Yes, I do know the irony. And no, I wasn’t trying to be smart like I normally am. I’m not really a fan of Tom Petty anyway; the boys and I have really been into The Who lately 😉 But the point is true regardless…I hate waiting. Seriously! But unfortunately it is a huge part of life. What bothers me the most is when there is a big hurry to get something done (or that you perceive there is a big hurry) and then you end up waiting. Like the old army adage “Hurry up and wait.” I’ve certainly been doing a lot of waiting lately and it is driving me nuts. What am I waiting for pray tell? Read on and find out!

So today is the 14^th of May…craziness! Already halfway through May and it seems like we just started the month. School will be over before I know it and so many things left to do. This is one of those good/bad waiting things. I’m definitely looking forward to summer (never said that before), but there’s a lot of stuff to do before then. The break will certainly be appreciated!

One of the things keeping me busy is football. Yes, we’ve been down this road before-football is now an almost year-round sport. I spent Friday night at a clinic delivered by the coaches from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. For several years we had travelled down to Duluth to the player’s camp they do at the end of June, but lately our school schedule has prevented us from doing so. To bridge the gap, the coaches have been coming up to work with the kids over a weekend (they did a session for the coaches for the first time this year). Coach Weise and his staff were and continue to be a great bunch of guys (though it did make me laugh every time the defensive coordinator talked about having 11 guys on the field).

Today we had a meeting to promote our spring camp to our Grade 9’s. Pretty decent turnout, but we hope to pick up a more kids. We’ll be visiting our feeder school Pope John Paul II in a few weeks to deliver the message to the Grade 8’s who plan to come to St. Patrick in the fall. I love doing it all, but it makes for a much busier schedule.

So things have been busy again with the historical society. I’ve been patiently waiting (maybe not patiently) for a few things to fall into place with one of our projects, but success has been somewhat elusive. I’m starting to find out how frustrating these things can be, and no matter how much you try you cannot make them go any faster. Here’s to hoping that it gets better in the near future.

We have a board meeting on Thursday and I hope I’ve got everything ready to on my end. Big topics of conversation are going to be our membership drive to attract new folks to our organization and also an upcoming overhaul to our website. I have a former student working on it, the same one who did my site for the railway. This will be a great way to help promote the society and the work we are doing. I also have another former student working on a poster for us; he did one for the railway and it turned out awesome. Can’t wait to see what he does on this one!

Obviously the biggest highlight of the forthcoming week is going to be my planned hike in Minnesota. I am dying to get out walking on the railway, but alas the weather may have the final say…grrrrrr! The forecast was for sun on Saturday, but now it appears there will be rain. I hope things change before then as I do not want to postpone for another week because…

So my hike will take me along the railway about 3.5km west of Gunflint Lake. I was in the area last fall, but I have not looked at this piece specifically since 2011. That year was the first time I walked the portion the line where it leaves the Gunflint Trail/Cross River and forms a switchback on its way to the Paulson Mine. On that occasion I discovered that there were two large trestles on either side of the switchback instead of just one. I want to re-photograph the line and get some better video of this very interesting section. Come on Mother Nature, lend a guy a hand!

Cutting, Minnesota, May 2011.

Cutting, Minnesota, May 2011.

Rock cut, Minnesota, May 2011.

Anyway, time to go. Hopefully I’ll be back next week with some good news and experiences from Minnesota (or crabby because it rained all weekend). Until then…