I have had to TRAIN myself to occasionally buy Kleenex. We so rarely get cold viruses around here that I usually use toilet paper for the VERY occasional need to blow by doze. It can be embarrassing to ask a guest to use TP for that though, so I have been trying.

I never used to cry at weddings. My main concern about weddings when I was a 20-something was whether or not they were Catholic weddings. Catholic wedding ceremonies took a long time and there was much walking about doing things that I could not understand (this was after Vatican II, so the Mass was in English (not sure if “Mass” should be capitalized or not…)). Mainstream Protestant church wedding ceremonies were short and sweet. The after-parties were often the reverse but that’d be a whole ‘nother story. I’m not entirely sure what denomination our nephew’s wedding ceremony was yesterday but it was carefully thought out to be entertaining to the guests as well as meaningful for the couple and I greatly enjoyed it.

I cried. Why did I cry? I do not even know. The first time I remember crying at a wedding was at The Beautiful Renee’s wedding in North Carolina a few years ago. I was totally surprised by this phenomenon and had an absolutely terrible time keeping my mascara from running down my cheek. I did it again at my 1st-cousin-once-removed R’s wedding out on Lopez last summer (except for when his grandmother said, “This is the strangest wedding I’ve ever been to”. Then I had trouble keeping from laughing). I care greatly about these people but I think that at this point in time, I would probably cry if I happened by some random stranger’s wedding. Maybe if I ever stop being a systems analyst, I could have a career in Las Vegas as a paid wedding cryer? Boo hoo hoo and I would pull my handkerchief out of my dress bra and dab my eyes.

I was lucky during yesterday’s ceremony. The beach urchins were not carrying Kleenex. I guess they are a bit like their mother. Some semblance of presence of mind made me ask the GG. YES YES YES!!! He had some. It was a bit crumpled but it was clean and it saved me from the whole raccoon eyes phenomenon.

The rest of the night! Fun fun fun! Lots of the GG’s fun-loving family were there and my quick green lizard kept dragging me out on the dance floor (since the Lord of Linden wasn’t there to do it [grin]). Once I think she even asked me to dance like the Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie used to do when we were young and wild (he’s still wild) and we would go the Back Door and yell BARRRROOOOOM and stuff like that. At TBR’s wedding, I think I *tried* to demonstrate the Grinchie’s old style of dancing and I think I embarrassed both my kids.

Anyway, after the reception many of us reconvened for some carousing at the hotel. I made it to bed at 1:00 AM totally sober but quite a few folks “closed” the bar. I left the lights on in the living area of our suite and I briefly woke up to somebody saying, “Reddy Kilowatt” when the beach urchins came in. More carousing this morning albeit with coffee and self-serve breakfast. And then came the good-byes. I hate long good-byes but when you have a large family, the good-byes do take a long time after this kind of event and I did my best to be patient. We are only on the earth for a moment but I hope the hugs I gave today are felt forever. I meant them that way.

I imagine that Tim and Jess are on their honeymoon now. Us? We came home and cleaned stuff. Like the Frog Hopper. He also vacuumed out the Ninja. It’s not a camping vee-hickle so there isn’t a lot of crap in it. Thank you buddy. Thanks to the Cfam for accepting me as a part of their wonderful family even when I am feeling anti-social. Love you all. Life goes on. Godspeed!

Oof. Not tired exactly, overstimulated is more like it. Like all of the baaaaabies that were at the wedding. Man oh man, zero through about 18-month olds galore. We were cracking up because during all of the toasts and other speechifying that goes on at a wedding reception, our fav-o-rite going-on-2-year-old was repeatedly yelling out “All aboooooard!” Er, actually we couldn’t quite tell what he was yelling out. His dad had to translate. Whyyyy was he yelling out “All aboooooard!”? Well, of course it was because he had a Thomas the Tank Engine flashlight. Why else?

The wedding? It was fine and nobody cared that I wore my hiking sandals. Or at least no one said anything about them.

