Atmospheric river?
I don’t think it is an atmospheric river (and no one is calling it that) but man oh man did it rain today. The GG has been bugging me to get out and go for a ride in the county and although I like doing that, I haven’t really been in the mood lately. Of course, he has also wanted to go shopping at Cabela’s and I was not a fan. We’ll talk about my lifelong relationship with shopping (or not) some other day. I spend as little time as possible in bricks and mortar stores these days. Wasn’t always that way.
Anyway, he tried again to get me outta dodge today. This time shopping wasn’t mentioned and I was ready. For one thing, rain rides can be the best and this WAS a rain ride. Where’re we goin’? Manchester area (that’s southwest of the Planet Ann Arbor). Okay. I knew we would be taking back roads and we did. And here is one of them. It was very icy but navigable at a very slow speed.
We made our way from there to somewhere near Grass Lake, which is a village and a lake of the same name. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever been there before. Probably but can’t really remember. The GG suddenly backed up Cygnus X-1 and I was like, whut? Oh, because there were skeletons there. He took photos out the driver’s side window with both my phone and his. He thinks doe and fawn? Not sure but seems like the right sizes. Hope this pic is not too freaky. Growing up on Lake Superior, dead birds and aminals were always floating in and decaying (and sometimes dying slowly on the beach, which is worse). But I am used to looking at skeletons.
Eventually we turned back homeward and as I kind of expected, we ended up at Cleary’s Pub in Chelsea. It was raining SOOOO hard when we got there, that the GG dropped me off right outside the back door. I was NOT really under-dressed but 38 degrees and rain was a little bit more than my base layers and stuff could handle. I only had to go a few feet to get into Cleary’s but I was wet and freezing when I grabbed seats for us at the bar and ended up wearing his jacket for a while to warm up. I ordered a cabernet IMMEDIATELY, which helped me warm up, then a second to drink with my chili.
We heard an “explosion” a while ago. I was like, “What was that?” A couple years ago there was a propane explosion around this time of year that leveled a house 10 miles north of here and killed four people. I dunno what this was. People on the Ann Arbor Townies facebook group think it might have been thunder. I’m not sure. It’s a weird time of year for thunder but it happens and it’s rainy and actually pretty warm right now. That will change overnight.
December 28th, 2025 at 9:26 pm
38 and rain–ugly. It was 60s and rain here during our atmospheric river. (what we used to call the Pineapple Express) It’s colder now, more like winter. Stopping off for a couple drinks and dinner sounds lovely.
December 29th, 2025 at 9:34 am
I’ll have that image of the deer skeletons in my head all day. Not because it’s gruesome or unsettling — I get nature and the cycle of life, etc etc — but because I’m wondering why two deer died at the same time. Maybe a car accident? Yesterday I watched a huge crow pick up a dead mourning dove — who apparently crashed into my window and died — and then carry it to a nearby bird feeder and proceed to pluck off the feathers, dig in, and have a huge feast. Then he carried away part of his meal, maybe for family members.
I like to think of myself as a hardy soul, unafraid of the elements. But…I must say that driving on ice for recreation is not on my list of relaxing activities. Intrepid is the word that comes to mind. I’m aware that I live vicariously through your blog, and others, so when you travel, I travel. I now know more about Lake Superior that I ever knew in my life. Now that AI has ruined so much in our world, blogs by regular folk are the real, true news.