Happy Valentine's Day 2021

 

Happy Valentine's Day 2021

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for February 14, 2021

It was a sad week when one of my oldest friends, Scott Barragy, passed away after suffering a bad stroke.  I first met Scott when I moved to Clear Lake, Iowa in 1985 and Krazy Kory introduced us.  Scott and has family were very good to me throughout high school and even convinced me to join the wrestling team which was a big stretch for a mouthy 90 pound kid that I was.  We stayed in touch over the years and would connect in the summer for golf and chat on the phone every few weeks or so.  Scott was a great guy and I will miss him dearly.  May he Rest in Peace.

  Our intense cold has continued throughout the week with the temperatures never going above zero.  Blue has been going insane without his regular walks and he finally convinced me to take him to the lake so he could run out some energy.  I threw a few balls for him, but didn't last very long at all.  Poor dog.

It's so cold, the poor rabbits in our backyards are having their ears freeze and fall off their heads.  This guy is lucky to still have one left.

We missed the opportunity to go to a Super Bowl party this year, but did enjoy cuddling up under some blankets and watching Tom Brady settle the GOAT competition once and for all.

 Miss Sheri and I celebrated 27 years of marriage this week.  We braved up and went out to a restaurant for our first date night in a few months.  It was nice to feel some normalcy again, even if there was a big piece of tape down the middle of the table indicating we couldn't sit too close to the people at the table next to us.  

To make the night even more special, we went to visit the new Scheels store in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Scheels has modernized their operations for a full "Experiential Retail" sales model including large aquariums in the entry way, an ice skating rink, golf simulators, arcade games, and all sorts of fun things to visit.

They even have a big Ferris Wheel in the middle of the store which was out of operation due to Covid.  Because we all know how much of a Super Spreader ride the Ferris Wheel can be.

There's even life-sized Vikings you can visit.  We thought this was pretty cool until we got close and it started moving and talking to us which startled us mightily.  John Randle was a scary dude when he played and his mannequin follows suit pretty well.

There's also a large hunting section, but they don't allow actual hunting inside the store.  I'm not sure if that's a Covid thing also, but will check it out in the future to see if that policy changes.