Raincharm’s Weblog

So we have been back home, rather briefly in fact. But a few notes on interesting bits along the way.

Do you know that when you fly out of the Chippewa County International Airport you have to remove your fudge from your carry-on baggage for inspection. Like it was your computer, or C-pap machine, or shoes. Even as a TSA pre-check I had to dig through all of the stuff above the fudge in the backpack to pull it out. And yes, many, many people at this airport would be carrying fudge back home. [This is the Chippewa County Airport of, “Boarding at Gate 1,” fame.

Voting – there is an election on Tuesday, we have to vote by Friday. I have all but one figured out. I like these early preliminary races because it lets you read the statements of the less than likely to be elected. Goodspaceguy has been in several races over the years. And yes, I believe he legally changed his name.

Work has been excessively busy. A side effect of taking a few weeks off. And today I learned that there is apparently an, “Appropriate amount of crap.” Being in the sewer business, I have now been tasked with determining what that amount might be.

The Mariners can’t win consistently – still. They won two games in a row a few games ago and that was news!  But that doesn’t mean they can’t put on a good show. (WAIT FOR THE END)

Camera phones – can’t ever get it quite straight.

That’s the Blue Angels if you couldn’t figure it out.

THE GRAND HOTEL

Approximately 30 years ago Carl & I spent a night in this wondrous place. Slightly to the right of the center portico, on the 2nd or 3rd floor, in the Honeymoon Suite. It was glorious.

I could try to describe this place, but I will let their sign do the basic work. (To see the hotel in action, watch the movie Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeves.

It has the longest porch in the world – and some rocking chairs to enjoy while relaxing and taking in the scenery.

We did take in the scenery. There is a small airport on the island, but almost everybody arrives by boat.
Pooh & Mark took a boat that was included with their bicycle tour – along with their bikes.

Ready to Ride

Carl & I took the slow boat named the Huron to Mackinac Island. It really did seem to just sort of putter along. Not un-enjoyable, as we were not in any particular hurry. Just slow.

On the island we continued in the slow vein, by walking. No bicycles and no horses or carriages.
[For any that do not know, this island does not use motorized vehicles. Except maybe the ambulance and fire engine.]
We met Pooh and Mark for lunch, including an appropriate beverage.

All-in-all we probably did 3 miles, including a Seattlesque hill and over 200 stairs back down to lake level.

Since we are in the recovery mode right now we decided that was probably quite enough, and quite probably more than should have been attempted. [We see the doctor again on Tuesday and will find out what level of tongue lashing we will receive.]

The boat we took on the return voyage was the Mackinac Strait II. This boat seemed much faster than the first, and included a tour guide of sorts. One of the tidbits of information provided was that their other boat (the Huron) was an ice-breaker. So perhaps this was part of the reason for the slow and steady ride over, sans ice.

We also learned a bit about the Mackinac Bridge. 5 miles of the safest freeway in America. (Longer than the Golden Gate)
[A Yugo went off once, but other than that a really good safety record.]
The towers do not hold up the road. They hold up the cables. The cables hold the road, which can move as much as 15 feet side to side within the towers. The road can also stretch and move as much as 40 feet vertically if heavily loaded. Back when the bridge was built (after I was born, but before Carl) a semi-truck weighed about 15,000 pounds. Now they weigh 80,000. This is why their speed is limited to 25 mph, and their spacing is at least 200 feet apart. A lake freighter did hit one of the towers once, and did about $20,000 damage to the bridge. Fixing the boat cost $250,000. [The bridge crosses the Straits of Mackinac, which is where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet – just so you know. In case you did not.]

Back at the cabin for dinner, tired after a full day.

Last night’s sunset (and a boat)

Today’s calm waters (and a boat).

Today was basically a lazy beach day. Almost too hot on the beach. Calm waters. Kayaks wandering by, and walks down to Doelle’s in the water. Saw 3 or 4 frogs in the creek at one end of the beach, and a dead crayfish and small fish (not a minnow) at the other end. More seagulls that just will not stop talking, and a few ravens yelling in the woods. One sounded so human that I was starting to wonder if it was one raven and a harasser. In the end I decided it was too buggy in the woods for anyone to be playing this game. Made some progress in my book and Carl continued to write postcards.

Played a new game called Paperback tonight.
It involves making words out of letter cards with points, fame points, wild cards, and took a while to get started. There are several different types of cards and set-ups, and not all types of cards are used if you play the easier version. A cross between Scrabble and Dominion. As usual my brain would lock when trying to think up words that would work with my letters. Rey and Mark were more on the tactical side of drawing and gaining points. Pooh had some words that were more wild cards than recognizable letters. Rey won. (I got second.) I am ready to play this game again. And maybe we will add in the advanced parts before the end of the summer (or next week – which is more or less the end of my summer vacation).

Tomorrow will be an early rising to get one party to the airport (2 flights a day – one at 6:30 AM), and two others (and their bikes) to St. Ignace for the start of an around the UP ride. (Upper Peninsula for any that don’t just know) Meanwhile, we will continue to laze around the beach.

Carl at the bat and on the mend.

Up to bat, leading off for the Birch Point Beach Bums …

Baseball games and a birthday.

