Boat, Barn, and Beyond

Dick pulled the boat into the driveway, and he ran the gas out of the motor by running the motor in a big blue bin full of water. It worked like a charm. Cleaned out the barn and winterized the boat. He worked hard all day long.

Tom called, and we hooked up the iSight camera on the Apple laptop and we had a visual and audio talk with Tom and Conni. They both look happy and healthy and bursting with love.

Tom told us about an interesting play they went to - A Scottish Play - based on MacBeth. It took place in the U.P. of Michigan and had references to Sudbury so he felt right at home watching it. It wasn't that the play was actually good, but it was enjoyable from the Michigan connection.

He also told us about Jeff Daniels' appearance on the new Colbert Report. They were talking about Chelsea - locating it on the Michigan "mitten" and all other kinds of cute Chelsea references. We want to look for that one.

He finally has his new washer and dryer hooked up, so they were busy doing 2 weeks worth of laundry. Because of the iSight, he was able to show us his roadburns on torso and legs from his most recent fall off the bike. (!)

Barb called to tell us that Jim's brother Mike has died. He has had heart problems in the past, but recently found out that he also had lung cancer, and it all happened relatively quickly. She wanted us to know before we read it in the paper. It was a very thoughtful thing to do. We have such sympathy for Evie and the whole Hardy family.

Party Hearty and Go Blue!

Concord Place had an enjoyable Halloween Party downstairs in the community room. Jim and Emilie came and we all had a really nice time.

The staff worked hard on the food and decorations, and it was all very pleasant. Most of the residents participated, wearing hats and wigs - some looked quite scary!

Dick wore his Halloween tee shirt - it says COSTUME - perfect for this event.

Mother held up quite well - she said later that it was very tiring, but she ate a full meal, and waved at several of her new friends. We were downstairs for about an hour and a half. We left just before the games began.

The Michigan vs. Northwestern game didn't start until 7 p.m. We settled in to watch the offensive struggle that we had been led to believe would occur. The bottom line is that it really turned out to be more of a defensive struggle - and Michigan came out on top 33-17. I'm not sure what happened to Northwestern's highly rated offense - except that they ran into Michigan's defense! I can't figure out what happened when they played in East Lansing and beat State so badly. It just doesn't compute.

This from mgoblue:

The No. 25-ranked Michigan football team jumped out to a 14-0 lead six minutes into the game and the defense shut out No. 21 Northwestern in the second half for a 33-17 win Saturday, Oct. 29, in Evanston, Ill. After U-M went 74 yards in nine plays on its opening drive, capped by Kevin Grady's one-yard run, Leon Hall gave the Wolverines a big lift when he forced a fumble and then returned it 83 yards to put Michigan up 14-0 with 9:07 left in the first quarter. Jerome Jackson rushed for 105 yards and Garrett Rivas kicked four field goals.

How about those 4 field goals! Go Garrett! Go Blue!!

Poppycock's

Dorothy was in town, so we met at Poppycock's for lunch.

She is as flaky and interesting as ever. She told a great story about traveling with her daughter Elaine in Maine.

Their car went into a ditch in some remote area - they had to wait for AAA to arrive from 40 miles away. The nearest house was quite an intimidating mansion kind of a house, but they had to use the facilities so they chanced walking up to the door and asking.

The lady of the house was very elegantly dressed, complete with diamond jewelry. She was most gracious and invited them both in, pointed out the powder room, and asked them to partake of a most delicious looking spread. It turns out that the lady was entertaining her bridge club, and it wasn't just any ordinary mansion or just any ordinary elegant lady, for that matter.

It seems that Dorothy and Elaine had stumbled upon the summer home of the Governor of Maine! Dorothy said that the first lady couldn't have been more helpful, friendly, or considerate. The bridge ladies had seen the car go into the ditch, and really understood the situation. The whole thing turned out well - the car was not damaged - and they had a memorable experience. See the link above.

