Trees and things

 The arborist has set January 5th and 6th for the removal of our much loved maple tree next to our deck.  It's been a backdrop for many summer photos of reading, sunset watching, dancing and other hi-jinks, but there aren't many photos celebrating its dark winter beauty.  So here are a few taken on one of the shortest and darkest days of the year, about noon --

This picture shows the disease at the base of the trunk, as well as how the bark is peeling off from the tree.  This old maple will be greatly missed.

I have no enthusiasm for a Christmas tree this year, but one of the girl's regular customers has been the recipient of several of my hand made masks this year.  She's 84 and has difficulty breathing through a surgical mask.  She wanted to thank me, and this is how she chose to do it -- a Norfolk Pine decorated for the holidays and a nice box of chocolates.  The ornament at the top of the tree is also shaped like a tree -- it's  personalized with John's name and the dates he lived, a gift from Klaassen's funeral home.  

Unrelated thoughts:  One.  My beloved grandchildren currently refer to me as their "bad-ass grandmother" with the girl loving the phrase "digging deep into her suitcase of bad-assery."  The boy has recently begun to refer to me as "one tough cookie."  (In case you were worried.  Alternately if this news causes concern, they are exaggerating for effect, I believe.)  Two.  I have achieved my annual biking goal plus 17 miles.  Puny goal in normal times, but these aren't normal times now, are they?  And One and Two might be related.   Merry Christmas.

Kirk Park with TJ

 

Early December Beach

 This post gives a different view of the lake from the last one -- these pictures are mostly taken from the level of the beach, except for the first one which was taken from the top of the stairs next to our deck.

Still a bit of foredune between the bench and the edge.
Our beach, below, goes from the second snow fence to the sandbags. 

Looking back at our beach from the sandbags in the earlier photo. I estimate 6 or 7 feet of sand between the shelf and the sea wall.

Pretty much the same photo, but this one shows how odd the light is at this time of year -- on those rare days when we have sun, at least.

I walked down towards Tunnel Park, but didn't want to get my feet wet so didn't go all the way there before turning around.  The stairs to the top of the dune are unreachable in my opinion, though I suppose that depends on the direction you choose.  The footprints prove it's been done -- I imagine from the top down, using the land side park stairs for access.  It was a chilly day for a walk on the beach, but I have the gear, as they say.  

Beach

 The gale force winds of November have eaten away at what remains of our foredune, even with lower water levels on the big lake.  I walked down the stairs to the beach this morning to get a better view.

 

Grandson turns 22

Wednesday was Totally Jammin's birthday, and the first day of the new state wide edict banning indoor gatherings of more than 2 households.  We've been abiding by that rule on our own for several months now, so it made little difference, but we did want to mark the day as a special one.  Several options were explored and we eventually ended up with plan C.  I made my Joy of Cooking pancakes and brought them to the cemetery, the girl brought donuts and we set up chairs amid the gravestones and shared some breakfast before heading back to our individual routines.  It wasn’t a typical birthday by any means, but we agreed it was memorable. 

I took a bike ride Friday, the first since I returned from Florida.  I am still short of miles for my puny goal, but it could yet happen.  We haven’t had measurable snowfall to date, though 1 to 3 inches is forecast in about 4 days.....  It would take about 5 more rides of average length, so I am not even within that margin of error where I can just declare it to be done and hang up my spurs.  

Mad dogs and Englishmen

 I told BDE that I'd post something here if anything interesting occurred this month.  This might qualify.  I took a short trip to Port Charlotte to sort through some of JB's personal things, his tools, and get a start on his desk drawers and such.  A task I prefer to do alone.  21 years in that house left a lot of evidence behind of the time spent there.  I returned to Michigan yesterday.  A few photos --

Hurricane season isn't over until the end of November -- new information for me.  I am home, isolating from friends and family, but hopeful that my KN95 mask, disinfectant spray, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes provided enough protection to get me through the travel part.

October freezes over

 The month started out pretty well, and I had high hopes of doing a lot of biking before it was over.  Mother Nature had other plans, and the last two weeks have been bitterly cold, rainy and windy.  At least there was no snow, but my old bones feel the cold.  I'm far short of my bike miles goal for the year, but so it goes.  It's been that kind of year.

In unrelated news, I will not be blogging in November this year.  Tomorrow is Halloween, but as it says on the internet, I've been wearing a mask and eating candy for months, so it's no big deal.  The time change this weekend signals the beginning of the dark season again.  Stay warm.

Beach walk

The Grands were here for a while this afternoon, followed by pizza, and a walk -- or two.  The first walk was with the girl while the boy went over to GG's and helped her synch up her Ipad to her Iphone.  The second walk was with both of them -- both walks involved a trip down to the beach to check on the seawall.  Here's a couple of photos I took on the first walk with the girl -- we went to Tunnel Park and back, it was too chilly for much photography, but here's what things look like down there today.

