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Well the Wall That Heals has come and gone. Over all, I think the event was a huge success.

Over the course of the long weekend, it looks like close to 15,000 people came to reflect at the memorial.

I would like to speak on behalf of the thousands who turned out to pay their respects and say "Thank You". Thank you to the committee for their countless hours and pouring their hearts and souls into bringing the Wall to our area. Thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who gave up their personal time to work either on, or at, the Memorial. Thanks to the law enforcement individuals who donated their time and were a wonderful presence around the clock.

To say people appreciated the wall would be a gross understatement. I personally spoke to and witnessed many people both from our area and not, who were so overcome with emotion at the Memorial. They were thankful for the Wall being brought here and having a chance to touch and feel and most importantly reflect upon the sheer powerfulness that is the Wall.

With Brett Favre now (gulp) wearing purple, and the Vikings finally into their regular season, that can only mean one thing. Almelund's 16th Annual Apple Festival.

One of my favorite days, Apple Fest is a one day only celebration that revolves around apples and history. Apple Fest is located in downtown Almelund at the Amador School House Heritage Center.

Per usual, there will be wonderful things to eat like fresh bread with apple butter, caramel apples, apple turnovers and even sour apple snow cones.

Along with great food, there will be vendors displaying and selling various goods and services. There will also be plenty of vendors selling apples.

Apple Fest usually gets our family excited, because we know that we now have a few months enjoying delicious apples grown right here.

Apple Fest runs Sunday only from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Please see the schedule of events on page 14B for more details.

Monday, I received a call from Terry Vruno, who runs CLTV. CLTV is our local cable channel 10. Terry was excited about the new website that CLTV now has. In the past, if you wanted to find out what was showing on CLTV, you would have to tune in to channel 10 and wait for a schedule to come across the screen. Now, you simply can go to www.chisagolakestelevision.com to see the full schedule. If you visit the site, I think you will be surprised at the quality of shows that are offered by CLTV.

A quick note. Last week on our front page we ran the photo of the Wall That Heals truck entering Lindstrom escorted by a large group of motorcycles. We mistakenly identified the entire group as Patriot Guard riders. In fact, the majority of the riders were assorted volunteers who took work off to escort the Wall to Lindstrom. Their were a few Patriot Guard riders and also a few from the Tribute to the Troops organization as well.

Have you ever had one of those days when every single thing goes wrong? I had one of those days on Monday. From running out of shampoo, to my trailer breaking, to getting screamed at while on the phone (I could classify that under multiple days). Just nothing clicked.

As I was sitting at my desk wondering what I did to deserve such a downtrodden day, it hit me. My dad passed away on this day. Sure I remember when he passed away, but sometimes the exact day escapes me. Subconsciously, I must have it burned in my mental calendar.

I can not believe it has been six years since dad left us. I swear to you, it seems like yesterday he was helping me build a deck on our house. In fact, I have this reoccurring dream where he walks into my office, pats me on the shoulder, and tells me "Thanks bud, I got it now". I usually wake up shortly after the dream with a feeling of euphoria, I guess hoping that his passing was just a dream.

I would like to think that I have made him proud, but I would be purely speculating. All I know is I miss him dearly.

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