Count your blessings one by one

"Count your blessings...count them one by one." That's how the old song goes and it's very good advice.

One of the blessings that I've taken for granted for too long is having great inlaws. I've known that I was among the lucky ones to have a great mother-in-law and father-in-law for some time, but haven't told them how lucky I am. Tomorrow that changes.

They welcomed me into their family from the first time they met me, and they have never disappointed me. Belinda and I use to go to dances with them at the Elks and the Moose when we were dating. When the dances were done, we would go to their home or to one of their friends' homes and eat breakfast and laugh and talk until the wee hours of the morning.

They were great when we got married, and they helped us move to Mandan two months after our marriage.

My father-in-law ran a body shop in Glendive but took time off from his work to drive a U-Haul truck when we moved in the dead of winter. I told him that this must have been costly for him because he was missing a day or two of work. He told me that for his family, his time was free.

I also remember after my wedding when I asked the priest at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church if he would accept a check for marrying Belinda and me. He said, "No indeed. Leo Doll is one of the most faithful givers we have at our church. I wouldn't consider taking your money for performing a wedding ceremony involving Leo's daughter."

These things made an instant impression upon me.

As grandparents, Leo and Rosaline have also been outstanding. My boys love their Grandma and Grandpa Doll very much. Grandpa Doll loves old cars and I remember Derek wanting to head down to Glendive to drive one of Grandpa's cars in the local parades.

Scott is one who would think the summer was a waste if he didn't get a week to spend with his grandparents.

So, here's to Leo and Rosaline...one of the many blessings God has bestowed upon my family.

Amen.

Building onto our church

This Tuesday, folks from Curtis Construction will be at our church at 6:30 p.m. to talk about some drawings they've made for a new addition to our existing church building and to give us a "soft" estimate of how much it will cost.

This project is badly needed by our church family, many who can no longer navigate down the steps to the basement for fellowship, meals...and more importantly, to use the non-handicap accessible bathrooms. What we would like is an extension on the main floor out to the east that would accommodate new bathrooms, a fellowship hall, a new worker-friendly kitchen, a couple of offices and a library/family room.

Sometimes this task of building seems overwhelming. After all, we are in a recession, and we have a lot of old people who attend our church and they are on fixed incomes. We're not a church with a lot of rich people. We're definitely a "blue-collar" congregation. I think I was beginning to wallow and wonder if an addition were possible.

And then my dad received a letter from his sister Delma this week. Delma and her husband used to live in Linton. She is now widowed and living in Oklahoma where her son Mike is a pastor at an Assembly of God Church. She has another son, Bob, who is also an Assembly of God pastor but currently he is serving time in a Texas prison...and conducting ministries in jail. If you don't believe me, check out this website: www.chiefministries.com.

Anyway, Delma is telling me that Bob, her son in prison, is now building a new halfway house in Houston. "It will be called Chief's House," she writes. "All papers have been filled and approved. Now they are looking for land."

Her son Mike, who is a pastor in Oklahoma said, "I don't understand how Bob's in prison and can build a halfway house?" My Aunt Delma replied, "With God, all things are possible."

She continued in the letter saying, "When Denny and I heard God tell us to build an Assembly of God church in Linton, we didn't have any money. God supplied all of it for four and half years."

Currently, Delma is sending Bibles and writing letters to men who are in prison. She writes that God is providing her with about $600 a month to pay for Bibles.

When I finished reading her letter, I was filled with God's inspiration and can't help but think, "Our church can do it, too."

So thought I would share this with my faithful readers. The photo is of my Aunt Delma and three of her children: daughters Peggy and Shirley and son Mike. The picture was taken in Mike's church. Peggy lives in Mandan and Shirley lives in Jamestown.

Not so random thoughts on health care

The following is the letter I sent today to my two senators -- Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad.

Dear Senator:

I wanted to express my fear about government-sponsored health care being an option for people who already receive health care as a component of their benefits package at work.

My fear stems from something that happened last year to my dad.

My father is 89 years old and retired from Continental Oil Company (Conoco) in 1985. For 23 years he had excellent prescription drug coverage as part of his retirement benefits. However, Conoco now has discontinued their private drug coverage and dad had to enroll in Medicare Part D through membership in AARP. Like a lot of seniors, dad suffers from Alzheimer’s so requires expensive medication, including Arricept and Namenda. These medicines appear to have arrested the progression of Alzheimers; however, under his Part D coverage, dad’s cost for prescription drugs increased astronomically as most of this year he has spent in the “Gap.”

Dad is a World War II veteran of the Pacific Theater, who worked hard his entire life. I’m deeply hurt that Conoco would dishonor their retirees by dropping their prescription drug coverage and go with the less expensive government-funded option.

