Voted.
We went grocery shopping right after we voted. The one item that motivated the trip was half and half. We also stocked up on other items.
This morning, we discovered that we never got the half and half.
Don just left to go to the grocery store.
Today, I’m coaching from 11 -2. This will be my last zoom session for Jane Eyre. I’ll attend a run-through on Saturday afternoon. And then, the following weekend, I’ll drive to Rochester again – on Sunday – to watch a tech run-through in the evening, which will conclude my time on Jane Eyre.
Back to the lakes and cottages on lakes. My cousin Eileen commented on that post. She’s in one of the photos I posted, and Aunt Lettie was her mom. That photo showing all of the old-fashioned wooden cottages represents what it was like there when we were young. In those days, the cottage seemed very far from our house and most of the cottages on the lake were seasonal. There were some year-round residents but not many. Now, according to Eileen, most of those cottages have been taken down in favor of big year-round homes. Much of what made the lake charming is gone. I remember being fascinated that some people lived there all year round. Was it lonely? What did they do in the winter? With urban sprawl, everything is connected in a way it wasn’t when I was a kid.
We used to walk down the dirt road to a little shop that sold pop (Michiganese for soda pop) and candy and pretzels. Just a humble little mom and pop store. I remember my brother taking off after dinner for parts unknown. There was always an air of mystery about those adventures. What was he doing? Where was he going? (The older me has a pretty good idea.)
Maybe if I visualize it hard enough, a cottage will magically come into our possession.
Can you tell I’m nostalgic these days?
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
What took you away from Michigan?sounds like my early marriage days at Myrtle Beach…fortunately, I was able to live there my first five years of teaching…I kept telling Mother I detest the heat…no way…when we crested the little street in 1973…I saw the ocean and fell in love…when I saw the Pacific, it was a July 4th weekend…cold…but beautiful…of course, the Gulf is gorgeous…I have traveled all over this nation…love NYC…but I heal…as I have said before…when I see the ocean…I have gone through almost anything a woman could…some fantastic…some just not…my life is a book..Lol…I also love the mountains…to visit…I did not like living there…love your photo today..and JANE EYRE…no words
I was ready to move away and I got accepted for graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia. So I moved away and started a whole new life. That was the beginning of my true career and the path which would eventually take me to Boston, San Diego – and Don.
Stay safe, Brenda.
Wonderful journey to the man of your dreams. Also a man who shares your dreams…you have many
miles to go my friend…love the way you embrace life.
Aw, thank you, my friend! You also embrace life, Brenda!
xo
glad you got/will get what you needed from the store. will be hoping and happy for you if you get a cabin, too.
i am happy for people who get to live year-round at a lake (or ocean, by a river …), but i’d always choose a cabin over a large house there … more fitting for the location, more fair, more charming, more like my family’s experiences …
glad you have some more work ahead, also time to do other things you want and need to do.
today i take a painting to get framed (supplies ordered several weeks ago are now in). because framing is expensive and i detest most store lighting, i have a bit of worry beforehand about how it will look (is the mat too light or too dark? did i choose the best frame?), but moreso i am excited to soon have this painting framed and up on the wall where i can enjoy it. and cross something else off my to-do list (not been a lot of that happening around here lately).
happy wednesday. stay safe!
kathy
Fingers crossed your painting looks absolutely perfect, Kathy!
Stay safe.
thanks, claudia.
the framer called a few minutes ago to say repair has begun on his street and will effect him starting today or tomorrow. a massive project, it will close off parking for many blocks (temporarily making a four-lane/two-way street into a one-lane/one-way street … street needs to be fixed and that means dealing with very, very old streetcar tracks … which i liked knowing were left underneath the streets … but they are now sadly being removed), his driveway and access to his shop for a week or more. he guesses his little shop could be closed for up to two weeks (a huge impact for him) so the least i can do is be patient for another couple of weeks.
hope you are having a good day!
kathy
Poor guy! That really does have an impact on his business!
xo
I went to the store a few days ago for sugar. Forgot the sugar.
