…and observations along the way
Congratulations, Abigail, on graduation from St. Olaf College! Your accomplishment is one more stride, and a big one at that, in a lifetime of purposeful activity. In my memory, a tangible expression of your diligence were observations when picking you up at the end of a school day. As I watched other students, I noticed … Continue reading Deliberate Strides…a letter to my daughter
As Christians around the world focus on the gospel’s good news in anticipation of the joy of Easter, juxtaposed with the Russian assault against the good people of Ukraine, I am reminded of Bill, an early mentor in my career. I knew them simply as Ukrainian Easter eggs, and admired Bill’s patience and ability to … Continue reading A message of hope for Good Friday
Gaard v2.0 and Gaard v1.0 - check us out on Strava! I may be biased, but…well, my dad is way cooler than your dad! Since getting an e-bike this spring, Dad (Virgil Gaard, 83) has been chewing up the local trails near Madison, Wisconsin, routinely posting rides of 20, and even up to 30, miles. … Continue reading Father’s Day Ride…with Dad!
Good Friday 2018, Day 0 Christmas Eve 2020, Day 1,000 I live within the Driftless Area, a region of southwestern Wisconsin that also includes parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. The region escaped the flattening effects of retreating glaciers during the last ice age and is characterized by steeply forested hills and deeply carved … Continue reading By the Numbers
Apropos for Holy Week, at least from my vantage point, is a story I submitted after receiving a life-giving bone marrow transplant. Coincidentally, my transplant took place on Good Friday (2018), a day that Christians around the world focus on the gospel’s good news in anticipation of the joy of Easter. Amidst current COVID-19 events, … Continue reading A Healer’s Touch
I liked Dennis. Not only my client, he became my friend. Honest, upfront, and fair, I never wondered what he thought about the quality of our services. He lived his life by a series of self-generated maxims – some humorous, some serious, all pithy and exactly on point. One helped soften the blow when our … Continue reading Solving Problems…and Making Things Fit!
"...we boarded the bus early every morning and spent our days walking the rows, braving heat, humidity, and occasional rainy days and mud. Cancellations were cheered, though rare; Corwin's definition of "rain" was different from mine!" - A Few More Miles: Seed Development All of us whined about Corwin. One particularly rainy day, the bus … Continue reading The Corwin Story
The master boatbuilder George Yeoman Pocock, quietly watching the boys as they propelled his wooden creations, understood the mechanics of a flawless rowing stroke – catch, drive, release, and recovery.
I should have expected it, as I grew up in Eldora, a rural Iowa farming community. Still, I was disappointed gazing out an Iowa State dorm window and seeing nothing but cornfields, from street to distant horizon.
Faz, an upper-level leader with a nationally respected structural engineering firm, had dozens of major projects to his credit and a doctorate in structural engineering (in the A/E consulting industry, Ph.D.’s are few and far between).
A few more miles 