“After the 8.8 megathrust earthquake struck near Russia Tuesday night, tsunami warnings, watches and advisories were issued for coastlines on the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, there was at least one person concerned that the tsunami threat could impact Fargo, North Dakota.
“‘There is no threat for tsunami impacts in North Dakota,’ said the Grand Forks office of the National Weather Service. The agency was responding to a user on X who pointed out that people had been searching Google for tsunami concerns in North Dakota….”
What the Grand Forks National Weather Service office said was accurate, in the context of that day’s tsunami concerns on Pacific shores. North Dakota is as far inland as you can get on the North American continent.
But, as the article pointed out, North Dakota does have lakes, and lakes can have ‘lake tsunamis’ — but, seriously, in North Dakota Lakes: that’s not much of a problem.
I’m a little curious about why someone Googled tsunamis and North Dakota.
I might have, just to see what Google came up with. But not many folks have a brain that’s wired like mine: for which we should all thank a merciful God.
Someone Googling North Dakota tsunamis out of fear that an aquatic avalanche of apocalyptic proportions might surge over the Rocky Mountains? That raises more issues than I’m going to think about this week. Or want to think about, for that matter.
Oh, boy. My eyes are still feeling smoky — I talked about that yesterday — and I’m still looking forward to waking up this week.
Sharing this weird — and, I hope, entertaining — bit of news seemed like a good idea. I hope you enjoyed it.
Weather in the contiguous 50 states: July 30, 2025 15:56 UTC / 10:56 a.m. CDT Wednesday.
Like the song says: “smoke gets in your eyes”, nose and throat.
It’s not really funny. But at least we can get a heads-up on how bad the smoke is.
Oddly enough, despite its name this state’s “Pollution Control Agency” can’t actually control the smoke that’s been drifting past us. And that’s another topic.
Here in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, we’ve got an Air Quality Alert that’s running until 5:00 p.m. Saturday.
Air quality in Minnesota and surrounding states/provinces. (July 30, 2025, 3:30 p.m.)
This time around, I can’t actually see the stuff that shouldn’t be in our air.
But I can feel it. And I suspect the smoke that’s been drifting through is at least partly behind how I’ve been feeling: tired.
Granted, I’m in my mid-70s. But this “tired” above and beyond the usual ‘not a 40-year-old kid any more’ thing.
On the ‘up’ side, it’s nowhere near as bad as a few weekends back. Several weekends back? Anyway, then the haze here in Sauk Centre was brown. That’s unusual, and not good.
Maybe a cup of coffee will help. Or two. Either way, I’m getting my feet up for a while.
Right. One more thing: I’ve talked this summer’s atmospheric ambiance before:
A corner of my father-in-law’s workshop. (ca. 2005)
One thing I like about families — the one(s) I’m in, at any rate — are the legacies.
In my dialect of English a “legacy” is generally money or property handed down from one generation to another.
Legacies of that sort matter. My wife and I are in the process of updating our will, I suppose it’ll be wills, and that’s another topic.
But the legacies I’m thinking of aren’t worth much, in terms of taxable assets.
Although each of us is a unique individual, we also inherit whatever’s in the genes of our biological parents: along with the experiences, attitudes, habits, values, and stories of the folks who raised us.
I figure our oldest daughter suggested that I start sharing ‘family stories’ here because she sees some sort of value in them.
Anyway, that gets me to an ancestor — my father’s mother’s father — Arba Zeri Campbell.
He was, apparently, a lot like me. He liked high-tech stuff. But, being born 99 years before I was — in 1852 — our high-tech options were a trifle different.
Arba Zeri Campbell may have had, relatively speaking, more disposable income than this household ever did. Or maybe he and I shared interests that put getting new tech near the top of our non-essential priorities.
Either way, he was the first person in his part of the world — northeastern Illinois — with a telephone connection. The first.
That’s an accomplishment. But it also meant that he had to wait a long time before he got any calls on his telephone.
