Sue Subaru

This has been an eventful day. We attended the scholarship luncheon at NMC's new Maritime Academy. It was fine - the food was only OK, but the dessert was great!

Then Dick did a little Christmas shopping and I wasn't allowed to go with him. He dropped me off at Horizon, and I had tea and read the paper.

Then we went to Wares Brothers and test drove a silver Subaru Forester, and we really loved it.
Tomorrow we're contacting the WOCTCU to work out the details, and we can pick it up sometime this week. It will replace Dad's Pontiac. It has a moon roof, a 6 disc CD player, heated seats, 4 doors, compass, thermometer, etc. It will be our #1 car, reserving Marco for pulling the boat and trailers. The Subaru should get much better gas mileage - it's only a 4 cylinder engine. So we have to give it a name...maybe Sue....maybe Scout (get it? Hiyo Silver! Get'em up Scout!)

Then we went Christmas shopping, and drove home in our trusty rental car.

Enterprise

Today we took poor sick Marco to The Collision Center on S. Airport Road. The nice man looked it over, the papers were faxed from the insurance company, and the verdict is that it will take 2 weeks. He noticed some damage that we hadn't noticed, and also that the car seemed out of alignment. There was some wheel damage that could have deflated the driver's side front tire. We were lucky to have made it home Friday. We drove over 50 miles with it like that.

We continued on the airport (the new terminal is spectacular) to rent a car. So now we have this little 4 door Dodge Neon, in a graphite color. It's fine. It rides well, it has good pick-up, but it has no bells and whistles. Not even power windows or door locks. The gear shifter is on the floor, so we keep washing the windshield with what should be the gear shifter.

Insurance does not cover the rental car, but we only have a $250 deductible for the body work, so that's not so bad.

I did the library thing for Mother, so she has a new stack of books to read. One of them is a memoir by Barbara Bush about the years following the White House years. I think Mother will really enjoy it. She said the spaghetti dinner from Meijer wasn't that good. We keep trying!
Her neighbor Donna across 10th street is getting a new roof.

Dick worked at the Agency this morning. The main thing was trying to get an Emergency Epic Application for this very needy couple in Lake City. The discouraging thing is that they're younger than we are!

Sally

Sally Sue Kurtz Lagerman has died. She owned the Cut and Curl Beauty Salon on Front Street. She was a very petite, lively 72 year old woman, friendly and hard-working. She has been Mother's hairdresser for about 30 years. Sally always treated Mother like a queen, and they liked to reminisce about the old days at Milliken's, and people that Mother worked with at the store. Mother is 24 years older than Sally was! I can't imagine what "sudden illness" she died of. She always seemed so full of life. Mother is distressed (no pun intended) and I know she will miss Sally very much. We last saw Sally on September 29th when Mother got a perm. In fact the post for Sept. 29th is called Cut and Curl.

We picked up a sympathy card for her to send to Cliff, Sally's husband. When Dad was sick, Cliff would sometimes pick Mother up and take her to the shop and then bring her back home. We also got a spaghetti meal from Meijer so she wouldn't have to worry about supper. Kind of a sad day.

Most Exciting Day After

No, we didn't go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. We went caching. We started out to do some maintenance on our cache at Sharon. It turned out to be dry and didn't really need maintenance, but we did unload some geo-junk and reload it.
While we were there, we tried some nearby caches and had great success. We were really surprised at how much snow was on the ground in Kalkaska County.
While traveling slowly down a gravel section of Blue Lake Road, we hit an icy patch and spun off the road. So next week we'll be renting a car while ours is in the body shop. Thank goodness for insurance.
The damage is not too severe, and we were able to drive it home, but Dick had to crawl through my side to get out.

Happy Thanksgiving

It was a very quiet Thanksgiving here in Lake Woebegone. (Apologies to Garrison Keillor)
The turkey roasted really, really fast in the electric roaster - it was actually done in half the time. I was shocked. But it was yummy, and all 3 of us (count 'em, 3) enjoyed it.

Next to the River and in the woods,
To Mom and Dad's we won't go.
It's too far away, it would be a short stay,
And besides, there is no snow.

Next to the River and in the woods,
It's Grandmother, Dick and I.
Hooray for the fun! Is the pudding done?
Hooray for the low-carb pie!

Next to the River and in the woods,
Just we three with creaky knees,
A ho-hum day, no games to play,
And no one to pass the peas.
http://www.walkthroughlife.com/midis/christmas/overriver.htm

Marasco Ranch

Laurie and Chip found a great place to have Dylan's birthday party. The Marasco Ranch has farm animals and ponies to ride. They specialize in children's parties. Sounds much better than a jungle party at home! We shipped off our remaining bandanas from GenFest so everyone at Dylan's party can look like a farmer. These days, it's not just kids - the parents go and party too!

