James took this video in stages using two different filters on his camera.

The eclipse in Detroit was about 98% but James wanted to see it at 100% which meant a trip South to Ohio. The traffic was heavier than ever on our way to Ohio to watch the eclipse. Specifically Liberty Ohio where the Drive in Theatre called Field of Dreams resides.

The first picture is a herd of deer we saw between Wauseon Ohio and Liberty, but the rest are pics of the eclipse we saw at the Drive in. They had a DJ playing requests and Mom got to hear a Toby Keith song she likes. The flea market there had about 15 booths and we ended up buying some honey and a pumpkin that was made by a 3D printer. While there were plenty of activities going on we took pictures of the sun, both with a regular camera and a filtered camera. The Eclipse started at about 2pm and was total at about 12 after 3 so these pics were taken during this period of time. At the end James took a few more showing the sun coming out of the eclipse.

All in all it was a great day and an incredible experience.
Continue reading “2024 Total Eclipse” →

Its been about a week since a #3 tornado touched down in Gaylord and the community was very busy putting things back together.

We had spent many nights in Gaylord and enjoy the town very much. Its pretty much a hunting town but there are plenty of stores on the city main street. When we saw videos of the storm we could not believe it as it was just North of the main street where we used to shop.

We wish the Gaylord community all best during this difficult time. Continue reading “Gaylord Tornado Cleanup 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” →

James warned us about this storm, it started about 11pm and pretty much went on all night. The next morning I left for work, saw a few flooded streets but didn’t think much of it (I was heading North at the time).

Coming home I came in from the South and saw what was going on as the Creek had flooded and most of the area around powers was unpassable. Almost every street was flooded to varying degrees. We walked a block before we could go no further because the water went over the sidewalk. There were several areas I saw on the way hom where the flood waters were so high you could drown in them (they were higher than a car). The worst one I saw was on Outer Drive beneath 94 where it was completely flooded and the road was closed. The worst one on the news was Telegraph near Van Born where people had to leave their homes. An emergency location for people to go to was set up at the rec center at Swapka field, although you would have to travel through floods to get there.

Lots of wet brakes today in Dearborn Heights.

Continue reading “The Great Flood of 2019” →

Meteor lights up the neighborhood for a second. We all felt it but only James saw the light it caused.

We were never so glad to have taken down all our old tree as we were in early March as a wind storm that lasted all day knocked power out all over Michigan along with trees and anything else standing up vertically. We were lucky that we only lost power for less than an hour, but we lost cable and internet for 4 or 5 days. When it finally came back on it was at 3am Sunday morning, the same day we set the clocks ahead. Comcast did credit us for the down time, but all in all we were very lucky as many people did not have power for several weeks. We did use our phones during this time, including using them as wi fi hot spots to at least check email.

Continue reading “Wind Storm of 2017/Daylight Saving Time” →

It was a good day to stay in and watch football and that was the extent of our activities, and shoveling snow of course. From the wee hours of the morning to the wee hours of the next morning we were constantly snowed on in the first big snow storm of the new winter, and its still autumn for about another week. James was a very big help in snow shoveling and things went much faster thanks to his hard work. Also on the plus is the snow really added to our outside look for Christmas which is snowmen and penguins.

The Lions won this weekend, putting them at 9 wins and 4 losses which is good enough for a two game lead in the Central and second place in the NFC. Lets hope it continues.

A great day for football as Michigan beat Penn State (at Penn State) and Michigan State beat Ohio State (at Ohio State). Next week the opponents switch and MSU will play Penn State (at home) and Michigan will play Ohio State (at home). If MSU wins they are the Big Ten East Champs but if they lose the winner of the Michigan/Ohio game will be Champs. Pretty much the whole day it was raining and snowing and the next morning we were left with a pretty nice site with everything having a white outline to it as only Mother Nature can do. The only concern is the weight on some of the power lines but so far the lines have been holding up pretty well. These pics were taken the next morning.

Continue reading “First Snowfall of the Season on Big Football Saturday 2015” →