At some point between last week and this week, I blinked, and suddenly, everything turned green! I’m always surprised by how fast this transition happens here in North Dakota, but those long days sure make any vegetation happy, I’m sure.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mom friends, family and readers! Celebrate the woman who is the heart of your family, the anchor who gives the greatest gift of all, unconditional love. Remember, no matter what life has thrown at her, you can always remind her she doesn’t have ugly children.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia I’m a mommy’s boy. Not that I didn’t spend lots of good quality time with my dad growing up, because I most certainly did...but there is just a special bond between a son and his mom that is hard to explain. Mum-z grew up with two older brothers, Harold and Richard, which might explain her personality. Uncle Harold was a bit of a hell raiser; Uncle Dick was more reserved and grounded, but both would pick on their little sister as older brothers do. My mom and dad were brought up during the Great Depression, and that experience would shape their lives. After completing their WWII military obligations, they joined the workforce, bought land, built a house, and then married. After having been married for several years, paying off their home and building a nest egg, they decided to start a family. Mom would tell me hundreds of times that having me was work. She gave birth to me at the age of 36, which was not unheard of, but it wasn’t the norm in 1959. I would be the only child.

As a school psychologist working for a small public school, I remember a teacher asking me to observe a student in her classroom. She expressed concerns about an elementary student’s unusual behavior, lack of playing with classmates, lack of communication, and even some unusual motor movements, including flapping her hands. This was in 2001, and I was experiencing my first referral for a student who would eventually receive an educational diagnosis of autism.

Sometimes, I run out of space in my garden or have extra transplants after planting the garden. I usually end up planting these extras in my containers. Container gardening is a great way to supplement in-ground or raised bed production. Containers can also serve as the sole production source for those with small spaces or those short on time and labor.

Wait a minute. I wasn’t done talking about April yet, and now it’s May! That’s a good sign, I guess; I wanted May to get here, I just didn’t realize how quickly it was arriving.

For those who don’t know, writing isn’t my first love. It’s actually making and creating art.

The Veterans Honor Flight is a non-profit, 100% volunteer organization that takes veterans to Washington, D.C. free of charge to visit the memorials built in their honor. There is a sign-up and a waiting list for veterans with top priority given to the senior veterans – World War II and Korean War veterans – along with other veterans who may be terminally ill. Sadly, most of the World War II and Korean War veterans have now passed away, so the Vietnam veterans have started to make the journey on the Honor Flight. My father-in-law, Bernie, was selected to participate in a recent flight that departed in the wee hours of Easter morning. Bernie, along with about 100 fellow veterans and chaperone volunteers, flew to Washington, D.C. for a whirlwind trip, stopping at all the most important veteran memorials. On the second evening of their trip, the veterans were honored at a banquet where they received, to their surprise, an envelope full of thank you cards and letters.

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia As you’ll recall, I’ve been pulled over for speeding on the Massachusetts Turnpike. I’m still dressed in my three-legged clown costume after having finished my adults only standup routine at the strip bar. The Massachusetts State Police trooper has made it clear that I’m breaking the law by operating a motor vehicle while disguised. He has discovered my third leg and has ordered me to exit the vehicle, which is my father’s Volkswagen Beetle. If you’re unclear as to any other details, I suggest you re-read the previous articles in this series. What follows is the actual transcript of the continuing conversation I’m having with the trooper. We’ll call him Trooper Friendly (TF), and I’m identified as E3C (Ernie the Three-Legged Clown).

By Bob Simmons, CEO, Simmons Multimedia We left each other last week just as I’d been pulled over on the Massachusetts Turnpike right after my debut stand up comedy/master of ceremonies routine at the famed Magic Lantern Strip Club in beautiful Palmer, Mass. A quick review – this short, maybe quarter mile section of ‘the pike’, goes past a Monsanto chemical plant that at the time had been manufacturing ingredients used in plastics. Everyone who didn’t have a vehicle with air conditioning would speed past and roll up their windows to minimize time spent smelling the unholy odor. It was late, after midnight. I needed to get Dad’s Volkswagen Beetle back to him in time for work later that morning. What’s more, I also needed to get home and catch a few hours of sleep because I also had to be at work; remember, at the time I was the 5:309am goofy morning drive ‘shock jock’ on WARE Radio. I’ve just been pulled over by a no-nonsense, big, burly Massachusetts State Police officer. He’s tapping on the driver’s side window of the VW and in a very loud commanding voice saying, “ROLL IT DOWN!” I rolled down the window as instructed, and I looked up at him but couldn’t make out his face. The high intensity beam of light from his super-duper deluxe state police issued flashlight was blinding me. I could kind of make out the outline of his Smokey Bear or ‘campaign’ hat, as they are properly referred to, but it was so confusing. Between his flashlight, the spotlight from his cruiser, and the rapid flashing blue light from the roof of his cop car, I thought I might have a seizure. The odd thing is that every once in a while another car would go past really, really slowly, I could see the drivers and occupants in those other vehicles with open mouths in wonderment as they stared at me like I was some felon. Before he could say another word, I immediately began to explain that I knew I was going fast, but it was just to get by the chemical plant. What follows is the transcript of the conversation as best as I can recall. TF is Trooper Friendly (not his real name), E3C denotes Ernie the Three-Legged Clown (me).