Dr. Dog's House

4/4/2009 - Efx3: Back in the lineup

4/2/2009 - Efx3: Mom's baby: 16, going on 17

3/29/2009 - Efx3: All over the place

3/17/2009 - Time to move on

3/12/2009 - A real Crackberry

Did it really have to happen this way? A while ago, you learned that I had splurged for a new phone. A Blackberry Pearl, no less. So it's been riding around in its case in my pants pocket to various events recently. Like a thousand or so high school basketball games. Umm, I guess I really have to be more careful when sitting down. At one gym, I sit on one end of the stage, lifting myself up by my hands and turning around to a sitting position. (Should someone my age really be doing that?) Evidently I wasn't as careful for my pricy new possession as I should have been. When I got home, I took it out to admire it ... and this is what I saw ... The phone still works normally. It just looks a little cracked. I'm sure you have heard of all those people addicted to their Blackberries, madly texting messages all day long. That's why they call them Crackberries. Well, I think I have the genuine article. **** Recently I promised some new photos of the kitties. I've been taking them, just not posting them (or much of anything else). Well, what can I say? The weeks have been long and demanding for me, and I'm pretty worn out over weekends. My wife and I typically sit on the couch on weekend afternoons, after doing something like lunch or shopping, and it's time to relax. Really relax. And we do. We doze off together. In winter, when the living room is a little cold, we have a quilt over our legs. She leans on my shoulder, and soon she is dozing. On this day, Charlie came around and invited herself up into my lap. Pretty soon she was taking a nap, too. So I had two sleepy females next to me ... You know that Charlie is very special to me. Over the last few months, Max and I have been getting to know each other better, too. When my wife goes to bed, Max is in the hallway ahead of me, meowing, and goes into a spare bedroom. I follow him, and we play Pet the Kitty. Max is all happy and purring loudly ... but he just can't sit still. We are sitting on the bed, where he usually sleeps, as I pet him, but soon he hops onto the floor and then up into the window. I get up to pet him in the window, he enjoys it, but then he hops on the floor and back on the bed. And then it's time for another round of Pet the Kitty. Sooner or later Max decides it's time for a wash, and I depart around then. Max's favorite place seems to be sitting in windows, looking outside. Day or night, he likes his windows ... Charlie likes to visit me late at night, often settling in my lap as I pet her. Recently, though, I noticed that pens were disappearing from my desk. Was I absentmindedly pocketing them? Was my wife taking them? One night, the real culprit struck ... and my camera was in reach ... She pulled the pen down to the chair, grabbed it in the middle, hopped down to the floor and walked out the door with it. Carried it down the hall. At other times we have come across pencils with a host of tiny little toothmarks on them. Think we know who is doing that. Sometimes when Charlie is visiting me late at night on the computer, Max enters the room. On this night, Charlie went behind the monitor--and Max followed, creating this coming-and-going shot ... and this one, after Charlie turned around and walked back ... Back in early February, we saw a catnip mouse at the store. It was a larger and more realistic-looking mouse than usual, and we said what the heck. The cats will enjoy it. That's what we thought. Understand one thing: We're not cats. We let Charlie get the first chance at it. She played with it for a while ... Then Max came around. Whatcha got now, Charlie? ... After a while, Charlie went back to her other mouse. It seemed more interesting ... And how about you, Max? Aren't you interested in the new mouse, either? ... Apparently not. Must be time for another nap. **** Basketball season rolls on. On of my teams, the one that lost 10 straight games during the season and finished 5-15 after winning its final two regular season games, won both its district games and will be going to Houghton for the regionals next Monday. They beat a 16-4 squad last night. Hey, playoffs: You never know. So that's where I'll be next Monday night. Let's hope the weather behaves. It was -10F this morning. But they're predicting highs in the 40s this weekend. I'm ready for it.

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3/8/2009 - Left in the dark

3/2/2009 - Like a bicycle?

2/15/2009 - A bad blogger

1/29/2009 - Fact action on the ice

As you may know, for years I have been hoping to get to a college hockey game up here. We have three major universities in the U.P.: Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan and Lake Superior State. We live fairly close (2 hours away; relatively close, anyway) from both Tech and NMU, but I never made the trip. Either I was too tired from the week's work or the weather was iffy (both places get lots of snow each winter) or else I just decided to stay home. Sometimes all three. The full season would end before I fully realized that another season has gotten past me. But not this year. The team visiting Northern Michigan is from the school where by friend B works. While waiting for that night's high school basketball scores, I saw the TV report of the Friday night Alaska-NMU game, and the lightbulb switched on. Why not? I had a lighter-than-normal workload that weekend. The weather was going to be decent. Why not, indeed? My wife opted to stay home: We had driven to Iron Mountain the day before, and she doesn't like to travel that much, especially when it's cold. But I called my son David, and he was interested. He had never seen a hockey game in person before, and he likes new experiences, too. Early last Saturday afternoon, we got in the car and started driving to Marquette. The camera went along, of course. The sun was out and the roads were mostly bare, though more snow was evident as we got closer to Marquette, like on this rocky outcropping along the road ... In Marquette, as David checked out a used games place, I was more interested in the huge piles of snow in the parking lot. This is not the kind of thing you get from a pickup truck with a plow attachment ... We made a few fast shopping stops, got an early supper and then headed for the Berry Events Center on the Northern Michigan campus ... Here's what it looks like on the inside ... Our seats were two rows up from the glass, near the goal line at one end of the ice. I thought I'd have to stand up most of the night to get my pictures. But I got to see plenty of action right from my seat ... Sometimes I was nice and close to the action. Crunch! But when the action went into the opposite end, beyond the Alaska team bench, it was hard to tell exactly what was going on ... I had fun with the camera. It was the first time I had seen a hockey game that was not played by little kids for many years--over 20, in fact. As luck would have it, of the four goals scored in regulation time, three took place at the other end of the ice. But late in the second period, Alaska scored at my end ... There was no scoring in the third period. Not that the teams weren't trying. Here, NMU is on the attack ... And here, an Alaska player is firing a shot at the Wildcats net. This would have been a great shot if the glass hadn't been distorting the view. You see the Alaska player cranking it, the NMU defenseman going down to block it and a Nanooks player trying to screen the Northern Michigan goaltender (blocking his view of the shot) ... But there was no scoring in the third period. The teams played a five-minute overtime--no goals. That meant a shootout. Here is the winning goal, scored by an NMU player. If you're looking for the puck, check out the net ... And all the NMU players were happy that it was there ... From there, we went home. Didn't see a single snowflake all day, and the roads were good. We got home about 11:45 p.m. I had a good time, and I think there is more college hockey in my future. Maybe next year. **** Before I close this, I want to write about our "wonderful" winter weather. By some coincidence, as the U.S. has been enduring some really crappy snow and ice storms, the Weather Channel has been promoting "Why I like winter." It's been a loooooong winter here in the Upper Midwest. Seems that it's lasted forever. We really haven't gotten that cold (for us) this winter--nothing colder than about -23F (-30C)--but it sure hasn't let upon us very much. We have had a lot of subzero weather in January (and December, for that matter), and we sure could use a warmup. I checked our weather records the other day. We have been below freezing continuously, 24/7, all through January. In December, we topped freezing on three days--as high as 43 on Dec. 28. Our heat wave. In early November, we had some mild weather. As warm as 66. But after Nov. 8, we never hit 40 again.So it's been a long time. It's a rough winter amid tough times. The news has had reports about many major corporations laying off thousands and thousands of people. Even little firms, like the one that used to employ the husband of my friend S. He lost his job recently. Yeah, it's been a loooooong winter. We're waiting for the times to get better. It can't happen soon enough.

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1/23/2009 - 50 facts about the new prez

1/20/2009 - A beautiful day

I got up this morning and looked out the bedroom window. Time: 7:01 a.m. What a beautiful day! The sun just peeking above the horizon. The sky was already blue. The crescent moon was hanging in the south, visible between the icicles hanging from the eaves. The thermometer on the front porch may have read 0F, but no matter. This, Jan. 20, 2009, would be a beautiful day. I went to work as the crowd swelled in Washington, D.C. Our basketball team had won a big game last night, and I had to get caught up on the other scores and write part of the story. The coach from our other team would probably be calling--if he wanted to talk, I would be there. But I also had the live stream from CNN on my computer, and as the start of the ceremony neared, I was debating whether to go home (just a block away) to watch it there or to watch it in the office. It was a hard call. I have been looking forward to this day so much and for so long. Back on the day after the 2004 election, I wrote a friend: "I wore black today," I started. Over two years ago, I saw my first Bush countdown clock, showing how much time remained--900-some days, X hours, X minutes, X seconds at that point--in the Bush presidency. I almost put one on my blog. It seemed like forever. At about the same time, I did order a black plastic wristband. It read "I did not vote 4 Bush." I put a picture of it on my blog ... I wore it for a while. The 2008 campaign started fairly early in 2007. It lasted forever and a day. The long journey--about as long as Frodo's in "Lord of the Rings"--ended last Nov. 4. One wait ended. Another began, the 2 1/2 months to Inauguration Day. That also seemed to last forever, what with the financial crisis and stock market struggles. Why can't it just be over? On Tuesday, the wait was over, and a new day began. Today is the day. Sure, I wish I was in Washington. But I can't. I'm here. So I'll watch it here. The thing to remember now is patience. The change most of us have prayed for will not happen right away. But it will come. Our country took the wrong turn eight years ago, and anyone who has missed an exit on the freeway knows how difficult and time-consuming it is to get to where we should have gone in the first place. Or, think of it like our beastly cold weather we dealt with last week. Several days of 24-hour-a-day subzero weather. It finally ended, Not that spring is here yet. Spring is still a long way off. But we're a little closer to it now. Patience. Spring will come. Better times will come. Our generation's FDR is moving into the White House, in the midst of a national crisis much like FDR stepped into in 1933, "The only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself," he told our country. It was a historic day at a crisis point for our nation. Today is another historic day, being watched just as closely all over the world. As someone who rarely takes a day off work, I think it's time to leave, go home and listen closely to what Barack Obama has to tell me.

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1/15/2009 - Serious cold from "the last frontier"

