It’s right here waiting for one of our crazy little red squirrels to knock it off the back moomindeck railing.

My grandfather purportedly “trained” those little red squirrels to eat out of his hand. Peanuts I think? Not sure. Radical Betty (his daughter and my aunt) also had a friendly relationship with them but I’m not sure if she fed them. Me? I (sorta) enjoy when they chase each other at high speed across the moomindeck but I don’t try to feed them. Sometimes I thump the deck to scare them off. Too much childhood scarification about rabies maybe? I don’t know that red squirrels are particularly rabies carriers but I guess any aminal can be. Including human beings. Read “Their Eyes Were Watching God”.

I had a nice sloooowww day today. I slept with the GG in the Lyme Lounge and it was windy and raining when I woke up but it was not cold so I just slodged along in my sleeping bag until oh I dunno 7:30 or so. That’s about the upper limit for me to get up. And I love sleeping in my sleeping bag BTW, and it’s especially nice since I washed it at the laundromat yesterday morning. Plus the GG scoured the Lyme Lounge inside and out yesterday. The weather was up and down today. Cold and warm. Variable winds. Sun and clouds.

And I am done done done for tonight, not that I had anything much to say anyway. Love y’all, KW.

So this dude was waiting for me on the moomindeck when I returned from the Up North laundromat (and the reee-cycle and Meijer) this morning.

I am NOT NOT NOT NOT a Trump/MAGA fan, as many bloggy friends probably know. I was for Biden and now I am Kamala all the way. So I am not sure what to make of this dude or why he appeared on my deck. I would like to think that the “skeletor” representation of Trump/MAGA means something like a death knell for that campaign. Like has the other person in my divided household seen the “light”? Probably not. Alas.

I have never understood what people see in Trump/MAGA. Everything that Trump spews indicates that he has ONE agenda. Meee meee meee (aka Trump Trump Trump). He does not care one iota about anyone else. Why don’t people understand that? Serious question.

Nevertheless, I kinda like this dude on my deck. He didn’t put that cap on and doesn’t know what it means. And he’s kinda cute.

And I’m kinda done done done for tonight. We got porterized and then ate a late dinner (sea scallops with greens and rice) and we’re gonna take freezer chocolate chip cookies over to the Old Cabin.

And so g’night.

I dunno how many times the GG butt dialed me today but it was a few. Maybe he needs to put his phone in a different location when he is driving?

At one point we actually connected on the phone and he (again) asked me what kind of beast I wanted him to buy at our fave Best Choice butcher and fine food emporium near the Hoton Lake Group Home. He tends to get confused between prime rib and rib eye steaks. He has tried to order prime rib there a few times. Problem? They don’t carry it! They have wonderful rib eyes though. I think he actually asked for the right thing today.

So, everyone in the fambly was driving today except yer fav-o-rite blahgger. The GG drove from The Planet Ann Arbor to the moominbeach. One beach urchin drove from The Planet Ann Arbor to Fishtown, where she hopes to catch a ferry to South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. Sometimes that doesn’t work out so I wish her luck. The other beach urchin drove (actually the Racc drove) from near the Planet Ann Arbor to near Traverse City. Actually near to Interlochen where I spent a couple of summers playing the flute at an acclaimed music camp. Everyone made it safely, thank you very much. The Interlochen folks are staying at a B&B and it was pronounced something like “on the shabby side but comfortable.” I replied with “sounds like home.”

Because this is my view of the moomincabin living room from my work area. (I am not working from the Lyme Lounge this summer because I’m mostly here alone, at least during working hours.) So, kinda shabby roight? Except for the new (last summer) Ikea sectional, that is. Shabby or not, I actually think my moom, a thoroughly mid-century modern moom, did a pretty good job helping design this cabin. The picture windows are salvaged storefront windows from somewhere in Sault Ste. Siberia and the windows at the bottom of the ladder are cool vintage Andersens.

We had heavy rain and some thunder this morning. That was good but man oh man it was GLOOMY in the cabin this morning. It was gloomy enough that I actually turned on a *light*. I don’t usually do that. I enjoy living with whatever ambient light is available. Screens help with that. Of course I turn on lights when I need them like in the kitchen, etc. and I did have kitchen lights on.

