by some standards, it’s unfortunate that we’ve had such a small amount of snow and cold weather. I can definitely say that I don’t mind the lack of either, although I was missing not having at least a little more snow. The latest storm that blew through the area last week brought the most measureable amount of snow we’ve seen so far this winter, and the kids and I made use of it. I put my shovel to work in removing the snow from the driveway. I tried enlisting the aid of my children to help – that worked well. The first mistake was that I only had two shovels – one a nice light plastic one that was meant for pushing snow around (that went to Nikolai) and an aluminum grain shovel that was meant for hard-packed snow, where a plastic one would break. Since Nikolai was outside first late Saturday afternoon, he claimed the plastic shovel and started removing the s...