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?
