Street Legal

If you were on the island this week, you may have gotten the rare opportunity to see a motorized vehicle.  Lots of people visiting the island get frustrated when they see something like this because they think cars are completely banned on Mackinac. They aren't. During the summer they only come out only when absolutely necessary - fire, EMS, the electric company's bucket truck, etc. 

This house had a blocked sewer so there was no choice than to call in the big guns to dig up and replace the sewer line. You see, the law on Mackinac Island is clear: everything that can be done by horsepower, must be done by horsepower. Generally, the work requiring vehicles happens after the tourist season during the winter months, but some things, such as a clogged sewer, can't wait until the season ends. The law is also clear about the "health, safety, and welfare" of the island's residents; if a motorized vehicle is needed for an emergency, it is going to be allowed.  

Non-emergency vehicles, other than those used by public utilities, must be granted a Vehicle Permit by the City Council. They are easy to get as long as what you need it for can't be done by horses. A moving truck, for example, is not going to get a permit. You can move your household to the dock with a dray and then load the truck on the mainland. Is it more work? Sure, but it's one of the things we accept as part of living on Mackinac. The only time Allen and I have needed vehicle permits was when we built our house. We needed one for both the truck and the crane; two jobs that definitely couldn't be done by horsepower!

Smoky

Mackinac Island awoke to a blanket of smoke today. It's a minor inconvenience for us - no views, stay indoors if possible, etc. - but for the folks up in Canada, where the smoke is coming from, I can't even begin to imagine what they're going through.

Wet

Mackinac has had a wet spring. Not wet as in lots of rain, but wet as in the heavy snow pack has melted. Now the ground is saturated with all that water and it's finding its way into places people don't want it- like basements. One spot on the island is so badly flooded, that these pumps have been running, round the clock, for several days now. 

Classic Mackinac

The other day when I said we got "a few" groceries, I may not have clearly explained how many groceries we actually picked up. We hadn't left the Island in months, so our cupboards were bare - quite bare. Everything on that cart is ours. (You can't see it in the pictures, the everything on that cart is labeled with our name.)

As is typical on Mackinac Island, we asked the dray to haul our groceries to the house. (We live about a mile from the dock, up hill.) Using the dray service is fairly cheap and everything is usually up to the house in a couple of hours. That was the case the other day. Except...

When we started to unpack we discovered one bag, the denim blue cooler in the top right of the picture, wasn't ours. It looked identical to ours, but didn't have our name on it. Someone had inadvertently taken our cooler and left theirs on the cart with all of our stuff. Since the entire cart was ours, the dray driver  assumed the cooler was ours too, and delivered it. It looked just like ours so, at first, we didn't even realize there had been a mistake. Once we discovered it, we weren't super worried. Our cooler had our name on it, so we knew we'd get it back. We also knew the owners of the other cooler would be concerned; their bag was full of high-end cuts of meat.

After an hour or so when we still hadn't heard anything, I posted a photo of the cooler in the Mackinac Island Residents Facebook group. I hoped someone would see it, realize their mistake, and call me. Nope.

After another hour, I decided to call one of the police officers, just to let them know the pricy meat was safe and that we would happily return it to whoever it belonged to. Luckily, he decided to pop down to the dock were he met a very worried man returning our cooler which he accidently took because it looked like his. (He didn't notice our name until he was ready to unpack it.) Small towns being what they are, about 15 minutes later the police came up to the house, swapped the coolers and everyone got busy happily putting away their items. 

Later that night I did get a message from a parent who had seen my Facebook post and given my phone number to the owner of the unlabeled cooler. The Police Chief just beat them to the punch and got everything moving in the right direction before they cold get ahold of me. 

Hopefully the new island family learned a few valuable lessons about island life from their experience:

1. Label everything with your name and phone number. It makes getting things back easier in the rare occasion of a mistake.
2. Check to make sure what you take from the dock is yours. Refer to #1.
3. Whether or not you appreciate Facebook, the Mackinac Island Residents page can be a very useful tool.
4. Mackinac Island people are honorable. Things might get "misplaced" for a while, but things are almost never "stolen."

