It’s race weekend in the town near the lake where we spend much of our summer. Actually, as I am about to press, PUBLISH, the race is complete. If you watch the video, winners are the third canoe to pass and while the canoe in the lead finishes in second place. It’s a long race.
The race creates excitement for Grayling. And for us, too.
Yesterday was busy. Our kids, led by W, decided they were going to scuba dive in the lake. Both are scuba certified but that didn’t make my wife, or I feel any better about diving in the lake off the pontoon boat. But they did and they had a wonderful time.
our kids, on the surface
returning home….
Afterwards, they spent time on the lake, and we gathered at the table for dinner – ribs, beans, and salads (not pictured, but delicious).
Then it was off to watch the start of the race, the AuSable River Canoe Marathon. Town is only minutes from the lake and the river source is in the highlands north of the lake. Two other rivers have their sources in the highlands around us and all three are known for their trout fishing and canoeing. Continue reading the race→
Fortunately, I saw this at 25 mph and not 60 mph. I stopped to give this doe and her fawns time to cross the road from one forest to another. These three were in no hurry and slowly crossed the road.
It’s Wednesday and the middle of the week. I have a list of to dos and it seems I am in the one who isn’t in a hurry, but I should be.
“Wherever you are, be all there” Jim Elliot
Today is gonna be a great day and tomorrow could possibly be a million and six times better. But I am sticking to the present and going to pay attention to what is ahead. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the days Count one day at a time, moving from one thing to the next.
It is Sunday morning and my last day at the lake for this trip. I’ll be heading home tomorrow morning to focus on my summer to dos. I enjoy my time by the lake, and it serves its purpose: I am rested, relaxed, and getting closer to the restoration that I need after a year of teaching.
I was up well before the rest of the house. It was a beautiful Michigan July summer morning; temperatures in the upper 40s, fog hanging close to the still mirror-like lake, and clear blue skies. The past few days began the same with highs in the low 80s. It promises to be a beautiful day.
Friday afternoon on the lake under the sun
Today is also Day 38 of summer break with thirty-six days remaining. I keep track of the days only to remind myself that summer is finite. Yesterday was the tipping point of summer. It was the point at which the first part moves into the second part or the first half changes to the second half. Summer is an arc, either way it means that I am on the downward side of the arc. Continue reading Tipping point→
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, July 6, 2022
I completed my baseball trip Sunday and joined my family Monday afternoon at the lake in Michigan. It has been an amazing summer; it is day 34 of 73.
Yesterday began cloudy, but by mid-afternoon the sun was out, and it was a beautiful summer day. I had waded into the water with the dogs to cool off after a working out and my daughter asked if we could take the neighbor boys tubing on the lake. She had asked mom, to which mom replied,
“Only if you can get your dad to go with you as your spotter.”
And when she asked me, I said, “yes.”
It wasn’t long before we were towing one of the three boys behind the boat.
two of the three boys hang on to the tube, Lake Margrethe Grayling, MI July 5, 2022 5:54 PM
All three got a ride and all were eventually tossed off the tube and into the water, but that’s life. In life, you hang on when things get rough and sometimes there are setbacks, but you get back on and do it again. The skies were dotted by puffy clouds and the water was perfect. We were on the lake for about an hour, and I think my daughter would have been out longer if we didn’t need to refuel. We got a hearty,
“Thank you.” when we pulled in.
It was a great time.
There are always great times here at the lake and there are days that aren’t so great, but you keep at it. Today is going to be another amazing day and tomorrow could possibly be a million and six times better. But I am sticking with the present and I am going to try to stay on so, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the days Count one day at a time, taking each day as it comes with all of life’s ups and downs.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, June 22, 2022
Mars, the moon, and Jupiter. Lake Margrethe, Grayling, MI June 22, 2022 4:42 AM
snapshot with the Skyview app
Last night I set my alarm so I could go outside to see the five visible planets.
This morning the alarm went off, I thought about ignoring it, but I got up. I pulled a sweatshirt over my head and put on a pair of shorts and walked outside.