Families: Barker, Hulse, and Campbell
I did a little checking before writing this, and found “Arba Zeri Campbell” mentioned twice in my first search results: as one of the children of Erixna Barker, who married David Samuel Campbell; and as the husband of Eliza Carlina Hulse.1
That may connect with my habit of referring to couples I know as “[woman’s name] and [man’s name]”. Then again, maybe not.
I also learned that Erixna and David had at least six children, one of them dying young:
Adelaide Louisa Campbell 1841-1844
Zeno Adelbert Campbell 1843-1891
Adaline Alice Campbell 1847-1918
Arba Zeri Campbell 1852-1937
Lois Isabelle Campbell 1857-1923
Earl D Campbell 1861-1861
Again, like me and my wife: we’ve had six kids, and four of them are still alive.
Being a Catholic Family: Just the Basics
All this family and genealogy stuff reminded me that I haven’t talked about how family, marriage, and all that fits into what I believe. Not recently.
I’m — obviously, I suppose — a Catholic. So I think that family is important.
“The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2207) [emphasis mine]
Any and all ideas there can be warped: ‘authority’, ‘stability’, ‘security’, even ‘freedom’.
I could, for example, act as if my ‘authority’ as a husband and father means I can do whatever I want. It didn’t, it doesn’t, and acting that way would be a very bad idea.
Basically, in a family, children have responsibilities. Parents have responsibilities. (Catechism, 2214-2220, 2221-2231)
Those responsibilities do not include telling my kids who they should marry. Or whether they should get married. Or what sort of profession they get into. That’s just one aspect of being part of a family. The Catechism devotes more than two thousand words to discussing what a family is, and how families should work: which I see as a good introduction. (Catechism, 2201-2233)
Again, ‘family’ is very important to Catholics, or should be.
Another important point: my kids are people, not property. The same goes for my wife. And, for that matter, me. (Catechism, 2360-2379)
The ‘how to be a family’ thing boils down to what Jesus said about ‘the whole law and the prophets’. I should love God, love my neighbor, and see everybody as my neighbor. (Matthew 5:43–44, 22:36–40; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 6:31, 10:25–37; Catechism, 1789)
Which, as I keep saying, is simple: and very, very hard to do.
I’ve looked at why ‘family’ matters and how it’s done before. But, like I said, not recently:
The Sauk Centre Walmart grocery entrance’s new mural by Lili Lennox. (June 30, 2025)
Things keep changing. That’s hardly a new idea.
“Everything changes and nothing stands still” (“πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει”, quoted by Plato in “Cratylus” ) (Heraclitus, Wikiquote)
I’ll be talking about the new mural in my town’s Walmart, how this isn’t the America I grew up in, changes that have been for the better, and why the latest thing in looming dooms — looks both familiar, and not all that distressing.
Sauk Centre’s Walmart Still Here: So is Downtown Sauk Centre
Okay, it’s just a sign: but “Thank you, Sauk Centre” is a nice touch.
Again, change happens. Take the Walmart Supercenter here in Sauk Centre, for example. Construction started in the summer of 2006. They opened mid-April, 2007.
Some folks, when they learned that we’d be getting a massive new employer and customer magnet near the Interstate, seemed convinced that we were doomed.
Others didn’t think it would ‘destroy downtown’, and figured that more folks coming off the Interstate meant more folks stopping for gas, getting something to eat, and maybe even shopping for stuff that wasn’t at Walmart.
That’s how I saw it, too. Nearly two decades later, Sauk Centre’s downtown is still here. Not exactly the same, but it’s still here.
I was getting my hips replaced in 2006, but took a few photos as Sauk Centre’s new business took shape.
Wal-Mart’s Grand Opening in Sauk Centre. April 18, 2007.
“The first impression I had, walking inside, was that the place was big. Really big. Sauk Centre being the size it is, I knew quite a few of Wal-Mart’s night shift, who were lined up to greet people coming in for the Grand Opening this morning.
First impression: this place is big! April 18, 2007.
