I took Mark to the Orthapedics doctor today and his healing continues to do well. He got his cast off and given an air splint to keep everything in place. Tomorrow we’ll set him up with a re-hab unit here in East Jordan where he’ll be going three times a week. He had x-rays taken and everything seems to be in place and is doing great! The doctor said he could be from 9 month to a year before he’s 100%, but there’s a lot of good percentage points between 0 and 100. I think as a reward for doing such a good job as a dad, I just might go play 9 holes. If I do really good, I’ll let you know, if not…….
Archive for June, 2006
06 13 06
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006A wedding and the zoo’s
Monday, June 12th, 2006After weeks of planning and two days worth of packing, we got out of here Thursday morning right on time. Normally, I don’t look forward to these trips down-state because of all the building projects that our roads go through and I was a bit suprised at the lack of them. US 131 from Mancelona to Grand Rapids was void of such obsticals and it turned into a pretty nice ride. Given a choice of which side of the state to travel down, I’ll always pick the West. On the Eastern side, we run out of trees just a little South of Westbranch, but on this side, it doesn’t run out until Sparta. There wasn’t any long lines of orange cones guiding us down one side of the road or the other and everyone pretty much behaved themselves.
Our son Matthew lives in Kentwood, which is a suburb on the Southeast side of town, and since he had to work Thursday, we were on our own for awhile. We did a little shopping, as Jan wanted some shoes, and I needed some. From his apartment, we only had to go 3 miles to find what we were looking for. Up here, if we went three miles all we’d find is hay fields and some nice stands of hardwoods. Personally, I prefer the hardwoods, but not when I’m looking for a pair of shoes. After getting my shoes, (Jan had no luck at all) we went on to a book store, and then Arby’s for some dinner. All of this was only blocks away from each other, and without any problems at all, we were sitting with Matt outside his employment having some dinner.
Friday morning, Matt was in a golf scramble and while he was doing that, we got everything back into the truck so when he came home we were able to take off for Ann Arbor. As soon as we merged into traffic on I-96, we entered a whole different world. It didn’t take long to realize why our “Summer visitors” climb right on our ass’s while traveling down our roads. That’s how they drive down there…all the time! We were doing 70 miles an hour and there was a car or a truck not 10′ from my rear bumper. We followed Matt and Hoa all the way across the state and it was a little un-nerving watching him weave in and out of traffic. With all his weaving and swerving, we arrived in Ann Arbor only 30 seconds later than he did. Traffic got real ugly around Brighton where the orange soldiers were lined up for miles. Instead of fighting for position and jockying for the checkered flag, we pulled off and skiped some of it. We entered US-23 about 5 miles South of Brighton and even though traffic was crazy on our side, it wasn’t even close to what is was on the Northbound side. It didn’t take much to remember what that use to be like when I’d be coming up here on weekends, fighting all that traffic to get home. I told Mark that we’d be able to see much more of that come Sunday when we were on our way home. With all that traffic heading North on 23, I figured everyone in Ann Arbor would be gone, and we’d have the town to ourselves, but I was sadly mistaken. When we got off M-14 the traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to the Hotel.
Best Western is a nice hotel and all, beautiful architecture, wonderfull water falls and all that, but they could do a little work on their air-conditioning! Our room was spacious with comfortable beds, and a nice t.v. but the room was a sauna. I called down to the desk to see if they could fix it, and they told me to turn it off for 10 minutes and then start it up again. In a way, it worked. It got so hot in there in those 10 minutes that any improvement was appreciated. I don’t think the procedure worked per se, but it was nice to have the fan running again. We all took cool showers and got dressed up for the wedding.
