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December 30th, 2013

12/30/2013

Hello Everyone! Christmas has quickly passed, once again, and the New Year is coming fast. The time for those resolutions is at hand. You remember New Year's resolutions... those promises you made to yourself last year at this time, followed by the January of commitment, the February of reality... and the March of "what was my resolution again?"
Whatever you have resolved to do this next year to make a change or better yourself in some way, you have my best wishes for success. I will be doing the "get in shape" general all-purpose resolution myself. Not sure what it will entail just yet, but the holidays and cold weather have taken their toll on me this year. I always see it coming too... staring right at it every fall... promising myself that this year the hibernation reflex would be kept in check... yep, sure, right... three months later and 15 extra pounds is the reality.
So, my day after Christmas dinner and endless treats weight comes in at 244... and with shoes on I am around 6'3". Not a bad weight if it were mostly muscle... but I am suspicious it is something other than muscle. In the fall, around the beginning of October, I weighed 229, so my options are to give in to the evil hibernation reflex and curl up like a bear for a couple months, or get active and healthier.... well, the bear option was a nice idea, but reality wins again, so check back here or on our website and I'll give you (what I hope to be) updates on my progress, and to all the 2014 "Resolvers" - good luck!

2013 - Almost Gone
Lynette and I would like to say thank you to everyone involved in Tidbits this past year... from our readers, to our advertisers and sponsors, and our friends and family. We had a great time meeting many new people this past year and we look forward to a busy, but fun, 2014 as we continue to do our best to bring you our free, family-friendly and fun weekly publication.

Next Week
I dug up a picture of me and my first car I had when I was 14, a 1966 Mercury Parklane. I will tell you a little about it next week. Wait until you see the picture... you would never think that skinny little kid was ever going to weight 244... plus I was sporting some very choice 70ish "styles".
Anyway... have a great week, stay warm, stay safe and have a most Happy New Year!!
... and thank you for reading Tidbits.

sean@LakeAreaTidbits.com

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December 16th, 2013

12/16/2013

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Hello Everyone! So... are you all conditioned to winter with that cold stretch last week? I know I am. It is interesting when 20 degrees above zero is talked about as a "heat wave"... at least we got a bit of snow to cover things up... my backyard looks better with a blanket of the white stuff to hide all the things I didn't get taken care of this fall. Here's another thought for you... Winter doesn't officially start until December 21st, I think Mother Nature was out of the loop on that one.
Tidbits Question of the week: "Why do you publish a paper instead of just putting this on a website." - Harold from Watertown, SD
Well, I prefer the permanence of putting ink on paper. I have the very first issue that Lynette and I put out sitting right here. The information, jokes and puzzles are all still as viable as the day it came off the press over a year and a half ago. We also want Tidbits to be available for everyone to enjoy, young or old, rich or the rest of us. Once an issue is out there it entertains our readers and works for our advertisers without any other infrastructure, plans, services or devices.
Now... are we anti-technology? Not by a long shot. Modern technology is what gives us the ability to create a Tidbits paper each week and bring it to your town.
OK, back to the part of the question about a website... As many people know already, Tidbits of the Lake Area has a great website on which the paper is available to read on your computer, tablet or mobile device. You can also check area events, submit a joke, place a classified ad, read some jokes and quotes, enter the reader contest, click ads on our community pages to check out advertisers websites, read Publisher's Corner archived articles or drop us line if you have any questions or comments. We have worked hard to make www.LakeAreaTidbits.com an integral part of the Tidbits experience... all with no pop-ups, pop-overs, redirects and such... and every ad on our website is a local advertiser from right here in Northeast South Dakota and West Central Minnesota.