We had cache maintenance to do in Leelanau County, so after lunch, Dorothy headed for Ypsi, and we headed for Glen Arbor. Dick has archived the whole Glen Arbor series of caches because of excessive muggling, too many DNFs, and the distance involved in trying to fix everything every time. It was an iffy day weather wise, but Dick really only got rained on once - but he found the cache. (Swamp Box)

We collected all 4 cache containers and really enjoyed driving around Leelanau. The colors were still breathtaking, even on an overcast day. Some of the overlooks were absolutely stunning! We always say that River Road has the best color anywhere, but we say that when we haven't been to Leelanau for a while. It was outstanding.

It was such a long afternoon that we ended up having dinner at BooneDocks - chili and axe handles!

Nice day.

Happy Birthday Tom

Happy Birthday Tom!

We were so happy the day you were born! You were a delightful baby. We brought you home on Halloween Day, and all of the neighborhood kids met you while they were trick or treating!

Laurie held you for the first time (she was 2 years and 8 months old). You cried, and Laurie said "Oh no! The baby doesn't like me!"

Discussions

Dylan called this morning with a Hurricane Wilma update. He's very knowledgeable about hurricanes, and he quizzed us to see what we knew. He said that people who live up north and have never been through a hurricane would probably think that a hurricane is scary. He thinks that a blizzard would be scary. We discussed everything from the Steelers football game party to microscopic worms who tunnel into rocks.

They lost power at 8:45 a.m., but they were prepared with flashlights, donuts and chips! Their street has become a river, their trees are down again, and neighbors are losing roof tiles. Laurie says that their doors and windows rattle and bow in and out with the wind. I don't think I'll retire to Florida.

Went shopping this morning for some items for Mother. We had a nice visit. We discussed all sorts of issues from Florida hurricanes to Manistee embezzlements.

Had dinner tonight at the Big Easy with Tim and Susie. The food was plentiful, the ambience is light-hearted and amusing, the staff is attentive, and the company was superior. We were there for two hours chatting and reminiscing. We discussed everything from health to high school.

Note to self: don't order fish and chips there. There's way too much breading on the fish, and they give you a huge, inedible pile. Everything else was delightful, especially the company. They have some wicked fluorescent lighting that gives every white garment a blinding glow. It was distracting at first, and then it became amusing.

Oh Well (Shrug)

The weatherman said it would be a rainy afternoon, so we set out to do some caching in the morning before the rains came. To make a long story short, we got home at 5 p.m.

The highlight of the day for me was lunch at the Alden Tavern. It's a northwoodsy kind of a tavern, very casual and friendly. We were both a little taken aback by the folks at the next table - mother, grandmother, and little girl. The adults were drinking the hard stuff, and the little girl had a couple of kiddie cocktails. Quite the heartwarming family picture. (!) The food was good and plentiful, the Lions were on the big TV (and they actually won), and it was warm and comfortable. I loved it.

The lowlight of the day was waiting in the car in the rain for one hour and 40 minutes while Dick was thrashing around in the Skegemog Swamp trying to find a cache. He was eventually successful. I think he found 4 caches all told today. The other longest wait was only 45 minutes. (!) At least at that stop I had the pleasure of strolling around the cemetery (!) I think it would have been a good day for me to have stayed at home.

Michigan vs. Iowa

My expectations for Univ. of Mich. football are definitely lower this year. As gametime approaches, I remain calm - interested, but relaxed. Today I fully expected to watch a loss, since Iowa has been quite good so far. I was watching the game and looking at catalogs at the same time, as if to prove to myself that there's more to life than college football, and we weren't going to win anyway, but I'm a loyal watcher.

Expectations have been raised after today. Oh sure, it was very close, and it went to overtime, and we only won by 3 points - but the team did far better than I anticipated, especially with another injury to Michael Hart and all of the other injuries. Somehow they managed to pull it out at the last minute - and nobody was more surprised than I.

Next week they play Northwestern. Now it just so happens that NW beat State today 49-14. Ouch. So what can we expect next week? I'm expecting to WIN! Well, maybe not. But I expect they'll look good losing.

Dinner Theater

Jan and Bill arrived around 1 p.m. Jan and I teamed up on Pogo.com - it is really fun to play as a team on Battle Phlinx, and to play against each other on Qwerty.
Poor Dick had all day training for the MMAP program, and we missed him.