Seeing everyone from Jan’s side of the family again before the ceremony, was both exciting and suprising. The last time we’d seen some of these people, the brothers-in-laws had hair, and the kids were waist high. One of Jan’s sisters and one of our nieces had lost a significant amount of weight and I hardly recognized them. I imagine that if I hadn’t been with Jan I, could have walked through there and they probably wouldn’t have recognized me either. Off to one corner was my oldest son Jon and his wife Miria, so I went right over there and gave them both a hug. They moved out to Arizona a year ago, and hadn’t seen them in a while but it sure was nice to get my arms around them again. I kept getting flash-backs to when all these nephews and nieces were kids and it brought a tear to my eyes. You don’t realize how much time has gone by until you have them in front of you and they’re showing you pictures of their children. I felt like I aged 30 years, right on the spot. For one reason or another, we hadn’t been able to attend all these weddings so it was quite the shock to get up to date so quickly.
The ceremony was held in a ninteenth century barn along with the reception so that was unique. When I first saw the building I almost expected to smell it’s history a little, but it had been totally remodled. The end result was a cathederal type room with a down home atmosphere, and it really worked well. Jason and Laura both looked stunning, well she did. Men arn’t suppose to look “stunning” but Jason held up his part of the deal and looked quite handsome. All during the ceremony, I kept seeing Jason sliding down a hill that surrounds Sunken lake, filthy as a heathen and just as happy. Even as a young man at my wedding, I couldn’t dance worth a crap, but it was nice to watch all the youngin’s going at it, and the Aunts and Uncles doing the “Hustle” with the kids laughing at them. Us old folks left around 11 and I heard that the kids were still dancing at 1, just like we did at ours.
Saturday morning we all piled into our vehicles and headed to the Detroit Zoo. I had brought up the idea a couple weeks before when I’d heard that the zoo was going to close down. As our kids were growing up, we use to take them there every other year to see what was new and enjoy the walk and being together. It turns out, that the zoo isn’t going to close, and probably never intended to. They’ve put a LOT of money into that place and wanted people like me to come see what they’ve done. I’ve never seen the place cleaner or up to date as we did this trip. The exhibits have expanded and whole areas have been remodled and brought up to the 21st Century. I think the only things that havn’t changed is the fountain in the middle and the train that runs from one end to the other. The aviary has an area with butterflys in it now, taking up some of the room that was used strictly for the birds. Watching all those insects flying around was almost surreal. There were so many different species with various colors and not a sound out of them. When one see’s butterfly’s in the wild, at least you hear the sounds of crickets or grasshoppers in the background, but there it was totally silent. Just the sounds of little kids and a waterfall off in one corner. They have a new Arctic area now with Polar Bears, seals, and arctic fox’s that is very impressive. The walkway leads you through examples of how homosapiens live and developed along with all the animals. Except for the tall grass, which prevents children to see what’s in there, they’ve done a remarkable job. There is one spot where the path takes you under water and you can see the seals and Polar Bears swimming right over your heads. There was one mishap while we were there where a youngster got into the exhibit with the giraffe’s and ostrich’s that could have turned tragic but a passerby saved the little kid. People sure seem to enjoy watching train wrecks. After the first scream, people from everywhere ran over to see what was going to happen to the little kid, expecting the worst. There were a lot of people talking about how the zoo should take measures to prevent things like that happening, but not a word was said what an idiot the parent was for letting it happen. All in all, it was a great day and I’m glad we were able to go again.
Jon needed a ride out to Milford to attend another wedding that Miria was in that day, so we got another dose “traffic jam blues” on the way out there. Fortunatly, Jon knew his way around all the traffic jams and with a couple detours we were able to miss most of it. No matter how fast or efficiently they make those roads down there, they can’t keep up. As we drove out there, Jon would tell us where we were, but for the life of me, I couldn’t recognize anything.
Sunday morning we all met in Highland at M-59 and US-23 for one last breakfast together before our ride back home. I think one of the worst things parents have to do, is say goodby to their kids. We all took pictures of each other, in groups and singley and talked about the great weekend we had and made plans about the next meeting. Hopefully, everything will go just fine over the next 6 months and we’ll be able to see each other this Christmas in Grand Rapids. With tears in my eyes, I waved to them all and headed North on 23. As I figured, all the traffic was on the Southbound side and the farther North we went, the heavier it got. The days of joining them are long gone and I don’t miss that one bit. We had the road pretty much to ourselves and the three of us were quiet all the way home. The only problem when we got home was our cat, Albert, giving us all kinds of hell for “Abandoning” him for four days. Jeez, how that cat does go on.
