Dr. Dog's House

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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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

8/9/2008 - 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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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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7/2/2008 - 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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5/3/2008 - Quilting quality queations

They say everything comes to those who wait. A case in point are my pictures from the international quilt show in Chicago last month. Yes, they are finally here ... later in this very post. We'll get to that in a few moments. First. to all who are impatient for the return of nice weather, I am as impatient as anyone. This week, temperatures here have mostly been in the 40s. Well, they got to the 50s on Wednesday. But they are supposed to return to the 40s. And now we are in May. I recently mentioned that my wife's tulips are starting to grow, and Readerwil wanted to know about that--she's from Holland, after all. Well, Wil, last weekend, I saw something out of the ordinary on the tulips, which are trying to brave the chilly spring weather ... As you see, we have one bloom, and we hope it can hang in there long enough to bloom. It was still there this morning. Still, the forecast is mentioning a chance of snow showers Saturday afternoon. "New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible." And today, folks, is May 3. I don't want to think about it. Next week, they say, should be nicer, with several days close to 60 and more sun. We are all decidedly solar energy-deficient right now. On Wednesday, I took my wife to the doctor in Iron Mountain for her annual exam. They we visited my mom, and I drove her to the cemetery where my dad and brother are buried. It's out in the country, with a forest on one side and a farmer's field on another. A pretty place. I looked at the trees and searched in vain for fat buds on their branches. They looked as bleak and barren as they did last November. So, besides the solar energy, we need some fresh green. The spring sports are doggedly (Woof! Woof!) trying to go ahead. I covered two track meets and a tennis meet this week. In fact, including my wife's appointment and the visit to my mom, I had long trips out of town three consecutive days this week. Each time, I got back home around 7 or 7:30, and by that time the hockey playoff games were under way. I unwind from my day by watching them. The Red Wings finished off Colorado in four straight, and last night's game (San Jose vs. Dallas) went into overtime. By then, it was 11:30 p.m. and my wife had gone to bed, but Charlie was hanging in there with me on the couch. During the intermission, I decided we need some snacks to bolster us for what could be a long overtime. I got a Propel from the fridge and a few crackers. Charlie was very interested--her sniffer was working away madly. "No, Charlie," I told her. "Kitties don't drink Propel." It wasn't the drink she was after. It was the crackers. Ordinary soda crackers. When she got in range, Charlie started licking them. Maybe it's the salt. So I broke off tiny pieces for her, and she ate some of them. Then she lay down next to me and became my hockey buddy again. Invigorated by our snack, that little cat and I sat together and watched the entire sudden-death overtime. All 65 seconds of it. **** Last evening, before the game, I had some time to make pictures from the quilt show. Really, there is no way to do justice to a show this vast and the wide variety of creations on display. I identified many great quilts but only got halfway down my list before deciding I had OD'd on them. My wife and I walked around that show for hours, looking at them and taking pictures. As you may notice, I love creative, colorful designs and alternatives to the various geometric designs that we are all familiar with. And I like nature. Here are some I admired ... This one was called "Fatal Attraction" ... For some reason, one section of the show was declared out of bounds for photographers--no cameras allowed! That area had two of the more interesting quilts I saw. One used a quotation by Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, about peace and being a good person in the world. It was sort of like a sunrise. On the top, it had words of positive emotions; on the bottom, words of negative emotions. An interesting, complex work, and I sure wish I could show it to you. The other was called "Late Date," and it was a cartoonish thing, mostly in pink, showing a room where a girl is getting ready to go out--and things aren't going right for her at all. She is in her undies, and her elongated arms are ironing a blouse (oh-oh--it got scorched), working on her hair, putting on makeup, selecting clothes, etc. And through the window you can see her date, standing next to his car and looking at his watch. Funny. You would have loved it. Too bad. But I respect their decision. Even though I didn't agree with it. Anyway, there were more than enough quilts to photograph. Moving on ... Plenty of others were examining the quilts. These women were examining one from Australia that depicts the different seasons ... There was another special theme area of the snow, and fortunately they allowed pictures there. The theme: looking up at the heavens. It's something I like to do ... That's about the point I reached yesterday when I decided enough is enough. But since I'm sensitive to my readers' opinions, I probably could be persuaded to post a few more.