Push?
Last week I told you a camping story and I got so many comments I thought I'd tell another.
My wife Lynette and I just celebrated 20 years of marriage last October and this story goes all the way back to the early days... before the kids came along.
Right out of college, we had 3 part time jobs between us that fit into four work days so we had three days off in a row for that summer. This was out in Spearfish, SD in the beautiful Black Hills which we both loved. After some discussion we made the decision to camp for the summer in the National Forest. So we loaded up the car with everything we needed and worked our jobs, staying with friends for three nights and then we would head up into the forest, find some old logging roads and see how far our little Chevy Chevette would get. This was before the cell phones got popular, so we were really cutoff from everything.. sounds good, huh? Generally it was the most relaxing time I have ever spent, but occasionally we would get thrown a curve ball... like this one...
We had traveled down an old logging road until we came to a dugout in the road that the Forest Service used to keep off-roaders from going any further. There we set up camp and had awesome weather for three days. On the morning of the fourth day, which was the start of our work week, we got up early, packed the car jumped in and turned the key... nothing. The Chevette we had was a four speed, so with a dead battery we could push start it pretty easily, except for the fact that the road was all down hill to the dugout and mound so we couldn't go forward. Well, we started to talk over options and decided it was a long way to any road that might have traffic and we hadn't seen anyone for three days, so waiting for someone to come by was out. We quickly realized our only option was to push the car back up the road. As we all know, cars aren't light, so we took out everything that wasn't bolted down in the car and placed a log under the wheel and began to rock the little car until we got enough momentum to push it two or three feet then put the log under the wheel to hold it in place, catch our breath and repeat the procedure... for the better part of an hour! After working at it, we got pretty good and got it the top of the road. At this point, the cross road went left and right... uphill both ways. We looked at each and couldn't believe our only option was to roll the car down the same road we had just spent the last hour pushing the car up for one chance at it starting. So I hopped in and got ready, kind of like an airplane pre-flight... switch on - check. Second gear - check. Praying to God - check.... here we go! Got up enough speed, popped the clutch - she fired up - woo-hoo! At this point the dugout mound is coming at me fast, so I took it out of gear - still revving the engine to keep it running - and hit the brake with my left foot and came to a stop about six inches from the dirt mound. I think back now and wonder if it would have been like the Dukes of Hazard's General Lee if I didn't get it stopped! Yee-haw!
Anyhow, we loaded back up, made it to town - BOUGHT A NEW BATTERY - and went about our lives.
Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out www.LakeAreaTidbits.com. Have a great week and don't be the crazy driver out there we all talk about - slow down and get there!!

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December 09th, 2013

12/9/2013

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   Hello Everyone! Bbbbrrrrr.. hope you are staying warm out there. My fingers are a little cool on the keyboard here. Thanks for reading this issue of Tidbits, there's a lot of good stuff in this one so enjoy!
   The cold really makes those Spring days seem pretty far away. One thing my family has looked forward to each June was the Fort Sisseton Historical Festival in Northeast South Dakota. It has always been an impromptu family reunion of sorts and one particular year, as a boy, I was allowed to bring one friend along. So that year my buddy Wade and I did the tough-guy camping-on-the-prairie with our sleeping bags next to the fire thing. We had had a long day of running around the fort, taking it all in, and pretty soon we were out like lights. My parents were tucked away in the camper and we were sleeping under the stars.... it was perfect... until the camper door came crashing open in the middle of the
night. It seems that sometime in the night Wade had kicked and rolled enough that the bottom end of the sleeping bag had gotten dangerously close to the fire, well close enough that it was on fire! The guy crashing out of the camper was my father who had just happened to take a look out the window to see if the fire was out yet... umm, not quite out, I guess. We had camped next the slough outside the fort this year so my dad was caught in a dilemma... do I drag the sleeping bag, kid and all, to the water to put it out, find other water or stomp it out. Seeing as putting someone with their legs and arms in a sleeping bag in a body of water doesn't sound like it has a good ending, he opted to smother the flames with another camp blanket. Of course this happened pretty fast, so I never even got out of my sleeping bag before it was over. Dad
went back inside, I went back to sleep and the funny part is the Wade never woke up during the whole thing. We had to tell him about it the next day. He did say his feet seemed a little colder later in the night, though.
   Thanks again for picking up Tidbits... HAVE A SAFE WEEK!

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December 03rd, 2013

12/3/2013

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Hello Everyone! I hope your Thanksgiving Holiday was fun and safe. We had what is called the standard holiday down at my folk's place. They have always had plenty of room and our band of thirteen ate, watched a little football, played games and did some catching up. Was a very nice day off which is why this is a little short this week. I'll be back next week with some fresh stories. Until then, here's a little something for my gear-head friends. As a lot of you know, a few months ago a deer "fell out of the sky" and landed on Lynette's hood at 60 mph. We ended up buying the car back and I spent some "quality time" rebuilding the front.
I am always trying to learn new things and this has been a fun project. So far so good... still have some paint to do and the front grill pieces to put in, but it sure felt good to get away from the computer and get some dirt and grease under the fingernails. I'll share some more of my ongoing projects in future issues.
Thanks again for picking up Tidbits... HAVE A SAFE WEEK!

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December 30th, 2013

December 16th, 2013

December 09th, 2013

December 03rd, 2013

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