A View From the Doorstep
High surf on Lake Michigan is normal for this time of year. That photo is now a year old. It was part and parcel of what was going on with the weather and the arguments about climate this and eco-that, and now that turmoil has died down. The volume levels of water in the Great Lakes, per the Army Corps of Engineers, rise and fall repeatedly, and have done so for thousands of years. The Big Deal over the winter, before all the attention was turned to a micro-bug that scares the bejesus out of people, was that Lake Michigan (Michi Gamu) was well up over its banks and the shores were eroding. The same was probably true of Lake Superior (Gichi Gamu), which is well-known for its ability to swamp and sink ships when the weather goes foul.
Now: well, none of the state parks lining the shores of Lake Michigan are open, which means that unless you live on the shore line, you can’t get those fine views of high surf. The county-owned parks are open for hikers and bikers, and the “free fish” hunters are trying local ponds and rivers, and the restocking that normally occurs in state-owned lakes has probably already taken place. I doubt that anything state-owned will open up until the end of May. That means I will miss these little guys below, too, and I won’t get to see the younglings getting their flight feathers.
Mother Goose and flock
The local branch of the Army National Guard has been putting field hospitals together in what are normally convention buildings as a means of accommodating excess Covid-19 patients, should the need arise. All the birds that normally return by this time of year have returned, but it’s too cold out for bugs to be plentiful, so the feather flockers are returning to my feeding station. I think the hardware store might deliver bird food if I ask them about it. Having two red-bellied woodpeckers show up for chow is a bonus.
We did have snow, however light an amount, on Thursday, and the weather insists on staying cold. Mail still comes on time, and the local grocery stores are open for business. Some have limits on how much you can buy, others don’t. There does not seem to be any panic buying in my AO, but some shelves were bare of things like paper towels. My habit of buying ahead has paid off.
The real issue is not The “Bug”. It’s being confined to avoid spreading The Bug. Is it a Plague? Depends on your point of view. No harm in taking precautions, but when I go to the store and see people in line ahead of me wearing cowboy-style bandannas at the checkout spot, because they don’t have those masks, my response is a muted giggle. Yes, I do take The Bug seriously: it is nasty and can be lethal, and precautions are necessary and smart. But when all I can do is pull the neck of my turtleneck sweater up over my face and try not to giggle, things almost seem normal again. The ‘surprise’ was that most people never shop ahead for anything, or stock a pantry or cupboard, which is what I do.
It does not mean I won’t take a daily walk up toward the highway and back, or that we should not be careful. If a vaccine that prods a response from your immune system is under development, then there is real hope for an end to this. The abundance of caution has both good and bad points, which is normal. But it makes people like me chafe at the bit and paw the ground now and then.
Let’s just hope this ends well for all.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Reality Check
I took a bandana and scotch guarded the hell out of it.
Easy to disinfect and waterproof.
Tuck it in a turtleneck or use a bungie cord around the neck and good to go.
Some clown was telling me that I wold inhale it. Maybe, but it a’int the virus and I damn sure am not PTing in the bandana.
And this from the assclown that had a respirator on but one of the filters was off at an angle. Kinda like getting gassed and having a pro mask with no eye piece. A very expensive false sense of security hanging around the neck of liberal assclown.
Offered to help them fix it but they freaked out. I just will let social Darwinism run its course.
Scotch, eh? I prefer Irish, myself, but I will give it a try.
Lighting a smoke is somewhat problematic as well….
But to the whiskey comment, a camel back works well as it slides right up under all nice ans easy like….
Our governor, Gretchen Bitchmore, is still continuing her audition for the #2 spot, under Joe Bite-me. She extended her state of emergency, even forbidding lawn care companies to operate, apparently thinking they crew a riding lawnmower with 5 or 6 people and 3 or 4 on a weed whacker.
The mayor of Saginaw, Michigan, being a good Marxocrat, went the gov one better, forbidding travel on city and county roads inside the city limits.
The Marxocrat Secretary of State has forbidden the collection of signatures for nominating petitions beyond the usual deadline, which is next week. Bet the Marxocrat candidates already have their required signatures.
And the gov has appointed a commission to investigate why certain minorities are being infected with Covid-19 more than the evil white devils. I’m reasonably certain that some people ignoring social distancing and gathering in places for engaging in parties and things won’t even be brought up.
Meant to say, re the mayor Saginaw, the roads are closed from 9pm to 6am.
I grew up fishing on the shores of Lake Ste. Clair. The rise and fall of water levels occurred off and on throughout my childhood. While I don’t laugh, I feel little sympathy for those people who bought homes on the lake or along the river. When I was young, there were few homes there and now there are many. What happened to the watershed? Your home is sitting in it, buy insurance!
I am also a Michigan resident. I am trying to figure out how a kayak or sailboat can prevent the virus from spreading, as kayaking or sailing is allowed but using a power boat is not.
Everything not compulsory is forbidden.
Kinda like that there is so much local flexibility being “allowed.” One size just doesn’t fit everyone even under these circumstances. Unfortunately, my county has some of the most draconian of restrictions in the area, with the nearest city even worse. Oh, well. I didn’t really have anywhere to go anyway.
On the up side, the power is on, plenty of foodstuffs on hand, and still have some reading material handy.
We are food.
Uhmmm. Sure hope we are not food! Substitute something else there. Just about anything will be better than food…
Ex-PH2, it’s a regular wildlife haven out where I live in Cheesehead land.
Bunnies & squirrels getting frisky and chasing each other around, ducks & geese flying overhead and landing in cornfields/soybean fields/farmer ponds for the evening, songbirds at the feeders tossing more seed around than they are eating, a coyote or two yapping at night, a few sandhill cranes flying overhead squawking and….already saw a couple of mosquitoes.