Dylaninvitation2004.jpg (0.03 MB)

Treadmill Tuesday, or The World's Longest Post

Although not a great achievement in the overall sphere of athletic endeavor, today was a great achievement for me! At 5:30 a.m., I walked for 15 uninterrupted minutes on the treadmill downstairs! WooWoo! I was supposed to do it yesterday, but I was afraid to try it, so today I just went down and did it and I didn't even have to rest. The key is to get up and do it right away before coffee or anything. This afternoon I'm to ride the stationary bike for 15 minutes - and that's easier for me.


Last Saturday, all of our kids were in California. Tom is always there, of course. Laurie was working with a 10 hour layover in L.A., and Jana was at a Media Conference at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel from Thursday to Sunday. CQ was nominated for 3 awards, and didn't win any - Jana thinks it's because they won last year!


Dylan has decided that for his birthday this year they'll have a party at home (instead of taking all of his friends to Disney World!) The theme will be jungle or rain forest or some such. When our kids were little, the theme was always cake and ice cream.


Dick has thought up an idea for a new cache. It's a mystery cache based on team animal mascots of Michigan High Schools. In order to figure our the coordinates of the cache, you have to figure out various mascots. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Sunday we went for a drive and found a good hiding spot for it, but it's not finished yet. This is Dick's rough draft:


This cache is dedicated to those nutty fans (Fan comes from Fanatic) who zealously follow Michigan High School sports. These are folks who attend the football playoff and basketball tournament games no matter who is playing. You will see them at regional and state meets for all sports from wrestling to softball and track. They are people who grab the paper or get online each Saturday morning to find the Friday night scores. For you who don’t know one, they are fonts of trivia about Michigan High School sports. They know the mascot of each school or town.

Who else could tell you that Kingsford are the Flivvers or Mt. Clemens the Battling Bathers? That Colon are the Magi, or Ishpeming the Hematites? They know about the Goodrich Martians, the Gwin Modeltowners and the Bessemer Speedboys. Some of them are coaches, some write about sports for the local paper and some are just obsessed with High School sports. For them this cache will be a piece of cake. For normal people you will have to find one and pick their brains, make some phone calls, send some emails or do some on-line research.

The listed coordinates are for the Traverse City District Library. The reference desk and computers are on the second floor.

The cache is an ammo can in the woods a short walk up the hill from a parking area that is alongside the road about 15 miles away. Once you’ve done the research this is a 1/2.5 (Because of the hill) stop and grab. The cache is winter friendly up to about 2 feet of snow cover.

Many of us went to schools whose team mascot represented the ferocity and courage of heroes of the past such as Spartans, Trojans, Titans, Gladiators, Warriors and the like. Others attended schools that chose to be represented by valiant, courageous and often dangerous creatures of the animal kingdom such as Tigers or Stags or Wolverines. These talismans that are used in Michigan by schools large and small can be divided into the following categories:

1)Birds; 2) Insects; 3) Rodents; 4) Cats; 5) Sheep; 6) Horses; 7) Dogs; 8) Bears; 9) Deer; 0) Fish.
To find the cache coordinates, determine the school mascot and assign it to one of the categories above. In the following lines, determine the school mascot and substitute the numbers matching the categories above to determine the minutes. For example, if Belleville or Houghton Lake are the Eagles, the first digit of the minutes would be 1.

N44 Degrees (Belleville, Houghton Lake) (Holly, North Branch) point (Reed City, Genesee) (Southfield, Bellaire) (Saline, Bridgeman) Minutes

W085 Degrees (Ludington, Engadine) (Mesick, Litchfield) point (Ashley, Highland Park) (Pickford, Alpena) (Algonac, Ann Arbor Huron) Minutes



Saturday was a great day for University of Michigan football. We beat Northwestern 42-20, again mostly in the second half. For some reason, our kids don't get warmed up until half time. This from mgoblue.com:

The No. 9-ranked Michigan football team broke open a close game with touchdowns on its first five possessions of the second half and defeated Northwestern 42-20 on Saturday, Nov. 13, in Michigan Stadium. After U-M led 7-6 at halftime on Michael Hart's 34-yard TD run, Hart added a pair of scoring runs and Chad Henne threw TD passes to Jason Avant and Steve Breaston, who completed the Wolverines scoring with a 64-yard punt return for a touchdown. U-M (9-1, 7-0 Big Ten) is assured of at least a share of the Big Ten title.


And then, for the icing on the cake, State clobbered Wisconsin 49-14. Wisconsin had been previously undefeated. This from msuspartans.com:

The Spartans (5-5, 4-3 Big Ten) handed the Badgers their first loss and knocked Wisconsin (9-1, 6-1) into a second-place tie with Iowa in the Big Ten behind Michigan. The win keeps Michigan State's bowl hopes alive.

We were happy campers Saturday!



Dick worked at the Agency on Monday. He had two face to face appointments, and several phone calls. Wednesday he's making a presentation in Fife Lake about the Medicare Prescription Drug Cards. Busy week for MMAP.

