Disclaimer: None of this actually adds up to an adventure in any way, shape, or form🐽

The first adventure was accompanying npJane and her smelly garbage to the Green Bag Dump. She has never been to this dump before and I was happy to show her the ropes.

Later in the afternoon, I had a two-fold mission. Figure out where the ATM musheen was in Brimley and obtain some stromboli (and hopefully broccoli) at the farmers market on the res. I needed to hit the ATM first because I wasn’t sure if the stromboli folks accepted plastic. Like a lot of farmers markets, some vendors do and others don’t.

Brimley is basically a one-horse town and I knew where the bank (actually a credit union) was because… A couple years ago I misplaced my property tax bill. I knew when it was due (and it was getting close) so I emailed the township treasurer to ask how much I owed. That got figured out and she said something like, “Just bring the check over to the ‘bank’. That’s where I work.” That worked perfectly. (In case there are tsk tsk type lurkers out there, the taxes were paid on time, I DID eventually find the bill, AND I made a friend💩).

So, okay, I have been to the bank/credit union and they MUST have an ATM, roight? Yes, they do. You park in the back and it’s in the back entrance. Imma gonna guess that’s so it’s available 24/7 because they can lock the inner door. And THAT brought back old, vague memories of the intricacies of locking the Sault Ste. Siberia 1st National Bank when I was a beach urchin and my dad was the “manager” or whatever he was when I was a kid. But I won’t bore you with those.

So on to the farmers market with plenty of cash. Broccoli? No such luck. But I did buy a woman’s last seven ears of corn. I didn’t need that many but it seemed like I might be doing her a favor so we have corn.

On to the stromboli. I bought two strombolis (Italian and pizza) and two chicken pot pies from Karl’s Cuisine at Wildwood Farm. They didn’t take plastic but they did take Venmo. I mostly use Venmo with my kids and sometimes to give cash gifts to others for weddings, etc. Boy oh boy, was I a klutz at using Venmo to pay Karl’s. Thankfully the friendly woman managing the booth was very helpful. I laughed and said, “This is embarrassing!” She tried to assuage my embarrassment by explaining how many people she has to help with Venmo. I said something like, “It’s embarrassing because I work for the online banking industry🤣“

Karl’s Cuisine used to be an EXCELLENT restaurant in Sault Ste. Siberia. I’m not sure how it succumbed but I’m gonna guess covid had a pretty good hand in it. I reminisced that I had eaten there many times with The Commander and Radical Betty and their little pod of friends. All gone now. I didn’t try to ask if they remembered my actual mother and aunt. I’m sure there were many little pods of little old ladies who lunched there. I miss the restaurant but the stromboli (I bought some earlier in the summer) is to die for so it sounds like they have successfully moved on.

Well, that sometimes happens with Eco-terlet down at the Landfill. It never happens at the moomincabin. TMI?

I was heartened to hear from a day-trip traveler to Tahquamenon Falls that there seemed to be more Harris-Walz signs than Trump-JD signs along the way. This was a totally unscientific survey but the yooperland is largely Trump country although I know plenty of people who live here who ABHOR Trump. I’m in a bit of a bubble in that way. I also know people who support Trump, which I will never understand. So I was a bit heartened to hear about that about the signs but we have a way to go until November and I am not gonna let myself get too optimistic.

I think we really need to call Trump out more. This afternoon I heard someone on NPR say that Kamala was guilty of word salad. Say what? I am not an expert on Kamala’s speeches but, um, TRUMP is the KING of word salad. I can guess that Kamala might try to over-explain various things. I do that. That is not *anything* like what Trump does which is to spew random crapola whether it makes sense or not. I noticed this in 2016 and when I tried to point it out to people they basically looked PAST me.

We need to call him out when he does idiotic, ridiculous things. Why are we normalizing his ridiculous behavior?

