Tag Archives: houghton

April 3, 2013 · 8:41 pm

Time Flies

CRISIS LEVEL: RED

Midlife crisis that is.

It’s come to my attention that in exactly 31 sleeps from today the oldest Sankary child will be graduating from Michigan Technological University with a degree in Geological Engineering or something like that. Feels like four years have just evaporated, gone. I had me some big plans when the kid started up there. I was going to go visit once a year or so, hang out on the Upper Peninsula, enjoy the great flyfishing I’ve heard about.. the best laid plans as the say.

Wha’ha’pan?

Turns out life.. Life is like that, unforgiving especially when it intersects with time. Time being deceptive because while it feels vast and endless, it is in fact quite finite, which most people only realize when there’s less of it in front of you than there is behind you. 

I sound old don’t I. Did I mention I have a kid graduating from college?

I did make it up to Houghton a couple times in the kids academic career, early on. I spent a particularly lovely Yom Kippur up there, attending the local shul, seeing the community. I tried to spend 4 days, but after a couple I was kinda ready to go home. There wasn’t a ton of stuff to do, it’s isolated and hotels all are boring. Especially when you’re alone like I was. Used to be a night in a hotel with Mrs S was a treat to be eagerly anticipated. That was before our room census went from 2 to 5. Three kids and two adults in a hotel sucks no matter how you slice it, even the very coldest of climates, Tower Minnesota in January, where as I recall it was -34 BEFORE windchill, is not enough to cool down hotel room where 10 lungs are rebreathing the same air for hours on end. The only difference, the condensation freezes on the glass instead of rolling down the glass in disgusting drips of human DNA laced fog.

I digress. Back to Houghton.

There’s only one street in town, it’s four blocks long and once you’ve walked up one side and down the other, you’re kinda done. Don’t get me wrong, I like small towns, or I thought I did.

Tech’s calendar is kinda screwy for visiting, the kids get out of school the last week in April. So, the plan to go up there and flyfish after picking him up from school, didn’t work out so well as we learned, season doesn’t open until the weekend after the kids get out. Inconvenient. We tried this fishing thing twice and found that navigating the rules to find stretches of river that were open before the general season opened was in fact a significant effort in navigation. Lots of dirt roads and back country driving. Did you know the Upper Peninsula leads the nation in Milita membership. It was on my mind the deeper into the woods we got.

The fishing up there BTW, consistently sucked. 2 fish for three guys in 2 years. This wasn’t Hemmingway’s Nick Adams Stories, which was my inspiration for going fishing up there to be honest.

The first year the streams were dry, second year they were at flood stage, and all that shit gets old after a time. I found myself going back to the guidebooks I purchased to figure out where exactly we were supposed to be, because the dudes I was with.. Still adventures to remember, the UP does make memories.

Once the kid had his own car however, visiting was over.

Sigh. I mentioned to Mrs S that Houghton would be a good place for us to retire. We are not in alignment on that thought. I filled out a questionnaire on some website and was quite to pleased to see Houghton come up as a good retirement spot for me. “What’d’ya type in there, enjoy blizzards and winter isolation?”

Isolation sounds good. I’ve said it before, we don’t have to retire in the same place.

Next step for him I’m happy to say is Grad School. This is a good thing because it keeps him out of the workforce for a while. I’m not ready to have a working kid yet, I already feel like a verse from Cats in the Cradle, hate to have it come true.

However, should his Grad School dreams come true, it’s not like we’ll be seeing much of him. He has applied too, and his first choice is הטכניון or Tecnion, the Israel Institute of Technology. If goes there we won’t be seeing him at Thanksgiving that’s for sure. On the other hand visiting Haifa is bound to be pretty interesting and it is quite lovely, I’ve been a few times. On the other hand it’s a very difficult school to get into so it’s a stretch goal. His safety school if you will, UC Davis. Also a good school, and has the very program he wants.

When I think about it still have daughter, freshmen in high school, we still have some work to do in the parenting department. 

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March 10, 2013 · 9:55 am

Full House Week

Friday all the kids returned to the nest for Spring Break. I’m pretty sure Divine Providence aligned Auburn and Michigan Tech’s academic calendars this year to enable all the kids to be home at once. And as much as I do appreciate having them home, it’s not lost on me that I have to cook for 5 again, have to endure the television being on at all hours again (I don’t like to turn the thing on unless there’s something specific that I’m going to watch. I like the quiet), and enjoy bantering and what not.

I know, I’m never happy.

I think the Universe collaborated on this because I’m pretty sure this is the last time we’ll have a break like this with all the kids home. The oldest kid is getting ready to head off to Grad School, at best will be several thousand miles away from Minnesota, read “not coming home except for big holidays” and at worst might be in foreign countries, read “not coming home for anything”. I think these family reunions are close to taking on the look and feel of a real reunion, meaning once or twice a decade and or when someone dies. And since I’m probably first on that list I won’t even get to enjoy the time.