In the evening we went to the Williamsburg Dinner Theater and had a great time. The waiters and waitresses put on their costumes after serving dinner, and then we had a great show. They are so talented, but I wonder how much they earn doing that. The show was full of energy and "positivity" - we all were glad we went.

Creepy Bugs

Just in time for Halloween, Mother's room at Concord Place is being invaded by creepy bugs. She's the lucky one - none of the other rooms are having this problem. I think there must be a significant gap in her window system somewhere. Uncle Fritz and Aunt Ruth visited yesterday, and they spent the whole time squishing bugs. Today I did the same. I talked to Linda and Maybelle about it and they contacted maintenance who contacted pest control. We'll see how quickly something happens. I was seriously tempted to run over to Tom's and buy a can of Raid, but I was afraid of breaking some kind of rule regarding pesticides inside the residence. They are just box elder bugs, so they're harmless - but it's still very creepy. See link above.

Sniders are coming tomorrow! Our house is all clean and shiny in preparation. We're all going to the Williamsburg Dinner Theater tomorrow night. It should be a lot of fun. I just called in our orders, and Dominic himself answered the phone. He puts on a good show.

We took steps toward winterizing the motor on the pontoon boat, but the battery was dead, so it will wait for another day.

Great Weekend

We left Sniders' at 9:30, but we didn't get home until 5:30 because we did 7 caches in Harrison. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, and we really enjoyed it.

The Fall colors are more vivid now. I especially like the red maples - they're just stunning. The yellows are my next favorite - they have a glow of their own. Fall colors are the opposite of a rainbow. The rainbow symbolizes the end of a storm. The Fall colors mean that winter storms are coming.

Home again, jiggity jig.

DICK WROTE:

