uncommonly feeble and random thoughts

April of 2012. I had a chance to do a little photo work. Love that city. Who doesn't know Michigan Ave.? And of course, another iconic building: Whole Foods. Yep. South on the Mag Mile, just north of the river: And, kudos to the kid with a phone, an eye, and a brain. Thanks for this one, James:

Ah the rituals... for a number of years, James was my guy on wood chip detail. We'd fire up SiriusXM in the Suburban, lift gate open, and put my XM boom box by the garage, and he'd be in fake surround EDM heaven. He'd fill the 'barrow, I'd run the 'barrow and dump, and Linda would spread the chips, sometimes. Mostly it was me and James. It's an amazing thing, doing real work with your kid. All the stuff we built, the ramps for bikes and boarding, the snow ramps out back on the hill by the courts, hundreds of other projects... quality time, solid time. I so miss his company.  *sniff* Anyway, the torch is passed to the lovely Linda, who wields a mean fork, either at the dinner table or out in the wood chip pile. She also wields a mean knife but that's mostly in the kitchen and generally to fend me off. She's often successful. The new pitchfork is leaning against the wheelbarrow. The old one, dark handle, in the trailer, artfully almost conceali...

We are a simple folk, easily amused. And we've shopped at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods everywhere but here, because, well, they aren't here. Ann Arbor, West Bloomfield, Chicago, yes. Note that Linda is forever searching for some ingredient for a recipe. It's a chronic condition. Some people look for love (in all the wrong places). Some search for that next fix. Others, the perfect sunset, or the world's largest ball of string, or the next bird, or another win, right, Cub fans? (btw great  no-hitter last night there!!!). Linda, she looks for the unusual and esoteric rarity, and Joe and Whole are to her what a shoe store... is to her. Trader Joe's, 28th St. Grand Rapids, Sept. 28, 2015 When Trader Joe's opened in Grand Rapids this fall, it turned out we were there on opening day, and her heartbeat quickened and her countenance beamed, and a tradition was born: April 20, 2016 When the East Lansing W...

If you can't find something to like within these two blocks, musically, I really feel sad for you. All right, there was one streetcorner duo who we were sure had recently done bad drugs, as that was the level of their music, and the dude on vocals was "dancing". I've said enough about that. First the long view, and then, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Yes, not all the life is out at the Opry and points east of town. The downtown was home to the Opry for years at a venue called the Ryman Auditorium.  Fascinating history, worth the ticket for the tour. you would not believe the acts that have played the hall. Birthplace of bluegrass, with Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs. Opry legends galore. The reason the current Grand Ole Opry has benches, not seats. There's a preacher in the past... I wanted to look at the sound stuff (you are shocked, I'm sure) and we met this Brit who, as it turned out, was the actual sound engineer for last night's show. Great guy, very personable and animated, and antsy for us tourists to leave so he could do the sound check at 4. I got to hear a lot about the nuts and bolts of traveling with the band. Are y'all ready for the name of the band? Jethro Tull. I was floored. One of my all-time faves... "sitting on the park bench..." Shortening the story, I talked about James (what e...

This highway is 444 miles long, a National Park, and is devoid of enterprise or residences. While some of both can be glimpsed from time to time, it's a long stretch of solitude, from just south of Nashville to, well, Natchez, MS. A YouTube narration of the Park is here. One vista: And, the obligatory waterfall shot: I like this picture a lot, not just because I shot it shutter priority at 1/8 sec. handheld. Well, two hands supported by my knees sitting on my butt on a stone in the river. And just for good measure, Waterfall II: And in the interests of full disclosure, Linda scouted out this view while I was up and to the right taking a series of crappy waterfall pictures. Love that lady.

Starting off with... what else. Grand Ole Opry. Amazing show last night, so-so at the start. Great musicians, don't get me wrong. But Chase Bryant, second-to-last, is a wizard. Amazing guitar work. Correction on the final artist. Brad Paisley. Deserves the accolades. Even better than Bryant on the guitar. I'd love to see them together. But that was not all. Oh no. Paisley brings out... John Fogarty. I thought I was going to die. Three tunes together. Simply unforgettable. Worth the entire trip and then some. The Opry proper is really, really Grand. Here's the front. Acoustics fabulous. Go if you can. And right next to it, a home. That would be, Roy Acuff's home. Yes, he lived here. Awesome. Twenty minutes away, interesting because of where one finds his portrait, is Andrew Jackson's home, the Hermitage. Lots preserved, much to learn there. He was racist and supported the Trail of Tears, so I'm ambivalent about him as yes, he was...

"The office", papa Joe's refuge, had to go. MareCare is paramount, now. So, if anyone missed the hard work of Alex, Ellen, and Linda, well, at least you can savor the results. Visitor quarters, now available on a first-come, first-served basis.

I went to high school with Eric Bates . He went on to be a renown cardiac surgeon. Oh and he married a Linda too. His son does a wee bit of skating. Our high school class , via a listserv and inside info from Eric, has been privileged to follow Evan's career. Eric recently sent me these links, from the World Championships in Boston held last week. We believe Evan and Madison had their best outing ever. Free Dance Beyonce In high school, Eric led the cross country team to the state title. Catch Us If You Can, by the Dave Clark Five, was their official song. I remember being in an algebra class with Eric and we had time to kill so we were checking heart rates, of all things. Prescient, no? In any event, my pulse, and whoever else was with us, was 'lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub'. Eric's was 'lub.    dub.    lub.    dub.    lub.    dub." As I recall, he clocked in the low 40's bpm. We were joking, "Man, are you even alive???" S...

I posted this in celebration of our anniversary. Yup. We are a forever thing. But there's a story behind the pic. A story that must be told, as Linda chided me for putting it on FB two years in a row. Everyone's a critic, right? You notice the sidewalk is uphill. When we were married, St. Francis de Sales, the church, is huge, and there's a gradual downslope as your make your way to the front, as there is in most large venues. So when you walk down the aisle, it is of course, down. So during his homily the priest said something about the walk down the aisle being a metaphor. His actual words were, "It's all downhill from here." Now, the guy meant well, really. He wasn't being trying to be humorous. But his intended blessing? Was it really a curse? I mean, a priest? What??? We've been joking about it ever since. So when I saw the uphill elevation on this pic, it struck me that it was an excellent metaphor for what's it's reall...