Submitted by Wade Hedgren on Mon, 01/05/2026 - 16:50

After many months it's finally here, Groove Room 3.0

Come take a look at what we have done with our new lanai.

Submitted by Wade Hedgren on Mon, 06/21/2021 - 15:08

Gary Wayne Nelsen      Monday, Sep 6, 1952 -  Saturday, May 2, 2020

I lost my cousin Gary a little more than a year ago.  Besides being my cousin he was my very best friend for 45 years.

Gary made me the person I am today. There are certain people that influence your life and he is right up there at the top of the list for me.  I don't think a single person except possibly my mother and father had more influence on my life (my wife makes the top of that list also).  He was one of the smartest guys I knew, and he was always my first “go to” when I needed anything.

Gary had many interests both professional and personal.  Here are a few of the things that come to my mind:

• He was a tool maker, an entrepreneur and a leader in his field.  As long as I was friends with him he was in business.  I did electrical work for him when his shop was in a garage and he owned a Bridgeport and a grinder. 

• He was a talented musician.  He knew almost everything about all genres of music and various musicians.  I have an MP3 of his guitar work that is most excellent. His first instrument was the drums. 

• Gary was an excellent chef.  He's the reason I became interested in cooking. We spent many hours cooking together.  He cooked hot!

• He was a skilled leather worker.  It was one of his favorite things to do. Near the end of his life he talked about it a lot.  My belt and wallet were made by him.

• Gary enjoyed fishing, especially fly fishing.  It was all he talked about the last couple months he was alive.  And he talked about it a lot over the last 10 or 15 years also. 

• Gary was a teacher.  If you didn't learn something from him you weren't listening.

Over the last 45 years our trips back and forth to each other's home and the stories that go along with that are too numerous to mention but here are a few highlights.

• Chicago Museum of Science and industry (did it in 15 minutes)

• Traveled to Denmark and Sweden together in 1996

• Saw the band Dada together at least three times

• Downtown Chicago New Year's Eve 1994 / 1995 and the following 10 years

• Croquet at French Lick, Indiana

• First to fly with me when I got my pilot license

• Walked north rim to south rim of the Grand canyon

• Eclipse 2017 in Casper Wyoming

• 10 days in Eldora Colorado fly fishing.

• Fly fishing in Wisconsin bass and trout

• Bass fishing at Dale Hollow

• Ran several triathlons together

• My 50th birthday in Napa California.

• Cooking class at 1776 restaurant

Gary affected my life in many ways:

He not only encouraged me to start both of my businesses, he was also one of the first to hire me to do electrical work and after that computer work.

Gary was “Extreme Everything” not afraid to try anything.

We once played Ping pong for 18 hours straight till 7am in the morning...

He was a Franklin Planner evangelist and converted me to the fold in 1994, which was key to my success.

He made me love baseball and hate the Cubs but mostly hate the Cards.

We read all the same books. Patrick O'Hearn's, Master and Commander series, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert’s Dune series and many more...

Gary and I compared our lives to the Master and Commander series all the time because Gary was my "particular friend" and he always had capital wine.  Sorry, you’ll have to read the series to know what that means.

I miss you so much my "particular friend".  I know that we will meet again soon.

Have you ever said yourself, "I have got to replace this tool"?  This is a story about that but it didn't end in replacement, it ended in repair and kind of a replacement.

I bought this Vermont American nutdriver set probably at a local hardware store. It's your typical nutdriver set with a hollow shaft so you can slide it over long bolts. Within days of owning it I stripped out the quarter inch nut driver. I never bought another one and for the next 30 odd years I used a magnetic multi tip screwdriver that was missing all the parts (look at the picture on the left). 

So the other day I decided I would repair the stripped out quarter inch nutdriver. I found a decent quarter inch socket, cut the end off the nutdriver, and glued it on with JB Weld. So my original nutdriver set is intact* again after 30 years.

* Technically, it's still missing the three sixteenths nut driver but no one uses that anyway.

Today was the end of another era.  After 75 years of serving the community, Roselawn Evangelical Lutheran Church had its final service today.  After the service the congregation voted to dissolve and sell all of the church's assets.

Some of you may know that I have a long history with this church.

Baptized in 1956.  Confirmed in 1969.  Becki and I were married there in 1978. I served on the church council from 1986 through 1993. Both of my parent's funerals were there.

Pastor Jim Matthews went through a list of memories and accomplishments in today's sermon (and what a sermon it was!).  I am so proud to have been just a small part of the incredible work that has been done over the years.  I only wish that I could have done more.

So here's to Roselawn Evangelical Lutheran Church and its wonderful congregation!  I will miss you...