Well, here we go again, as Ronald Reagan used to say. There is something about the years that end in the number 8 that is kind of weird. Think back to the years ‘48, ‘58, and on through ‘88, ‘98, and now 2018.

Those were tough winters and while I hope the winter ahead settles down and doesn’t get too rough, it surely could. The saturated ground underneath a wet blanket of snow could make getting next year’s crops into the ground an interesting proposition. Hopefully, the year could end up like 1962. I was home on leave from the Navy in March of that year and it snowed and snowed. Then in August I was discharged and came home to a green South Dakota. Just about everybody had some 100 bushel corn that year, and for almost everybody, that was a first.

This month of December is going to fly by no matter what the weather. We were watching football Sunday afternoon and I heard one of the chain stores advertising and urging people to stop in and get their last minute gifts from them. Someone should let them know that the ‘last minute’ doesn’t occur until late on the 24th. This is also the month when Turk Peterka has made plans to attend the Legion Christmas meeting in Wagner. That will take place on the 20th, and he has promised that there will be lots of good food, and he has also promised to take me along. Speaking of time flying by, I put on my Legion cap for the November 11th veterans day observance, and there was a little 35 year membership patch on it. I don’t remember when Marianne sewed that on, so now I am probably close to a 40 year patch.

Now for a light hearted minute or two. A little boy goes crying and running to his Mom and says, “Grandpa swatted me on the butt.” Grandpa hears this and calls out, “Stop lying about me or I’ll do it again.” This next one is kind of bad, but it made me laugh anyway. A father says to his son, “You were adopted.” The boy says, “I knew it! I want to meet my biological parents.” The father says, “We are your biological parents. Now pack your things. Your new parents will be here in twenty minutes.”

Then there‘s the young man who said, “When I announced to my friends that I was going to be a stand up comic, they all laughed. Well, they’re not laughing now.” Which I suppose is a good example of the word ‘irony’. I’ve got one more for the closer, but don’t skip ahead, you might miss something.

Saturday we got our water bill from the city. I couldn’t sleep on Saturday night, so I got out the check book and was going to pay that bill. Now I know my brain has gone down hill but this was really bad. First of all, I wrote the date wrong. Then I put the wrong number in the little box, followed by misspelling the dollar amount on the next line. Finally I found a plain envelope, wrote ‘Water Bill’ on it and sealed it up. Then I looked down and there was the check which was supposed to be in the envelope. I opened the envelope, put in the check and resealed it, and now I wonder if the good folks at the Scotland and Wagner banks will be able to decipher what I was trying to do. I guess I’ll find out when I turn on the faucet and there is no water.

I’m looking forward to doing my last onion forecast for 2019. In the meantime, the weathermen did a pretty good job of predicting things in the short term and covering this storm. I would guess we had a foot of snow, give or take. It sure is going to be a job to get it hauled out of the main streets. That would seem like a thankless job, so let me say ‘thank you’ to the city workers. Finally what were the last words of the poisonous snake? “Rats! I bit my tongue.”