Because nothing good ever comes without a price, there is a downside to having Auburn and Michigan Tech aligning their academic calendars- graduation. Both sons have finals the same week and for the young man at Auburn that includes a final on Friday. Which means we have a clusterfuck of a logistics problem trying to figure out how to get him packed up and out of the dorm in Alabama on Friday afternoon, and into a seat for Pomp and Circumstance in Houghton Michigan 18 hours later.

Houghton BTW, one of the most remote places in the contiguous 48 states. No one gets there easily.

Actually it’s not the lad that we’re all that worried about, its how we parents are going to be able to do this. One of us will have to go down to Alabama and facilitate the evacuation from Lupton Hall. The other one of us will have to pick p Grandma at the airport in MPLS and get her to Houghton, a 7 hour drive.

At this point I have no idea how all of this is going to come together, I keep thinking about the fable with the wolf, the sheep and the sack of grain and how many trips the farmer will have to make across the river to get everyone over safely before the scorpion stings him in the back and they both drown because it’s what scorpions do… It is a situation that is that confusing.

And when my wife needs me to think clearly and come up with a solution for something like that I like to retreat into my basement hidy hole and eat tater tots and watch MASH reruns until the feelings of confusion go away or I fall asleep and nap for a few hours. Problem is there is a kid living in the basement this week so I’m stymied once again my this “full house” thing.

And.. for the 1,395th time there is water in the basement.

Mrs S and I were off at the Chanhassen Dinner Theaters for a little Lodge event yesterday afternoon. More on that even later, suffice to say while I enjoy the shows, I don’t like spending 5 hours on a Saturday in one place and the food sucks. I digress.

Water problem in the basement.. There are 11 identified conditions which can cause water to appear in our basement. Among them:

  • Drain pipes not glued together- shitty contractor there, but was fixed in 2010. We think. 
  • High humidity- we’ve had enough condensation down there to create pretty good sized puddles that soak the carpet. Dehumidifier in stalled in 2009, re-installed (backward condenser) in 2011. Seems ok for now.
  • Power outages- In the spring or when it rains the sump pump down there runs about every 20 minutes. If the power goes out… Installed a battery system in 2011. Installed moisture alarm in 2012.
  • Tampon Tidal Wave- flush enough high absorbency items down the stool; hygiene products,  entire rolls of toilet paper, old mop heads, kittens etc… and the main sewer line clogs which causes the downstairs toilet to explode which causes us to have to bring in Service Master which causes me to have to look up words like “coliform”.. Solution- remove all trees and shrubs between the house and the city sewer line and get the line rotorooted every year. If nothing else works please G-d let this one never happen again.
  • Fast Snow Melt, frozen drain pipe. BINGO.

 OK no one gives a shit about my basement issues, price I pay for living in a hole. This time around it was the fast snow melt. Good news is, both boys were home, saw what was happening and fixed the problem on their own, bailing out a flooded window well AND bypassing a frozen drain pipe thereby limting the water in the basement to the cement floor in the mechanical room.  

And in that one instance making 22 and 18 years of care and feeding all worth it. I can now recommend having sons, which up until then I was on the fence about, about children in general actually. Actually the best part of this whole affair was coming home and watching the boys having a great time together solving this problem. Kidna cool, Mrs S did a great job parenting these kids.

But Sank, you have a daughter.. jury is still out on that, she’s a teenager at the moment and wouldn’t be fair to judge.

Yet.

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August 5, 2012 · 11:00 am

Change is in the Air

Nothing ever changes for the better
- Walter Mattau, Grumpier Old Men

Which includes, the seasons sometimes. The current season, Summer… it’s starting to wilt pretty badly.

The end is nigh. I can see it coming. Like a train in tunnel.

I’m in the last two days of my two week vacation. Two weeks of bachelor living while the family has been working in Hawaii. True, I’ve been working at my usual vocation, but they’ve been working on interpersonal relationships, and “close” living. I’ll take the office over that any day, especially given that I’ve come home every night to a quiet empty house. Fact is I only left the house twice to run errands for Mrs S.

I think I’d be perfectly happy observing the world from behind my windows. Too bad I consume so much shit and have such exquisite taste in cameras and computer equipment. But even there Amazon.com. Try to keep to a box a week.

I haven’t been as good a bachelor this time around as I have been in previous years. For most of the last two weeks my dinners have alternated between a bagel and peanut butter, a bagel and cream cheese, a bagel and Laughing Cow Cheese and then a bowl of Malt-O-Meal Faux Cheerio’s. I ran out of bagels.

I had a house guest one night, the brother of the bride for this weekends affair. I picked him up at the airport and he stayed at my place, given the hour that he arrived (1:00am) and the time we wanted leave (8:00am) didn’t make sense to take him home.