That is about all I have. G’night, -KW

Let’s reminisce instead, especially since The Mean Old Grumpy Beautiful Aunt Susie is here for the night. I’ve posted this photoooo before but here it is again. We are at a zero tolerance beach in Floriduh and Susie is swimming in the gulf with the beach urchins. The GG took this picture but a little while later we were sitting around on the beach and we lost track of him. I eventually spied him over at the concession stand but then he disappeared again. Until he materialized with a large cup full of Sprite and ice and and and and… Bourbon. Spiked with the stuff in the back end of the Exxon Tanker Valdez. Honestly, I do not get this zero tolerance stuff. I understand that folks do not want people getting totally schnockered on a beach, peeing (and vomiting) all over everything and drovening home drunk. But what’s wrong with having a beer or two or a little shot of something? I mean we were there with *children* and I can assure you we were totally sober when we left that afternoon.

And then there was this loverly little occasion, which somehow came up tonight as we were dining at the Grizzly Peak brewpub. They do decent ‘hattans and stuff there too, don’tcha know, gotta please those hipsters (and oldsters). But I digress. I do *not* know how we got to talking about this old fish picture (maybe there was a fish photooo on facebook somewhere?) but here it is. Apparently I don’t accurately remember the whole story. I knew that it was Boult’s boat but what I forgot about was that apparently he landed his boat very quickly on the moominbeach because the DNR was in hot pursuit. That particular generation of Boult is gone now (save The Comm’s old buddy G who is still going along at FV (I saw her pic on facebook over the weekend)) and so are so many of my family from that generation. I always say I don’t miss them. That’s not *exactly* true. I don’t *actively* miss them but it’s really quite a bit more complicated than that, as anyone who has lost an elderly parent after a difficult period of time probably knows. Or maybe not… But I am missing all those folks and their lovely fun-loving savoir faire attitude toward life tonight.

We are off on an adventure over on the west side of the state tomorrow. Wish us luck and godspeed.

G’night,
Kayak Woman

Man oh man, what the heck day is this anyway. I spent most of the day thinking it was Monday. And it *was* Monday, for me at least. My first day back at work after my vacation busman’s holiday. The LSCHP was a bit puzzled about the term “busman’s holiday” even after an explanation. He asked if I had spent my vacation writing functional specifications. Not so much though. Just hanging about keeping up with household chores, etc., in a different place than The Landfill. But that’s kind of how I spend all of my time off and I’m sure that Uber Kayak Woman’s cast iron pans are still recovering from me washing them last fall. She eventually staged an intervention and I am still feeling embarrassed for being such a idiot!

Anyway, my work day was not exactly what you would call stressful but I came home to a cacophony of sorts. There were a couple extra [beloved] folks here and the Mean Old Grumpy Aunt Suzie was struggling to find her way through the spaghetti of streets here on The Planet Ann Arbor at rush hour. She had landed at Metro a while before and had a rental vee-hickle and managed to take a wrong exit, therefore driving through bedlam, including (I think) a fallen beeceeclettist somewhere along the line. The GG was on the phone talking her down off the ledge and over to our house.

In the end, five of us went out to dinner downtown at the Oscar Tango. Our first choice was Knight’s but there was just no way. Too crowded. Anyway, it was a mishmash of in-laws, out-laws, and even an ex from long ago. Good times. I love that as we grow older, we can often let go of the issues that can tear us apart when we are young and just have fun. And that’s what we did. Even meeeeee, after I forced myself to get over the stress of coming home to a house full of people. Or at least more full of people than usual. (It’s okay you guys, pleeeeease come and visit me any time you want!!! Sometimes I need to be shooken up!)

But then I started thinking it was Friday because downtown Planet Ann Arbor was hopping just like a Friday. Alas, it is not Friday and I have to schlep over to my loverly, dog-poopy cube tomorrow. After coffee with MMCB. Don’t let me forget that!

Good night,
Kayak Woman

Woke up very early in the morning in the Lyme Lounge today. Well before time to get up, like I dunno three or four AM. I was thirsty and I had to peeeeeee. I had water nearby but I was kinda wondering whether to peeeeee outside the Lyme Lounge (Bugs and Horsey would probably not be watching) or go into the moomincabin. I lifted up my head and FLASH!!! there was lightning somewhere out there. I checked the weather on my phone. There were big storms all over the place, yooperland and lower-upper.

I ended up clumping over to the moomincabin to use the fancy indoor john. That is kind of backwards from what we used to have to do until I was a 20-something, which was to grab a flashlight and head out to the damn outhouse. The one where the werewolves and vampires hung out. Anyway, the lightning continued until about an hour before time to get up but we never got any kind of a severe thunderstorm and I traversed the southbound I75 SUV Speedway today without any more than a few random drops of rain.

