Outed myself!

Oops. I may have outed myself. The cat may have snuck out of the bag.

I'll write about that later. Right now, I have to get you quickly caught up on things. No photos this time. All ready?

Let's see. Tuesday, I had the basketball quarterfinals in Marquette. At halftime, our team was tied with their unbeaten opponents. And I was in a daze, wondering whether I would have to make the 500+-mile drive to East Lansing for the state finals--a trip that I had not prepared for at all!

Then our team took a five-point lead during the third quarter. Now I was really getting nervous. But the unbeaten team came back with a big rally late in the third quarter and went on to win by 13. (On Thursday, the unbeaten team won the state semifinal ... and Saturday morning, they won the state championship.)

It's not that I like the teams I cover to lose. Officially, I want them to win all their games. Personally, though, I have had enough of covering basketball for quite a while, and I certainly didn't want to make the big trip to East Lansing. Because it's such a long, long drive, when you do that, all you do is drive, sit/sleep in a hotel room, eat fast food and watch basketball. I can think of more enjoyable ways to spend my life.

Anyway, they lost, and I drove home. No trip to East Lansing. Awwwww.

Wednesday, my older son--the one who lives north of Detroit--called. (He just recently bought a Toyota Prius, by the way. Loves it.)

The big news this time is that he is thinking of moving to the Chicago area--maybe this fall, when his lease is up. He has worked for a major bank corporation in the Detroit area since he graduated in 1999, but the corporation recently announced plans to move its corporate offices to Texas.

It wouldn't affect him for years, but he feels (correctly, I think) that it's just another blow to SE Michigan and the Detroit metro area in particular. He has talked about moving to the Chicago area in the past, and now he's thinking about it again.

How do I feel about it? Well, it may be in the same state that I live in, but his home north of Detroit is about 520 miles from where I live. Chicago? It's 325 miles away from my place. So my feelings about it are ... quietly hopeful.

Thursday, I got a delivery from Amazon. But I'll write about that another time.

Friday, we drove down and visited my mom for the first time in a week and a half. She has been battling stomach flu and wasn't quite over it. Too bad--it was about 60 degrees that day, and it would have been a perfect day to go out for a chicken sandwich and strawberry shake. Maybe next time.

Our weather has gotten really nice and un-March-like (for up here, anyway). We've had several days of highs in the low 60s. Tonight, some thundershowers rumbled through. There still are piles of snow holding on, but they are shrinking by the day.

Also on Sunday night, I called my friend, S, who is temporarily in California. It was the first time I had heard her voice since December 2005. We talked about a bunch of things--what she has been doing out there, what I've been up to. She told me she had started a blog on myspace.com, and we spent some time trying to get me to log into it. (I finally succeeded after we hung up.)

Then, I told her about my own little blog, "where you will be able to see some familiar photos," since I have been sending her some of the photos I have posted here. I told her the address ... and suddenly realized I had just outed myself.

You know, my posts about a recent donation to a good cause. Remember the "mystery"? It ain't no mystery no more, folks. As if it ever was.

We talked for about 45 minutes, which is a reallllllly long phone call for me. It was just so good to hear her voice again. Time just flew by.

Seen along the way

Last week was tournament week for high school girls volleyball and boys basketball. But since you probably are more interested in the things I saw along the way, I'll skip the sports report and focus on what the camera saw.

Tuesday, we made the long, long, long (200 miles, each way) trip to the state volleyball quarterfinals. Our team played hard and well but lost. So it goes.

Remember this ice fishing scene from about a month ago?

(This was taken Feb. 10.)

This is what that lake looks like now, after the weather's recent warm-up:


We were driving through Escanaba when we saw a sight that prompted a double-take ... and a drive around the block for another look ...

That reminds me of something I'd better get busy with.

Hey, this was the day I saw the first robin of spring, right along the highway ...


And I also saw my first mosquito ...

If you look closely, you'll see they are both sculptures made of bits of scrap metal, posed on the same trailer. I'd hate to have that mosquito tanking up on my arm or ankle. Alas, that season is coming, too.