I made coffee in the morning and as he reached for the milk in the fridge.. the two fingers of milk left at the bottom of a gallon jug. The same jug that Mrs S and the little S’s used for their cereal right before they got in the car about a fortnight ago to go to the airport,  I had to suggest to the lad, much like Walter Mattau would, “you might want to smell that…”.  Been in there a while.

I’m kinda outta of uh.. well I’m out of food. Kind of general statement, but pretty accurate. Unless you want tomato paste or canned olives, your outta luck around here.

BTW, the only thing in the fridge; said milk, 8 bottles of coconut life water (love that stuff), a quivering mass of red liquid that used to be a tomato at one time, the remnants of it’s skin the only clue to it’s former life, a bowl with saran wrap covering something brown and green that I think is last weekend guac that no one ate, I’ll be depositing the entire bowl and contents into the trash soon,  a pile of Greek yogurt, and about 6 packs of shredded mexican cheese, all of them open and all of them missing several handfuls of content. Seems I open one before I look for another. I make quesadillas sort of alot. Tortilla, handful of cheese, and hot cast iron.  Haven’t had one in while though, ran out of tortillas about a week ago.

Other than that, not much else consumable around here. Even the butter was gone thanks to the dog swallowing a stick when it fell out of the holder last week. I didn’t notice until it was too late, about 11 nanoseconds is too late in that situation. He moves pretty darned fast when motivated by dairy products.

Piles of Stuff

One nice thing about living alone, stuff remains exactly where you put it. This is great when it comes to keys and wallets and leatherman tools. This is especially great when the place you leave it is the kitchen table. Nice to be surrounded by familiar things when you’re eating breakfast. Like the last 10 days of the newspaper. Mostly still in the original plastic bag. This is not so great when it comes to stuff like laundry. There’s no one here to pick up the clothes, wash them, and put them back in my drawers. I’ll have to ask Mrs S how that happens when she gets back.  Yeah, this blissful carefree lifestyle is fast coming to an end. Gang gets back Tuesday, but only for a while.

Going South

 

Come on baby drive South, with the one you love.
Windows open on the rest of the of the world, all the way to Dixieland
- John Hiatt

Thursday Team Sank-a-Ray pile in the car and following the lead of America’s least appreciated, and probably worst paid, great songwriter, John Hiatt we’re heading south.

Two days of driving to get us to the Great State of Alabama- my middle kid’s new home away from home. No fucking Kentucky weak ass transitional southern experience for him, no Texas like western south either, nope. M’boy is going deep into the heart of Dixie. Alabama boys. Auburn University here he comes. Lest you forget where we are, Auburn’s old union was a Confederate hospital back in the day.

And there he’ll stay, in the hands of the fine folks at Auburn University. Whirlwind trip for us, 36 hour driving for 36 hours on the ground.

Since I haven’t taken a vacation this summer I was thinking we were going to be there a week or so, maybe go to the Gulf. Well no luck. This summer at the office is the summer of no vacation, I can’t figure out how to get away more than a few days here and there and the gang coming back from Hawaii’s beaches don’t want to go to Alabama’s beaches for some reason.

And finally, the real issue… Auburn sent us a very nice invitation to a breakfast for the entire family on Sunday morning. A Good BYE and we mean it breakfast. I counted three places in 6 lines of verbiage where they essentially say, but in a nice way, GET LOST. Since it is Alabama I’m pretty sure they can shoot parents for less than helicoptering so.. we’re gone.

Going North

Oh, every year hath it’s winter
And every year hath it’s rain
But the day is always coming
When the birds go north again
- Ella Higginson

And before you know it, the oldest bird heads north, really far north. He’ll be spending the next 4 months way up in the northern environs of British Columbia where he’ll be part of a team of Canadian and British researchers evaluating ground water and it’s impact on salmon populations. Now, the Horsefly River doesn’t sound like a place I want to go, but looking at the pictures online of some of the fish the folks at the lodges up there are catching I’m inclined to be impressed. Nice to see him doing something he loves. Not as nice to know he wants to leave 3 weeks early. I’ve heard he wants to go back to Houghton when he gets home from taking his Brother to Auburn. He really wants to see Auburn. He also wants to go home, which isn’t where home once was for him.

“why?” I asked my wife, “would he want to go back up there.. he’s always complaining that it’s kind of slow.” She responded “Used to be slow, I think it’s not as slow now, he’s got someone to do things with these days and he, might be a she.”

Minor tectonic adjustment needed in my world.

*sigh*. “But I’ve seen him for three days summer” I started to complain, and I caught myself. Screw it, I don’t want to be the buzzkill on this deal. One going North, one going South and one still to young to decide. Summer 12 moves to Autumn and change is afoot.

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence and
So the days float through my eyes

Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
- David Bowie

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April 28, 2011 · 7:32 pm

Road Trip Diary

Six hours on the road today, driving from Minneapolis to Houghton Michigan. I made the trip with a couple guys from the office who I consider to be pretty good friends of mine. We got a nice early start, leaving the Twin Cities at 6:00 am. We had to make a stop at the cabin on the way to pick up Nate’s fly rod. When we got there I was pretty unhappy to find a pile of shingles on the derive way, and a big hole in the roof where said shingles used to be. I have no idea when the blew off, I don’t remember any real big storms like that would do that kind of damage.