08 June 2006
Thursday, June 8th, 2006It’s time to get even. In a little bit here, we’re all going down state and do the fudgie thing. Our nephew Jason is being married near Ann Arbor so were all going down for the celebration. While we’re there, we plan on either going to the Detroit Zoo, or to the Henry Ford Museum. In either case, I’m going to point out to them all that if the zoo or the museum was up north, it would be a lot better. The food would be better, the sights more exciting, and the service would be faster. I’m going to complain how the people arn’t nearly as friendly, and the sky bluer. I promise to step out between cars and give people the finger when they don’t stop to let me saunter across the street. I’m going to throw cigaretter butts on the ground everywhere, and cut off everyone I see in traffic.
I know, it’s not the polite nor correct thing to do, but just this once I’m going to be as ugly as they are and see if it makes me feel better. It must be that way for them, or they wouldn’t do it.
I’m allready looking forward to coming down Niles hill, from Mancelona and see the valley again. Until then, take care and have a great weekend.
07 June 2006
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006Well, I was right. I just looked down the street and the Iron Works are still there, and I’m here typing this. It’s hard telling what our various intelligence communities had to go through to make sure it happend, but to them I say THANK YOU!
06-06-06
Tuesday, June 6th, 2006Word has it that today is the end of the world, and I suppose it will be to some people. Unless the terrorists pick the East Jordan Iron Works as the economic capital of the world, I should be here tomorrow.
The first thing this morning I dug out my Cabella’s catalog and put it in the magazine rack in the upstairs bathroom. Normally that’s where I keep the latest editions of Astronomy and Maxim but until I finish my list of “Things to get” for bear hunting they’ll have to wait. I guess it’s time to get serious about hunting gear. Up until now, I used a large garbage bag for rain gear, an old awol bag for carrying supplies, and whatever ammo I had for deer hunting. Hopefully, the guys will help me out with what all I’m going to need. I can’t start baiting until August 10th, but I’m going to go by the restaurants today and see if I can get a line on abscounding with all their used grease. I talked to Don last night and he and I will be going up sometime this summer to get a spot all picked out for the pile and the assassination spot. When he asked me how far away I wanted to be from the pile I told him a half mile, but it’ll probably be closer than that. In the mean time, I’ll order my ammo, and then sight my Woodsmaster into that distance. For some reason, I think it’s going to take more than one shot to kill this animal so I have to practice the “double tap” method at a rifle range. It’s amazing sometimes how much your imagination can get the better of you, and I have to keep that to a minimum. I awoke this morning with visions of a bear standing straight up after the first shot and coming right at me. Whether it’s prescience or just my imagination I’m not sure, but I live by the code; “Hope for the best, and plan for the worst”. Only time will tell.
05 June 2006
Monday, June 5th, 2006Well, the wait is over. Ever since Don Zipp got his Bear I’ve been trying to get a permit to get one of my own. This morning I checked out the list and I’m on it! As soon as it’s legal to do so, I’ll be making weekly trips up to Eckerman to add to the bait pile, and get my hunting site all scoped out. As the process continues, I’ll be posting it here… Wish me luck!
Snake bites, deserted beach’s and King James
Sunday, June 4th, 200621 years ago this August, I spent a week with 9 other family members on Beaver Island. The vacation had been talked about for a couple years prior to us going, and for one reason or another, it never happend. Finally; Jan’s sister Laura and her daughter Cassie, our brother-in-law Mike, and his two kids, Leah and Jason, Jan and I with our kids; Jon, Matt, and Katrina finally made it. Since I knew the area, I got hold of a rental company in Charlevoix and rented two mobile homes not far from St. James, on the East side of the Island. I’d asked for someplace remote because I wanted to gaze at the stars at night, and didn’t want any light pollution to interfere. When it came to making a reservation for the ferry, I ran into a small problem. We were going to go over on Saturday, but the car wasn’t going to get there until Sunday morning, first boat.