“About 7:30 this morning, the Sauk Centre High School Choir sang Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo, or something of that sort, the store manager and Sauk Centre’s mayor said a few words, and finally, right around 8:00, a humungous scissors cut the ceremonial ribbon….”
The next big change in the Sauk Centre Walmart came this year.
They spent a few months shuffling merchandise around: adding a version of hide-and-seek to my weekly errands there.
It wasn’t just playing musical chairs with shelving.
They put glass-front doors on the eggs and dairy section’s refrigerated shelving, which adds a few steps to reaching stuff, but probably takes less energy.
The pharmacy’s computers were upgraded, involving the usual steep learning curve and/or glitchy new system. I’ve very likely not noticed other changes.
Then, on May 30, I missed the big ‘remodeling is done’ ceremony:
“Walmart remodel unveiled” Sauk Centre Herald (June 5, 2025) “The Walmart Supercenter remodel project was officially unveiled May 30 as the store welcomed guests to a ribbon cutting ceremony at 8 a.m. in Sauk Centre….”
I did, however, noticed that stuff I picked up was staying put. Which was a nice change of pace.
Eventually, I used the grocery entrance and noticed their new artwork.
I’d expected a fresh coat of paint as part of the remodeling, but not anything like that mural.
I meant to bring my camera along the next week, but forgot. And forgot, again, the week after that.
Eventually I didn’t forget, spending an interesting few minutes getting the whole mural into one picture.
I’ve lived in Sauk Centre since the 1980s, so I immediately recognized two downtown locations: the bakery and Mainstreet Theatre. Although I’ve never seen Sauk Centre’s movie theater festooned with lights like that.
Sauk Centre’s bandshell is larger than the mural shows it, and down by the lake: not in Main Street, as the mural’s perspective implies. But that’s just nitpicking.
The mural-in-a-mural, that little bit of a viking ship’s sail inside the band shell, isn’t just a flight of fancy on the artist’s part. Sauk Centre’s Roger Reinardy and other folks created “a 3D musical interpretation” there in 2017.
The band shell mural was new to me: I really don’t get out much these days.
Getting back to the new Walmart mural: a Minnesota artist created it, Lili Lennox. While discovering that, I saw that Sauk Centre businesses have become more ‘mural conscious’:
The “Local Walmart stuns…” article, by the way, is on a site that makes you sign in before reading. I didn’t. I caught the artist’s name in a Google search result summary for hometownsource.com, which might be a reasonable ‘for more information’ resource.
America Has Changed: Good News, Actually
More than six decades later: new buildings, new snowfall, old memories. (February 2022)
“There’s nothing quite so lovely as a brightly burning book”. The Hon:Mole MacCarony in Pogo. (March 30, 1953)
This isn’t the America I grew up in.
The political situation — actually, that hasn’t changed much. We’ve got new folks in charge, with new slogans and different quirks and preferences; but there’s the same quaint notion that ‘freedom of speech’ only applies to remarks supporting the ‘proper’ viewpoint. And that’s another topic.
Society as a whole — apart from the usual doomsayers, prognosticators, and passionate proponents of one Great Cause or another — that’s changed a lot.
For instance, when I was in Walmart this week I noticed a few families shopping. Families: mother, father, kids.
Part of that may be the increased number of Hispanic, or whatever the currently-proper term is, folks living around here. But I’ve seen families with my congenital melanin deficiency, too. That is very much not the way it used to be.
I mean, folks got married and had kids back when I was growing up. Humans, and human nature, hasn’t changed.
But in public? You’d see a mother and kids in the grocery or downtown. On Sunday, you’d see a mother and kids — and a father — at church. But the father wouldn’t be interacting with the kids, any more than absolutely necessary. And he’d never be caught actually holding a baby.
The current habit many fathers have, acting as if they’re part of the family — in public — that’s a huge change from the America of my youth.