After a work day of rabbit holes and archaeological digs, I ate some leftovers and made a ‘hattan and took it down to the beach.

I texted my cousin Pooh “on the bench” and she replied with “be right down”. We sat there together for at least an hour watching the sun go down behind the “marine layer” that rolled in this evening. I won’t even try to describe our convo but we had so much fun remembering our childhood and the moominbeach and just talking. Religion and politics for a couple topics. We are aligned on those.

I didn’t think the GG was gonna be back until Saturday but he seems to want to be back at “the Soo” tomorrow so he may arrive earlier than I expected. He will have to deal with whatever scrabbly old things I can cook tomorrow. It’s okay, I will manage to figger something out and I don’t even think I will have to go to Meijer. I hope he can manage to get to the Plum Market to snag some sea scallops but if he doesn’t it’ll be okay.

I love being able to text people here at the moominbeach. If we are out of baking sode or whatever, I can text the Old Cabin “do you have baking soda?”. Back in the day when I often watched my daughters and nieces (four children) on the beach I would have loved to be able to text my nieces’ parents (or anyone) up at the cabin, “I have to pee”. Lifeguard duty is of the utmost importance and I loved doing it but somehow no one ever thought about spelling me for a pee break.

I fit the flute gal stereotype. Female with long blonde hair. Roight. That was me. But I was also VERY GOOD. In fifth grade, I went through the beginning Rubank book in about a week, even though I was issued just about the worst flute on earth. I got through it all anyway. My parents did not have a lot of money then but they managed to buy me a new flute, which at least worked. Jeebus. I went on to be a flute performance major in college.

A facebook friend called me a spoiled flute girl after I posted a moominbeach sunset and interacted with another old friend with the location and a *brief* and incomplete history – grandparents bought it 100 years ago. I am okay with the spoiled girl comment because I know the person well enough to know he has an interesting sense of humor. What he may not know (or remember) is the shabby little bungalow my brother and I grew up in on Superior Street in Sault Ste. Siberia. We were not rich although we never lacked for anything.

Meeee? Spoiled? Eeehh I dunno. Probably somewhat. The main thing I have been spoiled by is the moominbeach. We (all of my cousins and me) are kinda spoiled by this place. Our grandparents bought this beach 100 years ago and me and my cousins still own property here. There are so many people my age around this area who remember cabins their grandparents owned but were unable (or maybe unwilling?) to keep them in the family.

P.S. That is a TERRIBLE posture for playing the flute.

I have a lot of thoughts percolating but instead of trying to sort them out, I succumbed to a text message to see my cousin’s new toy next door. A sewing musheen she actually got at Walmart. I don’t go into Walmart if I can avoid it, at least not the “new” Walmart. It makes me kind of dizzy. I’m talking about the Sault Ste. Siberia Walmart. The Planet Ann Arbor Walmart is moiles away from The Landfill and the last time I went there was with a couple of work buddies to buy Halloween decorations for a luncheon. It *is* close to the long abandoned Cubelandia.

The musheen is a Brother, which isn’t a bad brand. I didn’t realize Walmart sold sewing musheens but back when we had the “old” Walmart, they did sell fabric and I bought quite a bit of it there. Within something like 20 years, Walmart built a store here in Sault Ste. Siberia, then abandoned it and built a new one on the other side of Old US2. That seemed like a huge waste to me and I’m not sure the space the old Walmart was in has been filled with anything yet. I have been in the new one but I don’t remember it selling fabric or sewing musheens. I have to admit that it took me more than a minute to *remember* where the old Walmart was. It was in the old Glen’s grocks plaza, which is on the other side of the I75 SUV Speedway from Meijer. I am so used to going to Meijer (which I can drive to without even dealing with one stinkin’ traffic light) I got a little confused there for a minute. Glen’s is long gone but the plaza is still there and the only thing I can think of that’s there is Tractor Supply although I know there are other stores. Nowhere I shop in any case. Not even Tractor Supply.

I will end this stream of consciousness now. You’re welcome.

Make no mistake, those days are not gone. People are still getting covid and some people are still dying from it and waste water testing continues to show high rates of virus in many communities.

