Many things surprised me this week. It was a week of surprises and shock! Let me tell you about it.

Last week I blogged about Benson volleyball player Lilly Slaughter. The blog was about Lilly’s last name and the rock group Slaughter. Lilly had contacted me after the LQPV and Benson match to tell me she met Slaughter at a restaurant in Benson and at the Swift County Fair, she also sent me pictures of her and her mom with Slaughter. That blog about Lilly became my second most read blog! It was crazy watching the analytics during the week. The numbers were crazy, people read the blog worldwide on WordPress, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The comments were so kind. I have written almost 300 blogs and it has become one of my most read! My most read blog was about the LQPV/DB Shadows winning a state championship. I was shocked and surprised at the response to Lilly’s blog

Thursday the high school football season kicked off. The Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks traveled to New Ulm to take on Minnesota Valley Lutheran. I picked up my broadcast partner Duane Hastad at Heather Nursery in Dawson around 12:30 and we made our way to New Ulm. I spent the first 13 years of my life in New Ulm and have good memories of living there. I hadn’t been to New Ulm in a long time, so I wanted to drive by my old neighborhood and see what it looked like now. I bored Duane with many stories as we drove by this hill and that house and that business. We parked outside the house I grew up in on German street and the backyard where my brothers and I played many games of baseball with the neighbors. As a kid, our backyard was huge to me, but looking at it now it seemed so small. It was sad to see our house and how run down it looked and hasn’t been taken care of very well. At the football field I was still boring Duane with how my dad always took me to football games at Johnson Field and how as a elementary student we would play football with the other kids on the side of the hill. I watched the little kids on the side of the hill Thursday playing catch with the football, not watching the football game and having so much fun. It was a good memory. I was surprised with all the memories that came back to me when I was in New Ulm and surprised that the Blackjacks lost to Minnesota Valley Lutheran in a very entertaining football game.

My grandson Eli turned 6 years old this past week. Roxie and I were looking forward to driving over to Montevideo and giving him his birthday presents. Eli is a fun loving 6 year old, he’s smart and loves life. It’s fun to be around him. Unfortunately, Eli wasn’t feeling very well and spent his birthday in bed, so we Facetimed with him later that evening. I was surprised that he was ill.

I made my annual trip out to 3B Vineyards to do an interview with Hollie Thompson for the Lac qui Parle County Fair. Hollie and Jerry Thompson do a super job on their farm growing grapes and promoting the vineyard. Hollie had three other women with her that do the same type of business and they will have a booth at the fair this week. They made me some samples to try, like Honeyberries on vanilla ice cream. Wow, that was really good. We had a fun time with many laughs recording commercials and doing the interview. But, what surprised me the most that day was when I was visiting with Jerry, I noticed a very large tree growing out of a silo on their property! It was so neat to look at. This large silo with its top off and a big tree sprouting out of it!. I loved it and was totally surprised and shocked!

So, it was a surprise and shocking kind of a week for me.