Good Ideas and Perspective
Public information poster. (ca.1938)
I didn’t notice anyone with an obvious physical or mental disability in Walmart this week. But the ‘disabled parking’ spots were full when I arrived, so I had to wait for one to open up.
I didn’t actually have to wait. But it’s a whole lot easier on me if I park in one of those close-to-the-entrance spots.
Disabled parking got started in the mid-1970s, along with now-commonplace features like curb cuts: those little ramps at intersections that let folks on wheels cross the street.
I think such things are good ideas. Partly because I think letting folks with imperfect bodies cross streets and get into stores nearly as well as their neighbors makes sense. And partly because I’m one of those folks.
I also think good ideas can be rushed straight off the edge of sanity. A decade or so back now, I argued against a nifty idea that might have made accessible ramps mandatory for all buildings. All buildings. Think about it.
Let’s put this in perspective.
Today, you might see someone in a wheelchair, or otherwise not physically fit, in public.
Six decades back, things were different. The town I grew up in had, as far as anyone might casually notice, one disabled person: a middle-aged man with a rather noticeable case of kyphosis — a hunchback, in other words.
Fargo-Moorhead hadn’t grown to its current population then, but the odds were that a great many other of the 80,000 or so folks living there weren’t quite standard-issue, one way or another.
Since I’m arguably Lebensunwertes Leben, life unworthy of life,1 I see my culture’s increasing tolerance for folks who can’t live what used to be called a “quality lifestyle” as a good thing. For the most part.
Crises du Jour, Doing Our Job
“Crossword Murder” headline in the Cincinnati Post. (December 18, 1925)
A hundred years ago, chaos stalked the streets as madness ran rampant.
Experts and journalists warned us that crosswords were hurting our eyes, rotting our memories, imperiling families, destroying marriages, and making people commit murder. And yet, somehow, we survived.
Time passed, the crises du jour changed, and now I’m seeing today’s experts and journalists telling us that we’re doomed for new-and-improved reasons.
I think we’ve got real problems. We always have.
Some problems, at least their technical aspects, are new. Most — my opinion — are pretty much the same ones we’ve always had. Just repackaged, with new labels and a fresh coat of paint.
And, arguably, some of the same old problems become less common, while others elbow their way to the front of the line.
Part of our job was, and still is, noticing and correcting today’s societal ills while noticing and preserving what’s going right. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1928-1942, 2239; for starters)
I had planned on talking about some of today’s more front-of-the-line issues. But then a reliable old program I use stopped being reliable, and I saw how long this week’s post had become. So that will wait.
Besides, I’ve talked about that sort of thing before:
Disabled parking permit (“This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a particular audience….”)
Eugenics (“…a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population….”)[I strongly suspect it’s more ‘rebranded’ than ‘discredited’]
Eugenics in the United States (“This article’s lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points….”)
Flash floods in central Texas: still searching for victims, clearing debris. Later: finding answers.
Centracare Clinic, Sauk Centre.
This week’s post is a follow-up on two posts: last week’s, when I talked about flash floods in central Texas; and another where I talked about a biopsy and storms.
Briefly, the sore on my leg looked awful, but was “benign”.
The situation in central Texas is still very bad news: the number of known dead is upwards of 100 now. Someone in emergency services tried getting a warning out. But then — it looks like something went badly wrong.
A Sunday afternoon’s weather in June. (“What a Weekend!” (June 22, 2025)
I haven’t learned anything more about damage in Sauk Centre from June’s storm. Folk living in and near “Eagle’s Healing Nest” and elsewhere on the north side apparently got the debris cleared okay.
Up on the Red River Valley1 homestead where our number-two daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and number-one daughter live, getting the mill running again wasn’t a huge issue. Getting the roof repaired/replaced, on the other hand, will be a job.
And I learned that they’ll need to repair/replace the door, too. It’s one of those oversize industrial garage door things. That, and sealing what number-two daughter called “exit holes”, where wind-blown stuff went through the walls — that job is more, I gather, a matter of applying patches.