We’re just not masking these days, even yer fav-o-rite blahgger although she STILL doesn’t hang out in big crowds in indoor spaces. But she never *has* enjoyed that kind of activity. Maybe when she was a College Girl 😉 She grock shops [mostly] early in the morning when there aren’t a lot of people around and she would go out to restaurant lunches more often if there were people around to go out for lunch with. But she’s also back to work this week, so going out to lunch isn’t really an option anyway. (Okay, good morning, my virtual VPN took forever to cycle up but when it did, there was iDeep on chat with a difficult question. Back in the saddle! Yippie-i-oh-ki-yay)

Okay, this was summer 2020 and I tried in vain to get these Womb Mates to NOT hang out close together when they went on a hiking/camping trip. Did they listen to me? We don’t need no stinkin’ masks! We were in the womb together, we can share airborne viruses and not get sick. (Not.) They were in the Lyme Lounge for this pic and I’m sure they put on the masks just to harass me. I’m sure the masks came off as soon as the pic was taken. Like how do we eat or drink a little snort through this cloth.

Nobody got covid on that trip. When I did get covid, it was January 2022, in the middle of the “omicron surge”. And these guys gave it to me, at least the one on the left. “Yeah, we ran in to Apple Pie in the woods.” Apple Pie is a North Country Trail through-hiker and she had “a cold”. Ignoring the fact that the “cold” was probably the original omicron covid variant, I’m sure hugs abounded. And it was covid. Because the womb mates both got it and brought it home to their wives, meee and The Beautiful Gay. I was probably the least sick of the four of us. Mild cough. I’ve had regular old colds that were a hell of a lot worse.

As viruses tend to do, covid seems to have mutated to be milder. All the while, those who it infects slowly build immunity to it by vaccines or infections. If a virus kills its hosts, it’s not likely to survive as a species. Something like that. I know it’s a lot more complicated than what I just said.

I’ll start with my usual disclaimer: I AM NOT NOT NOT NOT A TRUMP FAN.

Okay, that’s outta the way. I have been driving by this flag on my way to get grocks or do laundry, etc. all summer. I’d say the flag is a bit outdated nowadays. Or maybe it’s just Joe they hate and they like Kamala? Naw. I doubt it. But the flag is still there or at least it was yesterday. I did not leave the moominbeach today. Honestly, even a Trump voter that I know doesn’t like the flag. That is saying something.

For about a split second, I contemplated putting a Kamala sign in my Planet Ann Arbor yard. I would NEVER put up ANY political sign here on the moominbeach. Not all of the neighbors agree with my politics but I love them anyway. I mean really. People are complicated and we have to get along with each other and I won’t let politics divide us. We’ve all known each other absolutely forever. Down on the Planet, most of my neighbors are probably Kamala supporters but I live in a divided house and I’ll forgo yard signs there too.

I have put up exactly ONE yard sign down on the Planet Ann Arbor. It was when one of my friends ran for school board. My (then) neighbor Hans was a little freaked out, thinking we were putting The Landfill up for sale. No such luck, Hans. Actually we were wonderful friends he didn’t want us to move but he’s long dead now and that’s a whole ‘nother story. And actually at that time, real estate yard signs were illegal on The Planet Ann Arbor but that has since changed.

Anyway my friend (MMCB₂) did get elected to the school board but when her 3-year term was coming to an end, she decided not to run again. Too much infighting, jockeying for higher political positions (i.e., state reps, etc.) for her taste. Everything but educating the kids on the Planet Ann Arbor. 20 years later with her grandchildren attending the schools, it hasn’t gotten any better. She is now involved again but in a very back seat role with a group that is trying to recruit/entice/whatever BETTER people to run for school board.

In 2016, when I still drove to an actual office to work, I got into the Ninja one morning. The Lyme Lounge was in front of me in the driveway as I started her up and YIKES there was a Trump magnet on the back of it. I panicked a bit and drove to work wondering what the f*ck? By the time I got to work (on my zen commute) I remembered that he had been at his ID twin’s house and had probably been pranked. He and I may not be politically aligned but he does NOT like to promote his politics by signage so that thing disappeared PDQ. Uh, he does wear some objectionable t-shirts but we’ll go there some other day.

