Wall-a-thon

Here's the kitchen after a five hour scrape-a-thon. The first two pictures are the After, and the last two are the Before.

Melissa discovered that the paper had to be scraped off the wall, so it took longer than we had anticipated. Also, she decided that the backsplash portion needed to be removed before she papered. So a lot of time was spent trying to pry the backsplash off the wall, resulting in some dents in the wallboard, which she says will be easy to patch.

She reached her husband Steve by phone and he came and cut off the backsplash board with some kind of a narrow bladed saw. This involved turning off the gas supply to the range top and lifting the rangetop so that the black glass base wouldn't be in harm's way during the prying and the sawing. Steve removed the knife drawer when he disconnected the gas line, so when he sawed, a lot of the dust went down into the pots and pans drawer. They will all have to be washed and the drawer wiped out. That's what dishwashers are for!

Melissa was here for 5 hours of peeling and scraping, and we had thought she would only be here for 2 hours or so. She's very calm and confident, and doesn't get rattled - I get the feeling that she's "seen it all". She's coming back tomorrow to patch the wall and apply sizing/primer. Then on Thursday she'll put up the wallpaper.

Dick and I went on an expedition to find storage units. First to Menard's where we got a plastic box to hold some toys we're saving for Dylan - mostly MacLand toys, but not entirely. We also got a three drawer unit for storing the bird feeding supplies. Then to Lowe's where we got some drawer organizers for our deep utensil drawer in the hope that we can sort it out and make things more accessible.

And then a nice surprise! We went out to dinner at Scot's Harbor Grill. It was such a beautiful day, and they have such a great view! It was a real treat, and we had fun watching the boaters. The restaurant was not at all crowded, so it was very relaxing and yummy.

A Day in a Nutshell

I stayed in Traverse, Dick went geocaching in Benzie.

I went to the drug store for Mom, and spent about an hour and a half visiting her and doing little "chores" for her.

Dick found three caches, two hard, one easy.

I had a sandwich at Wares Bros., and went shopping at the new 3 Mile Road Oleson's - love that store!

I did 3 loads of laundry, folded one so far. (Where's my rose?)

I'm trying to clear off the kitchen counters this evening so that all will be ready for Melissa the Wallpaper Lady tomorrow morning.

Harrison

This Harrison event was hosted by TreePlanter. There were almost 80 people there, and it took a lot of work for TP and his family. Marty the First Mate took over entertaining the children - they had a great time with the whistling balloons - what a great activity for kids - I'll have to keep that in mind! Dick had a chance to do some mental geocaching with both Cyclops and Frank, among others. We posed a picture of all the S2S finishers who were present - what a great looking group!

Wallpaper!

Melissa the Wallpapering Lady came this morning and measured our tiny kitchen to see how much paper we'll need. It turns out that we need two double rolls. She said that she's hoping to be able to come out Monday morning to remove the old paper and size the walls. Then on Tuesday morning she can come and put up the new stuff. I have my fingers crossed that she can keep that schedule. She's also on deck to paint the new Children's Museum when their drywall is completed, and if they're ready on Monday that could be quite a delay.

She mentioned that she had seen a sale at Sherwin Williams, so off I went and what a good tip that turned out to be. I got $50 worth of wallpaper for $8.44. Such a deal!

Visited Mother - showed her the Silestone sample and the wallpaper, and she approves.
She seems to be doing well these days.

Spring Cleaning

Hey, it's been a busy week here at Basswood Bend. Glorioski, we have many irons in our fire (figuratively only, thank goodness.)

Dick has power-washed all of the decks and boardwalks, including the front porch - so we're very clean and shiny. There are many projects left to do, however. My honey-dew list is longer than your cockatoo. We still need to clean the porch, and set up the umbrella table and hose off the picnic tables. I love to do that on a hot day. I need to do more weeding in the perennial garden.

Our countertop area has all been measured by friendly Bruce. He recommended that we do the wallpaper before the countertops are installed, so, tomorrow Melissa K. is coming to measure and assess how much wallpaper we'll need. I'll buy the wallpaper on Sunday (because we'll be gone to an Event in Harrison on Saturday), and I'm hoping that she can wallpaper the kitchen sometime next week or the following week.

We're planning to visit Mother tomorrow, and on Sunday after I look at wallpaper, I can visit her again. Dick really doesn't want to shop for wallpaper, can you believe it?

Also next week we're going to Brown Lumber to line up somebody to come and do all of our odd jobs - siding, screen doors, ceiling fan, shutters, and downspout. I think that's it. Stay tuned.

Inside I have finished cleaning out the pantry - what a job. We've made two trips to Goodwill, and we have an impressive pile for the dump. It took 2 and a half days, and I'm very glad that it's done. I have to laugh because in all of the drawers, shelves and pantries that I've been cleaning out, most everything that I'm tossing is dated 2003 and 2004. Last year I kept up with the current stuff, and now I'm cleaning out what's left from the two years that I was sick. It sure feels good to feel good. I have my own honey-dew list also - mostly cleaning out cupboards and putting down new shelf paper.

We have been disappointed in Britten Banners, because so far they have not indicated that they're even working on the S2S T shirts. We have orders from 20 people so far, and no way to know when the T shirts will be ready. We're planning to go talk to Chris next week and if he can't produce, we'll take our mock-up somewhere else. It's quite disappointing to have Dick work so hard on the planning, the series, and the shirt design, and then have everything come to a screeching halt when it's out of our control. People are really looking forward to getting their shirts, and we feel awful that they have to wait.

During our Subaru Cruise today, it looked like the new Pangea's Pizza might be open. I sure hope they do well - they have worked really hard on getting their space remodeled and ready.

Bessie's Debut

In honor of the holiday, Dick put Bessie the mannequin on the swing on the riverside deck. We did observe her being noticed, but we didn't see anybody tip over. Most canoers and kayakers are concentrating so hard on making it around the bend that they don't really notice our house or our deck. It was fun though, and Dick said that he plans to put her out on weekends. When she's not on the swing, she lives in Dylan's playroom.

Dick power-washed half of the deck. I made potato salad. We did the Subaru Cruise downtown and watched the billions (millions?) of people who were enjoying the day.

It was amazing to see how many boats were rafting by the beach volleyball courts. We have never seen that many - our estimate was 50-60 boats. The beach was literally teeming with people. The shocking part was that in the new open space created by the removal of the power plant, there were hundreds (dozens?) of cars parked. I'm sure that the PTB never intended that space to be a parking lot.

We visited Mother and took her some potato salad. She's just not really interested in food anymore. Or much of anything.

We went to Memorial Gardens to see the family plots. The flowers this year are red, white and blue - very nice.

We had a picnic - burgers on the grill, potato salad and chips. But we ate indoors because of the heat! (93 degrees)

The Power of a Holiday Weekend

Since we left for the Soo on Friday morning, Traverse City has been transformed!

The traffic is back with a vengeance.

Touristy families are strolling up and down Front Street - cute babies in ball caps and sturdy little ones striding to keep up. There's dining on the sidewalk, and people ambling with cups of ice cream. Folks are walking around in shorts, tank tops and sandals - most of them looking very winter-white!

The weather was perfect this afternoon - warm and breezy - at times a little too breezy!

The marina is practically full for the summer season. Boats were lined up to launch, and there were only a couple of parking places left for trucks with boat trailers.

The bay is a beautiful blue, and the power boats are definitely out there - rooster tails galore - and even one or two jet skis. The State of Michigan has returned to its mooring at the Maritime Academy after its training cruise.

