Wild Message Board Chronicles...

[CreaseAndAssist]

I think its probably wrong to blame Twitter for that entirely.  I think from a news perspective, Twitter is about as efficient as it gets if you're simply a fan that wants to stay informed.  So perhaps your forum / message board would lose the lurkers hoping to stay current with team news, now they could do so by following a few connected people and not have to sift through much of at all.  

 

I think the other dynamic is the fact people access the internet more and more by mobile devices and certain formats are far more handy than perhaps a traditional message board.  Either way, a lot of different factors played into that decline.  

 

The one thing about the old boards, especially the ones run by the teams themselves.  There were those that felt the club was sort of looking in on what the boards were talking about.  Whether it reaction to promotions at the arena or slogans.  A few felt they looked for reactions to personnel moves but I highly doubt they would care one bit what the message board would think about a trade or a free agent signing.  

 

 

[nORRis8]

Started to post (as nORRis8) some 25 years ago on the CBC sports discussion. No real moderation. Plenty of flaming and baiting but for the most part fun.

People then started to leave to Sportnets boards then over to Metroboards which at the time I got there was excellent. Very busy and was very much a welcome distraction to my day. The moderation as time went on got stranger and stranger, even to the point where I complained to one mod about a certain new member who was relentlessly baiting me, the mod investigated and publicly revealed his real name and location Thx but no thx.

People already were leaving to other sites, primarily HFboards. 

Metroboards rebooted  as Suddendeath I do believe but there was no action there at all. I did register and did post but when there is no one to talk to, what's the point. Then oddly enough in a thread where someone asked what can be done to attract more fans...the mod that revealed a members name and location said the reason Metroboards failed was because nORRis8, moeman, Baldhead, Sam Pollock drove leaf fans away. Ya right. But what drove members from the other 30 teams threads.

Suddendeath the eventually experienced just that.

HFboards is ok. If you donate you're flaming and baiting is ignored. Although the NHL is heavily invested in the lgbtq+ you are basically not allowed to talk about it. Or politics.

They want you to respect women and want there to be no sexual talk , which is good, yet one of there paid sponsors run ads of dating sites which feature women and women in lingerie in other ads.

 

I've been posting less and less and I am quite surprised HFboards remains somewhat popular as on some rating sites it scores quite low.

 

The heyday was definitely Metroboards until the mods destroyed it and people were tired of the two-faced moderation

 

[Podein25]

39 minutes ago, nORRis8 said:

I am quite surprised HFboards remains somewhat popular as on some rating sites it scores quite low.

 

I think it's because knowledgeable hockey people are still to be found there. Like scouts, some insiders I guess. 

 

This place is more of an organic community because of the way it started.

[Brewin Flames]

I miss the old metroboards/sudden death hockey forums. I thought e had a solid community, good hockey banter and good times, but after awhile attracting new members became hard and the site slowed, combined wuth the explostion of FB hockey groups that are rum amok, it's hard to convince anyone to join a forum/message community.

 

But, i like it here, was never a fan of HFboards.

[nORRis8]

45 minutes ago, Podein25 said:

 

I think it's because knowledgeable hockey people are still to be found there. Like scouts, some insiders I guess. 

 

This place is more of an organic community because of the way it started.

It held some clout a while back, but now with podcasts and social media alerts from insiders to me it's rather not important.

Plus I have no idea who they (the insiders) are.

Some post year round. I can't do that man. In fact after the Bruins bubble burst last year I have not posted since on HF.

I don't think I'm missing out too much.

[Podein25]

2 minutes ago, nORRis8 said:

It held some clout a while back, but now with podcasts and social media alerts from insiders to me it's rather not important.

 

Good point.

[CreaseAndAssist]

On 9/12/2023 at 9:50 AM, nORRis8 said:

Started to post (as nORRis8) some 25 years ago on the CBC sports discussion. No real moderation. Plenty of flaming and baiting but for the most part fun.