I mean, laundry is always to be waited for although occasionally I zip over to Pat’s Grocks or the reee-cycle center while the washing musheen at the excellent Up North Laundry is running. 25 minutes a wash – I can do it.

Today my plan was to sit outside on one of the benches and wait for my laundry. Ma Natcher had other ideas. First it was c-c-c-cold. Being a native yooperlander, I could’ve planned my clothing better. But usually downtown Sault Ste. Siberia is 10 degrees warmer in the morning than the moominbeach so I wore my polar fleece *vest* instead of my polar fleece *jacket*. Brrrrrr. I needed sleeves so I went inside. When the washing musheen finished I looked outside and the street (and bench) was totally drenched.

I hit the reee-cycle on my way to a mad dash at Meijer. Where I forgot to bring my phone inside. It wasn’t in my zip pocket because it was plugged into Cygnus so I could safely receive the usual round of morning puzzle texts from one of my beach urchins. This caused me more panic than was necessary. What is on my list (which is on my phone)? Well, nothing much KW, this is a grab and dash, remember? Did I lock Cygnus? I ALWAYS lock Cygnus (and I can lock her from my phone). I RESTRAINED MYSELF from going outside to get my phone. I mean I was in enough of a panic that I’d’ve maybe tried to take my cart, which already had a couple items in it, out with me. And get arrested for shoplifting? Way to go, KW.

Back out to the moomin to organize a Green Bag of Garbage and take it up to the res to the Green Bag Dump. Whew! After I dealt with the laundry and the few grocks I bought, I wanted to read on the moomindeck for a while. Problem? A raging northwest wind was blowing by then and it was too c-c-c-cold to sit on the moomindeck.

The GG did a day of trail work and it rained intermittently but HARD on his crew. Although in the pic he sent me from the bar in Strongs after their work day, it looked like everyone was in fine form despite the rain. (There were lots of aminal heads on the walls and I have to go there.) Oh yeah, and then he put his shoes next to the propane heater while he was in the shower and proceeded to melt them. I smelled… something foul… But failed to check it out. Fun times.

The pic is from a visit to the Old Cabin last night. Those windows look out onto the “sleeping porch” and beyond that, our bay. When I stayed there summers as a kid, it was totally a sleeping porch but now a couple beds share space with a dining table. It’s a pleasant place to sleep or eat in any case. I have vague memories of opening those sliding glass windows and tumbling back and forth from the main room (where I’m standing) to the sleeping porch. I don’t remember doing it very often. I’m guessing it was NOT something our parents condoned.

That’s what one of my daughters said once. The other one would often say things like, “I’m going to find a*nother* mother.” You might be able to guess which one said which.

Whatever they said as young children, I seem to be stuck to them. I am happy about that. I know that there are adult children who have distanced themselves from their parents. That hasn’t happened to me, thank whatever god-like entities might actually be watching over me. I don’t think it’s because I’m some super mom. In fact I have made umpteen bazillion parenting mistakes. The Reading Chair and Dark Walk and Indian In The Cupboard On The Beach were not mistakes but we’ll go there some other day.

I don’t really want to talk about how good or bad a parent I was/am. It’s about the fact that I AM a MOM. I am many other things, used-to-be musician, on-again-off-again fiber artist, systems analyst, etc. Whatever else I am, I am still a mom.

Today was one of a series of travel days for my children. I mean that one of them left today to drive from the moomincabin to the Planet Ann Arbor. I don’t actively worry about my children when they are traveling and they are GOOD about texting when they are in a safe place (for texting) like a rest area or gas station or whatever. Or HOME! But I am always a wee bit on edge when they are on the road or flying or whatever. And I am always glad to get that 🏡. That simple text is all I need and when I got it today, I relaxed.

The pic is older than dirt. I was in my later 30s (and I’m looking like my dad in this particular photo). Those children have long been independent adults. We look loverly together there on that bench in front of the McNott cabin but that doesn’t mean that an hour later, after we returned to the moomincabin, one of us (maybe me) didn’t have a tantrum or whatever. I’m not saying anyone *had* a tantrum, just that it could well have happened and I just don’t remember 🤣

My moominbeach impatiens are happy as hell today because although you might not be able to tell, we got a gully washer this afternoon. Beautiful beautiful rainstorm. No thunder. That would’ve been fun but we’ll take what we can get. My mouse had watered the impatiens yesterday thinking they looked a little dry (I agreed) but natural rain is the best for flowers and we got it in spades this afternoon. We have tons of impatiens. This is only one pot.

