Martin County Star Newsmakers

News, Blues, and Blizzard Tales: The Mike Ennis Show

Michael Ennis
Speaker 1:

All right, here we go, season 2, episode number 8. It's kind of hard to believe that we're already 8 episodes into the new year, but here we are. This is April. I don't know where you're at, if it's nice and sunny or whatever, but here it's dreary, it's chilly, it's in the 40s and it's Minnesota. Right, that's the way things go. Anyway, hey, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1:

I'm Mike Ennis, I'm your host and I'm looking forward to talking with you today. I've got a couple of things here I want to talk about. Number one is this story on the front page. Proposed budget recommendations could cause devastating costs to nursing homes across Minnesota, minnesota. And the story goes that Governor Walz, his budget recommendations, are cutting some big numbers From Seasons Healthcare in Tremont they would stand to lose $361,000 over the course of four years, so just a little less than $100,000 a year. Good Samaritans in Jackson, st James and Wyndham they're they're looking at about a $4 million loss, so a million bucks a year.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm trying to figure this out exactly. I do not know what their operating budgets are because they won't share them with me. And um, so is a hundred grand. Is that a lot to them? Is that just a drop in the bucket. Is that, you know, 5% or 10%? I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to guess it's probably. Oh gee, it's probably what? 10%, let's say. Now, I'm not saying to cut things, but at the same time I bet you we could go through and cut 10% fairly easily from anybody's budget. There's waste all over the place and I know that nobody wants to hear it, but there is waste all over. And so you know, before I say that it's a terrible idea and you know I don't want to cut things from nursing homes, that's not fair but is it from the nursing home or is it just from the administration of that nursing home? So you got to look at those things and see. Anyway, that's the big story on the front page. Also, les Schwab is opening up their new tire store in Fairmont April 16th Now.

Speaker 1:

I was born in Oregon, grew up in Oregon, candy and I lived in Oregon for about 10 years. Well, maybe not quite that long. Anyway, les Schwab is everywhere. That's where they started and you know it's fun. When I saw Les Schwab coming in, I thought, wow, not that I want anybody else to go out of business, but I'm saying wow, les Schwab it's.

Speaker 1:

And they come running out and I even wrote that in the story that by the time you get into the office they'll come running out and say, what are you doing today? And you'll say, oh, I need to fix a tire, or I'm going to get a couple of new tires, or I'm looking at all the way around and they'll look and say, yeah, yeah, I can see where you've got some problems right here and whatever. And you hand them your keys. By the time you get inside they normally have your car in a bay and they have one tire off. It's just, I mean, it's always, you know I'll get in there. And then I'll say, okay, I need, I need two new tires. Or the guy will walk in and say, mike, here's what I suggest is, you need two new tires on the front, let's rotate them to the back, put the old ones on the front or whatever it is, and you're like, yeah, that sounds good, and so you go for it. So anyway, seeing them coming into the Fairmont area, that was kind of nice. It was a shot from back home, you know.

Speaker 1:

Also, I was talking to the guy Tyler. Let me see what's his name again. His last name, his first name is Tyler, his last name. It's in the article oh, toomey, tyler Toomey. And I was talking to Tyler, now he lived. He came here from Idaho, from Western Idaho, and he was telling me, you know, he's used to cold weather so that wasn't a big deal. He'd been here since early March, I guess it was. And we were talking and I asked him you know, how do you like the weather? He goes, that's no big deal. He goes. You know, winter's winter it's cold. So what about that blizzard we have? We had back around the 9th, wasn't it March, something like that? Yeah, I believe it was because we were trying to deliver the papers and, man, we had to shut down on Wednesday. We couldn't go out till Thursday to deliver the papers. We couldn't go out till Thursday to deliver the papers. Anyway, he said, yeah, he goes.

Speaker 1:

I was out someplace and somebody and I was talking to somebody and they said man, you better get back to your motel room. This blizzard is moving in. He said, okay, big deal. So by the time I got to the motel, he said the wind was blowing so hard. I got into my room and I could not see across the parking lot and I started to laugh and he said so. I had to call everybody back home and send them pictures on my phone and show them. How you know now, this is a blizzard. With that, I said, well, welcome to Minnesota. Right, you know it was a blizzard. So, anyway, he was pretty amazed by it. So welcome, though, to Les Schwab. I look forward to having them in the area.

Speaker 1:

Sheila or, excuse me, lori took a pretty nice picture of a. Well, it was just a. Let me see here. It says a strange looking vegetable. Nope, just ice covered needles on an evergreen tree after the freezing rain on Sunday near Trimont. It's kind of an interesting picture.