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4/24/2008 - Quilt show-and-tell

Before I do my show-and-tell about the quilt show we attended recently, I think you may want to know about Charlie's latest feat. You should be impressed by it. Sunday night, after the hockey game ended and my wife went upstairs to bed. I was sitting on the couch, reading over a legal contract for a meeting Monday morning. Routine stuff; I was just scanning it over. Charlie was lying on the couch next to me, napping. Or so I thought. It was late, after all. I flipped a page--and the next thing I knew, Charlie had dived over and spread herself out over the contract. Maybe she wanted to read it over for herself ... Don't know what she would find interesting in it. It was just a renewal of the cable company's contract to carry the Lifetime network. But Charlie reached for a page and pulled it down, then started nibbling on a corner of a page, evidently to bookmark it. Clever little cat. **** I fear I am going to have to break the report on the quilt show into two pieces. One about our day there, and the other showing some of the quilts. There were very many beautiful quilts there, so it won't even scratch the surface. I marked numbers of some of the images I wanted to use--and I went past 50. Cutting them down to a reasonable number won't be easy or quick. As I said, the quilt show took place on the far west side of Chicago, near O'Hare Field. I watched some of the O'Hare traffic from the motel room's window. Big jets were taking off and landing all the time--coming down out of a low overcast or else rising up to be enveloped by it ... On Saturday morning, we went to the show, which was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. The late Donald E. Stephens must have been a good guy to know. He helped found Rosemont and died during his 13th consecutive four-year term as its mayor. According to the Wikipedia article about him, Stephens was suspected of being associated with organized crime; he had been indicted on charges of tax fraud and bribery but was acquitted on both charges. The Wikipedia article about Rosemont lists many places named after Stephens and notes accusations of "rampant nepotism." He also was quite fond of Hummel figurines and started a museum of them. Just so you know. Here is what the convention center looks like from outside, as we walked from a nearby parking garage to the show... Parking, by the way, was $11 per vehicle. Tickets to the show were $10 per person. During the long, long walk from garage to show, we passed what appears to be the entrance to one of the ballrooms in the complex ... Check out that humble, understated light fixture ... After more walking, we got to the entrance to the quilt show ... This is what it's like inside, as show-goers look at a display of some smaller pieces ... As I said, the main display of quilts will come later. But this one was judged "Best of Show." It was made by a guy from Colorado, who here is explaining how he made it ... One of the things my wife had heard about was a quilted version of the "Last Supper" painting by Da Vinci. It was hanging over one of the walkways ... From up close, it looked like a low-res digital photo: Here is a close-up of the last picture, showing Jesus at the head of the table ... In fact, the Last Supper quilt was made up of thousands of little tiny squares of different colors--and yes, a digitized photo was involved ... We walked around, examining the quilts for several hours. Finally, it was time to get some lunch. We wound up in a cafeteria and made our way down a long, long line. And when we finally got to the front, it was like "Saturday Night Live." The cook who took the order may have been of Indian descent. He definitely spoke with a thick accent, as he asked "Shee-boorger, shee-boorger, shee-boorger" over and over. Just the way John Belushi did on SNL many years ago. We didn't hear "No Cokes--Pepsi" but we weren't there for long. The french fries were barely lukewarm and soggy, and the shee-boorger was of a normal size. What wasn't a normal size was the bill. Just remember what I wrote earlier about prices in the Chicago area. Here is the bill from our modest little meal of two shee-boorgers, soggy french fries and two cokes ... Yeowch! You know, for a big bill like that, you'd think that the date on top would be at least somewhat accurate. Back on the floor. The exhibition hall was huge and crowded. We finally came to the end of the quilt displays and started meeting vendors. That area was crowded, too ... Many of the booths had a large assortment of "fat quarters" for sale. My wife looked at some of them, but after a while, she said she wouldn't look at any more of them--they were all running together in her mind. I said, "If you've seen 10,000 fat quarters, you've seen them all." Here are a few dozen of them ... They had all the latest, most exotic sewing machines there. As well as some oldies but goodies ... What my wife had wanted to see most of all (her main reason for going to the show) were long-arm quilting machines--machines that can assemble the components of a quilt, the top, the back and the batting inside, putting a stitch design on it at the same time. She is thinking about getting one for herself in a year or two, and this was her chance to do a little in-person research. She thought they would have two vendors there. In fact, they had about a dozen, from as far away as Australia, including some models that attach to a regular sewing machine. Here, she is giving a "Tin Lizzie" machine a test run ... So she collected a lot of brochures, other handouts and business cards with web addresses, and will be going over them carefully at some time in the future. By the way, she deliberately left her purse behind in the motel; she wore two fanny packs (one for her camera, one for her wallet) and carried a backpack for collecting things. That plan worked well. It took several more hours to give the exhibitor section a "once over lightly." When she got to the very last row--and discovered that a vendor was giving massages with a hand-held machine--she was quite happy to sit down for a while ... In all, we were at the quilt show for about seven hours, so we were pretty tired by the time we made the long walk back to the car. For the record, we never got separated from each other--I stayed pretty close to her, even when breaking away to get a photo of a particularly interesting quilt. It was the biggest event either of us had ever attended. No wonder we were tired that night.