The pic was my fave text of the day. It’s Green Bags. We needed more of those. I asked the GG to pick some up since he was going past the tribal gas station today. He hemmed and hawed a bit but my daughter got the drift and she reminded him that they needed to stop at the tribal gas station to pick some up. We’ve had a bit of a fruit fly problem here the last few days and WE NEEDED THEM.

Today started with a minor kerfuffle. It was the middle of the night, actually 5:30 AM but who’s counting at this time of year? It was dark and a storm was gonna roll through. The GG jumped to attention and started closing various doors and windows both in the Lyme Lounge and the moomincabin. I was like, this is gonna be a plassover (although I got up and did woodsP anyway just in case). Guess what? It was a plassover. Right over Whitefish Bay (to the north of us) and into Canananada. So many storms do that. I was wishing for a big one.

And then there was the whole lamb stew/duck breast thing in the afternoon. The GG did a lot of good stuff today including two (count ’em) trips into town. After the second town trip he couldn’t really settle down. He was using his computer and calling North Country Trail folks and rummaging the refrigerator. That was driving me nuts but THEN he started to rummage the FREEZER! What is this? Is it lamb stew? He thought he remembered me asking him to buy lamb stew at Sparrow Meats in Ann Arbor to bring up here. I did NOT remember that. And. This looks like Sparrow packaging but it has SKIN on it so it doesn’t look like lamb stew. And it wasn’t. Eventually Lizard Breath came inside to finish her telecommute for the day and she reminded me that she had schlepped duck breast up from Sparrow. Yes. Skin.

The NPR station we listen to up here in the yooperland covers a very wide area via a number of sub-stations. Severe storms rolled through a whole lot of the area so ALL AFTERNOON I was hearing weather alerts from all over the state, even though none of them applied to the yooperland. But I didn’t hear anything from the Planet Ann Arbor. Then at the end of the day, our mouse texted about all of the severe storms that rolled through Ann Arbor. She couldn’t really check The Landfill because there were MANY trees down between her house and our house. I told her it was probably okay because the last time a tree fell on our house (out of two) our neighbor notified us about it.

And it *was* (probably) okay because our webcam is apparently working, which means we have power. The GG said the street looked flooded and there was debris in the driveway but it doesn’t sound like any trees fell on our house.

And so it was today. Those of us who were supposed bo be working today did our best. The beach urchin did better than I did. That is all I will say.

At the end of the day, the Party Bus came into town. They disembarked, swam, kayaked, and paddle-boarded for a half hour or so and then took off. Blasting their music on the way in and out.

I can only laugh at this, remembering my own youth. My second high school boyfriend (he was actually in college when I started going out with him) would come out to pick me up on dates in his little green Gremlin (The Commander once called it the sprite…). Almost nobody in the yooperland had vehicular AC in those days. When he came to pick me up, his windows were wide open and his 8-track tape player was blaring whatever, often Focus’s Hocus Pocus. We could hear him coming from the turn down at the “pond”.

I didn’t know anything about the music the Party Bus was playing but I was into their vibe.

Of all things, when I first met the GG, he was ALSO driving a Gremlin. His was purple and another thing he was was doing when I met him was cooking a can…

I took the first pic just before I went to bed last night. Our impatiens were just as bodacious as they’ve been all summer. The second pic is first thing this morning.

Who dunnit? My best guess is deer. The place is crawling with little squoils but I don’t think they are capable of eating that much, at least not in one sitting. And I have never seen Heinrich (snowshoe hare) on the deck. I dunno if the deer came ON the deck or not. I didn’t hear anything on the deck during the night but I could’ve slept through it? I think deer could reach the impatiens on our deck so maybe they just silently walked by and munched along the way. I’m a little annoyed but it is the end of the season.

Mr. Wonderful (just kidding) returned from his North Country Trail (NCT) boondoggle this afternoon as a “rock star”. At least a B-list rock star. He and the Uncly Uncle were there together and as they were walking through the park, they could hear other people talking about them. That’s kinda what you get for being identical twins and, on top of that, these ID twins each led hikes yesterday. Both their groups were on the same bus.