I have one more picture from that trip (since it was way after sunset after the match ended), and it's a sight I was looking forward to. This trailer has been along the highway for years. Though the paint has faded, this unique sign remains unchanged. Remember: Sign-painters don't have spell-check ...


Later in the week, I made two trips to Houghton for the boys basketball regionals. These photos were taken during the Saturday morning drive.

Look at my amazing photo of an eagle by its nest! Admire!


Isn't that an incredible shot? One of the best eagle pictures you have ever seen? Wouldn't you like to get a picture like that yourself?

Well, just plan a trip our way, bring your camera, and I'll tell you where to look: right next to the big propane tank. He'll be waiting for you ... if the woodpeckers don't take a liking to him first ...


Lastly, we were on a rural road on our way home (of course, all our roads are rural) when we saw some pedestrians doing the turkey trot. So we stopped for a look ...

I count 16 turkeys making the crossing. Count the legs and divide by 2.

I was so interested in the turkeys that I didn't notice something else in the picture--not until my wife pointed it out a few minutes ago. See that deer watching us from the hillside, just in front of the trees?

Our team won the regional title and plays in the state quarterfinals in Marquette on Tuesday night. That, I think, will be the end of sports coverage for a while.

Weatherwise, the weather cooled off a bit last week, and we're supposed to get a few inches of snow overnight. By midweek, though, it will be getting warmer again. At this point of winter, all you do with the snow is give it a quick push with the shovel ... it will all be melted in a few days.

She said. I said.

Regarding my last post, about the money I had sent to my friend, S. This is what has happened since then:

E-mail from S to me, 10:04 p.m. Wednesday night

Oh Pete! I'm guessing the anonymous gift I got in the mail today was from you. Thank you so much! You are a godsend! Cool news. I've been hired as a teacher/healer to go help a person in CA for a month. It pays more than I'd make in months at the job here. I feel so blessed! Plan to leave sometime next week.

Love, S-----

E-mail from me to S, 12:02 a.m. Thursday:

Hi, S-----.

I don't know what I should say about your latest note, since I'm not sure what you're talking about. Evidently someone send you something, and you think I did it. Right? Why would you think it was me?

I'm not a godsend, S-----. I'm just what I am, for better or worse.

Congratulations on the very good news from California. Can you tell me a little more about it? What will you be doing, and what part of the state will you be doing it in? Can I assume you will still have e-mail access?

[I write about getting back from my trip to the volleyball quarterfinals. They lost. Then I write about my trip to the basketball regionals on Thursday. And a note on the warm weather--it was 64 on our drive on Tuesday until we got close to Lake Michigan.]

Must stop here. I'm getting tired. But take care and may the Divine protect you on your journeys, now and forever. And never thirst.

Love, Peter

E-mail from S to me, 8:22 a.m. Thursday:

Hi Pete,

The letter the money arrived in was postmarked Kingsford, MI. Since you are the only one I know in MI, I just figured ... The money from my paypal account still hasn't hit the bank and had it not been for what you sent they would have started foreclosure on my house yesterday (I was $200 short). Truly, there are no coincidences.

I have been hired as a life coach and healer to help out a lady in CA for one month. I will make her world a happy place again and she will cover my room and board, plane fare and pay me $***. This will go a long way to improve our current financial situation, so I don't mind making the trip. It will be fun to spend some time in CA again. I will go talk with a travel agent today and should be flying out by this time next week. I will have computer access there so we can continue to communicate.

Thanks again. Thou art god.

Love, S-----

E-mail from me to S, 9:28 a.m. Thursday:

Well ... look, S----:

It's true that I was in Kingsford, but it was this Tuesday. The day before last. The only thing I did there was get an quickie oil change, on the way to my mom's house (to pick up mail) and the nursing home. I did not mail anything from Kingsford. When I mail stuff, I use the post office here in Iron River, which is a lot closer.

And anyway ... if we say we love each other but we don't react when we sense the other person is in trouble and don't try to do whatever we can to help them get through it, maybe it isn't love after all. When I say "love" in closing these e-mails, it's not just a word. Yeah, it's been 15 months now, and it's not like holding you. But there are other ways to show love. When I read about how high your blood pressure had gotten, it told me that somebody had to do something.