As much as I hated to leave the moominbeach today and how envious I am that the GG is still there, I appreciated getting home *alone*. Well, actually when I got home, I wasn’t alone because Daisy was in the driveway, which meant that Mouse was in the garden. I was so happy to come home to a beach urchin. She left a few minutes after I got home and that was okay too because I was able to pull the Ninja into the drive to unload it.

But I had some time to sort things out, so… since then, I have, lemme see… Done three loads of laundry, made two grokkery runs (different stores and one was the Plum, which was fun because I walk there). Processed a shit-ton of mail. Mostly spam but a few things that signify the end of the end. Of my childhood, not of my life, fer kee-reist.

I have to work tomorrow and Friday but The Mean Old Grumpy [not] Aunt Susie is arriving by air tomorrow and heading over here and maybe some other relatives too. Wishing I was still at the moominbeach but this weekend will be a Courtois weekend and I will be there with bells on and hopefully something other than bare feet.

P.S. The photooo is from Sunday when Lizard Breath and I walked down the beach to visit Our Northern Correspondent for a bit. I am happy that she and her husband bought that land and I love what they’ve done with it.

Sing it to the tune of “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”. Er, you dooooo know that tune, roight?

We were awful when we were kids. We would sing that song to my dad on the last day of his stinky little two-week vacation. The one he *always* spent here on the moominbeach. I still envy his life though because when he was *working*, he was living out here so every day of the summer, he had a 20 minute commute into town, so at least he could spend evenings out here. I will never forget when he would run down the path and off the bank and do a shallow dive into the shallow water here on the beach.

Alas, my last day of vacay will be spent schlepping down the I75 SUV Speedway. I’ll be in my cute little Ninja with my work laptop, all of my other crap, a few loads of The Commander’s stuff, garbage & recycling, and whatever perishable food the GG doesn’t want. And he probably doesn’t really want much. I suspect he will be a minimalist about meals for the rest of the week.

What did I do today (which was *really* my last day of vacay)?

As little as possible, of course. I did *not* go into town. I did sit on the beach and kayak and take the purple kayak out to sponge all of the sand and peanut shells (!) out of it and then I swam. And we ate a loverly grilled duck breast dinner out here on the deck and and and and…

The GG? It isn’t his last day but he was kind of wondering how he would spend his day. Wouldn’t you know, the neighborhood garter snake was slithering around the bank. It even made some rather shocking forays down to the beach. Watching that snake kept the GG busy for quite some time. I decided not to post any pics of the snake. Garter snakes are totally harmless and when I was a beach urchin I used to pick them up sometimes. I couldn’t be bothered now. But I know that snakes in general are kind of freaky and some of them are dangerous (not around here though) and people have not-unreasonable phobias about them. Since I have a few phobias of my own, including one regarding a living being MUCH less dangerous than any snake, I know better than to post photos.

Back to The Planet Tomorrow.

G’night,
Kayak Woman

Missing the person in the foreground, the one who is now midway between the yooperland and megalopolis (that’s a second cousin in the back). Not a very exciting day except for the stuff that falls into that enticing category of I-can’t-blahg-about-that (nothing bad, those who care [grin]). Trip in to Siberia to drop off a bag of recycling, add a bag of garbage to The Commander’s can and put it out by the road, eat at Kenny’s Pitchen, buy some chicken to BBQ (because I FORGOT TO BUY IT the other day even though it was ON MY LIST), and fill a gas can with gas for The Motor Boat. And Lizard Breath’s vee-hickle (does it have a name yet?). Not that she can’t buy her own gas, just because we love to spend money on our beach urchins.

Despite the on-and-off iffy weather conditions, Miz Liz womaned up and took a dip in Gitchee Gumee before leaving. I’d’ve joined her but she was already out before I knew she went in. When the beach urchins were teenagers, on the day we had to FORCE ourselves to pack up the blasted POC and head southward, we would swim just before we left and usually our hair would still be a little damp by the time we got to Houghton Lake. Hanging on to a bit of Gitchee Gumee as long as we possibly could.

These folks are out in the MotorBoat by the Pickle Finger. Little Miss Lizard Breath actually named the Pickle Finger when she was a wee tot. The Pickle Finger was being built at that time and I’m not really clear on this but when *I* was a beach urchin, there were red and green buoys out there galore. I think the Pickle Finger replaced some of those and not everyone was all that happy about it. Radical Betty called it The Fickle Finger of Fate and Lizard Breath took it from there.