I so get this! We went to the veterinarian’s office solely to pick up some meds for the dog. Got into discussions at the clinic about the dog. Drove away. Vet called us, “You didn’t pick up the meds.”
All too familiar, Tana!
Stay safe.
I’m nostalgic all the time about a favorite mile-long row of about 40 ocean-beach houses on my Southern Calif coast (Highway 1). There’s beach community after beach community, one connects to the other in places, but this is the one I like … the beach where my family/extended family stayed for years in summer (1950s to the 1970s primarily) which had a wonderful strip of (original) little cottages, mostly clapboard exteriors, most had a couple of bedrooms at best and I think, in the beginning, there was no indoor plumbing because there was no way to connect to public sewer.
Only a very few, probably more or less than I can count on one hand remain … from the 1920s, 30s, 40s. (I recall the diminutive side-shingled wood ‘cabins’ as about one step up from a tent, although I was never in one which didn’t have indoor plumbing. They didn’t have insulation or weather stripping; sheesh, with all the earthquakes and shifting shore-sand of these old places, some over a hundred years old now, we kids could see the headlights of cars and the train through the cracks in the wallboard when we’d be trying to sleep at night! There was no such thing as a building code! It wasn’t a group of homes for the very rich; it was just everyday people trying to keep up these weekend/summer places on a budget; where you’d take your mismatched dishes from home, furnishing the place with a bit of this & that, the dads using any-old piece of lumber to repair something on the exterior; a lot of DIY going on; a real hodgepodge which is now just part of the kitsch which I do SO love.)
There’s not a time we don’t drive by these houses, which is quite often, like every week, that I don’t make a point (it’s just a THING with me; sentimental!) of trying to pick out the tiny wood-frame ones dwarfed by ugly McMansions from the 1980s-forward (where the resident now lives year ’round); even as I write this, older places that I used to think were so new, yet they’re probably from that 1960s-70s period, are getting torn down and replaced by ridiculously-large homes that take up every square inch of the property, all house, no sand! I really resent this multi-million-dollar/millionaire takeover. The ‘middle class’ got edged out a long time ago, and the wealthy took over. But they can’t lock us out of the beach; they HAVE to provide access; the beach is for EVERYONE.
There’s a place in Orange County (Claudia, you’d recall that’s just north from where you were in San Diego; this ‘beach colony’ I’m about to talk about would be, like, between Laguna and Newport, Laguna being about 80 miles from SD) called Crystal Cove (now a state park and historically designated) and it has amazing, restored & preserved but thoughtfully otherwise-left-untouched, era 1920s-40s, maybe early 1950s(? [I could be wrong on that; I think the heyday was 1930s for the construction]) BEACH COTTAGES; I want to see them badly (it’s an ongoing restoration project; I recall reading that not all the cottages are restored yet; I think there are 50 [or so] of them); big wait list, like impossible wait list, but you can actually RENT one; I understand the feeling is that you’ve gone back in time to even your Greatest Generation parents’ childhoods, and apparently the beach there is completely devoid of anything else modern, like an unspoiled place with a total vintage vibe; the little cottages on the beach actually aren’t THAT expensive to rent but you have to expect rustic although of course that’s the point. “Rustic” was absolutely the description of the sea cottages of my youth.
But to today’s post and recent ‘lake’ posts, I have really enjoyed everyone’s ‘lake’ memories (and yours!) in the past couple of days here on your blog, Claudia; aren’t you glad you brought it up? I am! I’m happy we all have our childhood and even present-day memories of life at the lake or life at the shore. I’m so grateful I had it in my past but also that I can still visit the ocean-beach areas today even if it’s driving by in the car, although there’s nothing like staying at a house by the water for days and weeks or even months on end; is just a different getaway life that is of such tremendous benefit to mind and soul. It’s interesting how we humans respond to light, warmth, water, sunsets and moonrise, stars in the sky and birds in the trees; sights and sounds we need; all very organic, including us.