Suppose to hit 57 degrees today before heading back down to the 30’s for a couple of days along with a possibility of 2-5″ of snow.
Already have opened the windows a couple of days, shut off the heat for a few hours and let the house air out.
Been doing my normal baking & cooking, no need to run off to a restaurant. Been interesting to read & hear about more people learning how to provide more for themselves instead of the restaurants doing it for them.
Yeah, isolation can be a bear at times, but it doesn’t help constantly saying “woe is me, woe is me” every hour.
Look around, see what projects can be done around where you live, learn some new crafts or hobbies, work on those things that have been put off because “I can never find the time to do them” and keep in contact with friends & relatives. Sure you can’t give them hugs much right now, but make it will make them extra special after we work our way out of this situation.
We will get thru this and hopefully after all is said & done, more people will appreciate what they have instead of what they want.
Sorry about the long windiness of this…just my two cents worth.
Be safe all you dickweeds & weedettes.
Brew up some beer! Start your tomato plants. Reload some of that brass you brought home last winter. There are a lot of things you wouldn’t have the time to do otherwise. See at least some of the opportunities this presents. Do a detail cleaning on your truck or your grocery getter.
Dominos Nabisco to ya all.
Lawn is cut, all the brass has been decapped, sized, cleaned, and bagged, cars are washed, fire ant mounds and gophers addressed (ya never ever get rid of ’em all). Only seen 6 feet of snakes and killed the two footer; the other was benign, meaning non-venomous and not in the house. Cardinals are flocking around the feeders, mockingbirds all over, and getting a few brave hummingbirds on their way north. Got a brush pile to burn one of these days, otherwise it’s lazy times until I get ambitious and decide to work on the truck some more. Happy Easter to all.
Sufficiently caffeinated to post/comment now. Poison of choice- the company with the AR as its logo, Silencer Smooth blend. Pan fried some bacon and eggs, toasted English muffin. Turned off the idiot box- all coronavirus all the time- and am catching up on some reading- Websites for Dummies and 1-Hour WordPress. Not as bad as NATOPS, but just as necessary for me these days. MrsAW1 is curled up with her Kindle and our attack poodle/maltese. Tom Petty on the XM, and the usual firearms near at hand. All is well at la Casa de AW1, and hope it is at yours, too.
The lake/sump outside my back door used to be the 2nd hole on a golf course that was sold and houses going up. Called Avalon Trails, Delray Beach and now part of the Villages of Oriole. Dry season has the water level going down and I can’t wait for rain to fill it up a little and wash any of the virus away but the bad part is that all the rain water from the roads and parking lots go into the lakes/sumps where the virus particles could end up and any evaporation and some wind could go airborne again.
Spring has sprung for sure down here in God’s Country. Slight cold snap (down to 55F) the critters are flitting, flying, crawling, and buzzing. Wind took down an oaky wood tree yesterday, tree was live, wind was not strong at all, maybe 10 knot gust, but it trashed that Nissan Altima. God Niece quite upset (her FIRST car), but that’s why God made insurance companies. Tree was from the neighbors side so her Dad’s gonna let the insurance companies fight it out. Some of the ‘hood boys/friends got together and made a very nice 40′ long 5’ high breastworks of split oak. Imma laying low, as I’ve posted before, cause if something is going to take me out, I’d rather it be that jealous husband…when I’m 96. We only have 2 confirmed cases of the Chinesecommunist Originated Virus Infecting Disease of 2019 (COVID19) in the county but we are under the police state curfew at night. I still have provisions for at least another month. Planning on celebrating the Resurrection from the backyard tomorrow and Good Lord willing may go down the old road to the crappie pond. I have cotched some crickets before the mocking bird got to them.
I am almost out of my birthday cookies. Hint Hint
I wore a medical facemask going to the PX and commissary today. I saw someone with a cowboy-style bandana. There are pictures floating around online of people wearing odd things on their faces. One guy had a snorkel on, and a small piece of cloth on the part that would normally be sticking out of the water.
Scoth guard the bandana and tuck it in.
Wrap a small bungie (with a touch of slack) on the neck.
Good to go! Waterproof!
And you can lysol it and ruin the fabric.
The Great Lakes are a remnant of the most recent Ice Age glaciation. They were carved out by ice movement, and filled when the ice melted, which did further carving.
Impressive? Hold my Coca-Cola.
The Great Lakes are a small remnant of a prior and vastly more massive lake. At one point, that region was under hundreds of feet of additional water, locked behind a dam of one of the remaining glaciers.
The evidence of that is in the sand and gravel beach remnants far from the current lakes, at higher elevation.
At one point, thousands of years ago, the remaining glaciers had melted and eroded to just barely enough to retain that super-lake.
Then, one day it wasn’t enough.
In a moment, it failed to be adequate, and the lake started to drain. It may have been slow, at first, but moving water has tremendous power. The rush eroded itself a conduit, and a massive torrent blasted forth and scoured its way to the sea.
It blasted out the current drain path, leaving fantastic erosion marks as it went. The rush of fresh water completely disrupted oceanic currents. It was a cataclysmic flood.
What was left of the lake settled into the current Great Lakes form, stable for the moment.
For the moment? Niagara Falls.
The Falls erode upstream, slowly, about one foot per year, working their way to Lake Erie. When the falls get there, in about 50 thousand years from now, Erie will drain, and very rapidly, forever altering its shores.
Then Lake Huron will be above it, and depending on the Riverbed, will either drain fast, or form new falls.
The earth changes daily. Sometimes, it does so rapidly. Those can be awkward days for Man.