It was, as always, really nice to have them visit.   

Fall Color Tour --

 There was a tentative plan for a group ride today, but the blustery winds led us to postpone our semi-traditional fall ride.   I puttered around some, then decided that the wind had died down and a ride -- a recovery ride from the trip to the PSPS -- could be successful.  I know where to hide from winds, and the fall colors are changing fast.

It worked out pretty well, the wind was only a full on headwind for about 2 of the 12.5 miles I rode. I still have almost 200 miles to ride to reach my mileage goal for the year, I expect that I'll be riding in some Auckland Rule conditions if I hope to get even close.

I was home before TJ arrived to work on GG's lawn for her --  he was on leaf clean up duty.  A seemingly endless task in this neighborhood.  He stayed for spaghetti and garlic toast before he headed back to his campus.

Self Explanitory

 I've been watching the forecast for today's weather all week.  No rain and a wind from the NW at 5-10 mph, high around 60.  Perfect conditions to check off that bike ride from my garage to the PSPS.  Really, I should have done it sooner -- really.  I should have.

The wind gusted upwards of 15 mph on my way out, but I remained convinced that this might be my last, best chance to make this ride.  It was hard.  Good news?  They had the diet red pop with caffeine in their cooler.  Also, a really nice tail wind on my way home.  60 miles in the first 8 days of the month, and inching closer to a respectable total for the year.

I rode a bit yesterday, two days in a row is not typical for me this year, but not unheard of.  It was short, but nice enough.

The leaf colors are coming along nicely.

The sun goes down earlier and earlier.  Jacket weather is here.

It's not over yet

 I biked today, I took a few photos.  It was chilly and windy but nice enough since I have the gear.  I biked a couple of times last week that I didn't blog about, but both days were cold and rainy.  Today was sunny, a nice day after 4 days of rain and wind and cold.

Most of our trees are just beginning to turn color, but this one -- up the street from here -- is an early quitter.  Giving up way too soon.  Those conversations in my head about what is the lowest temperature that I will ride in are similar to Mr. MooHoo's.  Spring and fall are very different.  50 is my cutoff in the spring, but I've already biked a couple of times in the 40's just in the past week or so.  Not sure why, but it's been consistently that way for a number of years now. 

Rainy Days and Mondays

 Today is both a rainy day and a Monday -- guaranteed to be a down day.  Yesterday was okay though, and I just read something on my news feed that said time travel may be possible, something about how the math works out.  I have a couple of photos from yesterday, which is as close to time travel as I need right now.  Biking has been slow this month, as I believe I've mentioned, so I told my dafter I needed some time to myself on Sunday to ride my bike.  She's good about that sort of thing -- she knows me better than I sometimes give her credit for, and she postponed her weekly visit until late afternoon so I had time to ride.  

This is near my usual sit down spot along Ransom Street.  The wind died down as I rode, always nice.  October is my favorite month to ride and I'll have to see how that works out. It's just around the corner.

TJ stopped by later to check up on me and, then OSLO and finally the girl came by after she was done working.  We have good discussions in the garage, I'll miss that when it gets too cold to meet out there.  Contact free delivery of Papa John's pizza is also becoming a semi regular Sunday thing. Patterns and routines are comforting in these uncertain times.

Different places to sit

Yesterday morning LH and GG suggested a group ride.  I passed on the group ride, while admitting that I planned to take a bike ride, but by myself.  It was either that or alcohol and drugs, I told them.  I encouraged them to take a ride together, and they agreed to meet each other to ride through Waukazoo Woods.  When I met them for an evening walk yesterday evening, I had taken a ride, but they hadn't.  It was apparently a modified version of "Without Gino there is no ride."  

My solitary ride was quiet and out of my garage.  Biking didn't make my priority list this past week, an error in judgement on my part.  I always feel better after a bike ride.  Or at least almost always.  Anyway, a plan was made for a group ride today with LH and GG.  We drove about a half hour south of here, parked in the driveway of a friend of LH and GG, and biked to Saugatuck.  I haven't been there much over the years, and I have biked there even less often.  It's still a charming little town on the Kalamazoo River.

We started loading the bikes on my bike rack about 1 pm, and were back here a few minutes before 5pm.  We rode a bit over 12 miles.  I will let you do the math.  It was a pretty ride, fall is beginning to show its colors, we were mostly on quiet country roads, and there won't be a lot more chances to do this sort of thing this year.  My mileage for this month as well as this year is pathetic by historical standards.  These things happen -- I hope to eventually return to the discipline that makes riding my bike a higher priority than most other things.  I'll keep you informed.

