Priceless.

lake1.jpg

Not quite noon, facing southeast, near Ford Cove, Lake St. Clair. Temperature: around 20F. Others in evidence: Some ice fishermen and guys trimming trees on the Ford estate. Ice: Firm but a little chatty in places; I played it safe.

Posted at 2:15 pm in Uncategorized |
 

21 responses to “Priceless.”

  1. LA mary said on February 9, 2007 at 2:18 pm

    The thought of not playing it safe and falling through that ice is not pleasant. Wise girl.

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  2. Danny said on February 9, 2007 at 2:27 pm

    Very nice picture. Thanks, Nance.

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  3. Connie said on February 9, 2007 at 3:10 pm

    Yes, play it safe. Years ago I had one leg go through the ice while walking on the iced over lake at Holland State Park. It was cold. That was an understatement.

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  4. LA mary said on February 9, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    I feel so guilty mentioning this in the presence of that lovely serene photo, but I just saw a headline in Google news that Zsa Zsa’s husband says he might be the father of Anna Nicole’s baby.
    My goodness.

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  5. Danny said on February 9, 2007 at 6:40 pm

    Reminds me of a line I heard attributed to Zsa Zsa:

    “I’m a good housekeeper. I marry them, ddivorce them, and keep the house, dahling.”

    Don’t know if she actually said that.

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  6. Jen said on February 9, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    Great photo, Nance. I’m living in the DC metro area now, but my roots are in the Midwest. A lot of “snow scenes” convey a sense of coziness–the softness of newfallen snow. But this photo captures a harsher beauty. Very nice.

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  7. Joe Kobiela said on February 9, 2007 at 10:30 pm

    I flew into Saginaw Mich this morning,the lake was freezing over and the sky was a bright blue. The contrast of blue sky and white snow was stunning to say the least. Visibility was about 50 miles, from 6,000ft it seemed you could see across the whole state.
    Joe

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  8. MichaelG said on February 10, 2007 at 12:59 am

    OK, Anna Nicole Simth was vulgar, uneducated and seemingly stupid. She had a certain bovine quality about her and yeah, I’ve made my jokes and had my laughs at her expense along with everybody else. But Anna Nicole Smith made a deal with an old man and the old man held up his end of the bargain. Maybe he got carried away and gave her everything instead of a just a large sum of money, but that’s more a comment on the state of his relations with his family than Anna Nicole Smith’s level of greed. The loving family, understandingly, sued. Some in the media would have us believe Anna Nicole Smith was the first woman on earth to participate in this kind of arrangement. For the last ten years or so, Anna Nicole Smith has been involved in a court battle for her share of the inheritance. She has endured unending abuse and derision from the media and the general public — myself included. She has been subjected to a constant drumbeat of criticism for being a dumb blonde gold digger. Yet she felt she was entitled to what she had earned and she fought for it through court battle after court battle. She largely prevailed which says a lot about the case. Her appearance at a recent Supreme Court hearing showed her at her best. She seems to have been estranged from her mother and siblings for years. She suffered the loss of her son a few months ago and now, on the occasion of her death, everybody under the sun seems to be claiming to be the father of her newborn daughter. Yet, with all the unhappiness in love, all the estrangement, all the loneliness, she never complained, never whined, never blamed somebody else. For the fact that she fought with everything she had for what she believed she had coming; for her continuing sunny disposition in the face of adversity, I have to say that Anna Nicole Smith had a certain nobility and strength of character. I wonder how many of us could have put up with the personal abuse this woman endured and continuned to have lived any kind of normal life.

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  9. Mary said on February 10, 2007 at 10:51 am

    My God that looks cold!

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  10. Danny said on February 10, 2007 at 10:58 am

    …for her continuing sunny disposition in the face of adversity, I have to say that Anna Nicole Smith had a certain nobility and strength of character.

    You have an interesting point Michael. But her sunny disposition does bring to mind, “No brain, no pain.” She undoubtedly lived the “life unexamined.”

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  11. Danny said on February 10, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Plus, I’d guess her smile was more a pharmaceutical disposition.

    And let’s not forget, most of the unending crap-storm of her life was of her own making. You make choices, you live with the consquences. With a mother like her, it is no wonder her son died young. At least she won’t be around to screw up the infant girl’s life. Albeit, I’m sure someone else equally monsterous will.

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  12. brian stouder said on February 10, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    Watched the live TV coverage of Senator Obama’s speech in front of the Old State Capital in Springfield, Illinois today, and found it absolutely remarkable.

    I assume that most (if not all) of us in this folder love American history and consider it critically important (indeed indispensible) to understanding the here-and-now in the United States. On that basis, Obama’s conscious embrace of Abraham Lincoln’s ‘unfinished work’ struck me as altogether timely and exciting!

    Particularly invigorating is that, first, Obama drew a massive crowd into Springfield today (and it looked pretty cold!); second, he unabashedly utilized Lincoln’s rhetoric and his ideals, and applied them to 2007 America; and third, the political commentators also then had to talk about Lincoln and some of the speeches he gave at that same capital – particularly the House Divided speech.