I also discovered that the “cabin” keys I had with me had every key one could need at the cabin except, the key to door.

So, add about 30 minutes onto our trip while we waited for my handyman to show up with the key.

Late start. After another stop at the Fly Shop in Hayward for me to pick up a new pair of wading shoes, to replace the ones I left at home. A matter of fact, I caught shit from the owner of the fly shop, a nice augment to the 2 hours of shit I caught from the guys I was driving with.

The next couple hours we spent talking about various topics, none of which are appropriate for this space, but suffice to say we might be making a trip to Amish Country for our next big adventure. I also had a new idea for a hand crafted chair, something the Amish could make, being handy and all.

As we left Hawyard we found ourselves driving through a pretty serious snow storm. As we we’re planning to go fly fishing tomorrow, it was a little disconcerting to see about 8″ of snow on the ground.

About noonish we pulled into Ironwood, where we made the traditional pasty stop, 3 for $5.00. Delish.

More snow, more driving, more conjecture on how to fix the problems of the world and two years later we passed the end of teh world. 20 miles after that we were in Houghton. Dropped in on the kid, who as typical said “hi Dad” followed by “Lets go eat.”

Few beers, pizza, few more beers and we were off to a different bar.

By now the lads were asking my son if he knew of any of his friends who had any parents or grand parents who might be interested in joining us. We were about to put flyers up at the Houghton Manor Assisted Living home when the boy suggested we just go help him pack. Too bad because we had practiced the Fawn Lebowitz bit from Animal House and were locked and loaded.

Tomorrow, Finnish breakfast the off the Eagle River Wisconsin.

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October 24, 2010 · 7:35 am

Chill’n on the U.P.

Heading home today. 

 

Up earlyish to get ready for the big drive today. Heading home from Michigan’s U.P. Really nice weekend in Houghton, short, but nice. The whole vacation was short but nice.

Daylight comes kind of late in Houghton. This morning I rolled out of bed around 8:00, tiptoed past the sleeping family, 8:00 is a little early for them if the don’t have to be up, and scooted down the hall to the breakfast room. There was very little sign of the pending dawn out side when I looked out the window.

There are few breakfasts I hate more than the hotel continental. Waffles, rolls, cereal, coffee and Fox Newsertainment. Breakfast down there was good for me, a reminder that I need to stay on the Weight Watchers plan… GAWD I could be one of those 300lbers having a hard time bending over the see the waffle light.

As long as I’m on the rant here, I’m not sure what it is about hotel breakfast rooms, I mean lets talk folks. These are NOT your living rooms, they are in essence, little convenient mini-restaurants where you can grab a quick bite and where you will run into people not related to you in any way, In my day we had a word for those folks, it was strangers. I’m not saying that you have to put on a suit.. but shuffling to the morning trough barefoot, wearing your boyfriends dress shirt and a pair of PJ bottoms… really? And wouldn’t you throw some water on your head to get take the Phyllis Diller hair down a notch or two?

Dudes are no better in these places. Sweatpants and a worn out t-shirt that doesn’t cover your stretch mark scarred belly hanging over your waistband, I mean, dude…

I’m holding out for Suomi Café, yet another Finnish breakfast place.

Yesterday Team Sank did a whole lotta ‘nuth’n. Breakfast at Kerala Café.. named after the Finnish national epic poem, a drive past Finnlandia University, blue crosses fluttering in the wind. Like any other place in American two weeks before elections the place was heavy on campaign signs, but with a difference. Up here, families aren’t all that interested in vowels. Lots of names with a lot of “i’s” and “y’s” and double “a’s” and double “y’s”.. Finns.

I assume they’re all proud as can be that Finland was recently named the Best Country in the World in Newsweek Magazine. I wold agree, however pride? It’s a tricky thing.  There were signs up in store windows around here, lots of national pride. I was tempted to point out that their beloved Nordic Paradise became the best country in the world (for Liberals) as a result of their ability to shed massive numbers of surplus people in the 1800’s when the Scandinavian economies weren’t so healthy. And you have to ask, since the ones that stayed were the ones that made the place great, what happened to the rest of the Finns? The migratory ones who left mother Suomi?

Standing in line at the waffle maker in Houghton with their massive bellies hanging out I suspect.

Luckily I realized that the only people would be amused by this would be myself, my bride and 26 Non-Finnish people living here, so I kept to myself and enjoyed my pannakuukuu breakfast. Which by the way, was delicious.

We took college boy on a trip to EconoFoods. Now, for those of you who haven’t been to Houghton, or the U.P. know that this is, pretty much, the end of the earth. It’s as remote as place as it is beautiful. So, why is it, that way out here on this finger of land on a bigger finger of land, on the far northern edge of our country, do I find the grocery store of my dreams. Seriously.