We left Charlevoix on the first boat; the “Emerald Isle” on Saturday morning, and as soon as we cleared the breakwall I knew we were in for a ride. The morning was very sunny, but there was also a good breeze out of the Northeast, so we ran into a chop. To me it was a chop, to the rest of the family it was “High winds and heavy seas”. It didn’t take long to see who was going to have a fun ride, and who was going to be throwing me overboard at the first chance. The kids seemed to really enjoy the ride, but my ex-infintry brother-in-law started turning just a little bit green. I’m not going to get into the gory details here, just suffice to say the grown-ups didn’t have as much fun as me and the kids.
Once we got on the island I could immediatly feel the change in the stress level. It’s hard to describe the feeling that overcame me when I walked off the prow. I knew I was in Michigan, U.S.A. but I may have well been on Tralfamagore, which is a planet in another galaxy with another author. Down-state people think that us pine tree savages are laid-back, but until you get to Beaver Island, you just don’t know what laid-back is all about. From fleet landing I walked up to the taxi service, one block off the King’s Highway and arranged for a ride out to our accomidations.
We were all loaded onto a Maxi-van with all our luggage. We had carried everything that we thought we’d need for one night and left the rest of the stuff in my car. At first everything was going ok until we left the paved road and it turned to gravel. My sister-in-law, Laura hadn’t been on a gravel road in years and she thought it novel until the gravel road turned into a two-track. She gave me such a look! “Where are we going Michael?” she asked as we started to travel through the raspberries. “It’s fine Laura, I’m sure the place is up here somewheres” I said as the van started brushing tree limbs. Even I began to wonder when we came upon a clearing and in front of us was Lake Michigan with two moble homes facing the beach. Our driver went to the first trailer and then the other to make sure there were no critters who’d decided to move in, and gave us our keys. Everybody grabbed some luggage and pretty soon we were all unpacked and ready for some vacation. Mike and his two kids took the farther trailer and we, along with Laura and Cassie took the closer. There were two things that I notice immediatly on walking into the trailer: one was all the fly swatters hanging everywhere, and the second was the kitchen floor. Evidently, the roof had leaked sometime in it’s exsistance and warped the floor. It was like walking on a choppy lake, and right after that we figured out why there were so many fly swatters. There must have been 200 house flys flying around everywhere! Everybody grabbed and fly swatter and we had a contest to see who could kill the most. I don’t remember who won, but I know that there wern’t any left and hour later. Matt, Jon, and Jason set up a tent on the front lawn and I set up my binoculars for some boat watching and star gazing. I had just sat down on one of the beach chairs when Laura walked up and asked; “So, what do we do now Mike?”. “Your lookin’ at it Laura” I told her. “If your looking for some excitment, you might have come to the wrong place” I added. Along with Jan, Laura was born and raised in the Detroit area, but unlike Jan, she’s lived there all her life and wasn’t quite ready for the ’slow life’. I was starting to wonder if I’d made a mistake in asking Laura and Cassie along, but soon Laura was sitting next to me with a sniffer of “Chevas Regal” in her hand.
A little after that, I walked down to the beach and started throwing rocks into the lake. Jason, Mikes son, asked me what I was doing and I told him; “Most times, people get in trouble for throwing rocks but right here, right now, it’s about the most correct thing a kid could do. Soon, I had all the kids throwing rocks. When they got wore out doing that, they asked if they could go swimming and the mom’s were all for it. Mike and I took the opportunity to walk down the beach and see what we had for neighbors, that is, if we had any. Just as Mike and I started on our reconnoiter, I noticed that Jon had met up with a water snake, and I told him to be carefull. Mike and I were about 50 yards down the beach, when I heard him yell. “Sounds like Jon lost the contest with the snake” I said laughing. We headed on back to the kids and Jan was yelling at Jon. Jon stood there with blood running down his hand with a huge smile on his face. For some reason, he got a kick out of it. Even later that fall, he was taking snake teeth out of his hand, and proud of it.
