Random bits of my so-called life.

I was schlepping laundry into the UP North Laundry this morning when someone honked? Whaddya know, it was my cousin the Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie across the street at the post office. I waved. It is so weirdly fun to see your cousin in your home town. I grew up here and then moved. He did not grow up here but has lived here throughout adulthood. His family stayed here on the beach most summers (we have ALWAYS been good buddies) and our seasonal cabin is two doors down from his house.

I wrote the title a while ago and then we went visiting next door and so now I’m not sure what the reality check I was thinking about earlier was. Maybe it’s that my laundry run almost made me late for the daily standup. I ended up throwing most of the laundry into the baskets without folding it (I did that later) and taking the freeway out instead of the back roads I love. Note that although the freeway here is a regular interstate highway, it is almost always completely empty and I have like eight miles to drive on it. NOT like driving through Detroit or Chicago or Seattle or ANY big city or even Ann Arbor.

I made it back in what shoulda been plenty of time to get on to the standup. Except. For whatever reason MS Teams would NOT load. So I had to re-a-start my laptop. Teams loaded after the re-a-start and I joined the meeting about a minute late. By that time, the meeting was mostly over and I was thinking like why the heck did I race back out here? One good reason is that people do notice when someone is AWOL (this is a good thing). But after that I decided that nothing much was gonna happen for the rest of the week and maybe I should watch a few botes go by this afternoon and take tomorrow off.

I watched the cruise ship Viking Octantis (and a bunch of other regular botes) go down. I am not into cruises at all. Frankly those huge ocean cruise ships look totally top-heavy to me, like they might tip over. This bote looks pretty sleek and it cruises Gitchee Gumee and if I *ever* go on a cruise (if COVID *EVER* ends), this will be my cruise.

The colors on the beach were muted this morning a little after sunrise. Sky, sand, water, even the trees. We have a sunset beach so colors are often muted in the early morning as the sun rises through the trees back behind the swamp. Sunset is anybody’s guess but we do get some spectacular ones. If the sun is at least partially visible.

Kayaks and beach chairs add a bit of color. Especially in the case of botes, colorful is GOOD because it is more visible if you are out in the big water. Yellow is a good color! Not quite so important for beach chairs but after a 2010 Labor Day “typhoon”, a lot of chairs ended up on the bottom of the lake and npJane and I spent quite some time trying to spot them after the typhoon blew itself out. A lot of those that were close to shore we recovered (they were FILLED with wet sand — heavy as all getout) but I’m sure others were lost forever.

I can only guess at who created this little village a few cabins down but it fit well into this morning’s muted palette.

I don’t really have anything today. Administrative crapola encroached on my work so I was really annoyed by the end of the day. This is from the Old Cabin last night with my cousin sewing something on her tricked out sewing musheen, LED light string and all. G’night.

It turns out that last week was the best week to take off. I won’t go into that except that work that I was worried would be hot-hot-hot last week seemed to be temporarily stalling. The rest of the team agreed about that so I took time off. Today? Hello? Yes! We don’t have 100% of the requirements yet but it’s all a go and I am writing the specs in such a way that I can fill in the rest of the requirements when we get them.

Other than that, I TRIED to take the recycling in to town today but the recycle was closed. It was [kinda] okay since I also had a minor list for Meijer so my town trip wasn’t totally wasted. It turns out that the recycle is closed Sunday and Monday and I shoulda known that but I guess I fergot.

We had some good rainstorms throughout the day, a bit of sun, and then a pretty good nor’wester. So when I was done working, I schlepped down to the Tornado Hollow in front of the Old Cabin where it is pretty warm when the wind is coming off Gitchee Gumee.

After a leftover dinner we texted the Old Cabin cousins to ask if we would be welcome to hang out over there for a while. Yes yes yes yes! And we had a great time.

Love y’all, KW

The beach emptied out this morning as a lot of folks left, including those at the moomincabin. I did my best to stay out of the fray or is it out of the way? At some point the beach urchins (who were both riding in one vee-hickle), decided they needed to leave so “moom can settle.” They know me well.

