WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

44 degrees with sunshine when I walked over to the library this afternoon.  There are big puddles of water from the melting snow that will, of course, turn to ice skating rinks by morning.  I don't think I'll venture out too early.

This beautiful weather, with more than half of December already gone, is sure going to shorten winter this year.  January and February might be rough but by March we'll be looking at seed catalogs again.  When I was a kid a year was forever.  Now, a blink of the eye and it's gone.

By the way, while I was at the library, I checked today's edition of the La Crosse Tribune and found the tribute to Rita announcing her retirement after 41 years at Gunderson.  There were two beautiful color pictures of her one as a young sexy thing and the other as............an old sexy thing.

Roger put it in the paper but kept it a secret from Rita so I'll be anxious to hear what her reaction was when she saw it.

The ski resorts in the Austrian Alps should be open by now.

Not this year.  No snow.

WEATHER

WINDY DAY AHEAD

ENJOY!

I look down the list, every day, of famous people having birthdays and I've noticed that if they're under 60 I have no clue who they are.  I'm afraid the parade has passed me by.

One of the lovely ones over 60 is Marion Ross who played the mom on HAPPY DAYS.  She is celebrating her 83rd birthday today and, boy, does she look good!

Here she is in an interview she did last year.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

My adventures at the Radisson began 14 years ago today.

FALL IN SPEARFISH CANYON

Ron and Penny took a drive through Spearfish Canyon to enjoy the fall colors. The photo's brought back some wonderful memories.  We used to get out there quite often when I lived in Deadwood.

One of the canyon sights everyone enjoys is Bridal Veil Falls. A friend, who also worked at the radio station, and I spent one afternoon climbing up the side of the falls (about 50 feet). I still don't believe I actually did it but I lived to tell the tale. The climb was well worth it. Behind the falls, at the top, is a small lake with the beautiful forest that seems alive with birds and it's so isolated that you feel as though you're all alone in the world. As I recall, with my fear of heights, getting back down was far more terrifying than going up.

It's amazing what you can do when you're young. Nowadays it feels like an achievement that I can still get out of the chair.
For more history of the canyon Click here to go to an excellent website

BOY! HOW THE TIMES CHANGE

I had to chuckle, this morning, about another story in the La Crosse Tribune about a competition the grade school kids are having in which they can earn points for walking to school.

Back in the days, when I was in grade school, you either walked or you didn't get there at all.  As I recall, we didn't get points for anything.

The story brought back memories of how mad Gladys would get when she saw Dad and I walking to school. He was going to work at the high school, upstairs, and I was going to school at the grade school downstairs.

Dad and I would walk past the Nelson house wearing light jackets that were, usually, not even buttoned up and we never got a cold or the flu. Gladys, on the other hand, would bundle up Jeff and Kathy with so many clothes they could hardly walk and they'd be sick with a cold or flu from October to May.

Now, we've gone from the simpler days of old to the outrageous days of now...with a bit of help from the freaky Fox folks. Blowing a sneeze into a circus

DONNIE RECALLS HOLMBY HILLS

Holmby Hills, the Sinatra neighborhood in LA you feature today, is right next to UCLA.  I would occasionally take just two clubs out of the bag and walk over to the par-3 golf course in Holmby.  There, in possibly the most expensive and exclusive neighborhood in America, I could play golf for $3.  That's $3!  The closest golf course to me in Dripping Springs charges $50...and there isn't a movie star to be seen.

The Holmby course rarely had anyone on it but me, and the only people I saw were literally dozens of nannies in the park, caring for the babies of the resident billionaires.

Ah, those were the days!