>We are back home after a fantastic weekend. The weather was great
>and except for the fog when we left home on Friday morning, mostly
>sunny.
>Earlier in the week we had picked up a travel bug in a cache near
>Interlochen that was way off course. It wanted to go to Livingston
>Montana but one had no way of knowing that until you had time to go
>on line. There were no instructions with it. A fellow geocacher from
>north of here picked it up in Montana, about 75 miles from its goal
>and, thinking to give it a big mileage boost, brought it up here. We
>figured the best we could do was to take it south with us and put a
>note with it asking some one to get it past Lake Michigan. I looked
>for good drop spots near our route and found a couple near Chelsea.
>Unfortunately, in our rush to leave Friday, I neglected to load the
>coordinates or descriptions of the caches in my GPS. We got down
>there and could do nothing. We did drop it off near our friends in
>Belleville.
>I went to the Belleville game Friday night, (they lost to Dearborn)
>and the feature of the evening was the halftime show. There were
>about 420 band kids that participated. The High School band is 270
>and they had both Jr High bands perform also. Quite a recovery from
>the 27 that formed the band when we had the five hour days.
>Saturday started on an interesting note when, as we were enjoying
>out tailgate in the parking place with our name on it just across
>the street from the Press Box, I looked up and saw a familiar face
>walking past. I said "Hi Coach". He said "Hi, How ya doing". Nan
>said "See, we have better parking than Bo Schembechler".
>The game itself was an emotional rollercoaster. We were up, we were
>down. Physically we jumped up, we sat down. We clapped till our
>hands were red, we screamed till we were hoarse. We must have sung
>"The Victors" 50 times. After the final play, we and our group of
>stadium friends were momentarily stunned and then a pandemonium of
>"OH MY GOD's" high fives, hugs, giggles, and laughs engulfed us. As
>the crowd filed out up the aisles, we stood there enjoying the
>scene, the music, and the emotions of the moment.
>I must say that the coaches and the kids kept faith in themselves
>after we had lost it. I had bad feelings about the game all morning.
>By the time we got to the stadium I was a nervous wreck. However, we
>were feeling confident when in the third quarter, the offense scored
>it's first TD since the State game. But wait! In what looked like a
>replay from last week, PSU broke a 60+ yard run to set up a TD that
>tied the game at 10. OK, we can get it back, but then, on the next
>series, they take the ball away from our QB and run it in to take
>the lead. Bad you say? It got worse, on the extra point, they flub
>the snap and the kicker runs the ball into the endzone for 2. It was
>clear to me that the Football Gods have decreed that this is not our
>day in what is clearly not our year.
>But wait! Our faith was restored when the offense put together a
>drive for a TD and a two point conversion to tie, the defense came
>up with a stop and we drove for a go ahead field goal. On PSU's next
>possession we intercept. (At this point the folks who had bought our
>extra tickets from the M Go Blue shop left as did many others) Now
>all we have to do is run out the clock. Three runs force them to
>burn their time outs. We groan when after the first one the
>officials order the clock operator to put 2 seconds back on the
>clock. But we didn't get a first down. On forth and 3 or 4 we punt
>the ball back to them. There are only 3 minutes left. We just need
>to hold them once. It didn't happen, they drove the length of the
>field for the TD with 53 seconds to go. Luckily the snap is good and
>they settle for a 1 point conversion. Pack it up, the game is over.
>Those folks (Our seat neighbor calls them "One Timers") who we know
>are not regulars follow the earlier exodus. We exchange dour looks,
>grimaces and head shakes with the regulars around us.
>Michigan gets a good kick off return, for some reason Joe Pa decided
>not to kick off on the ground, and begin to drive up the field (they
>were heading away from us). A pass comes up short of a first down,
>the runner fails to get out of bounds, and with 32 seconds left,
>Lloyd calls a time out. The clock runs down to 28. Lloyd complains
>and the officials order the clock operator to put 2 seconds back on
>the board. The drive continues. Then the climax. 4th and goal at the
>10, 1 second on the clock, TOUCHDOWN!!!
>We had a great ride home, the colors are near peak. We ate in Clare
>and then found 6 caches near Harrison. In some of them we found
>signature cards from The Jay Birds of Flint. We had previously seen
>their card in only one other cache. Where you ask? In the parking
>area of Beaver Stadium on the campus of Penn State University.
>Cosmic!
>All we know about the State game is what we read in the paper this
>morning. It sounds like it was winnable but fate intervened. We
>would have liked to have had two victories on Saturday but if only
>one was in the cards, we approve of the result.
>

Michigan vs. Penn State - Unexpected Pleasures

Bill and Jan fixed a big breakfast for all of us, and Eric and Tammy brought Ethan over! What a treat! We don't often have the privilege of playing with a 7 month old. He is absolutely adorable - a most congenial baby - happy, contented, beautiful, and sweet. He's a veritable mini-Eric - no kidding. We watched him for the whole morning - an unexpected pleasure.

Then we were off to the football game with much trepidation. Dick was unusually nervous - I had already kind of given up on the game before it even began. As we were tailgating, who should walk by but Bo Schembechler and his wife. Dick said, "Hi Coach!" and Bo just said "Hi, how're ya doin'?" I told Dick - you know that this means? It means that we have a better parking place than Bo! It was a foreshadowing of the success of the day.

Off to the stadium - a gorgeous Fall day. It was a 3:30 kickoff, so we took jackets. The stadium was packed - the Maize Rage had emailed everybody to wear yellow, and the student section looked like a huge bed of yellow mums with yellow pom-poms. There were a lot of Penn State fans there - they seem to be more civilized than the fans of some other opponents. Tony and Sharon told us about some friends of theirs who went to a game in Happy Valley, and were tailgating in the midst of Penn State people. They teasingly "stole" a brownie from the car next to theirs, and those folks reciprocated by laughingly stealing some tasty morsel from the U of M table. The bottom line is that they became friends, and now whenever the two teams meet, those two couples arrange to tailgate together. I think it's a terrific story.

The game was a little boring in the first half - the score was 3-0 at half-time. Half-time was when I decided to put on my jacket. The second half was amazing. It was a roller coaster of elation and dismay. At one point there was a Series of Unfortunate Events for Michigan, including a bobbled Penn State snap for a PAT which resulted in the kicker going into the end zone for two points. Right then I decided that the game was going their way, and we were probably doomed.