Settling for me involved a slow backroad ride somewhere and getting gas for Cygnus so I asked the GG to take me on a tour of Dafter, a mini town southeast of here. I have driven through Dafter many times in my life but I can never remember exactly what it looks like. Today’s drive verified that it is basically a single street of houses and a few other buildings. No restaurants or retail spots although it does have a post office and some very old sidewalks. Most people who live in Dafter these days probably “commute” to Sault Ste. Siberia or wherever.

My family has some shirt-tail relatives who farmed in the Dafter area when I was a child and before. My granddaddy’s sister Alice married Alec from that area. They had no biological children but adopted Alec’s brother’s son George. I *think* George’s mom died in childbirth or shortly after but don’t quote me. He was mildly disabled from birth injuries (again, don’t quote me). He married Anna and together they successfully raised three children. Before George died, he was the darling of the Lake Superior State University’s women’s basketball team.

I think I remember being at that farm maybe ONCE but couldn’t find its location now to save my life. My grandfather told his sister’s child that he and his children could visit the moominbeach any time they wanted. Many Sunday afternoons throughout my life, they did pull in to our parking lot and take their kids swimming. We welcomed them but it could be awkward as George’s religion and polly-ticks were a bit different than ours. Ancient history though and it was probably more awkward for them than it was for us.

We actually had an errand in the Dafter area, which was to deliver some swords saws and scabbards to the Tool Trailer. This trailer is down a 2-track called Z Row and backing in to it, Cygnus stopped herself, sounding a collision alarm. GRASS was what set it off. Like I always say, most of that vee-hicular safety crapola needs to be turned off.

From there we ventured down to Kinross, former home of Kincheloe AFB, which used to sometimes send low-flying B52s over the moominbeach. Our goal there was to fill up Cygnus but the gas station wanted us to go inside to pay and that can be a pain for complicated reasons so we went over and up to Brimley to fill up at the tribal run gas station.

I was reading on the deck (with socks on) this afternoon when I noticed that “someone” had droven in. I didn’t know the vee-hickle but it turned out it was Jeep and Pan coming over to check on when MDUH was arriving.

The droven-ins… When my mouse was about five, we were up here and one morning the grandparents went to town. My mouse told me she was going down to the beach but as she opened the door she beat a hasty retreat with, “Moom, someone has droven in!” I took a gander out the window and saw that the grandparents’ vee-hickle had returned. I said, “Mouse, go and look at who has droven in.” When she did, her granddaddy was getting out of the car and she said, “Oh, it’s just a Great Big Mouse.”

We were on the beach this afternoon when one of our McNaughton friends stopped by to hand us this photo. I cannot believe this is meeee. Did I ever look like this? I guess I did. I was probably about 35 and these are my two beach urchins. I look kinda like my dad in this pic.

Other than that, we all went to town for lunch at Penny’s Kitchen, Alberta House, and Meijer. We did takeout from Penny’s because covid (sigh). The GG (unmasked) and Mouse (masked) went in to order food. I went in (masked) to use the refrigerator ladies’ powder room. We took our takeout lunch down to Brady Park and that was a great place to eat.

By the end of our trip, I was more than ready to get out of the back seat of Cygnus. We were trying to save gas or whatever by taking one vee-hickle to town. I got stuck in the back seat with three people and the person next to me was a bit smelly. That’s all I will say about that except that there is a nice shower here and I went to the laundromat on Thurday. So harrumph.

Orchids. Or are these beach peas? I thought for sure I was sent a pic of beach pea plants today but I think I also got orchids. I’m too taaarrred at this point to figger out which is which.

The GG spent almost the entire day in the garatchkey (one trip to the hardware store) fixing various things. I made a trip to drop green bag garbage at the res. I love Cygnus but the one thing she doesn’t do is “pop the trunk”. It’s okay, we worked it out.

