The Royce Files

My dearly beloved mostly Finnish spouse celebrates her birthday today. What a treasure I found at the end the rainbow.

 The Huffy in the garden  My first bicycle was a Huffy Dragster- an early entry in the BMX market for Huffy. Although it could have been a pieced together monster with parts from the Huffy high-rise style bikes. I don't see many Huffy bikes these days although they were the 3rd largest bike manufacturer in the US during the 1960s. I suspect Schwinn was tops back then. Both companies appear to have produced similar models of bikes through the 1960s to the 1970s. Huffy started out as a sewing machine manufacturer in 1892 formed by George Huffman. The Huffy name did not really come into existance until the 1950s. Prior the bikes carried the Dayton name- because they were made in Dayton, OH. The name Huffy came from the name of company- Huffman Manufacturing- which the sewing machine manufacturer turned into in 1925. While on holiday in Nisswa, MN I spotted this Huffy. The bike pictured here is what I believe to be a vintage 1970s men's Huffy 5-Speed Regatta with...

Enter the worship circle By far this had to be the best put together wedding of all time. Quite a production. Maybe if we had a trough of water that was miraclously turned into wine then.....nah. Thanks Mark and Anna! Will there be a sequel? Yes! 10 years later. But that is a blog post for another time. Not many weddings have matched this one for shear uproar. But every wedding is different in its own way.

Dancing brothers The dancing was pretty popular. Most of my Christian friends were enjoying themselves since the anti-dance squad stayed away from this reception. Hurray! Mark's DJ friends then finished off the night by spinning the hits. None of which I knew although P.O.D. was familar. The crowds began to dwindle after 10pm but the music kept going until after 11pm. Only the most dedicated and sleep depraved stayed. Anna and Mark escaped to the solitude of someplace and I just kept joking around with a multitude of people.

The trip began at French Lk The following series is a narrative from my first canoeing trip back over a decade ago into the wilderness of the Quetico. I had been eagerly awaiting this canoe trip to the Quetico for over a year. I had never been on a canoe trip before so I jumped at the invitation to join a friend of mine, Neil, on his annual trek to the Canadian boundary waters. The opportunity to get into the “real backwoods” thrilled me. Joining us were Neil’s wife, Ruth, and David, an adventurous college student [ ed. To regular readers of the blog David is the Man of 3 Names.] We started out from Morris, Minnesota at dawn. For eight hours David and I sat in the back of Neil’s Mazda pickup equipped with an old bus seat that smelled like pigs. Our only view from the rear window was of the trailer that carried our supplies and two aluminum canoes. However, this inconvenience seemed minor compared to adventure I expected in the Quetico. I did not know much about...

On July 10th I went to my first RedHawks game of the season. Boxscore here . Foul ball I caught at the RedHawks game July 10th The 'hawks were down by 5. The Kansas City T-Bones had mastery over the RedHawks bats. Inning after inning the home team failed to turn on the offense. Fortunately the RedHawks defense kept the game from getting totally out of hand. Plus the pitching improved. In the bottom of the 5th with 2 outs Ryan Stovall came up to the plate. The first pitch he hit a foul over the the home plate stands. It hit the press box and rocketed down towards my seat and 2 women sitting next to me. In a moment of odd courage I put out my barehand and caught that ball. I had never done that before- catch a foul. The women and my MFW were grateful. The next pitch Stovall eeked out the first hit of the game for the RedHawks. But the RedHawks do not take advantage as Carlo Cota flies out. It was not until the 8th inning until the RedHawks put some runs on the board- ...

My mostly Finnish spouse and I volunteered a large chunk of time this weekend to an event called Convoy of Hope. It was an event which helped the needy and poor in the area by providing some services like hair cuts and family portraits, connections with community organizations, and some groceries all at no cost. We helped distribute groceries in hot and humid condtions. We both had some sun burn but it was worth it to to be part of the "convoy." bagging the groceries with people power small mounds of groceries