Stuck

Due to the blizzard northern Michigan is experiencing, there are no boats to or from Mackinac Island today. That means we're stuck on the mainland with no way to get home, which is just part of living on Mackinac. In the 33 years I've lived on the island, I've been stuck on the mainland twice - once for three days. There have been other times where I was stuck on the island, but since I wasn't trying to leave and it wasn't a big deal, I didn't keep track.

Luckily, my mom has a house on the mainland with plenty of  room for guests. While Mackinac Island hasn't lost power during this storm (yet), my mom's house did lose power for a few hours this morning. The power flickered on and off in a way I've never seen before. It almost seemed like someone was jiggling the powerline that fed the house for a couple of minutes before it finally went out for good.  In addition to her furnace, my mom has a wood stove, and we wanted to make sure to get a good stockpile close to the house so she wouldn't have to trek out to the woodpile if the power stayed out. (In April, she was without power for a full week.) So this morning while she shoveled, Allen and I hauled wood. It wasn't pleasant with the wind whipping snow in our faces, but I was glad to do it. And I'm happy to know, now that the power is back on and she'll use less, she has a few weeks worth of wood just outside her back door.

Too Close for Comfort

Putting up the window candles for the holidays is typically a fairly dull task, but this year it brought a bit of excitement when the light* pictured above caught fire. Luckily, the fire started quickly and my daughter was still close by. After she came down from her adrenaline rush, she found it quite ironic that the object intended to mimic a flame had actually burst into flame.

She grabbed it by the as-yet-not-on-fire base and ran outside. Luckily, her fleece bore the brunt of the damage, and apart from a scorched spot on the sleeve and some melted plastic on the window, all is well. Thankfully. Had my daughter put that lamp up in a different room and then walked away, this would be a very different post. So, today I am feeling extra grateful for my quick thinking daughter who, while thoughtfully trying to lighten my holiday load, quite literally saved the day. 

*The lamp was UL listed, had the correct wattage bulb, and was plugged into a wall outlet (not an extension cord.)

A Beacon of Light

I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the person who suggested I call Beacon House. After the whirlwind drive up to Marquette to be with my son, it was wonderful not to have to worry about where I was going to sleep, finding a parking spot, or figuring out where I could find a cup of coffee. Beacon House took care of all of it. Plus - it's just a quick walk to and from the hospital. Let me tell you, it's been a godsend. 

Probably my favorite thing so far has been the guest book. Inside, it has the name and a photograph of the couple who sponsored my room. Guests are able to leave a note in the book, which at the end of the year is given to the sponsors. What a lovely way to for them to see the impact their generosity is having on people. 

If, heaven forbid, you ever happen to be dealing with a medical emergency in the Marquette, Michigan, area call Beacon House. They'll take good care of you.

Current Situation

I'm hanging out in Marquette for a few days with my son. He was brought by ambulance last night from Houghton to the hospital here. Apparently the medical center in Houghton isn't really a "hospital," so they thought it best to send him to a place able to provide a higher level of care. We didn't know where they were going to send him until after the last boat yesterday; and since Grand Rapids, Marquette, and Green Bay were all listed as possibilities, I couldn't really start driving driving I had a clear direction to go. After catching the first boat off the island this morning, I headed north and caught up with him at about noon.  Please don't worry - he's going to be OK, and is in good spirits.

Better Safe Than Sorry

Remember my post about the scary hay bale? Other things that can frighten horses are noises they're not accustomed to and things that seem to move in ways they are not familiar with. Hence the sign -you'll find this one on the corner of Fort and Market Streets. 

If horses heard training wheels every day, they would get use to them, just like they would acclimate to skaters. But since those aren't as common as bikes and walkers, to horses they're frightening. Believe it or not, when the Honor Scouts (also known as the Governor's Honor Guard) are marching in formation through town, they stop marching when they get close to oncoming horses. To a horse the line of 60 identically-dressed scouts looks like a giant snake heading their way. To many people these rules may seem silly, but a team of runaway horses is no joke. They're rare, but the do happen occasionally. 