I still know nothing about that envelope, though. That's my official story, and I'm sticking to it.

Peter

***

The thing about her blood pressure was from her e-mail the week before. She had written that she had taken her physical for the job she was applying for. It went fine, she said, "except my bp was a little high."

"Next day I got dizzy and was experiencing numbness and tingling in my left arm (bp was now 153/106). Went in and found I had a urinary tract infection that was causing the bp to spike. After a couple days of antibiotics I now feel well and healthy again."

That is a really high blood pressure reading, and, given her normally peaceful, positive demeanor, it set off alarm bells. I mailed the money about two hours later.

About the Kingsford postmark: I did mail it from Iron River. But our mail goes to the distribution center in Kingsford, and that's where it gets postmarked. Should have guessed she would notice that.

But let's be honest here: Her heart knew, anyway. I knew it would. I'm just denying it so she doesn't feel obliged to me somehow. Understand? And I'm sure her heart also knows how much I miss her and want to be with her again.

And about the money she said she was short for the house payment: That's exactly how much I sent her.

The world is strange. I just feel we are put on it to help each other get through the rough patches. I like to think that if our positions were reversed, she would do exactly the same thing. Like the old saying: "A friend in need is a friend indeed."

Really mysterious

Do the relatively more frequent posts here imply that my schedule is getting a little easier to live with?

It should, because that's the case. Also, a little depression over the long-lasting winter seems to be lifting. A few days of warmer weather will do that. On Monday, it got to about 52F--about 11C. We have one more day of this before the weather turns cooler again. But that's OK because a lot of the snow has melted, and it doesn't look anywhere as January-like as it had. I don't mind 31 days of January. But when the tally gets into the 50s, a guy can't help but wonder whether we'll ever feel warm weather again.

Lately I've come to the realization--a eureka! moment--that I need to do more of the stuff I enjoy doing. And one thing I really enjoy doing is taking pictures--if just for my own amusement.

Like that last batch of pictures I posted, taken during last week's drive to that meeting out of town, when it was still subzero. That was a blast. I really enjoy going around and stopping to get a picture when I saw something interesting. Not worrying about time or schedules. Different things to see.

That's fun stuff. I am close to ordering a new camera, one that can do more things better than my present one. It's an upgrade, and I'm thinking about some of the things I'll be able to do with it. The key, of course, is to simply get out of the office or the house and explore around and see what I can see. Look a little more closely at things. Try new and different things. That's what I want to do over the next six or so months.

***
I did something really mysterious today. It will result in a mystery, in any event.

It was a compulsion. I felt compelled to do it. By my friend, S. My dear friend, whom I have not seen in 15 months now. I'll tell you about it, but you have to promise not to let the cat out of the bag.

OK? Promise?

As you may remember, she returned to her husband about a year ago, and last summer he was laid off by the (electric) utility company he worked for--they were downsizing. The company continued their health insurance for a period of time, but I think it has ended now.

They are both looking for work. So far, no good. He's not in the best of health (I have inferred that from what she has written me), and she is looking. In December, she got a position with an agency that provides caretakers for mentally ill people who are living at home. But she got injured by one of her clients--a young woman in her late teens who has the mental development of a very young child--and had to leave that position. I don't know if I ever wrote about that here.

The latest e-mails tell me she is on the verge of getting a job with an agency that works with people who have cerebral palsy. It's going to be the same live-in type of work, but it should be much safer for her.

But she has been telling me about their money problems. Money is tight. Latest was problems at the bank. Concerns about the mortgage on the house. Other bills. She said they are signing up at the food bank and energy assistance and food stamps. "In due time," she wrote, "this, too, will pass. I'm sure there is a reason for all of it and that prosperity is just around the corner. Oddly, I am very much at peace, knowing all is as it should be." I'll defer to her judgment on that.

(BTW, she knows nothing about my aunt or what has happened to me because of her death. I never told her about that.)

