It’s 66 degrees at 8pm, the winds are out of the Northwest and what’s left of today’s rain is scudding off to the South. The middle of August, and it looks like late September. I just got back from going over to Boyne City, and there’s trees all along the way, that are turning color. The Swamp Maples are really starting to come into their own, the reds are going to be very deep and vibrant this year. I sat out in front of the book store while Jan shopped inside and watched our ’summer visitors’ sucking on ice cream cones, and stopping in front of the real estate shop across the street. I could almost hear their minds whirring as they hoped to someday, move up to ‘Gods’ Country’. I was almost tempted to walk over and just gloat at them, but I remained seated and smiled.
Archive for August, 2006
19 August ‘06
Sunday, August 20th, 200617 August ‘06
Thursday, August 17th, 2006Ralph and I went up to Eckerman yesterday to start my bait pile, and do a little fishing. Events didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, but not a failure.
We stopped at the day old bakery that’s a little North of Petoskey, to find that there wern’t any deals for Bear Baiters. In years past, someone could buy a large quanity of old bread and doughnuts for a minimal sum, but that’s no more. The lady told us that they don’t get the large amounts of material like the use to, and there were a lot more people trying to get what was left. The store that’s similar to that one had closed in Alpena, so there were the East side hunters, and even several hunters from Canada trying too. I ended up buying 16 loaves of day old bread and 5 packages of hamburger buns for only $12.00, so that wasn’t too bad. I had taken along a couple 5 gallon pails so we stuffed those in there along with a couple gallons of cooking oil, and a quart or so of mollassis. I dropped all the stuff in the hole and covered it up as much as I could with the available logs and we were on our way.
Don’s cabin has gone thruough some renovations and it’s really looking like a first rate dwelling now! Over the 7 years I’ve been going up there, the Zipp family has continued to improve the place, but I think this is the best work yet. It’s gotten to the point now, where the guys’ll wipe their feet before entering and maybe going outside before they pass out. I was going to take some video of the place, but when I tried to get the thing to work, all I got was some fuzzies on the view screen. Not sure what the deal is, but the days of “Candid Camera” during the Eckerman hunts are but a memory now. Just as well I think.
Ralph and I then went over to Highbanks and did a little fishing with his jonboat. The lake looked like a sheet of glass except for where the fish were jumping and it was nice to be out there again. We used spoons (cleo’s) and caught a couple small ones, but our time was limited as was our catch. We did find where they hang out and how to get them, so it’s just a matter of time. It turned out to be a great day, and I’m looking forward to next week when I take up another load. Next time, I’m taking Jan and Mark along so they can see why I enjoy going up there so much.
14 Aug ‘06
Monday, August 14th, 200636 days and counting. Doug stopped by today for a cup of coffee and an injection of “Eckerman fever”. I get excited enough as it is, and when one of the guys comes by, it compounds the excitement. From the looks of it, there’s a bunch of guys going up the 21st along with me so there won’t be any reflecting going on before the hunt begins. That’s ok, I can reflect all I want during the winter months when they’re needed the most. I’m going up this Wednesday for a day run along with Ralph to take some bait up. I’ll put my name tag on the platform I’ll be hunting from and drop some bait while I’m there. Each time I go up, I’ll take along my video camera to record anything that might be of interest around the pile.
My daughter Katrina and her husband, John, are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary today, and I send them both my congratulations and my love.
My cousin-in-law Kathy is being re-born today, and I congratulate her on a life well lived, and I’m sure she’ll find the eternal life she’s about to start, to be everything she’s hoped and dreamed. To my cousin John, my condolences and I hope he see’s the betterment in it all.
Destroying cryptographic material
Sunday, August 13th, 2006It wasn’t me who did it, but during my last cruise, one of the guys I worked with put the 32nd card from a AN/KWR 26 through a shredder. After the report was made, Maincomm was FULL of guys from the NSA, NSC, CIA, and the ONI, and this was back when NSA meant “No such agency” so you know we were all in trouble. We missed all the liberty days we had coming on our third visit to Barcelona so we were all pretty pissed. We could have turned him in I guess but where would the fun be in that? I was going to do something similar with the KY-8, which was the secure voice I had in Central with me, but me and another guy were the only two allowed in there.