I don't know how snoopy/curious you are about such things, but have you ever looked into the "cold case" at your local grocery store? That's the big freezer where they store things like frozen veggies, frozen pizzas and ice cream, keeping them nice and cold before you put them in your shopping cart. At our local store, there's a digital thermometer inside. At times I look. It usually reads something like -10 F. Tuesday morning, when I looked at our thermometer, it read -7F. Yes, it's January, and another cold front has moved into our area. It was +7 when I went to bed Monday night, but the front was just moving in. On Tuesday night, I was at another game. It was -6 when I went to the game. On the trip home, about 8:30 p.m., the car's thermometer got down to -21F. We got to -26 just before midnight. It was up to -15 when I got up Wednesday morning. But our cold is peanuts compared to other places. How would you like to be in Grand Forks, N.D.? They were in the -30s Tuesday morning. One of my blog friends lives there. They "warmed up" to -16 that afternoon. Sounds balmy. Right now (I just checked), it's -23F. But if you want balmy, there's only one place you can go: Alaska. That's where one of my friends lives, the one I refer to as B. She and her husband are a poly couple who live in the Fairbanks area. Yes, Fairbanks, in the middle of the Alaskan interior. Over the last few weeks, it got rather nippy up there. Always an interesting topic, so I have been asking B what it's like to be in Alaska when it gets really, really, really, really cold. Both B and her husband, I should explain, are originally from Ohio and first came to Alaska courtesy of the U.S. Air Force, which has a few bases there. After he retired, they moved back to Alaska. Around Christmas, while their kids were visiting, the cold started getting real. "We continued to have mild temps until later this afternoon," she wrote at the time, "when the temps started dropping. We are down to about 12 below and are expected to hit 35 to 40 below by morning." That was the day after they went to a nearby hot spring to take their visitors for a nice outdoor soak. "It is quite the novelty when entertaining visitors in winter." On Dec. 30, they woke up to -45. "Looks like we may see -50 tonight and another few days of really cold temps. By Tuesday, it should be a balmy low of -28 and high of -18. At least these are manageable temps. The cars hate the cold temps lower than -30's." When they visited friends on New Year's Eve, "The temp was -50 degrees, so we kept the car plugged in at our friends' and started it to let run for about 15 minutes every couple of hours. When we left, shortly after midnight, the tires had gone square on the bottom so we bounced slowly down the road until the rubber softened a bit and rounded out. It is a very weird feeling! That generally doesn't happen until the temps hit -40 or so. "We are still hovering around -38, but that is much easier on the cars than the -50 stuff. It is advised that we plug in the cars when the temps get below 20 degrees, as it helps with the air pollution if the engines are a tad bit warmer when starting. It is imperative once the temps dip below -25 or so unless engines are started and let to run every couple of hours throughout the day. " Many people in Alaska get timers they switch on a few hours before they need to get going, and they have automatic starters so they can start cars from inside a house or office. B works in Fairbanks, about a 20-mile drive from her home. "In this kind of weather it is horrid. I will have to leave about 1/2 hour earlier than usual, as the drive will be at about 20 miles an hour! Visibility goes down to about nil at times like this, which makes it very slow going. You can't really see cars in front of you." That is because of a phenomenon known as ice fog. Around that time, The Weather Channel showed a picture of a sign in Fairbanks that showed a temperature of -62. No, said B. They had visited a friend that night for dinner and had seen the sign themselves--the friend called the weather station and learned it was just -39. "When we headed home, it showed the same temp of -62F and it was still -39F at the airport. When we got home, our temp was -52F"--where they live, their temperature is usually 10 to 15 degrees colder than Fairbanks. This photo, from the Fairbanks newspaper's website, shows some local officers documenting the occasion ... She told me about January 1989, when the all-time coldest reading for Fairbanks was set: -69. "Yes, we were here then, too. Most of the month was bitter cold, and the schools finally closed as parents were keeping their kids home. In a crazy sort of way, everyone hopes we see a new record low so we can tell about that too!" I asked her about the ice fog. "The ice fog is caused by an inversion phenomena taking place when the cold, cold air holds all the motor exhaust close to the earth and won't let it dissipate into the atmosphere. You really start to notice it around -30 or so. No sign of it when it is even 5-10 degrees warmer. "The ice fog is actually vapor and not liquid, so it does not freeze on the windshield. It can leave a bit of a filmlike substance on the windshield. As it doesn't freeze on the windshield, you don't have to worry about stopping and scraping. It is just dangerous, as when it is really bad it is difficult to see the taillights of the car in front, which makes it easy to run up onto someone." You see ice fog in the -62F photo above. Here is another look, from a photo shown on The Weather Channel ... See what she means? Another problem she mentioned, one I have noticed when it is below zero here, is ice forming on the inside windows of the car from people breathing. The defroster can take care of the windshield, but the side windows can get frosted up pretty quickly. Where I live, I don't plug in my car. Some people in the U.P. have engine heaters--I don't. It doesn't get that cold that often, and I only live a short distance from my office--I can always walk. Up in Alaska, though, it's different. "Any place of business is going to have plug-ins for employees," B wrote. "Stores do not have them for customers, but sometimes you can find them and use them if not filled up. My office has a parking lot full of them, which is probably why I have to pay $220 a year for a parking decal." ... B said her car is equipped with "an engine block heater, an oil pan heater, a transmission heater, a battery blanket and a trickle charger. All those are plugged into a junction box which has a heavy duty extension cord on it that sticks out the front end of the car" ... "I have a license plate surround that has space to wrap an extension cord around it so I have it handy each morning when I need it. It keeps everything neat and tidy and I know exactly where the cord is when I need it." It also has a light--so if the outlet isn't working, she will know right away ... What does the well-dressed Alaskan wear when it's so cold? "To head out in the morning, I wear a polar fleece jacket with a parka over it and I wrap a very, very long scarf around my neck a few times to keep warm. I wear a pair of polar fleece gloves inside a pair of leather gloves, and I wear snow boots made in Canada. I have a heavier pair of boots I carry in my car in the event I would have to walk for any great distance. Let's hope that never happens." A few days ago, she reported "We were back down to -46F this morning and the fog was in full bloom. It was all I could do to not call in sick. I was sick all right ... sick of the ice fog and traveling in this weather!!" I asked her about one more aspect of life in Alaska: the northern lights. She replied: "There is never a time when I feel more humble or insignificant as when I am standing in my yard or on the road and watching the northern lights as they swirl across the sky. They are magnificent, breath-taking and always a pleasure to happen upon without notice ... "It is as if the heavens come alive. Green is the most common color, but often times they are filled with blue, pink and red. It is a magnificent display, to say the least. Sometimes, they appear as a still streak or two in the sky and other times they are dancing back and forth. We see them most often when we are driving [home from Fairbanks]. There are no street lights along the highway except at the overpasses, which makes viewing a delight. "Some people do not realize that the northern lights are above the earth all the time. It is only when the conditions are right that they can be seen. The intensity of them has something to do with sunspot activity. The best time of the year to see them is around the equinoxes, or equinoces, if you prefer. "We have a natural hot spring, which is located about 60 miles outside of Fairbanks. The Japanese come over in droves during the winter months with the intention of procreating under the northern lights. There is some sort of blessing that accompanies this ritual." *** Update: As I get ready to post this, it's -9 here. In Fairbanks, the cold wave is over: The temperature stands at +34F. You know, it's been some time since we've had +34 here.

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1/6/2009 - True colors

I musta been a good guy last year, after all. My birthday went practically unnoticed by those around me (though several of my efx2 and Vox friends remembered! Thank you!). And my wife and I had agreed among ourselves not to exchange Christmas presents this year. But a mysterious box arrived at my house on the second day of 2009. I had not ordered it. Neither had my wife. Or anyone else in the family. It's not that I didn't know something was coming and that it had to do with the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. I had gotten a hint ... but just a hint ... from the sender. Now it had arrived. I got the scissors, opened the box, got past some airbags and a card and finally arrived at something black. And red. Within moments, it was out of the box--and on my body. A black jacket with red sleeves and the Red Wings logo proudly in front and back. If you couldn't recognize it, "Red Wings" was spelled out under the logo on the back. So cool. Such a nice gift. But would it fit? Only one way to find out. I picked it up, stuck an arm in the right sleeve, stuck an arm in the other sleeve, realized to my satisfaction that I was not trying to put it on upside down or inside out. I pulled it over my chest and snapped up the snaps. It fit just right. I read the card. It was very moving. The kind of words you don't hear from everyone. I don't, anyway. Of course, I had to get some pictures of my new prize. My wife took these shots behind the house. How cool is that? It came from a close friend of mine; we became friends about three years ago via our blogs. Like me, she is a devoted Detroit Red Wings fan. Unlike me, she lives in California. Unlike me, she doesn't have cable and can't watch any hockey games at home. No satellite dish, either. That's the way it is for her. So about two years ago the lightbulb flashed on over my head: Why don't I record some of the Red Wings games I watch at home? I have a DVD recorder and it works well. I record the games, burn them onto DVDs and mail them to her from time to time. So ever since then, I have. Along the way, we became close friends. Though I think we were close friends already. I have been a Red Wings fan since about 1978. That's the year we moved to the U.P. from Milwaukee and I got to see hockey regularly on TV for the very first time. So I tried to watch them every time they were on--even through the infamously bad "40-point season." They reached the conference finals the next year, and they have been playing high quality hockey ever since (with an occasional breakdown early in the playoffs). When the Wings won the Stanley Cup last spring, I sent along a couple other goodies: a souvenir magazine from Sports Illustrated, a Stanley Cup T-shirt I spotted at K-Mart and a baseball cap with the Red Wings' red and white logo on it. Earlier, I sent her a DVD set of great/memorable Red Wings games from the lats 10 years or so--they have won three Stanley Cups in that time and been near the top nearly every year. I wrote her. telling her how cool the jacket is and how overwhelmed I am. She wrote back, saying no thanks are needed: It's for all the stuff I have done for her over the last couple years. Maybe so, but I'm amazed at my good luck anyway. The cool new jacket has to stay on the coat rack inside for a while--midwinter in the U.P. is a little too cool for it. (We had -20F this morning). But in a month or two, when the regular season nears its end and the playoffs start, it will be warmer, and I can wear my true colors.

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12/31/2008 - Auld Lang Syne

12/28/2008 - The unplanned holiday

Well, for not having a plan, our ad-libbed holiday observance went pretty well. For one thing, we can thank the Midwest's stormy weather for keeping my older son, Phil, around for one extra day. His original plan was to leave us Friday morning and drive back to Detroit via Chicago--he likes the improv comedy clubs in Chi-Town and was going to stay there that night. But though he doesn't follow the weather closely, he was still aware of the big storms bearing down on the Second City. Forecasts called for much warmer than normal temperatures, bringing in very heavy rain and a good chance of flooding. That was enough to change his itinerary. As he put it, "Chicago traffic is bad enough the way it is." So he spent much of his Friday playing games at his brother's apartment. In the evening, he, my wife and I went out for a pizza. Then he went out to meet some classmates at a local restaurant--just four, I guess. It was arranged through Facebook. He got back home, we watched some stuff for a little while, and then he went up to bed. He left for home Saturday at about 6 a.m.--had something going down in Detroit that night involving the new Jim Carrey movie. He made it home OK--had to deal with rain and a lot of fog along the way, but he didn't have any trouble with it. Back here, I had to do some work on the paper Saturday. Then, some shopping. Some work assignments. Chipping ice off the back porch, in preparation for the freezing rain forecast that night, just before a snowstorm. The freezing rain never developed, and the heaviest snow went east of us. It just got windy. As for Christmas Day itself: We all got up late. Dave came over late in the morning, and we gathered in the living room to watch some stuff on TV. We had decided to do a giftless Christmas, but I had some "late birthday gifts" for the two boys. After lunch, we drove down to see my mom at the nursing home. As luck would have it, she was having a good day, and her face positively lit up when she saw Phil again for the first time in a year. (She sees the rest of us fairly often, and I'm there to visit nearly every week.) Very happy. We visited for the better part of two hours and drove back home. That night, we watched "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull" together. Another adventure awaits my wife and I on Monday. We plan to drive down to visit S and her husband. Just a short visit--I'm taking them out to dinner, and then we're going to enjoy the pool at our motel. The visit has been tentative for a while due to the very iffy weather and her husband's back problems--he hurt something while shoveling snow a few weeks ago and has been out of work with back pain. S's letter on Saturday says he is doing better. Still, I phoned her tonight to make sure. We're also keeping an eye on the forecast--more snow is forecast for Tuesday, the day we would be driving back north. Doesn't seem too bad right now. The weather has been ugly all month, anyway. I tried to do some writing on the computer last night after my wife went to bed. But Charlie had other priorities. You should know the story by now. She invited herself into my lap to get petted and cuddled. Purr, purr, purr. This time, I was able to take a couple pictures--with one hand!--of the big, happy kitty. And here you are ... After a while, my leg started falling asleep. I started fidgeting, and she hopped off ... About five minutes later, I was sitting quietly again, and Charlie came back. This time, she faced the other way ... One more thing about the cats: They seemed a little confused when the bedroom was closed during Phil's visit. That is usually Max's domain--he liked to lie down on the bed and look out the window--and they aren't used to closed doors. So at night, Charlie and Max would camp out in front of that door for a while--since it is next to the computer room, I could keep an eye on things. Then they chase each other downstairs. Their usual exercise just before bed.

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12/24/2008 - In search of a plan

12/16/2008 - Bad boy

12/2/2008 - Seasonal transition

11/24/2008 - Guess where I'm going?