 You can roller skate and skate board on the island - just not through the town area.

Dang

Mackinac Island got just a little bit of rain today. OK, more than just a little bit - we got about two inches (about 5 cm) of rain in just under an hour. There was so much water so quickly the sanitary sewer was overwhelmed. You are looking at a manhole cover; a 90 pound (about 40 kg) manhole cover being pushed up by the water. Normally, that manhole cover is flush with the level of the street. Dang, that's a lot of water!

I'm Crying Over Here

OK, I might not be literally crying, but I am sad about Joanns* closing. I sew and craft often, and I'm not really sure where I can shop instead. Other than Hobby Lobby (of which I am not a fan) there are no other options even remotely close to me. I don't mind getting some things via mail order, but fabric quality varies widely and I like to feel it before I buy it. Is anyone familiar with any mail order fabric shops that sell quality fabric? If you know of one, please share!

*It's a Michigan thing. We have a tendency to add an "s" to the end of store names. Kroger becomes Krogers, Meijer becomes Meijers - my mom even calls Costco Costcos, (which does sound odd to me.) It's weird, but for some reason it's what Michiganders do, and it drives my Hoosier-husband crazy.

Ice Storm!

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to share these pictures, but we've been busy cleaning up after the ice storm. (We have to get all of our broken branches and trees put out by the road by April 20. Starting on the 21st, the people hired by the city are coming through with a woodchipper to get rid of all of it.)

Thankfully Mackinac is in pretty good shape!

As you can see, a lot of ice built up during the storm causing numerous trees to fall and knocking out power to much of northern Michigan - including Mackinac Island. All night long it sounded like a warzone. We heard near-constant popping, bullet-like sounds as small branches broke off the trees all around us. Every few minutes there were loud cracking noises as larger trees broke under the weight of the ice and collapsed. It sounded like buildings disintegrating as the trees, encased in ice, snapped and tumbled to the ground. We have a number of large trees growing around our house, so at any moment one of them could have hit us. Neither Allen or I slept very well that night.

By morning, the ice covered everything,

and I mean everything; an inch thick in some places.

Allen and I were very lucky. 

  

A large branch took out the corner of our chicken yard, but the house came through unscathed and the chickens were fine, too.) We lost lots of smaller branches, but nothing bigger around than my thigh.

Many of our neighbors weren't so lucky. 

All in all, Mackinac Island fared pretty well. We did lose power, but only for a few days. (I have friends in Petoskey and Gaylord who were out for over a week.) Our fire, police, and state park staff were out constantly cutting trees to keep the roads open for emergency vehicles, and the boat line even ran a special boat to get the electric linemen and women over to the island. 

The city opened the Mackinac Island Community Hall as a warming center and charging station for anyone who needed it. Allen kept us going at home by breaking out the camp stove so I could have a hot cup of coffee every morning. The house got a little chilly - I think it got down to about 57 (about 14 C,) but we managed. We crawled under my mom's house and shut her water off, just to be safe.

School was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday due to a lack of power at the school, and again on Wednesday due to safety concerns over students traveling on ice-covered roads. In my 32 years of teaching on Mackinac Island, we've never cancelled three days in a row! But we've also not had a storm like this in my years here.

The days after the storm were beautiful, with bright sunny skies. The ice sparkled like crystals in the trees. When the wind blew, it cracked and shattered, and then clinked to the ground like cacophony of  shattering glass. It was an eerily beautiful sound. 

Thank you to everyone who has reached out to see how we're doing. Mackinac is recovering. This summer the lilacs probably won't be as spectacular as in years past, but they are hard to kill. (Allen refers to them as the zombies of the plant world.) In a year or two, they be as beautiful as ever. We're cleaning up, and the island will be open for business as usual this summer.

 

UGH

Someone in my house did not have a very good day today.

One of my kids got their first ambulance ride today. The intense pain required pain meds and a trip to the mainland for a CT scan. Kidney stones aren't common in teenagers, so the doctor felt a scan was important to determine if that was the issue. Turns out it was...

