Note to Self: What to do next summer

 

A disclaimer at the beginning.  As the title reads this is a note to self, strictly for me. I am making it public because I dont care.  People can read it, but it is basically really just that, a note to me on what to do next summer and things to do during the year in preparation.  Hopefully so the summer is even better.  Maybe you will take interest and / or you can use the suggestions also.  I hope.  But first, I am writing just for me. 

To begin with, during the year I will try to lose a couple lbs, kilo.  Just a couple.  I am probably anywhere fronm 5 to 10 kilo over weight.  Losing 10 lbs would be fine and satisfying.  But it is difficult even to lose 2 lbs.  If I lost 2 lbs by Christmas, I would be satisfied.  5 by the end of the school year... pretty good.  Note, its not a new years resolution. I never make those anymore, its just something I would like to happen and I will try somewhat hard for it to happen. In general it would be healthy and good and make me all around better.  

But I have to lose some poundage in order to be in better shape.  Because next year I am planning to climb the dune with my daughter.  She really wants to do it.  But it is a little bit.. challenging and she isnt so old so she could get caught out of shape trying to make it to the top. I want to be in shape to make that climb at the sleeping bear sand dunes with her.  I did it once maybe 15 years ago or more and it was difficult.  So now it will be even more difficult.  So, I have to get in shape for it.  Start now.  

More training of another sort during the year. I want to learn some more meals to increase my supper repertoire.  In fact I can give a little update right now.  I tried making a curry dish with chicken and tofu.  It wasnt strong enough because i didnt use curry powder, I used a curry sauce which wasnt the same. I have to use a powder.  Lots of onions.  The problem is, after I made it my older daughter DID like it and said it was decent.  Not so strong, no, but decent.  But then my younger daughter said, "Dad, I dont like curry dishes."  Crap.  She doesnt eat many sauces, but I thought since she loves hot buffalo wings she would like a curry dish.  But no.  Rats, so what do I do with that?  I guess I will try it again and hopefully add it to my repertoire, but, sort of a lost cause if my younger daughter wont eat it.  Still.....

This one is kind of tough.  I wish I could feel better about driving.  I dont like to drive much.  Each time I go out driving I really have to push myself. I can handle the highway but not the city so well and a big city freaks me out.  I wish I could hurdle this fear of driving.  I think I have had it for many years though.  I really dont know where it comes from because I was only in one major crash in which I wasnt hurt or driving.  Another minor one, but personally I have never crashed.  I have been driving since I was 16 and it doesnt bother me. Just the thought of having to drive sort of turns my stomach before I actually have to drive.  

The dune climb

Because I also would like to plan a couple more outings with my kids.  The last ONE was very successful.  We should do, I wish, three.  Just go to nearby places.  Historical things or a nice town.  Sightseeing.  How can I work on this? I dont know.  

Last and definitely least, I would like to finally get all my excess stuff I have kept at people s places away from them and back to my year round home.  I am very lucky that I had very nice people who let me hold some of my stuff with them after my Mother sold the cottage AND I have been taking it back to my winter home every year.  But now is the time to finish the process.  Either throw stuff out or take it back. I better have the strength to throw some stuff out as I think I still have more than a suitcase full of stuff to take back.   

Granted I keep a big army suitcase (my fathers suitcase from when he was in the army during WWII) of blankets and plates that we keep there, but I should take the rest of the stuff back.  Finish the process.  Get it over with, move on.  Organize it once and for all.  

The thing is now they charge you for every suitcase you check in.  This last summer I got away with taking an extra carry on suitcase and taking stuff in that, but this year I will have to pay to check in a full suitcase. It is still much cheaper than shipping it.  I guess I will put one suitcase inside the other and check both going back.  I want to finish with this.  

And so.  This is my note to self.  Of things to take care of during the year in preparation for an even better next summer.  Well, taking off weight is good for any time of the year.  Also the most difficult.  Well, actually conquering your fears and re wiring your brain after you well into mid age years is also difficult.  

Lets see what I can do.  I dont expect to accomplish all of them.  That is the thing.  You should make a list of things to do and accomplish but be happy if half or even a third of them are accomplished.  Time to step up to the plate, though I already have.  