I agree with everything. The minute people started to fall for the BIGGER IS BETTER line, things started to go downhill. No sense of history, no sense of character, or charm. That’s one of the things I don’t like about Florida – at least the area of Florida where my sister lived. Huge houses, all of them looking pretty much the same. I’ve seen older houses in Florida that have a great deal of history and charm. I sure hope there’s a historical society protecting them. Same thing with San Diego. That’s why we loved our little section called Kensington. It is full of Craftsman homes. But anyway, back to the beach and the lake. I know that whoever bought my aunt’s/family’s cottage tore it down. Just like every other lakefront property owner.
Makes me very sad.
I’m encouraged about that community in Orange County. I’d love to see it!
Stay safe, Vicki.
I agree with preservation of architecture, that’s what drew us to our little historic neighborhood in FL. We bought a tear-down and put it back better, one board at a time. We wanted it to stay looking as it had done in the 1920s. That’s what makes Florida (almost) bearable for me.
Good for you, Shanna!
That’s the part of Florida I like.
Stay safe.
Vicki, you asked a question the other day about our boat years. I saw it and answered so late you probably missed it, so I’m re-posting it here:
(Hope that’s okay, Claudia.)
You would have been a far more intrepid sailor than I was. I don’t swim, either, hate camping and being outdoors in general, but my Mr. Wizard did and loved all of those things and it was his dream—how could I say no? ( Though I heard stories of many a wife who did!)
This was the nineties and ours was a 36-foot 1970s sloop and just right for a crew of two plus a fox terrier. An incredibly seaworthy craft. We had plenty of weather, pirate fears, equipment failures and coastguard boardings, crooked port authorities—all the adventure I could handle and way too many emergencies to remember. In all, we sailed over 18,000 miles of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean, plus up the intracoastal waterway from Fl to NY.
We left San Francisco and visited many ports along the way, Santa Barbara being one of our favorites. We sailed from one end of Mexico to the other, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Caymen Islands and both coasts of Florida, then north to visit our son in NYC. We spent the winter in Baltimore.
Next spring we sailed for the Bahamas, then back through Panama to head home, by way of Galapagos, NukuHiva, and Hawaii—lots of time on the open ocean where we went weeks without seeing another living soul except the sea creatures. Boy, were we homesick!
Now back on dry land and with the knowledge that we did survive, I can appreciate what an adventure it was and I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. Neither would I ever try it again!
No, we didn’t have tons of experience. A Hobie Cat and a couple of Caribbean bare-boat trips with friends was pretty much it. Mr. Wizard can fix anything and had done lots of research, so we had faith, but experience, not so much. Not much technology back then, either. But our prehistoric GPS did save us, I think. Don’t know how I survived all of those night watches and being the only one awake to manage the sailing.
Thanks for a trip down memory lane—one that I usually push way to the back of my brain!
Wow!!! Shanna, how interesting. As a fellow non-swimmer, I am amazed at your bravery to take on such adventures. Trying it one time, I might “get” (maybe) ~ but that you went again and again is fascinating to this scaredy cat!!!! What memories!
Chris, once we left home there was no going back. We had sold our house in Santa Cruz and put all of our belongings in storage. But I guess you could say that getting up every morning and heading out on our way to wherever it was we were going—we didn’t quite know—was doing it again and again. By time we headed home, there was no stopping us, except maybe the wind and the tides.
Still totally impressed. I am afraid while visiting in NYC or wintering in Baltimore, I likely would have then abandoned ship. But, I guess we truly don’t know what we are capable of until we are put to the test!! Your success story is inspirational!
Wow. Just wow. Shanna, I really appreciate that you took the time to answer my question and comment!! Your story is very interesting; amazing(!); how can I not be impressed; goodness, you sailed the world.
