OK, so it doesn’t look springlike, but trust me — this is spring in Michigan. And this ice is unusual; the Free Press says so. People were driving down Lake Shore Road all weekend, snapping pictures of the pileup of floes. Some of the lakefront mansions are losing their seawalls. (Not that this constitutes a tragedy; I’m just reporting.)
This is not the most dramatic of the pileups, but it is my favorite picture.
Mmm, a nice weekend. We had a small dinner party Saturday night. I learned two things: If you start with a soup course, the rest of your timing better be great. (Mine was acceptable.) Also, nothing gets things off on the right foot better than a bottle of champagne. Forget serving it with dessert, by which point your guests will already be half-sloshed on the red and the white and the cocktails. Just pop open that sucker and get the little bubbles tickling noses early.
Today is the week’s busiest, and the rest of the week is front-loaded with deadlines. So in lieu of the usual, accept another picture. Oooh, look, a pretty flower:
Back later today or tomorrow.
cce said on March 12, 2007 at 7:08 am
I’ve got ice floes on my front walk, melting, freezing, melting, freezing…hell on the Mother in Law who came for the weekend. She’s from Miami, not steady on ice. We managed to get her through the weekend without a broken hip. But just.
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Connie said on March 12, 2007 at 9:50 am
We had a lovely sunny drive in Amish country on Saturday, where best sighting was a mechanical manure spreader being pulled by a couple of draft horses. Or maybe the high point was that sunny Sunday meal in a restaurant on a bluff high over Lake Michigan. Actually it was the sunshine both days that made me finally believe that winter is going to end.
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Pam said on March 12, 2007 at 9:53 am
The ice floes look very icy. Is that the floral arranger I gave you for Christmas? It looks so Zen, I like it! Your last post regarding free hand writing. Can’t do it anymore. When I write checks at the auctions, my hand sometimes takes over from my brain and makes wild swings and weird loops that I didn’t intend. Hand cramp occurs in minutes. I sometimes wonder if the the signature I have on file with the bank needs to be updated. Like they care. Spring is coming, oh joy!
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Dorothy said on March 12, 2007 at 10:06 am
Daffodils are up all over the place here. Windows were opened both days this weekend, and the temp here tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 77!!! Happy Happy, Joy Joy!!!
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LA mary said on March 12, 2007 at 11:59 am
It’s very hot and dry here, far too early in the season, and the brush fires are starting. We sort of skipped winter this year except for the freaky freeze, and went right into brush fire season. Ah, the seasons of LA: brush fire, mudslide, and tourist.
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LA mary said on March 12, 2007 at 6:55 pm
http://defamer.com/hollywood/thomas-kinkade/hollywood-really-truly-out-of-ideas-thomas-kinkade-painting-to-become-holiday-movie-243058.php
Don’t really know why, but I love this story and the comments it inspired.
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Danny said on March 12, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Wow, that was some funny stuff, Mary. I saw that story when it first posted, but did not get a chance to check back until now.
Now, I would normally preface the following as “Off-Topic,” but Nance kinda left us mesmerized by the pretty flower, so I take the cue that this is a free association thread.
The good. Robin not only okayed, but actualy suggested that I get a new bike. So i got the Trek Madone 5.2 SL. My first road bike. In the last three years I have put about 15k miles on a mountain bike. She figures I have shown this is more than a passing fad. Now I own this 16 lb carbon fibre beauty! And guess what? It is midnight blue. Love it!
The middling. A neighbor invited me on an organized ride Saturday. He said it was a 40-miler. No prob. Then Saturday morning comes and he’s made a mistake. It’s a 55-miler. So I acqiesce, figuring I can take the 40-mile cutoff. Well making long, short, I stayed the course, he and his buddies dropped out after i was already committed with the lead group, and after 64-miles and 5 hours, I’m home, but toast.
Truthfully, it was a great ride, but a about 15 miles too much. Thankfully I recovered by next day. Cool thing. About 15 of 70 finisgedd and three were girls. Strong professional girls. Wow. Way to go girls!
The bad. A neighbor asked yesdterday if I could talk to some kids that were taking up her whole parking lot playing basketball. I’m usually good with kids, so I thought to give it a try. It ended badly. Though I was polite, they were all belligerant and threatened to shoot me. Scary.
Later last night, I had a 46 minute face-to-face with one of the fathers. It turned out … OK … I guess, but the kids are obviously not being raised right.
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Dorothy said on March 13, 2007 at 7:59 am
Danny I admire your braveness in attempting to help that woman. It’s a scary thing when an offer to help turns around and bites you in the ass. And you have to live there. Maybe you’ll lead by example and they’ll come around.
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Danny said on March 13, 2007 at 11:25 am
Thanks, Dorothy. Needless to say, I have lost some sleep over this. Mostly thinking of ways to convince the boys come around to the right way of thinking. I have even considered inviting them to go with me the whole two blocks to the school that has over thirty basketball courts (as well as tennis courts and a lap pool I have swam in for 15 years). I am not very hopeful though. This behavior is really something that comes from their parents.
I’m just the white guy with crazy talk and crazy athletic skills.
I just really feel sorry for the woman. She is utterly intimidated and gets screamed at and stared down regularly by both the boys and their parents. The other neighbors are just afraid to say anything.
This will be addressed by the HOA, but that will take time and will only get coerced results, not changed hearts.
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LA mary said on March 14, 2007 at 6:11 pm
We had kids who were breaking into the basketball courts at 2am or so every night, playing basketball, blasting their boomboxes, getting drunk and smashing beerbottles. This is next to my house. When I would confront them I’d get threatened, and when I spoke to parents I was shouted down. When I called the cops, the parents threatened me. My favorite line was, “if they can’t play ball here, they’ll be out robbing 7-11s. It keeps them out of trouble.” I think breaking and entering and drinking illegally in the middle of the night IS trouble. I also think that those parents don’t have much confidence in their kid’s abilities if they think all the kid is capable of is robbing convenience stores and playing small time gangster.
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Danny said on March 16, 2007 at 12:04 am
Sorry to hear you had to go through that, Mary. At least it sounds like it is (well) in the past.
Currently, our plan is to team up with the gal who is having the problem. My wife recently became president of the HOA and as I type, she is typing an email to the police community laison officer. The advice, so far, seems encouraging.
Our neighbor (the woman) has hours of surveillance video of these acts. Just the other night, I witnessed that within three minutes of basketball playing, they hit two cars. So we are going to pursue the matter on two fronts, through the HOA channels and through the police by reporting vandalism. I’ll give everyone an update as things progress.
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LA mary said on March 16, 2007 at 11:01 am
Actually one of those kids is now an adult and still hangs out in the basketball court. He dropped out of school in the 11th grade and has never held a job for more than a week or so. He plays a lot of basketball, smokes dope, and lives with his mother.
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