The wait is over and despite the pandemic two Spirit Halloween stores opened near us so we stopped by to see what was new. Without a doubt the inventory was low as they only had about 25% of their inventory in but it was still fun and we purchased a hat, a hanging banner, a couple styrofoam tombstones, and a pennywise mat which looks like pennywise is looking up at you through a sewer grate.

We look forward to when they have all their inventory in but we were very impressed with the scenery they have put up already especially the large flaming things which were (unfortunately) not for sale.

Continue reading “First Halloween Store Opens 2020” →

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.

The seventies station (7 on satellite radio) played the top 700 songs of the seventies during the 4th of July weekend.

This made it very interesting for us having the 70’s playing in the background all weekend and while each of us picked what we thought would be #1, none of us were right (James thought Three Dog Night “Joy to the World”, Mom thought Captain & Tenniles “Love Will Keep Us Together” and Dad thought Simon & Garfunkels “Bridge over Troubled Waters).

While it appears that the European Hard Rock Bands were ignored (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Yes, etc) below are the top 25 as voted on by the seventies on seven listeners but before you click, what 70’s song do you think won. Continue reading “Top Songs of the 70’s” →

A beautiful but hot day on this Fourth of July. There is still no baseball so this may be the first time I missed a 4th of July Tiger game in my life. We are listening to satellite radio, the 700 greatest hits are counting down from the 70’s and right now they are at 180. I will try to remember to update this and let you know which song wins. Mom is going with “Love will Keep us together” and Dad is going with “Bridge over Troubled Water”. (I do not know if hard rock is on there or I would go with Stairway to Heaven)

James worked all day on his 5,000 piece puzzle which is the largest he ever tackled. The prior record was a 2,000 piece puzzle. We have three tables in the garage to hold the puzzle, what we are going to do with it once its complete has not been determined because it is huge.

Fireworks galore tonight, since all city and state firework shows have been cancelled due to covid, the people are putting on their own and doing a great job, sounds like a war zone as I type this.

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 I was promised a surprise for Fathers day and I certainly got one, a kitty litter cake. It was actually delicious as it was made from several European style chocolates including German and was delicious despite its look. The nasty turds in the kitty litter cake were made from tootsie rolls and were the only thing I simply could not bring myself to eat, so they were decorative only.

Mom got the recipe on the internet and made a special trip to the store to get the ingredients (going to the store these days is no fun).

All in all it was a great day with Boneyard takeout – about an $80 meal – to enjoy.

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” →

We are still under the covid restrictions so we decided to visit Our Lady of Hope cemetery on Allen Road and visit Uncle Don, Aunt Mary Ann, and Cousin Mike. We attended all their funerals but never really visited them the same way we annually visit Michigan Memorial.

We requested a map with directions from the cemetery earlier in the year and the info they sent was good enough to get us in the ball park to find the graves. We took gps coordinates in case anyone else wants to visit, that way you should be able to get within about ten feet of the graves.

We did do a take out for food at Bone Yard so while we could not eat out, we ate the same food but had to eat in as the restaurants are not yet open.

Without a doubt this has been the strangest year. James school just sent out his final grades so he made the honor roll, or virtual honor roll, or whatever you call school now. James also passed his drivers ed class which was delayed for several months, however he cannot get his license till September because that is the earliest we could get an appointment for him. Continue reading “Memorial Day 2020” →

Perhaps a sign that things are starting to get back to normal, we found a garage sale!

I don’t think Mom bought anything and James only bought a few little items but it was still nice to see a glimpse of normal especially in Michigan. Both James and Mom wore masks and social distancing was practiced (social distancing is staying 6-8 feet away from everyone which also limits the amount of people who can attend or visit any social function such as a party or garage sale).

With the covid restrictions loosening up a bit we decided to do our annual trek to Michigan Memorial. We did not get flowers as they are probably not considered essential although we probably could have if we wanted to go through the hassle of masks and stuff.

We were happy to see flags at the veteran graves as we heard the boy scouts were no longer doing it, however Raymond did not get a flag and we all felt bad as we have many veterans in the family but he is the only one who did not return and was killed in action during WW2.