After arriving home and having a nap-in-a-can, the GG took a long nap and then headed out to the garage where he entertained some of the local boyz who were driving or walking by. “I need to open up an ice cream shop out there,” he said. Indeed.

All in all, it was a noisy day. The crows and squoils were going crazy most of the day and other birds (who are likely beginning to migrate) skittered through the yard all day. We had npJane over for dinner and then hit the beach to watch the sun go down.

That is about it. G’night, KW.

So the last round of neighbor-cousins left on Wednesday. I kinda expected to give them hugs as they were leaving and I could see them mustering but I was in the BATHROOM when I heard them toot a Master Salute. It’s okay. I am not a fan of long drawn-out good-byes.

Today another neighbor-cousin arrived and GUESS WHAT? She brought one of my daughters north with her. npJane is my youngest cousin on the FimFam side. She was a certified adult when Lizard Breath was born but she and Liz have always (in my opinion) had a pretty special bond and they often meet independently nowadays (meaning without meeeee) for coffee or dinner or in one case, a work-related seminar or something. They don’t work together at all but they are in fields that have things in common.

Pre-COVID I frequently car-pooled with npJane if traveling with the GG didn’t work out. Nowadays he is off gallivanting around so much that I ALWAYS need an automotive vee-hickle so one way or another, I need my own car. Way back when, during a complicated bunch of trips to and from the moomincabin, I needed to get my teenage daughters up here AND our DOGHA (Dirty Old Green Honda Accord, one of my fave cars ever, V6 vroom). Liz had her license but I was nervous about them driving five hours alone without an adult. npJane was also coming north and stepped up to drive the DOGHA (and daughters) up here.

My daughter is a top notch driver who has long owned her own vee-hickles. She has “droven” to California and back and all kinds of other places. But she has been bopping around a lot this summer and I know she welcomed the chance to let another trustworthy person do the driving today.

Today for me was… Laundry, a few grocks, ree-cycle, and gas. Strange albeit friendly cigarette-smelling man on the bench outside the Up North Laundry calling women on his phone with the speaker on (but not his wife who had a “bad day” yesterday?). Pat’s Grocks because I am taaaared of Meijer, not that I won’t go there again. Pat’s plays the best music, Chumbawamba was on today. Ree-cycle and then gas *at* Meijer.

I love how my family meshes and blends throughout the generations. Radical Betty (my aunt) was one of my best friends even though we were not of the same generation. I’m happy that is carrying on.

The garbage under the sink was starting to stink. If guests were here, I’d’ve dealt with it a while back but it was just meeee so I waited until it was full enough that I could combine it with the other garbage bag into the Green Bag and take the whole smelly mess up to the Green Bag Dump on the res.

I did do that today and I was driving on the west side of Birch Point Loop. It’s a road my grandfather and his friends originally built – or so I’ve been told – but now it’s a nice paved county road. I *think* the speed limit on that part of the road is 35 but it isn’t marked and I don’t really know. But there are walkers and bikers around and I don’t drive very fast. I mean, usually I’m just going to the park store or the dump and there’s no reason to rush because neither of those places are that far away.

Today I was slow-poking along and there was something running/walking/whatever in the road ahead of me so I slowed way down. It was this deer. A doe? I think. No antlers. I was in no danger of hitting it. It was standing there just off the left side of the road. I actually passed it, then I stopped and looked back. It was still there. I s-l-o-w-l-y backed up (not usually a lot of vee-hicular traffic on this road). It was STILL standing there when I got backed up. So I was able to fumble my phone and windows, etc., to get a halfway decent pic.

Sorry but that’s about as exciting as it gets around here. Oh, there was some rumbly thunder in the late afternoon along with some faaarworks over in the direction of the res and a weeeee bit of rain.