People then started to leave to Sportnets boards then over to Metroboards which at the time I got there was excellent. Very busy and was very much a welcome distraction to my day. The moderation as time went on got stranger and stranger, even to the point where I complained to one mod about a certain new member who was relentlessly baiting me, the mod investigated and publicly revealed his real name and location Thx but no thx.

People already were leaving to other sites, primarily HFboards. 

Metroboards rebooted  as Suddendeath I do believe but there was no action there at all. I did register and did post but when there is no one to talk to, what's the point. Then oddly enough in a thread where someone asked what can be done to attract more fans...the mod that revealed a members name and location said the reason Metroboards failed was because nORRis8, moeman, Baldhead, Sam Pollock drove leaf fans away. Ya right. But what drove members from the other 30 teams threads.

Suddendeath the eventually experienced just that.

HFboards is ok. If you donate you're flaming and baiting is ignored. Although the NHL is heavily invested in the lgbtq+ you are basically not allowed to talk about it. Or politics.

They want you to respect women and want there to be no sexual talk , which is good, yet one of there paid sponsors run ads of dating sites which feature women and women in lingerie in other ads.

 

I've been posting less and less and I am quite surprised HFboards remains somewhat popular as on some rating sites it scores quite low.

 

The heyday was definitely Metroboards until the mods destroyed it and people were tired of the two-faced moderation

 

 

HFBoards was mostly made up of folks who couldn't trade barbs with the people on the old wild.com boards.  So if you migrated over there; they gave those of us they didn't like a real hard time and more or less banned you for any reason at all.  I got a one-month suspension for saying James Sheppard was going to be a bust.  Seriously, a hockey opinion...nothing personal towards anyone unless you were James Sheppard.  And James Sheppard was a total bust...so...

 

Either way, I think I remember Sudden Death and little or nothing happening there after Metroboards dissolved.  Metroboards was where I was 'discovered' and asked to start blogging.  I remember the fantasy league and decent discussions to be had over there.  

 

Moderation done right can be great to keep it lively but its a fine line before it becomes the group-think gestapo.  I remember on some of the old NHL team boards, like the Hurricanes board about the only thing they allowed was opinions that spoke favorably of the team and the organization.  Anything remotely like criticism you'd get a DM discussing how you will be suspended if you try to stir up trouble.  All it could take is saying Cam Ward didn't have a good game and you were on their 'watch list.'   If I remember correctly, members couldn't start a thread until you had 100+ posts and you even had a 'warning meter', my Cam Ward opinion earned me two out of my ten warning points for the month.  It was crazy.  

 

While I think you might find a few sharp hockey minds over at HFboards, I think you see even more people who simply THINK they are great hockey minds but have just as much credentials as your average fan.  

Edited September 14, 2023 by CreaseAndAssist

[rottenrefs]

Cough...

 

It's been awhile but occasionally I check in and review here or there.

 

Yes the old boards, as I joined sometime later when they were quite established, were pretty fun.

 

There's too many things to draw from for great topics or conversations. Some noted a few though.

 

Like when I was being sarcastic and posed to *TheOriginalBrownEyedBlond she should go into marketing (she already was.) She was amazing.

 

Or when all those young newish members were chatting about dating and I created a "To Do" list with their names on it. All the hilarity about puck bunnies.

 

And of course all the complaining I did about rotten refs!

 

Or when I predicted this team was going nowhere under the leadership of Koivu, Parise and Suter. All the arguments it generated due to misguided love for their nads. Or the +35 some odd players the team busted their tail to acquire and put on lines with Koivu then they'd fade off into oblivion because they weren't the problem.

 

All Yeo's yo-yo line changes: Scrambled eggs and handcuffing.

 

Out of curiosity was there anyone I didn't argue with? I do miss going to opposing teams boards after they'd come here pretending to be cruel and I'd insult them with beautiful precision. Almost gives me a case of the sniffles.

 

A tip of the iceberg.

[CreaseAndAssist]

Yea there were certainly a puckbunny crowd that spent more time talking about a player's hair.  

