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.