When I was a kid, I used to think antidisestablishmentarianism was the longest word on earth. Until supercalifragilisticexpialidocious came along. I have not counted the letters in either of those words but I think the “super” one looks longer. Well except it is not a real word.

A meme I loved today, aimed at Trump, was “supercallousfascistracistextrabraggodocious”. I kinda think that “word” is even longer than the Mary Poppins word but I am not gonna count the letters. If you couldn’t parse that “word”, try “super callous fascist racist extra braggodocious”.

Okay. As much as I would like to call Trump a fascist or a racist, I cannot attest to whether he is either of those. He may know what a racist is but I’m not sure he knows what a fascist is. Heck, I can’t exactly define “fascist” either although I well know that my father, uncle and father-in-law and so many other folks mustered to war against Hitler’s fascism (and some other things). One of my points here is that we can’t talk about this stuff unless we understand the definitions of various words, especially all of the isms. And there are many of them.

But Trump definitely IS callous and braggodocious. Callous? Can he run a presidential campaign (or anything) without slinging insults at anyone/everyone he can think of? We all know he can’t because this is his third presidential campaign. Is that a good way to run for president? You know what I think and some of you don’t agree but I STILL don’t understand why you support him. Aren’t you taaaared of him? I sure am.

Going on on to braggadocious? Okay. Just the fact that he compares his appearance with Kamala’s is… Just for one thing, he’s a better looking person than Kamala? Nope. He is fugly. And she really isn’t. But who cares who is better looking and why is this even a talking point? I can’t see that he brings anything to the table with this kind of crapola. Good looks is certainly something he does *not* bring to the table. So why does he talk about it? Does he have nothing substantive to say? No. He never has.

P.S. The pic is optically zoomed in to the sunset with contrails in the sky and the Kaye Barker lake freighter going up or down into Lake Superior, I can’t remember.

The Obamas are NOT gonna “re-take” the White House. That’s a conspiracy theory. Full stop.

The only reason I mention it is because I was listening to Michelle speak last night when I took this pic.

The rafters are one of my (many) favorite parts of the moomincabin. Looking around I see a few things:

1) A vintage multi-band radio that went into “town” (my family’s winterized house in Sault Ste. Siberia) every winter. My brother had it in his bedroom and tuned it into ship traffic the night the Edmund Fitzgerald went down (1975). He could hear the Arthur Andersen calling it. No response. That radio doesn’t get those channels any more. (And actually it isn’t the multi-band radio. Just an ancient boombox type thing. Hmmm.)

2) A gazillion old books. You can only see the bookshelf where we keep my granddaddy’s old books. Fort and the Forest and all kinds of other stuff. (There’s also a fiber optic thingy on those shelves.)

3) An aerial view of our land with the island out in the middle of the bay.

4) A modern iMac or whatever it’s called. We watched Fargo on it earlier this summer.

5) A hat with reindeer horns that we bought for my old coot a long time ago. It doesn’t say MAGA but my dad may(?) have actually considered Trump if he had lived that long (dead in 2006). He once expressed interest in George Wallace to my mother’s horror. She later became an Obama supporter as I have said a few too many times.

6) I could go on and on but the last thing Imma talk about is that GREEN BAG there. The garbage bag. I was gonna take that up to the res today but I never quite got there but it HAS TO GO TOMORROW because there are little buggies hanging around (fruit fly sized and maybe that’s what they are). I have another kitchen bag to put in the Green Bag and we’re good to go. Just keeping it real here.

Not the best action pic but if you embiggen a couple of times, you might be able to see the GG spraying his “baby” with a hose. In the background you can see part of our “parking lot”, a paradise paved with pine needles rather than asphalt. And the Old Cabin, of course. I’m taking the pic from the “other cabin” aka the moomincabin. A 2-year-old cousin visiting the Old Cabin called the moomin the “other cabin”, which TOTALLY cracked me up. The cabin he will remember when he is a man of the world is the Old Cabin, the same cabin I remember as a 2-year-old. My branch of the fambly didn’t build the moomincabin (“other cabin”) until I was six. Until then we spent our summers at the Old Cabin.

