Tuesday Tidbits

 

Bill says an "atmospheric river" is on the way.  

You don't want to hear what I say about that. 

For today, however, it's okay out there except for the appearance of one of the scariest parts of winter:  ice. 

Twas no fun walking on the new pavement when I went out to get the paper this morning. 

And, the walk back through the driveway involved a lot of weaving and winding to miss the slick spots. 

Slowly but surely, the elements that make us old people feel really old are adding to the winter mix. 

The good news is that we can still walk through the fields, even though each step feels like we've added lead weights to our boots. 

And, as far as ice is concerned, avoidance and sometimes taking baby steps are the only safe strategies unless you have strong ankles and a pair of skates. 

Anywho, thoughts of an atmospheric river flowing and leaking through the area do not make me smile. 

Fortunately, I was able to outrun the snowflakes and pick up most of the leaves that had fallen during all that rain we had on Sunday. 

Hmmm.  That seemed pretty much like an atmospheric river.  

On a brighter note, I'm thrilled to add a story about a former student this morning.  

He's a Facebook friend, and when he announced several days ago that he was leaving the ministry to go full time as a puppeteer in Colorado, I thought that was pretty intriging.  

So, I asked Dave Nickodemus for the scoop.  

He was generous enough to send me a little summary of his life events and how his new career has evolved. 

I'm sure a lot of locals remember Dave and his family and especially his dad Steve who served as minister at Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church. 

Wishing Dave lots of luck in this new endeavor, and it's easy to see that he's a positive force, especially with young people. 

Here's a link to his website:

https://www.puppet-tales.com/

Check out his story below. 

". . .  it all started over 20 years ago when my wife, Beth, and I, were missionaries and teachers in Taiwan. We were asked to do presentations at Taiwanese churches for kids, but very few of the kids spoke any English and our Chinese was pretty basic.

"We would do these hour-long presentations and found the best way to share Bible stories with the kids was to use puppets with very simple English. 

"The shows were nothing fancy, just usually me with a couple of puppets behind two people holding up a sheet, but the kids seem to really enjoy them. 

"Fast-forward to several years later, after a year of teaching high school English in Oregon, we moved back to Sandpoint to work as the family minister at my dad‘s church at Christ Our Redeemer. 

"The church had Little Lambs preschool and kindergarten, and I found myself doing weekly preschool, chapels, and lots of other kids, activities.  

"Since I didn’t play a guitar and didn’t have great musical skills, I figured why not bring the puppet tree back, and started doing puppets and also magic tricks.

"I had learned magic when I was a kid, but hadn’t really used it much until I started working with kids at the church. 

 "I also was leading the youth group at Christ Redeemer, and we were doing lots of plays and drama shows for fundraisers and for mission trips.

"After one of the plays we did, a dinner theater, the children’s librarian at East Bonner County library attended one of the shows and asked if I’d ever want to do something like that for kids at the library. 

"She suggested that maybe I could dress up like a pirate and do a show for the kids. I thought that sounded fun, so brought some puppets, some magic and a pirate costume and put on a pirate show. 

"That one show ended up with Beth and me doing more puppet shows for local libraries and schools there in Sandpoint just as a very part-time thing. 

"The whole time I continued to use puppets with the kids at the preschool and kindergarten, and also in church services for kids’ messages. 

"When we moved to Colorado Springs in 2014, I took a job as an associate pastor at a Lutheran Church, and every Sunday would do kids’ messages often using puppets. 

"Several years into that job, they asked if I would take over the church’s children’s ministry program on Sunday mornings, I ended up putting together a team of about 20 volunteers, writing puppet scripts each Sunday and doing about a 30 minute Puppet show with costume characters each Sunday. 

"In 2020, I left that church to plant a brand new church. From the very beginning every Sunday, we would do a kids message and I would do puppets. The pastor with the puppets was a rather novel concept!

"Since we were planting a church, and new income would be tight, I started advertising to do Magic and puppet shows for kids at libraries, schools and private events. 

"Unfortunately, with Covid, not many people were looking to have live events, and we figured that business wasn’t really going to take off here in Colorado. 

"Well, God had other plans. 

"Out of the blue in the summer of 2020 I started getting calls from local organizations asking if I’d be willing to do a show for them. Well, that just kept growing and growing. 

"Last summer, my two teenage sons, Jacob and Noah who have become quite expert puppeteers, Jacob and Noah, and I did over 30 shows for local libraries all over Colorado. 

"This past year has just a part-time side hustle, we’ve done over 100 shows at schools, daycare, libraries, and private events. 

"With my wife’s job as an operations Director for a financial investment company, it was getting too difficult to balance both being the lead pastor of a church and her job and our puppet business: Puppet Tales. 

"This last month we made the decision to go full-time with Puppet Tales as I now have stepped down as the pastor at Grace Mountain Church. 

"As I make this move, besides creating and performing shows, we are starting up a YouTube channel called Sunday Puppets that will feature Bible stories and kids’ messages to help kids grow in their faith and God. 

"The whole thing has been pretty crazy, just taking something that was done out of necessity to help kids learn, and finding a true passion and career out of it!

Mike Rosenberger, Ralph Alderman, Judy Finley Christensen, Jim Holt and Judy Chronic, members of the Sandpoint High Class of 1965. 

Two classmates, Susan Stark Tate and Karen Martin Rolf, had already left when these photos were snapped outside DiLuna's Restaurant. 

Judy Finley used to wash milk bottles at the Harney Dairy. 

Jim Holt vividly remembers when the Method barn burned down on Colburn Culver Road.

Ralph Alderman retired his guitar and put it under the bed several years ago.  He may just get it out and take it with him when he heads south this winter. 

Judy Chronic remembers when her mom had a garden and never had to put up a fence to keep the deer out because there were no deer to be seen on their family farm south of Sandpoint. 

Just a few of the tales we heard yesterday while enjoying lunch and doing some planning for our Sandpoint High Class of 1965 reunion.  

It will be the 60th when classmates get together next September.

We are in the raw planning stages, but our two meetings have already reminded us of all we have in common and how happy we are to still be here. 

We are all looking forward to upcoming meetings and our gathering next fall and feeling pretty confident that with each event we can say, "a good time was had by all."

If yesterday's gathering was any indication, we're set. 

The best ever Reuben, even better than the last time I had a Reuben sandwich for lunch at DiLuna's Restaurant.  

I distinctly remember that time proclaiming that it was the best Reuben ever.  

Yesterday's version may have been even better.

I saved half for Bill to sample.  He thought it was pretty tasty too. 

 

Happy Tuesday.  

May the atmospheric river take a "slight detour" on its route through the area.