People are sitting on the beach, and the beach volleyball courts are all in use. Summer won't officially arrive for another three weeks, but it's here no matter what.

Summer is here.

Saturday Outline

Up early and over the International Bridge to the Canadian Soo by 8:30 a.m. Here's the beginning of the bridge, and the U.S./Canada border in the middle. The other pictures are from the Event - they're kind of mixed in together - I apologize.

We found seven caches in the Canadian Soo this a.m. (By the way, that city has too many one way streets.)

First cache we found was not much fun - signs everywhere saying private property, no trespassing, etc. etc. etc. That gives you a most uncomfortable feeling. The actual cache site was OK, it was just the surrounding area that made one wary.

We found six caches this morning in Canada. Our favorites were located along the river front. Beautiful, well developed, well used, well maintained.

Have you ever heard of dragon boating?

Back across the bridge to eat lunch (Studebakers), go shopping for goodies, and go to the Historical Tour of Sault Ste. Marie event.

Not one of my best days.

Enjoyed meeting Rattrak, Kay, and the caching couple from Manitoulin Island.

Enjoyed talking to Victory Mike, Trashcan, Captain Bud and First Mate.

Most fun was the Historic Tour. UsTwo teamed up with us, and we had a great time. They know their way around the Soo.

Food, other events, other attendees, weather (windy, chilly) - as Thumper said, If you can't say something nice...

Could just be that I was having a bad day.

Onward and Upper Peninsula

The Mighty Mackinac - Our bridge crossing - the beginning, the middle, and the end: the view from the U.P. Toldja it was hazy.
Here's just an outline of our day - just so I don't forget some details. I can upload pictures and flesh it out a bit later. (Maybe)

Breakfast - Omelette Shoppe

Raining and foggy. Rain stops just in time for caching.

Kalkaska - 3 caches

Grayling - 3 caches - at one of them (Goose Creek) we met up with Team Coychev. Victory Mike and his sister- Two presidents of MiGO! Dick said he didn't know whether to log it as a multi or an event!

Lunch at Spike's

It's now a beautiful, sunny, warm, blue sky kind of a day. We lucked out.

Frederick - 1 cache

Gaylord - l cache

South side of Mac Bridge - 1 cache - a really dumb one - the man eating clam

Over the Bridge we go. I took 14,000 pictures, and it isn't even a good picture taking day - too hazy!

North side of Bridge - 1 cache

Drive to the Soo

Check into Quality Inn, where we're staying free for two nights using our frequent customer points.

Drive through the Soo looking for dinner.

Decide on Abner's, near the motel.

Sadly, remind me to tell about my sparerib dinner.

Return to motel - eat my boxed grilled cheese sammy.

Dick logs all ten finds - it's not easy when you're so tired.

I'm reading a good book, Distinguished Guest by Sue Miller.

Decide to take shower and wash hair tonight because of bug repellent I used so liberally today!

Dick's finished logging, his turn to read - my turn with the laptop. We love WiFi.
Having fun reading logs of the teams who have finished the S2S series. It is most enjoyable!

OK, that's my outline of today. More later (maybe).

The Soo & Memorial Day

The flowers came from Pine Hill, and the large pot came from our front porch. - The smaller pot, which has been there for seven years, doesn't hold enough in my opinion. So now we're all set for Memorial Day. We're planning to visit the other cemetery on Monday.
Mother was really good today - she seemed more peppy than usual, although peppy is not really the right word.

We're leaving in the morning for Sault Ste. Marie. There's a geocaching picnic on Saturday, and it sounds like the weather will be perfect.

We Measure Up

Today Bruce came and measured our counter tops for the Silestone. In case you're thinking tape measure, let me tell you, he measured it with something very high tech involving tripods and such. When he left after two hours, he took our new sink, and the installation instructions for our cooktop with him and told us he would also need the new faucet when it comes in. I'm just hoping we get everything back!

Got a perm - Trina's getting married a week from Saturday - she's highly excited (naturally).

T.C. to Oscoda to T.C.

Here is my best friend, the Geo-Addict - all decked out for a day in the woods - complete with gaiters. I love the picture because it shows the woods so well, and you can even see the trail winding off intriguingly into the distance. This was at the South Branch Trail Camp.

We intended to spend the entire day finding the S2S caches, beginning in Oscoda. But due to a glitch in the final cache combo lock, we had to start out back at Hopkins Creek. Thanks to Photobug2 (our Beta-tester) who did the entire 16 cache series (300 miles) on the first day that it was published, we knew that the combo lock wasn't programmed correctly. As Dick said, Kudos to Photobug2 !

We found nine caches today, beginning in Oscoda around noon, and ending at 7 p.m. near Luzerne. We had a Subway dinner in a park in Grayling, and got home around 9:30. Dick actually stayed up and logged all of the finds - I went to bed before he did - a rare occurrence.

Mother reported that Jenny's mother is training to become a caretaker as well. It seems that Ann is going to have surgery and will be gone for several weeks. I'm glad they're adding some new helpers.

Spring Cleaning

Dick worked at the Agency. I'm "spring cleaning" some drawers and cupboards, aiming at eventually cleaning out the pantry so we can put kitchen items in there while the kitchen is being re-done.
Jim came with the sink today, so we're ready to have the counter-tops measured. Traverse Tops took our down-payment (50%) over the phone, and the measuring man will come Wednesday morning to do his thing. Then they say that it will be another 3 to 4 weeks before installation. I'm hoping it will be sooner rather than later.

Dylan Patrick

We visited Mother - she's fine. We discussed events at the residence - who's in the hospital or out of the hospital, and the caretakers both familiar and unfamiliar. She was interested to hear about Chip making the sno-cones for Jessica's birthday party, the progress of our kitchen project, and how does our garden grow. She's less interested in hearing about downtown, the bay, and how T.C. is booming. She's always interested in hearing about things at her former house. We met Jenny, a young mother of 4 who is a new caretaker.

href='http://app.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/2463/'>

This is an experiment!  Tabblo is a new photo site that lets you upload pictures and arrange them in a "Tabblo".  Naturally, I'm experimenting with pictures of Dylan (and Kyle).  Supposedly I can upload this whole page to blogspot - I really want to see if that will work!

Left is Dylan at the Ocala National Forest where they went camping during Spring Break.

Below are the same pictures I've already put on the blog, but I know I'll be happy to see them there again (if this works).

Crossing my fingers, here goes....

 

 

... See my Tabblo>

Cattle Track

First order was a trip to the dump the dump the dump in Marco. Drove around town, did the Marco Explore, and went out to Elmwood Beach to look at a new cache put out by Fossil Finder. It was a cute hide - we really enjoyed it - and we were the first to find!

Back at home we traded cars and took the Subaru to Cattle Track. At Hopkins Creek we set out the final stage of the S2S series, so now that's finished. Off to Lake City to find one that we couldn't get previously because men were working on the top of the water tower, and we would have been in plain sight. Have to watch out for those muggles!

Flush with success we headed to Cadillac and found four more before heading home. We had to post a DidNotFind at the band shell in the lakeside park because people were preparing for a wedding there. I feel really sorry for the bride because the wind off the lake was strong and chilly. I'm sure that's not what she had in mind for a May 20th wedding. Later on, at 7 in the evening, we had a torrential downpour here at home, and we were both thinking of that poor bride - hope she had a backup plan.

It's Nice to be Remembered !

Just about a year ago, on May 22, 2005, we went to an NMG meet and greet here in Traverse City and met some really nice people. This is my blog from that day:

This morning the Northern Michigan Geocachers had a Meet and Greet at the Flap Jack Shack. It was a smaller group, but we had a great time - met some new people, and had good conversation. It was especially fun meeting Petoskey Stones from San Jose(Scott), and Omena Couple(Stuart). We got some good ideas, and lots of new stories to tell.