That Beach Bum hat? That was Grandroobly’s. She uses his Jack mug from the USAF museum down at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton. When I was a kid, I toured enough old airplanes and submarines and things to last me the rest of my life. Anyway, I have guests. I gotta go.

G’night,
Kayak Woman

Oh yeah, P. S., there was the whole “where’s my iPhone” incident (not *my* iPhone, I was *using* mine at the time). Try looking in the pocket of your life jacket?

First a little disclaimer about the title. Although my cousin The Beautiful Jan could legitimately wear a sweatshirt with “Grandma Jan” on the back of it, I don’t think that’s really her style. This particular Grandma Jan was the object of a wee bit of people-watching at the Dancing Crane Coffeehouse. The other object was the Green Lady, an eccentric-looking little lady in a lime green outfit with purple crocs. I didn’t snicker toooo loudly though because I was rather eccentrically dressed myself in my tie-dyed tshirt and blue hiking skirt.

From the Dancing Crane, we continued on to make the annual pilgrimage to Iroquois Lighthouse. On the other side of the fresnel lens in the photooo was a lively little familiar looking woman dressed in a sort of period costume sitting on a stool doing some handwork. We began a conversation and suddenly I realized who she was. “You’re Anny! I’m your biggest fan!” It was Anny Hubbard and I have I don’t know how many of her prints and birchbark cutouts and a teensy tinesy little Macchu Pichu drawing on birchbark and I need to kind of re-do my display of all of those things or whatever… Anyway, she is doing an internship at the lighthouse this summer and I’m not exactly sure about the details of that but she was so much fun to talk to and I shyly mentioned that I was The Comm’s daughter but she remembered The Comm so I was glad I said that! She even asked us if we were interested in helping her with some internship-type duties and man oh man, I would be interested but [alas] I am not a local [anymore] and I have a job somewhere down south and yada yada.

After that we did the obligatory visit to the Spectacle Lake Overlook and then we went home and the day sort of rolled along from there. The GG returned with the Lyme Lounge and Lizard Breath and I visited Our Northern Correspondent and had a whine on her back deck surrounded by her absolutely gorgeous flowers and returned with some sweet grass from her yard. And then (and then (and then)) we sat on the beach until my MacMu cousin The Beautiful Teri and her beautiful daughter Ana arrived. Teri and I gabbled away down on the beach until six o’clock [aka yikes I have a lasagne to bake!]

And here’s the MacMullan Blindside to beat all MacMullan Blindsides! My aunt Roberta died LAST AUGUST and I found out about it today!!! Teri said something like, “Don’t feel bad because you didn’t know. I didn’t know until November (or maybe it was spring or something).” No one is sure why the family wasn’t notified but I guess it’s just kind of how the MacMu family rolls. By the way, Roberta was something like 98 so I don’t regard this news as unexpected or tragic.

I’m off to eat and have more fun with my loverly uber-cuzzint so good night! -KW

This one is for Our Northern Correspondent. Even though at this moment we are at the same latitude. I dunno, I am not an unfriendly person but I am very very far from being an extrovert. I could turn myself into a hermit if people didn’t drag me out of my shell. Fortunately there are some people who care enough about me to do that and Our Northern Correspondent is one of those. She was there for me on the horrific day that The Comm went into the hoosegow and never again lived in her home. I needed a friend that day and I had one and I will never forget that.

This was a cold summer day and after I did a recycle / garbage / laundry / grokkery run to Sault Ste. Siberia and walked the road, I was chopping up veggies for a stir-fry dinner and… Doodle-oop! Text message from Our Northern Correspondent. “Are you in your cabin?” She was on the beach. I replied, “I’ll be right there!” We walked to Doelle’s and back to her end of the beach. We sat in her adirondack chairs until we were too cold to talk any more and then she walked me back to the stream by Jeep and Pan’s house.

I went home and finished my stir-fry prep and then sat down on the bank for a long time. I finally decided I was too cold to sit down there any more. As I was schlepping back up the path, a certain Honda Civic 5-speed tranny type vee-hickle was drovening in to the moomincabin parking area. My beach urchin had arrived. We visited various neighbors, Kristen and crew to the east and Bugs and Horsey and crew to the west.

