Lemme see, they have skied or snow-shoed at Forbush, Beaver Creek, the ski ranch, Hartwick Pines, and the Mason Tract. It didn’t surprise me that the Mason Tract seemed to have been the trickiest/most squirrelly. It is a narrow up and down trail and it doesn’t get groomed for skiing (they were skiing today) except maybe for an occasional volunteer groomer. It follows the south branch of the Au Sable River and has an interesting history if y’all feel like googling “Mason Tract”. One of my main memories of skiing/hiking/whatever the Mason Tract is of watching a huge porcupine scale a tree. It’s a small memory but a good one. These places are all within an easy drive of the Hoton Lake Group Home, which we are always happy to share with younger family members and their friends. The pic is Hartwick Pines, I think. Snowy ski trails all kinda look the same after a while.

I feel like my uncle Austin of RAM fame may have had some involvement in the Mason Tract but I can’t remember why except that I think it is state land, and so would have been under Austin’s purview when he headed the Michigan DNR. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. He was more of an owls in the refrigerator guy than a bureaucrat.

Happy New Year! I was surprised by a text message this morning from my former work friend K, a wonderful Indian-American man and development WIZARD. I returned his kindness and assured him that I was FINE! Because I am. I don’t really expect to hear from former work friends. I know that’s not really how it all works, having been on the other side of this for many years. The survivor’s guilt can be crippling in terms of talking to laid-off former co-workers. At least it always was for me. But I really appreciated that text.

Haha, and then LinkedIn sent me some spam that PNC Bank was looking for business systems analysts. This cracked me up on so many levels. A couple of them are: 1) I have a looooong history with PNC (one that pre-dates *PNC* by many years) and it’s still my main bank of quick liquidity and 2) I am not looking for a job. Um, I was gonna retaaaar? I had something else to say but the GG just asked for a refill (he’s watching the Rose Bowl even though we don’t have a dog in this race) and it totally flew outta my head. You’re welcome!

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