I wonder how many companies would attempt the same thing – reduce their financial obligations for private health insurance -- if there was government-sponsored health care. That’s my fear, and that’s why I abhor the thought of health care reform meddling into private insurance.

I’m all for health care reform…but let’s focus on the real cause…outrageously high medical care costs. If tort reform is needed to reduce the costs created by malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine, then I urge you to focus on that.

And he volunteered for this?

Yesterday, September 5, five of us went golfing. Well, four actually golfed and Colton drove the golf cart for his dad. I had the privilege of being chauffeured around in a golf cart by grand-nephew Blake, who is in the eighth grade at Plentywood, MT, and doesn't have his driver's license yet.

Blake actually volunteered to drive our cart so I thought it was incumbent upon me to share my years of golf cart wisdom with him.

Now Blake was a little nervous behind the wheel as he didn't want to give his aged uncle a whiplash with some lightning fast acceleration. In fact, Blake was going too plumb slow.

In my family, where everyone has a Type A personality, we know there truly is only one speed on a golf cart and that's FULL speed. So after a couple of holes of very slow and cautious golf cart maneuvering, I could see this was a teachable moment.

There are probably as many ways to let your chauffeur know that he's going too slow as there are grains of sand on a beach, so I decided to take the direct approach. I simply squashed his naked foot and sandal onto the accelerator with my tennis-shoed foot. The golf cart leaped into action before Blake even knew what hit him. After that experience, Blake made sure the golf car was running at full tilt.

However, Blake didn't know 'rule number one' of driving a golf cart with Uncle Steve. So there was another teachable moment. Rule number one is always park Uncle Steve in the shade of a tree. Even if this means that Blake has to find a club and scamper across the fairway to hit his next ball and then scamper back to the golf cart.

There were a couple of other rules that Blake never caught onto...no matter how many times I expressed them. For instance, if he left the golf cart to go hit a ball, I would take it upon myself to move over into the drivers seat. However, when I hit my ball, Blake always moseyed back over to drive the cart again. This was a direct violation of one of my rules.

Still, it was a fun afternoon, and I think Blake really learned some things about driving a cart..."Don't volunteer to drive Uncle Steve's golf cart."

I'm posting a picture of Blake after he learned about golf cart etiquette, literally, at my feet.

Misty-watered colored memories

My oldest son turns 21 on Tuesday. I'll be taking part in a tour of North Dakota Coal Country with a bus full of state legislators on the 18th, so we are going to Minot tomorrow (August 16th) to celebrate Derek's birthday.

We've always tried to make birthdays special, and we hope our visit with Derek will be memorable as well. Besides his parents and his brother, he will be joined by his Grandpa Van Dyke, and two of his older cousins and their families from Plentywood. His oldest cousin Dave will bring his wife Cathy and two sons Blake and Craig. His next oldest cousin is Karen and she will bring along her son Cameron. We're meeting them at the zoo...and Minot's zoo is nothing to sneeze at.

Derek won't be able to join us until 5 p.m. because he is involved with some training at the college. He's the head resident at the freshmen boy's dormitory this year so has quite a bit of responsibility along with finishing up his classes so he can graduate in the spring.

To say I'm proud of Derek would be an understatement. But I've always been proud of him -- when he got his first tooth, took his first step and got his first haircut are all unforgettable moments for me.

I thought you might enjoy some memories from his birthdays...including his original birth day back in 1988. He was born at 10:36 p.m. and had plenty of dark brown hair. I took one look at him and thought that I needed to buy a little brush to keep his hair combed. Even today, he has a beautiful head of hair...only it's a lighter brown now.

On his first birthday in 1989, he was very excited to open his many gifts, which included a red and yellow toy lawn mower that he pushed everywhere. His birthday party was attended by his great grandmother Rose Frohlich, her son Uncle Phillip, along with Derek's godfather Uncle Miles and his wife Bernie. Derek got to make a mess out of a little birthday cake and Uncle Miles tried to get Derek to put his sticky hands in his hair.

On Derek's second birthday, he had all kinds of visitors because not only was it his birthday, it was the day his brother Scott was baptized. However, we started a tradition in 1990 that carried through for many of Derek's birthdays -- he ate at Red Lobster!

The toys on his third birthday included a toy gun, a truck and a magna doodle. Uncle Miles and Bernie were over for cake and ice cream. Uncle Philip was in the hospital with the stomach flu.

On his fourth birthday, Derek got a quilt from his Aunt Janet in Rapid City and a tricycle from his mom and dad. He also got a lot of money that he spent on games at the Ben Franklin store in Mandan.