We're thankful Mackinac Island has a topnotch EMS service and a medical center to handle things like this. 

Edited to add: my kiddo is fine. At least part of the stone has passed, the pain has subsided, and hopefully with increased hydration this will not continue to be an issue.

Scary

Mackinac Island has a very active LGBTQ+ advocacy group, aptly named Straits Pride. This group, in addition to providing activities for the LGBTQ+ community and their allies, provides support to queer identifying folks in the Straits of Mackinac region of Michigan. Straits Pride is made up of good people who volunteer their time for a cause they believe in. 

On Saturday they hosted a Drag Bingo event at the Mackinac Island Community Hall. (Unfamiliar with Drag Bingo? It's simple: it's bingo called by a drag queen  for entertainment.) Our Bingo-Calling-Queen, Ester Flonaze, is a sassy Italian grandma, and she's a hoot.  Anyway... 

Straits Pride was hosting a bingo at the Mackinac Island Community Hall, until the building (and several blocks in each direction) had to evacuate due to a bomb threat. Yeah, you read that right - a bomb threat on Mackinac Island. Someone decided that the best way to share their feelings about drag, Straits Pride, LGBTQ+ people, or bingo, was to threaten to blow up the building. (And to be honest, I'm making an assumption here. I don't know how the threat came in, how it was worded, etc. Perhaps it was against the City of Mackinac Island, but I doubt it - it would have to be one hell of a coincidence that a drag bingo just happened to be going on at that time.)

When the person made the threat did they think about what would happen?  Sure, it disrupted bingo,  but it also impacted numerous vacations, and inconvenienced quite a few island employees who couldn't go home to eat dinner or sleep. Some of those people are just fine; others were traumatized. He, and again I'm making an assumption here, hurt a whole lot more people than the queer folks playing bingo. 

You may disagree with the word "traumatized," because it wasn't a credible threat, but during the evacuation,  we didn't know that. The police couldn't just say, "Oh yeah, it was probably just some whack-job out to get the gays. No worries; everyone go back to your hotel rooms, it'll be fine." They had to take it seriously until the bomb-sniffing dog could be brought over from the mainland and conform the building was safe to reenter. And, taking it seriously meant that all of Mackinac's first responders were called in to work. All of them. 

I left bingo and walked home in a fog. A bomb threat? On Mackinac? Really? 

On Sunday I couldn't concentrate. I flitted about from one thing to another, not finishing anything and feeling generally "off." I couldn't focus long enough to sew, or read, or watch TV, or clean; and anyone who knows me knows that is very out of character. Monday morning it finally dawned on me that I was really upset and struggling to process what had happened. I'm fine now, but it took a couple of days. (This experience has given me a new-found respect for people who go through significant traumatic events in their life.)

I'm still left to wonder what was this person's end goal? Because if they think Straits Pride will shrink into the background, they're sadly mistaken. This was SP's response:

I hope they catch the guy who did this; which, let's be honest, they probably won't. I wonder how he would feel if a threat was sent in against an event his wife or children we involved with. Too bad we just all can't follow Matthew 7:12 - "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you..." 

It sounds so simple...

Three Days

Three days until I cry as you walk across the stage to get your diploma.  

I thought long and hard about whether or not to use this picture, but it really does sum up your first three months of life; you were so unhappy.  You cried. All. The. Time. Nothing would console you.  Until we got the diagnosis that you were suffering from acid reflux and you started taking Prilosec.  After that, you started to smile. 

Then we dealt with a hospitalization for a severe UTI, a hospitalization for a dangerous eye infection, and other trips to the hospital I'd rather forget (including the time you swallowed the quarter, and when you accidentally broke my nose.) As if that wasn't enough, you've also had to deal with sleep apnea, a hearing impairment, ADD, and your more recent ASD diagnosis.  As we lived through those days, it didn't feel all that overwhelming. But now, as I see it all on one page, I get teary as I realize just how much you went through growing up. 