Hot hot hot today. Too hot for the beach (for me) but not as hot as last summer. An “undertaker’s wind” out of the swamp made the deck very comfortable.

That’s about it for me and it’s not much. Love y’all, KW.

So I did some laundry this morning. At the Up North Laundromat which now has an app for paying for the warshing musheens. I told the proprietor how much I appreciated that today. I was sitting outside at that time waiting for my laundry to finish washing. I also enjoy the outdoor benches. Most people don’t mask at the laundromat. I did today when there were other people near the area where I do my washing and drying. I braved it without when no one was around.

As I was sitting on the bench outside the laundromat, I was texting with the beach urchins about dinner plans for the next few days. In the end, I was tasked with enchiladas for tonight and that was fine except that the one thing I didn’t get on to my grock list was chopped green chilies. I didn’t realize that I didn’t have them until I got back out here. Oh dear. There was no way I was gonna drive all the way into Meijer, especially with the detour. I considered taking a trip to the park store but you never know if you’ll find what you want there although I have bought CAPERS there…

As it turned out the Old Cabin was able to provide me a can of green chilies. Green chilies are now on my list so I can replace them at the Old Cabin. I remember The Commander going over to the Old Cabin or Katie’s Cabin and rummaging the cupboards for cans of tuna or whatever. That’s how it works around here.

The blueberries in the pic are just outside the Lyme Lounge. As the beach urchins pointed out, yes, they are right about where I WoodsP when I am sleeping in the Lyme Lounge. I have not WoodsPd there in just about forever though because I am currently sleeping on the futon inside the moomincabin. So if anything, I have provided nitrogen to the Lyme Lounge Blueberry Patch.

These blueberries look beautiful but actually we do not have a lot of wild blueberries in our yard this year. These are outliers.

This morning I got up late. I mean 7:00 AM is late (for me). I looked around and decided the recycling HAD to be dealt with TODAY! The moomincabin is a small place and you have really have to keep up with whatever crapola is around, especially when there are more than two people here, like there are this week. I focused on recycling today and got it all ready to go.

This morning was FaceTime Coffee with MMCB. We didn’t last too long today because all of us were in various stages of domestic dishevelment. MMCB₁ was waiting for a w/d to arrive. I am soooo dumb that I had to ask what a w/d was. Washer/Dryer. Duh. MMCB₂ was dealing with a family childcare situation in which another caregiver of her grandchildren tested positive for you-know-what (second infection but asymptomatic). MMCB₂ has avoided covid so far and we are all hoping this status will continue.

Me? I just needed to deal with the recycle get outta Dodge for a quick trip to town. I went to Meijer too.

Mr. Fixit worked on all kinds of problems today. Coffee grinder, Dyson purple vac, leaky kitchen sink (only one trip to the hardware store), and who knows what in the garatchkey. Sometime in the afternoon, while the lizard was on a work call, there was a loud blast from behind the garatchkey. I said, “You need to give us a WARNING!” He said that he had given a warning shot. I said, “I meant a VERBAL warning.”

I intercepted a friendly UPS driver today who was delivering a package to the Old Cabin. It’s not easy to figure out what’s going on down here. We have addresses nowadays but there is a single driveway for both us and the Old Cabin and it turns off a one-lane road. This guy said this was the farthest he had ever driven down our road and were we also Garbinis? Nope. I gave him a VERY high-level explanation that our grandfather and the “Garbinis'” grandfather were best buddies and they bought this shorefront property 100 years ago but we were NOT related to the “Garbinis”, just friends. The “Garbinis” spend more time up here than we do and so probably order more stuff online to be delivered here. I didn’t try to explain that Garbini was not one of the original family names and neither was whatever name was on the package being delivered. Finlayson and McNaughton are the original family names but that was 100 years ago and I’m sure he didn’t care one whit 🤣🤣🤣

The pic is one my mouse took out on her North Country Trail hike near Betchler Lakes (I think) today. It is a sandhill crane in flight. Isn’t it lovely?