After the rainstorm, the winds switched to the northwest and now there is a good windstorm coming on to the moominbeach.

My favorite Kamala story of the day (yes I am a supporter)? She and Walz were at a rally in Detroit (I think). People in the crowd started chanting “Lock Him Up”. Meaning Trump of course. Kamala? She regained control of the crowd and said something like, “No. The courts will settle that. We’re gonna beat him in November.” To my mind, she knows he is a convicted felon (and not an appropriate president) but she has decided to “go high” as the Obamas have said. And no, MAGA, the Obamas do NOT control the presidency. That’s a conspiracy theory.

On the other hand, I half-heard Trump going on and on about how to pronounce Kamala’s name? That is a campaign strategy? Whut? Please y’all let’s get rid of this orange idiot. I hope “we” do beat him in November but I am on the edge of my seat about that. But go Kamala.

Oh, BTW, when we are woken up at 10:40 PM, by someone who has droven in, we are not up for cocktails. We luv y’all anyway but just sayin’ 🐽

What did I do today?

I cooked bacon and hash browns for breakfast. I stayed outta the fray while my mouse did the dishes and made a breakfast bagel sandwich for the Racc, who (alas) had to leave this morning.

I went to Meijer for the second day in a row. I did not plan on that but it was what it was. I went to Meijer three days in a row last week. I don’t think I will have to go there again until Saturday.

I went SWIMMING today!!! Actually that means I walked out to where the water was waist deep. I’m not sure if I was beyond the second sandbar or not. I kinda lost count. And then I dunked. It was very hot on the beach this afternoon and it felt really good to dunk in Gitchee Gumee. I also felt/feel really clean.

A beach urchin was floating in one of the alien entities. She had her phone and a book with her.

I cooked salmon piccata for dinner. The Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie had made noises about coming over for cocktails and dinner but although he drove by on the back road, he never showed up. It’s okay. We never really know if he will show up or not but we are flexible and we love him anyway.

We ate on the moomindeck and then my mouse and I did the dishes and then we tried to go back outside but the MOE-skee-TOES drove us back inside.

We are fam-i-leeee. I’ve got all my cousins and me.

G’night.

Can I allow myself to be cautiously optimistic? About the upcoming election, that is? I didn’t know much about Tim Walz at all but what little I’ve seen about him since the pick, I like. I love love love our own governor Big Gretch but my eyes were actually on Mark Kelly. I don’t think a two-woman ticket would fly in any way shape or form although I think women are just as capable of running countries as men are. I hope against hope our country is ready for a female president, not to mention a woman of color. I am certainly ready for any color besides orange. But the Great Lake State needs Gretchen until her term ends. After that, if she wants to run for president, I am all for it.

From what sound bites I’ve heard about Walz, I don’t quiiite understand why a person who owns gun(s) can be labeled a communist or socialist or or even far left radical. I mean, since Trump hi-jacked the GOP (and YES MAGA, he DID hi-jack it, don’t argue with me), *I* have been called many of those labels and *technically* *I* am a gun owner albeit I have inherited those guns and have never shot one in my life. And I don’t intend to unless big bugs from outer space invade the earth. On the other hand, does anyone think that “communists” don’t use guns? Kim Jong Un, anyone? Is he really a communist or just a regular old dictator? I don’t really know where I’m going with this but if we are going to use labels to put people into boxes, we need to define those labels.

A fun conversation with various people interrupted this and I have totally lost my train of thought. There are all kinds of exotic sunset pictures and I have taken a few of them myself. This is a bit of a different kind of sunset pic but I think it qualifies. I took a few similar ones but I liked this one the best partly because the Old Cabin is in the background.

Love y’all, g’night, KW.