Best of luck Self.  

I got the just about newest Figurex label titles into the store in September and Figurex31 is very good.  Arthur Robert's Metamorphosis part 1.  Part 2 is also out, but I think part 1 is stronger.  

Also,  I always get the bondage label stuff. I dont think I have this one yet but I will get it on my next order.  

Marcus Homm minimal House full LP

After Dark

Or maybe it is new deep house.  

Very nice smooth grooves.  Great for listening at home, on the dance floor or dare I say it?, background music as you work.   

Summertime blues 2022 part 1 : Suppertime failures

 Yes, if you noticed I called this post summertime "blues" where as all the others have been "no blues".  To state the obvious:  all the others were mostly, nearly successes, and this one .. was not.   What was this failure of the summer?

Suppers. 

To be fair to me, first I will state things which were against me which werent my fault but helped me fail at suppers.  

1.  The stove was not working properly for several days when I needed it.  First it wasnt on at all and I didnt know how to turn on the gas for it.  So, i had to postpone a supper I was going to cook in the oven.  THEN when we did get it going, it went off again and it STILL was not working.  This caused me to cook on the top of the stove and not in the oven.  The meal came out ok, but it was a bit troubling and I had to make changes and adjustments.  Not my fault.  By the day after I think we got the oven working, but I was worried whether it was leaking while it was on.  I could smell stuff in the kitchen, gas, during the day and or night.  

2. We werent there during corn season.  Last year we had corn about half or more

Michigan bi color sweet corn

than half the suppers.  We love Michigan corn, and the local stuff is the best.  But it comes in at the beginning of August.  So we could only have a couple suppers of out of area corn which wasnt as great, but still good, but not LOCAL. And when the local stuff finally did come onto the market, our vacation was just about up. I think it became available in the last couple days we were there.   

3. Ugh, the spaghetti and or spaghetti sauce was a total failure.  That wasnt my fault.  Something was wrong with the sauce and or noodles.  I may have bought too thick noodles and they were too watery?  Maybe.  The sauce was terrible.  Too soupy and the taste was bad. And I bought a well known brand, what I thought was a good brand.  Failure.  Not my fault.  Might not even make spaghetti next year.  

4.  My daughters WOULD not let me make my best signature meal, lasagne.  They said, I can only make that during the year, not in the summer. It is not a summer dish and I am not allowed to make it here on vacation.  They are kind of tied up in traditions.  I understand their reasoning and why, but, it further tied my hands on supper. 

Ok,  but the basic problem which made it a failure was, I just didnt have a big enough repertoire this year.  My big signature meals were seriously diminished.  Lasagne was a no no,  the spaghetti was terrible so I only made it once.  The pork chops were compromised when I made them on the top of the stove.  The hot Buffalo wings also, but I salvaged that operation and cooked half in oven and half on stove top.  But not the usual good ones.  Lost cause.   I cant even remember well what I cooked for dinner.  Corn a couple, three times, maybe 4.  Peegeos pizza 3 times.  Sometimes we had lunch at dinner because we had a big lunch.   A subs one night during the dusk movie.  This and that, but I cant see that it added up to 21 days of vacation.  But it did.  I dont think ANY of my regular meals were a success.   Man oh man.  

The easy thing to do is to fix it in one manner:                                                     Increase my repertoire!!!!

This I have to do during the year.  Even though I will be able to fall back on corn next year more often, I need to develop more recipes for dinner.  And I would rather they not be meals that my wife has already developed, granted though I stole the lasagne recipe from her and the chicken kebabs.  But I have to find my own successful path to dinner.  Should I look for some educational course to learn some more? 

I have to get cracking on this and find some meals to try.  But as of yet the only one I can think of, and wait a sec, hear me out on this one, the only meal I can think of so far to try is macaroni and cheese.  Oh Louise, is that a loss or what? 

But wait, see, my older daughter really likes mac and cheese and I think I could make a good homemade one. She was all psyched about this store bought one, but if I try a homemade one during the year, maybe it could be a success for her. But admittedly it is not the most original, healthy, or wise choice to add to my repertoire.  