Nope. Not here. Our moomincabin parking lot hides vee-hickles. Here’s Oriole (orange) and the Lyme Lounge (white).

And here’s Cygnus and if you look hard enough, the Old Cabin cousins’ RAV4 is in the background.

Our RAV4 (Mooon Yooonit) is out behind the garatchkey which I can barely see through the trees from here. I didn’t take a pic of that.

When I was a very young beach urchin and the Old Cabin was a bit different, I remember my older cousins Susel and Sandal used to play with toy cars and park them between the roots of pine trees. This was before my brother the automotive engineer was born. He would have loved playing with those cars.

And that’s about all for now because we are chilling out on the deck with dinner in the hopper and there is a loverly marine layer out there and potential for overnight storms. G’night.

Most of my grock trips are quick ones. Today’s wasn’t the quickest because we are feeding more than two people for multiple days but it was cool to have dual shoppers. Today’s trip was with my mouse although I have done this with Uber Kayak Woman and even the GG.

We each had our own lists and carts and I can’t exactly describe this except to say that I was mainly focused on tonight’s dinner and my mouse was planning for a few days. We both stocked up a bit on adult substances for the week, which always increase expenses significantly.

We both spent A LOT of money. I didn’t think about that for a while because I’m accustomed to spending a lot of money at grocery stores, especially when I am in the yooperland. Not because grocks are more expensive here, I actually think they are maybe cheaper. Just that my habits are a bit different when I’m in the yooperland. But finally I asked… And then I got onto Venmo…

Anyway, we expect to make more grock trips this week (I already have a little list) but probably nothing extensive or expensive. At any rate, I am totally out of whack on blahgging tonight. I have totally lost any train of thought I may have had. So g’night and love y’all.

I looked next door this afternoon and there were about a gazillion white vee-hickles over there. I thought it would make an interesting pic so I walked over there and as I approached, I could see my cousin the Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie hanging out in his vee-hickle, the big white van.

I got his attention and we were talking when a whole bunch of other cousins came along. The Beautiful Jan, “Little” Katie, Cap’n Queen Leila and her mom, Judd, Nate, and others. We enjoyed talking to all of them and then we coerced the Grinchie (who was still in his van) into coming over for a cheeseburger and then the Old Cabin cousins came over to hang out on the deck with us. All in all, a beautiful summer evening in the yooperland on the shores of Gitchee Gumee.

My lizardy beach urchin drove “Miss Daisy” to the yooperland today. She drove Cygnus as we pulled a small utility trailer the whole way. We stopped along the way to visit FlaMan and deliver him a McDonald’s breakfast. After complaining about how he was having a rough morning (it is NOT covid), he finally asked, “What day is it?” We told him it was Saturday and he lit up. “Good, I can go to the bar.” The bar in question is next door to his apartment, close enough that he can get there on his scooter. Do not get me wrong. We LOVE FlaMan and are happy that he finds ways to be independent despite his disabilities. He always seems happy to see his nieces (Liz today), nephews and the “greats”.

From there, we continued north and here we are crossing the Big Mac.

We got stuck in a minor traffic backup before the tollbooths and rode next to this peanut-eating person for a while. Long enough to get a peanut-eating pic. Of course it was the GG and eventually he figured out we were next to him.

Our mouse was already here when we arrived and she had a Dinner Plan going. Green Chili with pork shoulder, cow beans, and friends. In fact she sent us a mini-list to pick up at the park store along the way.

It turned into a YELLOW evening.

Shhhh. Do not tell my work friends that I didn’t get all that much done today. I didn’t. It was one of those days. I was kind of roto all morning, probably tooooo much coffee but also stressing out about pulling a trailer tomorrow. I had a lunchtime glass of whine to try to settle down and that actually almost put me to sleep.

People (I mostly mean the GG) do not always get that I am pretty dern sneaky. Maaaayyybeee that’s where The Sneak comes by her nickname. I didn’t figure out until she was like 30 or so that she was actually even more sneaky than me. She sure had me fooled as a kid. (Almost) always a nice, calm child and good at taking care of her little sister. Not a problem as a teenager. Responsible kid, good friends, good grades, good driver, etc. Sneaky, right?

