Attribution: USDAgov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, rarely needs to see a veterinarian but is interested in the keeper’s news that the UW Vet School is working on a program to ease the looming big-animal veterinarian shortage across the rural environs. With the inflated economics of the vet school …
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Category:Memories
Kickass and Grandma’s Sewing Maching
Attribution: Panjigally, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper’s family as it struggles with the problem of what to do with grandma’s old sewing machine. The dilemma is as common as weeds, and has generated multiple businesses to help with recycling “junk.” There are, of course, …
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Kickass and Cooking a Shore Lunch
Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the colorful air wafting down from Canada reminds the keeper of one of his more embarrassing–nay, “humiliating” moments, when on a Canadian fishing trip, he took it upon himself to cook the fish shore lunch for his father, Uncle Duffy and their …
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Kickass and “Takes a Peek”
Attribution: A McCarron, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper remembering the experience of a relative who, with his wife, was being shown a for-sale house when the realtor pointed to a door and identified it as a closet. Interested in seeing it all, my in-law intended …
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Kickass and Long-Ago Summers
Attribution: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives from Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, shares the speakers’ couch with the keeper on this post 4th of July morning to allow him to revive other such mornings when the rural communities across the Midwest measured them by: *Cavernous hay mows stuffed to the …
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Kickass and the Country’s Birthdays
Attribution: Emanuel Leutze, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, in this time of celebrating the USA’s birthday, honors the keeper’s claim for the stage to reflect on the 200th birthday back in 1976 when he spent several weeks on a fascinating tour of meaningful historic sites for a series of …
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Kickass Goes to the Fair
Attribution:Rhode Island Collection, Providence Public Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper honors the season of summer fairs by recalling the Barron County Fair in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, when he and his cousin Rob watched a young woman catch a bullet in her teeth. He …
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Kickass and Haircut Memories
Attribution: F. Holland Day, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper has been patronizing the school across the parking lot for his haircuts, enjoying the attention of a young ambitious student who snips at him gently under an instructor’s instructions. Like all things in the keeper’s …
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Circularity
Attribution: Photo by Galina Nelyubova on Unsplash By Geoff Carter A couple weeks ago, some old college buddies and I got together to go to our annual Brewers’ game outing. We keep in touch mostly because we exchange emails that inevitably spiral into discussions about politics, sports, and other sundry subjects, but we’ve known each other for decades. …
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Kickass and Free Fun of D-Day
Attribution: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper and Phyllis’s acknowledgment of this June 6 as yet another “D-Day” slowly disappearing into the cultural topsoil. It’s assimilation is aided today by such things as the DNR’s promotion of free “fun days” when …
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Kickass and Grandpa’s Long Underwear
Attribution: Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper making the switch from winter to summer shirts, which means short sleeves and bare arms for the next four months or so. The move equates to the critters shedding their winter coats and the birds showing …
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Kickass and Old Friend Roger
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper received a 95th birthday notice from OLD friend Roger Locke, a fellow member of the Barron WI. High School class of 1949. The class was close to 100 in 1949 and may now be represented only by Roger and the …
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