P.S.
The day after I posted Basswood Bend Breakdown, the battery died on our Ford Explorer. What will be next?

Basswood Bend Breakdown

This has been a week of breakdowns. The dishwasher was first, then the wheelbarrow, then the Yardman tractor. Mr. Dishwasher Man came on Thursday, checked it out, and said it was his fault - he made a loose connection the last time he was here. So there was no charge - they should pay me for treating my dishpan hands!

The wheel from the wheelbarrow is at Junior's tire place, and Dick can put that back together. In the meantime, we went to the Tractor Store (ex-Farm and Fleet) and bought a new wheelbarrow with 2 pneumatic tires. It should hold tons and tons of firewood.

The tractor has been delivered to Lark Lawn, and hopefully we'll get it back some day. Our John Deere is still at Classic Motor Sports - they've had it since last June. When we break a tractor, it stays broken.


Laurie reports that for his birthday party, Dylan wants to take his friends to Disney World. That boy has big dreams!

Thursday was Veteran's Day and Dylan had no school. When I was teaching we always had school on Veteran's Day. And when I was a student, we called it Armistice Day. The world keeps changing.

DinoDuo

Today we met DinoDuo (Tim and Sue) for brunch at the Big Boy in Kalkaska. Then we all went caching - did 3 together and then went our separate ways. It was very much fun. Dick and I wound up going to Petoskey - ate an early dinner at J W Filmore's, and got home around 6 p.m. It was a very full day, and most enjoyable. Cool, chilly, damp, penetrating day (temp 38). Time to get out the winter jackets.

Yesterday (Monday) Dick had his annual physical, and he's as healthy as a horse :) Then he worked at the Agency, came home and moved a cartful of firewood. After that, from the living room he spotted a bobcat down on the riverside deck. It was very exciting - we've lived many many years and have never seen a bobcat in the wild. I hope we see him/her again.
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461517331_761568386_-1_1/Bobcat.html

I began the third week of my personal exercise program Monday. In the morning I walked on the treadmill for 10 uninterrupted minutes. It was the first time in a long, long time. Lately, I've been needing to sit and rest after 5 or 6 minutes. It doesn't sound like much, but I have to be encouraged because for me it was a big improvement. This week I walk in the morning, bike (stationary bike) in the afternoon, and walk again in the evening. MWF. Now I'm expecting even more improvement as time goes by. This condition has been in remission since around October 1, and now I am beginning to feel very near normal. Wouldn't it be great if it was permanent? WooWoo!

Also on Monday, our wonderful new Bosch dishwasher broke down AGAIN. I'm expecting the guy from Max's Service to come out on Wednesday to fix it. He last came out on October 15. Really now, are we really going to need service every month from now on? Harrumph.

Sunday we took Mom veggie beef soup, three kinds of apples by way of Tom McLenithan, and fresh library books - she's fine - better than ever! Tom B. came over with a nice print of historic U of M buildings that he found on EBay. Very nice, and very thoughtful!

McLenithan has a trapper setting out traps for beaver - we've lost several trees right next to the perennial garden. Mary B. reports that by their house the beaver is building a bridge for Dylan! Tom B. also set out some traps. I'm not a big fan of traps, but I do like our trees...

Quiet Saturday

Started out at Glen's Market mailing letters and donating bottle receipts to a Unit that has just been re-deployed to Iraq. They're collecting bottle slips in honor of the 3rd boy from the left in the poster picture who lost his life in the first deployment. The money will be used to buy treats and necessities for the Unit.
Chef Ricardo made a huge kettle of veggie beef soup.
A bye week for Michigan. We were really pulling for State, but alas, it was not to be. This from msuspartans.collegefootball.com:

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Ted Ginn had three touchdowns and Ohio State rallied by scoring the last 15 points in a 32-19 victory over Michigan State on Saturday.

We wanted State to win and Wisconsin to lose, and neither one of those things happened.

Retrospective

Well, let's see...it's been a while...Oh yes- the election. Dick walked again Last Sunday distributing literature. Then on Election Day we spent the day at the UAW Hall - we were runners delivering food to the Democratic challenger at Precinct 1, East Bay Twp. Then from 4:30 on, Dick was making calls from the challenger lists reminding people who hadn't voted yet to get to the polls. The atmosphere in the afternoon of Election Day was very positive - we were getting feedback about exit polls across the country and it sounded so good. But as we now know, the exit polls were totally wrong, and Kerry lost.
Wednesday, we really didn't want to watch TV or read any newspapers or listen to the radio, so we loaded the car with CDs and drove over to Houghton Lake to take some pictures, leave a travel bug, and find some caches. It would have driven our kids crazy - John Denver, Mamas and Papas, Kingston Trio, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon - we loved it.
Thursday - Dr. appointment - results from Ann Arbor. Added tenormin 25mg, increased amaryl from 1/day to 2/day. Feeling good - no bleeding.
Saw mother on Wed. and Thurs. - doing just fine.