nowslimmer

“hey dewd!! OK, so I got written off for not meeting you halfway?? HEY! PFFFFFFFFFFFFT!! lol

When are you going to Grinnell again? The motorcoach company where I work just bought another company in the vicinity of Grinnell. I see our company is providing small coaches to transport Grinnell students to Des Moines to fly out for Thanksgiving... and then return them from the airport to the college.

I never said I wouldn't meet you halfway. I did think it was good for you to get back and started on the AT, which was like one day later.

So when are you heading Grinnell-way again?”

“Easy, I was just pulling your leg. My humor is not always immediately apparent. But, you sounded pretty serious about some guy who drops things in the water. Made me feel somewhat jealous! Sort of silly, since we've never met and I'm almost three times your age! (I usually feel about the same age as the people with whom I am associating.) But now I've seen you in the photographs. You're devastatingly beautiful! Regardless, I would enjoy meeting you as a contributer to TT and a bp'er.

Please give me a little credit. I listened to you and followed your advice. Of course, it was obvious that you realized how anxious I was to get to the trails. The trip report is taking a long time. I've been trying to learn how to use a scanner, given to me by my ex from Panama. (The other ex in MN now wants to be friends. Looks like the 28-30 year fight is over.) My ex's are no longer acting normal!

I have completed a list of everything I was wearing and carrying when I started the 28 day hike on the AT. Included is everything in my pockets and in the bp, with total itemization of my 700 calories of food per day for the journey.

Sorry I have not e-mailed you yet. I have been busy and I wanted to find the right words. BTW, I'm in print. It was a short article with pictures in my college quarterly magazine. I planned to research your work address and mail you a copy. Did you switch jobs or are you working more than one job?

Future plans are indefinite. My daughter is going to Panama for the Christmas recess of about one month. She will stay at Grinnell over Thanksgiving. I may drive up there next May. I would like to spend some time up in Minnesota in August, to visit with some of my grandchildren. I will definitely let you know my plans and will include some time for a visit with you, if you are willing to meet. I could be available for a short bp'ing trip, too. I believe that you mentioned some nearby trails in a post recently.

Also, in June, 2004, I will definitely be within range. It will be class reunion time in Appleton, WI.

Maybe your bus company can expand service. The college makes transportation available to the the airports in Minneapolis and Chicago, as well.”

“hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....standing and waving wand and staff around in the air...”

“She has seen my pictures, Stikmon. She knows that I drop people, not equipment. But don't worry. I'm old enough to be her grandfather. Well, maybe.

However, perhaps age = experience, and ex's = the marrying kind. And I'm counting the days until I get to meet her: ichi, ni, san, shi; uno, dos, tres, cuatro; one, two, three, four; eins, zwei, drei, vier, ... Maybe I speak her language!

As a maker of hiking sticks, how do you like mine? Pictures 2, 3, 5, and 6. It works great at warding off the Dark Lords y los competidores.
LOL”

“LOL!!! Love these front row seats!”

“LyndyS - Don't bring your cold in here. Stikmon might catch it, the way he's sniffing around!”

“..aclear..”

“Ah .. ah ..ah ..

AHCHOOO

”

“female crotch...anyway...nice photos...no wonder you have popeye arms NS...carrying a derned tree with you...LOL...If your coming to TC2...Ill bring some photos of my work...maybe you'll upgrade to something a bit more classy and alot less clumsy...

VERY nice photos...but not enough photos of the lovely Miss Tango...too many ugly smelly men.”

“Beard looks good NS, and agree with stikmon. More Tango pix!

Does the electric company know you stole one of their poles?”

“LMBO!
The pictures are from HPM. Mine have not been processed, yet.
-----------------------------
'too many ugly smelly men.'
Stikmon -

Sure sounds like you've been sniffing!