All this fall, I have been wondering whether I would have a normal Thanksgiving this year. On Saturday, I learned the answer. The answer is yes. Yes, I will have a normal Thanksgiving--normal for me for the last four years, at least. Each of them has been spent down to Detroit, where I went to cover state high school football championship games, played Friday morning. For the fifth straight year, I will be doing that again. On Saturday, our team won its semifinal game 8-6. It wasn't a big win by any means, but a win's a win, and our team will make the 500-mile trip to the state title game again. Alas, so will I. I have resigned myself to my fate for some time, realizing there was absolutely nothing I could do about it one way or the other. Would it happen again? I won't have to go down there five straight years, would I? What a dumb question: Of course I would. So on Sunday I worked on the article about the semifinal game. Then I start looking at maps, reminding myself where things are located relative to each other, what exits to take off the interstate, how to get from one place to the other and how to get back. I also have to make motel reservations. Mind you, I don't mind going to Detroit when I can do it on my own terms. Like last summer, when all three of us visited my older son for a few days. But now the weather isn't so good. It's colder, and maybe there will be snow (though this week's forecast sounds pretty good). My wife made the trip with me last year, but she will stay home this time--her training for her seasonal call center job starts Wednesday. But my younger son still wants to come along. So you don't have to worry about me not being well chaperoned throughout my trip. The chances of me slipping the leash and getting out somewhere for some fun are less than zero. Let me say it plainly. It. Is. Not. Fun. I. Don't. Want. To go. Certainly not for the fifth straight year. Especially this year. I wanted to spend part of Thanksgiving with my mom, since she is continuing to fade away. Every single bloody Thanksgiving since she went into the nursing home, I wanted to spend part of Thanksgiving with her. It hasn't happened, and it won't happen this year. God just doesn't want it to happen, I guess. Here is a picture from Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house back in 2001. Nothing elaborate, but we had venison and gravy, brown-and-serve rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, apple pie (somewhat mashed) and (not pictured) pumpkin pie. We ate well ... (Of course, such a Thanksgiving isn't possible any more, because my mom has been in the nursing home since late 2005. Sigh.) Another thing about driving to Detroit for a title game is that I don't control the clock. We leave for the 11-hour trip south Wednesday morning and arrive in the Detroit area long after sundown. On Thursday, it's Thanksgiving: Everything in the States is closed. Everything in Canada is open, and I'm hoping we can cross over to Windsor (Ontario) for a little shopping and a nice dinner. That means I have to find my birth certificate. We'll spend all of Thanksgiving with my older son. On Friday morning, my younger son and I get up really early so we can get on the freeway for Ford Field and the football game, which kicks off at 9 a.m. Central Time. This year, our team is a massive underdog, and I'm realistic about such things. After the game, I get back on the interstate and can spend the next 11 hours thinking about what I'm going to say in my article as I drive home. We'll get home about midnight. I've got to bust my ass home right away so I have time to write about it Saturday and Sunday. The paper gets put together Monday morning, and all my work has to be done by then. I can only imagine how my neck and lower back will feel once it's all over. Maybe this year I finally call that massage therapist after it's all over. But stop the presses: Now it appears I may have another option: I have learned (from the coach) that I may be able to ride south with the team in their bus--and it's not a school bus, either. Right now, I am weighing the pluses and minuses. Among the pluses: Since my younger son stays home, he can keep my wife company on Thanksgiving. I don't have to drive for some 20+ hours, with all the wear and tear on the car (and the driver). In a real rarity, I would go somewhere and not have to do 100% of the driving. I could get used to that. Don't have to book a motel room. Someone else is in charge and gets to make all the decisions. Minuses: I'm not in charge and don't get to make the decisions. No chance of a side trip to Canada--so keep my loonies at home. Probably won't see my older son. Disappointing for my younger son--he can't come along for once. Waiting around during several football practices. And I don't get paid the mileage money--and though we only get 30 cents per mile, it's still works out to a nice profit on a 1,100-mile round trip if your car gets 35 mpg. So now that I have been thinking about it, I am leaning quite a lot towards riding the bus. Even though I found the birth certificate. That's OK--my wife and I have been talking about applying for the new passport cards, so we can visit Canada next summer. I have another adventure to tell you about, but I'll post that in a day or two (assuming our motel has wireless internet).

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11/13/2008 - One down, three to go

Hello, hello to one and all. This is my crazy-go-nuts week in terms of fall playoff coverage. The weather is going downhill, and I've got a lot of long drives this week. One down, three to go. So I really didn't need to read this in the weather news this morning: ...SIGNIFICANT LAKE EFFECT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS POSSIBLE LATE FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY EVENING FOR WEST AND NORTH CENTRAL UPPER MICHIGAN... Now it just so happens that I will be driving up to Marquette on Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon this week, to cover playoff football games. The games themselves will be played inside the Superior Dome, which you saw photos of recently, and it's all nice and dry and warm inside. But to get there, you have to drive two hours through whatever weather the U.P. is enjoying at the time. To get home again, you have to drive two hours back through whatever. If you don't know. Marquette is in the lake effect snow belt, on the south shore of Lake Superior--they can get vast quantities of snow. So it's shaping up as one of those weekends. On Tuesday, I drove to the volleyball regional tournament. That is an 80-mile drive each way; it's a lot closer to Lake Michigan than to Lake Superior. Our team won (just barely, in five games) and advances to the regional championship match tonight. My wife is coming along to keep me company (and, oh yes, to pick up some low-cost kitty food in Iron Mountain), and we'll stop by to see my mom, too. It's fun to have someone along--nice to have company. Last weekend, both the football teams played at home in their district championship games. One team played Friday night: It was about 40 degrees F and dry until a few raindrops fell in the final minutes. By that time they had won, so they were happy. During the night, the rain continued, and it changed over to wet snow Saturday morning. The other team's game was at home, starting at 12:30 p.m. Remember the recent post about the game played in the rain and fog? This one had the same two teams at the same field, only it was played in daylight. The field had taken a good soaking overnight, but the snowflakes were real pretty during the first half. and the field was in fairly good shape ... Not that every pass was caught ... Or that every tackle was made ... So conditions were fairly good early in the game. But with all those football players chewing it up thoroughly over two hours of playoff football, the middle of the field got torn up and muddy and slick. Twas a muddy mess by the time it was over. The wet snow eased off during the second quarter, but some drier snow, driven by chilly winds out of the north, arrived during the second half. As the game went on, the teams continued battling in the mire ... Finally, the game was over. A touchdown in the first quarter was the only scoring in the game. As always, the teams shook hands when it was all over ... I was talking to someone in the office today. Covering the game last Saturday was fun. Despite the rain and cold and mud. In fact, because of the rain and cold and mud. It was outdoors. It was real. It was genuine football. This weekend, I may be driving two hours through snow (twice) to got photos of teams playing on a plastic carpet in warm conditions. It's just not the same. To me, the fun part of football season ended last Saturday ... regardless of what happens in the playoffs.

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11/9/2008 - A little bit prouder

11/4/2008 - Change? At last?

The BIG change won't be happening for another 2 1/2 months, but it should be in motion after today. After four years of waiting, it's Election Day. Will America get it right this time? Most of the states had some form of early voting. In Michigan, well, we're a little behind the times. Everyone votes on Election Day in Michigan unless they get an absentee ballot. After discussing it with my wife, we decided to do our voting in the mid morning, just as I was driving her to the church and the quilters' group. Lovely weather. It's partly cloudy outside, and temperatures are in the mid 60s. Not bad for early November! So how long did voting take? How long were we in line? It took all of 15 seconds before I got the little slip (signature, address, date of birth) that I had to fill out to get my ballot; I also had to show my driver's license. Then I went into another room with the little voting booths and filled out the ballot. Same with my wife. Studied the ballot proposals: medical marijuana, yes; fewer restrictions on stem cell research, of course. Fed the ballot into the optical scanner. (Our ballots have the ovals that you fill in with a black felt-tip pen.) The whole procedure took five minutes, if that. Then I drove my wife to the quilters and went back to work. It was, I should mention, my first chance to vote for Obama. Ever. Many of you had the chance to take part in primaries or caucuses early this year, but Michigan held an illegal Democratic primary in January (10 months ago). Knowing the DNC wouldn't accept the results, many candidates, including Obama, took their names off the ballot. It raised a ruckus in the run-up to the convention in August. Eventually, they figured out a solution. We have a little tradition here on Election Day: Pancake Day. The local Kiwanis Club holds its Pancake Day on Election Day, so normally we vote, and then we get pancakes. Except this time we voted earlier than normal, so I took her to the quilters--they took her to the church where Pancake Day was taking place at 11:30 a.m., and I met her there. Pancakes. Sausages. Milk. Butter. It made for a filling mid-day repast. We had finished the winter tourism issue (final step: proofreading) this morning. Tonight (at 5 p.m.) I will be covering a district volleyball tourney; I cover one match, then go home for supper and to watch the returns come in. The volleyball districts continue on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, our football teams will both be going for their district titles on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Both teams will be home. Both were home last Friday night for "sub-district" games. The weather was pretty decent: temperatures were in the 40s with no rain. It wasn't so nice one week earlier, the final week of the regular season. The game I was at Friday night had some interesting weather. For most of the first half, it rained. Things got pretty soggy. Here's a picture of the action on the field during the rain ... The rain eventually stopped during the second quarter, but during the second half fog started building. It went from soggy to foggy pretty quickly. Foggy conditions are hard for photography, especially action sports like football. Especially in a small, old stadium with poor lighting. For a while, I tried using my flash like usual. But the light from the flash picks up all the water vapor in the air and you get something like this ... Playing around with Photoshop can help some ... but it only goes so far ... What was I to do? I finally tried turning off the flash and using available light. The trouble was, there wasn't much available light. This is what the field looked like from the sidelines with all that fog in the air ... I wound up using one picture from during the rain and a shot of the reaction on the bench after our team earned a safety--I got the shot of the tackle in the end zone, too, but it was just too dark to use. You don't believe me? The next day (Saturday afternoon), David and I went to the dome in Marquette for an evening game. It was just cloudy, so photography conditions were much better. Here's what the Superior Dome looks like from the outside ... And here is what it is like inside ... If our teams win this weekend, we'll probably by back in the Dome for the regional title games. As the playoffs move on, of course, the U.P.'s weather gets less football-friendly. We have been lucky so far, but good luck lasts only so long. Everyone else is fine. The cats continue to adjust to each other. David came over last night--it was his birthday, so we had a favorite meal of his, and we watched some football. I bought him something he had wanted for a long time--a DVD recorder and VCR unit with a tuner. The DVD recorder doesn't have a hard drive of its own (like mine does; you just can't get them any more), but he wanted it mainly to copy some of his old videotapes, and the unit I bought will handle that with no problem (according to the box). I know I haven't been around here much lately. What can I say? The World Seri0us captured my attention. The election, of course--I've been watching CNN and C-SPAN a lot. And I've been pretty busy with night assignments. It should start easing off fairly soon. I've missed writing. I like to write at night, and there just hasn't been the time lately--because my wife likes it when we sit together and watch something. Or else when I'm upstairs writing, Charlie comes around. She hops up on the computer desk, walks around behind the flast-screen monitor, comes out the other side and climbs down into my lap. That's just the way she does it. Then she's happy. Purr, purr. And I'm done with writing for a while.

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10/23/2008 - Last chance to mow

Our area had a lovely day today. It started cloudy and cool, but then it cleared off and got into the low 50s. I celebrated it after work today by doing something I hadn't done for a while: I mowed the lawn. Final rite of our rapidly disappearing summer. A cold front is supposed to blow through on Sunday. We may see snowflakes before Monday. The grass had gotten long because I hadn't mown it for a while. Part of it is basic laziness, I suppose, but the long delay is partly due to the ankle I twisted in early September. We have a push mower, so when you mow the lawn you get some good exercise. I didn't want to push the ankle until it was feeling nearly back to normal. It is now. If I twist it the wrong way, it hurts a little. Otherwise, it's back to normal. I had to run out for a picture this evening, and when I walked out to the car, I said to myself that the lawn is looking fairly nice. Better than it was, certainly. The picture, by the way, was at a youth hockey practice. Yes, winter's on the way. **** Geez, I've fallen behind on everyone's blogs lately. I've got an excuse. Maybe not a good one, but it's better than nothing. At work, we have been working hard on our winter tourism issue. The official deadline is this weekend, and I fell behind on things last week. Suddenly it came to me--Eureka!--that nobody else is going to do the work for me. So I had to hustle my bustle. Like they say about the butcher who sat down in the meat grinder, "I'm getting a little behind in my work." So no quiet time at the office this week. Instead, manic work to get a bunch of features written or updated. Meanwhile, I had a pair of friends I wanted to write to, and that took up my evenings at home. And I was already tired, from all the work I had done. Also, Wednesday was my wife's birthday, and we wanted to visit my mom that evening. So we did. I got her a couple cards. Some of you may remember some of the infamous cards I get for my wife. The stock of clever ones seemed to be down this year. Still, I came up with this one. Here is the front ... And this is inside ... **** On a recent trip to see my mom, my wife and I decided to get a scratch mat for Max. We put it out, and Max seemed to take to it ... So did the other two cats. Maggie decided to give it a try. She thought it was good to sit on ... And Charlie decided to give it a try. First, she worked it up with a paw to make a little tunnel out of it ... Then the little feathery toy on it got her attention, and Charlie had a great time playing with it ... Oh, she was having a great time with it ... The cats are getting along a lot better. Still an occasional hiss or growl, but it's gotten a lot better. Last time I wrote, I wasn't sure it was going to work out. Now it's better. Max's personality is coming out more. He likes to get petted but doesn't like to be picked up that often. But he comes around, rubbing against my legs or my hand when I put it down. He likes to get his head petted and scratched. Purr, purr. Meanwhile, nearly every morning now, Charlie comes to visit me about 5 a.m., when I'm just waking up. I feel her walking up by my side. I try to lie on my back, with my arm to my side, so Charlie will lie down by my side, with my arm on the other side, so she can put her forepaws on my upper arm. Purr, purr. Sometimes she gets her middle rubbed. Other times, I drift back to sleep. Did I ever tell you that Charlie likes crackers? Every cat is strange in some way, and Charlie seems to have a weakness for ordinary soda crackers. When I came out to the living room this evening with a pair crackers, Charlie hopped up by me. Meow? Meow? Urrrow? She starts sniffing the crackers and tries to lick them, so I finally break off a tiny corner and offer it to her. She sniffs and then eats it. You could hear a soft crunch, crunch. She had two pieces and was satisfied. Ironically, my wife said she was sitting with Charlie yesterday. She had a couple crackers for herself ... and Charlie paid them no attention.