Long-time readers, back in the MB days, know that about a year and a half ago, just after S had left home and was really in a hurt for money, I had sent her some cash. Now this is happening to someone I consider one of my closest friends.

I have been thinking a lot about them for the last few weeks. I didn't want to act on impulse. I thought it over. Today, I sent her some money.

It's in an unmarked envelope. Money--no check--wrapped in a piece of legal paper with some hand-written instructions: "INSTRUCTIONS" it says at the top. "1. Deposit in a financial institution of your choice. 2. Use as needed." Hope the postmark doesn't give me away.

S likely will suspect it is me: I didn't make a mystery about it the first time, so I have that track record with her. But if she asks me about it now, I'm going to deny any role in it whatsoever. "Why the heck are you asking me? I know nothing!"

Or like that line I remember from the old "Mission: Impossible" TV series: "As usual, if you are killed or captured, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds."

Anyway ... I sent out that envelope late Monday afternoon. Maybe she'll decide that it was me, despite my denials. That's her decision. But if she asks me, she will hear an official denial. Meanwhile, S and her family are going to get some manna from heaven. That's what they need right now, I think.

***
We (my wife and I) are going to the state volleyball quarterfinals tomorrow, about 200 miles out of town. One of our teams is competing--I covered their regional tourney on Saturday.

Before I go, I've got to write to S--the usual stuff, telling her about all the exciting stuff I've been doing and sending her some photos of that very cold morning from last week. Not even a hint about something in the mail.

I haven't told my wife about my decision, by the way. But we'll have a lot of time in the car tomorrow, and she will find out all about it and the reasons I did what I did.

Scenes from an icy morning

It's not January any longer. For each of the last two days, temperatures here reached about 48F (+9C). Snow is melting. The sun was out. Lots of ice around. It's much nicer than it had been.

But just a week ago, we were dealing with this ...


And it's a great season for big, long icicles. This hangs on the garage next door ...


On Wednesday, I had a meeting far out of town, and I had to leave home about 5:30 a.m. I took my camera along, in case I saw something I wanted to remember.

This was while it was still January, weatherwise if not otherwise. The temperature was close to zero F when I left, with the eastern sky just starting to lighten. As I drove along, it got a little brighter. And colder. Here is what the little thermometer on my car's rear-view mirror said ...

(That's -22C, FYI.)

When the sun started peeking above the horizon, many of the trees and bushes seemed to be glowing. Their branches were covered in white. Hoarfrost. Ice crystals that had formed from moisture in the air that clung to the branches and froze ...


But as the sun rose on the subzero morning of Jan. 66, it showed some lovely sights for the early bird behind the wheel. The view from the driver's seat ...


I had left early enough that I had time to stop for a photo or two as the opportunity arose. Obviously, I enjoy taking pictures.

But the road is just two lanes wide, and I didn't want to turn around. So when I discovered smoke and fog teaming up to form a cloud over a tiny town I was entering, I got out of the car and walked back about 150 yards to an place where trees prevented the sun from shining on me and the camera. In the background, my car idles ...

Yes, it was a cold walk.

On I went. I saw some ice and snow-covered pine branches and thought that would be worth showing you ...


By now the sun was getting a little higher in the sky, but it was still mighty cold. I saw the fog hanging over this stretch of road and decided to stop again and take a little hike ...


It was so warm in the car, I had taken my gloves off. A few steps out of the car, the cold reminded me that they were still inside. But I pressed on and got my photo. Then I went back to the car, wondering just how cold it was.

Here is my answer ...

That's -28C. Cold enough for anybody, right?

January 65, 2007

This is just a follow-up on my last message, in which I promised a photo of some really impressive piles of snow.

This shot was taken from the front steps of the high school in Wakefield where the district volleyball tournament was held last Saturday. Have a look for yourself ...


I know, I know, I should have taken a shot at the level of the cartops to make the point better. But I think you can see how tall they are. Front-end loaders did the heavy work, I'll bet.

OK, all this snow we've been getting recently is enough fun. But I suppose you are wondering about the title of this piece.