Speaker 1:

It's on page one, so you've got a chance you can take a peek at that. Page two, of course, has all of our opinion pages. We have Rich Lowry. He's a regular and Rich writes and he has his title is Mayor Michelle Wu versus Immigration Enforcement.

Speaker 1:

Why are they? That's what I don't understand. I really don't understand why they're fighting ICE so badly. Maybe Europe, maybe you can't stand ice, you want illegal aliens here, but they're talking about taking people out who are rapists and murderers and child abductors. These are people we do not want in our country, right, or am I? Have I missed something and somebody's people are fighting against this. I mean it. Just, some days I shake my head and try to figure out exactly what. Is it just because it's Trump, or do you truly hate that? I think it's just because it's Trump. They just hate Trump so much and Elon Musk so much that, whatever they do in fact, I've even seen reports on television where they'll read something and say what do you think about that? And they'll say, well, I hate it, blah, blah, blah, blah. It came from Trump, right. Next thing, you know, they go. Well, not really, this was written by Obama or by Clinton. They're going oh well, it's not so bad. So it proves my point, they just. You know, if you want to hate something, then hate it for the right reason. If you want to stand behind it and say I hate that, then I hate it, no matter who wrote it.

Speaker 1:

You can't pick and choose in this world. A lot of people want to. They just want to. You know, stay with one party, man. I, you know I would. I anyway, I don't care for either party. To be honest, the party itself, the party itself, the party itself. There's people in the party that I like, but the party itself.

Speaker 1:

I'm not a big fan of, not a big fan of, aunt Ivy. She was pretty funny. If you get a chance to read her, do so. She's on page four. It's pretty funny. Let me read it to you. All right, I will, because I like reading it.

Speaker 1:

Dear Ed Ivy, I'm not sure how to ask this question, as it's a bit embarrassing. I'm glad you don't use real names. Here's my concern. I live in an apartment building and I love to sing in the shower. Well, don't we all, don't we all? The problem is I don't sing that well, well, don't we all? But I don't. But I didn didn't care because I was singing to myself. I recently discovered that the girl next door can hear me when I sing. We've all faced that at some time or another.

Speaker 1:

I didn't know this. No big deal, you would say, right. Well, the songs I sing are love songs to her. What? Her name is? Roxanne, true, now, wait, you would probably say so what? There are lots of Roxannes, true, I say. But I'm singing the song called Sheila by Tommy Rowe. Remember that one? Here are some of the lyrics Sweet little Sheila, you know, you'll know her if you see her Blue eyes and a ponytail.

Speaker 1:

Her cheeks are rosy. She looks a little nosy. Man, that little girl is fine. Okay, so he's changed the song to include Roxanne's name. Sweet little Roxanne. You know her if you see her Blue eyes and a ponytail. Her cheeks are rosy. She looks a little nosy, don't you know that Roxanne is mine? All right, so now you probably say she'll find this cute and romantic and who knows, true, again, you know, you're very good at this.

Speaker 1:

He writes, but every time I see her I run the other way. Oh sure, you would say, get over it and go up to her and say, roxanne, I hope I'm not bothering you when I sing in the shower. She'll either say, yes, you are knock it off or no, I love it Signed. What should I do, dear, what should I do? And ivy writes sounds like I gave great advice. And ivy, I thought that was funny. Anyway, looking forward to it.

Speaker 1:

All right, community news. What's going on? All your normal stuff. Welcome Historical Society. They're closed until spring, which is coming up, coming up real, real soon. Spring Craft and Vendor Show, 9 am to 2 pm Saturday, april the 5th, that's this Saturday, at the Knights of Columbus in Fairmont, 9.30 East 10th, that's this Saturday, at the Knights of Columbus in Fairmont, 930 East 10th. Make plans to attend Bloodmobile to make a visit April 14th. For more information, call them at 800-733-2767. Also there's lots of library news there.

Speaker 1:

Let's see Top 10 movies. Number one was Snow White Huh. Number two was the Black Bag. Haven't even heard of that one. Three was Skarsgård oh sorry. Captain America, brave New World. That's been on the top list for a long time now. Number four was Novocaine. Five was Mickey 17. Six is Alto Knights the Alto Knights, robert De Niro. Seven was the Day the Earth Blew Up, a Looney Tunes movie. Number eight the Monkey. Nine Dog man. Ten the Last Supper. That's the chosen. Wow, they made the top ten Way to go.

Speaker 1:

We went and saw that. By the way, we went on Sunday, took mom and some of the members of the church went with us and we had a nice time. We went to lunch together first and then we all went over there and watched it. In Fairmont they have some really nice seats there. They recline and turn the heat on. You know, my mom went with us. My mother is 90, and she fell asleep. She slept through the whole thing, woke up the last five minutes. I asked her on the way home. What did you think of it? She said, oh, I loved it. So anyway, that works. Okay, that's good for her.