 

I remember you arguing with people; but in general arguments were rather common around the old boards.  The prediction thread was a pretty popular hang out; so was the Jobs or What I am having for lunch thread in the general part of it all.  

 

Back then when people; especially the Season Ticket holder crowd regularly hung out with one another there were some good friendships and occasional drama; but also some tough times when we lost members due to cancer or other things.  Over time, it seemed like people dropped their season tickets as they just didn't feel it was worth it or life changed forcing them to have other priorities.  

 

It's funny, this place seems to want to control the amount of threads and basically keep using the same few topics instead of simply creating new ones since that's really what a message board is.  That certainly would've caught a person a lot of flak for insisting on garbage like that.  

[CreaseAndAssist]

Necro-bump....

 

I didn't say this before, but I was LemaireisGOD but then at some point I think I may have gotten banned or I couldn't log back in so I became KillerCarlson with my picture of Gilmore Tuttle (of the Syracuse Bulldogs) from Slap Shot.  Unfortunately, after I got my post count back up to something like 1,700 the NHL took over all of the boards and there was a guy on the Chicago boards that had the same name earlier than I did and I lost the post count.  

 

Meaningless yes...but it was annoying.  

 

Things may not be as lively here as it used to be, but it's another place to discuss the team and the prospects.  The prescribed threads made by the powers at be is more than a bit heavy handed, but to quote Todd Bertuzzi (who was also known for being a bit heavy handed himself) "It is what it is."

 

So to any of you old Wild.com message boarders out there @MNSOTA, @IllaZilla, @Gnarkill, @Lonkkis, @rottenrefs, @bbgarnett, @Alexandron, @Fargocase, @Rickyd what have you all been up to?  Will this Minnesota Wild team actually become a Stanley Cup contender in this decade?     

[Alexandron]

2 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Necro-bump....

 

I didn't say this before, but I was LemaireisGOD but then at some point I think I may have gotten banned or I couldn't log back in so I became KillerCarlson with my picture of Gilmore Tuttle (of the Syracuse Bulldogs) from Slap Shot.  Unfortunately, after I got my post count back up to something like 1,700 the NHL took over all of the boards and there was a guy on the Chicago boards that had the same name earlier than I did and I lost the post count.  

 

Meaningless yes...but it was annoying.  

 

Things may not be as lively here as it used to be, but it's another place to discuss the team and the prospects.  The prescribed threads made by the powers at be is more than a bit heavy handed, but to quote Todd Bertuzzi (who was also known for being a bit heavy handed himself) "It is what it is."

 

So to any of you old Wild.com message boarders out there @MNSOTA, @IllaZilla, @Gnarkill, @Lonkkis, @rottenrefs, @bbgarnett, @Alexandron, @Fargocase, @Rickyd what have you all been up to?  Will this Minnesota Wild team actually become a Stanley Cup contender in this decade?     

 

Better without necro-bump... It is our history, in my opinion.

I always addressed for a long period of time to you very simple as LIG. Now I don't know how to address to you ? Killer Carlson sounds scary; CreaseAndAssist sounds  kind of a long composite name for me. LIG name is still okay?

It seems from that list not many boarders remained from the old message board : You; IllaZilla; bbgarnet and me. MNSOTA became a part of your blog. And the other one became not active. Or maybe we missed some one from the old board who changed their names?

 You made good questions. 

1. I am still here, because that became so far a part of my life. It doesn't matter where I am: at work; at home; at driving between Litchfield and home; at ice fishing or river fishing(my new interest now), I am trying to watch on TV or to listen on RadioFM. Most of the time listen radio, because I like our commentators. They bring some new news, new ideas, new opinions for me.