Yesterday it got cold. Wind out of the Arctic and all that good stuff. All day, temperatures may or may not have reached 10F. When I drove to my basketball game last night, the car thermometer said +4. On the trip home, it read -6. Later at night, I found out a small town nearby was at -15, and that cold seemed pretty widespread.

So we're in March? I'll believe it when I see it. These last few days would have been colder than normal back in January ... so maybe we still are in January, only nobody's told us. The sun is up a lot more, true, and Daylight Saving Time makes an early return this weekend. But the snow is deeper than it has been here all winter, and it's bloody cold out.

So today is March 6, is it? Well, 31 + 28 + 6 = 65. So today is really January 65, 2007.

There is some good news, though. The weather forecast says March will be arriving here in around a week. Real March weather. Initiate meltdown planning. But is this forecast like a mirage, that fades away as you get close to it?

Whenever it comes, it will be nice to feel some March weather again. Tomorrow I leave home at about 5:30 a.m. for a meeting about 150 miles away. Saturday, I drive nearly that far along the same highway for the volleyball regional. As long as the weather behaves, it'll be all right.

Echoes of the storm

In case you were wondering, we didn't get buried (totally) in snow, nor did we lose power or food or sanity. Winter did what it wanted, and then it got bored and moved on.

Let's see. We got snow last Sunday, then another storm that started Thursday afternoon and didn't end totally until Saturday morning. For that matter, it was still snowing when we (David and I) left for Wakefield and a district volleyball tournament at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

The ill wind did me some good, giving me a nice break in the action. I got to stay home on Monday, Thursday and Friday when night events I was scheduled to cover were canceled by the storms. Since it was the last week of the regular season, they won't be rescheduled.

This week is district basketball tournament week, and I've got games every weekday night. Since they are all in my county, no long drives out of town. Well, except for the sportswriters' meeting on Wednesday morning, which is about 150 miles away. I have to blast off that morning before 6 a.m. Fun! Then I've got the regional volleyball tourney on Saturday, about 120 miles away.

No blizzard struck here, though we wound up with something like 12 inches (30 cm), including some bonus snow that lingered the day after. We stayed home and off the roads because it seemed like a really good idea. I don't like driving through snowstorms and avoid it whenever I can. (Sometimes I can't.) When the storms hit, I am more than happy to stay home and let others get photos of the worst of the weather. Unlike the guys at local TV stations from here to there, I am not getting paid to endure such conditions. Plus, they get to tool around in a company car/truck.

Regardless, I got a number of new wintry pictures for you. Drives a chill up the spine for those of you in warmer climes. Can't help it. It has to be done. Anyway ...

This first one was from Tuesday, showing how strongly the wind was blowing from the east, sending the newly fallen snow all over. This view looks west, towards the golf course ...

Apologies in advance for the lack of color, but with natural lighting, there simply isn't much color to see under gray, snowy skies.

I drove south, across the river into Wisconsin and along my favorite stretch of road. But there wasn't much to see except for partially snow-covered roads and one cold crow ...


Still, the local road commission was on duty ...


I had the back sidewalk shoveled out by then. This is how I do it. See that diagonal trail leading to the passenger's side of the car? Aren't I a thoughtful husband?


Then it was Thursday night, and Storm No. 2 struck. It was snowing quite merrily that night. This shot looks towards the old car wash across the street ...


I really didn't take many pictures of the storm's immediate aftermath. I got one of the snow shovel buried in snow, but it was no great shakes. The others were pretty standard.

But things were cleared enough on Saturday for the volleyball tournament, about 70 miles away to the west. We ran into lake effect snow on the way there, but it had cleared out by the time we started heading home in the late afternoon. Here are some snowy rocky bluffs across from the gas station where we stopped before heading back east ...


It was late afternoon, and the sun was setting behind us. I had time to stop for a photo or two on the way. Here is a woods road, well sealed off by the plows ...


And here's a closeup of the snow-covered branches on a tree--partially sunlit at the top.

I called my wife to update her as we were leaving and told her that it was sunny here. She said to bring some home--it still was cloudy there.