Cassie, who was totally out of her eliment, had gone through by then, every piece of clothing that she’d brought. She would come out on the beach, throw sand in the air, and then go change her cloths. It looked as though Cassie was starting to fray Laura’s nerves so Mike and I took them all for a walk. Out in front of the trailers, the wind was blowing so the bugs were kept low, but when we started around back, the mosquito’s were waiting for us. A quick walk back to the trailer and a dose of Cutter’s put an end to that and we headed out again. As soon as we got back to the raspberries, we saw a family of partidge walking along the two track and soon after that, a family of woodcock. Off to our left, we saw a hawk swoop down and grab a squirrel off a limb, and when we broke into the clearing near the gravel road, a family of wild turkeys broke ground and flew off to our right. Within the first two hours of being on that island, the kids had seen more wildlife, than they ever had. To top that off, later in the day, Matt comes running into the living room and told us that he’d just seen a coyote looking at him through the bedroom window! That evening, the breeze that was blowing out of the Northeast turned into a “Noreaster” and we ended up with a hellava blow.
The next morning I had an early breakfast and started walking back into town to get the car. When I stepped out of the house to get the car, I had a bit of a suprise. The day before, we had a very nice sandy beach, this morning it was all rock and to top it all off, we had a navagational bouy in our front yard! That bouy must have been 20′ from the shore and it was only about 10′ from where the kids slept in their tent.
Our place was only about 3 miles from town, but it was a very plesant way to spend the morning. Just as I walked up to the ferry, I saw my Omega being off-loaded and was able to get right back to the house. Well, not right back, there was a traffic jam in downtown St. James. I had just made a left onto the King’s Highway and two people were talking to each other from their cars. I sat there politly for a few minutes and then decided to get out and see what was up. It wasn’t long before there were 6 cars, backed up each way, and the drivers leaning on the first two cars shooting the bull. NO ONE is in a big hurry on Beaver Island, so if anyones thinking about going over, just be aware of it and get in the mood quickly. Something else I noticed about the cars over there, they don’t have any license plates, or those that do are expired. When I asked about it, I was told there wern’t any state highways on the island and because of that, none are required. The police force makes sure, (I suppose) that the cars are insured, but that’s as far as that goes. As for the ”Police force” that’s there, the kid who was the police officer was only 20, and not allowed in the bars!
Once I got back to the house, I gathered up the kids and my brother-in-law and looked for a lake to fish in. In town, there is a company that rent’s the boats and motors for the lakes. When we went in, there was a list of the lakes, how many boats were at each lake, and if they were allready rented. All of the boats are left at the lakes, and if you want a motor, you rented one there and took it with you. We found a lake that interested us, and opted for oars instead of motors and we were on our way. When we got to Fox lake, the boats were all on the beach and turned over waiting for us. When we flipped over the two boats, they both had snakes in them and the kids loved it! After getting out the little critters, we pushed off and started rowing. Unfortunatly, Mike had joined the Army instead of the Navy so he didn’t realize that all the ballast should be loaded aft instead of forward and Jason had a hellava time rowing them around the lake. We spent the rest of the day fishing, and caught a bunch of pan fish and watched the Loon’s. The first time one of the Loons let out a call, Jason would answer it, and we found that Jason has quite the ear for Loon talk. I wished I had a video camera then, it would have made a nice segment for one of the outdoor shows in Detroit.
The next day I took the ladies out for a ride and a look around the island. When we got to the Island, we were given a road map and we used that to navigate ourselves around looking at all the sites mentioned there, but the most beaufitul spot was at the extreme South end. We sat for a full two hours watching the waves break from two different locations and merge just offshore. It was also during this ride where I saw a beautiful swimming beach. So later that day when Jan, Laura and the girls wanted to go swimming, I took them there. I remember breaking over the top of a dune, and coming down almost to the water. It was absolutly the most remotly looking and beautiful swimming spot I’d ever seen. If one wished, they could have stripped to the skin and spent the day sunning themselves and never worry about being seen. But, when I suggested this to the ladies, they went through the roof! “Why we can’t swim here!, there’s no changing room, there isn’t even a potty! Where will we get our pop, or look through the stores?” I got them all back in the car and took them back to St. James and dropped them off at the city park. What a waste.