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10/20/2008 - Tagged like me

10/16/2008 - Are you sitting comfortably?

Prepare yourself for a shock. Are you sitting down? (Of course you are; you're at the computer, aren't you?) The news is: I haven't been feeling particularly creative lately. It's this, that and the other thing. Maybe my brain is seizing up. Screeech! Summer now seems to have fled the scene for good, and I'm working on articles for our annual winter issue. I can't begin to tell you how happy that makes me. Wonderful. Six months of winter, on deck. Well, like most stuff in life, it is what you make of it. Right at the moment, I'm a bit down at the prospect of winter coming. But after winter there's spring, and then summer. Spring is only six or seven months away, depending on whether it's a late spring or not. **** There is big news at our house. We have added another cat. May I introduce you to Max (his shelter name) ... Max--that name may be changed--was acquired from the local animal shelter. He is a male cat who was already neutered. He is about 3 1/2 years old, bright orange, as you can see, and comparatively thin. He is friendly and likes to be petted. Purr, purr, purr. My naive hope was that Charlie was looking for a friend, someone she can play with, since Maggie still hisses at Charlie when she goes by. Such has not been the case. We brought Max home yesterday, in the late afternoon. Once Charlie realized that the pet taxi came home with an occupant, she started hissing. And growling. Charlie knows cat words that I have never heard before. One sounds like "Oyyyyy, yoy-yoy-yoy-yoy-yoyyyyy!" (Normally, Charlie "talks" a lot as she goes around the house; some cats do, and others don't.) One time yesterday, she put her ears down (first time I ever saw her do that) and hissed and then chased Max upstairs. They both went under our bed. I followed them and heard them hissing at each other. That's all that happened. For the most part, they have stayed apart today. But my wife said they started having a conversation just before noon. She knew what to do: She turned on the vacuum cleaner. That ended the discussion immediately: One cat went one way, and the other went another. Another issue must be resolved: Max has not been declawed. We are hoping we won't have to do this. This evening, we tried to trim her claws with a fingernail clipper--something we hadn't done since we had Princess (that cat that preceded Frisky, who is the cat that preceded Charlie). Max must have been declawed before, but he didn't want to cooperate with us, so we let him go. He is not scratching furniture; just the carpets, and most of our carpets at home aren't much to speak of. He does that when he's happy, sort of kneading his paws on the floor. When we had lunch together today, Max went around and around the table, brushing against our legs and getting petted. I want to tell you a little about Max's history, too. Charlie came to the shelter as a kitten. Max arrived there around New Year's--he had been at the shelter for 10 months until this week. The story is that he was found as a stray, and they discovered he had an abcess in his mouth, which was causing him pain. The vet took care of that. According to the shelter's bio, "Max wants a nice indoors home. He doesn't want to be outside any more." At one point, they told us, he got depressed and stopped eating. He is still thin. Much lighter than Charlie, who had gotten rather rotund in her time with us. I just hope that he and Charlie will be able to get along better. I feel pretty bad about the way things have turned out. If I had known Charlie would be this way about it ... **** Tonight, I'm upstairs, writing, with the Red Wings game on the little TV to my left. I'm up here by myself. If this were a perfect world, I would have at least a cat here to keep me company. But this is not a perfect world, is it? Usually stuff like that doesn't bother me that much. Tonight it is.

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10/8/2008 - Indian summer

Checking in ... The last week or so went by in a bit of a daze. Mega amounts of baseball, at least compared to the rest of the season, when there frankly wasn't a lot on TV. Not the teams I was interested in, anyway. But this year the Milwaukee Brewers made it into the playoffs for the first time in 26 years, so I was honor-bound to watch as much of them as I could (notwithstanding the fact that I'm not as much into baseball as I used to be. Hockey has taken over ... but the Brewers in the playoffs change all that temporarily). How long has it been since the Brewers were in the baseball post-season? So long ago that I missed most of that World Series for two reasons. (1) My wife and I were taking childbirth classes at a local hospital, because she was pregnant with David. (2) We didn't have a VCR yet. It was the 1982 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. This was back in the days of Betamax vs. VHS. You don't know what a Betamax is? Anyway, this year, the Brewers were eliminated by Philadelphia in four games, with the final game on Sunday. I didn't expect them to win; they faced very long odds. I only wanted one thing: for them to last longer than the media darling Chicago Cubs. And they did--the Cubs were defeated by the L.A. Dodgers in three straight, the night before. So I was happy about that. I'll probably watch more of the baseball playoffs. But hockey season starts on Thursday night, and that's my No. 1 now. So let's just say I will be greatly distracted. **** Meanwhile, I'm wondering about how long the high school football season will go. Long-time readers know I have gone to the state championship game for the last four games--and our team won the Michigan state title last year. This year, I thought I wouldn't have to do that. Too many star players had graduated. But guess what? It's six games into the season, and the team really hasn't been challenged so far. Last Friday, as temperatures dipped into the upper 20s, they played their biggest rival, in a town 30 miles away--and won 46-6. It wasn't close. It's getting colder now, and the players' breath was steaming late in the game ... Earlier, I expected them to make the playoffs and last a few games. Now I have to adjust that projection. They are looking mighty strong, and my post-season may last longer than I first expected. Will I really have to make that 500+-mile drive down to visit my son over Thanksgiving and then the state title game on Friday morning? Three weeks are left in the regular season and then the playoffs start. I won't worry about it. It's completely out of my hands. It's just that I would like to spend Thanksgiving at home for once. After all, it's been five years since I last could. **** I have had a writing project in mind, which would have appeared here, this week. But I think I'm going to put it on hold until next year. It had to do with that trip to the pagan equinox ritual recently. During the trip, I visited a small city that was the site of a major disaster, the most deadly fire in U.S. history. And I bet you have never heard about it. But time is tight this week--we are working on one of our many special editions each year, and I need to get some stories written. Also, I don't have all the photos I want to help tell the story. I got a few during my visit, but just some of them. This story, I think, has to wait for another day. Or another year. Long enough for me to write it up right. **** I covered a cross-country meet on Monday. It rained for most of the day, and while the rain had stopped an hour before the race, it was still cool and damp and breezy. The seasons are definitely a-changing up here. But then a front went through, with rain, and temperatures are now forecast to be well above normal for the rest of the week. Highs in the upper 60s. Beautiful mild autumn days. Indian summer. There's a famous old cartoon by John T. McCutcheon, "Injun Summer," that appeared in the Chicago Tribune over a hundred years ago. About an old codger spinning tall tales to a boy while they are raking leaves in the fall. I always think about that this time of year. Have you ever seen it? Click the link and you will. **** One other thing to mention: Last Saturday, we went to the local animal shelter, to look at the cats. We saw several that we liked. We have been talking about them since. Maybe we will make a return visit fairly soon.

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10/1/2008 - Turning into October

We flipped the calendar page today. We also seem to have flipped the weather page. Yesterday, it was fairly nice. Today, it was cool and windy. Word is that the weather will get cooler as the week goes on. They are predicting lows in the upper 20s Friday night. (Note to self: Be sure to take the fingerless gloves to the football game that night.) I bowed to the inevitable at about 10:30 this morning: I reached for my sweater to pulled it on over my short-sleeved shirt. It was the first time I had done that since last spring. Outside, it was 45 at about noon with no sign it will be getting warmer for a while. So fall is here. The color change is now well along, but it's been cloudy most of the time so conditions for fall color photos have been very limited. Time to report on my adventures over the weekend. I went to a fall solstice ritual conducted by a neopagan group near Menominee, Mich. I spent the night there; I left home (by myself) at about 2 p.m. Saturday and arrived back home at about noon Sunday. Things went pretty well. I was there at the invitation of a couple I had met at the gathering held every summer, around the Fourth of July, in southwestern Wisconsin. They also travel long distances to get there. I drove first to their home. They helped carry my stuff downstairs to their "pagan guest room," which is a spare room equipped with a couch, several bookcases with pagan-related books in them, candles on top of them and posters on the wall. The room also featured lots of clutter. They had set up an air mattress on the floor, and I put my sleeping bag and pillow on it. I was all set. We had a light dinner there, and I got to meet the two resident cats. Another older woman arrived; she went to the event with us. It took place in Wisconsin, about 10 miles to the south, near a home and a large garage. It was just after sunset when we arrived. Outside, next to the garage, they had a large cauldron set up and were starting a fire. The cauldron had moons and stars cut out on the sides, which I thought was very cool (for a burning cauldron) ... Temperatures were about 55 to 60. Not overly cool. Once everyone had assembled (about a dozen people), the ritual took place in the garage. It was centered on a table decorated with several candles and some normal fall/harvesttime decorations ... My hosts led the ceremony, which lasted maybe 20 minutes. I had a minor part, speaking to the element Air. (There are four elements, Air, Water, Fire and Earth--their spirits are invited to take part in the ritual.) Once the ceremony ended, it was time for Act Two: Everyone moved over to a nearby table, where a variety of goodies were out for a pot luck. They had mead (honey wine), several other kinds of wine and a crockpot full of hot cider. That's what I went for; hot cider is one of my favorites. There were cornbread muffins, along with your typical Doritos and blue corn chips and dip and a few other things. Part three of the evening consisted of drumming. Maybe about half the people had come mainly for the drumming, and now was the time they were waiting for. Originally the drumming was to have been outside, around the cauldron, but some light rain passed through for about a minute or so, and the drummers were worried about their drumheads. So the drumming moved inside the largish garage. I played a small drum--I'm just a beginner, you know, but I know rhythm and syncopation, so I was able to figure out the rhythms part of the time. I took this shot by just the light of the candles ... But if you want to see the drums and the drummers ... It lasted till about 10:15 p.m., when the group started saying good-bye. We drove back to Menominee, dropped off the older woman at her place and then went back to the house. Before long, I was in the pagan guest room, stretched out on my sleeping bag. It took a while to fall asleep, but I finally did. I headed for home at about 8:30 a.m. Sunday. **** Outside of that, life has been fairly ordinary lately. The other notable thing to happen was our visit to my mom last Thursday. My wife came along. For the first time since spring, my mom expressed an interest in going for a ride. So we did. Between then and now, however, she has gotten a different wheelchair, and this one won't fold up and go into the trunk, like her old one could. Bottom line is that she couldn't get out until we were back at the nursing home. Our first stop was the cemetery where my dad and brother are buried. I pulled up so she could look out her window at the gravestone (about 15 feet away). She looked at it and before long she was crying. Crying for her son (my only brother), who took his life 23 years ago. The last time we were there, the stone was dirty with moss, lichens and other dirt. We came back there around Memorial Day (end of May) with our cleaning supplies. It looks nice now. The rest of the trip was better and predictable. We visited the rural area where she was raised (which looks nothing like it used to, even when I was a kid) and the farm where my dad lived (which still looks much like it did way back when). They are just a mile or two from each other. We wrapped up the drive by getting her a chicken sandwich at Subway on our way back to the nursing home. It was a six-incher. She ate about a third of it, and my wife and I polished off the rest of it. After that she was tired, so we headed for home. Lucky that we did it when we did. It was a nice day--temperatures in the mid 70s. Today, it's not even 50. It's October, after all.