Stay tuned during the year as hopefully I can give more reports on my "struggle". To add to my list of dinners.  I better get started on this.  Summer will come quickly and I dont want another summer of failed dinners.      

Dads, if you are going away with your kids and you are responsible for suppers, let me pass on this rule of thumb of how many recipes you might need.  Ie, if you are responsible for a week, it is best that you know 3-4 recipes.  And no, hot dogs and potato chips does not count, even though I have fallen back on that one.  Best to have 4. Then one, maybe two nights you can go out or order in like a pizza or something good.  Get stuff from a real good local restaurant.  Something special to that area you are in.  Space the restaurants.  Ie Monday and Friday or Tuesday and Saturday.  And yes, ok one night hot dogs and chips.  So that is three nights and 4 left for cooking yourself

Two weeks and you are going to need 7 -10 meals in your knowledge cap.  See, nights out is getting tight. You dont want to have 4 restaurant nights.  That is a bit much and the kids will stop liking it really.  You might get away with 4 order food or restaurant nights, but .... maybe, maybe not.  So better to have at least 7 meals you can make and a hot dog and chips meal is 8 and 4 night out and you still have to make up 2 dinners.  Tough call.  

And three weeks, like I had.. well then you can start repeating your meals so you dont need 16 say, you can get away with like 10 to 14.  To tell you the truth, I dont think I have a repertoire of 10 to 14.  For the likes of my memory what did I do? How did I get by?  See, by my standards I am giving to you, I am not there yet.  

2022-2023   RECIPE building is in order and necessary.  Stay tuned.   I ll let you know.   No more supper failures.   

I listened to the new Sarathy Korwar album "Kalak" while I was putting in pictures in this post.  Pretty good synthesis of Indian tabla and rhythms and jazz.  New jazz.   I wouldnt really call this an "Indian album",  it crosses many boundaries and synthesizes a lot of styles. I might not even call this "a Brit thing" though his last album was very British.  This is good stuff with a twist on the new jazz sound circulating as a sub sub trend.  (ie porto quartet, zabelov group). Nice, Very nice. 

Summertime no blues part 6 : Dad as mediator. Dont let your summer slip behind you

 

I think every family with more than one child, has to have someone playing the role of mediator.  There will always be the problem of friends of siblings causing jealousy or anger in the siblings.  That is, if there is a friend for one daughter, but not a friend for the other daughter, it can be a problem.  As the parent, you cant take sides.  But you can give some support to the daughter with no friend.  

My older daughter has had a friend here on vacation since she was 1 year old.  For the last couple of years, before covid and now after the friend has been vacationing up here again.   The two girls get together for the short time they have.  Often it was just a day or two.     

Let me explain. My very good friend now comes back up here to vacation.  We grew up here together.  Both our parents, or his grandparents were friends and our cottages were two houses apart.  For several years though he stopped coming up as his grandmother sold her cottage.  Then my mother sold our cottage in 2018- But I started coming up to the rental cottage very nearby.  Now since 2021 he has been coming up and renting the same cottages with his daughter.  His daughter is friends with my older daughter.  We have a third generation of friends.

My friend s daughter is a bit older and my younger daughter doesnt have a friend.  Last year in 2021 she was angrier and I had to tear them apart more.  For some reason she felt like she had to revenge herself for something that happened in 2019.  My younger daughter was angrier.   

This year, she seems better.  I was actually dreading the week when the two friends would get together. It was going to be a full week of "togetherness" But in fact, it wasnt so bad.  I did play more catch football with my younger daughter.  And when it was evening anyway we settled into a great little TV watching time.  So, it was a nice evening, friend or no friend.  

We had some outings together.  We went to the sand dunes this year.  I drove.  It worked out well, until we were going to the beach to swim.  Then we couldnt find a good space on the beach and people were getting angry.  So, we just drove back to the cottage and swam there.  

We had a nice pizza party one night with smores.  And a hot dog, wurst roasting night, with smores.   

I cant rightly put my finger on what happened except that my younger daughter sort of "got over it" and accepted her position and exorcised her demon against the older friend.  She was fine with the situation, but I am not sure that i had anything to do with it.  Besides that i tried to give her a bit more attention.  I lucked out.  My daughters are in a serious fighting mode at their ages right now, but somehow this wasnt the problem.  