Yesterday Dick got an email from Scott (The Petoskey Stones, or TPS) saying that he was back in town visiting his parents (Omena couple) and that he had brought us a geocoin and left it in a light pole at Tom's West Bay and gave us the coordinates.
Scott is a software engineer/manager from San Jose, California.
This is Dick's morning to work at the Visitor Center, so I took the GPS and went to get the coin. There was a muggle lurking about, so I ran some other errands first and then returned and picked up the package. It turned out to be two coins - the large one is The Geocachers of the Bay Area coin. It's different because it appears to be cracked and skew-jawed. On the back it says "Earthquakes make 'em all 5 stars." I assume that means level of difficulty. The smaller coin is a trackable California Poppy micro coin - very cute, but impossible for my limited photographic ability! It was so great of Scott to remember us and to bring these coins for us from California. Here's Dick's letter of thanks:

Hey Scott,
Of course we remember you, if for no other reason that because you have successfully integrated Geocaching with a Mac. If you had a couple of hours, I could relate the comedy of errors involved in integrating GSAK, Palm, a Garman and a Magellan with XP Media Edition. It works now but only after two house calls and three trips to the shop.
Many thanks for the coins. Nancy picked them up while I was doing my Visitor Center thing. She had to go back a couple of times because some guy was hanging out right next to the post waiting for someone. We owe you. We have an extra 2006 TC Winter Convergence coin if that would interest you. It is the oldest continuous social activity in Michigan. Picture a picnic in a snow storm with a 20° windchill.

Again, many thanks,
Dick and Nancy of
Basswood Bend

I visited Mother, and showed her the pictures of Dylan. We had a nice conversation, and a good visit. I tried to explain the Shore to Shore GeoChallenge to her, but she just shakes her head. I told her about the riding/hiking trail, and she said I should get a horse. We had a good time.
We took the T shirt art to Chris at Britten Banners, and I think this project is going to work out well. He'll email us the designs he comes up with.

In Which Dylan Gets an Award

Laurie sent pictures of Dylan receiving his National Physical Fitness Award - two of the pictures were taken at the presentation - it was inside, and the quality is poor but I don't care! The other two show Dylan and his friend Kyle humoring the grown-ups. Cute kids. Dylan is in the gray shirt - he's the cutest one! He can't help himself.

Steady drizzle all day today. The temperature hovered around 42 degrees so it was a cold, cold rain. We've had enough rain now - no more fire danger for us! The river is full, but not really threatening to flood.

Lilies of the Valley and Cold Pears

Ambition,
Feeling good,
Time to cultivate.
Literally.
Laundry also.
RBS brings me a shiny new cultivator,
and lilies of the valley.
He mows the grass,
I scratch the garden.
He uses the trimmer
which needs a new wheel.
I load the dryer.
Break for lunch,
Cold pears
Hit the spot.
The plumber calls,
I scratch the garden some more.
The tractor mower breaks,
So he fertilizes in the rain.
I fold the whites,
Put darks in the dryer,
Watch the show,
Come upstairs to compute.
Computing when it's raining
Is no-fault.

Shore to Shore Meeting

On the left: Susie, Tim, James, Nancy On the right: Paul, Denise, Sheryl, Dick

Here are the eight creators of the Shore to Shore Geo-Caching Series. We met at the Holiday Inn in Grayling to solidify our plans, compare ideas, and synchronize our watches (not really). James and Sheryl, Basswood Bend, dpbotkin and DinoDuo are the creators, schemers, plotters and planners. It was a productive meeting and I think we're about ready to get the whole thing approved. Dick has been putting in a lot of time on this project, and he has a right to be very proud of how it's turning out.



Tim, Paul, Dick and Sheryl

We found 5 caches on the way home. The weather cooperated. After dodging a few raindrops, it turned out to be a gorgeous day.
Here's how Dick described our day:

Cache Logs
May 16 by basswoodbend (950 found)
After a luncheon plotting with our partners in crime finalizing the latest and greatest Geocaching Challenge the state has ever seen, shore to shore, 14 caches, 300 miles, First finders commemorative T shirts to the first 10 to complete it, we chased down a few caches on the way home.

Thank you Barb and Sharon !

Jim Beam (no kidding) the plumber came to test our water first thing this morning, and said he would have the results for us on Monday along with advice for choosing our new filtration system.

Then we gathered up our gps's, loaded caches, and log book and set off to place them. For the Shore to Shore series we placed three containers for two caches - one in Empire, and two at Garey Lake (it's a multi). Then we went over to Benzie to put out our "just for fun" cache at Turtle Lake. I'm especially proud of this one - it's a nice location, and it should be an easy find. It's very "turtley". I'm expecting it should be approved sometime tomorrow.

Sharon is in town for the weekend to spend Mother's Day with Barb while Jim is in Texas. We met them for dinner at the Freshwater Lodge, and we had a great time catching up on all of the news. It's so much fun hearing about all of the kids and grandkids, and various friends and relations. They surprised us by treating us to dinner, when we had actually planned to be the treaters! It was a wonderful way to end the day, and I really appreciated the Mother's Day card and treat - Thank You Barb and Sharon!

Sharon and Barb 

Our New Sink

Our New Sink 

This is the sink we ordered today. It's by Elkay. The one we ordered is oriented just like this one. Ours has a deeper bowl on the left, and it will have the disposer installed on the right bowl. We bought strainers too, and a great faucet with a pull-out sprayer, and a new In-Sink-Erator.

Visited Mother - she seems fine - she needs some diversion, but she rejects every suggestion. Betsy thinks we should try to get her out more - at least out of her room and down the hall - but she always resists. My philosophy has been to just let her do what she wants, but maybe I should be more pushy about it. I don't know what to do - I can't really see forcing her to do things at this stage in her life. I just do what I can by visiting and bringing her flowers and managing her affairs. She always says she doesn't want anything and doesn't need anything and seems annoyed knowing that I have gifts for her for Mother's Day. But she always likes what she gets. It's a dilemma for me - after she's gone I'm going to wonder if I did everything that I could have done - but I do realize how lucky we are to have her in a nice place with constant care. And we're also lucky that she's not at all demanding, as some old people are. I just want to do right by her.

Jim Beam

That's the name of our plumber! No kidding! We're just so glad to have a plumber, and he seems like a very nice person - we enjoyed talking to him. He's with Bob's Furnace, Heating, and Plumbing.

We have an appointment with Michelle at Ferguson's tomorrow to order the sink, faucet, strainer, recirc. pump, filtration, system and who knows what all. This is all new to us - where you have to have an appointment to buy a sink. Cheesh.

That Sinking Feeling

Do you think putting in a new countertop and kitchen sink is easy? Think again. Picking out the countertop and the installer was the easy part. The hard part is getting the sink - On line maybe? From Home Depot maybe? It seems that the first thing we need to get is a plumber. At every showroom the question was "Who's your plumber?" The days are gone where you buy a sink at Lowe's and have the local plumber put it in. There are showrooms requiring an appointment, wholesale showrooms, retail showrooms, suppliers who only work with contractors, suppliers who only work with plumbers, lists of plumbers, and no guide for beginners.

Did you know that to buy a sink you have to figure out what dimensions you want, what shape you want, how deep you want it, what gauge you want, what finish you want (stainless or Corian for example), how wide you want it, drop in or undermount, and blah blah blah. Then, you think you're on top of things because you have selected one sink out of dozens. But wait - did you think that a sink came with a faucet? Or a drainer/strainer? Wrong. Evidently a faucet is an accessory which can cost just about the same as the sink! And the drainer/strainer recommended for our sink is around &50. Give me a break!