For you, most-brave woman(!); I don’t know if I could have been you. (I can imagine the protests from my don’t-take-risks parents. Poor dears, they worried about a lot of things I did; I mostly didn’t tell them until after the fact. Like the time I went parasailing off the beach in Mexico and they had a hard time pulling me back down from the boat out on the water, as I flew over the tops of buildings; I was obviously in the hands of no-name amateurs without regard for my safety [my only aim to have the experience, never thinking of consequences]. My brother was a hundred times more adventurous [on his 18th/legal-age birthday, he went freefalling/skydiving and didn’t tell us until afterward] and I know between the two of us that we gave Mom and Dad a lot of gray hairs on their head.)
You must have learned so much along the way; probably too many times you were darned scared. It’s amazing what we can do, though, if we’re young and healthy. The lure of adventure is powerful. Let’s not forget the joy, the thrill, the sights.
But look out for those rogue waves. I was most scared in storms on the tail end of hurricane season; even at anchor, the boat really pitched, they had to lash the wheel. The guys were on deck in yellow slickers; we were dragging anchor. I found I lacked ‘anchor faith’. Anchoring can be a real art; it’s not a simple thing.
The other thing is that you guys had to be really smart to take on something so ambitious; I mean, just how to stock a boat and rotate your food is a major task. Keeping your drinking water safe. But the navigation? The on-the-spot ingenuity; the problem-solving. Even first-aid. Or if either one of you got really sick, like an appendicitis or something. You could find enough reasons to just not go. It’s almost when ‘daunting’ takes over ‘exciting’.
What did you do with all your ‘land’-possessions; get a storage unit for a few years, or did you sell everything before you left to finance the journey? I knew of a couple from home who’d gone to teach and live on a boat in Charlotte Amalie (American Virgin Islands) for a few years (until they had babies, and then it just got too hard) but they were young, just out of college; they didn’t own much of anything yet, so very little ‘baggage’ to tote.
Sometimes I can’t believe this, but when I was on my own little month-long trip in the Virgin Islands (just nuth’in compared to what you and your husband did!), bearing in mind I can’t swim, I never wore a life jacket, not once. Maybe I’d said that before. But it seems really irresponsible now, yet try telling that to somebody in their 20s. (Probably equates to trying to keep a mask on young people during Covid.) You and your husband probably had a slew of drills on the what-if of any situation which could come up at sea, especially when you were in the middle of nowhere with nobody to help.
You had mentioned whales before: I was on a ‘whale-watching’ excursion once and I felt the migrating whales came awfully close to our boat; it was unnerving. If I’d tried, I could have found a way to reach down and touch their hide. Did you have that happen? I just feel they could have so easily tipped the boat, and it wasn’t a small boat; it’s just that the whales are so HUGE.
Did you ever have an experience at sea where you thought you might die, like when a storm was so bad you thought you might not make it out alive? Wow again. Just the open ocean from the Calif coast to Hawaii is a long voyage; can’t imagine doing it in a sailboat. My dad did it on a troop ship in WWII and threw up the whole way; lots of seasick men on that multi-day trip. And sunburn was also a problem. This is incredible, what you and your husband accomplished! It’s one thing if you were hugging land on some of the trips, but to cross a wide ocean is, to me, intimidating! Even the big Queen Mary ocean liner stops in the Azores on transatlantic voyages. But there ain’t anything between L.A. and Honolulu, right?!
Did you have friends and family who were quite against you embarking on this kind of life at sea? Did you have to overcome some objections? Stand firm; stand your ground?
(I could probably think of a zillion questions. And you probably have a zillion memories. I find it all so fascinating; sorry if I’m peppering you too much; and thanks Claudia for letting your readers talk back and forth, sharing the lake stories; and some seafaring ones!)
Oh. Shanna. I see now what you said about storage of your belongings when you responded to Chris in Wisconsin; I got so excited with your response that I forgot to read others who’d commented on your amazing adventure!
Love this, Vicki! I know — I’d make a point of it too!
jeanie, when Claudia mentioned she was reading your lake stories, it dawned on me that you have a blog (how can I be so clueless?), so I did read some of your postcards from the lake and enjoyed it; have a lot more to explore on your blog!