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9/24/2008 - To all you independents

9/23/2008 - The mystery of the missing notebook

9/16/2008 - A weekend with Starlius

9/3/2008 - Summer's final act

I think we can declare summer unofficially over. Labor Day has come and gone, and we are back from a three-day trip to visit my wife's sisters/brothers. On the day before we left for home, temperatures were in the upper 80s with high humidity. Two hours after we got home, a cold front blew through. (It was following us!) Today, it just reached the mid 60s. The last time I wrote, I was tired from a day of sitting around at my late father-in-law's house, watching seven (of eight) brothers and sisters trying to divide up some of the items there. It got a lot better after that. Monday morning, we were invited to go blueberry-picking by one of my wife's sisters. In all, five of us went: us, two sisters and one great-niece--granddaughter of one of the SILs. We headed west about 20 miles or so, in western Rusk County, Wisconsin. The little place was way out in farm country, but the directions led us right to it. My first self-appointed task, of course, was to get some pictures of the blueberry bushes. The plants I found close by had both blue and pink/purple berries. So, in addition to the blueberries, here's what pinkberries and purpleberries look like ... Then I put the camera away and started picking. The rows I worked had been picked over, but the berries are growing quickly now, and it wasn't hard to find nice, dark blue blueberries. Some were high--too high for the women to get at easily--and others were down low, a foot or so above the ground. Others were well inside the bushes. I took my time and picked away. Of course, I also had to do some quality control work: sample the occasional berry to make sure they were worth picking. My verdict: They were. Of course, I double-checked every so often. Just to make sure. It was partly cloudy as we started (about 10 a.m.) but as the morning went on, the clouds started breaking up and the sun started beating down. We went till about 12:30 p.m., by which time I was getting kind of hot--I later discovered my neck got a little sunburned. Surprised? But it was worth it. And here is the reason why ... That's about four pounds of blueberries, and my wife picked another four. We paid the woman for the berries (at $2.50/pound). For a while, I couldn't find my wife--the bushes were tall and the rows were narrow. I was hot, but I wanted to see where she was. So I started going up and down the rows--including some rows that we didn't pick in. Oh, I wish I had taken the camera along, because it was like a jungle back there. Very narrow spaces between the rows of plants. And near the ends of the rows ... it was just incredible how many big berries there were. All dark blue. All large. All more than ready for picking--no pinkies here. I had already picked enough berries, so I had left my bucket by my camera bag. But I would have picked many more berries a lot faster if I had found that area earlier. As it was, though, I was getting hot and still hadn't found my wife, so I continued looking. As it turned out, she had gone to the car: She decided she had enough berries, too. We were all pretty hot and tired and hungry by then. So we went back to town, got lunch, stopped briefly at the house to change clothes, whereI dropped off the camera. Then we went to a park in town--the SIL with the granddaughter wanted to take her in her kayak. The SIL likes to kayak and has even kayaked in the icy waters of Lake Superior, near Duluth (in quiet bays, I should add). "Would you like to ride in the kayak?" She asked my wife, and she agreed to give it a try. She climbed in, and the SIL pulled her along with a nylon rope. Then she asked me. I said Why not? I climbed in--carefully; she said that is the tricky part--and then graspedthe paddle. I know how kayakers move around in the water--I don't watch the Olympics for nothing!--and started getting the hang of paddling quickly. I learned how to turn and how to get from here to there on the river. I took a short run to a boat landing and back. About 15 minutes, I tried it again. This time I went the other way--past the beach and up the river (along the shore) maybe a quarter mile or so before turning around (that again was the tricky part) and paddling back. The river is about 200 yards wide at that point, and I got maybe 50 yards from shore at times. My shoulders were getting a little tired by the time I finally got back to where I started, but I made it all by myself. The kayak wasn't anywhere near as tippy as I feared it might be. Again, climbing in and getting out wasn't so easy, but I stayed mostly dry. So where are the visual aids? Well, it's like this: While in the water, I thought about my camera ... safely back at the house. My SIL took several pictures of me paddling around in the water. But she uses a film camera, so it may be some time before I get to see what I looked like. (FYI, I was wearing a brimmed hat, a light blue T-shirt and tan shorts (which you couldn't have seen, anyway.) Our next stop was to be supper, at a pizzeria on the outskirts of town, with the SIL we were staying with and her BF. (The other SIL took her granddaughter home.) We drove there--and discovered that the pizzeria was taking Labor Day off. Closed! Grrrr! So we went to a Country Kitchen instead. After that, the other SIL (and her BF) joined us for a movie: "Mamma Mia" was playing in town, in the city's big, old theater. A nice place to see a movie, and that's what the six of us did. One of my wife's sisters had invited another SIL to join us, but she decided not to, luckily. She is very conservative, and "Mamma Mia" doesn't reach out to that demographic. The next morning was Tuesday: Our day to drive home. We talked with the SIL for a while, then said good-bye and hit the road about 11 a.m., for the four-or-so-hour trip home. We had a long-delayed, very serious talk during the drive, but I'll save that part for another time. It went well. As did the trip. Today ... back to work.

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8/31/2008 - The eight-way split

8/27/2008 - Pulling it all at the fair

Two weeks ago, the county took place in our town, and I covered some of the events held in front of the grandstand. Look, it's a small, rural fair. Low budget. Low creativity. Low expectations. They have a midway, some rides, 4-H exhibits and the 4-H livestock auction. Food booths. Elephant ears. They had a horse pull this year, but I opted to cover the 4-H kids' horse show first. Later, I drove past and there were no horses in the arena. Pulling is an important part of the show. The fair has the horse pull, a tractor pull and a truck pull. I like the horses the best, but I had to miss them this year. The tractor pull involves tractors pulling a weighted sled--there's a moving concrete box on it, and as the box moves, the sled gets harder and harder to pull. The arena's dirt floor was very dry (with hardly any rain for the last few weeks, that was no surprise), leading to very dusty conditions ... Eventually I wised up and went on the other side. However, with the tractors pulling into the sun, there was just so much I could do ... They finally had a fire truck come out and wet down the track where the sled was being pulled ... Most of the tractors in the competition were really old. Most date from the late 1940s or early 50s. It was ironic because the tractor pulling the weight sled back to the start was nice and new ... It was a lot like the truck pull, which took place Friday night. Same basic plan, with pickup trucks instead of tractors. The procedure was the same. First, the truck pulls the weight sled ... Lovely truck, right? When the pull is done, some heavy equipment pulls the weight sled back to the start ... Note the damage made to the track by the truck (or tractor) as it digs into the dirt track, trying to move the sled every last fraction of an inch that it can ... So to fix up the track, a bulldozer comes out to smooth things down ... Then the next truck (or tractor) comes out, and here we go again. And again. And again. It amounts to about 15 seconds of watching a truck pull the weight sled, followed by 2 or 3 minutes of pulling the sled back, the dozer coming out and smoothing the track, the next truck getting all set up, etc. It does get rather tedious. I liked one of the local trucks that was entered. It was a nice-looking Ford that made a good pull ... But on its next pull, something went very wrong. There was a grinding sound, the truck stopped dead, and something was glowing underneath it. In seconds, people were swarming around ... The engine had blown. I heard later that the guy had put about $10,000 into the engine, which was tested with a dynamometer and rated at 1,100 horsepower. Either the clutch or flywheel wasn't up to the challenge, and the $10,000 engine blew. And that wasn't the worst for him. The worst came a few minutes later: His well-loved Ford truck was pulled off the track ... by a Chevy ... A fate worse than death. The truck pull also featured some trucks from the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan Pullers Association: known as the WUMPAs or "whump-ass." These trucks are much more expensive than even the blue truck, beautifully painted, with highly tuned engines running on nitro fuel, like dragsters. And they were loud. VERY loud. Earth-shakingly loud. Hear-it-across-the-city loud. If sound could create light, this would be a very bright photo ... The truck show fills about a third to half of the grandstand. But the show on Saturday night fills all the seats, and then some. It's the demolition derby. There were about 60 cars this year, and a few had beautiful paint jobs ... While others were grizzled, recycled demo derby warriors ... And even the cars that came in looking nice came out looking not so nice. At one time, this was an Imperial. I guess it still is, not that you could identify it ... The demo derby is easily the most popular event of the fair. All the grandstand seats are packed, people are lined up around the fences, and the beer concession is very busy. Big surprise, right?

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8/25/2008 - The three bears plus one

Time marches on ... into fall! The calendar page still reads August, but we got a preview of coming attractions this morning. Our area had a frost advisory early Monday morning, though we didn't quite get there. I looked outside early this morning, and the ground was not frosted. We only got down to 34 (but the official temperature, near the river, reached 29). My life continues to be busy, and what with work projects, other personal projects and the last days of the Olympics, my blog-writing has been on hold. Maybe motivation is a problem, too. I wanted to ... and yet I didn't want to. You know how that goes? I still have other things on my mind. I have two photo entries coming up. One is from the county fair, held here about a week ago or so. That one is nearly done and could be posted pretty soon. The other is from that powwow we attended in early August. When things calm down, I'll work on the photos from that. The most important thing this week is that we have a short week at work--we put the paper together on Friday instead of Monday, due to the Labor Day holiday. That coincides with the first football games of the new high school season, kicking off Friday night. So what do we do about that? Here's what we do: I cover one of the games in person Friday night, then come in Saturday morning, write the report on that game and process some pictures. I also get a phone report on the other game and write a report on that. Then I put my page together; someone else uploads it to the printing plant later. I hope to get it all done by halfway through Saturday afternoon. I should; all my other work ought to be done by then. Once my pages are all finished, my wife and I are hitting the road--to visit my in-laws in NW Wisconsin over the long weekend. My father-in-law died last December (our most recent visit). Since then the rest of the family has been dividing up things at the house. They put several big boxes of things aside for us--we are supposed to take them home with us in our little car. (FYI, there are four girls and four boys, and my wife is the eldest.) Of course, there are only so many big boxes you can cram into a little car. We will get there Saturday night and drive home either on Monday or Tuesday. So it's either two or three nights away from home. It must be getting old for the kitties. **** Now here's something that happened to me last week. I was in the office, working on this and that, when we got a phone call. It was someone I knew, and he was excited. "I've got a bear in a tree near my place; come out with your camera if you want a great shot." He told me how to get there. I called my wife and got her off whatever she was doing so she could see the fun, too. Here's what the fun was like. See that tree on the left side of the road? Look about three-quarters of the way up ... That's what you could see without binoculars. But I have a telephoto lens; it's useful for situations like this. Through the lens, here's what we saw ... In all, we have four bears here: the mama bear and three cubs--one below, one above and the third near mom's belly. They were moving around while I was there (about 10 people had gathered to look--it was about 11:30 a.m.) The guy said he discovered the bear while mowing some grass--he saw some fragments of bark at the base of the tree and looked up. We were there about a half hour, then headed back to town. The guy later told me that the bear and cubs came down about 2 p.m. Just in time to scare the mail carrier while she was making her daily deliveries.