OK, so say that you've selected a faucet and a strainer....(which hasn't happened yet). Then you have to decide which disposal you want, whether you want a recirculating pump in your water system for hot water, or a booster tank under the sink. All set, right? Wrong. How about filtration for our well water. System filtration, or localized...blah, blah, blah.

OK, so say that everything is selected - it all has to be ordered, and you have to wait for it to arrive. Not until then can the countertop people come and make a template for cutting the new Silestone countertop. Then you have to wait for that job to be completed.

Wait! We still haven't interviewed any plumbers, although we have a list of 25 or so to choose from. We have recommendations for four of them. Then there will most likely be a wait for the plumber to become available to get under the new sink and hook everything up.

Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled to be updating our kitchen. But I just never expected such hassles and hoops. I like Nike's motto - Just Do It. Right now our motto is Just Deal With It.

UPDATE: 9 P.M.
I'm calling this Hit the Deck, or Why We Went Out To Dinner Tonight. Dick wrote:

I haven't fired up the wok since last fall. I have a special propane hot plate out on the porch that I use with the wok. It is much hotter than the inside burner and, since it's outside, it doesn't smoke up the house. Nancy purchased some beef, asparagus, broccoli and other suitable veggies and at about 6 I went down to chop stuff up. The beef I cut up in to bite sized pieces and marinated in a mix of oil, vermouth, soy, and stir fry sauce and put it in the fridge. After I had the veggies chopped, I assembled everything on a tray and took it all out to the porch. I heated the wok and added the oil.
I did the beef first, there wasn't that much, just enough for the two of us so I did it all in one batch. It cooked up nicely and I wanted to return it to a dish while I cooked the vegetables so it wouldn't become overdone. Keep in mind that this is the first time I've used the wok since November and there are some operations that I've forgotten. This wok was new last year and has two handles, one is the traditional wooden hand grip and the other is like a fry pan handle. I picked it up by the fry pan handle and was maneuvering it to empty the meat into a dish when the handle spun and dumped the meat on the cement!
Since we are not vegetarians, we went out to dinner.

I was just glad it was him and not me!

Windfall Day

This day started out like any other day - dishes, laundry, vacuuming, computer games - and then Dick suggested going out to lunch! From then on, it was an ideal day, a lucky day, a real windfall of a day!
Here we are eating lunch al fresco at Amical. I felt a little under-dressed and under-coifed, but it was very pleasant. Dick had a good time watching people parking on the street, or attempting to park! The Asian Chicken salad was very nice - spicy and delicious. The dressing was very gingery.
Traverse City's own "bistro"!
Then we were off to Walton Junction for some cache maintenance. People have been reporting that they think the cache is missing, so we had to check it out. This cemetery sign is a bit optimistic - it would lead you to believe that the cemetery has been updated and refurbished when in reality there's nothing there - no headstones, mounds, plots, fences or anything. The area is outlined with stones, and that's the extent of the updating! Anyway, it's an interesting place to put out a cache.

It's a little alarming to be in the woods when everything is so dry. Our area is under a red flag warning from the National Weather Service because fire danger is extreme until we get some rain. The leaves are really crunchy, and the trails are very dusty - it's obvious that rain is badly needed.
Basswood Bend himself, engineering a replacement Walton Junction cache container.
This windblown tree is quite near the cache site, so Dick thinks that the cache just blew away in a big windstorm. It definitely was missing.
This large branch is more evidence of recent windfall.

From Walton, we went to find the Greenwood cache. Dick couldn't remember the hint at first, but with some nagging from me, he came up with enough of the hint so that we were able to find the cache.
We attempted to find the "Splatacular Cache". We had to log a DNF (Did Not Find), but the scenery was worth it.

Geocaching is a great motivation to drive these obscure, intriguing North Woods roads, cache or no cache!

T.C. Travelogue

During our Subaru Cruise today we stopped to look at this new sculpture at the marina. It's in a beautiful new setting - a big brick circle with plantings along the TART. It's a nice addition to the waterfront.



Front St. looks so beautiful with the trees in bloom. The picture really doesn't do it justice. It's gorgeous.


The new fountain in the Jay Smith Walkway has been turned on. It's small, but very pleasant. It will be beautiful when the flower beds are planted. In the background you can see the pedestrian bridge over the river. To the right (East) of the fountain there will be a new downtown pizza place - Pangea's Pizza. In addition to the indoor restaurant, they'll have a walk-up window on the street for buying pizza by the slice, and a small area for eating outdoors - not to mention the whole new mini-park right next door with lots of seating, complete with fountain! We met Phyllis, the owner, who was busy painting the interior, but was very willing to tell us all about it. They'll have a liquor license which will allow them to sell drinks on the premises, and also to sell six packs to go. She was an interesting person - very ambitious - and we wish her well. I predict the little walkway will be very busy this summer with Kilwin's on one side and pizza on the other!



Off to Concord Place for our ritual Sunday afternoon visit with Mom.



We took her some sweet-smelling flowers from the yard.

Science vs. Religion Steigerwise

Dick sent the article at the link above to the family.

On May 5, 2006, at 3:49 PM, Dick Steiger wrote:

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do." (See link above)

Here is Tom's response, which I think is very rational and well thought out. I agree with Tom. We're all of the opinion that religious fanaticism is responsible for most of the grief in the world.

I reject the proposition that religion provides a conscience. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is a brilliant moral principle, but it is NOT a religious moral principle. It is a humanist moral principle. Note that it is not "Do under others as God would have you do unto others."

The basis of the Golden Rule is that we can't know the minds of others and so we can't know how they would want to be treated. So the best we can do is to recognize that we are all human and use ourselves as a model to predict the wants of others. It is this recognition of our common humanity - with all of the emotional baggage that entails - that gives the Golden Rule its power, not some blind groping toward an unknowable supernatural force.

If you examine them closely all worthwhile moral principles in the end make no reference to God and are inherently humanist in nature. Religion actually impedes the development of a moral conscience. No one will ever come to the rational conclusion, based on humanist moral principles, that the right thing to do is to crash an airliner into a building, or shoot a doctor at a women's clinic, or celebrate at the funerals of American soldiers, or start a nuclear war in the Middle East etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam.

The bottom line is that science doesn't need religion for anything. Human compassion tells us that just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do. Religion tells us not to eat shrimp and to kill our children.

Morning in My Home Town

Subaru to Marathon Automotive to remove snow tires...
Breakfast at Randy's Diner...
It's a male-dominated diner...
They do allow females to eat there...
But not many come..
Cruise down Front St, which is absolutely beautiful...
Lined with blossoming trees...
Drive past the Bay, which is totally flat...
Hardly a ripple...
Sometimes we say it looks like a mirror...
This morning it looks like ice...
It looks like you could skate on it....
Stop at the Visitor Center to ask Kathee about plumbers...
She likes Bob's Furnace or D&W...
Off to Home Depot to discover what kitchen sinks we like...
Home Depot is not my favorite place...
I get claustrophobic in the way back where there are no windows...
And no natural light...
We were disappointed in their displays of sinks and faucets...
(When Friendi drove past Home Depot for the first time...
Branches obscured the sign...
He thought it was Bomb Depot...
You have to be from Albania to think that...
Now calling it Bomb Depot is a family joke...)
Stopped at Hallmark to get cards...
Kristen is graduating from MSU...
Graduations cards were so nice I couldn't decide...
So I bought two...
And a Mother's Day card for Mom...
Off to Lowe's to continue our quest of discovery...
Kitchen sinks at Lowe's are also in the farthest reaches in the back of the store...
Lowe's has better sink and faucet displays...
We think we know what we want...
Stopped in at the Riverside Resale store...
Dick wants a desk in his bedroom...
Nice rolltop, but it needs repair...
We negged it...
Noticed a Kohler plumbing showroom on S. Airport Rd...
We'll stop in there on our next outing...
Dropped Dick off to pick up the Subaru...
Went to the scrapbooking store...
Such delight...
I walked around the store with a silly smile on my face...
One of life's great pleasures...
Choosing papers, stickers, ribbons, and embellishments...
Opposite of Bomb Depot.