EconoFoods has a better assortment of stuff, better meat, better produce, more choices of pasta sauces and a bigger dairy section than every damned grocery store I’ve ever been in Minnesota.

Makes one shake your head. One observation in the produce dept, I’ve never seen more space allocated to rutabagas in a store ever. Back home the typical assortment at our grocer of choice, three for four eaches. Here, like 10 feet of them.

Must be the constant pasty production, which by the way, you can get in the store, 10 for 10 bucks, bake’m at home yourself.

We spend some in the local Carnegie Library. They are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the building this year. It’s no longer used for a library, now it’s a museum and a science center. The museum was between exhibits as it were, but we were still able to enjoy the architecture of the building. There are places that were built to last and places that I’m quite certain I’m going to outlive, even at my advanced age. The Target Center for example, where the Timberwolves pretend to play basketball once in while, I have no doubt that I’ll see the demise of that place. The Carnegie library in Houghton MI, My kids will be able to visit it one day.

Solid stone, massive timber trusses, the place ain’t going anywhere. This was the same thing we found at the Synagogue in Hancock when I was there a few weeks ago. 18inch thick walls, solid steel trusses, I didn’t see them but was told about them. The fellow there who was telling me about the place said that maintenance on the building was about $100 a year, thanks to the building techniques at the time. 1910 BTW, about the same age as the library.

Down in basement of the building they had the Children’s science museum. Really they had a few sciences fair like projects setup, but they were well made, hands on and very well explained. Doubly well explained because the two Michigan Tech students down there, were SO happy to have a visitor, never mind a family that they fawned all over us showing us how the stuff worked.

I even learned something about inductive magnetic fields.

Sort of.

The rest of the day was cooking and watching some TV. Not the most productive, but still, nice to hang out with the kid.

 

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October 23, 2010 · 8:30 am

Road Trip

ROAD TRIP

Sank family hit the road yesterday for the big drive to Houghton to visit the College kid. We missed family weekend this year, this is the consolation prize, sort of. Not exactly a consolation since the crowds are down, the couple restaurants in the town are empty and we could easily get a room at our favorite Houghton Hotel, the Travel Lodge, right downtown.

I am starting to look forward to my trips to Michigan for no other reason than the fact that I know.. a good nights sleep is in my future. The Travel Lodge, despite being an older property with shitty plumbing and thinish walls has these awesome pillow top beds that I love.

I have a pillow top at home but I did the Mattress Factory thing, the place in town where the claim is they manufacture the beds locally. I purchased two beds from them over the years, and hate them both.

But that’s no the point of this post.

After a fun filled evening at Dark Star on Thursday night, one where I enjoyed several Pabst Blue Ribbon tall boys and a couple mixed drinks while dancing away to such hits as the Weight and Dear Prudence, Friday morning came early. Really early and with a slight headache. Mrs. S, who had held off on the cocktails was just as tired.. We’re getting too old for those 1:00am-7:00am nights.

I had planned to be on the road by 7:00, we missed that time.

By three hours.

Crack of 10:00, I piled everyone into Scion and off we went.

The Scion, or as we like to call her, the Speck.

At $3.00 a gallon I wasn’t that interested in the Druango, comfy yes but the burn rate and the new transmission I saw as a hindrance. Mrs. S drives an older Camry, but since she couldn’t remember the last oil change and since lately, every time she starts the thing it emits a puff a white smoke that would screen a battleship, I figured why not, there’s only three of us and one of the three is small for her age.

In we went. A couple weeks ago the local Barnes and Noble had a promotion going- clearance books on a table, all for $2.00 each. I picked up a three, a cross word puzzle book for me, a brain teaser tome that I thought the girl would enjoy and a pocket size song and chord book of the complete works of Malcolm Young and AC/DC. I finally solved the G/A chord problem I was having in the opening riff of Highway To Hell, so uh.. worth the three bucks right there.

I gave the girl her book as we got in the car, she’s still at that fun age where she doesn’t hate us and when a small gift as some meaning. We like that.

We made all the way to the Wisconsin border almost 25 whole miles, she was working on the puzzles in the back, so I thought when uh.. “Dad, can you open the window back here, I need some air.”

Didn’t think much about it, opened the window despite the 42 degree temps. 10 miles later, we were at the Roberts WI exist.. “I DON’T FEEL SO GOOD”.

Usually when she says that she means “I’d rather be doing something other than this”, rarely does it mean she’s actually ill. Look back at her.. this was not one of those times. She was easily the greenest Korean person I’d ever seen.

Mrs. S looked back leveraged her nursing skills, she is an RN, which starts with assessing the patient. In this case she asked the all-important question. “YOU GONNA PUKE?”

There was no answer. And being like my father, I didn’t even slow down, matter of fact I might have speeded up hoping to make the next exit in time for the show.