On his fifth birthday he ate at Red Lobster and the servers came over and sang "happy birthday" to him. His Grandma and Grandpa Van Dyke were visiting from Roundup and they bought him a pair of walkie-talkies. He also got a bicycle from his parents...with training wheels.

His parents were in Louisville, Kentucky, on Derek's sixth birthday so it was up to Grandma and Grandpa Doll along with Aunt Amy to spoil him on his birthday. He and brother and cousins dined on a "Pink Panther" cake that Amy made for him. A lot of his presents this year had something to do with Power Rangers.

On his seventh birthday he got rollerblades and his best friends from Custer school -- Brad Lee and Nick -- were among the invited to help him celebrate.

His ninth birthday was spent in Baker, Montana, with me. We went to drilling rigs and compressor plants and shared a huge steak at the Green Dragon when the work was done. I remember sharing a bed with Derek that night only to find out that Derek slept diagonally and nearly kicked me out of bed.

On his 11th birthday, it was fun at Snoopers during the afternoon and then dinner at Red Lobster. Derek spent some of his birthday money on a Cubs jersey. I wonder if it was the one he wore for all of his high school pictures?

When he turned 12, it was lunch at Red Lobster and the afternoon at the Amusement Park in Sertoma Park. The boys played mini-golf and enjoyed the rides.

In 2001, he officially became a teenager and spent his birthday on a youth retreat at Rick and Margie Nelson's cabin beside a lake in Minnesota. We celebrated his birthday on August 16 and ate at Space Aliens. Derek bought a golf club and a model car with his birthday money.

His 14th birthday was a somber affair as we were in Glendive for his Aunt Cheryl's funeral. She died of cancer and left behind a husband and a fourteen-year-old daughter.

On his 15th birthday, it was back to Red Lobster and all the crab Derek could eat. He got a subscription to the Cubs magazine from his parents along with a Cubs glass from Aunt Janet. He used some of his birthday money to buy a ticket a Jeff Foxworthy concert.

His 16th birthday was spent with the Phillips family in Milbank as we were all heading to the Twin Cities for baseball games.

On his 17th birthday, Derek was eating at Paradiso with a bunch of his friends from high school.

As he was getting ready to head for college on his 18th birthday, he was greeted by a group of well wishers from church including Lisa, Jaymi, Kevin, Randy and Randy's mom Mary. They took him to Hardees for breakfast. We went to Minot State University with Derek for freshmen orientation. When we got home, Derek left us and went to Paradiso with another group of friends.

On his 19th birthday, we went to breakfast with the uncles and then Uncle Rich and I helped Derek move into his dorm at college. This one is nicer than last years and has air conditioning. For his birthday, Derek got Cubs and Bear shirts. Go Chicago!

Last year on his birthday, he was moving to Minot again and Uncle Rich was again in tow helping make the transition from summer intern to college student go smoothly. We ate lunch at Red Lobster before heading to Minot.

So there's 20 years of Derek's birthdays....here's to number 21.

Your loving Dad!

Things you think about when you are turning 50

On July 17th, 1959, a little baby boy was born to Willis and Evelyn Van Dyke in Roundup Memorial Hospital. He joined two brothers, Gene and Randy, and two sisters, Janet and Susan, in the family home.

It's hard to believe, but all of us were much younger back then. For instance, my 88-year-old father was only 38. My 61-year-old brother was 11 and so on.

It seems like life begins innocently enough...but gets tougher as you get older. Last Monday, for instance, I started having severe pain in right hip flexor -- even though I try to do no manual labor that would cause me to strain anything. I had a hard time lacing my right shoe because I couldn't move my right foot up so I could reach my shoe. Walking up stairs was also painful....and I thought, "it this what I've waited 50 years for?"

Luckily, within three days, the pain went away and I was able to play a pretty good game of golf on Thursday in the Lignite Energy Council's golf tournament at Apple Creek.

On August 24, I go in for my first colonoscopy. I guess it's one of the things you do when you turn 50. At breakfast today with a lot of people who have already turned 60, they told me that the procedure is a "walk in the park" and not to worry. The only hard part is drinking three gallons of liquid the day before and staying up all night as the liquid colon cleaner scrubs out your insides.

I was also delighted with my doctor when I had my physical this past July. He told me that I was officially middled age and that "even people who take care of themselves will some times die for no reason at 50."

Great, that's what I wanted to hear....serves me right for going to a doctor who just turned 40.

The cards I got were great also. One of them said that I shouldn't consider myself middle-aged at 50 as that was really at 35. Now there's a cheery thought.