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4/16/2008 - On location in Oshkosh

Hello, one and all. I haven't written since we returned from our trip to Chicago late Sunday night. The last few days have been quite busy for me, including a trip to Marquette on Tuesday for a track meet inside the Superior Dome. So it's time to catch you up with things. But first, unfinished business: I have to pass along a photo I took last week, on the first night of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the CBC's Don Cherry, welcoming the start of the NHL playoffs with a jacket that probably glows in the dark. I think once I saw a picture of Peter Townsend or Roger Daltry of The Who from the late '60s, wearing a jacket like that in a concert--but that jacket was just black and white. Eat your hearts out, guys! This, folks, is the quintessential Don Cherry photo ... **** I'll start with the end of our Chicago trip. Later, I'll tell you about its start. The middle part (at the quilt show) will come later. We had a long, exhausting day at the quilt show on Saturday and spent Saturday night at the motel. Sunday at 9:30 a.m.., we left for home, taking a different route than when we arrived--I had to get an oil change for the car. Breakfast was at the McDonald's in Des Plaines. As I was parking the car, I saw an old, old McDonald's across the street. Like one built around the time of the Pyramids. It turns out that this was the very first McDonald's drive-in in the U.S., which opened in 1958--50 years ago. They are renovating it into--get this--a McDonald's museum. Anyway, I got a picture of it ... A little further up the road, we stopped at a railroad crossing for a very long freight train. It was so long, in fact, that a second very long freight train passed by in the opposite direction while the first one was still rumbling through. We were there 15 or 20 minutes. Here are the two trains passing each other, with a long line of cars just waiting and burning their precious gasoline. (Except intelligent drivers like me, who shut down and relaxed.) ... Back on the road, we got the oil change. The only think I'll say about that is that everything in the Chicago area seemed to cost about 20% more than it does elsewhere. Call it the greased palm tax, if you want. Then back north. Aside from the pit stops, we made only one stop, in Appleton, Wis. My wife wanted to visit a fabric store (they have two there) and a Barnes and Noble. They turned out to be long, long stops--and then she bought very little. Then, after a lot of looking around and driving in circles, we found an Arby's for "lunch"--except by then, it was after 4 p.m. My mood wasn't good. I just wanted to get home. I can only start unwinding from a long drive after my work is finished. She can snooze in the car; I can't. So I was ticked. We got home about a half hour after sunset. There was six inches of snow on the sidewalk from our weekend storm--but it had crystallized, so it was easy to walk on. **** That's how the trip ended. Now I'll write about the best part of the whole weekend--to me, at least. It came late Friday morning, when we visited S and her husband at their home in Oshkosh, Wis. We sat at their table and talked for an hour or so. At some point, I went to the car and brought back a box, which contained the two jumbo-size bath towels my wife had made for them. As you may remember, S and her husband have a hot tub, and they also visit a nude beach in summer when the weather is nice. Plus, jumbo bath towels come in handy in normal household use, too. Then a cat jumped up onto the table and walked towards us. This, S said, is a little lynx kitten that has been with the family for five years or so. It walked towards me and seemed friendly, so I picked it up and started stroking it. And, just like Charlie, it put its paws on either side of my neck and before long you could hear it purring. I wanted to get a photo of it--but the camera was in the car and I didn't want to let the kitty go. My wife, though, couldn't stand not holding the kitten, so she soon took the cat from me; I went to the car, got the camera, came back and got a photo or two ... S pointed out the tufts of fur on her ears, the large paws and even a ruff of fur around her neck. And, for all her friendliness towards us, S said she is a terror to neighborhood birds when she gets outdoors--sort of a split personality. As for size, it was small for a cat her age--Charlie is bigger and heavier. It has a little stub of a tail, like a lynx. After a while, we went out to eat at a nearby restaurant that has a buffet for lunch. We all ate well. Then another treat. Before we left, David had told us they are shooting a Johnny Depp movie in Oshkosh. S and her husband mentioned it, too, and that part of the downtown area had been transformed back to the 1930s--the John Dillinger era--for some location shots. The film is called "Public Enemies," and it is scheduled to be released in 2009. Depp plays John Dillinger, and other stars in the film include Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard and Channing Tatum. So after lunch, we drove downtown to see what we could see. They were putting rubber "cobblestones" on one intersection. We didn't know cobblestones come in rubber rolls, but you can't argue with pictures ... The fronts of many stores in that area had been redone with 1930s-era products and merchandise in the windows. Little (easily removable) signs identified what the store really is today, for the sake of today's shoppers. We went inside one shop (actually a restaurant), and I was impressed by the floor ... If we had the time, a visiting band looked interesting, if the poster is any clue ... S's husband was lamenting that they had taken down a big sundial in the middle of town--and then they blocked that entire area off with a display of vintage signs, so that you wouldn't have been able to see it anyway. The signs are in that picture above, with the roll of rubber bricks. That's the front side. Here is the back side ... This has been quite the news in Oshkosh. Read about it for yourself: The Oshkosh Northwestern has a section about Oshkosh going Hollywood. And the area merchants are putting out T-shirts to mark the occasion ... We walked around there for about 45 minutes, looking at this and that. Here's pictures from a men's store ... Here is a cigar shop and newsstand ... Interested in a new typewriter? What about a clock or a radio? Perhaps I can interest you in a beautiful new fountain pen ... Or how about matches and some exotic smokes? I know what you are looking for--a handsome record player ... Maybe you need to borrow a little money. These people would be happy to help ... It should be obvious: This is the part of the trip I enjoyed most. Of course, I enjoyed being with S and her husband, too. We are talking about trying again for a movie night some time soon. Maybe in the next month or so, after the movie crews have gone. **** That's the story of our trip except for the part about Chicago and the quilt show itself. So there's more to come in a few days, once I get a chance to sort through some 200 pictures I took at the show and pick the best/most interesting ones. That's not going to be easy, believe me!