Anyway, when I drove in after Saturday morning’s trip to the Up North Laundry, I totally missed the GG when I drove by. When I finally figured out where he was I was ecstatic about the prodject he had undertaken, which was to clean the Lyme Lounge from stem to stern, inside and out. Between all of his hiking/camping/trail-working/whatever gear, it was high time. We slept out there over the weekend but he’s out on a junket with the Lyme Lounge now and I am back inside. I actually enjoy sleeping in the camper. It wouldn’t work for someone much taller than we are (5-5 to 5-7 or so) but it’s fine for us. P-ing (usually once a night for me (TMI?)) happens outside.

I didn’t listen to the convention last night (I usually don’t and we had guests if you can call neighbor-cousins guests) so I was hoping for some radio news on how it went this morning. I never quite got exactly what I wanted (not really sure what I wanted anyway). It was Tuesday and I “zoomed” with MMCB₁ during the morning news, then the BBC came on and the talk radio shows were focused *mainly* on other subjects today.

The morning temp was 47 degrees so I damn near froze sitting on the moomindeck talking to MMCB. The temperature rose – somewhat – 60s – throughout the day but so did the northwest wind. It was calm this morning, which is why I could do my “zoom” call outside even though I was shivering by the end of it.

Things I heard on the radio today. COVID is on the rise again (as if it ever left). Bird flu is in yooperland crows. Mpox isn’t freaking me out too much but others are terrified. It’s all scary but it is not quiiiiite the same as the early days of COVID. I wasn’t scared of ebola either as horrifying as it is. The GG seemed a little nervous at one point when it started to creep into the US (via travelers) but I said something like, “You are not going to get ebola if you take the bus downtown.” And he didn’t.

The scariest things about COVID (in my not-necessarily-informed opinion) are: 1) It is totally spread through the air, which I don’t think we knew at first (remember the grocery washing?) 2) At least in the beginning it was pretty much a crap shoot about who would die from it.

We also weren’t getting accurate information from the government and its agencies but after listening to a couple of podcast episodes about that, I can no longer blame it ALL on Trump, although I do NOT think he helped the situation one iota. Hydroxychloroquine and shining a light up where the light don’t shine? Or whatever he said…

Don’t vote for him.

These two cousin-neighbors are using their iPhones and actually the GG and I were doing the same thing. I couldn’t easily get a photo of all four of us so this is what you get. Make no mistake, we were not out in some kind of zone. We were actively conversing, sharing photos and videos, looking up books, videos, and various pieces of information. Elkhorn Slough? It’s an estuary, a term I did actually know. The point is that all of this stuff ADDED to an already invigorating conversation. There is something to be said for disconnecting and “touching grass” but screens are not all bad.

Tonight was a FinFam steak dinner in honor of the cousin-neighbors who are leaving this week. The GG is leaving tomorrow (but he’ll be back) so it had to happen tonight because he cooks the steaks and corn on the gas grill. He thought the steaks were overdone. They weren’t bloody like I like them but they were not overdone and were plenty tender for me. Good job old boy. Also bitsy little potatoes, broccoli, and garlic bread (from the stash I brought up from The Planet Ann Arbor).

The GG obliged me by going to Meijer this morning to get the corn, potatoes, a crown of broccoli, coffee beans, and I dunno what else. I love going to Meijer but I had to work today and I didn’t feel like hoofing it in there before work. He needed to haul the Lyme Lounge out for a test run since it’s been sitting for a while so this was a perfect errand for him.

I GREATLY appreciated that he stepped up to a grock run and followed my list to the letter, no less. I asked for little potatoes and he got exactly what I wanted and he even managed to find a broccoli crown but that’s probably partly because I had one here at the moomincabin and showed it to him.

Trivia, trivia, trivia. Sayonara, KW.

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.