As the sun set and the moon rose, David mentioned that we were supposed to have a total lunar eclipse that night. In fact, there was just a little sliver of moon visible, rising above the trees to the east--so the eclipse was under way. As we made our way east and the sky darkened and the moon rose, it also started growing larger--the total eclipse had already ended. Darn!

I have one more photo from Saturday. But that was taken on my work camera, so I'll have to post it later. Some impressive snowpiles in front of the school in Wakefield, where they got something like 17 inches (43 cm).

The other big news is that my new office computer was installed Friday and is in service. Quite a difference, yes indeed! Within a day, I had transferred my iTunes library to the new machine and bought new headphones. (The really good ones--they cost me $8 at the local drug store.) I was the only person from the news side who showed up on Friday--one was snowbound at home, and the other was battling a bad cold and stayed home. For that matter, a lot of people were under the weather.

I'm still feeling pretty good. *Knocks on wood* Except for that highly contagious sickness that I picked up: I am totally sick of winter. This dread disease has spread like wildfire around here, and there seems no cure except one thing ... spring!

Marching in like a lion

OK, so I spoke too soon.

From time to time recently, I have mentioned our lack of snow. For the longest time, we just had four inches on the ground, even during a lengthy spell of weather when the temperature was around zero F during the day. Then it warmed up--but no snow.

Until last weekend. The storm arrived Saturday morning, and by the time it was finished, we had about 8 more inches of snow than we had before. The storm also lasted longer than expected. I went out to shovel it Sunday--only to find all my hard work buried under new snow on Monday. So I shoveled it all out again. On Tuesday, the plowman came and pushed it all away.

We had done the traditional U.P. pre-snowstorm shopping trip, so we were quite content to let the car sit all weekend.

That takes us up to tonight: just before midnight on Wednesday night. February has just 37 minutes to live as I write this. That means it's going to be a photo finish which will arrive first--March 2007 or the first flakes of our monster storm.

It's supposed to start overnight, and by the time it's done on Friday evening, we're supposed to have 14 to 18 more inches of snow than we do now. Wet, heavy stuff that I'll be shoveling (and re-shoveling) once again. The storm will likely postpone or cancel some of my sports events. Just to prove the old saying, "It's an ill wind that blows no good."

My little camera will try to document this major climactic event, of course, to the degree that I want to go outside and stand in the heavy snow and strong winds (supposed to be heaviest and strongest Thursday afternoon and evening). Yes, we did the pre-snowstorm shopping trip again this afternoon, so I think we'll be all set.

In other news, I recently got Microsoft Expression Web, the successor to Front Page, and am studying that now. I decided I want to get better with web layouts (not that I'll ever be an expert), and so far I'm liking Expression Web far more than I did Front Page.

BIG news in the office tomorrow. I'm finally getting a new computer. I just found out about it a week or so ago. It's supposed to be installed tomorrow (though with the snowstorm moving in, that's subject to change). Whenever it gets installed, it means the end of me working on a former Windows 98 machine with a CD-R drive that doesn't write and barely reads. Plus a CRT monitor that is an optometrist's delight--it produces eyestrain. Low brightness, low contrast, even with the settings maxed out. Plus reflections off the front glass. No tears will be shed when they haul that thing away.

Want one more piece of news? As some of you know, I have been planning for some time to get a new camera this spring, and I'm closing in on a final decision. I had been leaning toward a Canon superzoom "prosumer" model, the Powershot 3S IS. I had been expecting an updated version to be announced in time for a major photo show in early March. Canon announced some new cameras, but not an updated version of the 3S IS.

Meanwhile, I've been researching other options and discovered a digital SLR that isn't priced a lot higher than a superzoom. The more I read about it, the more I like it. So my top candidate now is the Nikon D-40. It will cost more than a superzoom, and then there are the lenses, which can get costly. I can't afford professional gear, but I'm thinking more and more that a digital SLR is the way I ought to go. The superzooms can only take me so far, and I'm at the point now where I want to go farther.

OK, it's now officially March. No snow yet, but it won't be long. Time to get to bed.