Andy does summer in Michigan …
- I’m just going to say it: I like Renaissance festivals. I’ve always been a fan of hokey and there’s nothing hokier than a guy dressed in tights telling you in a bad English/pirate accent where the turkey leg stand is. Sheer, dumb bliss.
- I wonder if someday there will be festivals depicting 21st Century suburban life?
If you want to hate your fellow man, I suggest kayaking the same river with him. Between the plastic Jell-O shot containers floating past and the flotillas of 12 massive inner tubes loosely strung together blocking the river, it was a special back-to-nature day.- Drunken inner tube lady whose flotilla stretched bank-to-bank to her even drunker friend: “Don’t worry about them. Kayakers are supposed to adjust to us not us to them.”
- The DNR confirmed a cougar sighting in Gogebic County in the Western U.P., which gives me the willies. The idea of a cougar stalking me while I hike has always freaked me out. I’d rather run into a bear, honestly. Bears are only likely to attack if you startle them or get between them and their cub. A cougar is a cat. I’ve owned cats for decades, and they’ll mess with you just for fun.
- This is always the part of August I dislike. It’s lovely but the cicadas are out and that means the leaves aren’t far from changing and when the leaves change that means winter in nigh and we never seem to have an average or mild one of those anymore. Don’t leave me, summer! You just got here!
- Remember when everyone in Michigan was freaking out about low water levels just 10 years ago?
- My favorite smells of summer: 1) Sweet grass 2) Warm pine needles 3) Elephant ears. I don’t even like elephant ears but I like the smell of them. My favorite Michigan fruit: Traverse City cherries. My favorite Michigan vegetable: Corn on the cob. My favorite sound: Pine forest in a stiff breeze.
- The other day, I described someone who was paddle-boarding as engaging in “water-boarding.” It took me a minute to figure out why the lovely yet formidable Marcia thought that was funny.
- By not even trying to try, the Detroit Tigers have sucked some of the fun out of summer. Where is it written that the only way to rebuild is to suck for 10 years? Teams like Minnesota, Tampa and Oakland seem to compete most years. So why are the Tigers on this never-ending boom/bust cycle of two good seasons followed by 10 horrific ones? Seems like a lousy philosophy to me.
- It’s my opinion that roadside wildflowers are prettier than their domesticated cousins.
- I know everyone says don’t buy a boat but my resistance is weakening, even though my friend says, “If you’re gonna buy a boat, you might as well get a ‘For Sale’ sign to go with it because that’s what you’ll be doing in two years.”
- I don’t like to eat fish so I don’t fish. But I think I might get a rod anyway. Casting seems like good, mindless fun. I think I could do it all day long.
- My other summer guilty pleasure is watching a sprinkler. Hey, you’re not normal either.
I agree, summer just got here! It can stay for a while!
As for the Tigers, being a die-hard loyal fan, I still have faith. I’m not liking Al Avila at the moment, but these new kids that have been called up (Jake Rogers & Travis D-something) are doing pretty well! I am getting impatient with them, though…how long does a rebuild last? Last night’s game should have been won. What happened to Matt Boyd? The bullpen?
Did you hear about the lady in Canada who played Metallica on her phone to scare away an attacking cougar?
The problem is neither can hit.
I did. She’s my hero. If that were me, it would take me 5 tries. Hold on there, kitty.
Andy’s back! I love this style of your columns!
I agree that the roadside flowers are often more beautiful than those we pay for including fertilizer and weed killer. The roadside ones last a long time and are flourishing. They arrange themselves in almost perfect settings! Their “Gardener” has that magic touch! I have been thinking about stopping along the road and getting some pictures. I just have to be careful of traffic, ditches and people wondering what I am doing.
I remember sitting at the river’s edge in Vet’s Park horrified at the lines that showed how much the water level was down. Now, I love the abundance of water as it seems to dance, run and wave the whole course; but the vision of low water never escapes me!
This was great: No writing about politics, government, sexual assaults, murder, greed… This is how it should be all the time!
I know, I know. I have to switch gears more often. I used to write 4 columns a week so there was room for everything. Trump is so incredibly damaging for the country, I feel like I have to use my weekly one or two slots on him. Trying …
I agree on the wildflowers roadside, and sprinkler watching. Something about water; waves, drips, falls or sprinkling, I will watch.