2. That question is more complicated. But I think we are moving slowly in a right direction since Guerin became a GM. With him I do see more life for this club in comparison to what we had before. Of course, every one can make mistakes, but he makes them less than others did before. I do see more positive stuff for the team he did. And I am getting more interest to our prospects which he chose to keep Kaprizov, Boldy, Rossi, Khusnutdinov, and probably we will see also Firstov, Yurov, Ohgren, Kumpulainen in the main club too. I understand, it is a lottery, which not everyone can win in the same uniform. But who knows? And I understand also how difficult decision is to keep some veteran players by giving NMC, because that gives them some attraction to stay here at their age. And, I think, Coach and GM need them for their experience. Personally , for me, very hard position for GM to make the right contract, because it is a serious business. Without the risk we will never will drink a glass of champagne after the win.  Forgot to mention about our Coach. Very smart, very risky ( I will remember till the rest of my life how he pulled our goalie in OT just to get 2 points against Nashville), he is not afraid to experiment too. That brings more intrigue and more interest to the club.

Anyway, I feel more optimistic for our future playoffs standing because we are getting a team's level better than before.

 

 

[bbgarnett]

I ain't lookin' for nothin' but a good time And it doesn't get better than this are the lyrics that pop into my head thinking about the old Wild boards. Those were some good times for sure. I literally probably would have gone insane watching this team had I not had an asylum to go to and chat/rant, So thanks to all of you for that. Do I think this team will become a Stanley cup contender this decade? I mean my heart says yes but my knowledge of this team just knows it won't be so until Leipold is gone. One thing I do know is that regardless of how this team fares I know I'll have a bunch of inmates to talk to about this maddening organization and that's good for me. I mean yes I want us to win first and foremost but you guys are a close second.

[rottenrefs]

13 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Necro-bump....

....

So to any of you old Wild.com message boarders out there @MNSOTA, @IllaZilla, @Gnarkill, @Lonkkis, @rottenrefs, @bbgarnett, @Alexandron, @Fargocase, @Rickyd what have you all been up to?  Will this Minnesota Wild team actually become a Stanley Cup contender in this decade?     

In a nutshell a lot has gone on. Here I gave it a go for a bit but was fairly disappointed offering game predictions but it was taken over and fully out of my control. Not that I needed or demanded control but I felt the way it was re-introduced when out of my control I pretty much knew with great certainty it wouldn't be accepted and would fail.

 

Likewise I knew my personal frustrations with the team at the time wasn't going to get any better; so much of my chirping was hard on the ears for most and nothing but repeat ramblings. I was right though, under the leadership of Koivu, Parise and Suter this team wasn't going anywhere as long as Leipold allowed them free access to call him anytime they didn't get their way.

 

Along the way I've found other interests along with some challenges. Life challenges that included a lot of doctor visits where I was the one to say, "I'm the insignificant other" when introducing myself to half a dozen doctor specialists and all their extended staff over the course of a couple years. The gal many of you may recall whom I would refer to as 'the misses' had a bout with multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer.) She entered into a two year study at about the time covid hit which introduced all kinds of scheduling pitfalls and such, but... The study was successful and she's been in remission for a year and a half now. By the way, I'm not saying this for attention or pity, but under no circumstances feel bad. I'm sharing this part of (past) ongoings to give inspiration!

 

If you want to feel bad consider me cooking meals or going to deli's for about 3 years. I hate cooking, still hate cooking and despite her saying she needs to eat better the doctors (early on into the whole thing) said her nourishment was excellent! lmao OMG you should have seen the look on her face when they told her that. By the way I don't cook bad but I also don't use a new recipe every time I put a pan on the stove (her trend - not happening with me.) lol

 

And a year ago my young grand-daughter was on her 4th 4-wheeler. An engine this time when she turned four. She's had that little bugger for a year now (age 5) and runs to me every time we visit. The joy is tremendous! She's an absolute darling.

 

Keep the FAITH folks! There's always a bright side!

[Jimtown guy]

18 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Necro-bump....

 

I didn't say this before, but I was LemaireisGOD but then at some point I think I may have gotten banned or I couldn't log back in so I became KillerCarlson with my picture of Gilmore Tuttle (of the Syracuse Bulldogs) from Slap Shot.  Unfortunately, after I got my post count back up to something like 1,700 the NHL took over all of the boards and there was a guy on the Chicago boards that had the same name earlier than I did and I lost the post count.  