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4/12/2008 - Report from the road

3/13/2008 - By a waterfall (winter edition)

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post titled "By a Waterfall." It wasn't about the big production number from "Footlight Parade," one of the most mind-blowing 1930s production numbers you could ever imagine. (Yes, I have a weakness for Busby Berkeley's creations; click the link and watch Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler in all their glory.) This was about an actual waterfall in the western Upper Peninsula--Bond Falls. The previous September, we had gone to a football game in Ontonagon and got the notion to stop there on the way over. I took some pictures that went with the blog entry. It was early fall ... In comments made later, Lady Visine (I think) asked for photos of the waterfall in winter, when much of the water freezes. I couldn't get there last winter--winter ended too soon, and basketball season lasted way too long. This winter, it's been the opposite, so I've had a little time. Last Sunday morning, I drove west to Watersmeet and then north to Bond Falls. I was pretty sure I would still see a lot of ice--we got well below zero F the night before. I had no way of knowing the conditions there. My last long winter hike was with S in southern Ontario during December 2005, when we visited a nature preserve located nearby. That day was cold but sunny with about six inches of fresh snow on the ground. I had no idea what conditions would be like this time. After all, Bond Falls is a lot closer to Lake Superior and its lake-effect snowstorms than we are. How much snow do they have? Was anyone going to the park and looking at the waterfall? How far would I have to hike in? Most importantly, how deep would the snow be? Two feet? More? There was just one way to find out, so I dressed for deep snow, putting on my heavy boots and socks. The weather would be relatively mild--close to 20F--and no wind was forecast. So I didn't have to dress for an Arctic expedition. But still ... It's about 45 to 50 miles away, as the crow drives. I found the road that leads to the falls. The sign has pointed the way for a long time ... Four miles later, I came to the park entrance. As I suspected, it was blocked off--hadn't been plowed for a while ... But that doesn't mean the road wasn't being used. I quickly noted the snowmobile and cross country ski tracks. Near the entrance, a family was putting on snowshoes. Snowshoes would have been nice, but I don't have any. I waved at them and started walking down the entrance way, following the many paths through the snow ... As it turned out, it was an easy walk--plenty of people had been there before me. The trail leading to Bond Falls itself was just as easy a hike ... It wasn't long before I heard the running water, and then I was looking at Bond Falls in winter ... There was another photographer there--he said he was from Ann Arbor, about 500 miles away--getting some pictures. (Well, what else do photographers do?) He pointed out an ice cave visible in the ice on the waterfall. You can't get much closer in summer--but now there was a nice frozen walkway in front of the main falls. He walked over there, and then so did I. My trip down the steps was a little more spectacular than I planned. A lot of ice had accumulated on the steps, and my old boots don't have much tread left in them. As I tried to climb down, one foot slipped forward, and I rode down the rest of the way on my backside. No damage done, and a minute or so later I was at the ice cave ... There is a walkway up the right side of the falls. It's old and narrow, and the concrete steps are chipped. Most people going up the hill walked along its side, using bushes and tree limbs for balance and support. As did I... I climbed about halfway up and got a few more shots of the rushing water ... I didn't climb to the top. The hill was pretty steep in that area. And those concrete steps ... well, they didn't look very safe to me ... I also walked that walkway at the bottom, to get shots at the eastern end of the falls. On the other side of the walkway, the Middle Branch of the Ontonagon River resumed its journey towards Lake Superior, about 40 miles away ... The hardest part of the trek came right at the end. That hill I climbed down earlier from the road now had to be climbed. It took a while, and I rested a bit, but I made it OK. No problem. By 1 p.m. I was back home. My arctic expedition was now behind me, and I finally have the photos Lady Visine wanted to see.