Emanuel Swedenborg

Talking with Mother today, I mentioned that whereas her Father had been very churchy, her Mother was just the opposite. Mom related that her Mother never went to church, and never attended church functions, but that Grandpa was very understanding and never reprimanded her because of it. Then Mom said she remembered her Mother reading Swedenborg in the evening. He seems to have been a 17th century genius - I'll be interested to learn more about him. See link above.

Notable persons influenced by Swedenborg include Johnny Appleseed, Honoré de Balzac, Henry Ward Beecher, William Blake, Elizabeth and Robert Browning, Thomas Carlyle, S. T. Coleridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Inness, Henry James Sr., Carl Jung, Allan Kardec, Helen Keller, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Joseph Smith Jr., Coventry Patmore, August Strindberg and Jorge Luis Borges.

And my Grandmother, Mary Blanche Rice Geib (MBRG).

Blue Tractor?

Gorgeous weather - the lilacs are ready to burst into bloom. The daffodils are hanging in there still, and the tulips are such a brilliant red that they look fake. Dick mowed the yard for the first time today - looks great - the tractor works.

Speaking of tractors, I heard on WTCM this morning that Dill's has been purchased, and its new name will be something like The Blue Tractor Cook House. Seems like a weird choice, doesn't it? Can't wait to see it it's true.

Time to take off the snow tires. We think it's safe now! Did Marco today, and doing the Subaru tomorrow. Visited Mother - she seems good - took her some more Tylenol for Arthritis - she likes it and it seems to work for her. We talked about Dylan and the old days when she was a child. I got her a couple of nighties for Mother's Day (which will be in a couple of weeks). I think she'll like them.

We did a Subaru cruise - downtown is beautiful with the trees blooming. The cherry orchards are blooming too - it's a nice time of the year.

Blog Withdrawal

I'm still having blog withdrawal...just don't feel like writing everything down. Today...Alden, Wild Onion, found 1 cache, beautiful day, feels like summer.
Moussaoui sentenced to life in prison, Tiger Woods' Dad died.

My favorite quotation:

For Everything There Is a Season

For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.
From Ecclesiastes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another version, just as lovely:

Artist: The Byrds Lyrics
Song: Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season) Lyrics

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time of war, a time of peace
A time of love, a time of hate
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
And a time for every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time of peace, I swear it's not too late!

Tuesday

Here's an outline of our day: Breakfast with Tim and Susie at the Hard Luck Cafe; found the Jars of Clay cache; we split up - I went home, they went caching all day and found 5 or 6 together; we went to see how the National Guard folks were doing, didn't see anyone. Got a nice phone call from Civilian. Watched Gilmore Girls.

May Day

Cut some daffodils for Mother - put them in a pretty vase and delivered. Had a nice visit.

Crystal

I just realized I haven't posted for a week! Everything is fine here - we've really been enjoying the glorious weather. Sometimes you feel like posting, and sometimes you don't, that's all.

Dick had a presentation this morning at Crystal Mountain for a group of mental health professionals. Crystal is a beautiful facility, and we enjoyed being there. Our workshop was small - 5 or 6 people, but it was a good group, and Dick did a beautiful job - his best ever. Plus - we got a free breakfast!

The day was so spectacular that we couldn't just come home afterwards. There were quite a few caches in the area so we did some Betsie River caches, and had lunch at Dinghy's in Frankfort - one of our haunts.

It was such a terrific day to be out and about - and we split the finds - 2 for Dick, and 2 for me. Don't you love it?

Avuncular Tom

Laurie and Dylan are safely back home from California. Mary's wedding was in a unique home on a steep hillside with a terrific view of Catalina. The wedding was small and intimate. Laurie had her first taste of "buckeyes" because Brandon is from Ohio.

Tom and Dylan had a marvelous time at Disneyland. Here is Tom's report:

We had fun. Dylan was amazingly well behaved. I was especially surprised at the end of the day when he simply said he was tired and wanted to go home. I was kind of expecting a meltdown. It was a tough trip for him schedule-wise. They got up at 4:00AM (1:00 PST) on Thursday morning and flew out here. I didn't get up to their hotel until 7:00 and then we went out to dinner so Dylan didn't go to bed until 8:30 - that's a 19.5 hour day! Then he woke up at 4:00 Friday morning because he was still on Eastern time. We got to Disneyland around 8:30AM and by 7:00PM he was done. Then the poor kid had to get up at 4:00 again the next morning to fly home!

We went on all his favorite rides (the Mountains: Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain) and on several rides that are only at Disneyland, not Disney World. The big hit here was the Matterhorn (another mountain). He went through a bit of a phase where we would get in line and then he would decide that the line was too long so we'd get out and go get in another line for something else then he'd decide that THAT line was too long too. I put a stop to that pretty quickly.

There was a bit of trouble over the Indiana Jones ride. For some reason he got it in his head that it was too scary and so started pleading to get out of line. I told him it would be fine. He was persistent, but never started really whining or throwing a fit. We got on the ride and he spent the whole thing with his head down and his eyes shut. I couldn't discern any appreciable difference in scariness between this ride and the rides he loved so I was a little perplexed. I was expected a tirade afterwards about how could I make him go on that and how horrible it was etc. etc. but he just cheerfully exclaimed, "That wasn't scary at all if you kept your eyes closed and your head down!" Whatever.

The old Carrousel of Progress has been turned into something called Innoventions, which is sort of a cross between a science museum and an ad campaign for the latest techno-gizmos. You walk around and look at exhibits and the outside of the building where you used to sit still revolves around the inside, but there's really no point to the spinning. Anyway, they had this touch-sensitive plasma screen TV with one of those fish-tank screen savers on it. If you touch a fish something would happen to it. Sometimes it would get big, sometimes it would get small, sometimes it would change into another kind of fish. Then sometimes when you touched the screen it would produce little food pellets on the screen and all the fish would swarm over to eat. It was pretty cool, you know, for 30 seconds or so. But Dylan was mesmerized. I think he would have stayed there all day if I had let him. My feet were tired and there was nobody else around waiting to play with it so I just sat down and let him go at it until some other kids showed up then I told him it was their turn. This morning Laurie said it was about the only thing he would talk about. Weird kid.

Overall it was a pretty flawless excursion. There was some difficulty getting home because I got a bit turned around. Then Dylan fell asleep in the car and I didn't know what to do about dinner since he hadn't eaten yet. But I went to a drive thru and got him some chicken strips and french fries and he woke up halfway up to the hotel room. (He looked around and said, "Where am I?") I made him stay awake long enough to eat something and take a bath and then he zonked.

It was fun, but next time we definitely need to schedule more time so things aren't so hectic and he doesn't get so tired.

Dick and I visited Mother today - she seemed slightly more out of it this afternoon - I think she must have been in a deep sleep when we arrived - usually she's just dozing. We stayed for about an hour, and then she began drooping again.