But the main thing is that NOBODY GOT HURT, and all the critters are okay. They’ve got a kennel on the property, nearer the house: the dogs spent time in the house while the storm was in progress.
What’s remarkable is that there wasn’t more damage. That’s very likely due to the roof that our son-in-law is building being in the right place, at the right angle.
Folks in the Red River Valley area experienced a derecho. Depending on who’s talking, it was category 2 or 3. In other words, the homestead had 115+ mile an hour winds. Small wonder part of the mill roof peeled back.
But another roof, the one son-in-law has been building for a chapel, was in the right place at the right angle. VERY likely, it deflected winds and debris, or “the whole roof might have gone”, as number-two daughter put it.
Biopsy and Good News
A few days before the storms, June 19, 2025, I got a treat of sorts: a biopsy. Which is a fancy way of saying a doctor took a pinhead-size sample of skin from one of my legs.
Calling that a “treat” probably sounds weird. But I don’t remember having a sample taken that way before, and I enjoyed seeing how that particular bit of medical technology works.
How It Was Done, Reading the Results
The open sore has been a problem since — April, I think. It had been getting bigger, and was turning an unpleasant color. That, I’ll admit, was concerning.
This biopsy process involved Novocaine to desensitize the skin. Then the doctor took something that looked like a very skinny ballpoint pen with a stubby metal cylinder sticking out one end. The cylinder was about as big around as the ink holder in low-end ballpoints.
He rolled/rotated the ‘pen’, pushing the business end into the middle of the patch that didn’t look right. That part didn’t hurt a bit, thanks to the Novocaine, I suppose.
Dabbing silver nitrate where he’d taken a tiny divot of skin: that, I felt. Turns out it’s an effective cauterizing agent.
About a week later, I read the biopsy results. The regional healthcare outfit in these parts has an online service that lets me see such things, do some appointment paperwork ahead of time, and — I appreciate being able to access the information.
And I REALLY liked that the first word was “benign”:
“Benign skin with underlying dermal vascular proliferation, extensive chronic inflammation, patchy acute inflammation and red blood cell extravasation….” (Lab report from my biopsy of June 19, 2025) [I LIKE having access to information like this: and that I could see it before the doctor did]
“Benign” was good to see. So was noticing, over the last couple weeks, that the sore has been (1) getting smaller and (2) turning a less-concerning color.
This week’s trip to the local clinic confirmed the impression I had, that the sore is healing. I’ll have another scar from this, but the sore IS healing.
Wrapping this bit up —
You don’t run into the word “extravasation” every day. I don’t, at any rate. It’s medical-speak for leakage into surrounding tissue. I’ve put links to a more formal definition, and some decent overviews of what biopsies are and how they’re done, at the end of this post.2
Central Texas Flash Floods: Waiting for a Supervisor’s Approval?
Guadalupe River, Texas, looking east toward Cypress Creek. (Google Maps 2023)
Although it’s not good news, an item I read on Friday helped me feel a bit better about some of the folks living in central Texas.
Up here in central Minnesota, we can expect wild weather year-round.
During the summer, when we get word that something like tornadoes are possible, spotters — locals who sign up for the task — deploy around towns, in the general direction that a storm is coming from. If one of them sees/hears something bad at their location, they call in. It doesn’t stop the twisters, but it lets the rest of us know it’s time to head into shelters.
Sounds like folks in central Texas have a similar setup.
Just one problem.
A firefighter noticed and reported a submerged road sign, maybe early enough to give some folks time to run. But somewhere between that firefighter and the folks who died, vital information got stuck in traffic.
I don’t feel up to summarizing, so here are two excerpts from a BBC News piece:
“A Texas firefighter asked if emergency flood alerts could be sent to Kerr County residents about an hour before the first warnings were received, audio reveals.
“In the recording, obtained by US outlets, the firefighter asks at 04:22 on 4 July if a CodeRED alert can be issued. The dispatcher says a supervisor needs to approve the request.