 

Meaningless yes...but it was annoying.  

 

Things may not be as lively here as it used to be, but it's another place to discuss the team and the prospects.  The prescribed threads made by the powers at be is more than a bit heavy handed, but to quote Todd Bertuzzi (who was also known for being a bit heavy handed himself) "It is what it is."

 

So to any of you old Wild.com message boarders out there @MNSOTA, @IllaZilla, @Gnarkill, @Lonkkis, @rottenrefs, @bbgarnett, @Alexandron, @Fargocase, @Rickyd what have you all been up to?  Will this Minnesota Wild team actually become a Stanley Cup contender in this decade?     

I guess I’m just chopped liver

[IllaZilla]

19 hours ago, CreaseAndAssist said:

Necro-bump....

 

I didn't say this before, but I was LemaireisGOD but then at some point I think I may have gotten banned or I couldn't log back in so I became KillerCarlson with my picture of Gilmore Tuttle (of the Syracuse Bulldogs) from Slap Shot.  Unfortunately, after I got my post count back up to something like 1,700 the NHL took over all of the boards and there was a guy on the Chicago boards that had the same name earlier than I did and I lost the post count.  

 

Meaningless yes...but it was annoying.  

 

Things may not be as lively here as it used to be, but it's another place to discuss the team and the prospects.  The prescribed threads made by the powers at be is more than a bit heavy handed, but to quote Todd Bertuzzi (who was also known for being a bit heavy handed himself) "It is what it is."

 

So to any of you old Wild.com message boarders out there @MNSOTA, @IllaZilla, @Gnarkill, @Lonkkis, @rottenrefs, @bbgarnett, @Alexandron, @Fargocase, @Rickyd what have you all been up to?  Will this Minnesota Wild team actually become a Stanley Cup contender in this decade?     

 

I haven't been as active as I was on the old boards, but I'm getting older and slowing down. 

 

I made it through COVID only getting it once. Not sure if many of you know, but I work for the State Health Department. While that was a very trying time for everyone, it was especially trying for Health Department staff. Everyone hated us. Either we were doing too much, or we weren't doing enough.  It was very difficult to converse with anybody (even family) without being yelled at for not doing enough to protect people or doing too much and interfering in personal rights. It was also difficult to be asked to do things and then having people who knew nothing of epidemiology tell you "You don't know what you're talking about." So I pretty much pulled back from social media. This is about the only place I'm moderately active. And my mental health has been better for it.

 

My oldest graduated from UND during COVID with a business degree. Scored a job in sales at Ferguson and is doing well. My youngest is at the U of M studying Material Science and Engineering. So the Mrs and I are pretty much empty nesters and have started to visit as many National Parks as we can. Our ultimate goal is to visit all of them. So far we've hit Glacier Bay (AK), Acadia (ME), and Rocky Mountain (CO). We are looking at the Big Five (UT) this coming fall. So we have a way to go. 

 

I lost my most goodest girl this summer. Bella was 16 years old, and her hips were going. So we ended up saying good bye in August. That was a tough one.

As far as the Wild goes, I feel they are going no where fast. In my opinion they are stuck in a cycle of mediocrity due to their refusal to rebuild and always pushing for the Playoffs. They are in all likelihood going to miss the Playoffs this year, but they are just going to miss them and end up with a number 15-20 first round pick. Yes, they'll get a nice player, but nice players don't get you Stanley Cups. I'll still watch them, but I'm not holding my breath for them to even get past the first round. Even after the buy outs are over.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@IllaZilla
I love canines!
She is a cutie there!

Very sorry for your loss. I know that awful feeling all too well.

[IllaZilla]

29 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

@IllaZilla
I love canines!
She is a cutie there!

Very sorry for your loss. I know that awful feeling all too well.

She just got back from the groomer and was feeling very pretty!

[MNSOTA]

I got Covid for the 4th time just this past December. Like always it takes out my voice and I have to take a LOA from work. LIG keeps bringing it home from school and since I work from home my immune system has gone down. 
 

