Our ingredients for a wonderful summer

 HI,

Basically I am writing my blog and my posts as a memoir for myself and perhaps my kids.  It is like a journal of me interacting with my kids.  A diary.  It is mostly for me, but I write it in a blog so it is public.  If there are 5 or 10 or 1000 people interested, whatever, that is fine.  But I have to tell you I am not writing it for you, I am writing it for me.  If you find it interesting, then I am very happy, but if no one reads it besides myself and three people, I dont really care.  Or I should be polite and say, that is also ok.  

The reason I mention this now is actually because this will be the first time I have thought about it.  I started thinkng about it because I knew I was going to write a post which really was probably not going to be interesting for anybody.  But then I thought, well does it have to be?  A lot of what I write here is probably boring or not intersting for people, this one wont be much different.  But all the same, I thought I should write a warning before this post. Then I thought I should write a whole forword and explain.  So... there it was and here it is

Our main ingredients for a happy summer  

Spider Lake and Greilick Road.  I have been going there all my life, every summer. I missed the summer of 2020 so that is why we really had to go in 2021.  Despite the pandemic (it was getting better when I booked, but then was getting worse when we went) this is what I and now my daughters love.  I guess it is not impossible to fall in love with a place.  I have.  Now my daughters love it too.  I cant really say what is so spectacular about the lake.  It is big enough and not too big.  It is getting more boats now, that is true.  A bit busier than when I was growing up on it.  But in my opinion it is just as beautiful as any body of water in the smaller lakes category.  It can compete and win against any New Hampshire, Minnesota, or Northeast state lake.  I guess water has always attracted me.  Sun shining off the water is very beautiful.  The sparkle is magical.  But Spider Lake is even more magical. It has some magnet effect. 

1

We used to stay here (1) now we have to stay here.(2) A kind of very sad change that happened in 2018, but I guess it had to happen, maybe, maybe not, and at least we are still on Greilick Road very close to the old location and still in the neighborhood and on the lake.  But even sadder for me, as place 1 is where I grew up and my daughters started out there too.  Now it isnt ours anymore in a sudden change.  But....

2

 Then there is swimming.  Naturally in the lake I showed you in the picture above.  I guess these days the recipe calls for swimming at the island pictured below. It has the best swimmng area. It is very sandy and has a big area to swim in.  The problem is, that many other people believe the same.  So on the weekend it is too crowded to swim or we have to wait.  During the week it is fine.  

Michigan corn.  Sometimes we get to our vacation too early to get a lot of corn.  And then I have to cook more suppers, which is not good as I have a limited repertoire.  But this last summer it was August and the corn was in full swing.  We ate it nearly every day or every other day.  And Michigan corn is the best.  Sorry, nothing else comes close.   I know everyone will say their corn is the best, but, all I can say is you are wrong.  Ok, no sense to argue.  Corn on the cob is an integral ingredient for a wonderful summer.  This last summer 2021 it played a big role.  

The thing we do eat EVERY day even more than corn is really bad.  I guess it is my secret enjoyable sin.  Well, in fact it cant be mine because I never get any. My daughters love it even more than I , so I never get any. I have to make myself a regular sandwich lunch and they give me a couple spoonfuls which I was grateful for. Besides I knew it was nt so good for me, especially to eat every day, so a couple spoons was good enough.  And yes I realize I am a bad parent, but a good parent, for letting my daughters eat this awful(ly) bad/delicious food.  It is our favorite. We cant get it during the year.  So, it is a summer thing.  It is part of the summer ingredients.  Here it is.  

Then there are a couple other ingredients.   The best pizza restaurant in this section of the world.  That is another thing people are very patriotic about. Everyone will tell you the best pizza is made in.... Chicago, Ann Arbor, Tulsa Oklahoma.  I wont argue with these people because I do realize in this case that. well, yes there are good pizza restaurants in all parts of the U... world even and each person has his good memories and his idea of what is a good pizza.  But here is ours.  Best around.  Go there if you get up to these parts.  We always get it two or three times in the summer vacation.  Peegeos pizza is the best you can get around here.  And that is very good. 