Once a co-worker with a middle school daughter asked how, well, I’m not sure but it was something about how to deal with teenage daughters. I said that I never had any problem with either of my daughters. I then clarified that I was sure there were things that happened that I never heard about but I knew who their friends were, etc. This co-worker’s daughter never gave her a problem and is now a fully fledged adult doing well in NYC.

I have more to say about being sneaky but I can’t put it into words tonight so g’night!

This came up sompelace in memories somewhere today. I don’t remember exactly what year it was but The Commander was well up somewhere into her 80s. I drove up to the moomincabin and as soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted with “ANNE! (make it sound like a BUZZER!) Where’s the sharpener?” Now, mind you, I had just driven FIVE HOURS up from The Planet Ann Arbor. I was like, sharpener? Sharpener? Say what?

I can’t exactly remember but I THINK it was a pencil sharpener? Whatever it was, I found it almost immediately. Like, it’s right where you hung it? Oh dear. These are the crazy kinds of things I miss about my moom (who would be 101 if she were still alive).

The icons in the second paragraph are obscuring something like “the nanosecond I’ve arrived from Timbuctoo or wherever.”

I am sorta more of an orphan than usual at work these days but people seem to care about me and my work *anyway* and so when I reached out to folks about whether they could deal with me taking a week of vacay next week, they were all like YEAH! Of COURSE you can take vacation. I think I need some time off so that felt really good.

So one of the many things the GG did today was to get faaaarwood delivered. We are all set for winter but note that this is recreational wood. I mean, we burn it in our faaarplace. We have central heat (gas) to keep the Landfill warm. But still.

MMCB₁ reported that something like 16 people she knows were on various European trips this summer and EVERYONE came home with COVID. It didn’t sound like most of these people got very sick but jeebus. People STAY HOME!

Meanwhile, folks with non-covid issues report not being able to be seen in any kind of reasonable time frame. I’m not sure if it’s covid or insurance or maybe a combination of factors. I can’t help remembering when I was something like 22 and had a terrible ear infection (not a normal thing for me). My GP uncle, at the cabin next door, said something like, “C’mon, get in the car.” He whisked me into town to his office, which was technically closed at that time of the evening. He (not very gently 🤣) flushed a bunch of wax out of my ear, then handed me a bottle of antibiotic pills. Drove me back out to the cabin and I was pretty much good to go once the meds kicked in. No muss, no fuss. Probably no payment either. Of all things, I own his office Electrolux vacuum cleaner and IT STILL WORKS!

This is an iconic pic of the GG rummaging. He is rummaging in the Lyme Lounge. He is rummaging for a Stormy Kromer beer cozy. Rummaging activities (except when I am doing them myself) drive me CRAYZEE!

Once sometime in 2021? (the years they run together during the pandemic), he was rummaging like crayzee all over the Landfill. WHAT is he looking for? I don’t always want to know. After a while, a beach urchin texted me to ‘fess up that if he was rummaging it was for an old film camera that she wanted to use.

I need a NO SOLICITORS sign! After a couple years of almost NO solicitors, our damn doorbell has been ringing off the hook this week. People who are okay? Missy next door organizing a neighborhood potluck in the street. A woman down the street with flyers for a beautiful lost Siamese cat. The DTE (lucky-shucky) tree person wanting to check out the trees in our yard in order to plan our next chainsaw massacre. He was a sweet person and I suspect he actually knows something about trees. The folks that actually come in to “trim” them don’t always but it’s amazing how fast things grow back around here so I don’t get very freaked about it any more.

People who are not okay? Religious proselytizers (which to be fair we haven’t had in quite a while). Environmental “activists” aka young college students who have been conscripted by so-called environmental orgs. The GG answered the door this time. A couple years ago, I was alone and answered the door (at 9:00 PM!!!). I (politely) told the young woman that I wasn’t interested and there were better ways to earn money. She rather sheepishly replied that her mom had said the same thing.