Ya still got to throw one in there about politics every so often. It wouldn’t be the same without getting under the skin of Abner, Jimiii and Brad. I don’t stay up for late night comedy TV anymore but those three make up for it!
I don’t even like elephant ears
Commie.
I know. It’s the grease.
I agree on the summer smells and the wild flowers.
I liked the wild flowers so much that I planted some of them in my yard. NOT in flowerbeds. Just took a section of the yard and turned it into my “Weed Patch.” I have been pleasantly surprised as most folks have made very positive comments. As a side benefit, the milkweed has produced a couple of generations of Monarch Butterflies.
I did the same thing with the last 15 yards of my yard. Let it go meadow and I love it.
Our friend caught a picture of what we believe is a cougar on her trail cam in
Au Gres!
We love being on the water in our boat even when we aren’t fishing, but we do love to catch & eat fish. Expecting to be catching perch soon! Such a tasty fish.
Talk about water levels! In our canal, again in Au Gres, most of the docks were/are underwater this year. We’ve all had to adjust boarding our boats.
Love your columns and appreciate them being on email!
Smiles, Sal
Just wanted to let you know that my big sister, (she might be 5’2”) asked me at a family gathering last weekend if I have ever read your column. I told every time it shows up in my email. I found it cool that we both read it. Also we grew up in Flint!
Hey, that’s great to know. Your sister must be a woman of discriminating tastes.
Re high lake levels: The high water cycle in the Great Lakes is NOT part of sea-level rise. High and low water come here irregularly, based on rainfall. We are coming close to highest-ever levels, but we have not reached them yet. (Highest were back in 1985 or 86.) Lowest were back in the 1960s, and five years ago or so. The annual cycle has highest water in June and July. The multi-year cycle varies enormously, and is unpredictable.
I had a business in the 1980s rebuilding beaches and building sea walls. My old family home is right on Lake Michigan. I was utterly out of business, when the lake started dropping in 1986. Nobody should panic. Most expenditures on sea walls are wasted: If the water rises, they are useless. The water just washes around them. If the water goes down, the walls disappear under the beach and bank sand.
Here is a new topic to lead into the next political column:
Apparently, there is some evidence that Russia sent maybe $10 Million to the National Rifle Association, to use toward Mr. Trump’s election in 2016. (The NRA actually did spend around $30 Million on that Trump election.)
The US Federal Elections Commission apparently does not want to investigate this. But, obviously, it needs investigation. This is the first I have heard of specific evidence of a direct connection between Russia and Trump’s election. If true, it is a true “smoking gun.”
Donald Trump’s election did not create the left’s hate it revealed it.
Racist is what a liberal/democrat/socialist’communist calls someone when they cannot reply with a good sane/logical answer.
Sen. Tom Scott (R-SC) defended President Trump on Fox News the Ingraham Angle on 12 August 2019 when he made it clear that the President is not a racist. Think about how low the African American employment has been since President Trump was elected. The lowest in recorded history of the country. The criminal reform that has benefited the African American community.
Sen. Scott then went on to expose the left’s tactic of pulling out the race card because of their desire to cause “fear and division”.
The democrat liberal/socialists want people to either forget or not know the following:
1. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.
2. Republicans voted to free the slaves. Democrats opposed freeing the slaves.
3. The 1st 22 blacks elected to the U.S. House were Republicans.
4. The first black elected to the U.S. Senate in 1871 was a Republican.
5. The 1st black democrat was not elected to the U.S. Senate until 1999.
6. Wilmington, S.C.: In 1898 a race riot by Southern Democrats who later passed laws designed
to limit the voting rights of African Americans.
7. Martin Luther King Sr. was a Republican.
8. Martin Luther King Jr. was an independent.
9. The KKK acted a paramilitary wing of the democrat party, post civil war.
Their enemy: Republicans and black politicians.
10. Robert Byrd (1959-2010 congress critter)was not a republican, but he was a former
member of the KKK and the democrats loved him.
1863:
1. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.
2. Republicans voted to free the slaves. Democrats opposed freeing the slaves.
2016:
The Ku Klux Klan, through their newspaper The Crusader publicly endorses the Republican candidate for President, Donald Trump.
Something seems to have gone awry.