Mrs. S, “If you’re gonna puke do into..

Dad’s sweater” I nearly swerved off the road looking back.

“OK I brought one fucking sweater on this trip and… “

“You want her to barf on your upholstery?”

Good point. Bottom line, if she puked, I was pretty sure I was going to puke soon after. I still have memories of dry heaving for 30 minutes when a friend of mine once picked me up on trip in a car she had barfed in the night before.

Four windows opened and 70MPH and we averted the initial scare.

We stopped in Rogers for Sprite and saltines and continued.

By the time we got to lunch in Spooner, about 2 hours later, the girl was completely recovered. After lunch Mrs. S broke out some Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, a family favorite. The girl asked for one. The Nurse looked back, holding the candy in front of her nose.. “You can have one, but if you barf it up, you can never have another one again. EVER.”

Her little face was crushed. “Ever?” “The rest of your life”.

I don’t know why the chic ignores everything I say, but if Ma says it.. it’s law.

She passed. Just in case, because “I really like Reese’s and I don’t want to take the chance”.

More for me.

From Spooner we had to stop in Hayward, 45 minutes later so Mrs. S could use the can, then a stop 3 hours later in Ironwood Michigan for our first pasty of the trip. I love me some pasties. Grammarians, it’s pasty the stuffed Cornish delight, an Upper Peninsula staple we’re talking about here, not the nipple covering.

Rest of the day, not much. Caught the lad at home, no evidence of anything out of the ordinary, and believe me I know what I’m looking for.

Today’s agenda.. Chill.

 

 

 

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April 29, 2010 · 6:20 am

Houghton Michigan

I don’t know what it is about Houghton and Hancock that makes think I could live here. The scenery is unbelievable, the towns are small, but have everything an old fat guy needs, there’s some culture, some sports and outstanding outdoor activities. It’s very cool.

Seems like living here would be idyllic and stress free. Well so I freaking thought but I guess there are demons in everything, for example the dude that was behind me as I was  slowly driving through downtown gawking at the stores and sights. OK I was moving a little slow but I was on cobblestone streets and there are some pedestrians around.. So imagine my surprise when the rusted out ’82 Ford Pinto with the bearded fat ass and his mumu wearing fragrance free aged hippy wife pulled up behind me and started laying on the horn. Sheez dude whats the rush..

The guy whipped around me made a left turn merge into traffic with out looking, just about sideswiped another car, corrected by popping a tire onto the meridian and without looking back.. punched it and head off into the distance.Total Big CITY move.  WTF. these people are supposed to be mello.. remember that word? M E L L O. Must be a sale at the tie-die store or the hydroponic garden place.

I’m in Houghton this week to collect the oldest kid who has completed his first year of college. First year done? Already? And now he’s coming home? And it’s hardly May? I’m a little worried about how we’re going to be reintegrating him into the family to be honest. We’ve all sort of moved on and have a good thing going the four of us. Now we’re going to have to readjust and react to his return.

Could be a long summer. This is after all, the child who has a complaint about every nuance in his life, which gets wearisome after a while I have to tell you.

I made the trip this time with a friend of mine from the office. He’s a big fly fisherman and we’re planning to spend a couple days up here fishing and enjoying all that the U.P. has to offer. If, we can figure out where to go. We’ve sort of come up against an unexpected obstacle in our plans.. apparently no one here fly fishes. I mean nobody. The one shop that I found on the internet that was the “Headquarters” for outdoors adventures, and who BTW, on the phone told me that they were the place to be for information and advice.. well went there yesterday and guess what, not a clue.

“What flies are working now?” “Um.. I sell alot of these black ones..” That’s not a good sign. “any hatches going on right now?” blank stare… “Nymphing or dryflyes?”.. more blankness. “The streams look really low, where should we go?” Pulls out a map book and starts reading it.. um… well… this looks good here..”What’s good about it?” I think he noticed that it was a blue line and thus.. a trout stream.. “lot of people here use nightcrawlers”. We’re screwed.

We’re on our own. Went to the local book store and found a couple books. They should help, but with the water as low as it is up here.. we’re going to be scouting. A LOT. With, BTW, a car loaded up with student shit. Could have planned this better I guess.

The guy I’m with is actually one of the funniest human beings on the planet. On the way up remarked that “This was going to be great, couple single dudes on the prowl in a college town..”

WTF? Neither of us are single and uh.. we’re old. “Call your son and see if knows any chicks with a certain casual moral..” He was kidding of course.

“Call your son and see if there’s a Fawn Liebowitz at Tech.” The girl who, in Animal House was killed in the Kiln explosion, enabling the lads to get the sympathy dates. When I checked in I got the room, handed him the room card I got the comment “Can you get about 20 more of these.. sometimes you have to saturate the market to get a few hits”. OMG. Childish? You bet, but I’m laughing my ass of the whole way.

