Wednesday, August 09, 2017
I traveled back to Michigan. I drove from Detroit to Michael and Greg's house in Bay City and we met for the first time in person. Michael was a blogger back in the old days. We had a very nice visit.
Then I drove north to Kingsley and arrived at Mother's house. Right before the 4th of July she fell and broke her ring finger. Apparently there was a small stroke involved. Her speech is affected, she mixes her pronouns and has a hard time thinking of certain words.
On the porch.
Mother has a horrible 3-pound poodle, Darby. The dog pees everywhere, it is gross. And it likes to molest Buddy cat.
Darby being romantic.
There were lilies blooming at Susan's house. I hadn't been back in August for a long time. The corn was growing tall.
Tiger lily.
I could hear sandhill cranes hooting every morning. I also saw turkeys, Canadian geese, cardinals, deer, a raccoon, and a skunk.
Brother.
I haven't been up there since 2002, when I attended my 20th high school reunion. Nothing really has changed in that town. The K-Mart has closed. The downtown seemed really dreary.
I had a great time at the reunion, catching up with people. I look nothing like I did back in 1982.
Then I drove north to Kingsley and arrived at Mother's house. Right before the 4th of July she fell and broke her ring finger. Apparently there was a small stroke involved. Her speech is affected, she mixes her pronouns and has a hard time thinking of certain words.
On the porch.
Mother has a horrible 3-pound poodle, Darby. The dog pees everywhere, it is gross. And it likes to molest Buddy cat.
Darby being romantic.
There were lilies blooming at Susan's house. I hadn't been back in August for a long time. The corn was growing tall.
Tiger lily.
I could hear sandhill cranes hooting every morning. I also saw turkeys, Canadian geese, cardinals, deer, a raccoon, and a skunk.
Sandhill cranes.
My Amish brother came north to Sault Ste. Marie where I went to attend my 35th high school reunion.
Brother.
I haven't been up there since 2002, when I attended my 20th high school reunion. Nothing really has changed in that town. The K-Mart has closed. The downtown seemed really dreary.
I had a great time at the reunion, catching up with people. I look nothing like I did back in 1982.
Bill, Mike, Melvin, Tom, Tom's wife, and Bill's wife.
Pennie, Homer, and Missy.
The reunion was held at the American Legion, right along the St. Mary's River. A 1000-ft ore ship passed by us after passing through the lock that separates Lake Superior from Lake Huron.
Ore freighter.
Mike and Mike.
The next morning I got up and went down to the locks to watch a couple of ships pass through. There is a 22 foot difference between the two lakes, and the ships go into the lock and the water is let out or in to raise or lower the ships.
Passenger vessel.
My brother and I drove back down and I handed him my camera to take a picture of the Mackinac Bridge.
Mackinac Bridge.
Back south I went and spent a couple of nights at Susan's house. I slept in the Fillmore bed, which once belonged to my great great great grandparents. They died in the early 1890s.
Fillmore bed.
The last day Mother and I went on a drive. We went past the house near Buckley where we lived between 1974 and 1979. The house has been fixed up a lot since we lived there, it looks much nicer. We moved to Sault Ste. Marie when my father had his mid-life crisis. The only good thing about that was that I was able to go to a much better school.
Buckley house.
Back in Arizona I got sent down to monitor heavy equipment along a creek near Nogales. Here I am waiting for them to pull a stuck bulldozer, something that took 6.5 hours.
Monitoring.
I had to stay there until almost 10 PM. I watched from a distance the heavy equipment. Fire flies blinked around me.
Heavy machinery.
Today I picked the four peaches from my peach tree (last year I had only one). This is the peach tree that grew from pits I tossed into my compost area. They aren't quite ripe, so I will be taking them along with me on my road trip that I am taking on Friday.
Peach.