…I had had the foresight to take a picture of the beach every hour of the day today. Because this was just the start. Calm but dark clouds off to the west / northwest. As I neared the Doelle end of the beach, I heard thunder off in the distance. My weather app proclaimed that it wasn’t too close, so I finished walking to the Doelle end of the beach and then I walked to down to the *other* end of the beach, which is where I somehow managed to get this photooo of seagulls with the freighter Herbert C. Jackson in the background. Honestly, after I took the photo, I took exactly *one* step forward and all of those birds scattered.

From then on, the weather was, well, changeable. Rain eventually reached the moominbeach and I swept and picked around at various organizing / cleaning prodjects during some absolutely gorgeous rainstorms. After lunch and a trip up to the park store, the lake was still calm, so I got a bitsy little kayak ride in and then a quick swim. By that time the sun was out in full force and the wind picked up, so I changed back into regular KW-type beach clothing and hung out up on the bank until about the time the sun was getting over the yardarm.

I had been invited (by text message, don’tcha love it?) to dinner at Chez Harry’s tonight. My reply (via text) was something like, “Mother’s March on Leftovers is just about over so this is perfect timing and I’ll bring the whine.” I know that they like to eat earlier than I do over at Chez Harry so a little after five, I texted something like, “What time is dinner?” Six (but you can come over earlier) was the answer and that was fine and a good time was had by all. And to end the day, I came home to NPR playing one of my fave songs (it’s a YouTube link). Yeah, I know this is a bit maudlin but I don’t care.

Tomorrow morning? Garbage and recycling to town and a load of laundry and a wee bit of grokkery shopping in preparation for various folks arriving this weekend.

G’night, KW.

I knew that the GG was gonna meet up with the UU for a loverly, ticky, little glamping trip this weekend. I didn’t quite realize that he was leaving *early* this morning. He did though. Hooked the Lyme Lounge up to the Frog Hopper last night and parked the whole thing so he could just drive out this morning. Blocking the driveway? Yesiree!

Hmmm… Moom *alone* at the moomincabin for a couple days? I’ll take it. I have spent time here alone before, most notably when I glamped here during The Commander’s sojourn at the War Memorial Hoosegow’s long term care facility. The Commander was *not* a happy camper and I didn’t really have all that good a time hanging out here alone either. I won’t go into the details but it was c-c-c-cold that June and I dunno, it was just weird.

Oops! We interrupt this boring bunch of blather for a SPIDER ALERT. It’s BIG but it’s just a daddy long legs. I’ve heard tell that they are extremely poisonous but they can’t bite people. I forget why. Google it if you care. The Commander DID NOT LIKE SPIDERS!!!! She was very good at dispatching them by squishing them with a couple sheets of paper towel or Kleenex or whatever. I let this guy go. Ticks are a whole ‘nother story. I dismember them!

Anyway, here I am. I did pretty much exactly what I wanted to do today, which means I slugged around on the beach quite a bit. npJane would be proud. It’s windy down there today so not terrifically warm but warm enough with a polartech jacket and no damn bugs. Took a few walks, picked through a few boxes in the garage, failed miserably at doing the NYT Xword and it’s only Thursday, and played more games of Candy Crush Saga than I care to admit to. I am not (I hope) connecting to facebook, just playing it on my phone… I hope…

I did not do any more cleaning than the usual, which is kitchen and bathroom. I did not have to argue with anyone over the ambient temperature. It wasn’t warm enough to put the screens in so I didn’t. It wasn’t cold enough to faaaarr up the gas heater so I didn’t. I did not go to Fish at the Cozy Inn. I thought I was gonna go but it turns out they have moved the time up a half hour. There’s a good reason for that but five is too early to eat. So I bagged it. Instead, I sat down on the bank. I watched the Cason Callaway and the Algosea go down and the Alpena go up and no more freighters were expected for a while, so I decided the sun was over the yardarm.

Today, even though it was meeee day, I didn’t forget that other people exist. As it happens, the husband of one of our nieces recently died a very premature and tragic death. A memorial service and celebration of his life was held today. We decided that we could not drive down from the yooperland to attend the party. Lizard Breath did attend (and sent a photo of his beautiful “tie-dyed” cake). I’m sorry I missed this event but I’m sure Liz represented us well. I have no more words about this except that life just plain sucks sometimes.