Then there are assorted other things.  A couple other fast food joints that we go to like a tradition.  I have put up pictures of Bryant Park on Lake Michigan a couple times and it is a necessary ingredient for the summer vacation.  A new event as a result of the pandemic, since most of the restaurants were on lockdown still this last summer we had to get carry out from the restaurant and then eat it on a picnic table in front of the bay.  I have to say was a very pleasurable experience, especially on a sunny day. So maybe we will do that again next year.  Also the museum on the Northeastern Michigan campus we go to every year.  It has a great hands on learning room, which hasnt changed much in 5 years or more, but is still always enjoyable.  

There is one last thing that I must mention.  That is the local branch of the public library system.  The East Bay Township branch.  They have been an integral part of many of our summers, at least since the kids could read.  The staff has always been the nicest and they remember us every year even though we just come in the summer.  Especially nice are the extracurricular events they organize there, especially on Saturdays.  We have painted rocks, made colorful pom poms, watched old short animated films and of course gotten out ten books a shot.  Hats off to the wonderful people who work there.  You have to stop and pay respect to the "peripheral" people in your life who help make the whole life picture much nicer and better.  The library crew at East Bay township branch, well always wonderful and as a result an integral part of a great summer vacation.  

I listened to so many tracks while I was writing this that I am just going to end with a picture of the library instead of my usual recommendation of music I have or will get.  

Thanks for reading and maybe even enjoying.  Leave a message

Max 

Summer is usually wonderful. Well, duh.

 Its October now, but I still have summer on my mind.  And I am still going to write about summer. Summer is keeping it chilled. Getting a lot of sleep. Not stressing about how we look to others. Diminishing anxiety and stress.  Doing what we feel comfortable doing but being healthier too. 

In the summer everything is kinder. In October my daughters and I are still playing monopoly at least two games a week. But I had to stop one game in the middle because my daughters started fighting and then wrecking the board and getting vicious.  My temper line was crossed and I spit fire like a dragon at them and told them to go read.  Game over.  

In summer we never had fights like that.  We had one fight because a friend of one daughter came to visit and of course the other daughter who doesnt have a friend got jealous and started to provoke.  But we would go back to Monopoly every night even when the friend was there and play till 11 ot 11.30 pm

Now, we have to look at the clock and try to finish the round at 9.55. (oh come on dad, one more round, its not ten o clock yet).  I want them to get as much sleep as possible on school days, and I wish it could be 9 hours.  But it hasnt been hitting that.  Only on the weekends.  In the summer I didnt really care how long they slept.  In fact the more the better. I think our whole family is a late to bed late to rise family, so.... no point to resist. If we are awake at midnight and sleeping at 9 am, we dont have to get up to feed the farm animals.  

I DID always
get up and go rowing on the lake. I would come back and they were getting up, slowly.  No worries man. They were getting over 9 hours of sleep, 9 and a half.  More and better development for their brain with more sleep.  Overall good for the development of their tween and teenage selves.  

Speaking of development of their selves.  Have you heard of the studies out now that Instagram is bad for teenage kids and their image? I would guess that most kids try to look as beautiful as possible, "Look at me, arent I the most beautifulest?" And the other kids who cant live up to the beauty get depressed and get a negative image of themselves. Here is an article written by a teenager which sums it up the best  So, in the summer, my oldest daughter didnt have her telephone with her so she couldnt do IG or FB or those other social sites.  I didnt have to keep her from messing around  on her sites and wasting time indoors when she should have been outside.  That was much nicer.  I was spared the mental anguish of having to deal with that. You can look at all my

A Devil where his soul should be

posts and see how many ISSUES I have with gadgets.  

During the year it is always a struggle to keep her away and at a maximum of an hour a day watching or messing around on her telephone, usually playing games. She is an addicted gamester.   