The vacation started with a few baseball games to celebrate Carl’s (FOY 14) birthday. We ended up seeing 9-1/18^th games, more or less. Depending on how you count. I am not even sure how the Toledo Mud Hens fared versus the Durham Bulls. [I could ask Rey, but he is currently in class.]

The Tiger’s game had some extremes. Some of the initially interesting, but really bad fans behind us for most of the game. Yet getting to spend time with relatives that rarely go to games, at a game. The Tigers lost, but did not drench us with rain. (That was so last year.)

The Cabin

The next day everyone headed north. Actually, a few waited a day or two, but the population between our cabin and the next blossomed from 1 to 16 in short order.

The Old Cabin housed – 10 then 12 then 10 to 8 currently, slated next to go to 5 then 7 then 4 then 3 then 2. Ok you math geeks, what is the next number? And there are wild cards that can be played at any time.

12 pushes the sleeping capacity close to the maximum, although I think there was one more cot in the shed. It also pushed the bathroom to the edge. Jane declared that only 3 were allowed to use the indoor facilities, and the rest were to go to the outhouse. I am not sure how successful her admonitions were, but the outhouse has seen more visitors this week than it has for many years. On the positive side, it was great to see everyone – the entire family of my parents + a new arrival.

Ashlan & Allen

The plus one is Allen, Ashlan’s boyfriend. Imagine meeting almost the entire extended family at once. Brave soul.

Rey’s work plus more

The next day, I think, we accompanied Rey to one of his work places. Quite the gig if you can get it.

78 Steps – the top

After touring most of Whitefish Point, and killing our fill of mosquitos, we headed over to Tahquamenon Falls. First toured the lower falls by row-boat (thank you Allen).

Lower Tahquamenon Falls

The upper falls were spectacular as always. Note the tannin in the water.

Upper Tahquamenon Falls

The weather has been generally good. Cool in the morning (40-50’s), warm in the afternoons (70s), and a really good rainstorm one day.

Oh – and did you notice that we did not see a full two games on July 1^st?

CARL’s BLOG
FOR THE NEVER-ENDING WEEK: 7-1 through 7-9

Baseball Game 

Kidney Stone 

Celebration

(Anniversary – which I completely omitted from above. Our 30^th, Pooh & Mark’s 35th)

Constipation 

USA, USA, USA (Women’s Soccer)

To Da John, To Da John, To Da John-John-John 

8 Days of Pain 

Surgery in Stirrups (found humorous by most women present) 

Happy Days are Here Again 

Vacation Starts 

BEACH DAY 

For many years Thursday has been the worst day for commuting. I don’t know why, but you could count on extra time in the car or just stay late. Over the past six months Wednesday has started to rival Thursday. I don’t want my decision on when to leave work to become a traffic check.

But most of my traffic woes are during the evening commute. Morning drive time has a fairly direct correlation to time of departure ( as does the toll rate).
I am riding this morning so have been able to catch some jiggling sights.

Mount Rainier

The new 520 bridge under construction.

That is one of the bald eagles on the light pole. Yesterday both adults were on display, and word is they have eaglets

Lake Sammamish

Not a bad ride.

That would be Dick Fitzgerald.

Not to be confused with the Edmund Fitzgerald, which is a big part of where Rey is currently employed.

Edmund Fitzgerald

Dick turned 80 years young last week.
He is one of the regular pitchers on Carl’s 55 and over baseball team.

Tonight, to honor probably the best 80 year old pitcher in the country, Dick got to throw out the first pitch at the Mariner game. [The next pitcher to take the mound after Dick got it warmed up was Felix Hernandez.] And his catcher was not a Mariner, but his regular catcher – Ken Combs (a youngster at 73).

Dick pitching to Ken

Here is my somewhat shakey video of tonight’s festivities.

Here is a much better description, by a local news station a few years ago.

Dick got as high as AAA a few years ago, and was actually called up to the big leagues, only to have the pitcher he was to replace decide he did not need to go onto the disabled list after all. So close. But had that happened we would not have the happy circumstance of being able to play with this wonderful person. For a better biography (brief) – click here.

The Mariners lost. Surprise, surprise. Except that IT WAS FELIX. Hernandez that is.
But it was a great time. Several current, past, teammates and opponents were on hand. It was like the six degrees of separation from Mr. Fitzgerald. Great fun!

So life is busy, but that doesn’t mean I have anything interesting to talk about. Work, work. Watch the mariners lose. Again. Wait – I haven’t checked today. Oh, yeah, they just started. ( I am not at the game today, still at the office, though obviously not working. ( Waiting for my carpooler.))

So I’ll tell you a short tale of a certain boy and his squirrel companion.

Our cabin in the great north woods is rather old, and a simple log cabin to boot. It is well loved by many, and well cared for by the second generation to have charge of the place. However, there are a few chinks that show up each year and call for chinking.

We know this because every year there is evidence that we are sharing this space with a few creatures that should really be in a more out of doors space.

The youngest of generation three was the first to check on who had wintered over on the inside. She dispatched with the mice, who had already really departed. And she noted the presence of one of their slightly larger cousins. Now I am not sure whether there was direct visual confirmation or only indirect evidence. But no progress was made on encouraging them to move out before the task was abandoned.