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8/19/2008 - Back to the surface

8/12/2008 - Bloggy blahs

8/9/2008 - Back from the beach

Back again. Back home from the last mini-vacation of summer. It was the quietest one of all. Maybe it was the nicest of all. Not that everything was perfect. The game plan: visiting my friend S and her husband at a clothes-optional "lake" in eastern Wisconsin. Calling it a lake does a grave disservice to all real lakes, since this one is really, really small. But it does have a beach on one side; on the other three sides, tall weeds. I bet I can throw a Frisbee from one end to the other. This pond (for that's what it really is) is located at a former farm in a rural area. I first visited it last month. The trip, from start to finish, only lasted about 36 hours. Not too long, but that's all the time we had available. After a lot of thought, my wife decided to go along this time. We left late on Wednesday morning, later than I had wanted to. First, I went to the office for a planned meeting to set up coverage for a local fest this weekend. The meeting was never held--too many people were missing. Eventually I went home ... to find my wife in her PJs and on the computer. She had gotten trapped by a sewing website and placing an order. That meant she was well behind in her packing and preparations for the trip. She can go only so fast, and that's all. She got her stuff selected, filled the kitty food dishes, loved up her favorite kitty for a while, got some water bottles filled, looked around for a craft project to work on in the car (finally found one; the other is still hiding). Then we were set to go. Due to the delay and stops for lunch and to buy other items we needed, we reached our destination at about 3 p.m., about an hour later than planned. Well, it happens. I wasn't mad. Just impatient, that's all. S and her husband had already set up their tent and stuff. S was wearing a beautiful sky blue see-through, long-sleeved blouse and a dark blue sarong. Her husband was wearing his glasses and some sandals. But within minutes, all four of us were in their tent ... We had driven through rain showers on our drive south, and other showers were moving through the area. We saw some lightning flashes and a couple bolts hitting the ground. Zap! Zap! So into the tent we went for some talk and snacking on corn chips. It was easily big enough for the four of us and their two dogs. The shower passed. They said they had been in the pond earlier, floating on air mattresses, but the water seemed cooler today, especially below the surface. The day had mostly been cloudy, and a cold front was moving through the region--that's what was causing the showers and thunder. But now the shower was over ... About time for us to put up our tent and move our stuff inside. After that, I took a shower to wash off the sweat--they have an outdoor shower with solar-heated water--and relaxed with them. Her husband had found an appropriately named beer for our trip ... It's from the Point Brewery in nearby Stevens Point, Wis. Point beer is a very popular regional brand. Here's what it says at the end of the box ... By now, it was the late afternoon, time to start making supper. But the wood they had brought along with them was wet and wasn't lighting. They forgot to bring a fire log with them. I volunteered to get dressed again and drive into town to and get one--after they explained to me what a fire log is. Earlier, S had asked me to bring some wood with me, too, but I forgot. Since I was going to town, they also asked me to get some paper towels--they had forgotten some stuff, too--and a box of smokes. They both smoke, and neither of us do. Once the fire was burning happily, they made some supper--some veggie burgers. My wife and I shared a foot-long sub we bought at Subway earlier. After supper, we went to the campfire, added some more wood and sat around and talked about this and that, occasionally messing with the wood and dodging smoke, as daylight faded away. Well, what do you know? Seems they also forgot to take a flashlight. I can fix that--I had brought a lantern for the tent plus a pair of small flashlights, so I went to get one of those. I looked in my bag--and only found one. I looked and looked, but the second one remained well hidden. So I took the lantern back for them. Around 10 or so we all decided it was time for bed. My wife and I went to our tent and got ready. She took her pills while I held the flashlight. Then she held it while I reached for mine. And reached. And reached. The pills weren't there! I was sure I had put them in the bag--right about the time I put that missing flashlight in. But as hard as I looked, they weren't there. I emptied the bag. Not even that worked. So I just took some Tylenols and went to bed. The cold front had gone through, and it was getting cooler as the night went on. We had taken one sleeping bag (spread out open as a bottom blanket) and two thermal blankets. The weather forecast had predicted lows of about 60, but it must have gotten down well into the 50s. My wife and I cuddled up close and pulled the blankets around us, and I put on some socks for a while. But it wasn't hard to get to sleep or to get back to sleep when we had to get up during the night. All things considered, especially that we rarely sleep in a tent, we slept fairly well. Morning came, and we decided 8 a.m. was a good time to get up. We had brought some breakfast bars, but S made some scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, mushrooms, cheese, etc., and that was yummy. We started consolidating our stuff, deflating the air mattress, folding it up, sweeping out the tent and then taking the tent down. Packing it up gets easier each time as long as you don't trap air inside. The air was crystal clear that morning--not a cloud to be seen--and the sun quickly got intense. After a shower (lukewarm water--no solar energy during the night), I was careful to keep the towel between me and the solar disc. We all talked about places to visit, what it's like up north, and it wound up with us offering them our home as a motel if they take a drive up our way next year. We have a couple extra rooms--the kids' former bedrooms, which are sort of used for unorganized storage right now--and it shouldn't be too hard. They can stay here, save on motel costs, and we can go on day trips to several places in northern Wisconsin and the western U.P. that they would enjoy. Then it was time for hugs, good-byes and some breaking Brett Favre news. Then it was time for the car to head north. We stopped at a Target and a Hobby Lobby in Green Bay, then back north. We visited my mom then went to dinner. It was our anniversary, so no fast food this time. Then home to our kitties. The inevitable second guesses: We should have left earlier on Wednesday. We should have stayed two nights. But that wasn't an option this time; we both were on limited time off from work. The weather was too cool; but it's been coolish all summer. So for what we had to work with, it was a good visit. And we had a good time. That's what matters most. For the record, we only walked to the beach once, and neither of us got into the water. Only the males got completely undressed. And I'm still thinking about S's sky blue blouse. That was really pretty. Ah, yes! And about the missing pills and flashlight: We found them at home shortly after we got home. Things like that happen.

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8/6/2008 - The Renaissance comes to the U.P.

We went back to ancient times last weekend when we visited a Renaissance Fair taking place in Ishpeming. And we learned something: There were samurai during the Renaissance. The event is the Ishpeming Art Faire & Renaissance Festival (held along with a gem and mineral show; the area has a long mining heritage, after all). From that quote I included in a recent post, I had been thinkinh I might see axes being thrown around, beer or related beverages and bosoms. So here's that scoreboard: I did see bosoms. But those were mostky among the spectators, not the participants. Again, I kept in mind that this is the conservative/repressed U.P., so my expectations were as modest as the medieval maidens. Beer? Ale? Mead? I did not see a drop of the stuff. Maybe I caught a glimpse of someone with a wine bottle--but nearly all the drinks there were the kind sold and distributed by our local Coke and Pepsi distributors, along with a few energy drinks thrown in for the cutting-edge crowd. Throwing axes? Yes! I did see that. In fact, that was the first thing I saw. I came upon an area where a young woman was collecting $1 for three ax or spear throws. Most of her clientele were young males, like this dude. They were aiming at stumps nearby ... Other kids were aiming arrows at targets ... Most of the fair was in a triangle-shaped city park along a lake, where they had booths of artisans and vendors along the outside. One of the first booths was a blacksmith, where a guy with a Scots accent gave a humorous description of what smiths do ... The walkway was mostly populated by vendors. Jewelry and weapons were very popular. Here are some of the weapons available for sale at one booth ... Looks like free trade has enabled new nations to enjoy the benefits of the Renaissance ... Several booths (at least three) had walking sticks for sale. Here are some of the more artistic creations. Actually, I was thinking about getting a less artistic (and less costly) stick ... They also had many beautifully carved wooden boxes ... As I suspected, there were a great many kids on the scene. This was a one-day event taking place in a city park in the U.P., so inevitably many of the activities were skewed towards the kiddies. Here, some knights led a youngster-powered dragon around the grounds ... Here is a table with some of the medieval stuff. Several local groups affiliated with the Society for Creative Anachronism took part in the event ... My tour of the park/booths was interrupted by David, who had gone off wandering by himself. He came back and informed me that the knights were about to battle. Well, hey! Camera in hand, I broke off to see what was about to go down. There were five knights. They seemed about college-age, from what I could tell. They had several battles--when someone gets a good hit on you with the padded weapons, you were supposed to go down. And so the combat went on for a while ... There were some impromptu battles, too, featuring unarmored warriors ... OK, that was cool. Something cooler was next. Back across the street, the samurai demonstration, "Knights of Nippon," was about to start. The samurai (all two of them) led the next kiddie march and then returned ... How about those outfits? The helmets look like Toshiro Mifune in "The Hidden Fortress." This is a group (Kojokan Shinbutai) from Iowa City, Iowa, led by a dad and his son (about 17; he has been training for most of those years). The dad runs a samurai martial arts group, and he talked about the samurai and how they trained, about their weapons and how they fought. The idea, he explained, was to end their fights as quickly and efficiently as possible. This was way cool, at least to me. I'm a big fan of the Kurosawa/Mifune movies ("Seven Samurai," "Yojimbo," etc.) and of classic samurai movies in general. I've got many of them on DVD. So when he talked about how they trained with the katana (the long sword), I listened closely. The boy and his dad did some sparring with their very real katanas ... ... and with bo sticks ... Later, the boy showed what he could do with his blade, working on a rice straw target ... Yes, he was quite impressive. (I only wish my photos weren't so washed-out--I noticed too late that I had reset one of the controls for dark shooting conditions earlier and had not changed it back. The pictures are OK--but they could have been better if I had the control set correctly.) From the samurai, I went back to the main area. We got some very sloppy cheeseburgers for lunch (they just ladled cheese goop atop the burgers; what a mess!). Nearby, a group called Log Jam was performing. This is a drumming/percussion group, and they were impressive, too. As I watched and listened, I thought of the videos Chandra Moon has been posting here of various drumming groups she takes part in. My camera only takes stills, like this one of Log Jam in action ... Then something new. The girls got to take center stage. With swords! Barefoot girls with swords! They positioned the swords crosswise on the grass ... and started dancing to bagpipe music, hopping nimbly around the blades (which were made of wood). These girls are from a Scottish piping and dance class that meets in the Marquette/Ishpeming area, and they sure knew their stuff ... That was about the end of the show for us. We had to do a little shopping (just a little) and then drove home. For a one-day show, I think it was about as good as it could be. The samurai were strange to find at a Ren Fair, but obviously I enjoyed them. For next summer, I'm thinking about the larger Ren Fairs that take place around the Midwest, with events more skewed towards adults. I found Ren Fairs near Detroit; near the Twin Cities; in western Wisconsin, near Eau Claire; and just north of the Wisconsin-Illinois state line. It's something that slipped my mind this summer, with the other things we wanted to do. I hope I can give that more attention next year.

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8/2/2008 - Off to more adventures