Your nostalgia for the Great Lakes is contagious! In her later years , my mother lived in Alpena on a small lake near Lake Huron. I loved to visit her there, especially for Thanksgiving dinner (I lived in Rochester) when the town would have a parade the following day. It was so beautiful and cozy there!
Yesterday my husband and I were finally going on an overnight getaway to Ormond beach where our friends were staying. We put our rescue dog in the kennel (first time) and were on our way! Sadly, we then received a phone call from our friend telling us that her husband tested positive for Covid that morning! We decided to go anyway, as we had already reserved a room in a sweet seaside inn. Well, the weather turned from beautiful to awful from the moment we arrived. Heavy coastal showers that just wouldn’t let up! After checking in and sitting in our empty room for an hour, we got in our car and drove home!
Thinking of Michigan , and needing to try going somewhere again, I brought up the idea of spending October in Michigan. My husband thought that was a great idea, as well, so we’ll be driving north with our large, silly dog in the backseat.! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this works out. At our ages 74 and 79, anything could happen. As younger people say, though, YOLO!
Had to chuckle, Suzanne. My husband and I now can’t go anywhere unless we take the large, silly, rescue dog, but trying to confine him to the backseat is often quite a task as he finds a way to not just unhook his own doggie seatbelt, but also OURS. As he tries to help my husband drive, butt on the backseat and chest/forelegs trying to stretch across the console between the two front seats, his huge feet press down on the belt buckles and here we go again, shifting and repositioning. When we ever go on longer trips, like cross-country or cross-state, we’ve gotta figure out something different than what we’re doing!
We attached a screen to the headrests that hangs down behind the console. I think we got it on Amazon. It works to keep our canine backseat driver IN the backseat.
We tried that. The dog tore it down in the first 15 minutes!
My parents would often drive to Alpena for doctor’s appointments, etc.
October in Michigan sounds lovely, Suzanne! Go for it!
Stay safe.
Going through old pictures, I found many of family trips to “The Dunes” on Lake Michigan in Indiana. When I was little we lived in Chicago where all of the relatives lived, of course. Back then it seemed we knew all of our aunts & uncles & cousins and doing a big fam vaca was pretty common, I think. The pictures show tiny little cabins where we were with, of course, mounds and mounds of sand, with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. I was the oldest of the cousins in the pics, and everyone older than me is now gone. How I wish I had asked more questions as I got older about things like that. If you are still able to talk with older relatives in your families, I can’t encourage you ENOUGH to go through some old pictures and then ask some questions. Family history is something you can pass along to your kids and theirs at no cost, and means great story-telling time!
I asked plenty of questions when I was younger. The problem is that I didn’t write down the answers! I could kick myself.
Stay safe, Chris..
Chris we used to go to the sand dunes too. Everybody from our family lived in Chicago or the suburbs and nobody moved away. Now we are all spread in different places. I went to college up in Wisconsin at a small town named Whitewater. It was so different from the suburbs I grew up in and I loved every minute of it. Beautiful old houses, 1 grocery store, a couple pizza places and yes a few bars we did frequent because we could drink at 18. Such good memories.
Deb, We go through Whitewater occasionally. I don’t think you would recognize it if you haven’t been back in a while. I went to Platteville. Yes, the 18 yr old drinking was a draw!! All of my cousins are around the country now, too. Times change!!
I’ve been very nostalgic myself lately. Memories.
Yes. The world is changing and I must confess, I’m not happy about a lot of it.
Stay safe, Linda.
I know what your cousin means about the sprawl, the old houses down for bigger ones. That happened next door and to the house beyond us at the lake. The only thing that saves the house next door is that they built a tall fence between the houses (after they stripped every tree from their property — 100-year-plus trees — and paved most of the yard. It’s just sad. But I digress.
All good wishes for Jane Eyre. I hope the cast lives up to your standards. With you on their side, I see no problem!
Thank you, Jeanie!
Stay safe.