Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller “I’ve totaled the car and I’m at the La Crescent rest stop.” That was all Cindy said on the phone last Wednesday night before she hung up. I was out of the house in about a minute, driving as fast as I dared on the snow covered road, down Hill side through Brownsville, up 26, through La Crescent, up 61, and to the rest stop on I-90. All the while wondering what had happened, and was Cindy okay. I pulled up to a Wisconsin state highway patrol car; Cindy was in the back s eat. I opened the door. She managed a smile and a look of relief, which I’m sure was mirrored on my face. Then the story unfolded. It makes me angry just telling it. The I-90 bridge over the Mississippi  in good weather. I was going the  other way  and it was snowy and slick. Cindy had been heading home from work. She had been driving cautiously on I-90. A couple inches of snow had fallen and the roads were slick. As she got to the bridge over the river, she felt a hu...

David Heiller Mother Nature held a flashlight in her hand last week, steady like a night watchman. She guided us home from work with it, then waited patiently outside the door while we made supper and got the kids settled. Then she said, “Come on, let’s go.” We had to listen, Cindy and I. It would have been a sacrilege of sorts to hear it and see it and then look the other way. So we put on snowshoes and headed for the woods. We walked side by side. Our two dogs bounded ahead, as thrilled as we were by this unexpected evening jaunt. The trail was packed hard from other hikes we have made. And they were all fine hikes. Even a 10-minute snowshoe jaunt is good for the body and soul. But as the flashlight rose in the sky, this walk was pretty close to heaven. The moon played a part. It was so bright we could have read a book by its light. Experts say that the December moon is the brightest of the year. It follows the same high path across the sky that the sun takes in Jun...

David Heiller The Oliver 66 Row Crop Tractor quit working about a month ago, which sent me on an adventure that ended tonight. David had many tractor adventures. He did love having a tractor.   I'm no mechanic. A long list of people start to tremble when I have tractor problems, because they know I’ll be calling and asking dumb questions. But first I did have enough sense to check the gas tank. Plenty there. I cleaned the sediment bowl to get rid of any water. The gas lines were clear and running to the carburetor. So Ι figured that it had to be an electrical problem. I called Jim Kephart first. I’ve been known to rouse Jim from a sound sleep to ask him tractor questions. Jim took a deep, patient breath. JIM: It seems to me you’ve got some bad wires running to the coil. Did you check those bad wires? ME: No. How do you check them? JIM: With a volt ohm meter. Don’t you have a volt ohm meter? Jim carries a volt ohm meter with him like some people carry, a pocket kn...

David Heiller “I don’t put myself off as someone special.” But in-the world of having babies at least, Coral Popowitz defies her own words. Coral, who lives west of Rutledge, has six children. The last three were born at home, and they were all in the “breech” position, that is, with the head up instead of down. Coral, her husband, Steve, their children, and assorted grandchildren. In fact, Coral has had babies born in all of the four breech positions—kneeling, feet-first, frank (butt-first), and posterior. All were born naturally, without a Caesarean section. What makes this special, for you dense male readers like myself, is that the vast majority of breech babies are delivered by Cesearean section. To have a breech baby naturally is rare. To have a breech baby at home is even rarer. And here’s a staggering statistic: nearly half of all births in the United States today are done by Caesarean section. Coral Popowitz’s achievement has made her a hero to groups lik...

David Heiller When people live in the country, and have a young family, they welcome the chance to have playmates for their kids. So neither Cindy nor I objected at all to the request from some friends to take one of their three sons while Mom and Dad got away for two days of kid-less joy and skiing last weekend. My wife and I both think it is good for our son and daughter to be with other boys and girls their own age for all the obvious reasons that most parents list: they learn to share, they can express themselves on another level with their peers, they can play together. Maybe they can even stay out of Mom and Dad’s hair. Noah and his firetruck Of course, experienced parents also know that these lofty goals don’t always show themselves in obvious ways. Things like fire trucks get in the way. Noah’s new fire truck, for example. He got it from his Grandpa for Christmas. This truck has two parts, a cab section measuring 15½ inches, and a ladder section, 23½ inches long. ...