We stopped at Ellis Lake on the way home and couldn't find RGH's new cache.
Dick cooked dinner - yaay

Googling Richard

Googling Richard Just for Fun:
Here's an item from the consent calendar of the T.C. City Commission meeting of December 6, 2004. This is the approval that allowed Dick to set out his Park Series:

The request from Richard Steiger, 888 East River Road, to allow use of City parks for Geocaching, an adventure game for global positioning system users, as recommended by the Parks and Recreation Commission be approved.

This one is from mytraversecity.com (see link above):

At the Traverse City Visitors Center, I explain my “color quest” to volunteer guide Dick Steiger. Happy to help, he perks up and suggests two postcard-pretty overlooks. One is Inspiration Point on Route 616 south of Glen Arbor, which takes in the aquamarine sweep of Glen Lake, nestled among the trees like a Caribbean lagoon. The other is a hilltop on M-37 halfway up the Old Mission Peninsula near the Chateau Grand Traverse winery, where you can catch a rare glimpse of both East and West Bay at once. Steiger is nice enough to pinpoint the spots on my map.

“You know, of course, that Torch, Glen and Crystal lakes are considered the third most beautiful lake in the world?” Steiger says with a chuckle. National Geographic once bestowed the distinction on one of the lakes – or so the story goes. Now all three claim the title. “What are the first two?” he says, rhetorically. “And who cares?” The point is – they’re all world-class breathtaking.

Piles of Leaves

Dick had a meeting with the visitor center volunteers this morning. Chamber of Commerce and Cherry Festival Office - he enjoyed meeting Tom Menzel, the new director. From Dick's report, it sounds like the discussion was mainly about funding and budgeting.

I moved all my 9 piles of leaves and so the yard is slightly more picked up than it was before. There's still a lot of work to be done - doing some fine tooth comb raking, and beginning to weed the bed. The weather just draws me outside - it has been perfect.

We went for another great ride this afternoon - we went to pick up Dick's computer, and some shirts at Progress. Gas is $2.95.9 - I was totally in shock.

Got a call from Mary G. - Uncle Fritz is having a pacemaker installed. I want to check that out, and go tell Mother so she'll be in the loop. Evidently F&R have more financial problems than I thought. They lived quite a lavish lifestyle - they had me fooled. Thank God for Dad's prudence.

Lovely Day

Such gorgeous weather we're having! The grass is greening up, and the trees are definitely ready to burst.

The perennial garden is all raked out, and today it was a lot easier. Some of the plants are already sending up shoots - some green, some purple. It's fun to see. I had a list of perennials to plant this spring, and I can't find it. They were all plants that should thrive in our climate (zone 5) - I haven't given up looking for it yet.

Dick is still working on polishing up all of the park caches - new logs, double checking for dampness, etc. So we had a great ride all around town - it was the perfect day to be out and about. We love to Subaru Cruise! We stopped at the brand new Oleson's - it's very nice, and it's a convenient stop for us on the way home from town.

Tomorrow Laurie and Dylan fly to California. Laurie's going to Mary's wedding, and Tom is taking Dylan to Disneyland.

Indie Flix

Weather prediction was for a beautiful day, so I planned to rake out my perennial garden. It was, and I did. Sort of. I have some really good days and some not so good days, and today was not so good. I did rake out two big piles of leaves, but then I was done. Or done in, take your pick. The rest of the day I just sat around.

The highlight of the day was going to Kejara's Bridge Coffee House in Lake Leelanau in the evening for coffee, snacks and movies (indie flix). Their food is yummy, and the coffee was excellent. The decor is garage sale/flea market. The tables are all old fashioned kitchen tables, all different. The dishes are all from the yard sale - cups, plates, and flatware. The dish that Dick got was like our very first set of dishes - the yellow dish with the big daisy in the center. It was freaky.

The movies were Mark Fiore cartoons (some funny, some very unfunny), and a film about culture jamming. It was about people who hack billboards and posters, and a one-man crusade against Disney because of the sweatshop merchandise. (Rev. Billy from the Church of Stop Shopping)

When we were kids, we used to hear about Solle's Bookshop near Suttons Bay. Folks used to say that he was a commie, or a pinko, or at the very least a leftist. We think that the movement is alive and well in Leelanau County!

It was an interesting evening - I've always wondered what Kejara's Bridge was like inside. It was very pleasant and friendly, and a little strange.

Geo-Brunch

We decided that a geo-brunch is like a geo-breakfast except later, and like a geo-dinner except lighter.

We met at the Omelette Shoppe with Kim (Major K), Carla (Civilian) and Darcia (Tootsie Roll) who are known collectively as the Sucker Sisters. They all work in Grayling for the Army National Guard in the Environmental Programs Division. There will be a National Guard convention here in T.C. at the Resort on May 2, and they have promised a geo-caching outing for the evening entertainment. They've chosen Dick's 10 stage municipal park cache series. They wanted to double check all of the locations, code numbers and coordinates to make sure they're on top of things before the big event.

Kim is a SCUBA diver, and she was here yesterday for the underwater egg hunt down at the marina. She's planning to dive with sharks in the Bahamas next. Carla is a mountain biker. She and her family biked across the country 8 years ago when her son was 12 and her daughter was 15. Her son is now on a Belgian bike team - amateur not pro, but he wants to be pro eventually (ala Lance). This summer she and her husband are planning to bike the Continental Divide. You meet the most absolutely fascinating people geo-caching!

Hop, Hop Bunny Bunny

Happy Easter Everybody!

Sniders arrived around 10:30 this morning, and it was great to see them. We haven't gotten together all winter. We caught up on all of the latest stories and jokes, and Belleville gossip. There's nothing better :)

We had a reservation at the Freshwater Lodge for brunch, and it was as spectacular as usual. The best part was the dessert table (blush). We had good appetites, good food, good friends and good conversation. It really wasn't that crowded, so we could sit there as long as we wanted and just talk.

It's such a beautiful day that when we got home, we all just sat out on the deck and watched the canoes and kayaks go by. The temp was around 65, but the sun was really warm. We enjoyed hearing on all of the latest news of the children and grandchildren.

I wasn't sure that I should mention Kim's health problems here - but Dick wrote a letter of explanation to our kids and I thought it was well done - so here's his letter:

We had brunch with Bill and Jan today. They are on their way from Manistee to Houghton Lake and then back to Canton. Bill has to go to the U of M hospital Tuesday for tests. The reason he has to have tests is that Kim has some very serious health problems.
First, she has gastrointestinal problems caused by an inflammation of the stomach. As a result she has a problem keeping food down and has lost over 10 pounds. That doesn't sound like much for us but Jan says she is really skinny.
Second and compounding the problem, she has a chronic sinus infection and cough. The coughing apparently is severe at times and has resulted in a hernia.
The above are her minor medical problems, much more serious and the cause of the tests on Bill is that she has developed neuropathy in her legs. Due to some auto immune attack, she has lost all feeling in her feet. Jan says she can no longer walk but just shuffles along. It also seems to be spreading to her hands. She goes to A2 every two weeks for an infusion treatment at 10K a pop but they don't see any results yet. Bill is being tested because of his leg problems to see if there is a genetic component.

I'm not sure that we reported that they are moving to California. Mike has had it with the "small town hospital politics" in Manistee and wants to start fresh. They have put $ down on a small house near Reiko. They have the Manistee house listed at 1.5. They are buying less than 1/2 the house for more $.


As you can imagine, Bill and Jan are extremely concerned. It's one thing to get creaky and achy at our age but it's not fair to have it hit when you are so young. We feel lucky that all we have to worry about with our kids is their job stress.

