Author: WarrenBluhm

Warren Bluhm is an award-winning community journalist, twice winner of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association’s prestigious Robert T. Wright Memorial Award as the best local columnist in the state. His voice was heard in thousands of radio newscasts from Green Bay to Ripon for 22 years, and his words were featured in thousands of newspaper editions for more than a quarter-century after that. He has had a digital presence since 2005 with blog posts he has collected in 10 books to date, and he has seven additional works and collections of his fiction.

Early winter ahead

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After the unpleasant invasion of Canadian wildfire smoke last month, I had to double-check, but yes, that was plain old fog coming on little cat feet in early August, and there it was again on Wednesday. I did some quick calculations both times.

Back when I was a tadpole, or a cub reporter, or insert your own descriptor for a young’un, one of the fun things about working at a radio station in the middle of a cornfield was the regular callers. There were several farmers and other characters who would ring us up just to shoot the breeze for a couple of minutes. You quickly learned to recognize their voices.

I think it was Ed Kastenschmidt who had the fog theory. Ed insisted that any morning a dense fog settles in, you can count on a snowstorm striking in 90 days. And three months later, he would call to remind us about the fog from 90 days earlier.

And so when those early August visitors lay over the land, I made plans to make sure the snowblower is primed and ready to go on or about November 6 and November 12.

It is easy to forget, with the day lilies and coneflowers and black-eyed Susans and cup plants and compass plants all bursting with midsummer color, that this land is regularly barren and white. It’s only a matter of time. 

But enough of that for now. I plan to enjoy this fine summer’s day and raise a cup of coffee to the memory of good old Ed.

Miscellaneous thoughts about nothing much

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It was breathlessly reported this week that the new Toho Ltd. Godzilla movie, Godzilla Minus Zero, has a running time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, which makes it the longest Godzilla movie ever filmed in Japan. A couple of the American-made movies of the past decade have been a little longer than that. The last Japanese film, Godzilla Minus One, clocked in at 2 hours, 2 minutes.

People like to talk about such stuff in enormous detail — what do we hope happens to the characters and will any of the other giant monsters like Rodan or Mothra make an appearance — and although I do enjoy the sneak previews we get in the trailers, I’m mostly content just to wait and see what happens when the lights go down on Nov. 6.

The Green Bay Packers’ first pre-season game is scheduled for tonight, and so talking season is upon us again. Sports fans in general and specifically Packers fans love to talk about their team. There are radio stations devoted to nothing but talking about the upcoming games and the games that were just completed and what it all means. Me, I will enjoy the three hours watching the game and won’t think much about it again for the next 165 hours before the next game.

I had a shocking realization last weekend when it occurred to me that the new Spider-Man movie had been out for a week and not only have I not seen it yet, but I had not even thought about it since around July 29 when I thought, “Huh, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is coming out in a couple of days.” 

Now, I have been a Spider-Man fan since the summer of 1963, when I spent 12 of the 25 cents my dad had given me — comic book money — on an interesting looking new title called Amazing Spider-Man #4. If I wasn’t at the first showing on the first day, I definitely have been there sometime during the first few days every time a new Spider-Man movie has arrived.

This time, it completely slipped my mind. For more than a week! I hope this doesn’t mean I finally grew up after 73 years. Probably not. Did I mention the new Godzilla movie is 2 hours, 15 minutes long?

The 13-year-old

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When Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars, had been ours for about a month, we noticed that she wouldn’t stop eating stuff in the back yard: pebbles, sticks, mulch, grass, you name it. Our vet, who performed emergency surgery, said some of the sharp sticks could have done all sorts of damage in there, from perforating organs to obstructing everything.

When she was a year or two old, she suddenly had trouble just standing up to walk. It was Lyme disease, which recurred a few years later and for which she still tests positive even though she has fully recovered.

Dejah — who got that name because I wanted to have an excuse to tell people to watch the wrongly maligned Andrew Stanton near-masterpiece John Carter — has defied expectations. Her big sister Willow The Best Dog There Is™ died a few days shy of her 12th birthday, so when I took 11-year-old Dejah to the vet for an issue I no longer remember, I asked about her chances.

“I don’t see any reason she won’t make it to her 12th birthday just fine,” said the vet.

Today, Dejah turns 13.

Except for the five months between Willow’s death and the arrival of puppy Summer, the poor thing has always played second fiddle. I bonded with Willow closer than any other canine in my life, and puppies always demand more attention than the old dog, so I have probably never given Dejah all of the consideration she deserves.

She doesn’t seem to mind. She accepts what belly rubs and ear scratches that she can gather, she is always up for a treat — they are prescription diet treats these days and not the well-known brands — and she gleefully wrestles with Summer for possession of the throw rug, which is probably the hardiest bit of home decor ever manufactured.

Never mind that she spends most days lying on her back having a good, pleasant snooze anymore; that most nights she gets up at least once or twice to go out in the back yard (heck, so do I); and most of the time it’s a bit of a struggle to stand up (again, me too).

Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars, is a survivor with a big golden retriever smile. When I mentioned that I was writing about this old dog for today, Mary said, “I have a feeling this won’t be her last birthday.”

I’ve never had a 14-year-old golden retriever. Heck, I never had a 12-year-old before last August, and today, Dejah is 13. We’ll take it one day at a time, perhaps for 365 more.