Ok Trina, lets see what happens now.
11 August 2006
Friday, August 11th, 200634 Years ago today, I married Janice Elaine Moore at St. Agatha’s church in Redford Township, Michigan. It’s been that way ever since. Tonight, Jan, Mark and I are going to dinner at Jan’s corner Cafe’ to celebrate.
Mark and I went to the Mallard and played a round of golf. I beat him by 4 strokes, so his leg seems to be just fine. There wasn’t any pain at all, and if I hadn’t been lucky on a few of my shots he would have beat me…again.
10 Aug ‘06
Thursday, August 10th, 2006Baiting for bear starts today and it looks as though I’ll be going up next Wednesday to start. Ralph and I are going up right after I drop Jan off at work, and we’ll take Ralph’s boat along with us. After we drop off the bait, he and I are going over to a lake near there to do some trout fishing. Don and I are going up next Friday afternoon to bait some more and then come back on Saturday afternoon. That way we can check the pile the next morning and see if there’s been any activity. Time seems to be slowing down and speeding up at the same time. I look to see how much I’ve still to get done, and it speeds up, I think about that week, and it slow’s way down. I keep reminding myself that there’s only 24 hours in each day and those hours are going to progress like they have since the inception of time itself. Doug called me a couple days ago, and told me that he was going to be heading up for the hunt on the same day as Don, B.B. and myself, so it looks like the party’s going to be starting early this year.
07 August ‘06
Monday, August 7th, 2006Jan, Mark and I went out to Graves Crossing, Thursday night and camped there for a couple days. A friend of Jan’s was allready camping out there, and Jan had a three day weekend so we joined her. That’s one of the nice things about living up here, it only took us 15 minutes to camp at a spot that takes the rest of the people there, hours. We could have gone to a spot here in town that’s right on the lake, but it was full of people. Graves has only 10 spots and it’s ‘rustic’; no showers, no running water, no electricity….no noise either. The birds woke us up each morning and the crickets put us to sleep.
Jan’s birthday was yesterday, so we got to talk to all of the kids, grandchildren included, and we found out that we have another grandchild on the way! Matt and Hoa are expecting a daughter in December, and now Jon and Miria are due for another in April. That’ll be 6 all tolled. I don’t know if we’ll ever get the chance to have them all in one spot, but I’m sure hoping.
Northern Michigan’s weather has finally got back to normal, it’s 75 right now, and that’s about as warm as it’s going to get today. A freshening breeze out of the Northwest so we’ll get some cool sleeping weather tonight. Those three days last week almost did me in, and I hope we don’t get that again for a long time. Come this winter we’ll sit around and wish for part of it, but certainly not all.
02 August ‘06
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006I took Mark to the bone doctor yesterday and he gave Mark a full ‘Good to go’ synopsis. He warned Mark about not getting too carried away, or he would be. I don’t forsee any more problems there, other than bending his will to try something new again.
We had us a number one ‘hellsapoppin thunderboomer’ last night, and today around 4pm, the wind changed to the Northnorthwest. For those of you not from here, that means we’ll probably get ‘Lake Effect’ snow showers in a day or two. This morning when I got up it was 85 and right now it’s 70. At this rate we’ll have 3 to 5″ of the white stuff by Saturday morning. Yep, we have two seasons around here, July and bad sledding. If you ever want to witness a wierd climatalogical event, ca’mon up the day before Labor day. On Sunday, it will be in the high 80’s, but on Monday, it’ll rain like crazy and we’ll have a high of 56…No kidding, I’ve seen it happen too many times. It’s like Mother Nature saying; “GO HOME, LEAVE US ALONE NOW”.
