A few weeks ago Ross and I spent a few days in Grand Marais, staying with my folks at woodland park. Above is a shot from the roll away(log slide) at Grand Sable Dunes, 300 feet above Lake Superior.

While waiting on the dock in Munising to take the Pictured Rocks boat tour, this plane landed, do you call it that in the water? picked up a passenger and took off. The weather that day was prefect, practically no wind out on the lake.

I was taken on this same cruise when I was Ross's age, I think I enjoyed the sights more now than 30 years ago.

My only regret is the lack of a quality camera, these photo hardly do this scenery justice.

This outcrop is Indian Head, yes it sorta looks like a Indians head, use your imagination.


This is spray falls, the captain said this was a bonus to see they normally don't cruise this far but, due to the great weather the boat made good time. I would recommend this cruise to anyone with a few hours to spend in Munising.

Camouflage

Looking for mushrooms today at my folks I almost stepped on this little guy



I know mom was nearby, we saw her cross the drive from that spot when we pulled in.

Go fly a kite!

Sarah got a new kite at Menards today, about 10 minutes into flying it the wind seemed to die and we struggled to keep it airborne. Unfortunately tomorrow’s forecast calls for little wind.

Homework

I’ve been avoiding it all week, but it’s almost Friday and still I have a major work load and my entire day tomorrow is booked with design reviews. So I’ve been working since I came home at six-thirty, my VPN connection is thru Oslo, Norway so speed is just not happening; however with two computers running here I’m getting quite a bit done.

A test I didn't study for

I received an odd phone call this morning, the gal in HR asked me to come to her office.
I had been selected of a drug screen. No worries here, I’m clean, I don’t do drugs…..anymore. Just glad I could go and didn’t have to wait around. When I worked at AutoDie years ago they had the same random testing. They would send you to the clinic right across the street for your test, when I worked afternoons there was a guy who sat there for almost six hours before he went, nothing they could do about it.

Whats going on

Not much going on my way this week so far. I’ve been staying late at work, finishing up designs I have reviews for on Friday . By the time I get home at 6:30 or 7:00 have some dinner, well lets just say I'm done for the evening. I’ve left my laptop at work the last couple of night just so I don’t spend all night working, even thought I found my self researching H8 fits for a 28^mm hole this evening, which by the way is +.033^mm its hard to stop.

House cleaning, literally

On the northern exposure of my attached garage was a nasty film mildew, dirt and who knows what. I don’t have this problem on any of the other northern walls, could have been caused by the close proximity of a recently removed spruce tree. The pressure washer made short work of this unsightly mess.

I have no morels.

Hiked a few miles this morning in search of morels, only to return empty handed. This has been one of my most disappointing seasons so far. Years ago I never found them this early, but the last few years I have, my hope is that its just not happened yet.

Day off, sorta

After falling asleep around six this morning my wife brings me my cell at 7:30 saying its been ringing, messages from vender's. Make a couple calls and back to see the sandman. 11:00 rolls around and I'm up again and out of bed. I have a new laptop with a VPN (virtual private network) card which allows me to work from home, too slow for serious design work but lets me access my work email and files. So I spent a couple hours taking care of business. Ross had his school work done, so we drove over to Gross park. Nice walking trails cover the park land, we spent an hour or so hiking around. When we finished up there we drove to a vender that I do work with to look at a couple of jobs. All and all, a nice afternoon, now I have to go finish a few jobs outside, my work is never done!

Off to bed

I've been up now for a little over 24 hours now, got a call at 9:30 last night about trouble with a tool at the shop. Left there at 3:45, just trying to kill a few minutes before the Mrs. gets up and I'm off to bed.

Wild Turkey

Rolled out of the sack at 0700, the Mrs. was already up, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed east for my folks house. Stopping at my folks mailbox to pickup the Sunday paper, I could see there where a few birds in the drive, a ½ mile dirt lane. I reached over and grabbed my binoculars and quietly open the door and stepped out for a closer look.

Three big tom’s with their tails all spread, vying for the attention of one hen. I watched for a minute and then started down the drive on foot following the edge of the woods looking for morals, went for about a hundred yards and stepped back out to the roads edge and the turkeys were gone. Someday I will add these wary birds to my hunting quarry.

Outdoors

Yesterday my son and I went north looking for the elusive moral. We scouted for new spots in state land near white cloud, no luck. We did however stumble across this handsome fellow sunning himself in a clearing.

By the time I had taken the second picture, he or she was mad and was vibrating its tail like a rattler, and as you can see turned to face me down.

What's going on

I’ve tired of writing about politics and current events as is apparent by my lack of posting. Posting from here on out will be about whatever is going on in my head, not to say there won’t be any politics and current events, I’ve just tired of that steady diet.

Ok then; Friday a project I’ve been working on came to fruition. This to date is the biggest project of my career and involves moving business from a company within our conglomerate to an independent local company. This move will save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, perhaps a million on tooling costs. And will generate more sales due to completive tooling costs. This move rolls much more responsibility onto my shoulders and increases my work load, but it was the right move to make for the good of our company. I’ve become quite an unpopular fellow overseas due to this and there are factions that hope to see failure in this project; I will however, proceed with confidence and make this a success not only for my company but for myself.

Get a clue

I laughed when I read this headline. Not because its funny when gang bangers got shot, but the answer is so obvious, I can't believe they would post this as a headline. I know where is neighborhood is at, the corner of crackville and gangland and the fact that two in one family have been shot means; drug deal gone bad, somebody disrespected or fight over turf. These are the problems that Jason Whitlock is talking about in my previous post.

Capitalism, pure and simple

Yesterday I finally got off the couch and did something; I’ve had a chest cold this last week and have done nothing but rest. Driving to one of my favorite hiking area’s I was listening to a local talker on Wood radio. Yes, he was all wound up over the Imus firing and like many was looking at this in the wrong light. First off he claimed we’ve empowered Sharpton and Jackson. Wrong, it was the big media MSNBC and SeeBS who fired Imus and empowered the race baiters. This entire issue is over money, and if Imus can bring ratings, money to another broadcaster he’ll be back on the air.

I've posted more over here as C_it1/2full. This guy has it right and takes the race baiters to the mat.

Leadership or lack there of

Over at the GOP house page is another fine example of the government that the people of southeast Michigan deserve, after all, they voted these people into power. Read about this guy

From the article:
Cushingberry’s attorney, Gerald Evelyn, said his client is innocent. He’s a lifelong public servant who gave the responsibility for campaign statements to a contractor, Evelyn said.
This statement really sums it up quite well, he's a victim who's been doing it all for us. Term limits anyone?

Back to the old grind

Spring break is over, kids are back in school, and Easter weekend was nice, even though the weather was crap. I managed to load about 500 rounds of .40 cal, finished the tongue and groove paneling in the downstairs bathroom, and had a nice dinner at my folks. Already looking forward to the summer holidays.

After reading this over at Lucianne I went over here. I was please to see this type of behavior isn’t going on in my state. Not yet anyhow

Recall Grandholm

Time to put your money where your mouth is; there will be a rally in Lansing this month, Wednesday the 18^th I plan on being there. I will be leaving the Grand Rapids area around 7:00 AM anyone like minded and needing a ride please feel free to contact my though the comments.

It’s all about the children

Now she's using one of the dems original plays, threaten children's safety. Pure political theater, jenny’s moves are as predicable as the tax increases that she has tried to foist on us following her reelection. For those who don’t understand what’s taking place, think about how large state government is; now think of all the places that funding could be cut before CPS. If you still don’t get it, it’s because you’re on her side.