We will not be cruising cougars I assure you, but we will be joking about it now.

Today we check the kid out of his dorm, and leave Houghton for the summer heading west to Ontangan for the next couple days. Not sure on access in that town so posting may get spotty.

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December 8, 2009 · 5:41 am

Wint’as Com’n

Sank House got all caught up in the winter preparations last night. The news has been all a buzz about how much snow we’re going to get, starting this afternoon and into tomorrow night. While not epic, it’s about 8 inches or so.. nothing too bad, unless that is you’ve been suckered into believing that winter just somehow, wasn’t going to come this year. Which is sort of where I was.

We’re still not 100% back from our, shall we say, ter-lit issues in the downstairs bath. The carpet is installed, and looks great BTW. Matter of fact, I have to say that the whole house is looking fantastic. Mrs S gets the credit for matching colors and textures and all that stuff that I never care about UNLESS, it’s not done right and I notice some nagging thing.. Anyway, looks good enough that the other day I even took a moment to notice.

Looks nice…

Except, the downstairs bath which as of this moment is yet un-tiled. And that is a shame.

Projects.. what is about big projects that the first 90% gets done in no time what so ever, the last 10% over the course of the next several years. Since we don’t actually have the tile we’re putting in, (she’s putting in) in our possession, we’re in a bit of a wait mode. Since putting in said tile will require that I move the washer and dryer.. I’m not saying a damn thing about it, preferring to work on her schedule.

And, since we have everything ready to go on the tile all the equipment is sitting in our garage.. we don’t have room for two cars in that garage. And since we have three cars .. well, we got the driveway shuffle going. Which isn’t that big a deal until it snows, except for the neighbors who have to look at our mini-parking lot of course? I’m sympathetic to their plight. Kinda.  When the snow comes down, more cars in the parking lot becomes a significant pain in ass.

Also, I hadn’t actually started the snow blower this year. Probably something we’d like to do BEFORE it snows and beat the rush to the repair place the day off the snowfall. Being a Toro Snow Commander.. I really didn’t anticipate any problems, its’ a commander after all.

Looking over the garage disaster, basically shit everywhere thanks to a remodeling and a family who are not able to fully comprehend the use of things like shelves and hooks and all that good stuff, causing me to stroke out every time I’m in there.  (You know,  it always amazes me how difficult it is to be the only perfect person in a family, you’d think the others would be more interested in basking in my goodness) Anyway, the truck ain’t gonna fit, the Scion, which will fit. hell we might even be able to hoist it into the rafters with the little battery powered car that I thought we got rid of 4 years ago, but seems to still be in our possession. It’s bigger than the Scion too..

Anyway..

Mrs S wanted the mower moved. The rider mower likes to hibernate in the winter. REALLY DOESN’T LIKE Waking up. After a few tries I got it going and we were good there. three more feet of space on the left side of the garage. Moved the carpet that we’re throwing away and the carpet we’re keeping for some reason,. Move the table with all the shit on it, pulled out the snow blower, put the new fresh gas/oil mix, pulled the cord and…

The fucking machine didn’t want a commitment, it just wanted to be ‘friends’.

I’ve heard that before.

What I have now however, that I didn’t have in college when I used to hear the ‘Friends’ line like a few times a week.. is an electric starter. :)   Oh yeah.. Plug it in, prime some gas., push the button and.. cough.. spit…. turn… pop. and on she went. Not before belching out a cubic ton of carbon emissions in one fell swoop mind you.. but it’s either run the machine or have my end of the driveway dead from the ‘shoveling the snow cor0nary’ that guys my age like.. yeah.. I’m running the machine and, just maybe, if it puts out some more greenhouse gases I won’t even need the damn thing a few years from now and wouldn’t that be nice. Sorry New Orleans.. but you enjoyed alot of years nice weather down there while we were suffering up in the great white north.

So, we’re ready. All staged and set for the great snow tonight. 8 inches. Took a call from the College Kid in Houghton Michigan… “Dad I love it here.. it snows every day”. On Saturday they got 18 inches there, a moderate snow for them. 12 more today and two or three every day from now until the forecast calendar ends on the 18th. They’re on their way to their average of 250 inches. The least they’ve ever had in recorded history.. 185 inches.. the most.. lets say just shy of 30 feet of snow.

I wonder what kind of Snow Commander they have?

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August 24, 2009 · 5:43 pm

Home Again

The local fare by you.We made it back. The drive isn’t quite as long as I thought, then again it’s something you’d pick up and do because you didn’t have clean laundry. And yet again, in the winter, if there were a storm, it would really really really suck, no doubt. But we all survived and are home safely. Good news.

Before we left today we were planning on going to go to a departmental meeting this morning that was CLEARLY on the parents schedule. CLEARY as in I saw it, and so did Mrs S. There it was, plain as day, “The Department invites you to visit with your Son/Daughter  instructors and learn about the program blah blah” So we went. And there was Nate sitting with the other 12 freshmen Geology students.

