Friday, June 25, 2010

Father's Day

I know it’s late for Father’s Day, but it’s been a busy week for me.



I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I lucked out with my parents. I am totally blessed. Today I want to introduce my dad, Dave Lundberg. When you first meet him you might think he’s, shall we say, taciturn? A reserved man, he doesn’t put himself forward. That doesn’t mean he’s shy, by any means. Once you get to know him he warms right up to you and is just as friendly and gregarious as you could want. It’s just that when he’s quiet, he’s really quiet.


Both of my parents love reading, but I get my almost insane love of books from Dad. (I can’t stand it if I don’t have a book to read nearby. Even if I don’t have the time, just the fact that it’s available is enough to calm me down.) He was a technical editor for many, many years. All of my English grades I got from doing my homework with him. Somebody told me once that Dad’s dream job is owning a bookstore.


During the 50s, when I was just a little tyke, he was in the Air Force and was stationed in Germany. He translated Russian back then, and after he finished his education in the States he worked at NSA for several years, also translating. Cool, huh? My dad – listening to the enemy. I didn’t realize this for a long, long time, but one of his best buds, whom he met in Germany, was an analyst for the CIA.


He still keeps up with the Russian and attends classes and lectures and events presented by expatriate Russians. Has a lot of fun.


He also is very involved in the VASA Order of America, a Swedish American Fraternal Organization. VASA began more than a century ago as a benefit fraternal society for Swedish immigrants to the United States. It was named for Gustav Vasa, the first King of modern Sweden. Today the organization provides members a means to share their rich heritage with fellow Americans and learn the lore and traditions of the “Old Country.”


My dad has been retired for a few years now and he and my mom are enjoying it very much. They’ve gone to several family reunions around the country, and attended a few Air Force Squadron reunions in the US and Europe. For their 50th Wedding Anniversary a few years ago they took a cruise along the Volga in – where else? – Russia.


Happy (belated) Father’s Day, Dad. Thanks for being the great guy you are.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Great Blessings

We had some sturm und drang this past weekend! Boy, howdy!



Rick is working for a trucking company out of Findlay, OH (western Ohio south of Toledo). On Saturday he had a load going to Holland, Michigan so I rode along. The company allows immediate family ride-alongs.


On the way home I was sleeping in the back and Rick went through some terrific t'storms as we drove past Perrysburg. As he got near a rest area he heard a voice whisper to get off the road until "it" passes and wait a while. So, we waited about 15-20 minutes. The weather was very windy with lightning all around us, but not directly overhead.


He turned on the weather radio and we heard that a tornado had touched down 3 miles east of Perrysburg - at about the same time we were driving through - and that the tornado was moving east towards Oak Harbor!


We got home around one a.m. and it had started raining. The lightning was right above us. When it cracked the thunder was instantaneous and the sky was as bright as noon. It was blinding.


We listened to this for a while and around 2:30 it was really intense - then the wind stopped. Rick said we had to get out! and at the same time we heard the sirens at Davis-Besse nuclear plant and around the area. We took off, thinking that at least we could hide in a ditch if we couldn't run away. There was a couple in the camper next to ours and they told Rick the next morning that they saw us leaving and decided to go to the shower house themselves. We didn't see any funnels, but apparently one did touch down near the plant.


There were 51 tornadoes in the midwest that night, and I think we had five in our area. Rick drove back up to Grand Rapids and Holland a couple of days later and said that Dundee, MI, another area that was hit, had a lot of debris on the highway and some of the buildings near Cabela's were damaged.


If I had not gone with Rick on his delivery on Saturday I would have been in the camper by myself - freaking out. If I had been safe, Rick would have stopped in Dundee (at Cabela's) to sleep that evening and from what he could see when he drove by that area, the path of the tornado came through where he usually parked.


We both feel that we were saved - if not from death or destruction - at least from panic and fear. We both had a great desire for me to ride with him on his delivery Saturday, and that is not typical. Because I was with him he didn't stop overnight at Cabela's and he did hear the whispering to get off the road for a while and be safe. The tornado went right around us at the campground. The only damage was 3" of rain. The weekend before, Memorial Weekend, there were half a dozen tent campers in the trees and that whole area was a pond Sunday morning. Wow.


I thank my Heavenly Father for His love and blessings.

You can’t sit around and wait for the storm to be over. You’ve got to learn how to dance in the rain. ~Unknown