The infusions that she gets are called IVIG. It's gamma globulin to boost the immune system. It's a treatment often used for MS, but they haven't actually diagnosed her with MS at this point. You can google it. The neuropathy is advancing upwards to her calves also. Her friends are all doctors too, and she comes to T.C. regularly to see other doctors (gastroenterologist and hematologist), and she goes to Ann Arbor for her infusions. Plus she has access to the entire staff of West Shore Hospital in Manistee. Tons of doctors are involved and they can't figure out what the problem is. She's still trying to see patients part time, but she's not very mobile. Whoever first said that Life Is Not Fair was right.

New Mission

This was an absolutely gorgeous Spring day. We picked daffodils for Mom, and drove past our beautiful bright blue bay. Mother seems fine - she loved the flowers, and we had what she likes to call "a good visit". She learned all about the latest happenings. She enjoyed hearing about L, C & D camping in Florida - we told her about the raccoons and the bears, the canoeing and the geo-caching, but we left out the story about the tics!

After our good visit, we drove over to Lake Dubonnet, and located a possible site for another Shore to Shore cache. The trail really meanders around through there - and it's a beautiful area, although spring is not it's prettiest season - lots and lots of dry leaves.

I have a new mission in life - I'm going to try to avoid artificial sweeteners because I believe they make me feel ill. Over the past 10 years I've consumed just about every type of sugar substitute that there is, and I certainly can't notice any positive results. I've been reading about them on the internet, and some of the case histories are downright scary. Some people are seriously affected by the chemicals in the sweeteners. After my aspirin/internal bleeding episode, I believe I probably am "some people"!

There's a long list of physical problems associated with most of the fake sugar - even Splenda, which I had thought was going to be the healthy choice. Check out the link above, and scroll down to "side effects". Maltitol is my biggest bugaboo - my system can't tolerate it - and it's in so many things I've been eating - the diabetes food bars, sugar free cookies, fake chocolate, even hard candies and sugar free gum. I found this paragraph which graphically explains the biggest problem:

All authorities recommend using caution and definitely moderation is key. Because they are not completely absorbed in the bowel, they have a nasty reputation of holding onto water, and promoting diarrhea, gas and bloating. This is politely termed the "laxative effect". Sorbitol and mannitol are the worst offenders, maltitol and lactitol less so. The label should indicate the serving size. This is the amount considered safe to eat before the laxative effect takes over. So beware that overeating these foods can have serious effects. Especially for children, who of course will experience the effect from an even smaller amount.

Those substitutes mentioned in that paragraph are all sugar alcohols, and I'm learning that we really don't want to be putting these substances in our bodies. Reading labels is going to be my new hobby. Even Diet Pepsi is on it's way out - I think I'll start drinking more iced tea and sparkling water. Water si, chemicals no.

Happy Birthday Barb

This was the Big 6-0 for Barbie, and so her kids organized a birthday dinner at Schelde's, and we were invited! It was really a good time, and it was great to see everyone.

Barb and Jim, Melissa and Peter, Autumn, Brooke, Shelly and Chris, Adam and Melanie, Dick and Nan - it was a lively group! Of course, Autumn and Brooke are still the cutest little girls that there ever were - and they look so much alike - blonde hair, blue eyes, and those charming dimples that they got from their Grandma Barb.

Barb looks so good - she's doing great. She's going to start working full-time on Monday, and she really feels ready! It's a miracle.

Afterwards we all went over to Shelly's for cake and ice cream - it was such fun to be with everybody. Her house is small, but very comfortable and charming. I loved it. Shelly has a new puppy named Ranger - a collie and shepherd mix - looks like it will be a big dog! Peter had his police dog in a dog crate in the backyard- Jim said it looked like it could hold a wildcat!

We left with a smile because Autumn and Brooke called goodby from the upstairs bedroom window, and yelled "Happy Easter"! Fun.

Happy Birthday Barb

Foothills

These Medicare presentations are always a new and different experience. The meeting this morning was at 9:30 at the Foothills Cafe on Dunn's Farm Road over by Glen Arbor. We must have driven by this place a million times over the years, but neither one of us ever noticed it. There's a small Mom and Pop motel, and the Cafe is about the size of a two-car garage. We were expecting 22 people, and I was wondering if we would all fit in there. It turned out to be a fine place - it was open and airy, because there were huge windows on two sides. The food was good, and the servers were friendly and pleasant. The Leelanau COA paid for our breakfast.

We didn't feel that this group was really interested in hearing about Medicare Part D. They seemed to be all set as far as their prescriptions were concerned. I think that the program director just lined up somebody to give a program without considering the needs of the audience. It was a nice group, and we sat next to retired teachers - that's always fun.

We're still working on finding spots to hide caches for the Shore to Shore trail series (called by those in the know "The S2S"). So after the meeting we drove to Empire and explored the riding/hiking trail. Dick found 3 or 4 good possibilities for cache sites, and we had a great ride around Leelanau/Benzie.

Friendship Center

Well this was the oddest presentation for Medicare yet. The set time was 6:30 p.m., and we were there early. By 6:30, no one else had appeared - we were expecting about 20 people, and there were 6 of us counting Dick and me, the Leelanau coordinator, and the event organizer. So that left 2 people who came for the presentation. We just sat and talked to them for about an hour and fifteen minutes - it was a unique event!

Afterwards, we went to the Olive Garden for dinner - it was OK. It's not as great as the Olive Garden in Ann Arbor - that one had a lot more atmosphere, and was more comfortable. Tonight, the first table at which we were seated was freezing cold - there was a definite draft from somewhere - it was almost like they had the air conditioning on. We moved to a booth, and it was much better. The servers were well-trained and the service was good. The food was OK - Dick really enjoyed his seafood pasta. My baked ziti was average. It seems to be a very popular restaurant, and I'm not really sure why - the prices aren't particularly cheap, and I just wasn't as impressed as I wanted to be. The view out of the window by our booth was the Williams Kia dealership.

Easter is Coming

Dick had an appointment with Dr. Tim first thing this morning - then he went to the Agency for 5 or 6 hours. He handled 30 phone calls, and one Medicaid application.

I went shopping at Tarjay to get some Easter things to brighten up Mother's room. I really waited too long - their Easter items were almost all gone. There were still some very nice things there, though, and I was pleased with what I got. She seems fine - she liked the Easter stuff. She enjoyed hearing about our trip, and telling me about the goings on at Concord Place. I wish they would come up with a dependable staff on a regular schedule. She never knows who will be coming in the evening to bathe her and help her get ready for bed. It's a little unnerving for her to never know who's coming. They do seem a bit short-handed. I keep saying that she can go to a different place, but she won't consider moving at this point.

Our week is shaping up - we're quite the social butterflies! Tuesday evening Dick has a presentation in Suttons Bay at 6:30 p.m., so he's taking me out to dinner. Thursday morning he has a presentation in Glen Arbor, so he's taking me out to breakfast. Friday evening we're having a family dinner in T.C. Sounds like an eventful, fun week.

Jiggety

Breakfast with Bob Evans!
Dick did 6 more caches and then it was time to head for home. I was still totally wiped out from yesterday, so I just sat in the car or did short walks.
We had a nice drive home - found our mail - thank you Barkers!

New Record

We spent the day in Marshall doing urban geocaches. Usually 7 or 8 in a day is satisfying and enough for us. Today we did over 25!! A brand new experience. The first one we found was our 900th find.