The photo is one my mouse sent me from her adventure hiking on the North Country Trail over near Marquette, Michigan. I was surprised (but not that surprised) to hear that Marquette has a Meijer store. I think the Sault Ste. Siberia Meijer was the first yooperland store (pre covid). I have Planet Ann Arbor friends from the Marquette area who were amazed that *we* had a Meijer at that time. Now the Marquette friends have a Meijer too. I love that and also love that my mouse and racoon are camping a few miles away from the Marquette Meijer. Plus they are camping right next to the North Country Trail.

I posted the frog picture because… This afternoon, I heard a lot of noise a couple of cabins down. That cabin had a faaaar back in the spring. It was built before I was born and a family of nine children spent time there. They didn’t spend the whole summer at their cabin like my family did but their home in town was on the river so if the water was calm enough they would drive their motorbote up the river from their house to their cabin. The dad (a friend of my dad’s) would drive the bote right up onto the beach and all the kids would jump out.

So many years later, the oldest daughter and her husband own that cabin. Alas, it caught on faaar in the spring. They have decided to tear it down and rebuild it. I have pictures of the demolition but I am not going to post them because I think this is extremely difficult for my childhood friend. Even though I doubt she knows I am a blahgger.

I actually read an entire book today. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. I encountered the book (The Caretaker by Ron Rash) on NPR a while back and I loved it. We won’t talk about the book I read before that. It included ghosts of all sorts, some “real” and some not, and all kinds of family drama that I couldn’t totally parse. Editor anyone?

This is my 30-something daughter doing something with her iPhone at the moomincabin. I birthed this daughter (my first of two) when I was 30.

At that time, we didn’t have cell phones at all, at least those of us who were driving our babies around in little Ford Fiestas didn’t. The moomincabin did not have a telephone at all. Or maybe it did. I’m not exactly sure when we first got telephones here. My doctor-uncle had one forever but that was because docs need to be on call to deliver babies or sew people’s noses back onto their faces or whatever. My uncle was a talented GP and did a whole lot of things, baby delivery being one of them and maybe one of the more fun things, at least most of the time.

My old coot was an early adopter of cordless phones (at least on the moominbeach) and I remember him sitting on the beach calling his childhood friend Ag on her cordless two cabins away.

Eventually I got my first iPhone (2007) and when I came up here with it I was totally astounded that I could actually post something to the internet with my phone, not via the dial-up modem. It was slow but it worked.

Fast forward through 4G and DSL modem and eventually fiber optic… People who hear that I telecommute from the moominbeach often ask how my service is. It is top notch!

BTW this dates meeeee but the person in the photo is at the upper end of 30-something. But isn’t she beautiful?

Yesterday I got a *text message* saying that the GG’s absentee ballot had been received and checked in but mine had not. I mailed mine last Monday from the moominbeach (aka the Brimley post office) so I was a little worried. This afternoon I got an *email* from a2.gov saying my ballot had been received, signature verified, and checked in. Ready to be counted when the time comes.

Okay. After discussing this with the GG, my brain lit a light bulb. Wait! Ballot status is a private matter between the voter and the governmental unit collecting and processing the ballots. It isn’t any of their business whether or not they’ve received your spouse’s ballot, assuming your spouse voted (mine did). Not to mention the message came from an odd non-A2 phone number and not *exactly* an 800 number either. So probably some kind of weird “phishing” scam? At least I did not try to reply to it.

Anyway, the GG and I both voted (he was also notified by email). We probably canceled each other’s votes out but since he fixed the shower head and a whole bunch of other crapola in this quirky old cabin today, I think I will keep him around ANYWAY.

A “boring” day around here. The first thing was that when I went to put the shower head up into its holder, the holder fell apart. Like broken plastic. Okay, I guess my solo trip to the laundromat will have to morph to include the GG because he will have to go to the hardware store to buy a part to fix the shower head. Well. Also. Maybe he can return the empty beer/water cans as well. While I monitor the laundry.

We were (minorly) worried that a part for the shower fixture might not be available and we’d have to buy a whole new shower head. A part was readily available and that part was easy. Returning the cans? Three stops! I suggested Pat’s grocks but their can return didn’t open until 10 AM. So he went to Walmart and their can return was closed because they are apparently re-doing the whole thing. So he ended up at Meijer, which was where I tried to return cans a few days ago but couldn’t because the musheens were blocked by people with carts full of cans. Himself? He was alone in the can return area today.