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12/11/2007 - Memories of a walk in the snow

Two years ago I made a long, long drive--the longest drive of my life--to visit my friend, S, who had left her home for a while and was living in Ontario. I had first met her during summer that year. We were only together for a day or so ... but that was long enough for a great many things to happen. I decided to visit her for a few days in early December 2005. They are among the most memorable days of my life. Believe me, I could write a lot about it. Instead, I'll focus mainly on one afternoon we had, when we took a trip to a nature reserve, about 20 miles away. It was a cold, sunny day, the temperature about 10F. She told me about this place, and I decided why not. The place was called Sulpher Spring. After getting out of the car, we walked by a fence and a wooden bridge with geese swimming nearby ... We walked by some sheltered outdoor cages, where a variety of pheasants were being kept. These are called phoenix birds ... Nearby was a fenced enclosure with some deer inside ... We decided to take a closer look, walking along the outside of the fence. The deer didn't scatter. Some came right up to S, who talked to them and gave them some treats from the woods nearby ... The deer came to visit me, too. Talk to the hand ... Then we walked down a trail through the woods to where an artesian well bubbled to the surface--the Sulpher Spring. A sign explained that the water is a constant 9C (48F), so it never freezes ... We walked down the trail together, as the late afternoon sun caught the upper branches ... And we eventually got to the source of the spring itself, where the water comes up. It reflected the blue all around us ... We turned around and retraced our steps, visiting the pheasants again. S talked to them ... Daylight was fading quickly, as the deer came towards the headquarters building, where a fresh supply of hay was waiting for them ... The spring that we had crossed earlier emptied into a little pond, and we saw dozens and dozens of Canada geese and mallard ducks swimming around, honking at times as the day faded away ... It was "the end" to our visit. We went back to where she was staying. The next morning, I woke around 6:30 a.m. and got up to look out the window. Then I turned and saw S lying in bed, sleeping on one arm, covers pulled up to her waist. She looked so lovely and peaceful. I decided I had to try to get a picture in the low light of early morning, and I did. But since some people are offended by pictures of the human body, I did some work on it with Photoshop Elements, and a slightly out-of-focus shot of a woman asleep in bed turned into this ... Maybe taking the picture was something I shouldn't have done. Maybe it was unfair to S, who doesn't know about it to this day. But I think it was a good thing. If one picture could symbolize that trip, this is the one. Along with the one up above, showing the footprints on the trail through the woods. When I look at it now ... many emotions race through me. Love. Sadness. Loneliness. Regret that those days may be over. Joy that they did happen once. Hope that someday they will happen again. I felt that way two years ago. I feel that way now. Since December 2005, S has moved back to Wisconsin and is back with her husband. We visited them last summer, and we hope to see them again in January or February. The tentative plan is a visit, dinner and a few movies. It will be nice to see them again.