My older daughter told me when vacation finished, "dad, dont let me stay inside next year.  Push me out and into the sun.. " or something to that effect.  She said this when vacation was finished.  She realized that she had had limited time and she shouldnt have squandered it .   Too late.  

Sometime in the last week I had to push her and yell at her to get outside.  Dont stay inside to sleep in the summer.  She didnt have her telephone, I was mostly taking it away from her, but still she was settling into a sort of lazier, oh i dont want to go outside, mode.  She regretted it later.   Too late.  

When you are in the thick of summer it seems you have enough time.  Then when it s over, you realize, you didnt take advantage of the beautiful time you had... enough.  Too late.  

Dont let the summer(s) slip behind you.  Take advantage of them and do good, nice things .   Summers are special.   Push your kids to get outside and do everything outside.  The play stations and on line games on the telephones and ipads have to stop.   Especially if you have an outdoor swimming pool or lake or river... dont let the time disappear with their eyes glued to a stupid screen watching ticks and tocks.  

I had a great summer.  I hope you did. I hope your kids did.       

Summertime not blues part 5. Traverse City Film Fest

 Michael Moore is a very controversial character.  Some would call him the epitomy of the liberal left agenda promoters.   But one very great thing he has done is not connected to left or right, but just great movies, where ever they come from.  That is he is one of the founders (Doug Stanton and local TC photographer John Williams being the other two) of the Traverse City Film Fest begun in 2005, located of course in the Northern Michigan town of Traverse City.   

For several years now the kids and I have been going to the Film fest, to several of the movies.  Even when my younger daughter had trouble    understanding the dialougue which was pretty mature, we went.  They were in awe when we passed the director of Bathtubs over Broadway on the street.  He was like a huge celebrity to us because we had just seen his film and he had answered questions after the movie.  The movie was a documentary.  I think my daughter was 7 or even younger.  

This year was even nicer to go because it had been cancelled for the last two years because of the pandemic and we really missed seeing films we wouldnt ordinarily get to see.  And just going to the movies more was fun.  I especially loved going this year because over the past year I have been reading so many comments from people who say film theatres are dead and they should just pass the way of the horse and buggy.  Michael Moore not only loves making films, he loves cinema.  He has put a lot into refurbishing all the local movie theatres for no other reason than he wants people to enjoy seeing films  in a good atmosphere.  And the film fest is part of that. 

The nicest part probably are the dusk films outside.  Somehow we have never gotten rained on.  These films are usually more family oriented mainstream films, or older films.  You go at 9pm and stake out your patch of lawn and lay your blanket down and spread out your pizza and food and drinks.  Once we bought the pizza on site, but it wasnt very good, so this time we brought a peegeos pizza, the best pizza in the world with us, but I think we finished it before the film started. 

This year I was so happy to see the Wizard of Oz with my kids at the dusk movie.  They never would have seen it otherwise and I havent seen it since I was a kid and I used to see it once a year every year. I miss it.  AND it was in color. I never ever saw it in color.  That was great.   

Later in the week we saw Singing in the Rain.  Another great one.  I have never seen that film. There was no chance I would ever have seen that film either.  So I was happy to see it here and at dusk.  And I must say, it was a fine film. I dont usually like singing movies, but it was very nice.   (A note from dad, they cried and cried to see Alien which was going to show at the dusk show, but I said, no that one is not good for you guys, not yet, no way).  I usually hate driving in the dark, but I wouldnt miss going to some dusk movies even if I hate driving after dark.  That is how great they are.  Very good for families. 

In the past, it was more difficult to see the movies, because they are usually documentaries, and maybe difficult for my youngest daughter to understand. But now she is getting older and gets them, so we can see more mature films.   So my choice was to see a documentary on the history of Kurt Vonnegut.  He is one of my favorite writers.  But I think it may have backfired.  Because it wasnt the best movie.  The others we saw were, admittedly way better, and then I was disappointed to find out, and also my daughter, that he left his first wife just as he was becoming a "hit".  I never knew that before and it has  darkened my fondness for him.  

