Break time over!

Phew.. that was a long break!

Sorry about that.

I just have not been feeling particularly inspired to write lately. I would get an idea for a post... and then get busy doing something else and decide that nah... I don't wanna write about that. anymore. Then I would do it all over again... until finally here we are.

The ice is breaking on our lake and on Lake Superior. For the last few weeks if you are outside especially at night you can hear the ice shifting and moaning. Every once in awhile Delta runs down to attack the lake beast but she just returns all confused and understandably concerned.

The other day David and I were driving past Superior on our way to Houghton and we stopped at the beach because I wanted to take pictures of the frozen waves I had been trying to describe to people back home. I was too late. What you see out there now are not the I was talking about... but close. Take a look, those are not waves. That water is still. You can kind of get an idea of what I was talking about from these pictures.



The waves are mostly gone because the big lake has been melting and splitting. With the splits the pressure has been relieved a bit and the frozen waves slid back into the lake.



These pictures are pretty crazy. These breaks are about the size of a twin /full size bed. I personally missed the segment on the news but I guess a bunch of folks... thinking they were pretty clever I am sure after rigging up makeshift bridges etc from the melted shore to the thicker ice... made their way out onto the ice in Lake Erie to do some last minute ice fishing.

Note I said folks... however I put money there was more testosterone than estrogen out there. Anyway... the ice... well... duh... broke and separated them from the land and began to float off into the lake. When it broke away I guess a bunch of folks took off one way... and then another. I picture an icy teeter totter... of course the more seasoned folks just sat there and continued to fish while they dialed their cell phones for help. However, it turned from humorous and stupid to a tragic event because apparently one man died of a heart attack when he was riding his snowmobile to find a path off the ice and went into the water. It took hours to rescue them all. It took that long because there were (get ready for this ) approximately 134 people that needed to be rescued! Helicopters, boats etc. Jerry said it happens almost every year. The state is thinking about sending bills to people who do stuff like that for the cost of their rescues as this operation probably cost more than a few thousand dollars.

The story of floating off on the ice kind of reminds me of those old black and white Nanook of the North movies we had to watch in school on rainy days during P.E. class. Whenever it rained the PE teacher would send an Audio Video kid to get the projector, and the movie cans. The rest of us kids would wait in the gym holding our collective breath hoping there would be something new to watch. However, it seemed to always be one of two movies. I think the school must have only owned two.

Nanook of the North

and/or

Billy Jack.

Also, it never seem to fail... when you wanted to see one, the AV guy always brought the other. So instead of seeing some justice seeking Billy Jack dude who kinda looked like Burt Reynolds, and apparently now that I look at the pictures had some Native American thing going on... there was old Nanook standing in full regalia leaning over the seal hole waiting to stab a poor seal in the nose.



Just standing there.



Standing there for hours.


And then there was a disjointed part where I think it talked about how the elderly Inuit decide to float away on the ice when it is time to die because they did not want to burden the tribe... and of course scenes of the women chewing leather to make mukluks. As if that was not enough, all of this cinematic magic was interrupted periodically by the film sticking and melting and the AV kid having to get it all back together and running again... which is probably why the movie was disjointed in the first place.


I have to tell you though Billy Jack really was not much better. I am not sure now which one I would rather see if forced to see either. Hey... ya know what? It might have been real interesting if the AV kid got it into his head to splice these two movies together. Now THAT would have been interesting! Oh wait.. maybe not.. that really happened apparently. There was that whole On Deadly Ground "movie" by Steven Seagal. Maybe it would not be so entertaining after all. I never saw it... but apparently I did not miss anything.

Yikes.



Anyway, we also have had a passel full of visitors this past week. David's sisters and their families came for a visit. One traveled from Texas:

the other from California:

Quite a trek for both of them and their families. It was not only an Easter visit to their Dad's house but it also is Jerry's 75th birthday, and Jerry and Karen's anniversary! So we did it in style. Lots of traveling about seeing local sites and Jerry drug out the 4 wheelers since no more snow for snowmobiles (yayyy). The boys absolutely LOVED the ATVs.





Easter was spent at the local church... yes I went... and then the church held a ham and potluck dish dinner to follow for all the attendees. Jerry supplied the hams for the church meal and all the rest of us brought a dish or two. I brought my Mom's apple cake recipe. Then after that party, we went home for a couple hours. Watched the Master's Golf tournament, and then went back to Jerry's for more MORE cake and ice cream.