Visitors of all sorts

 M and P arrived Friday afternoon and tonight they are having dinner with OSLO and her SO.  I promised you pictures, but only took a few.  Their travelling house is pretty cool and tomorrow they move on a few hundred miles to the south.  Their timing is good, the weather here is forecast to get quite a bit colder by next week.  The weather this week here was a little cool but otherwise ideal.  No rain, not a lot of wind -- although the day we drove to Grand Haven State Park to check out the lake, there were red flags flying.  Sunsets weren't spectacular most nights, but the evenings were pleasant, light jackets, that sort of thing.  My grandchildren were rock stars, in my opinion, even with TJ on lock down at his campus, he joined us via Facetime a couple of times, here's one from Saturday, I think, with M and TJ talking via my Ipad.

Note the new table -- M renamed the garage as the party room.  Fair enough.

M and Belle visiting with TJ over Facetime.

Venus is part Australian shepherd, I believe, hence the blue eye.  She's not much more than a pup, and very sweet.

They have their two dogs, Belle and Venus, with them as travelling companions.  This was the weekend I was taking care of old Charlie, GG's dog, so Belle and Venus only visited the one time.  Three dogs seemed excessive.  I visited the travelling house a number of times, so got to spend some time with them on their own turf.  Nikki took some time off from work to visit with M and P and to help me out in multiple ways.  Like I said, rock stars. OSLO joined us for garage chicken parmesan on Sunday, so we got in a sort of traditional family dinner that night.

The girl was here for lunch today before work and took Charlie for a walk.  He spent 3 nights here, and seemed to do fine.  He's old enough that kennels trigger highly anxious behavior so it was good that he settled in here so easily.  He slept next to my bed and took the elevator downstairs in the morning.  Dogs get arthritic too, it seems.  His owners picked him up this evening.

Good luck to them on their travels, God speed and all that.  I hope they have a ton of fun with this new lifestyle they've chosen.  

Deck Renewal, a story in picture form

 OSLO's SO arrived Friday morning armed with all the appropriate equipment to restain our old deck.

Before shot of the deck, power washed in early August.

Not quite done -- taking a break to buy a 4th gallon of stain.

I am pretty sure that this is the best it's ever looked since we've owned this place.  We're giving it a couple of days to get thoroughly dry before we use it -- today is cool (I'd call it cold) but dry.  Guests from the west have arrived, visiting in one of the few ways possible these days -- they brought their own house.  We had supper on a picnic table next to their place last night and lunch in my garage today.  Tomorrow we will try a family supper in the garage.  I'll try to take a few pictures and report back.  Keeping calm, trying to stay safe, carrying on.

Fall biking has begun

I took a bike ride on Tuesday, but took no photos.  I rode with LH and GG on a lovely fall day with a substantial wind from the south.  Group rides are nice, don't get me wrong, but they always seem to eat up a lot more time than when I ride alone.  We rode to the end of Perry where it dead ends into the airport.  The airport bond proposal failed at the last election, and the runway has already been decommissioned and the asphalt ground up and redistributed somewhere.  There was talk of a bike trail going through the north side of the property, but so far there's no sign of it.  I'd like that -- it would give me a path from here to 152nd street that would parallel Ottawa Beach Road, just a quarter mile north.  We'll see in time.  We next swung through Waukazoo woods where we lost a bit of time when LH and GG ran into a friend of theirs raking leaves in her yard.  Then there was a stop at the prayer garden at the Catholic Church where we were joined by a retired Hope professor who had a tale of miracles and prayers to share with us.  Well, we were sitting in a prayer garden.  After he'd prayed for us -- and who couldn't use that these days -- we rolled on a good solid half mile to Bowerman's.  Apple cinnamon donuts called, so yet another stop.  All good things.  So today I finished up my grocery shopping and got out on my bike before noon and was home in time for a late lunch -- pretty much the same distance.

My mid ride rest stop was at the usual place -- Ransom Park.  The grass was being mowed near my usual picnic table so I moved to a bench near the playground.  The temperatures were in the low to mid 60's, the wind from the NE around 10.  Pretty much ideal.  Covid is still a serious concern here, so I'm happy for empty spaces and the lack of crowds.  My Grandson's university is on lock down for 14 days because of an explosion of positive cases among the student body.  He's following all the rules, so it's discouraging that many others are not, especially those who live in off campus housing.  Fraying of the social fabric, at least that's how I see it.  Fortunately there is Facetime, but I will miss having his company at our garage suppers.  Though there probably won't be many more of those as the temperatures drop and the sun sets earlier and earlier.  As TJ said when I Facetimed with him yesterday, Keep Calm and Carry On.  (He's a history major.)  Tomorrow looks to be a busy day, my daughter's SO is planning to stain my deck for me, and we may have company from the north.  Stay tuned.