I have to be proud of my girls because they chose very mature movies and I have to say they were very good.  My older daughter chose a story of Kapernick vs America about the football star who knelt on one knee before football games when the anthem was being played.  And Youth vs Gov about a group of teenagers who are suing the national government for not curbing climate change even though they knew about it quite a bit earlier, or had an inkling about it, like from the 70s.  

At any rate, these were tough subjects to understand and for the first time my daughters really understood them and "comprehended".  So not only were the movies very educational, but also very enjoyable. I was proud that they wanted to see these movies.  I really cant understand people who want to see the death of movie house films, maybe just to make a killing on the stock market.  

Becasue the real reason behind Michael Moores support of the film

The founders of TCFF

fest and the reason we go is because it is a whole lot of fun. It is great to see a film at a theatre. It is great to have a family outing at a film and even tough films can be enjoyable, even to pre teens. It just isnt the same seeing them on some stream sitting on your couch and hitting pause when you have to go to the bathroom.  This is something we all like and look forward to now every year.  Taking the family to a film is still the cheapest "night out on the town" if your pocketbook is stretched as it is.  Especially this year.   

For fathers bringing up their kids, I strongly recommend taking the family OUT to see a film.  Get off your tushes and get out of the house.  Really people need to move.  Streaming is fine, but people are not meant to stay home day in day out, they gotta go out too and the films are really good family fun.  It can even be an educational film

The TCFF official picture

Suffice to say that the film fest is now a tradition in our summer vacation and I as a father trying to keep up a steady stream of fun in the summer I can not go wrong with the film fest.  Thank you Michael Moore and co founders for providing this quality fest now which will become a strong traditon in Traverse City.  But try not to miss the cherry and blueberry and asparagus and maple syrup national weeks either.  Those are also a lot of fun for families.  And dads, you can not go wrong with any of them.  So get up and move and get out of the house.  These fests are great fun for the whole family. Dont shy away from educational films.  The kids will even like these.  I guarantee it.  Go for it.  

Thanks for reading

 

Summertime no blues 4: Getting back to being a Dad. Perfect Combination

 

When I take my summer vacation I have a perfect combination of time for me and time with the kids.  Its only three weeks.  Too short.  I know you probably get even less vacation and three weeks is LONG, but believe me, its short.  

Anyway.

Each summer is different of course.  Last year we played an inordinate amount of Monopoly and we were doing that together for a lot of time.  This year we didnt play once.  But we had our schedule.  

Its nice because my kids sleep late in the morning and I dont care. They can sleep as much and as late as they want.   Usually till around 10am or so. Then they read in bed. I always got up around 9 and went out rowing on the lake every morning.  Its great to do exercise every morning.  It makes you feel good if you dont do anything more in the day that you got your dose already and you did good.  Kind of like getting your daily dose of Vitamin C and vitamins.  

My older daughter liked to read still till noonish but I would play some board games with my younger daughter till about the same time.  If we had a reading day, we would read till 2pm or till lunch time.  For some reason sometimes we had lunch extremely late in the afternoon.  More like a midafternoon big snack.  But many of the days we had a late breakfast then we had our "outing" for the day.  

Our library

This is the time when Dad was on his toes and being a dad, this chunk of afternoon.   In the first week we had outings from around 11am after breakfast.  Ie a big shopping at the grocery store on Sunday, clothes shopping on Monday, library on Tuesday and then reading day on the dock for the rest of Tuesday, though we spent like three hours at the library.  Maybe Wednesday was a reading day too.  Saturday was a reading day too.  Thursday, Friday something or other, we may have done the museum one of those days.  

For some reason, or a calculated use of time, we would make it back by mid afternoon and a group effort of preparing lunch, around 3pm or even later.  Lunch was always the same. I dont care to indulge and you would call me a bad dad, but my kids have this affinity to a special American canned food which they eat continuously on vacation for lunch.  