    Ny way of saying, American ideals and American history are not simply cold, dead scribblings residing in dusty books on back shelves, nor superfluous and irrelevant ornaments that are dragged out every so often, and then packed away again. They can (and must) be applied to today’s challenges, where they will impell us (the people) to aspire to better ends.

    It is genuinely exciting to see a modern aspirant to the presidency of the United States, who tries to live up to the challenge posed by the legacy of our greatest president…and this as the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth approaches. If nothing else, it is a very healthy thing to put an unashamed appeal to political morality firmly into play.

    Good stuff!

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  13. ashley said on February 11, 2007 at 2:34 am

    Brian, I agree with your assessment of the speech. However, as a resident of New Orleans, I really don’t feel like we’re part of his America. Between the total omission of any mention of the Gulf Coast by POTUS during SOTU and Pelosi’s failure to include the Gulf Coast in her “100 hours”, we feel abandoned, and Barack doesn’t seem to be doing too much about it.

    So, sorry if I don’t share your excitement. I’m happy for you Americans.

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  14. Danny said on February 11, 2007 at 10:01 am

    Ash, though I am not comparing the criminal inattention to NO with our plight in SoCal, we see it here too. This state has not been in play politically for presidential elections since Reagan. Consequentally, both parties ignore us. We are overrun with illegal immigrants from south of the border and no one cares.

    So, we in Northern Baja California aren’t excited either.

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  15. Joe Kobiela said on February 11, 2007 at 4:04 pm

    Ashley,
    Please don’t take this wrong, I sympathise with you all down in New Orleans, I know it must be hard and it was a tragidy,but The city is below sea level and chances are this is going to happen again. How much money has been sent down there and where did it all go?? Is it not going to the people that need it? or is there a lot of corruption involved? It seems that the casino’s are up and running. How did that happen? Is it the people that refuse to help themselves that are complaing or is everyone still having trouble. It just seems to me that there has been more than a honest effort to help and I have not heard a lot of people say thanks. Maby the media just hasn’t covered that part of the story. Again I keep you all in our prayers, and hope things turn out ok.
    Joe

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  16. ashley said on February 12, 2007 at 12:54 am

    I won’t get mad I won’t get mad I won’t get mad…

    Joe, read this, for the latest on where the money has gone.

    The city is below sea level, as many ports are. BTW, this is the largest port system in the world in bulk tonnage. Would it not make sense to keep that?

    The casino, and there is only one in New Orleans, is guaranteed to make a certain profit, therefore should be open, especially since it was near the French Quarter.

    The French Quarter received the smallest impact from the federal flood and the hurricane.

    The federal government has, through the USACE, admitted responsibility for the failure of the levees, due to their incompetent design, building and maintenance. The federal government has not yet fulfilled on their promise to rebuild them to category 5 protection, and in fact, Mr. Bush has requested that some of that levee money be directed to other tasks.

    I am not aware of the “people that refuse to help themselves”. Perhaps you could enlighten me.

    And thanks to the people that contributed, but until the federal government rebuilds their criminally constructed levees, I will reserve thanks to them.

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  17. ashley said on February 12, 2007 at 3:16 am

    Here’s an article from Sunday’s WaPo that eloquently describes what’s going on here.

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  18. LA mary said on February 12, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    Danny
    Illegal immigrants do not displace thousands of people from their homes. Our economy here in California does get benefit from their labor, even if you think they are taking jobs citizens want, a point I would contest. To compare the impact of illegal aliens to the devastation of Katrina and our governments culpability is bogus.

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  19. Danny said on February 12, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    Schools, hospitals and prisons are overloaded and illegals comprise and overwhelmingly large part of that, as the non-partisan studies I posted indicated. Businesses get the benefits, individual citizens get the shaft in the form higher taxes, lower wages, higher insurance rates, poorer schools, higher traffic and lower quality of life.

    Interestingly, when I was in Greenville ,SC over the holidays, my wife’s cousin had taken a 15% paycut and may still loose his warehouse job from the influx of illegals. And forget medical coverage. He’s on his own.

    And the government is culpable. Both sides of the aisle are courting this growing demographic and to hell with the citizens and laws.

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  20. LA mary said on February 12, 2007 at 5:00 pm

    Danny
    We all benefit from cheap labor as well, and you should be aware of that whenever you eat out, buy groceries or clothing. It is not Katrina. There are no bodies in the streets and attics. There are not thousands of people suddenly homeless. You still have electricity and water and schools and hospitals and a roof over your head.
    Forget medical coverage for most low wage workers. It’s been a long time since workers could count on medical coverage or a pension or anything like that. Look at the parts of the country where unemployment is the worst. Is it from illegals?

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  21. Danny said on February 12, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    It is not Katrina. There are no bodies in the streets and attics. There are not thousands of people suddenly homeless. You still have electricity and water and schools and hospitals and a roof over your head.

    Which is why I said in my original post above:

    “Ash, though I am not comparing the criminal inattention to NO with our plight in SoCal, we see it here too.”

    So you see, on that point, we never disagreed. I’m just saying that the politicians don’t care about this area of the country either. Much is said, little is done.

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