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11/18/2007 - Reports from the road

When I last wrote, I was in the middle of my crazier-than-hell part of the sports year. Nothing has changed since then. First, the latest. I (plus my wife and son) went to Marquette today for the Division 8 state football semifinal game, played in the Superior Dome ... I could write a lot about it, but I'll be doing that tomorrow, anyway. The bottom line is that our team won 22-7 and will be playing in the state championship game for the fourth consecutive year ... They are 0-3 in those games. Can they pull it off this year? We'll find out next Friday morning, when they play at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. Yes, it's going to be my fourth consecutive Thanksgiving Day away from home. I resigned myself to this fact some time ago; the team is very, very good. Are they the best Division 8 team in the state this year? Time will tell. I called my older son (who lives in the north suburban area) after the game, alerting him that he's going to get company. At this point, it appears David will be coming along with me. My wife isn't sure yet. I think she wants to, but work pending at the call center may prevent it. We'll see. I need to know Monday because I have to reserve motel rooms. Do I need to reserve one room or two? It depends on what my wife finally decides. Reason: To put it plainly, my wife snores. It doesn't bother me--I've slept with her for 36+ years, so I'm used to it--but it does bother David. At any rate, we won't be able to hit the road until Wednesday morning; my son works until about 9 p.m. Tuesday. I had hoped we could get 200 miles down the road on Tuesday. It ain't gonna happen. Thanksgiving Day will be spent at my older son's apartment, watching football (the Packers and Lions will be battling), visiting and watching movies. Thanksgiving dinner may consist of frozen pizzas, since nearly every stateside restaurant is closed. Friday is the game (9 a.m. local time; 10 Eastern). After it ends and I get some quick interviews, we all jump back in the car and start the 500+-mile trip home. **** That wraps up the football news. Now, a recap on the Tuesday trip to St. Ignace for the girls volleyball quarterfinals. Our girls won that match and went to the state semifinals in Battle Creek--where they lost 3-2. They had a great year. But this isn't about the match. This is about our trip and the photos I got. So let me set up my slide projector and the screen. OK? Dim the lights. First, remember when I wrote recently about my missing ice scraper? So I bought a new one. On the morning of the trip, guess what I saw peeking out at me, from under the driver's seat ... Murphy's Law, proven once again. The weather was coolish and gray. Fairly standard November weather. It was the day before Michigan's firearms deer season started. Many of the gas stations up here sell big bags of apples, potatoes and carrots that hunters put out as bait ... What amazed me most of all was the size of some of the carrots. They were sold in 30-pound bags, and they had some monsters inside. How can I give you an idea of the size? I put my camera bag on the carrot bags ... One of those could feed Bugs Bunny for a week. As daylight started fading, we saw some wave action along the north shore of Lake Michigan ... And as we neared St. Ignace, the site of the match, we finally saw the Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan's peninsulas ... More on the bridge later. We reserved our motel room and then went to the match. The girls played hard ... And were they ever happy after getting the winning point, earning them a trip downstate! My wife and I celebrated by going out for a pizza. Then we went to take a look at the bridge, and I tried photos at night--without a tripod! At the motel, we were amazed when we saw the sunrise and sunset times. Didn't make much sense to us ... We were tired and full of pizza, so we slept well. The wind picked up a lot during the night. We went back to "Bridge View Park" to take more photos in the morning, and the strong wind had the waters dancing ... When we looked more closely at the bridge, we saw big waves crashing around the abutments. Look at the water splashing here ... We headed back west, but the wave action along the beach was distracting. Big wave action, considering it's on inland lakes ... Someday (in summer, of course), I'd like to get out in this kind of wave action and feel the hydraulic power all around me. The water is warm enough in late summer--it may even be over 60 degrees F! But since we live so far away (this is still about 200 miles away from our home, remember), it would have to be planned out over a weekend. One last picture from our trip. Just a sign that says--if you read it a certain way--new and bizarre pasty recipes have been unleashed upon an unwary world ...

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