5 pm seemed to be the time for our afternoon swim at the island.  This should

The island for swimming

have been a together thing, but it got pulled apart a bit because one daughter loved to play catch with the football in the water which we did for most of the time. While the other daughter played some, then swam by herself.  This was always prime fine time together.  Also swimming is so nice and relaxing and exercising at the same time.  Being in the water is ... is .... heavenish?  And where we swim it is a sandy bottom. I feel sorry for those who have to swim in rock bottoms.  Not fun.  The boats going by in the main channel sending us some big waves sometimes.  There were still some people left at the swim place, but less than at 2pm.  I dont want to say I died and went to heaven, but, it was VERY pleasant. 

Depending when we started swimming, the end of the swim and after the showers was about time to start preparing dinner. 

I have to criticize myself and say that my dinners this summer were rather a weak point.  When you are a single parent, you have to play both parents. And I didnt learn any new dishes this last year and my old ones were not as popular.  They said, I am not allowed to prepare lasagne as that is strictly a school year dish.  The spaghetti was different and awful. The corn wasnt in stock yet locally where as last year we were on vacation all August when the local corn was totally in season and we ate it most days.  What did I make for dinner?  Boy, I really have to increase my repertoire for next year.  I have to say I did a bad job at it this year, 2022.  Bad job.  I want to improve on this. 

The thing about this schedule though is that dinner was so late that it put us on a path to stay up later.  By the time dinner was done there was no time for another swim or a nice healthy walk, just a small one in the oncoming darkness, or a row on the lake, but not a long one as we didnt have lights and the sheriff can come and ticket us without lights.  So... I guess this is a downsider of our schedule.  But I guess my whole family are "owls" and not morning people.  

TV living room relaxin area

From 10 pm it was TV time together or a bit of reading, maybe a game of Chinese checkers.  TV was great this year.  We found a serial we all liked and watched every night during the week.  I had to yell at them to have the lights off by Midnight.  A bit late I guess even though they were both staying up later even during the year.  I think I got them on a bad schedule as far as that goes. But I dont really see that changing next year unless I put my foot down and say midnight is lights out.  In the summer I hate to do the lights out routine.  If they are reading that is good.  

I had a bit of time for myself at this time, but in fact when I started yelling at them to turn their lights out, they usually came in my room and turned my light out too.  Touche.  

The title of this post is the perfect combination. It doesnt seem like I had a perfect combination. I had my free time for an hour or two in the morning. Not much.  But somehow it worked out during the day or on reading days that I could do the things I wanted to do too.  Anyway, more important to me was getting back and being dad to them fully.  A bit of free time for myself on the side.  ha.  I guess that is as perfect a combination as it will get for getting back to being a DAD!  That is OK,  I think I prefer that. 

An end note. I didnt mention anything about viruses and covid.  Although they were less this year especially with coming and going, they were not eradicated, as it doesnt seem like the viruses will be as we get a rise in monkeypox and even a resurgence of polio.  But thankfully or by our own doing, for most of the vacation, we really were not in close contact with many people.  Yes there was the film festival which I will talk about next post and some friends visited us for the last week, but besides that, we stayed to ourselves. We dont go to restaurants (order take out) and besides for the film fest, we dont get into any groups or among groups.  Even the summer before, 2021,which was much more dangerous, wasnt a concern to us.  So, thankfully it is not something which we really have to concern ourselves so much with, helping the summer vacation to be totally pleasant and relaxing.   

More summer post still coming next even though it is into September as I write this.  I cant get enough of the lovely summer it was.  

Was listening to a classic Indie Rock album and band

Summertime no blues 3: Day Trip

The one day trip is a hit or miss.  As "well duh" as it sounds, it can go wrong or it can go right.  I might have to change that opening sentence before I publish this.

Just to warn you, this post contains no words of wisdom or morals.  It is strictly just a boring "trip story, this is where we went this is what happened" post.  Nothing more than a nice trip to a town I recommend.    

Last year we made a one day trip which was wrong wrong and bad.  All the way through it was just my daughters fighting with each other and me eating alone and neither of them much interested in anything we were doing except to yell at the other that they were wrong.  There wasnt anything nice about the one day trip last year. Not to mention that I made a wrong turn and had to go back a way I didnt know.  

Someone must have felt sorry for me last year because this year s one day trip was quite the opposite.  