I think we were brought to our feet about 10,000 times in the second half, and I'm almost certain that we sang The Victors 67 times (well, maybe not). Anyway it was a real workout, and we were feeling faint at the end of it all. This from mgoblue.com:

Facing fourth-and-4 with 0:01 left on the clock, Chad Henne found Mario Manningham in the end zone from 10 yards out for the winning touchdown as the Michigan football team handed No. 8 Penn State its first loss, 27-25 at Michigan Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 15. The Nittany Lions cappped a 22-point fourth quarter with a go-ahead score with 0:53 left, but Steve Breaston's 41-yard kickoff return set up the winning drive and Manningham's second TD catch of the game. LaMarr Woodley had four tackles for loss to lead the defense.

We really didn't want to leave the stadium - and stayed until almost the end of the post-game band show. It was dark and chilly, but we were warm and glowing. It was an unexpected pleasure.

Look Out Canton, Here We come!

Tomorrow the Univ. of Mich plays undefeated Penn State - we're trying not to think about it. It's a beautiful day for a drive - Up North the fall colors are almost at peak - the further south you go, the less color there is. We got off the expressway and used back roads to go through Dexter and Chelsea - it's been a long time since we did that. When we lived downstate we spent a lot of time over in this area - camping and picnicking with the kids.
Before we went to Bill and Jan's we did two caches in Canton - one at the Freedom Park and one at Heritage Park. Canton has done a bang-up job of putting parks in the community - fantastic facilities. (See link above)
Dick and Bill went to the Belleville/Dearborn game (Belleville lost again). Jan and I watched "Beaches" with Bette Midler. I can't watch it without totally choking up.
It's such a good story of long-term friendship.

Categories Five

NATURAL DISASTERS:
There have been disasters one after the other recently - when CNN shows scenes of destruction and devastation, you're not sure if you're looking at the results of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, mudslides and flooding in Guatemala, or earthquakes in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. It's easy to identify the wildfires in California and the blizzard in North Dakota and Montana.

For our country the worst has been Hurricanes Katrina/Rita. People are still living in misery with no power, water, or homes a month after the event. Traverse City is the new home for at least 5 evacuee families, and over 100 rescued animals from the hurricane area.

The most horrible recent global disasters are earthquakes in and around Pakistan. Reports now say that there are almost 20,000 individuals killed in those quakes. The pictures from that area are terrible to see, and it seems that more misery has been visited upon the People of the Earth. If misery were a cloud traveling around the world, we might see the sun blacked out for days as when a great volcano erupts.

FOOTBALL:

OK, I have decide that this is one of those years when you just say "Oh well", go to the games, enjoy the bands and the "happening" and try not to care too much about the results of the game. You might say I have now written off the rest of this season. Minn. - 23 Mich. 20. Next week we play undefeated Penn State. I shudder to think...

SNIDERS:

Thank goodness for Sniders. We were so disappointed after the football game - it was really a pleasure to go to their house, have some normal conversation, eat a really good dinner and drink some really good wine.

GEOCACHING:

On the way home today we left Snider's at 8:02, and by 8:09 we were back in the car after finding our first geocache of the day. How much fun is that? We stopped off at Midland for lunch and 3 more caches.

HOME:

It's always good to get home - today was no exception.

Omigod

Omigod omigod omigod.


"Garrett Rivas' 35-yard field goal in the first overtime period gave the Michigan football team a 34-31 upset of No. 11 Michigan State on Saturday, Oct. 1, in East Lansing, Mich. After the Spartans missed a field goal try on their overtime possession, U-M gained six yards on a pass and got a one-yard run from Mike Hart before kicking the winning field goal on third down. Hart returned to the lineup from injury and rushed 36 times for 218 yards and one touchdown, while Chad Henne was 26 of 35 passing for 256 yards and three TDs."

We won! In overtime! It was so exciting!

I fully expected to lose. Dick was merely worried. We ate our comfort food anyway.

You've gotta have Hart!