Rock Valley, Sioux Falls, Influenza A

Got real sick a couple weeks ago and had to miss a poetry show in Sully, IA. I was pretty disappointed as I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. Poetry shows don't come up all that often, but I do have another one in a week. For any and all that read this in the area, the Morgan Valley Social Club will be playing a fundraiser at The Church of the Brethern five miles south of Prairie City on Saturday, February 23rd. There's a potato supper at 5pm, followed by Kyle and I at 6:30pm.

I'm hoping there's a good chance the show can be taped for CD as I'm planning on including it in the back cover of the next book.

Went up to Rock Valley, IA for a benefit for an old youth member named Justin Bousema who has aplastic anemia. What a blast! Jonah's Wale played, they raised $15,000+ dollars, and Justin's health updates have been steadily improving over the last couple weeks!

Just got back from Sioux Falls, SD where I spent three days speaking for Sioux Falls Christian High School Bible Days. Once again, I was with Jonah's Wale, and we had a grand time.

Got to stay with Wale's leader, Troy Kooima, and read a few books to his young daughter Sage. They were interesting to say the least.

My favorite was one called Worm Gets a Job. What it basically boiled down to was a worm ruining everyone's life until he stumbled into winning an art show by stealing supplies. The last pages of the book had someone saying, "Look at worm, now he's rich and famous!" You turn the page and worm is giving the old wink while saying, "And happy!" I don't think I'd ever read one quite like it.

We finished up with one about a little boy who goes on a picnic with his mom in the woods. The boy insists there's a bear. The mom disagrees. Mom leaves the boy alone because she forgot dessert and guess what appears? A bear. Mom returns and they're both chased screaming out of the woods. The end. You may think I'm just doing a quick summary and leaving out the important parts or valuable lesson, but I'm not. I guess the lesson was, "Don't listen to your mom. Monsters exist, and they're coming for you."

And no, no more pics of Carson this week.