It feels so unfair that you had to face all of that when so many other kids get to breeze through their childhoods. As I ponder your many battles, I keep coming back to Nietzsche's words, "What does not kill me makes me stronger." I believe we can choose to look at adversity as an opportunity to grow - to develop strength and build a strong character. It all seems like a lifetime ago and yesterday at the same time, but with every hardship, you came out stronger on the other side. Your graduation from high school is a big deal - you made it; you fought every battle and won.  

Are your battles over? Probably not. Will life always be easy? Definitely not, but I believe in you. With your strength I know you will be capable of facing just about anything life throws at you! 

Being your mom hasn't always been easy, but I wouldn't have my life any other way. I love you!

A Final Tribute

You may remember I lost my dad in May of 2022. Today he was laid to rest. We celebrated his life two years ago, but since he donated his body to Michigan State University's Medical School, we had no remains to bury.  

Today we attended a lovely service at Michigan State to honor the people who willed their bodies to MSU in the same cohort as my father. It was very moving to hear medical students thank the families and explain how their knowledge of human anatomy was deepened by being able to work actual humans rather than models. It would have made my dad smile to know how much his gift enriched the education of those future doctors. 

Then we drove to the cemetery to see where he and his fellow donors were buried.  Despite the windy, rainy weather, I'm glad we went out to see the memorial before driving home. It was a long, hard day, but impactful; and so fitting for the kind of man my dad was...

Finish it February: Stained Glass

This February I've been trying to get projects finished. Sometimes they get put off to the side and they sit for a while. Sometimes life gets in the way, other times you get bored. This project got shut down by the Covid 19 lockdown. I was part way through a class when the mandate came down so it sat. And without the class and the instructor, I didn't get back to it. I tried to finish it last winter, but clearly I didn't quite make that deadline. This year I tried again.

My only issue was, I had left it out in the shop so long, one of the kids at school cracked a piece of the glass. Luckily a windshield repair kit did a really nice job and I didn't have to take it apart to replace the piece. (I still notice the crack, but the textured glass makes it hard to see if you're not looking for it.) In the last week I've managed to get it finished, cemented, polished, and hung.

I don't know if I will ever become a serious stained glass artist, but I'm really happy with how it looks in my sewing room window.

One project down, 2,437 more to go...

Well $hit

Lovely. I've felt poor all day and now I know why. Guess I'm not going to school this week; time to get started on some sub plans...

MackinaW?

I was in Petoskey shopping the other day, and I noticed this sign.  Was the sign shop out of lower case Ws? Did the sign maker really want folks to focus in on the correct spelling of Mackinaw City? Or, is it just a typo? The world may never know...

Noticed

As I was out walking this afternoon I noticed this tree next to the road. I've walked past this tree hundreds of times, but I'd never noticed the sawdust at the base of the tree. Of course, I had to investigate.

As I watched, ant after ant walked up to the edge of the hole, dropped a piece of sawdust, turned around, and disappeared back into the hole. A quick Google search told me they were carpenter ants; interesting to see in the wild but not so much to find in your home.

Watching them reminded me of the time we had ants in my childhood home. My dad had put out ant traps, he'd sprayed, he'd put out ant bait, but they just wouldn't go away. I remember him walking around the house with a stethoscope listening to the walls and the doors. I thought he was really weird until he had me listen to one of the front hall closet doors. As I put the stethoscope ear pieces into my ears I heard what sounded like whispering.

My dad removed the door from the track and took it outside. For a few days he sprayed some kind of bug killer into the hole in the bottom of the door. Then, he'd wait and listen again to see if there were still live ants inside. He did this three or four times until he finally got a small saw to cut around the edges of the door. When he pealed the top off it was as if the door was a sandwich and the front and back pieces were the slices of bread. It was a gigantic ant sandwich - they were nesting inside the door. Inside of that hollow-core door were thousands of ants - my childhood self was completely disgusted. 

Needless to say, we got new closet doors after that. They were still hollow-core doors, but my dad cut pieces of wood to fill the openings at the bottom. We never had carpenter ants again.