Friday the Thirteenth

Luckily, we're not the least bit superstitious. I heard a discussion of Friday the 13th on NPR today. I had always thought that it was bad luck because of Good Friday, and having 13 people at the Last Supper. (And actually there were 14 people at the last supper.) But they were talking about Friday October 13th, 1307 when many Knights Templar in Europe were rounded up and burned at the stake. I agree that would be considered bad luck at the very least. This round up was ordered by Philip IV the Fair of France and Pope Clement. (He wasn't called Philip the Fair because of his sense of justice - he was called that because he was tall, blond, and good-looking.) The Knights were accused of heresy, which was a very big deal in the 14th century. They all came to a bad end - the most famous Knight was Jacques deMolay. Sometimes reading about the Middle Ages can be quite uncomfortable.

http://www.britannia.com/history/bb1312.html

Anyway, Happy Friday the Thirteenth !

Dick worked at the Visitor Center this morning. He called to report that there was a line 3 abreast around the 100 block of Front St. Thousands of people were lined up early this morning to get free tickets to see President Bush on Monday. He'll be speaking outside at the Civic Center at 4 p.m. I can only imagine the preparations that poor little Cherry Capital Airport is going through. I suppose all flights will be cancelled, etc. One year, President Gerald Ford was in the Cherry Festival parade, and secret service people had to check out all the houses and buildings on the parade route. Mother had the secret service in her upstairs bedroom. It's no wonder that Presidents get out of touch. Anyway, lucky TC, right? What a privilege. (?)


Hurricane Charley is heading for Florida. Our kids are in a good place - they'll most likely just get rain. Actually, Laurie is in San Francisco, and expects to land in Miami at 9 p.m. She expects that by then the worst will be over.

When Dick got home, we headed back down to Cadillac to finish the Castanea Dentata cache - and we did it!! We were very pleased, and it wasn't easy. But we feel good about it. You can read Dick's log if you scroll down to basswoodbend:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=c5011208-1083-4c4e-9f12-d80f94e4be23