About a week later generation four arrived to take up residence for an extended time. During the first day there was no time to address the interloper, other than to say hello. But over the next several days things got more serious.

The trap was found and baited.

First try involved Doritos.
Apparently Doritos are not on this particular squirrel’s diet plan.

The second and third and fourth tries included said Doritos plus an addition of some peanut butter. It appeared that peanut butter was on the approved food list.

The trials went from using the Doritos to scrape the peanut butter off of the trap mechanism to licking it directly to sticking bits of Doritos onto the peanut butter on the mechanism.

Then the boy got serious and scientific. He spent some time thinking like a squirrel. The Doritos were removed and the peanut butter was painted on as many parts of the mechanism as seemed reasonable.

SUCCESS! (look closely)

Wise Squirrel

Then the boy took his new friend for a ride. To a cemetery. The squirrel was still kicking. Rey had done his homework on agitated squirrels. Paper underneath to keep the seat dry, and a towel above to keep things calm.

It seemed that the peanut butter had not been enough to sate the beast and he started pulling the towel in for a bite. The boy yelled that this was not acceptable, and the squirrel stopped.

So what we had for a winter guest was a furry beast that uses tools and understands english.  When offered the opportunity to leave the car he was anxious to do so.

And back in Seattle the raspberries are ripe.

First pickings

And this morning I swore I put on blue jeans, but this afternoon I noticed they were black.

Once again Rey has figured out how to meet his obligations and still spend the summer up north. I am looking forward to the time when I can once again head north at the first sign of summer, and stay until fall. Of course this means the chance of freezing mornings, and possibly sharing the cabin with critters who have not realized that winter has gone.

Congratulations Rey for making the moves to spend a few months at the cabin. We will join you as soon as we can. In the meantime, happy birthday.

Just a bit chilly – but only some of the time.

Why wouldn’t you want to be here

FELIX Hernandez is pitching today. A 6 o’clock game against the Boston Red Sox.  That is the Seattle Steelheads against the Royal Giants. It’s a turn back the clock game.

A reasonably nice day so we thought we would take a stroll to the park.

Even before that we strolled to breakfast at the Olympic. You see, it is the end of a Mariner home stand, and our house is in a state of disarray and groceries are in short supply.

On the way to the stadium we stopped of at a birthday party for a neighborhood 10 year old. Bacon cheese burger to go please. Looked like it was going to be a good party, but we decided to continue downtown.

Nothing too remarkable about the walk. About six to seven miles, temperature in the sixties, cloudy. Good walking weather. One stop at Starbucks. More for the restroom, but picked up a latte since we were there.

Early entrance for season ticket holders, so we got into the stadium about 3:10. Time to rest my weary legs.

Got an autograph from Carson Smith for an usher.

Went out to right field to sit through batting practice. It was going to be crowded so I set myself up in the second to last row and pulled out a book. Carl and the boys were roaming the lower rows. After a few pages something made me look up. Just in time to see a ball, briefly, and then it hit me in leg, just above the ankle.
OUCH.
The guy that retrieved the ball handed it to me. A small prize to go with a bruise.
And I got a bag of ice to go with it. What is really confusing is that I had a mitt on my hand, and my feet were behind the seat in front of me.

The ice has melted and I gave the ball away to a fan who’s sister was celebrating her 50th birthday.

The bruise remains.

You really can’t see anything. I think the colorfulness will come later.

Almost got hit a second time by a ball that deflected around the section. It hit a person in front of me instead.

When the balls stopped flying out of the ballpark we decided to take a walk inside the park, up to the third level. I had tried to get up there earlier, but while they let us in the stadium early, we don’t have run of the entire area. If we did I would not have been trying to read my book and would not have caught the ball with my leg.

I wanted to get up high to try and see the kayaktavists protesting the artic drill rig currently hanging out in our harbour. They were expecting 1000 kayaks and I thought it would be a sight worth seeing. The drill rig was certainly visible. It is huge. But if there were kayaks they were hidden by buildings between us and the water.

The game is underway, end of the third inning. Boston 2, Mariners 1. All solo home runs.

So I do know I missed mother’s day. I blame a combination of a cold and the Mariners being in town.

I did get a nice floppy sun hat care of the Mariners while enjoying Felix Hernandez’s pitching prowess from a sweet suite on Sunday. And I did get to talk with my mother and the kids. If you include Saturday and make it a weekend.

On Monday my main task at work was to get a contract out to a surveyor. They are surveying a property we own, and getting ready to sell. I want them to identify the underground water system locations that we will mark for them. But there were two wells, an elevated water tank, settling tank, water mains to two pressure zones and a hydrant. And most of the facilities have been abandoned for more than 30 years.

So I dug into the archives and found drawings from 1952 and 1961, pictures from 1973, an aerial photo from 1985, and quizzed 2 employees who were involved with various stages of removing bits and pieces of the old structures. I think I came up with a realistic idea of what may be in the ground. I wonder if I will be graded by the eventual owner when they start digging around.

How did I do Rey?