Lots of weird little errands today. Fuel pump for the Motor Bote. Check. Art fair. Check. Yooperland nightlight, Native American card, Besteman maple syrup, raffle ticket for a bee-yoo-tiffel wooden canoe, schmoozefest between the GG and the folks at the Historical Society (who did a double-take when he told them my name — yeah, I am Jack & Fran’s daughter). We’re pretty sure that The Comm donated a collection of Great Lakes Red Books to the historical society. If so, they went to a good organization.

MICROWAVE OVEN! Yes. The GG found one he thought I might like at The Commander’s fave appliance store here in Sault Ste. Siberia. A family-owned place. He dragged me in there today to look at it. I wasn’t 100% impressed. I would’ve liked a smaller one but this one isn’t tooooooo big and it has 1200 watts and we wanted wattage. I was prepared to nix it but a little voice said something like, “Just buy it KW.” The GG wants a microwave and you will use it sometimes too. And so we did…

The fun began when I handed over my debit card. The one with my name on it. The woman looked at my card and said, “We are related!” And yes, I think we are. She was talking so fast I had a little trouble processing all of it at the time but later, after I had scrounged a lunch and dragged a whole lot of stuff out on to the deck in order to run Rooooomba and was sitting on the beach, I figured out that, if I followed my new-found relative’s narrative accurately, she is my dad’s 2nd cousin, which means that she and I are 2nd cousins once removed. It wasn’t until then that I realized that the somewhere-around-my-age son who was working there today was probably my [drum roll] THIRD COUSIN.

What fun! I was processing a *lot* of information but I was also looking for a family resemblance. I’m not sure I found one in terms of appearance, well not much with meeee anyway, but then I realized that the resemblance was that she and I both keep track of family stories and relationships, or at least we try to. And we both talk fast (although I think she is more social than I am) and we are both pretty damn spry! This doesn’t mean that we will start meeting for lunch or spending Christmas together but a whole new dimension was added to my life today.

I do like to buy things up here in the yooperland if the stars are aligned in the right way. The 2008 meltdown is kind of a long time ago now but I remember being on a North Country Trail hike around that time and somebody asked various Eastern Upper Peninsula folks how the meltdown was affecting folks in the area. The answer was something along the lines of, “It’s been bad here forever and it isn’t any different now.” Good answer. There are folks up here who do well (my fam, for example (make no mistake, we are not within the ranks of Donald Trump or whoever, I just mean we can pay the rent)) but many many many people do not. My appliance store relatives seem to be doing just fine but I am glad to buy a microwave oven from a relative rather than Lowe’s or even Big George.

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