7/29/2008 - Mini-vacation report

Our mini-vacation, which ended Sunday night, was four days long. But when you remember that two of them were largely spent driving from here to there and back again, that leaves just two days of actual vacation. How were those two days? They could have been better, but they could easily have been far worse. I'm satisfied. We left Thursday morning and arrived at my son's place at about 8:30 p.m. (We won't get into the time changes--even though Detroit is in Eastern Time, I'm using Central Time throughout. If I try switching Central to Eastern and vice versa, I'll only get myself bollixed up. In not too many more weeks, of course, I'll be driving from Central to Eastern fairly regularly, as football season gets going--only Michigan's four counties that border Wisconsin are on Central Time, and mine is one of them.) Essentially, we dropped my younger son off at my older son's place. He enjoys visiting his big brother, and big brother, I think, enjoys showing off all his stuff to a properly appreciative audience. Here, they are playing his new Wii ... And what cutting-edge game were they playing? We also watched the "Family Guy" version of Star Wars before heading off to our motel. We found a fairly nice motel, especially for the price. Let's just say that three nights at $45 sure is a lot easier on my wallet than three nights at $90 or so. Two double beds, a refrigerator in the room, (fairly) high speed internet, close to the exit door. I pay all the bills for this trip, so ... My wife had dozed off at my son's apartment, but she was wide awake at the motel, reading a book she had gotten. As for me, my lower back was aching, as it usually does after a long drive. It took her until midnight to settle down and get to sleep. I checked some websites before shutting down for the night. In the days leading up to our trip, my wife had studied some museums and other sights we could visit in the Detroit area. We both like to check out museums, and we found some good ones. A historical museum. A city museum. And the Detroit Institute of Art. All of them are downtown, within walking distance of each other. I especially wanted to visit the Art Institute. I very rarely get a chance to see an art museum, and I badly wanted to take advantage of this chance to see one. I think my wife wanted to see it, too. The trouble is, the younger generation simply has other priorities. If I may grossly generalize, they think of classic artwork as "old paintings" that may hold their attention briefly, but not much longer. Bottom line: They showed little interest in going to downtown Detroit to see the museums. On the other hand, another museum my wife found drew their rapt attention. It is called Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, and it features mechanical devices and coin-operated things from over a century. It's located in Farmington Hills, in the northwest part of the Detroit metro area. Find out more about it at their website. I have to admit it--it really was quite a fun place to visit (and my son said that in his roughly 10 years of living in the Detroit area, he had never been there before!). It didn't have a lot of old pinball machines but other kinds of coin-operated devices. Fortune-telling machines. Mechanical bands. Vintage stuff, which always interests me. Here are some photos ... They had all kinds of stuff everywhere, including old-time wall posters ... ... and clocks honoring various pop culture figures from the past. Lots of stuff wherever you looked ... They had mechanized and computerized music machines (next to a vintage player piano) ... ... and a pint-sized carousel ... ... and funhouse mirrors ... ... and a scene of some lucky guy getting a nice backrub ... Here is something from over a century ago. This is my wife trying out a Mutoscope--it showed short flip-card "movies." You put in a dime (the current price) and start cranking the handle. You see a short comedy story--in this case, a man who had a woman as his "typewriter"; his wife comes in, objects, and soon a male takes over as the "typewriter." This is what they watched for kicks in the 1900s ... No, I did not take on Kill-R-Watt. If you see those two metal posts in the front, you will get a pretty good idea of how it works ... That took up a lot of Friday afternoon. We had supper at a Red Robin restaurant and then wound up back at the apartment. Part of my master plan was to go to the Detroit Tigers' game against the White Sox downtown on Friday night. But we couldn't get comps, and maybe that's just as well. The game went long, the Tigers led until the 9th inning when their closer gave up a two-run home run with two out--one out away from the win. Grrrr. Also, if we had gone to the game and stayed there until the bitter end, we wouldn't have gotten back to the motel until close to midnight. Instead, we watched the game for a while in the apartment, watched a DVD or two and made plans for Saturday. That's my son's big day--the day of the show. If I didn't explain that before, he is into improvisational comedy and has been taking classes at a Detroit area Second City group for the last few years. There's a lot of preparation that goes into being spontaneously funny. The way he explained it to me later is that you have to take on a different persona and act the way that person would react to different situations that arise. They had to be on their toes, too, because often they are reacting to situations and locations suggested by the audience ... I got a few (still) pictures of different classes on stage, but I didn't get any of my son: He had borrowed a video camera and wanted me to record their show. It was the first time I had ever operated a video camera; I think I did fairly well, considering I didn't know about the show in advance and had no way to prepare. Bottom line: The cameraman was doing an improv, too. My wife found a video mode on her little camera, and she got a movie. Maybe we can transfer it to my laptop and show it to my mom. If I can figure out a way to do that. The show went on for most of the afternoon. Afterwards, we went to a pizza restaurant for a victory party and then back to the apartment. I think we also visited a Best Buy, though I didn't get anything. We also visited several big bookstores, Borders and Barnes & Noble. I was looking for a new book, "Opening Up," about open relationships, but none of the three huge bookstores I visited had it. I settled for "The Complete Persepolis," the comic book memoir of a woman who grew up in revolutionary Iran. I later saw that the story is now out in a DVD. Well, I'll read the book first. Of course we wound up back at the apartment, watched a little of the Tigers-White Sox game, but my wife and I were both getting tired, and we wanted to get an early start for the trip home the next morning. So, back to the motel and early to bed. Before 10, believe it or not. Of course, we didn't go immediately to bed. We had spent several hours together in the back seat of his Prius that afternoon, enough time to goof around with each other when nobody was looking. So we were looking forward to getting to bed. We were both ready to go Sunday morning. We picked up David and left for home at about 9:30--and got home about 11 hours later. That is one bloody long drive! But the kitties were happy to see us. They both had food and water when we got back home. (The woman I asked to feed them had been around.) Still, we have been petting and loving up the kitties on and off ever since. **** Monday, it was back to work. I wrote most of this up Monday night, but Charlie's feline Jedi mind tricks prevented me from working up the pictures until now. I also wrote S on Tuesday. There's a chance I can visit S and her husband during his vacation next week. Meanwhile, my son wants me to take him to the Wisconsin Valley Fair this weekend near Wausau. That's about 120 miles away. My wife may be quite interested in that. The grandstand show on Saturday night features Herman's Hermits, including Peter Noone as the lead singer. Way back when, when she was in high school, Herman's Hermits was/were her favorite band. A few years after we got married and were living in Milwaukee during the '70s, I took her to see the Hermits (without Noone) at a local club. Now, 30 years later, the current-day Hermits, including Noone, will be performing before the Wisconsin Valley Fair crowd.

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7/29/2008 - Kittycat mind control

7/23/2008 - Here, there or wherever

7/22/2008 - A very good day

7/6/2008 - Meet me over at Vox

7/2/2008 - Come along to Milwaukee!

It's been hectic. I was very busy yesterday, packing things up for my trip, which means finding things and putting them in boxes, and then let's not forget the checklist. I don't do this often, and I don't want to leave behind anything I'd really need. So I plan and make lists, take too long on things probably and then fall behind on everything else I had to do. Last night for example. I wanted to write a post (mostly photos) about highlights from the Milwaukee trip in mid June, but it was on the list between playing with my wife (done) and mowing the lawn (not done). And now it's Wednesday morning, and I'm planning to leave in about an hour and a half. Bottom line is this going to be really short and terse. Yes, me writing something terse! Who would have thought? So, without further ado, photos from our trip to Milwaukee. THE DOMES The first main stop was the Mitchell Park Domes. We had lived there for a few years without ever visiting the city's big horticultural center--the domes were built in the 1950s, I think. Here's what they look like ... There are three domes. One of them has changing exhibits. This one shows an Appalachian Spring ... The other two domes have permanent exhibits. This one shows plants from arid areas ... ... and the third dome shows plants from tropical areas ... We spent a lot of time there, strolling all the different plants, trees, cacti and so forth. The domes are climate-controlled, so the arid dome had low humidity, and the tropical dome was just the opposite. One more thing to show from the Domes: The beautifully carvings on the entry doors to each dome. This photo shows them best ... THE MUSEUM We hadn't been to the Milwaukee Public Museum for years (of course, we have lived in the U.P. for the last 30 years or so, and trips back south have been few and far between). But despite some changes (an Imax theater/planetarium), some parts of the museum just don't change. Three examples. First, the diorama of Plains Indians hunting buffalo ... Then, a diorama showing the Navy ship landing at the future site of Milwaukee, talking to some of the current residents ... And finally, a fun one: some bears raiding a honey tree, getting some sweet treats despite the angry bees' counterattack ... The museum has also added a butterfly room. Here are some butterflies getting some sweetness ... ... and a little girl who had a butterfly land on her hand ... She's dressed for the occasion, don't you think? And it was here that we got one final look at Samson, the gorilla who lived at the Milwaukee Zoo for many years. Make no mistake about it: Samson was the star of the show at the zoo. He had personality, a certain aloofness and dignity as he dealt with all the people peering at him from the other side of the glass. Samson reigned in Milwaukee for many years. But he finally died, and this is poor Samson today: stuffed and on display and having to suffer the indignity of someone grinning and looking at his butt. Samson deserved a lot better than this ... Another museum feature we liked was intact: the "Streets of Old Milwaukee," where you can walk down an old-time street and look in the windows of shops and businesses. How about dropping by the general store first? Next stop is the local druggist. Anybody need any leeches while we're here? Or how about some patent medicine? OK, I know you're thirsty from walking around with us all day. So let's stop at the local tavern for some brew ... AN OLD BRIDGE AND A GOOFY TREE The next day, we visited Cedarburg, which is where my wife was raised. We stopped by her old house (unoccupied today, alas) and visited downtown. I had one special stop in mind. North of town. Somewhere we often went when we were going out ... It's the only covered bridge remaining in Wisconsin, and it's just north of Cedarburg. As you see, the road bypasses the bridge now (it was "retired" in 1962), but the bridge still stands. So we walked through it again, as we did many times in the past ... ... and as many couples have over the last 132 years, since it was built in 1876. We also visited a small quilt museum just out of town. I've shown you a lot of quilts over the years, so I'll pass on the quilts themselves for the time being. I found something a lot more interesting in back. It's a tree that is growing on its side ... For some reason, the trunk of the tree is parallel to the ground. It splits after about six feet, and only then do you see the branches and leaves. I don't know what kind of tree it is, and I certainly don't know how or why it grew this way. But ... here it is. Stranger than fiction. We made one other stop: a museum in Cedarburg that looks like an old store--say from the 1930s and 1940s. Old packaging, old items. For those of you who are about my age, it will stir up the memories. I'll write something about it (with pictures, or course), but that will happen another day. For now it's time to pack the final items and then hit the road. See you all in a few days.

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6/29/2008 - Final countdown

6/24/2008 - Empty nest syndrome

I have been getting some dangerous ideas lately. Me? My ideas? Dangerous? Dangerous in terms of breaking out of the status quo, the rut where my creativity has been stuck for a long time. I must confess to being in the doldrums mentally for more than a little while. Yesterday and today, I discovered some new ideas bubbling around in my skull. I just need time to work on them. Time at the keyboard. Time to think and develop them. More on that soon, I hope. The big news at home is that the nest on our front porch is empty. We checked it with the mirror this morning, just as I went to work. All that was left was a single unhatched egg. Nobody else is around. Frankly, I haven't felt too motivated to report on life inside the nest this year. But you have to understand, this is the fourth robin's nest on our porch in the last three years, so how much can I say or show about it that I haven't done before? I did take a few pictures over the last couple weeks. This first one was taken the morning of June 11, as we left for the Milwaukee trip. At that time, we had two brand new baby birdies ... The next picture was taken on June 17. My, how the little ones have grown! Three days later, last Friday, they were poking their heads above the side of the nest when mom's shopping trips weren't fast enough for their hungry tummies ... The next day, I may have inadvertently led to the nest's abandonment. I had to run to the office to get something, and I was late. I rushed out the front door ... forgetting the young family in the nest. Suddenly, there was a flurry of wings above and around me, and birds seemed to be flying everywhere. One of the young birds landed under an awning next door. There wasn't anything to do about it after the fact--I kept on walking to the office. My wife said she didn't see any action at the nest on Sunday. We got out the mirror Monday morning, and this is what we saw ... We spent most of Sunday in Iron Mountain, visiting my mom and seeing the newest Indiana Jones movie. We had planned to take my mom along, since she is a big Harrison Ford fan, and the Indiana Jones series were some of her favorite films. But she said she didn't want to go. She wanted to, she said, but her stomach just wasn't up to it. I'll make some photos soon from our trip to Milwaukee. Last week was busy; I have a little more time next week. **** This is the week before next week ... when I return to that neopagan camp in southern Wisconsin. I went there for the first time in 2005, which was when I first met S. I took my wife there in 2006, but she didn't care for it, was unhappy--and we only spent a single day there. Grrrrrr. In 2007, I was focused on cleaning out my mom's house, and I decided not to go. This year, I'm definitely going, and I will spend much of next week there. Like in 2005, I'll have my cell phone along so I call my wife and let her know I'm thinking about her. But she's not going this time. No way, no how. She hasn't asked or hinted, and I'm sure she knows what I'd say if she did. In fact, S also wanted to attend this year, because she is interested in some of the planned discussions. (She really enjoyed the single day she was there in 2005.) A lot of last week was spent exchanging e-mails about the chances of her getting there somehow, but it's just not meant to be. So what I will be doing is recording those talks on the little digital tape recorder that I use for interviews. Back home, I can convert the files MP3 files, burn them to a CD and send it to her. The topics? “The Future of Religion.” Given the limits of rational knowledge and the negativity associated with religion, does religion have a future as a function of civilization? I----- [the guy who runs the event with his wife] thinks so as cults of mythopoetic enthusiasms or enchantments of a post-modern age. The talk will be given in the picnic shelter." “A Neo-pagan interpretation of the Golden Rule, or why I am not a Christian.” I------ will explore the religious, philosophical and psychological meaning of this teaching. He will provide historical/cultural context and show Gnostic influence to the teaching." In fact, S is involved in a church herself, a tiny church you haven't heard of, based on early Christian writings, such as the Gospel of St. Thomas. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Here is more about it, from the e-mail I got: The camp "is a place where people of like mind and shared values can camp, picnic, contemplate, honor the passing of life's seasons, create personal shrines, learn and recreate. It is a place where the human community & the community of nature can co-exist in peace and harmony. "Come, enjoy and share this beautiful forest eco-system dedicated to the Green Growth of Eco-Human Community. This gathering will be held on a 60-acre parcel in southwestern Wisconsin in the driftless area. It has a mix of open hayfield (planted by a local farmer), pine and mixed hardwoods. The campsite is primitive (no water on site), but porta-johns and there is a 30X40 picnic shelter. Firewood is plentiful. The site is clothes-optional where landscape and night can provide the necessary privacy. A large circle in the woods has been cleared for ritual and celebration. [Village] is about 5 miles away where food, ice, gas and water can be obtained. Directions and other info will be sent to those who register." Reference is made to "the driftless area." That is the southwestern corner of Wisconsin, which the glacier didn't cover during the last ice age. It's much more hilly there than the rest of the state, which was sort of scraped flat by the glacier. I wear what most of the people wear at the camp: a T-shirt, shorts, sandals and a hat. But down at the circle (during special rituals and then at night around the fire, when the drummers really get going) many of them wear a lot less, and I am no exception. Most of the people there are in their 40s and 50s. Some younger people, but not as many. **** After writing this, I recalled about the first camp I attended, in 2005, and when happened over there. It got long, and I finally decided to use it in my Vox blog instead. If it's not there now, check back in a day or two--I'm still working on it. **** Yesterday, I woke up with an idea: taking a trip west, by myself. By car. A few hundred miles to visit a friend I made here. Just a visit. I would get some nature photos along the way, of course. Go farther west than I have ever gone before in my life. An adventure! I don't know. Am I too old for adventures? Is there time enough this summer? We'll see. I'll tell you, though, I really like the idea. Whether I can do it, that's another thing.