A couple days later, Mike and I took the boys for a walk around the island. Using this map, we came upon the site where Dr. Feodor Protar was laid to rest. Like many of the local celebraties of that island, he was quite unique, but I think he did the most good. Another character from that area is James Strang, but if you want to hear about him, ask a Morman. No, that’s not nice.. The Mormons are a wonderful religious sect and having Strang hung from their necks is like having Hitler brought up every time you talk about Germans. Anyway, we walked about 10 miles and saw a lot of country side that just can’t be duplicated here on the mainland.
I think on Friday or Saturday, my parents came over to see us along with Mike’s wife Vickie and a family friend. My mom and dad had never been there before, which kind of suprised me. That island is only a couple hours by boat, and never took the time to go see it. We all had a good visit, but the ambience’ of the place was lost on Vickie. Just too much city in that woman I think.
The only other thing that comes to mind from that trip, happend on the last day we were there. Cassie was a little girl who really didn’t want to be there and had a hard time adjusting to country living. By the last day, she’d had enough and unfortunatly for her, Laura had had enough of her. I wasn’t there when it happend, as I was still ferrying our luggage and equipment from the house to the boat. From what I heard, after Laura had given her an ice cream cone to placate her, Cassie threw it right at her and it smeared all over Laura’s blouse. Laura then proceded to whomp on her butt and I think all the cousin’s truely enjoyed watching her get “her due”.
By the time we got back to Charlevoix, just about everyone was green around the gills again, and happy to be back on solid ground. Pulling up out of the parking area and back into Charlevoix’s traffic was quite the shock. As I recall, no one was sitting around on Bridge street, shooting the shit, “’cause they just wanted to”. Never in my life had I ever expecienced a place like that, and I continue to look for a reason to go back over. Someday, I will.
03 June 2006
Sunday, June 4th, 2006I went out fishing with Doug this morning between Holy Island and Dutchman’s bay. It’s the first time I’ve been on the lake since it was froze over, and I prefer it this way. It’s a hellava lot easier to get around if your in a boat rather than trudging through all that snow. It started out a little on the nippley side, but once the sun came out it got pretty nice. Night crawlers seemed to be on the “prefered” list for walleye, and white grubs for bass. I caught one marble eye but it was only 14 1/2″ so it had to go back. I’d thought about stepping on it, but figured it was a little too early in the season to try that. Doug caught two bass, and one of them earned him $10.00. Earlier in the year, the DNR had been out checking the fish population and tagged a number of bass and walleye. There’s a phone number on the tag to call, and when it’s mailed in, you’ll get a check for 10 bucks. Finally, the DNR has come up with a way to get people back out fishing again. I think if the word gets out that people can earn money catching fish, they’ll be more inclined to give it a shot. The other bass was about 6# so he’ll be smoking them tonight. He’s going back out in the morning to get some more, but it’s back to “Housebitch” duties for me, so I had to pass.
01 June 2006
Thursday, June 1st, 2006Flower day! This is one of the few days I’ve been looking forward to since I got squared up with Social Security. For the last three years I’ve gotten one tomato plant (and that was from a friend), but this year, things are different.
This morning I was at Glen’s when the cash register opened with two carts full of annuals. 14 flats of impatients, 1 flat of marigolds, and 1 flat of geraniums. As soon as I got home I tilled up the two gardens I have and sprinkled in some fertilizer. As soon as I post this, I’m going back out and hook up a soaker hose and then plant the whole lot of them. When I worked at Country Day, we use to plant 1200 flats, so a measly 14 should be a snap. It’s going to be nice to stand out there in the morning and spray Peter’s plant fertilizer on ‘em, and watch them grow. By the end of July they’ll be about 3′ tall and it’ll look like a boquet of summertime! As soon as I’m done with planting here, I’ll run up to the cemetary and plant the three family plots with the geraniums, the marigolds and the spikes and asparagus ferns. One of these years I’m going to work up the nerve and plant pink geraniums in grandma’s urn. I just want to see it she starts spinning or not. She said she would.