A bonus was meeting other cachers. In town, we ran into Hog Islanders (Jim Needham) and that was fun. At the Coffindaffer cache we met up with Geopigs (Sally and her husband).

When we got back to the motel after dinner at a Denny's that looked like a diner, Dick sat right down and logged them all. It took him approximately 2.5 hours.

Tired and sleepy - ho hum.

Turtle Update

So far: Turtle 1 - 3 votes - (Dick, Sharon, Bob)

Turtle 5 - 2 votes - (Nancy, Mitchy)

Chapter 899, In Which I Go Solo !

This was conference day for Dick at Burnham Brook in Battle Creek. I kept myself busy cleaning out the car, getting iced tea at Burger King, and reading my book at Burnham Brook. I was a guest for lunch, so we were able to eat together. We should have gone to Burger King! The food was slmost inedible. It gave me renewed respect for Mother, who says the same thing about the food where she lives.

We had noticed on the GPSr that there was a cache quite near the conference center. So after lunch, I went on a quest, and I was successful! (My first solo find - and the coordinates were right on!) Whoop, whoop! It was our 899th find.

Ten Caches

We did a leisurely drive from T.C. to South Haven, and did 10 (count 'em) ten caches in one trip. We are very proud of ourselves.

We stopped for lunch in Rothbury at the Country Kitchen. The food was really good, and the eavesdropping was spectacular. It seems that local gossip has it that Cabela's is considering putting a big sports center near Rothbury on a huge (642 acres) parcel of land. It's not a done deal, but it was fun listening to all of the conjecture!

Once in South Haven, it was recommended that we eat dinner downtown at Clementine's. Well, Clementine's was over-crowded, so we just ducked into Captain Nemo's. It was kind of a combination ice cream shop and sub shop. We saw a lot more local color than we really wanted to!

UsTwo

This morning we were treated to breakfast at the Omelette Shoppe by UsTwo (Doug and Edie of Lansing). We had a great time and a yummy breakfast. The air was filled with cache talk - that's always such fun. Thanks for breakfast, UsTwo.

We're leaving tomorrow (Thursday) for Battle Creek by way of South Haven. We're heading for the MMAP Volunteer Recognition Conference. It's always enjoyable. Of course, we're planning to do a lot of geo-caching before and after.

This year I think that Dick should win at least 14 different awards at the conference because he has worked so hard! The Traverse City office has been hit by a plague of locusts (well, not really). The boss is in Florida for the winter and not returning until May, the vice-boss has breast cancer and is responding poorly to chemo, the Social Security contact has colon cancer, another counselor has just has heart by-pass surgery, and then there's Dick. So whatever gets done in Traverse City - medicaid applications, Part D drug Plans, presentations to groups, general medicare questions - gets done by Dick. One year we both won the Medicaid Specialist for the State of Michigan award, and we didn't work half as hard as he has worked, and there were two of us.

Turtle 1 

Turtle 5 

Vote for Your Favorite Turtle

Which picture do you like best, Turtle 1 or Turtle 5? I'll use the winning picure on the geocaching cache page for a new cache I want to put out. Please vote!

Sam's Club is so great - we go there every month or so to get large quantities of things like toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water, olives, etc., etc. We spend a lot of time and money there this morning.

Dick knew of two new caches in T.C. - the first one was at K Mart, and that was fun - and while we were there we went to the dollar store. I'm searching for turtle items for my new cache.

As long as we were at the Cherryland Plaza, we went to The Big Eazy for lunch. Yummy and fun.

Second cache was at the new County Building on LaFranier Road - we had lots of fun finding the trail that took us within 200 feet of it instead of walking 14,000 miles from the parking lot.

Weirdness in Wonderland

An adventure like this only happens to the "lucky and the strong".

First of all, we stopped for lunch in Alden at The Wild Onion. Alden sits on the shore of the beautiful and famous Torch Lake. Searching the menu for yumminess, I almost burst out laughing. For breakfast at the Wild Onion, you can order an omelette called "Torcher"!! No kidding! Want a little Torcher for breakfast? Weird. This reminds me of a sign we saw on another day - it was outside a small ranch. Near the gate, the sign said "Oleo Ranch - The Cheaper Spread"!

Our caching adventure began over in the Jordan River Valley, near East Jordan. There are marvelous trails there, and the conditions on the dirt roads weren't too bad. We parked by a sign that said "Congested Area" at the convergence of three dirt trails! Weird. Dick went off down the gated path to find the Crossing Jordan cache, and to put out the Michigan traveling cache. After he left, I got out my ski-walking poles, and went to investigate the great looking bridge over the river. The trail was superior, the bridge was so attractive, and the river scenery was very unusual. There were hummocks the size of hassocks all through the river, and some other hummocks the size of picnic tables - it was most picturesque.

The trail was so inviting, it drew me on down the way until I came to a fork in the road. I didn't know which way Dick had gone, so I stopped to reconnoiter. I noticed a set of railings at the top of a steep hill, and I was drawn once again to investigate. The ski-walkers made it possible for me to scramble right up the hill with no problem. At the top of the hill was a campground for backpackers. I walked down another hill to another road, and back to the car. This is unusual behavior for me - you have no idea how I surprised myself by doing it. Weird. The ski-walkers are going to change my life!

The second cache was down Bartholomew Road. There's a lot of weirdness in the world, and we found quite a bit of it today! On the way down the road, we came to a junkyard with junk cars on both sides of the road. The thing that was interesting to me was that on one side of the road there was a long wooden wall, and written on the wall were Biblical scriptures - there must have been 15-20 quotations. The interesting part is that the lettering was absolutely beautifully done - a really professional job. It was most incongruous in a junkyard. Weird.

We wound up in somebody's front yard, so we had to back up and look for the right trail. There was a two track back to a picnic area, and the ruins of a house and barn. This cache had been placed by a Boy Scout Troop, and it was very different and weird. The cache container was a red thermos jug just sitting out in the open with no camouflage.

At the Bennett Creek cache site we ran into Whitard and his whole family! How weird is that! It was really fun to see them - we'd like to have them come out to the river sometime. The little girls are so much fun.

The next adventure out-weirded the rest. In search of the Ouachita cache, we took off down Pesek Road, which was a quagmire of mud at the berginning, and then changed to frozen and icy, and then returned to muddy quagmire. There were houses along the way - we couldn't believe that! Dick had to really go fast through the mud so that we wouldn't get bogged down, and mud was splattering everywhere. That road would make a great ride at DisneyWorld! We were both all tightened up and tense by the time we got to Marvon Road. To us, it looked like a super highway. Pesek is short for Pesek Cake (piece of cake) NOT. This is what Dick wrote when he logged the cache:

Thanks for the cache Nanalulubug, we made it into quite an adventure. We were coming up from the south and our auto routing sent us up Pesek Road. We bet that is a real pretty drive in the summer but it's pretty hairy in the spring. We couldn't believe that folks actually live back there. By the time we got to the end, our little Subaru looked like a swamp buggy. We're too old for this stuff. By the time our knuckles were pink again, we were ready for a nice friendly cache. We signed and stamped the log and left a little ducky finger puppet. Then we drove off to find a car wash. Yee Ha!

The Scenic State cache was last. Whew! I was reaching the saturation point.

On the way home we passed through Central Lake, where we saw a man out in his front yard sitting by a campfire playing the guitar. Later we saw a man straight out of Monty Python, doing the silly walk down the side of the road. Weird!

A quick stop at the car wash and at KFC and then home to watch George Mason lose to Florida in the NCAA semi-finals. So now, do we root for UCLA because Melanie chose them, or for Florida because at least they're East of the Mississippi... Weird.