Chance encounters at garage sales

Like many folks, I enjoyed Waseca’s city wide garage sales this past weekend. The experience was delightful. When all was said and done I didn’t purchase many items but enjoyed the trip with friends. 

Among our many stops was the Stensrud estate sale, where I ran into Sarah Born-Raetz. It seems I run into her often. I am friends with her niece Morgan Born–oh and Sarah is my longtime payroll accountant. She and her husband and their family have an interesting story. There’s honestly too much to say that isn’t appropriate to share in the paper, but I will say this, it was unexpected. Together they have six kids, the youngest of which are truly adorable. Their youngest, Paisley, is 2 or 3 and I’ve met her a few times now. 

The first was when Sarah brought Paisley along to my office while working on some tax filing tasks, and then again on Mothers day. That day, my family and I went to the Willows in New Richland and after we all got seated I looked up: Directly at the table across from me was this adorable little girl looking at me and smiling. When I looked around, there were her great-grandparents who I recognized from attending Waseca basketball games. Nearby sat Addison, who I believe is the oldest of the six Born-Raetz offspring. Addison is a senior this year and hoping to break the school record in pole vaulting. Before this last meet he got a brand new “pole vaulting pole” (I’m sure there’s an official name) and he made height but just clipped the bar. Good luck Addison. 

I lost count of others I recognized, but the most notable was Kelly Boedeker from a local non-profit, Waseca Area Care Givers, which is located across the street from the post office. Kelly’s son, Devin Stankiewicz, is engaged to my first cousin Morgan Besser. They live up in Alaska. 

All in all, it was a great morning/afternoon. When done shopping we concluded with some food from Pizza Ranch. 

I should probably talk about some of the “newsing” I did this past week. I don’t have as much as usual to report, since I came down with a terrible cold after I returned home Saturday and have been hampered by it. So, my newsing was simply doling out assignments among our wonderful editorial staff. 

P.S. I am terribly sorry to the Waseca Area Foundation for not making it to their program. Wednesdays are the day I put the paper together (electronically) and I couldn’t attend. Regardless, I should have attended. To make matters worse, I genuinely enjoy hearing, seeing, photographing, and writing about each award winner and their grant. I didn’t get to do that this time so my guilt and regret are compounded. Not only did I let Amy Potter and the Foundation down, I also missed out on a fun grant ceremony. They really do incredible work at the WAF: I’m grateful for all they do. 

“Next time!" In what calendar are kept the records of those next times which never come?”

― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona