Maturity Levels

Yesterday, when the Northern Iowa Panthers defeated the Kansas Jayhawks, I felt so bad because I had picked Kansas to be the National Champions. It was not meant to be. I was upset and bad-mouthing the Kansas athletes who were so sad. I was thinking, "You mean you didn't see this coming? You're surprised to have lost? Considering that your only lead in this game was when it was 2-0?"

I posted this whiny entry on the famiy message board:

>

The N. Iowa Panthers are a bunch of big fun-messer-upper-ruiners !!!
I'm getting no sympathy from my husband !!!
Good luck everybody.

My niece Shelly had a much better reaction to the whole thing - she took the attitude of a much more mature adult when she posted:

Way to go Northern Iowa, you have made some history. 40% of brackets on ESPN have now been ruined. Yes, I took Kansas to win it, but as I watched the game I couldn't help but cheer for the underdog. Maybe MSU will have a chance to go farther in the bracket. This sure is a fun year to watch the top seeds fall.

Then, my daughter Jana found a way to pique renewed interest in the tournament and gave us all something to look forward to. She posted this on Facebook:

Just in case anyone else is also confused, I just had to google to figger it out -- Ali Farokhmanesh is the N. Iowa dude who sunk the three-pointer; Al-Farouq Aminu is the Wake Forest dude. I now want Wake Forest and N. Iowa to get to the finals so they can play each other.

Another niece, Susan, validated Jana's plan:

Yes! Good for you. Now that we are no longer contenders we need to find something fun about this tournament and you did.

Well, gee whiz, these family members have all demonstrated maturity, acceptance, and grace under disappointment. I'm so proud of them! So I have changed my own attitude. I just have one thing to say: The KANSAS JAYHAWKS are a bunch of big fun-messer-upper ruiners.

March Madness

Here we go again! It's Bracket time! I'm not sure why I enjoy this so much, but I do. Right now my West bracket is looking horrible, but I'm tied for third in the family pool, so it could be worse. There are twenty of us in the pool, and three of us are tied for third. (Jana and Melanie and I). Jana is bummed, though, because she picked Minnesota to go all the way, and they're already out. Dick picked MSU to go all the way, and I think he's going to be bummed, too, judging by the way they played last night!

This seems to be the year for upsets. There are always a few, but there sure a lot this year! Everybody was surprised by Georgetown losing I think - but I also picked Vanderbilt, Minnesota, Temple, Florida State and UTEP to win, and they were all ousted. Not doing so well so far! Last night, Michigan State almost lost in the first round - we were glad to see them pull it out - but it was a really ugly game.

Win or lose, this is always fun!

Bracketology

Filled out my brackets yesterday, so I'm good to go.

We have a Gen Family pool, and no money is involved. It's online and really easy to keep track of. You can see how everyone else filled out their brackets, and see what your standing is in the pool so far. Kevin and Sharon started it about seven years ago. You can even look up how you ranked in previous years. Such fun.

This morning at the gym I filled out Norene's bracket for her for the MCHC therapists' pool - poor thing - talk about the blind leading the blind. She said she didn't care - she just wanted Ron to stop bugging her!

Alden Park and Greensky Hill

Our Greensky Hill cache is over near Charlevoix. When a cacher reported that the cache needed maintenance, we were happy to have an excuse to go over there. First of all, it's a delightful location. It's an old Indian mission and burial ground, and it's very sacred to the native Americans. The grounds are well maintained, and many of the markers have native language inscriptions.

As long as we were heading that way, we had noticed that the Alden Search Party had put out a new cache in the Alden Park. That darn Ron and Barb! This was a very tricky hide! We were turning over every stone and kicking gravel for twenty minutes before we decided that we were skunked. Then Dick had an inspiration, and voila! There it was! Whew. That was a toughie.

Lunch at the Juilleret Restaurant in Charlevoix. We were the only ones there. It was hard to figure out why, because their food is really good. When we got the check, we figured it out. It was $30 for sandwiches and coffee. Live and learn.

Then off to Greensky Hill. Here is Dick's description on the cache page:

This cache is located adjacent to the grounds of the Greensky Hill United Methodist Church also known as The Pine River Indian Mission. It was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1972. Take the time to look around, visit the medicine garden next to the parking lot and as you take the path to the east toward the lake, seek out the sign by the grave enclosed by a picket fence.
The church was built over 150 years ago under the direction of Peter Greensky alongside a circular grove of trees which had long been used by the native people as a religious gathering place. Notice the replica circular grove in the modern cemetery west of the parking lot.
The Greensky Hill Church is a rectangular, front-gable wooden structure built with walls of hewn logs, below the clapboard gables. It measures thirty-five-feet long by twenty-five-feet-wide. In the early 1940’s the entrance was changed by the addition of a low vestibule and porch with a hip-and-gable-roof surmounted by a square, louvered belfry. The church and grounds are recognizable in many of Ernest Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories.
One of the oldest churches in continuous service in west Michigan, today it serves a small local congregation of about 50. Approximately half are Anishnabek and half are non Native Americans. In the worship service the congregation continues the use of the Ojibway language in some of the hymns and prayers. On some weekends in the summer, camp meetings are held which feature activities designed to perpetuate the ancient skills and crafts used by the people before the arrival of the Europeans.
In addition to the small church and the new fellowship hall, the entire 20+ acre grounds are sacred to the parishioners. While you explore the site, please observe the reverence the area deserves.

It was a beautiful day and an inspiring place to be. Dick had the cache replaced in no time at all. I enjoyed walking around and reading the stones.

On the way out, we took a wrong turn. If we hadn't, we would have missed seeing this one of a kind trailer! Does this make you want to go camping?

Cattle Track

Hooray for the new kitchen floor! We babysat flooring and the installer for the past two days, and so now it's time for an adventure.

Cadillac has tons of interesting caches in and around town. We met Tim and Susie for breakfast at the Cadillac Bob Evans and made plans for our day of caching.

First of all, right in downtown Cadillac, along Mitchell Street, there are two series involving signs or parts of signs. You have to locate the signs pictured, and then put them in order from north to south to arrive at the coordinates of the cache location. We had a great time driving up and down Mitchell Street 87 times (may be a slight exaggeration) trying to find exactly the right signs in exactly the right color! We had two sets of pictures - one for each series - and we got really confused flipping through pages, so we decided to do one series at a time. Even with four sets of eyes it took us hours to finish! We had a super good time, though, and that's the whole point!

We took a break in the middle to get some fresh air and found three caches out in the surrounding area. One was named The Bridge to Nowhere - doesn't that sound intriguing?



We sat in McDonald's so Dick and Tim could figure out all of the final coordinates. After a minor glitch, we found both of them. It was laughable to spend so much time searching and then have the finals be a lamp post skirt lifter and a cemetery! But the search was the fun part, so it didn't really matter where you signed your name.

All in all, it was the kind of day you'd like to put in a bottle - we had a wonderful time.

My Class is History!

Yesterday's Grand Traverse Herald had this picture in its historical pictures feature. It's the kind of thing where they ask, "Can anybody identify any of these individuals?" It was like a bolt out of the blue for me. I could identify six of them without even wracking my brain - they are kids I went to school with from grades 1-12 ! They're in my TCHS class of 1953. This picture was taken when they were in 8th or 9th grade, at the new BoGi Club, so it would hve been 1949 or '50. (BoGi stands for Boys and Girls) I'm not in the picture, but if I could walk into the picture, everybody there would know me, and I would know them all very well!

The girl closest to the camera at the table is Jackie Brown, one of my best elementary school friends. She and Pauline Brigham and I were best friends at Union Street School in grades 1 to 7. Pauline passed away a few years ago, and I've lost track of Jackie. We used to have one birthday party for both of us - her birthday is March 20, and mine March 22. Such good memories.

I hope everybody can live long enough to become historical (without becoming hysterical).

A nice man is in our kitchen laying down our new vinyl flooring. He'll be finished today. The old floor was beginning to come apart at the seams, so this time we're having no seams.

Kitchen Floor

Diary of the new kitchen floor.

Beginning:
This is what your kitchen looks like when the floor is torn up!





Middle:

Underlayment - nail guns are loud!



Almost the End:

Choose a color

How does it look?



Finished pictures later!

Politics 2010

Politics is not my favorite subject. Sometimes I feel as though if I hear another personal attack on someone or another discussion of Health Care Reform, I'll check in to psychoanalysis.

As a fairly progressive Democrat, I find it really hard to believe that there are so many people in our country who are ignorant of basic facts. They think that our President may be a socialist, communist, or maybe a fascist! Ask them to define any one of those three terms and you'll see how much they know about the world around them.

You just can't carry on a rational conversation with friends who are under the influence of the loud, shocking conservative media, both radio and TV. The local AM radio station is impossible for me to listen to. From dawn to dusk all you can hear is hate, vitriol, misinformation, shockingly one-sided opinions, and shouting - all day long! I listen mostly to NPR, where you do get a relatively balanced view of the world - what a concept.

The Republicans in Congress are behaving abominably. On a report card they would get F's in participation and citizenship - they should also lose recess. Keep them there until they do something.

Today Dick found this perceptive list in a column of the Washington Monthly:

March 7, 2010
UPDATING OUR POLITICAL DICTIONARIES.... Josh Marshall had a very short item the other day that I've been meaning to mention. He was helping readers understand the new political "lexicon."

"Jamming it through": to vote on a bill.

It got me thinking about how we should all update our understandings of political terms that had fairly straightforward definitions up until fairly recently.

"Obstructionism," for example, only refers to Democratic minorities opposing Republican proposals.

"Tyranny" is found when an elected Democratic majority passes legislation that Republicans don't like.

"Reconciliation" describes a Senate process that Republicans are allowed to use to overcome Democratic "obstructionism."

"Terrorism" refers to acts of political violence committed by people who aren't white guys.

"Bipartisanship" is found when Democrats agree to pass Republican legislation.

"Big government" describes a dangerous phenomenon to be avoided, except in cases relating reproductive rights or gays.

"Treason" refers to Democrats criticizing a Republican administration during a war.

"Patriotism" refers to Republicans criticizing a Democratic administration during a war.

"Fiscal responsibility" is a national priority related to keeping our budget in check, which only applies when Republicans are in the minority.

Quilt Barn Trail

The sun has been shining for three days now. The temperature hit 40 this afternoon. Even though we still have three feet of snow in the middle of our deck, you can tell that Spring is just around the corner! Hooray.

Dick has been thinking about a new cache series out on the peninsula, along the Quilt Barn Trail. It was a gorgeous day to drive out there. The bright sunlight made the quilt barns look fantastic. We recorded the coordinates for each of the ten barns, and had lunch at the Old Mission Tavern. I want to tell you that this is a very pleasant way to spend some time!











On the way back home we saw this regal eagle posing for us along Peninsula Drive. He sat there very quietly the whole time we were watching him, and turned his head as we drove off.

Grayling Meet, Greet and Eat

The AuSable Valley Expo will be April 24 and 25. Just like last year, a geocachers' meet and greet was planned to coincide with the Expo. The trouble is, there was nobody to take charge of it for various reasons - job training, and the opening of trout season for instance. We discussed it and decided we would give it a try - we've never hosted an event before, but this was just a small group last year so we figured that we could handle it.

We met with Misty at the Grayling Days Inn, and she was terrific. She offered the room, sloppy joes, beverages, and prizes for the meet and greet. It was a super meeting, and she was very cooperative and easy to work with.

We had lunch at Tim and Susie's house - home made soup, sandwiches and cookies - you just can't beat it! It was a lovely lunch, or as Dick said, "Good stuff!" We always have a good time with them.

At home we both worked on a web page for the meet and greet. It should be published soon so people can make plans. I thought it was just about perfect, so we submitted it. Guess what?! It was not approved. Tiki, the reviewer, said it didn't sound like an event just for geocachers, and he had to follow the guidelines. Interestingly enough, the same scenario was approved last year, so we are slightly befuddled with his rejection. We made some changes, re-submitted it, and haven't heard back. Dick says he's not going to jump through any more hoops, and if it's not approved, someone else can do it.

MiGO Winter Social

From the album:
"MiGO Silver Coin Awards" by Michigan Geocaching Organization
Basswoodbend- Dick and Nancy

These Silver award recipients began caching in June 2003. Since that time, these retired teachers have found over 2500 caches in 41 states. They have attended 37 events, 2 of which were Cache In Trash Out gatherings. In the fall of ‘07, they completed the Michigan County Challenge and had a geocoin minted to honor their 50th wedding anniversary. Having owned 81 caches to this point, you can find their caches in the Michigan Lost Towns series, along the Shore to Shore series and, to rave reviews, the popular Trekking Traverse Trails series. As Traverse City residents, they have also worked with the Traverse City Visitor’s Center and the Convention & Visitor Bureau to bring Geocaching into the Welcome Center in downtown Traverse City. There you can pick up information about the sport and if you look in the right spot, you’ll find a cache waiting to log. So for their contributions to our sport, I am proud to present Dick and Nancy, of Basswoodbend, with the Silver Coin Award from MiGO.

The Winter Social is something we look forward to every year. This year it was held in Lansing - well, it's been in the Lansing area for the last few years, but this venue was right in the Big City.

We had such a good time - we saw people we haven't seen for a couple of years - it's always fun to re-connect. As always, we saw a lot of good friends, and met some new friends too.









There were two major highlights for me - well, maybe three. Every year they award Silver Coins to caching teams who support and advance caching in the State of Michigan. We were thrilled when we were one of the 5 recipients of the silver coin! It was thrilling and so unexpected! We experienced real shock and awe. It's a good feeling to be put in the company of winners past and present whom we have always admired. Wow. In the teaser before the announcement, Chad mentioned how many caches we have found and placed, that we've found a cache in all of the counties of Michigan and in many States and countries. He brought up the Shore to Shore series and the Trekking Traverse Trails series that Dick put together last spring. He also mentioned Dick's connection with the T.C. Visitor Center to promote geocaching in the Grand Traverse area. I'm very proud of Richard!



To put the frosting on the cake, Tim and Susie also received a silver coin - how great is that?!



The five teams receiving the silver coin were Basswood Bend, DinoDuo, TreePlanter, Pairomedicchick, and DeRock. Good company.

The Wolverine Warriors were there with their three great children, the newest of which is their six month old son Braylon (named for Braylon Edwards). They were nice enough to let me hold Braylon as long as I wanted - he is a darling, snuggle-puppy kind of a baby - very content to just snuggle up and observe his surroundings. Gee, that was fun. He is such a great baby.





Jodi took a picture of Dick taking a picture of me.


Justin is wondering if I will ever give the baby back!


The silent auction is always fun for me, and this year was no different. I didn't get the quilt that I bid on 3 times, but the two of us did win 3 auctions and we were happy with them.

All in all, it was a wonderful day - full of joy, adrenalin, and warm fuzzies. We were exhausted afterwards - when I got back to the motel I took a nap right away. Am I getting too old for this? No, that can't be it!

I closed my eyes with memories of silver coins, good friends and a warm bundle of baby boy Braylon.

When Dick logged the event, I realized that he is a much better writer than I am!

As Chad stood at the microphone and read the description of the first coin recipient, lights flashed on in our heads and we glanced at each other in disbelief. the tips of our ears and the backs of our necks reddened. the room suddenly became much warmer. We were stultified! To be placed in the same category as De Rock, Tree Planter, Paramedic Chick, and Dino Duo, not to mention the coin winners of the past years is incomparable. We have long recognized them as outstanding members of the Michigan Geocaching community, but to be grouped with them, and given special recognition by our peers, for behaviors and actions which we perceive to be ordinary and normal in the pursuit of our favorite hobby is overwhelming. We are honored and humbled.
We wish to recognize the BOD and the countless worker bees who labor to make this and all of the MiGO sponsored events a success. We are well aware that they are the ones who deserve the awards and recognition. Thanks to you all and thanks to our friends, old and new, and even those whom we have not yet met for making this day one we will never forget.

From Facebook:

Michigan Geocaching Organization: Beginning in 2005, the Board of Directors established a program by which to recognize the outstanding contributions of MiGO members to our organization and the Geocaching public as a whole. For this purpose, 50 silver MiGO coins were minted, numbered 1-50. For this honor, the Board of Directors chooses those members who have truly gone above and beyond the call of duty in the service of our organization, offering of themselves and their talents freely for the benefit of us all. The contributions of these people have been significant, and will have long lasting effects on our group and the quality of geocaching in Michigan.

Off to the Winter Social

Perfect day for a drive to Lansing for the MiGO Winter Social. We checked in to the Quality Suites - what a nice place! We usually stay at a Choice Hotel because of their nice reward program, so we've seen all kinds all over the country. This one takes the cake. We were dazzled.

The lobby


The door to our room. It's about twenty steps from the front desk!


The Great Glass Elevator


More lobby


John and Sharon invited us over for appetizers before we all went out to dinner. It is always so good to catch up on the latest news. It was entertaining to watch the US Olympic curling team in action - we all enjoyed it.

We had planned to go to Outback Steakhouse, but..there was a long wait before we would have been seated. Luckily there is a Carrabba's on the other side of the parking lot and their wait was shorter. We had a super time, and only one thing went wrong...we forgot to bring the camera!

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day - cards, flowers, and chocolates. Except as the card says, the hamster ate all of the chocolates! The roses are going to bloom any day now - perfect Valentine.

The Winter Wonder Fest is still happening, so we drove out to the G.T Resort to see what was going on. We saw a hay ride and a sleigh ride, but we didn't really want to participate because it was raining! People were taking pony rides, snowmobile rides, and dog sled rides, and there were lines at each venue.

The dogs were fun to see.


Crowd scene by the carnival rides.

Winter Wonder Fest

Kathee has been working so hard on the Winter/Wonder Fest that we wanted to be a part of it. Our main attraction was the soup tasting (Soup'r Bowl Taste) in a heated tent in the street in the 100 block of Front. It was very successful - the soups were all delicious! The tent was also "soup'r" crowded and it was a challenge to make it around to all of the tables, but it was definitely worth it!

Good Soup! I voted for the Tomato Bisque from the Grand Traverse Pie Company. Their bisque was so delicious and it was piping hot, which is an important quality for soup. The Reuben Bisque from the U&I was a close second. I also really loved the Butternut Squash Bisque from Phil's, and the Loaded Potato Soup from Bubba's, but the Pie Company got my vote.



The staff from the Visitor Center were selling the tickets - they really perked up when Dick walked up to take their picture! Joni is in the center.



At the Visitor Center, huge blocks of snow were delivered for the snow sculptures. It's amazing to me that sculpting the snow can be so artfully done. They are amazing to see.

It's hard to pick a favorite. The lion is spectacular. The two people playing the slot machines are really good, too. There's humor there - one of the players is pulling up his pants with one hand and playing the slots with the other - very clever! I liked the lion best.



This is the Viking face - very impressive. And the horns on his Viking hat were pretty impressive also.



Here's a gnome with a snowboard - I just can't imagine carving snow with such detail and precision. Wow.



In the Jay Smith Walkway there was a demonstration of ice carving - another winter artwork that seems impossible to us mere observers.



There are many ice sculptures downtown in front of the businesses that sponsored them. Here's one of my favorites.



When we got home, we really enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics - another example of excellence that is out of reach for most of us! Loved the speed skating and the ski jumping.

Deer Parade

Yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m. we were treated to a parade of deer past our front window! There were nine deer altogether, and they stayed between us and the river for about 10 minutes before heading upstream.

We haven't seen as many deer as usual this winter, so this Bambi Parade was a real treat!