Sorry I can't attend TC-2. I have to work. My hiking stick works great, but I might be interested in ordering a new stick for a girl in Iowa. How much of a discount can I get?
-----------------------------
Geobeet - Thanks. The beard is long gone. Had to have a haircut and shave before they would let me return to work.
-----------------------------
lizs - Good job! He took the bait, but he is in a daze. Not understanding what is happening, he is unsure of what action to undertake and is just sort of groping his way along. He is definitely stunned from the setting of the hook!

I think we should switch to using e-mail instead of TT. Let him stew in his state of bewilderment for a while. In medical terms, he is in a state of shock.”

“I grew a beard on my camping trip and kept it during my convalescence. I still have it. Maybe I'll keep it over the winter. They gave up on my appearance at work. They found out they could get the same response by talking to a tree.”

“I don't know, Geobeet! The unemployment lines are pretty long this winter.”

“They need me, poor blighters!”

“Scary men with sticks. Hmmmmm... and one a tree trunk. HMMMMMMM...”

“......(Crying in someone else's beer and thinking: And I tried so hard to impress her. Oh, but wait, she has not seen me since I shaved my beard, got a haircut and a shower. That's it, two months w/o a shower must have turned her off.)......”

“.'and one a tree trunk'

Yep, I carry a lot of weight on the trail, easily! I'm not one of these pasties, who are worried sick about a few extra ounces!”

“Hey man, I heard you say you're comin up to Minnesota again? In August? This time I might not be as busy as last year If you have some time, Just asking what's up, Have a good day man.”

“Do you have a brother in Bloomington?


Man, 71, thwarts robbery

Police: Don't try this at home

By Sharon K. Wolfe
Pantagraph staff

BLOOMINGTON -- When 71-year-old Donald Sacry was sipping his coffee at McDonald's on Friday, he noticed a man coming in who apparently wanted more than breakfast.
"A guy came in with his hat pulled down real low and a mask up over his mouth and nose," said Sacry, describing what happened about 6:20 a.m. Friday at the restaurant on East Oakland Avenue in Bloomington.

"As I watched him come in, he pulled out a gun," said Sacry, of Bloomington.

The gunman told an employee to give him money, a police report said.

"The guy behind the counter -- just like he should do -- was going to get the money so none of the kids got hurt," said Sacry.

"I have to say it hit me -- kerbang -- to take him," Sacry said.

Police warn people not to try what Sacry was about to do, but that wasn't on his mind at that moment.

If he had known the guy might already have stolen a car at gunpoint a few blocks away, he may have had second thoughts.

In any case, he rose from his seat and approached the gunman.

"He put the gun in my face," Sacry said.

Sacry said he had no fear, but did wonder what caliber the gun was.

"Maybe because he was so close it looked so big," he said.

A Bloomington police report noted Sacry made several comments to the robber during the confrontation, but did not go into detail.

"I used a lot of vulgarity," Sacry said. "I cussed him out pretty good. I was hollering at him."

As the gunman watched a cashier about to open a cash register, Sacry struck.

"I grabbed some trays, about three, and hit him with them," he continued. The gunman had turned around, so Sacry ended up hitting him in the upper back.

Sacry said the man said nothing and seemed to be surprised that an older man was hitting him with plastic trays.

"He was fooling around with a bad biker," said Sacry, who owns Harleys and still rides.

The force of the blow from Sacry -- who swims mornings five days a week at the YMCA before his coffee -- sent the would-be robber nearly to the floor.

When the man scrambled to his feet, he bolted out the employee entrance at the back.

He left empty-handed, police said.

Sacry and two of his friends sitting at another table ran outside to see the getaway car so they could describe it to police.

Later, police gave Sacry a ride down the block to identify a man thought to be the gunman. Police had stopped the man where the getaway car crashed.

It turns out the car had been stolen at gunpoint from a woman at an apartment complex on Willedrob Road, a few blocks west of the restaurant, Bloomington police said. That happened shortly before the gunman went to McDonalds.

A 20-year-old Bloomington man suspected of being the gunman was in McLean County jail Friday night. No charges had been filed.

Sacry said he he was glad he could help McDonalds because gets more than coffee there.

"They're (the employees) very good to me, and they put up with me. I always joke around a lot," he said.”