Later, Himself and Le Marquis both suggested to just leave the cans there or offer them to other customers. Duh? Why the heck did I not think of that? I maybe had five dollars worth of cans. I would have been happy to donate that to someone who needed a bit of extra cash. Live and learn.

Oh yeah, and then Lizard Breath and I took a Green Bag of Garbage up to the “new” “dump” on the res. Partly so she would know where it was and how it works — you stop and a friendly gentleman comes out and takes your garbage bag(s) out of your trunk. LB was lucky enough to get a mini-tour of where the “old” dump was. The one I went to with my parents when I was a kid. We saw Le Marquis and The Grand Poohbah biking to the Dancing Crane Coffeehouse on our way back but we didn’t honk at them. Partly because we didn’t recognize them until we were past them but also because I don’t like to honk at pedestrians or cyclists.

This area is not known for an abundance of fancy cuisine but there are some pretty good restaurants around. When I’m here and want to eat at a restaurant, I prefer to go out to lunch and spend the evening at the moomincabin. Unless the weather is bad, I prefer restaurants that are nearby, meaning in the town of Brimley or on the res. Less driving time allows us more beach time.

Pickles was our choice today and we were able to snag a table on the deck (it was not busy in the early afternoon). I always get the same thing, the one-piece whitefish basket. I eat the coleslaw that comes with it (even though it’s mayo based, long discussion about mayo at lunch) but I never eat more than a few of the chips. The fish does not disappoint.

This view from our table got me in a bit of a story-telling mode. I am not sure exactly how true this story is but it’s one I’ve been told multiple times in my life and my daughters have heard it too. I can’t verify it because the original source (my grandmother) is long gone as are almost all of my parents’ generation. Whatever, it’s a good story.

In the pic, we are looking at Bay Mills Point. It is a mile or so from the little burg of Brimley (on the map it’s along the green lines indicating Highway 221 through town). The red line I drew on the map is where the remains of a train trestle lie sunken under the water. At least my busy little brain *thinks* that’s the location of the trestle. As the ACTUAL location is known, I guess I could look it up but I’m not gonna do it tonight. But it doesn’t really matter for the story. A train trestle used to cross the bay. (The moominbeach is about three miles to the right – east – of Brimley.)

My grandmother lived in Bay Mills when she was a teenager and attended high school in Brimley. At that time, the Bay Mills area was heavily industrial (now it is totally residential, homes and seasonal cabins). Trains crossed the bay to and from Bay Mills on the trestle and so did high school kids like my grandmother. My grandmother was born in 1888 so if you do the math, you may realize there weren’t a lot of automotive vee-hickles around when she went to high school, so no school bus.

The story is that when a train came along, my grandmother and her friends had to climb down over the side of the trestle to let the train by. I have a pretty hard time visualizing this but that’s what I’ve been told. I *imagine* that since the train’s terminus (I think) was in Bay Mills, it was not traveling at a great speed when crossing that trestle in either direction.

How’d it get to be August? I do not know. As much as I hate to leave here I probably should go back down to the Landfill for a couple weeks before one final moominbeach hurrah before the snow flies. But not quiiiiite yet. If at all… … …

Quick quick quick run to Meijer this morning for more grocks if you can believe it. Only one bag’s worth though. Probably need to make another run tomorrow though because we ran out of propane while grilling “hamberders” tonight (plus more grocks). After the propane miscalculation, much discussion ensued about how pink was too pink. I always buy top grade ground beef or sirloin. I wasn’t worried about it but I understand that others are. The burgers were a special request from the GG. We don’t eat them often. It’s a bun problem mainly. If I could buy burger buns individually, we’d have them a lot more often but two people cannot eat eight burgers (and their buns) in one sitting and burger buns do not do well in the freezer in my opinion. Tonight we had enough people around to actually eat most if not all of the burgers and their buns.

I am laughing because the beach urchins were discussing whether or not to take towels and bathing suits and things off the clothesline for the night. As a kid, I was totally OCD about pulling everything off the line before going to bed at night. Now? Eh. Not so much. Not that that’s a good thing. In the end, tonight, we decided it was probably okay to leave things on the line overnight. It ain’t gonna rain and it ain’t gonna get cold. I don’t think. So.