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6/15/2008 - Rough way to make a living

We're back from our mini-vacation. We got back Saturday afternoon after three nights on the road in eastern Wisconsin. Things went fairly well. We ran into some heavy rain on Thursday, but don't get the wrong idea: It doesn't measure up (literally) to the rain that soaked other parts of the Midwest in recent weeks. They got more in the city where S lives; 4 to 5 inches of rain that night, enough to flood streets and create havoc. Earlier on Thursday, we visited the Mitchell Park Conservatory and the Milwaukee Public Museum. The rain hit us as we were driving back to the motel--very heavy rain, but traffic on the expressway was fairly light and we got back to the motel OK. The rain stopped for an hour or two while we were having dinner, and then it started coming down hard again once we were back in the motel. Enough to create a river in the parking lot ... The next day, we went north to Cedarburg, where my wife was raised, and saw several roads closed by high water ... The little creek that passes through town was a rushing river, suitable for whitewater rafting ... S said they wound up with about six inches of water in their basement on Thursday night. But by the time we got there late Friday afternoon, it was hard to see signs of the watery chaos. That visit went well. She talked with my wife and I until her husband got back from work. Then we went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant (I had a "choriloco") and the next stop was the pool and whirlpool at our motel. That was different. It was the first time I had been in an indoor pool in many years--maybe the first time since high school! And it was my first time ever in a whirlpool. That was fun. S and her husband stayed with us until about 10 p.m. We left for home the next morning. In a few days, I'll write more about our trip and the things we saw. Right now, though, I want to show some of the shots I took at the rodeo that was in town recently. I like getting shots of the cowboy action. First, a few "mood" shots. Like these cowpokes sitting on the fence, waiting for the show to start ... Here's a cowpoke getting ready for his next ride--bandaging up the injured parts ... And here is another cowboy, cigarette in place, getting his saddle ready. What magical concoction is he sprinkling on it? Baby powder ... We saw a bull that must have been a magician. He sure made his rider disappear. Now you see him ... ... now you don't ... One of the broncs must have been showing off for the camera. Honest. Here, he's got his head turned my way. "You want some action? Watch this!" ... Yes, it's the cowboy with the smoke and the baby powder. First, off went his hat ... Then he started bouncing up and down ... Yeah, this bronco buster was getting some sick air ... What goes up must come down ... But it doesn't always come down where you want ... Look out below! ... And another cowboy winds up eating the arena dirt ... Yes, he walked away from it. A little shakily, but he's a tough dude. You have to be if you want to do this for a living. Could be hazardous to your health.

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6/10/2008 - Muse got sleepy

6/4/2008 - That's that

There. That's that. I've definitely reached a breakoff point for 2008. The spring sports season is over--it ended last Saturday. Hockey season is almost over, too; the NHL playoffs, I mean. It's not over yet, but it will be in the next few days--maybe as soon as tonight. I thought it would end Monday. We were less than a minute away from the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup, but Pittsburgh scored a late goal, the game went into overtime, and about two hours later the Penguins got another goal to win it. Their last gasp, I hope. It's gone on long enough. It's time to watch the Wings lift the cup. Then I can move on to other things. I want to turn the page. I have been very devoted to the playoffs, but it's gone on long enough. (Sometimes I think I am overly loyal--to my favorite sports teams and (without being too specific) to other parts of my life.) Next week, my wife and I will be doing some other stuff. It's our first vacation trip this summer (not counting the April trip to that quilt show in Chicago). This time the destination is Milwaukee. We plan to visit the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Mitchell Park domes and some of the sights in a town about 30 miles north of the city, the town where my wife grew up. She says they have a quilt cottage or museum there. Or something like that. It's related to quilts, anwyay. She said she would be doing some internet research on other places to go in that area. As for me, I have no real plans. We lived in Milwaukee just after we got married (I was raised in the suburbs, went to school and worked in the city), but we moved away about 30 years ago, and the place has changed a lot. That, I feel, is my past life, and it's over and done with. I might be interested in seeing the Brewers, but my wife's tolerance for baseball is not much greater than it is for hockey, so I'll just let that pass. Frankly, it's not a big priority for me, either. Not any more. Things have changed, and I have changed, too. About 10 years ago, I visited the suburb where I was raised. Needless to say, it wasn't very similar to my memories. I remembered some of the streets and the places I used to go. But that was long ago. Those places now live only in memory. What stands there now just isn't the same. Whew! Getting sidetracked and philosophical there. 'Scuse me! There is a chance we can visit S and her husband, since we'll be driving right past their city. I mentioned that in the e-mail I sent her earlier today. I'm also going to lift several other paragraphs I wrote to her: just news updates. Good old copy and paste. So I will quote myself: The high school sports season ended last Saturday with the track finals. I had the tennis and golf finals earlier in the week. Our local team won the U.P. championship in both boys tennis and boys golf, and the girls golf team was third. The track team didn't do as well. The other school I cover also won a boys golf title, and its track teams were third (boys) and fourth (girls) in the small schools division. Anyway, all that's over. This weekend, we have the rodeo in town. We should return from our trip in time to get pictures at the local car show on Father's Day. The other big event coming up in the near future is taking my mom to see the new Indiana Jones movie. She is a BIG fan of Harrison Ford, loved the other Indiana Jones movies, and I think a matinee show at the theater near the nursing home (less than five miles away) would be a nice treat for her. Sort of a delayed birthday gift--she turned 86 last week. When I mentioned it to her recently, she sounded very interested. Not many things interest her nowadays, but that movie made the grade. She just seems a lot more tired more often than before. I suppose that is to be expected. One more update: Ms. Robin has four bright blue eggs in her nest. I didn't send S a picture, but here is a photo I took over the weekend. I got out the chair and mirron and camera and took a look. And inside ... There was a storm the next night, with the wind kicking up after dark and a little thunder. I turned on the porch light. There was Mrs. Robin, loyally settled in on her future progeny ... **** The other news is a sad note about the passing of one of my all-time favorite musicians: Bo Diddley. Oh, I love Bo Diddley. And I know how it all started. When I was a kid, the Rolling Stones were just coming over to the U.S.--this was 1965. At that time, they were mostly doing covers of R&B classics, not their original stuff. I liked their music, and I liked their songs--to the point where I looked at the record labels to see who wrote them. And I would see names like Burnett and McDaniel and Dixon. Dixon was Willie Dixon. He authored many an R&B classic for Chess Records. Chester Burnett was the actual name of Howlin' Wolf. I know OF him at the time, but I never really got to hear much of his music until about 10 or so years ago. And it knocked my socks off. Great, great stuff. Howlin' Wolf instantly became one of my favorites. But Wolf's music wasn't played on the pop radio AM stations around Milwaukee nor on the FM rock stations that followed. But you would occasionally hear from Ellas McDaniel--whose stage name was Bo Diddley. You would hear Bo Diddley's thumping, hard-rocking music once in a while--done by the man himself. More often, it was done by his disciples. I always loved "Mona" by the Rolling Stones, featuring Brian Jones' guitar work. That was ported over intact from Bo Diddley's version of the song he wrote. And the Yardbirds' rocking version of "I'm a Man," where they spelled the word out and launched that rocket into orbit. That was another Bo Diddley song. Another Bo Diddley classic. Years pass, and I'm in a record store in Green Bay when I spot a 2-CD Bo Diddley box set put out by Chess. Now I finally had the real stuff. And it's great stuff, folks. I could hear the humor, the interplay with his band, especially maracas player Jerome Green. Bo and Jerome did "Say Man," where they would basically play an upbeat instrumental (guitar, piano and maracas), not sing a single note but trade insults about each other and their girlfriends all through the record. It starts out ... J: "Say man." B: "What's that, boy?" J: "I want to tell you about your girlfriend. Hehehe." B: "What about my girl?" J: "But you don't look strong enough to take the message." B: "I'm strong enough." J: "I might hurt your feelings." B: "My feelings are already hurt, by being here with you." J: "Well ... I was walkin' down the street with your girl the other day." B: "Uh-huh." J: "And the wind was blowing real hard." B: "Is that right?" J: "And the wind blew the hair into my face." B: "Uh-huh." J: "Hehe. And you know what else happened?" B: "What happened? J: "The wind blew her hair into her face." B: "Yeah?" J: "And we went a little further. Do you want to hear the rest of it?" B: "I might as well." J: "The wind blew her hair into the street." He would brag about being a man. It seemed every other song had "Bo" or "Diddley" or both in the title. "The Story of Bo Diddley" is another funny one. "A man came up with a lo-o-o-o-o-o-ng cigar. And he said, Sign this line, and I'll make you a star." Man, he put out so much good stuff! And he would do "Road Runner" and make his boxy guitar do riffs that garage bands tried to copy for years. He was trained in violin and played the violin in an instrumental. He'd sing about his home in Mississippi. He reminded us that "You can't tell a book by looking at the cover." He never felt he got the credit--especially financially--for what he did for music. And he did a lot for music. That ever-present "Bo Diddley" beat. That "shave and a haircut" tempo. Bu-bu-bu-bu-bump-bump. Bump-bump. Many of his songs only used one chord. But would you believe he wrote the '50s song "Love Is Strange" by Mickey and Sylvia? It's true. "How do you call your lover boy?" "Come here, lover boy!" Bo kept touring until near the end--a stroke finally took him off the road permanently. Now he's gone at the age of 79. The man who walked 47 miles of barbed wire. Who used a cobra snake for a necktie. Who had a brand new house on the roadside made of rattlesnake hide. Who had a brand new chimney on top made of a human skull. "Now come on, take a little walk with me, Arlene, and tell me who do you love?" Here's one famous story. Bo was to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show in the mid 1950s, right about the time when Tennessee Ernie Ford had a monster hit with "Sixteen Tons." Bo recorded that song on one of his albums, and Ed Sullivan wanted him to do that song on his show. So he did "Sixteen Tons" during the rehearsal. And then, during the live broadcast, Bo steps up to the mike ... and plays "Bo Diddley." Ed Sullivan was less than delighted. Bo never appeared on Sullivan's show again. J: "I was out with your girlfriend the other day." B: "Is that right?" J: "Yeah. Man, that chick was so skinny she had to tie some knots in her legs to make some knees. Hehehe." B: "Oh, that wasn't none of my girlfriends." J: "Who was it?" B: "That was your wife." J: "Them is fighting words man!" B: "Is that right?" J: "You meet me in the alley tomorrow night, after dark, by yourself." B: "That's OK with me." J: "You gonna be there by yourself?" B: :"I'll be there. All by myself." J: "I know it, 'cause I ain't coming! Hehehe."

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