In the past few months James has been volunteering his time helping others through a volunteer program at Wayne State. While he does not get school credits for this, he does get volunteer credits which help him on other things while at Wayne State. It also looks good on a resume!

One of the volunteer works he did was a ten hour stint where he helped set up tables and decorations in a school auditorium in Detroit in preparation for a visit from Santa for all the local kids. James said when the kids came in he acted like an usher making sure the kids were in the right spot to visit Santa. James had a great time at this volunteer event and certainly put him in the Christmas spirit.

The whole family went out Tuesday to the Token lounge to hear some blues music and have a good time.

The venue was the Token lounge on Joy road near Middlebelt.

The performers were Selwyn Birchwood / Frank Grimaldi and they were awesome. The guitar player reminded us a little of Richie Blackmore but with a little more blues mixed in. We heard some really great music and are looking forward to their new album which should be released in late spring or early summer.

The only minor issue was that the Token lounge does not have snacks of any kind to munch on during the show, other than that the night was perfect.
Continue reading “2023 Concert at the Token Lounge” →

Fourth of July is always a great time in our family, we used to go to various firework shows around town but since they legalized fireworks in Michigan, there is no need, you simply sit on your porch and watch the show being put on by your neighbors.

This year was a gorgeous summer day in Michigan and James Mom went out and bought some fresh 4th of July decorations to help us celebrate. Usually we set off a few fireworks of our own but this was the first time in decades we didn’t do any. Thats because there are so many others doing the fireworks. Continue reading “4th of July 2022” →

The tree across the street from us came crashing to the ground but fortunately no cars were hit and it did not hit a home (if it did it would have been ours as our house was right across the street from it).

The tree fell due to high winds on a gorgeous summer day. It would have crushed cars parked on the street and would have damaged cars in our driveway if any would have been there but fortunately most people were at work during this time. Except for some grass chewed up by branches there was not any damage. A look at the tree showed it was pretty rotted which certainly weakened the old tree.
Continue reading “High Winds Topple Tree Across The Street, Blocking Our Home” →

The whole family worked on this parade. Dad took the day off so he could help Mom with the cleaning of the car, then the decorating begins and the car turned out better than we imagined. James drove in the parade but because he only has a drivers permit it meant that Dad had to accompany him on the trip.

The parade began at Mayfair where the cars lined up in the big parking lot adjacent to the board. The parade then went down Annapolis street where it turned into the old St. Albert parking lot and then went back down Annapolis to the Mayfair. It was a great time.

James enjoyed it very much and especially because he got to drive in it. It was kind of strange telling him to ignore stop signs and such as he was still learning how to drive (he has over 50 hours so he has met the state requirement, the testing facility he wants to go to (Apollo) has not opened since the pandemic so we hope that business survived. Continue reading “Annapolis Seniors Parade 2021” →

After weeks of work James finished a huge Ravensburger puzzle in the garage. Since camp was drastically shortened and the Magic Get Together in Colon cancelled, the entire family found themselves with extra time and James took advantage of it by putting together the largest puzzle in family history. The garage still has puzzles that were put together decades earlier by James’ Aunt Peg and James’ dad hanging on the wall.

We were all proud that James took his time and put together this huge puzzle and he plans to do one a little bigger in the future, a 32,000 piece puzzle.

With covid going on we have not had many visitors to the house, this kitty being the exception. For as long as we have had kitties they have had visitors. They mostly just stare at each other but their tails are not always in the air (a cat with its tail straight up in the air means that are willing to be sociable with other cats).

We (the humans in the family) also appreciate the visitors since the scent of a cat will keep squirrels away from digging up Moms bulbs in the garden.

Well the covid virus certainly delayed work on this as we had to live with the black top and a mound of dirt for a lawn for nearly 6 months. Upon doing the final work, they broke off a sprinkler head and the cement poured was not straight so we had to complain to DTE and they said someone would come out in about 3 weeks and redo the work so this event may not be over for us for some time. When they seeded the lawn they did try to repair the sprinkler head but they were unable to do so as they were not equipped to handle much more that seeds and dirt.

We will see what happens and hopefully DTE will make it right, remember we just got sod last year and had we known this was going to happen we never would have gotten it. Continue reading “DTE Finishing Up 2020” →

One advantage of the stay at home order, no one is starving.

While going shopping for food is no picnic (you must wear a mask and social distance), there is more time for creativity including cooking items that previously people did not have time to make. Normally James would be in school and Dad at work but because of the shutdown we are enjoying each others company and working on fun projects to keep us busy.

This will go down as a very strange year, plus its an election year so the best is yet to come.

I think this picture of the line waiting to get into Walmart best describes the late winter, early spring of 2020 when everyone was sheltering in place due to the Covid 19 shutdown. Toilet paper shortages, anti bacterial soap shortages, mask shortages, and disinfectant wipe shortages were probably the main things that were being rationed by the stores. If they had any of the afore mentioned items in stock you could only take one or two of them. Social distancing of 6′ was the theme everywhere which limited the number of people who could shop at any one time. Some of the rules implemented by our Governor were considered very controversial as shops and people were defined by being essential or not. This resulted in several protest in Lansing by small businesses who were ordered to stay shut while larger essential business could remain open. All restaurants were carry out or delivery only.