That is about all I have. I didn’t think I had anything but sometimes when you let your thoughts simmer and life is going on around you, things start bubbling up, boring as they may be.

Photo from the deck a few days ago during the gully washer that washed away the Pinesol smell.

Love y’all. G’night, KW.

Recycle and grocks today. The moomincabin is not a large space so I am constantly dealing with garbage and reeeecycle and whatever.

Today I had quite a bit of recycle and a ton of grocks to buy so I headed in to town (Sault Ste. Siberia). I had my recycle stuff in re-useable grock bags so I took that stuff first, then bought umpteen bazillion things at Meijer. Yikes. How many people did I ask for help finding something? 1) Garlic cloves. 2) Evaporated milk. 3) That water that my husband always buys but I couldn’t remember the name. Oh yeah, La Croix. I am friendly to all these people and joked around with all of them. And when I found the La Croix (in the next aisle) I yelled over the wall, “La Croix, I found it!”

I was annoyed that I had a grock bag full of empty returnable cans but I could NOT return them. Why? There were three can return musheens and ALL of them were in use by women with carts FULL of cans. I did not have time to wait for them and was pretty annoyed. Much later, after a convo with a beach urchin, I wondered if they were collecting cans to supplement their income. I have known people who, even with well-paying jobs, collect cans. Still, maybe Meijer needs an express return musheen for people with small numbers of cans because now there’s a grocery bag of cans rattling around in the back of Cygnus.

A beach urchin engineered and cooked dinner tonight and just as we were about to eat, our neighbor-cousin The Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie appeared by the back deck. He needed some phone help (charging cable) and we helped him with that but we also snagged him for a cocktail and dinner. And then. We snagged the Old Cabin neighbor-cousins for a wee partay on the moomindeck to connect with our mutual cousin (The Grinchie).

Both beach urchins are here tonight 🧡 and their SOs will be here tomorrow. Love our time together admidst our cousins. Miss the two generations that precede us on this beach.

I was listening to an NPR talk show where Kamala’s views were being discussed by various guests. This was NOT an interview with Kamala or a campaign event. They were discussing her views throughout her career and the pros and cons of those as they may help or hurt her campaign. They said some things that were hard to hear for a Kamala supporter. They are going to do the same thing with JD tomorrow. I intend to listen to tomorrow’s show too (if I get home from the grocery store in time). Why? Because although I’ll admit I have some preconceived ideas about both candidates, I want to hear what others have to say. Presumably others who are getting more than the sound bites of information I listen to.

This was rankling to those who don’t agree with my political opinions. I won’t go too far into that bit of “fun” marital strife but at one point, the question asked was something like, since Trump is the other candidate for president, why don’t they discuss his views? For one thing, I don’t think the focus of this show was to compare presidential candidates. It was more to compare “unknowns”. Kamala and JD are not unknown so to speak but they are not well known for their political backgrounds. At least not to the general American public. And yes, Kamala is the current veep. But we never really get to know most veeps very well, do we?

But… WE ALREADY KNOW TRUMP’S VIEWS! We have endured one presidential term under him already. His views? His views are whatever he thinks his current audience will respond to. A few things? Immigration? He hates immigrants. Apparently. Yet he has married two immigrants. Dictators? He loves dictators. He and Kim Jong Un “love each other?” Say what (and not even to mention his “relationship” with Putin)? Make no mistake. I believe every dictator on earth sees Trump as a stupid patsy that they could “potentially” use to their advantage. We won’t even talk about the choice issue. How many abortions has he paid for? Infrastructure week? I don’t think that ever happened, did it? Those are just a few examples.

Well, where was I? Dinner happened before I could finish this. Grilled duck breast, brown rice, broccoli and more of the peas I shelled in my back yard. The wind came up this afternoon but is dying down now. It is still pretty warm, probably in the 70s. So I’m not sure what all I said earlier but I will listen to whatever radio show I want to. At least NPR hosts do not scream and yell and hurl epithets this way and that.

The sailbote belongs to my cousin’s son aka my first cousin once removed.