Musings

I got down to the sidewalk and no farther as there was a work crew setting up on our street, and the fellow driving this truck was quite concerned that I understand they’d be interrupting life on our street for a while. Something about a gas line going through the sewer pipe. I couldn’t quite figure out how that could be changed by opening up one square of the sidewalk, but didn’t hang around to ask and hear the answer. Yay for infrastructure improvements.

On my mosey, I found these spider webs festooning this ground cover in an artful way. Yay for arachnid aesthetics.

Later I found this holiday still life. Beware begonias? With spiders? Yay for creativity in outdoor decorations.

We went downtown to do a bit of business with the state, and waited at a stop-light with a great view of the capital’s gold dome. At the state office, we learned that a contractor had taken over their computer system so it was “down” and I could not transact my biz. I’ll try again Tuesday, as Monday is a holiday and they aren’t open on Saturdays. Yay for government work schedules.

Posted at 6:08 PM | Comments Off on Yay for…

The story of today is right here. Rain. Drippy rain. Not so cold, just continuous moisture. Good for the late garden plants. But.

So, we hopped in the Prime, and headed out to defray boredom. First stop: winding drive down to Seul Choix Point and its lighthouse on the north shore of Lake Michigan. The latter dates back to 1892, and is still used, but most navigators are using digital/satellite systems, making the light more confirmation than a sole guide.

To me, this kind of view is Essence of UP. Maple trees bending to make a tunnel over a gravel road through the forest that I can toodle along, with a smile on my face. Special this day: drippiness.

We popped out on the Lake Superior shore near Marquette. These are two of the Picnic Rocks in the Marquette Harbor.

And this is the view southwest into the upper harbor from Presque Isle Park, a rugged point extending into Lake Superior. This is an immense ore dock. Rail cars are moved out onto the top of the dock, and their loads are dumped into spaces in the dock, then emptied into a ship (called a boat around here) in 20-ton lots. The name is “ore,” and I think of ore as the material that is rock-with-mineral as it is mined from MotherEarth. But, here the “ore” is taconite, pellets of 70% iron that has been separated (mostly) from the rock that contained it at or very near the mine.

Posted at 9:46 PM | Comments Off on Essence of UP

Our cozy living room….

An artsy shot of one side of the log playhouse…sized for kids.

Veggies fresh from the neighbors’ garden, and headed for our dinner table: kale, tomatoes, maize. Yum.

Posted at 6:52 PM | Comments Off on Diary using photos

What would you call this? I thought tub, or metal bushel not-quite-basket. Two actually. The upper is what might be termed a heritage piece, as it is rusted through. Good for carrying corn husks or similar. Otherwise, it’s more of an informal colander.

Posted at 8:57 PM | 2 Comments »

We managed to capture sunrise today…on the move early!

Midmorning, we rediscovered this stand-out antenna tree.

I read the weekly paper after we arrived, and discovered there’ll be a Three Bridges Walk/Run event in the next town this weekend. These are not the three bridges. And only one of all six is The Bridge. In the far distance here….

All systems back on-line. Whew. Basil survived! Thanks to pinching and care from loved ones who were here. Thanks!

Posted at 8:00 PM | Comments Off on Northing (day two)

“Look, mountains, Mabel.”

“And foggy wisps in the valleys, Stanley.”

“Quite the sunset, Stanley.”

“Pretty clouds, too, Mabel. Wispy.”

“Old Chevy on that flatbed, Stanley.”

“I miss those wide whitewalls. I always wanted nice whitewalls, but they charged more. I never knew if it was because it cost more to make them or if they could simply get buyers to pay more.”

The End. No basis in reality; this is a work of fiction.

Posted at 10:55 PM | Comments Off on Wee travel narrative

For me, Bogart is one of those villages we go through to get farther down the road. I realize that the locals, at least to some extent, believe it’s the center of the world. Hence: Believe in Bogart. Do tell.

Later, we caught sunset from a wee connecting sidewalk-lane-alley that I’m calling The Sneak as it apparently has no official name. We’ll see if it sticks.

Posted at 10:42 PM | Comments Off on Believe

The Guru says he wants his next jacket to be a tactical-fiber fleece. [See the most recent “Elementary.” And respect spiders.]

Meanwhile, I found this fern in my…front yard-grass. Turns out it’s green weeds and a few blades of actual grass. Heh.

Posted at 9:10 PM | Comments Off on Tactical fiber

Sometime around 4:30pm a windy, rainy storm came in. Sometime around 4:45pm we heard a crack-pop and the lights went out. And thus the AC. Of course, luckily the temps dropped with the storm.

Still, the house began to heat up. The Guru went on the GAPower website and, yup, they were aware; indicated to expect electricity back by 7:45. Then maybe 15 min later, he checked and the website indicated that action was underway…and there was no “expect electricity by” indication. Worrisome.

As it turned out, we got power back just before 8pm, so all…whew! okay.

Posted at 10:23 PM | Comments Off on Power story

I liked the light on the flag. [This isn’t a clever commentary on the news out of WashDC this week…month…rrrrgh.]

On the weather front, mega-super-muggy comes close to how hot and humid it was this morning…and by 9am.

Posted at 6:29 PM | Comments Off on I have a 49-star flag somewhere