I have to tell you though, I think that all potlucks should beware if the Hershey family is in town... good food WILL be enjoyed and sampled freely! Those folks, in particular the men, can do some damage to a potluck table.






Random photos:

Here is David, Delta, and Jerry on one of their last snowmobile ride of the season. They had just come up from the lake.

and then this one.... this is what Cosmo does when Delta is out on the snowmobile:

Shack Happy

Every once in awhile I have someone ask me, "You two gettin' shack happy yet?"

I know... took me a second too. You know, there really should be a West coast/Midwest translation books. Maybe even one of those Rosetta Stone classes... anyway... the question relates to what is perhaps more commonly known as Cabin Fever.

Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in, for an extended period. Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping.

I must admit, whenever I think of cabin fever I think of the Muppet Treasure Island movie and the segment where the muppets and pirates sing about Cabin Fever.

I got such a kick out of that movie...
I mean who doesn't love the muppets for criminy sakes?!

I am pleased to report that no, we don't have cabin fever.

We usually keep pretty busy. Actually busier than we anticipated so far this winter. You may remember me mentioning my postmaster broke her leg so I have been covering mail duties for her for almost the two months now. Well, she is finally back! YAYYYY! That had me out of the house most of the days during the week. In addition to working, we have continue to paint, and polyurethane, and trim... you know... all the fun interior house stuff.

Also David is helping with the grooming of the MILES AND MILES of snowmobile trails in the area. Personally I think he just wanted to drive this thing:

However, we have always been able to find things to occupy ourselves. we are actually pretty spontaneous and if it weren't for the dogs we would be even more so.

The other day we walked out over the lake to Jerry's dark house (ice house) to check out the scene and do a little (very little) ice fishing.

Here is a view inside the dark house. Jerry had a heater in there,
his Coleman lantern, a stool to sit on, and had cut two fishing holes out:

Look at these dark houses in the picture below!

Those dark houses are set up on Lake Superior! People drive their snowmobiles... or sometimes their cars/trucks out there! There is a whole bunch of them out there... it is like a little city. Talk about your die hard fisherpeople! I took that picture on our way up to Houghton to see the Winter Festival and the ice sculptures. Every year the fraternities and sororities have an ice sculpture contest. The theme this year had something to do with ice and space...

However, when we really do start to get itchy we go find some grownup things to do. When we lived in N. Cali and we needed to get away we would make a run to Mendocino, Fort Bragg, or other various happening hot spots.

But here we might go have pizza and a beer down the road or go up to the Ojibwa Casino in Baraga to the Sports Bar. The casino is just a little past one of the freakier shrine/memorial things I have seen in a long time. It is the Father Baraga shrine and check it out...

Umm.. this thing is huge. The tipis are taller than a person so this thing is gigantic. The tipis I guess are supposed to represent the five missions this fellow founded. Up close you can see it is this giant priest guy they called the snowshoe priest hence the snowshoe in one hand. In his other hand he is using his cross like a weapon or something... warding off the native vampires I suppose.

Just as a side note, if you look through the trees in the Baraga memorial picture you can see the water. Just beyond those trees there is a hill sloping down to the freeway. Actually it is more like a cliff and at the bottom of the cliff is the highway. Then along the highway is the lake... Lake Superior... and that is the same area where I took the picture of all the ice houses earlier in the post. See how it is all woven together in a nice cohesive package?

Anyway, that spider-legged memorial thing really is pretty big and it towers wayyyyy over the top of you when you go see it in person. What is also kinda creepy is that you can see this thing looming through the trees from below on the freeway when you pass by. It looks like it is going to pull its legs up and start walking around. David said it reminded him of that monster/machine thing in the Wild Wild West movie remake.

Sorry, got off on a tangent there. Anyway, at the casino there is a bowling alley, live music, and great food... not to mention penny slots for the big time gamblers like me.

I have to admit though that is a pretty rare trip though.

We are very content just hanging around our little house working on this and that...
and all without a sign of cabin fever....

yet.

Trying to get an exciting Thanksgiving Holiday!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! We are getting ready here. Here is David and I trying to spice up the holiday weekend a bit... the 'sound' starts between second and third ax swing... you may have to play it a couple times to hear it and be able to discern it from my RUNNING AWAY.

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