What wasn’t there, were any other parents. Before Nate saw us, I pulled the Wife into a corner and talked her out of going. A) you don’t want to say good bye for the third F’n time B) if we’re the ONLY parents there.. well do the math. All I could think about was helicopter. That and the fact that I was dying for a cup of coffee, Houghton completely lacking a Starbucks or any other coffee shop.

About that time the Dept Head was on his way to the meeting, saw us, and chatted up for a bit.. It was then that Mrs S realized that really, we should be going. And so, with that last glance in to the room, her parting view of Nate’s back and we got into the elevator and left the building.

Unfortunately we were out of the meeting an hour and half ahead of schedule so my dream of a last Pasty for lunch wasn’t going to happen. We pulled out town and started the long drive home. It was a bit quiet the first hour or so. Until the two remaining kids started fighting over who got what pillow and who got to put their feet where, and on and on and on and on and.. Fighting the urge to turn around and leave the two of the there, it was nice that chaos had returned and it was clear we were going to be OK.

The bad news is, the house is just a wee bit quieter than it was on Thursday. I think this is were the new reality will start to hit me… even if it’s not having someone around to yell at, as I am prone to do. No, it’s definitely quieter. It’s going to hit me more later this week when we head up to the lake. Nate is my fishing guy. Eric, not so much. Lolo will be, but she’s not quite there yet, and can’t back the boat down for me or run it up the trailer.. Yeah it’s going to be tough, lots of ghosts around the house and the lake. Good news is he’s a phone call away, I just don’t want to be the dreaded helicopter parent who’s in way too much contact with the kids. I’m hoping that we get to Skype with him this weekend and see how things are going..

Eric on the other hand.. We were back about 10 minutes, I kid you not, and he was already moving shit into his brothers now former room. Wow. At least let his parents go in there and pine a bit, shees.

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August 23, 2009 · 7:42 pm

More College Observations-

image Mom lost it, as predicted. Happened at about 6:05 as we dropped him at his dorm for the final time, I said “bye”, she got out of the car and BOOM tears she’d been holding back on came’a flow’n. She got back in the car and we pulled away. Since we had some time to kill, a common occurrence in Houghton, she wanted to go a pep rally for parents and see the Dean of Students speak. As we got up to the even, her phone rang, it was the dude.. “ya got my sweatshirt?” yup we do. And we’ll bring it down and we’ll get to do this all over again. I did it alone. Not a worry, I have attachment disorder, according to my parents, so it wasn’t difficult.

At the kids day for siblings deal the University put on, my daughter made a care package for her brother with a note telling him to do well and that she loved him and to show she did, here’s some Top Ramen and some popcorn and a small bottle of hand sanitizer. She then proceeded to tell me that all the siblings were supposed to make their college siblings these little packages at one of the activities. When the kids got in the car, Lolo ratted Eric out in three seconds. “Eric did NOT make a care package because he said Nate hates him”. “no I didn’t” “Yes HE DID, HE SAID IT WAS POINTLESS BECAUSE NATE IS A JERK”. I believe her, Nate certainly can be a Jerk and I can see Eric not wanting to shit in a group of kids.

So we dumped the dude off and said goodbye again and dropped Mrs S off at her deal and we were free.

I left her at the rally thing and had some time with just the little kids to head over to the Lambda Chi Alpha House to check it out, in case he wanted to rush. I went to an orientation about Greek Life at Tech and learned all about how different it was from my years at school. Apparently the houses are dry now, they don’t haze and they live in a lasting environment of brotherhood and love. Walking into the house unannounced.. well lets just say I felt a bit like Dean Wormer in Animal House walking into the Delta House. Tomr

I introduced myself as a Lambda Chi Alum and looked around… the boys were casually stuffing glasses of beer under couches and behind chairs looking like deer in a spotlight. My comment was priceless.. “well, apparently the houses aren’t as dry as I was led to believe.” There were cups of beer everywhere, a couple full pitchers that indicated that somewhere in this house was a keg, and a narghilla in the corner that says “we have Turkish students here” or, we’re a bunch of beatniks. Nothing like an unknown old fat guy crawling into your house to scare the shit out of you. The house was an ancient old mansion that the lads were living in. It was exactly as I remember frat life. Squalor, miles of beer cans, cig butts, a kitchen that looked like a toxic waste dump and smelled exactly like I remember our kitchen smelling. It was nasty as can be. I hope he pledges.

Michigan Thing

Ok, does EVERYONE in this state hold up the their left hand, palm away, and then point to a spot on the back of their hand when you ask “where are you from?”  Everyone I met from the Lower Peninsula does that, or as they say up here;“under the bridge” a reference to the Mackinac Bridge that connects the Upper Peninsula to the Lower Peninsula. According to local postcards, only trolls live below bridges.

 

Tomorrow, the four of us get one last pasty and head home. It’s been a weekend no doubt about it.

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