At our summer place, she didnt have it. We swam and played monopoly and did a couple outings but nothing big.  

Speaking of outings, my wife organizes the outings, the big walks, the hikes, the travels. I am not so good at it.  But I think we compliment each other. So in the first half of the summer my daughters had big hikes and outings.  When they went on vacation with me, we had lots of monopoly games and an outing was a trip to the grocery store to buy food for the next couple days.  But one daughter is not a fan of big hikes, so she was relaxed and chilled on our vacation.  

Sleeping is a family activity

We did what we wanted.  A little bit more. I tried to keep the anxiety to a minimum which for me is very difficult because I get anxiety attacks having to get up in the morning. And driving is a major stress creator.  But I TRIED to keep my stress down.  For all of us. And ... to some extent .... it worked.  

Summer is nice. Summer is usually wonderful.   Our problems and anxieties melted and were buried in  the sand for a couple weeks.  

I have been listening to the echocord label.  Just discovered.  Techno dub.  Ohhhhhh great stuff.  

Comng out soon a triple lp collection to recognize their twentieth year.  I ll be ordering that!

Daddy 40 per cent at home turns into DAD 40 per cent at home

Does this guy look like a daddy or A DAD?

I could just about tell you the exact day when my moniker changed from Daddy to DAD.  It was after we got to our summer vacation destination in the US.  I have to ask my older daughter again how she came about calling me Dad instead of Daddy. She had some long reply.  Suffice to say that I guess it happens at some point in the life of the kids when they realize that "daddy" is kind of a moniker used by littler tots and think that "Dad" is more mature and adult like. 

So, I think we were swimming in the lake and she called me "Dad".  I had to turn my head.  It confused me and it sounded strange.  To tell you the truth, I didnt like it. I have been used to "daddy" all these years.  "Dad" is going to take some time to get used to.  Nearly 13 years I heard "daddy".  Now I have to           respond to "dad".  

I dont know.  I liked "daddy".  "Dad" sounds like it should be used by my adult daughter who is calling me up on the phone and saying "hi dad, I had to call...etc etc".  Or "Dad, I¨m writing to you because etc etc ..."  Or "Dad, can you call Mom".  Those are ok.  But just "dad" out in the lake or when we are right near each other... it is weird to me.  I guess maybe because it sounds more like she is an adult and not a kid anymore and she  cant call me "daddy". End of her childhood?  It just sounds strange and I still dont like it. 

But it doesnt end there.  

Pretty much the next day or maybe the next day after, my younger daughter also started to call me "Dad".  Wait a sec.  She is still small. She just turned 10 last week from this writing. At the time she was still 9.  When my older daughter was 9 there was no way she was going to call me "dad". She was still a young girl. I guess she thought she was old and I thought she was old when she was 10, I remember her tenth birthday quite well, but... no... she was still young.  

So, how is it that my younger 9 year old can start to call me "dad"?  I asked her.

I said she was just copying her older sister and didnt want to call me "daddy" because her older sister was using the "proper" adult form.  Not to be left behind by her.  She didnt agree to that opinion. She said, it was true she heard her sister calling me "dad" but then she seemed to repeat the "name" "dad" in her mind and decided it sounded better too and started to call me that.  

You know what? I dont like either of them calling me "dad".  I want to be "daddy".  

Now it is September and, well, Dad is the name that has taken over. No more "daddys".   The problem is, it is about a month after that original "daddy" to "dad" change and I STILL have not gotten used to "dad".  No, I have not.  

So, I am not sure what comes next. I guess I just have to get used to it. I can ask them to start calling me daddy again, but I think either they will refuse or they will feel really weird doing that. I dont think they will do it, or will do it a couple times and then revert.  

I guess... I guess I just have to get used to it and realize that I am now a DAD.  

But wait.  Why do they still call Mommy "mommy"? 

I bought the re released Emerson Lake and Palmer Cds today.  All 4 four of them. 

Tarkus is probably the best.  In my opinion.  Very powerful.