In the past on my blogs I wasnt much for telling where I was or where we went.  I thought it could alienate some of my readers.  But slowly I dont get hung up on this as much.  So this time I will totally uncover all cities and even put in a map. 

We stay in the north of Michigan, but not in the upper peninsula.  Last year we drove to a rich little tourist town and a place where well off people can come up from other towns on Lake Michigan and park their boats, in the town of Charlevoix.  Its a nice town, but very small and mainly for richer people it seems who want to get up north with their boats.  Charlevoix has an excellent huge library I must say. It has an interesting history too and all that history is in the library.  Excellent library. 

This year I took it one step further and we went to the next town up the coast to

Petosky.  

Now Petosky is known for at least one thing and maybe people know it for two things.  The best thing about Petosky is it is named after the special stone which  can be found a lot around there. A petosky stone is a stone with fossils of some corral, the rugose corral.  It looks a bit like a corral print. Hexagon.   Here is the wikipedia link for more on the stone.  The stone is often polished and made into a special wearing stone like a diamond around your neck.  Yes, it is that beautiful.  

We walked out to the lighthouse (shown here) and had fun trying not to get sprayed by the big waves washing over the walkway to the lighthouse.  My older daughter took all the pictures and got the wettest.  

Whereas last year we had a fiasco of a luncheon where I was the only one eating while my daugthers watched (one wasnt hungry, and the other wanted to buy a submarine from a fast food restaurant down the street). This time we nearly had a great lunch in which two out of three of us had yummy meals. Unfortunately it was too spicy for my youngest daughter.  But the mixed berry drink was fantastic.  I will link the restaurant if it helps them at all get anyone in there from reading this. I was not paid anything whatsoever by them, they dont know who I am, but it was a great restaurant.  Get the berry drink.

On these trips I dont want to spare any money for anything (just about) and anything my daughters ask for I am prone to get.  So they each got a huge ice cream cone for dessert and they were both very happy about this.  Those cones are a meal in themselves.  

I wanted to walk a bit more on the streets up and down, but I was curtailed.  But that was ok.  However I was sad about missing the tour of what maybe a few people might know Petosky is also famous for.  The fact that Ernest Hemingway used to summer very near here on Walloon lake from the beginning of his life in 1900 to 1920.  There is a Hemingway walk each Fall in Petosky too in which the gatherers can retrace the steps of Hemingway including many stops in Petosky.   I wish my daughters had let me take the time to do this tour.  Sadly.... no.  

What capped the day off was going back down to the beach. The sun was out now and warmer and the wind and surf was not so strong.  So we walked along the beach looking for Petosky stones.  I was going to make a bad joke that I suspected the rocks for the beach were imported from California, but just then my daughter found a big petosky stone.  Then another.  I looked some also.  I walked farther and lay down on some grass.  My younger daughter did the same while my older daughter searched for petosky stones.  She found several in fact.  A couple small ones which is normal, but one sizable.  

We stayed on the beach for about an hour then drove back.  It was six pm,we had been there around 4 hours.  Not so long, but very nice.  A day trip out.  Very nice day.  That was what it was all about.  I was so thrilled with the day i veered off at a rest stop along Lake Michigan, parked and took another look at the lake.  Beautiful.  Beautiful.   

Take the time sometimes to recognize the small beautiful niceties in life.  Often they go unnoticed, because they are small, but when you do recognize them, you understand that they really do count.  

Back in 1984 when "Meat is Murder" came out, I bought it upon its release.  Then I kind of lost interest in the band. I didnt get anymore releases when they came out.   But lately I have been rediscovering the Smiths.  I have the best of cd, but I think I will start buying the records. I also listened to Strangeways here we come.  Their last albume before they split up. 

Summertime not blues 2022 : Small details

 People dont realize maybe that really what makes up most of life are the small details.  I have mentioned it before.  In the day you might have 15 minutes of high adrenaline activity, but the bulk of the day is made up of minimal things.  Really nothing wrong with that.  I think it is true of 99.9 per cent of the people in the world.  Maybe. 

Likewise, when trying to feel good about life and feel good about yourself, dont overlook the small victories you make daily.  For some people this might even entail getting out of bed.  (An aside, depression and anxiety are two of the biggest "diseases" in the US.  And with the covid virus anxiety and depression have gone up even more.. I forget if I saw the statistic 9 per cent or 39 per cent).  