Speaker 1:

Page seven If you get a chance, I was going to say go see it. But actually episode one and two, that was what played last week and they're gone. They'll be out on TV here in about a month or so. This week it's episodes three and four and I think I heard five. I'm not sure exactly how it goes, but we're going to go check that out again. It's Thursday, friday, saturday, thursday, friday, saturday, thursday, friday, saturday and Sunday, I believe. So you get a chance, you may want to check it out. It's really really, really interesting.

Speaker 1:

Where am I? At Page seven, the pet page. I like the comic strip, just Like Cats and Dogs. This one here is let me see the cat's talking to the dog. She says we're supposed to be picking out a card out for your friend's wedding. So why are you looking in the sympathy section and no comment.

Speaker 1:

Pet page this week's pet is the pet elephant. Could it be? Could an elephant be a pet? I don't know, but I don't want a pet. That's something that's that big. Even if he's being loving, they could smash you, you know. No, no, not me, not me.

Speaker 1:

All right, page eight, comic strip page, and that is. I like two or three of them on here a lot. I like Flash Gordon. There's quite a little thing brewing there. Adam O'Lim is always kind of fun, let me see Also Tiger, he's funny, the spats are good. Anyway, we also have all the answers to all the puzzles throughout the paper. A lot of them are on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Six of the answers are on the comic strip page. Pages 9 and 10 are all classifieds and public notices. A lot of things going on there. A whole lot of stuff going on there. Unfortunately some folks it's foreclosure seasons and man.

Speaker 1:

Page 11, the Jackson and Martin County Special Olympic Basketball Team took on the local safety officers on Saturday March 29th and I was talking to Liz who wrote the story. She said it was just a pickup game. They were just playing for fun, just to get some practice in. But she said they looked real good and so anyway, we have a picture there and a little story about it. You may want to check that out.

Speaker 1:

Page 12 is the church page. Smashed potatoes, smashed potatoes. A lady wrote what's her name? What's her name? What's her name? What's her name it is? I'm looking for it. Hold on a second Shoot. Oh, benny, yeah, benny, benny Castleberry. She wrote this article and it's about how they smash potatoes, or just mash potatoes, but they changed the name. You know modern cooking, right? Also, hey, here's something for you.

Speaker 1:

First, congregational Church in Sherbourne is in need of an organist. What happened was Nancy Smith passed away about. It's almost been three weeks now and we miss Nancy like crazy. But Nancy was also our organist and pianist and so we need to was also our organist and pianist, and so we need to find a new organist and pianist. So if you are one or you know somebody, give us a call. That number is 848-3261. That's 507-848-3261. We would love to talk to you. It's a paid position. We'd love to talk to you and we'd love to have somebody playing piano for us again.

Speaker 1:

I've rigged up a couple of things. I have some music on the computer that I use, but it's not quite the same as live music. You know Page 13. You bring the conversation, the Sins will bring the coffee. Sins Family Celebration of Life Center. They have coffee in Trimont every. Is it weekly or monthly? Oh, shoot, I just have a picture. And that's all I mentioned. I'm sorry. I'll have to find that out. It may be a weekly thing. Anyway, there's a bunch of people there having coffee. It must be some pretty darn good coffee, right. And then page 14 is the Thespians. They're putting on their Martin County West, they're putting on their.

Speaker 1:

This murder was staged and I was talking to Lori about it. I said so what's it about? She told me. She said it's pretty good. There's a murder that goes on on stage and you gotta, you gotta figure it out. Huh, all right, so that's what's going on there.

Speaker 1:

Emily Anderson, also she's in action. She is a uh, was rarely seen standing still during her high school years and now she has moved on. So anyway, lots in the paper 14 pages and lots in the paper, same same lots in the pages, same next week. So let's talk for a second. What else is going on in the area other than dreary skies? You know dreary skies, hey, easter is just around the corner. There's going to be some Easter egg hunts coming up. We'll have information on that next week on the podcast and you can figure out where you want to go. There's in the paper. We've got three or four listings in the newspaper this coming week Also, I'm trying to think.

Speaker 1:

By the way, if you are a listener and you have something interesting you want to talk about, hey, the podcast is free. You can come on and talk to me and we can have a conversation. I love it when I have it. I had one scheduled for today, but she had to back out at the last minute or something came up and she couldn't make it. So sorry, so anyway, I had to. We had to cancel, but she'll be back another time. But I'm always looking for somebody to come in and talk and we can have a nice conversation. So that is it. That is it for the paper for this week. I look forward to talking to you guys next week, all right, so until then, adios. What's cowboy word for goodbye? See ya, bye, I don't know. Anyway, all right, that does it. Okay, see you next week. Bye.

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