“Some residents received the alert an hour later – for others it took up to six hours, according to reports. Asked about the delays, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said officials were putting together a timeline….” [emphasis mine]
Now, I can see why folks setting up an emergency response protocol might want someone with a little extra training and experience give the ‘okay’ before declaring an emergency.
But around here, if a spotter reports a twister, we’re told: usually BEFORE it gets to us.
Timing is very important in situations like this.
Again, hats off to the firefighter who reported an underwater sign.
“…In the recording of the firefighter’s dispatch call, the emergency responder can be heard saying: ‘The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39.
“‘Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?’
“‘Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor,’ the dispatcher replied….
“The Texas Newsroom, which first reported on the audio, said some residents received a CodeRED alert around an hour after that.
“The earliest alert ABC News’ affiliate could confirm was 05:34. Kerrville’s mayor did not receive an alert for 90 minutes, he told the Texas Tribune.
“Some messages did not arrive until after 10:00, multiple news outlets reported.
“Asked on Wednesday about possible delays to emergency communications, Sheriff Leitha said he was first notified around the ‘four to five area’ — and that ‘we’re in the process of trying to put a timeline’.
“‘That’s going to take a little bit of time,’ he told reporters at a news conference. ‘That is not my priority at this time.’…
“…The National Weather Service sent several about rain and possible flooding starting on Thursday afternoon, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) activated state resources because of flooding concerns….” (“Texans did not immediately receive flood alerts after request, audio reveals” Brandon Drenon, BBC News, Washington DC; Mallory Moench, BBC News, London (July 10, 2025)) [emphasis mine]
My guess is that, ideally, there shouldn’t be a one-to-six-hour delay while paperwork for a “CodeRED alert” gets processed.
Sheriff Leitha’s “That is not my priority at this time” — makes sense. To me, at least. Putting search and other immediate concerns ahead of sorting out what went so spectacularly wrong sounds like reasonable priorities.
So What?
(The Great Storm of 1703: bad news for England, and an English sermon topic for generations.)
From the sounds of it, folks in central Texas could, starting Thursday afternoon, have seen Weather Service warnings that flash floods were likely that night.
A definitive ‘head for the hills’ alert came almost comically late.
Something went wrong. Many things, very likely. What those things were, I don’t know.
The political angle — what I called the usual baying of the hounds last week — is still nattering its way through my news feed. I hope it doesn’t keep folks who care about their neighbors from finding out what went wrong, and fixing the problem.
My view is that more than a hundred people died, very likely in part because warnings that might have saved a few lives took too much time to clear bureaucratic hurdles. That’s close to a best-case scenario, I fear.
I’ve been reining myself in, not venting about some of my fears: partly because I see no point in the exercise, partly because it’d take me too close to breaking a very important rule.
Loving Neighbors, Making Sense
Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, ink drawing by Rembrant.
I’m a Catholic.
As such, I should love God and my neighbors — and see everybody as my neighbor. No exceptions. (Matthew 5:43–44, 22:36–40; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 6:31, 10:25–37; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1706, 1776, 1789, 1825, 1849-1851, 1955)
Loving my neighbors, all of them, and unleashing how I feel about how some of them may have acted — or, rather, not acted — those aren’t compatible options. Not this week.
On the other hand, suggesting that finding out what went wrong is a good idea does come under the heading of ‘loving my neighbors’. Make that finding out, then taking steps to reduce the odds that it’ll happen again.
Finally, about that biopsy and the state of my health —
Being healthy is okay. Being not-healthy is okay. Trying to get or stay healthy is a good idea, within reason. What each of us does matters.
If that sounds familiar, it should.
I’ve talked about health, disasters, and making sense, before:
Something new each Saturday.
Life, the universe and my circumstances permitting. I'm focusing on 'family stories' at the moment. ("A Change of Pace: Family Stories" (11/23/2024))
Blog - David Torkington
Spiritual theologian, author and speaker, specializing in prayer, Christian spirituality and mystical theology [the kind that makes sense-BHG]
I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