It is not a matter of winning the lottery or buying a house or car,  it is a matter of doing something correct for the first time. Something you were afraid to do or had doubts that you could do it.  Dont laugh.  For some people, once they have done these things many times, they are old hat.  But there is always the first time which may be scary or nerve racking.  Just like the first day of school was.  

This wasnt the first time we had to go to the new laundry place.  The other one closed down, the one we were used to and had experience with.  It closed over Covid.  So we have to go to a new one to get our clothes done.  We went here last year, but I still didnt have the details worked out.  All the small details can also drag you down.  Do you use quarters or credit card?  Soap? Quarters for soap.  Rats, I didnt bring enough quarters. The same happened last year.  But anyway this year I didnt want to spend my quarters anymore.  This time I was going to use a credit card.  In the laundry store??  I would never have done that in other years.  

So the machine wasnt working.  Rats what went wrong.  My daughter said it didnt accept my credit card. I should do the whole thing over again.  I tried again.  Still didnt work. No business attendant working today.  No one to ask what went wrong.  So, I gathered up my strength and asked a fellow lady patron who looked like she had experience with these machines.  Normally I shy away from asking people for help. My mother always did. My father didnt like to. I guess I take after my Father.  That was why it was difficult to ask this other lady for help.  But I did.  She grabbed the handle, opened it, and closed it real forcefully with a bang.  Bam.  Water goes in, it started.   Oh   celebration.  thank you thank you. My daughter kept me from being too overly excited, but boy was I thankful.  

Then the drying.  That wasnt too complicated. But you can never tell if the door is closed properly.  I thought it took two drying cycles, but it was three. Remember that next year.  Also remember to use the smaller washing machines.  They are cheaper and we dont need the big ones. We dont have that much stuff.  You are laughing. Thats ok.  It all worked out and I was happy.  A victory for Daddy by himself. 

Tom Cruise might not be afraid to climb 100 story skyscrapers in Mission Impossible, but has he ever done his laundry himself in a laundry shop?  Probably not.  Someone would do that for him.  He wouldnt know what to do either.  "What type of soap should I get?  Will the washer also dry?" etc.  "Why isnt this frigging machine working?  Gosh darnit (kicking it), work, you stupid... work (banging it). "   

When we were there, I saw a guy doing laundry with a

shirt that said "crew" on it.  I had a pretty good idea that he was the tour manager or helper for a travelling group and one duty was keeping the groups clothes clean.  Maybe it was Tom Cruise who was travelling and the guy was doing it for a local movie shooting crew.  He knew what to do.  Tom Cruise wouldnt know what to do.  Maybe.  Then again maybe this guy was just wearing this name brand t shirt and I mistook him for "crew".  Maybe also.  

The first time I took a bus as a kid from the suburbs, to the city I thought I was pretty good. I had figured it out.  Other people on the bus were bored. They took the bus every day.  But I didnt know what to do, how much to pay, maybe where to get off, where to sit. I was awkward and nervous.  And who was on the bus?  Now, I take public transportation every day and I know everything.  But back then as a teen ager... it was a scary accomplishment.  

These are the little things that we can cheer ourselves on with. Yeah we did it. We figured it out. Or, maybe not this time, but next time will be better and I will be smarter.  This accomplishment, I think both my daughters and myself felt this accomplishment.  Well, maybe my younger daughter not as much.  She kind of takes things in stride.  But it was a small victory of sorts for all of us. Collectively we figured it out.  

That was worth a summertime cheers.  As Daddy I think I may have been even happier than my kids, because there is this stereotype that parents are expected to know everything and show their kids how to do it.  And well, the truth of the matter is, we dont know everything and we get it wrong. But we cant let on to our kids that some of these small things... we dont know how to do them just like they dont.  But shhhh, (whisper) we cant let the kids know we dont know what we are doing.  

The vacation, was so wonderful.  More stories along these lines coming up.  

I listened to this while writing.  They are on tour in the Fall. I hope to see them.  I had this record, but sold it.  I have a couple other titles still.  This one from 2019