Nice to see this post emerge from the post. 

[CreaseAndAssist]

18 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Better without necro-bump... It is our history, in my opinion.

I always addressed for a long period of time to you very simple as LIG. Now I don't know how to address to you ? Killer Carlson sounds scary; CreaseAndAssist sounds  kind of a long composite name for me. LIG name is still okay?

It seems from that list not many boarders remained from the old message board : You; IllaZilla; bbgarnet and me. MNSOTA became a part of your blog. And the other one became not active. Or maybe we missed some one from the old board who changed their names?

 You made good questions. 

1. I am still here, because that became so far a part of my life. It doesn't matter where I am: at work; at home; at driving between Litchfield and home; at ice fishing or river fishing(my new interest now), I am trying to watch on TV or to listen on RadioFM. Most of the time listen radio, because I like our commentators. They bring some new news, new ideas, new opinions for me.

2. That question is more complicated. But I think we are moving slowly in a right direction since Guerin became a GM. With him I do see more life for this club in comparison to what we had before. Of course, every one can make mistakes, but he makes them less than others did before. I do see more positive stuff for the team he did. And I am getting more interest to our prospects which he chose to keep Kaprizov, Boldy, Rossi, Khusnutdinov, and probably we will see also Firstov, Yurov, Ohgren, Kumpulainen in the main club too. I understand, it is a lottery, which not everyone can win in the same uniform. But who knows? And I understand also how difficult decision is to keep some veteran players by giving NMC, because that gives them some attraction to stay here at their age. And, I think, Coach and GM need them for their experience. Personally , for me, very hard position for GM to make the right contract, because it is a serious business. Without the risk we will never will drink a glass of champagne after the win.  Forgot to mention about our Coach. Very smart, very risky ( I will remember till the rest of my life how he pulled our goalie in OT just to get 2 points against Nashville), he is not afraid to experiment too. That brings more intrigue and more interest to the club.

Anyway, I feel more optimistic for our future playoffs standing because we are getting a team's level better than before.

 

 

 

No worries on the Killer Carlson name, I took it because of Dave "Killer" Carlson from Slap Shot.  A lot of people just called me KC back in those days.  Litchfield, MN eh?  Piratical Pat and my whole family is from Hutchinson just about.  Spent a lot of time hunting along the country roads near Litchfield.  

 

Joe O'Donnell is a great guy and I know some aren't big fans of Tom Reid but I still enjoy listening to him.  Love his restaurant and have had fun meeting some of you there.  Heck, the last time I saw @IllaZilla I was there for a draft get together; that was the draft we took Filip Johansson.  Even though we were baffled at who the Wild selected since I had a heckuva time trying to find anything about him after the pick despite my small collection of scouting publications...we still enjoyed some beers and burgers and had fun just hanging out.  

 

Rotten, I am sorry your wife had to deal with myeloma.  I'm glad to hear she's in remission and despite the cooking challenges it sounds like life has returned to normalcy on some level.  As for the grand kid, I can tiny bit relate as my brother had his kid a few years ago and @MNSOTA became an uncle & aunt.  We got him a net and some hockey sticks for his 1st birthday but I haven't seen them out yet.  He's a very precocious 2 1/2 right now and he seems to simply enjoy making noise more than anything else.  So hopefully he'll be a chirpy hockey player in the future.    

 

I don't doubt that Covid and being a part of the Health Department was a nightmare; it was no picnic for schools either who had to fight those same battles you did.  The only difference was we didn't call those shots; but we were the ones that had to enforce them.  Surprisingly, even where I live...we didn't get a lot of resistance, probably because we went back to face-to-face learning the next fall after it all went down.  Still, it was a ton of extra work for the few that would be gone and the endless cleaning of tables.  

 

I am glad to hear your son is graduated from college and well on his way career-wise and the other son is doing well at the U of M, my brother graduated from U of M in engineering too.  Maybe your salesman son can take his dad to a few games to pay him back!?!?  Which son did we meet one time at Reid's? 