I also went golfing one night about a week ago with my father riding in the cart beside me. We were in a three-some with Scott and his friend Jake. I had a pretty good golf game going and actually was beating Scott, until we reached the ninth hole and my dad told me in no uncertain terms that he needed to get home and use the bathroom right away. So we picked up my drive, waved goodbye to Scott and Jake and headed home.

Secretly, I was a littled miffed with dad, but the next day on the course, all was forgiven. I left dad at home as I didn't want his bowels interupting my golf game again. However, I must have had the revenge of Willis (similar to the revenge of Montezuma) as I was golfing with stomach cramps for the first five holes until I came upon the port-a-potties, which were simmering in the summer sunshine at a little over 150 degrees inside temperature. But beggers and crampers can't be picky.

Also at 50, I'm feeling like I know a lot more about life in general. I can see someone's face and feel as though I know their most inner thoughts. I really can't. Some people look happy when they're sad and vice versa. But that doesn't stop me from boring people I'm sitting with and telling them some made-up story about what other people may or may not actually be thinking.

Finally, I've decided that 50 is the "me" decade. I hope that Belinda and I can travel more and do the things that we like to do. We got this off to a good start by going to Medora this month and seeing the musical before heading to Roundup for the family reunion.

So here's to 50....and then 60, etc.

Last day of vacation

Today, July 24, is the last day of my summer vacation. I still have two days off but they are called "weekend" and not vacation. I have gloried in my time away from work. However, come Monday, heaps of work will be waiting for me including about 2,000 e-mails.

This morning I watered the lawn, the flowers, the garden and fed the birds. Normally, these are all things that my dad does...but somehow I felt like doing them and I had the time. Of course, getting this close to flower beds, our strawberry bed and the garden reminded me that I also needed to do some weeding. So instead of grabbing my hoe, I grabbed my spade. You can weed faster and cover more ground with a shovel than a hoe.

We had Lisa come over and take care of dad's cat while we were in Montana, so we had dinner with Lisa last night at the Rice Bowl. It's always fun to eat with Lisa. She has great stories about her nephews, her dog and just the lay of the land in general. Her nephew is nearly 12 and wants to get on Facebook, the computer social network. I've been on Facebook since Easter, I think. And it's great fun.

I've posted about 90 pictures of our vacation on Facebook. However, mom's 80-some-year-old cousin Goldie who lives in an assisted living facility on Flathead Lake couldn't make the family reunion in Roundup so I had to write her a letter and send her some photos.

We took family photos at the reunion. We started with my mom's brother Earl's family. Earl died of a heart attack in the mid-1960s. So his family picture consisted of his widow surrounded by two sons and a daughter.

Next oldest was my mom who died in June 2006. So dad was in the center of the photo with two of his daughters and two of his sons. There were another 22 relatives in the picture, including my wife and two sons, just to make sure dad didn't get lonely.

No one from Vern's family was there. His widow lives in western Montana. He has a daughter who lives in Roundup but she didn't come to the reunion until she was literally dragged there by my wife and a cousin.

Then there was Ginny's family. Ginny lives in Billings in a nursing home. Her daughter Cindy, who also lives in Billings, brought her to Roundup. Ginny has suffered several strokes and will turn 81 years old in August. Anyway, she didn't like the hot sun so didn't stay too long after getting her picture taken with about 15 of her family including two sons and one daughter.

Next was Wayne's family. Wayne passed away last November and is really the reason we had a reunion at all. I've gotten tired of seeing my relatives only at funerals so decided that we should have a family reunion. That way we could take pictures of people who haven't been crying for the past two months. Anyway, Wayne's widow Betty was there with her son and daughter and some of their family. Her son Richie and I turned 50 -- I on July 17 and he on July 20. Betty was holding a new great-granddaughter in the photo. Too bad Wayne never got to see his first great-grandchild.

Next would have been my aunt Milly, but she too passed away about 20 years ago. So instead we took a picture of her only child, a skinny fellow named Billy. Billy is now in his mid-50s. He has done unbelievably well for himself considering that he was in special education all the way through school. He drives, lives in his own home and works for Albertson's in Billings. He is also married to a nice woman named Patty. Billy is missing something, however. His teeth. Think about having to gum your food from now until you die. That wouldn't be fun.

Finally, it was time for the baby of the family Harold, who is now 71. Harold and his wife Sharon are both still alive and very active. Harold is the grounds keeper at the golf course in Roundup and Sharon is still the bookkeeper/office manager at the family business, A&A Implement, which is now run by their son Dennis. Anyway, they had three of their daughters along with Dennis and their families. I told Harold and Sharon's kids to treasure that picture because someday they too will be posing with only one of their parents.

Anyhow...these are the random thoughts of my vacation. I'm glad I went, but I'm glad I'm back home. I just wish that I didn't have to go to work on Monday.