Alert Alert Alert. Good solicitor alert!

And then. Of all things. The doorbell just rang and I was like “Oh f*ck” but I went to answer it and the GG also jumped to attention because he knows how much I hate solicitors and he wants to make sure I don’t BITE them or something. And guess what? This guy knew our (the GG’s) name Courtois. He knew it because he grew up in Missouri near the Courtois River. We’ve BEEN THERE! Our cousins live in St. Louis and drove us there once. I told him I already had my absentee ballot ready to send in and so didn’t accept any of his propaganda but we had a great time talking to him anyway!

Cygnus pulled this cute little trailer over from Jackson today. It is a North Country Trail trailer and somebody will haul it up to the yooperland this weekend. I am thinking that somebody will end up being meeeeee. I don’t really want to haul a trailer but but but…

I thought I would be able to take next week as a vacation week. As it turns out, I am needed to spec out some new business. I am happy to help. It’ll be okay. One of the beach urchins is taking vacay next week. The other has a new job but can work remotely. That’s what I’ll be doing too. Of course I have been telecommuting since March 2020. You know why.

It ain’t the Galapagos (see BFF’s blahg for all kinds of photooos of that plus Ecuador) but we had a pretty good time over on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan for the last few days. We had a twin cFam encampment plus another brother and sister-in-law were over in the next “loop”. Here is one half (ours) of the Twin C(ourtois) Encampment.

Here’s the other half of the Twin C(ourtois) Encampment. They have a bigger, fancier trailer than ours but who cares. That’s The Beautiful Gay there. She probably wouldn’t like this pic but she is GORGEOUS and also a Force of Nature. Always friendly and gracious but do not even THINK about messing with her. She managed a tavern for many years. I did not get their elderly dogs, at least not in this pic. They are cute little dogs rescued from relatives who couldn’t care for them any longer.

I don’t have a good pic of younger brother JimC but he was responsible for a lot of great entertainment in the form of two couples he met at Dondero HIGH SCHOOL (in Royal Joke) who were also camping there. They were WONDERFUL and we had soooo much fun with them. Everyone but me (Sault Ste. Siberia High) and JimC’s wife The Beautiful Becky (some other Royal Joke area school) went to Dondero High so we had Camp Dondero for a few nights. By the end of it all, people had forgotten that I didn’t go to Dondero 🤣. To be fair, I am a few years older than they are so wouldn’t have been in high school with them. So here is the Uncly Uncle (identical twin) taking a selfie of him and all of us “Dondero” folks.

WEATHER was scheduled to roll through and shortly after this one of my “fellow” Dondero-ites and I simultaneously heard a bit of thunder. We cocked our eyes at each other and everybody scattered PDQ after that.

The black thingy is where we were camping. It might look like the storm is about to roll on through and leave us but friends, it did NOT. We had lightning and thunder throughout the night and heavy heavy heavy rain. The DNR folks were knocking on doors (not ours) before the storm started to let people know to go to the bathrooms if they needed shelter. The guys in the tent next to us disappeared during the night. We slept well through the storm. Nothing all that severe and the rain was wonderful.

OMG. I just accidentally launched Siri and then told her (myself actually) to f*ck off. “I won’t respond to that.” Okay. Sorry Siri.

yup. I bagged my blahg yesterday. We are camping at a state park on Lake Michigan with good cell service but no Wi-Fi and I was tooooo lazy to set up a hotspot so I am reduced to phone blahgging. And last night I just plain didn’t get around to it because gathering. Outdoor and hopefully no covid. My fingers are still firmly crossed.

People are swimming despite the waves and red flag. Not me. Can you say undertow? How ‘bout sneaker wave? Or riptide?

Also I did woodsP once last night but now that the then-empty site next to us is occupied by four 18-year-old men, I think I will schlep over to the facilities. They are spotlessly clean and this place is full of young families so not a problem.