 

No one is chopped liver, it's just that I have more of a history with some of these people than with others.  I don't have a hard time getting together with anyone when hockey is involved. 

 

It seems like more and more people are coming to the conclusion that Leipold's stubborn insistence on the playoffs is what is hindering this team from the true rebuild it painfully needs.      

 

Would anyone be interested in getting together for the NHL draft in late June?  

[CreaseAndAssist]

17 hours ago, bbgarnett said:

I ain't lookin' for nothin' but a good time And it doesn't get better than this are the lyrics that pop into my head thinking about the old Wild boards. Those were some good times for sure. I literally probably would have gone insane watching this team had I not had an asylum to go to and chat/rant, So thanks to all of you for that. Do I think this team will become a Stanley cup contender this decade? I mean my heart says yes but my knowledge of this team just knows it won't be so until Leipold is gone. One thing I do know is that regardless of how this team fares I know I'll have a bunch of inmates to talk to about this maddening organization and that's good for me. I mean yes I want us to win first and foremost but you guys are a close second.

 

I agree with you, 100%!  Glad to know we're still near the top of the list...;)  

[CreaseAndAssist]

Oh, and necro-bumping was certainly something that was a part of the old Wild.com message boards.  We never wanted to let a good thread stay dead.  Even if it was just to look back and laugh at the insanity it contained...it was fun to have it around once again.  

[Jimtown guy]

3 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

 

I haven't been as active as I was on the old boards, but I'm getting older and slowing down. 

 

I made it through COVID only getting it once. Not sure if many of you know, but I work for the State Health Department. While that was a very trying time for everyone, it was especially trying for Health Department staff. Everyone hated us. Either we were doing too much, or we weren't doing enough.  It was very difficult to converse with anybody (even family) without being yelled at for not doing enough to protect people or doing too much and interfering in personal rights. It was also difficult to be asked to do things and then having people who knew nothing of epidemiology tell you "You don't know what you're talking about." So I pretty much pulled back from social media. This is about the only place I'm moderately active. And my mental health has been better for it.

 

My oldest graduated from UND during COVID with a business degree. Scored a job in sales at Ferguson and is doing well. My youngest is at the U of M studying Material Science and Engineering. So the Mrs and I are pretty much empty nesters and have started to visit as many National Parks as we can. Our ultimate goal is to visit all of them. So far we've hit Glacier Bay (AK), Acadia (ME), and Rocky Mountain (CO). We are looking at the Big Five (UT) this coming fall. So we have a way to go. 

 

I lost my most goodest girl this summer. Bella was 16 years old, and her hips were going. So we ended up saying good bye in August. That was a tough one.

 

As far as the Wild goes, I feel they are going no where fast. In my opinion they are stuck in a cycle of mediocrity due to their refusal to rebuild and always pushing for the Playoffs. They are in all likelihood going to miss the Playoffs this year, but they are just going to miss them and end up with a number 15-20 first round pick. Yes, they'll get a nice player, but nice players don't get you Stanley Cups. I'll still watch them, but I'm not holding my breath for them to even get past the first round. Even after the buy outs are over.

My condolences on losing your familt member because they definitely are family. I’ve had our Izzy for 3 years now. Rescue dog who was found in a box in a ditch with her sister. Luckily somebody found them and took them to a shelter. She’s my best bud for sure 

 

 

[IllaZilla]

17 hours ago, Jimtown guy said:

My condolences on losing your familt member because they definitely are family. I’ve had our Izzy for 3 years now. Rescue dog who was found in a box in a ditch with her sister. Luckily somebody found them and took them to a shelter. She’s my best bud for sure 

 

 

What a cutie! Love it!

[IllaZilla]

On 3/21/2024 at 2:04 PM, CreaseAndAssist said:

Would anyone be interested in getting together for the NHL draft in late June?  

Depends. Are the Wild going to draft another Charlie Stramel?

[Tomdog]

15 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

Would anyone be interested in getting together for the NHL draft in late June?  

Possibly. A little too early to say.