Leelanau Day

Nice day for a drive! The sky is blue and the sun is shining, but there's still plenty of snow on the ground.

Of course our favorite drive is around Leelanau County. We began in Suttons Bay - went to Hansen's grocery store because they have exciting, exotic, and different items. We got some exotic items and headed for Northport on good old M-22, and then a leisurely drive to Leland.





It was a quiet day, so Lake Michigan was very calm and beautiful.

Oh hooray! By the time we got to Glen Arbor it was lunch time, and you know what that means! ART'S !

Hooray for March 22

Picket

Our new Governor wants teachers and other public employees to make salary and benefit concessions so that he can give all kinds of tax breaks and enticements to corporations. He also wants to severely curtail state school aid, cut the number of police and public safety personnel. These measures ae so counter-intuitive to effective state governance that it would be laughable if it weren't so very sad. As in Wisconsin, he wants to eliminate collective bargaining from the negotiating process - wiping away union rights which have been hard won over the past 50+ years.

Today there was a demonstration in downtown T.C. by teachers, public employees and sympathizers. I don't know how many there were, but there were many.

My favorite picket sign was "Real Nerds Love School".

A close second was "UNIONS - the people who brought you weekends."

Only a teacher would carry a sign that says "I am very upset."

They are chanting "Recall Rick".





We see these actions by newly elected Republican governors as an all out attack on public education. They are also attacking established institutions which are usually supporters of the Democrtic Party. I love this post by my niece Pam on facebook:

Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and gave themselves billions in bonuses while paying no taxes? Yeah, me neither.

Pictures, WoW,Puzzles, Caches, Haircut, Library and Groceries

Our whole day is in the title!

I started the day at the computer, first emailing Mike R. with a report about the beta testing I'm doing on his crossword puzzles. Puzzle making is his new hobby, and he's quite good. Then I spent an hour uploading old photos from the scanner to my photo program - object: preservation. Next of course I had to play Wow for another hour - then it was time for cache maintenance.

Dick is working on Expanding Your Universe, which has one stage for each planet. It needed some post-winter upgrading and coord checking. It was a nice day to drive around town from one planet to the next!

Dick had scheduled a haircut, so he dropped me off at the library. I read 5 different magazines - some of it was fascinating stuff.
I found some recipes, some great sounding websites to visit, and a great story about a foundling home 18th century London.

On the way home we stopped at Oleson's to pick up one item, and wound up with two bags full.

My knees still don't hurt and my back is about 75% better. Tomorrow the injection should take full effect. I'm still optimistic.

Shot in the Bum

Still working on getting rid of low back pain. Today's effort consisted of 2 sacroiliac injections - a real low blow! I should know if it's working by Friday or Monday. Already my back is better and my knees don't hurt - a nice side effect.

The injections are very unpleasant, but if it works it will be worth it. Today' shots were number 8 and 9.

I can still feel the "footprint" of the chronic pain - kind of a shadow discomfort, not really pain. I'm patiently waiting for that to go away, but I'm optimistic. Skipping gym tomorrow to give it a chance.

Small Town

We've been walking at the mall every day that we don't go to the gym. It's very pleasant there, and you're out of the weather. In a small town like T.C. when you're at the mall you're bound to run into friends and acquaintances.

Ron W. and his wife Joyce walk the mall around 4 days a week, and it's fun to run into them. Ron and I were classmates from Grade 1 at Union Street School until graduating from Central High, so we have a lot to talk about.

Today we met up with cachers Bird's Eye View and Bluejay Team - a lot to talk about there, too. Then the best part - Gerri F. walked in and we had old home week. When I volunteered at Munson, I worked at the Information Desk with Gerri for 5 or 6 years, and we became quite good friends. I haven't seen her for 11 1/2 years so we had a lot of catching up to do after the hugging was over. She's had some sad times - but we had a great talk and I was so glad to see her again.

At the gym, Carol R. showed up. She hasn't been there for months, and it was a real treat to see her and know that she's ok. She's on oxygen, so we were all kind of concerned when she stopped coming. She just stopped in to say hi. She now goes to the "Lung" gym to improve her breathing.