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December
2007

Background: Autumn Gold

Our House It's been a while. Reckon I'll do this like the "professional" bloggers. (You know, those 14-year-olds who have nothing else to do in class so they blog on their cell phones, telling what they had for breakfast and how to solve the huge world problems like global warming and what to do with Britney's kids.) Anyway, we'll start with December and work our way back. December Biggest news I reckon is that I shall join the ranks of the unemployed or perhaps "retired" unless something comes along. Grace College is having some financial problems, and I will let you look at their press releases if you're really curious. They put a lovely spin on the "reorganization". Bottom line is that several of us will not be renewed for Fall, 2008. I can retire if necessary; I just don't want to. We could philosophize on the causes and effects, and the future of Christian education, or of education in general, but we can do that off-line. Now that that's over with, there is more cheerful news. Kathy bought me a new LCD monitor for Christmas, and son Jon bought me a video card. I built a small stand, and now I have dual monitors. (Kathy bought it before we knew about the layoffs.) Jon managed to come for Christmas and we had a good time together. We spent a couple of sessions at the train club show, where I took some pictures, mostly of my own passenger train running around amongst the others. I joined the club back in September or so. It's a nice potential "activity" in case I end up retired, and a nice distraction if I keep working. The Christmas program at church was a joint presentation by four area Grace Brethren churches. It was presented at Rodeheaver Auditorium, which is where Grace College had chapel until the Orthopaedic Capital Center was finished. I would suppose that at least 1500 people came, total for the two evenings. Our Christmas display was well-attended as usual by nearly 1000 carloads of people, including several local retirement-home vans and a tour bus from Plymouth. Many of the people on the tour bus brought their families on another evening. One member of my model railroad club came over from Ft. Wayne and watched it for an hour. We had four students write software for the tree. We have found that students come up with original ideas, which improves the light show. I also got a heaping shopping-cart-load of Christmas lights for $1.00 per string at Wal-Mart, and cleaned out several kinds of lighted ornaments at Lowes for 75% off. (Spent $45.00, saved almost $170.00 according to the receipt from Lowe's.) The new stuff will appear in the display next year. November Daughter Kriss and her husband Jon came for Thanksgiving dinner. Son Jon was here also. Son-in-law Jon made his favorite dressing (with sausage, etc.) and we had a good time of course. Sunset over Winona Lake October We put up most of the Christmas display with the help of some students. This year, we made a plastic cover to keep the falling leaves from hanging in the lights. It probably also protected the light bulbs from fading in the sunlight. It was also handy a couple of times when heavy (2 inches or more) of snow was predicted, so that we didn't have to clean off as much snow. Fluffy cloud over Winona Lake September We played for a wedding. First gig we've actually been paid for. We have a young lady, Natalie, who plays saxophone with us quite regularly. Wedding gig at Westminster Hall August Probably the most memorable event was the lady from Germany who stayed with us. She brought her daughter to school at Grace College and so Kathy invited her to our house. They are from Regensburg, a very beautiful area. We spoke only a tiny bit of German since Kathy speaks none. We had heavy rains for the last couple of days she was here, and for the first time since we have lived here, we got water in the basement -- just enough to soak the carpet. I climbed up onto the roof and cleaned some debris out of the gutters, which helped. It still took a few days running the dehumidifier after using the Bissell rug shampooer to suck up most of the water. Doesn't it always wait until you have guests to happen? Not only that, but the guest bed broke. Had to glue and reinforce the headboard. Then, when Kriss and Jon came at Thanksgiving, it "broke" again. Turns out that I had not quite hooked the rails onto the headboard and footboard when I reassembled it. The squirrel's name is Peanuts. He actually belongs to the neighbors. He gets friendly around suppertime. Doves outside our window Weather Well, what can you expect in a six-month blog? It was very warm at the beginning in July, and cold at the end, in December. Seriously, though, we had really good fall weather for putting up the Christmas display. Summer was not extremely hot, and so far the winter has not been extremely cold. Geek Stuff I mentioned elsewhere that several students programmed some light routines for the Christmas tree, and that I now have dual monitors. I got a bunch of books from O'Reilly (the "animal" books) and learned how to use sed, more details on make, and I'm going to try to rewrite my compiler using lex and yacc. Beach Hotel View from our room: Sunlight on Lake Superior View from our room Freighter on Lake Superior, from Whitefish Point July We had never been up to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan, so we decided to drive up and spend a couple of days on Lake Superior. Now it's not what you would call a tropical paradise, but the scenery is beautiful and the people are friendly. They call themselves "Yoopers" ("U-P-ers") and they have a local dish called "pasties". Apparently, pasties are not available south of "The Bridge" (Mackinac Bridge). Not knowing this, we failed to try one, which means we will have to go back, obviously. Kathy enjoys lighthouses, so we saw several of them. Whitefish Point was relatively handy so we drove up to it the first evening. Whitefish Lighthouse Next day we drove up to Crisp Point, perhaps the most photogenic lighthouse in those parts. Crisp Point Light Remember that Dwayne Eddy guitar solo, "Forty Miles of Bad Road"? Well the road to Crisp Point is bad road, like a washboard, 20 miles in, 20 miles out, no shortcuts. But it was worth the slow bumpy drive and even enduring the biting flies. From time to time a swarm of deer flies ("beach flies") will hatch out in the sand and they really hurt when they bite. We just kept moving except to stop and snap some pictures, then hurried back to the car. That evening, we went for a dinner cruise through the Soo Locks. That was really nice, highly recommended. Food was good, view was terrific and just by "chance" we had live music. A friend of the captain comes up to Sault Ste. Marie once in a while and brings his keyboard along. Sunset from the boat near Soo Locks, July 2007 We intended to return home along the shores of Lake Michigan, but since the AAA map was last edited, the "scenic drive" has been built up so that all we could see was the backs of condominiums while we breathed exhaust fumes from the slow traffic. If you'd like to visit the U.P., and I hope you will, the best way up is probably to get off the Australian -- I mean Indiana (local joke) Toll Road and go up U.S. 131 through Grand Rapids; or else, come back that way. Mapquest will send you up I-69 through Lansing, which is a great road (if you watch the signs in Lansing!) but, well, you know, it's an interstate. Bor-ing! Boring but faster. Hey, this is for a vacation, right? Stop and smell the flowers!

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