I had the lake to myself. The sun was beginning to rise, and the sky was clear, with the waning crescent moon highlighting the lake’s gentle waves. I could clearly see three of the planets; Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and while Venus had risen, I couldn’t see it because of the tree line. Mercury was still below the horizon. I decided four three planets and the moon were enough.
Before long the sun rose, and the day began. It is going to be a great day and tomorrow could possibly be a million and six times better. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the days Count one day at a time, stopping to take in the world for moment.
When was the last time you got up early to see the morning sky?
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, June 15, 2022
This is me and this week’s W^2 post.
me, and the lake on a beautiful late spring morning. Lake Margrethe, Grayling, MI June 13, 2022 8:27 AM
I snapped this photo Monday morning before I left the lake for a week at home.
It was a cool late spring morning, yes, it is still spring for another few days, and the temperature was in the mid-50s and sunny. I always enjoy my time by the lake, it’s restful, relaxing, and it puts a smile on my face, even when I have say goodbye.
By the time I had reached home it was in low 90s and thick clouds hung in the air. Severe storms passed through the area in the late afternoon and early evening, but I didn’t feel a drop of rain, but I could feel the energy in the air.
A heat wave is rolling through the Midwest and bringing excessive heat warnings and the possibility of severe weather this evening. I am going to lay low and keep my head down, a smile on my face, and dedicate time to those things I can do.
Today is going to be going to be a great day. I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, a smile on face, a song in my heart, and skip in my step.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, May 18, 2022
sunset on the lake, waxing moon, calm. Lake Margrethe, Grayling, MI Saturday, May 14, 2022 8:59 PM EDT
This week for my W^2 post, the calm after the storm.
This past weekend I asked my wife I made a quick trip to the lake and back. Up late Friday afternoon and home late Sunday night.
We had chores to do, and I was looking for a bit of calm as the school year winds (and grinds) to a finish. As in my previous post, W^2 – beauty and the beast, weather intervened. The skies opened and a thunderstorm rolled across the lake bringing hail and almost an inch and half of rain in about thirty minutes.
Once the storm passes, the skies cleared and there was calm. Calm enough to sit at the end of the dock and admire the sunset or flip the other way and admire the moon rise.
It was an excellent weekend, and I got a taste of summer, early. We also got the calm we needed and craved.
It is Wednesday, the middle of the week and there are as I sit and type ten more days of school this year and then it is summer. Today and I going to try and convince my 6th graders that there is a lot of space in the atmosphere for air particles (aka atoms and molecules) to move and I hope it provides the calm they need to weather the final days of the year. I know it is going to be going to be a great day. I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, making the most of every day and trying to compress learning just like air particles can be compressed.
W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, November 24, 2021
The cottage Christmas tree, a shiny ornament, the lake, and a reflective selfie. Grayling, MI November 23, 2021, 10:57 AM
It is Thanksgiving Break, and we broke away to the lake for a weekend and a couple of days. B decorated the Christmas tree Monday evening while I conducted parent conferences from the loft overlooking the tree. Tuesday morning, I captured the tree, and the day, in all its splendor and light before we broke camp and returned home to spend Thanksgiving at home wit h family.
It is Wednesday, November 24th and one month from today, it will be Christmas eve, may the Christmas season bring the brightness of light into your life. Let it shine. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, enjoying the brightness of a new day and letting my light shine.
It’s Day 57 and I have a dozen days remaining in my summer break. I slept late this morning. Sleeping late is a luxury of summer or anytime when the following day comes without a schedule or place to be early in the morning. Sleeping late is a direct consequence of living without a schedule or maybe staying up late to watch the stars shine brightly in the summer sky, or return home from a family.
“Summer was our best season – everything good to eat, a thousand colors in a parched landscape.” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Last night all three of us went to a concert by the band Chicago. B and I listened to them in our youth and the songs were part of the soundtracks of us growing up. O got a glimpse of the music her parents listened to as they figured out how to be adults. It was a fun concert, and the band finished their performance with one of their best-known songs, “25 or 6 to 4”, for their encore.
It was a late night and we got home well past midnight.
We are up at the lake for the race, the famous canoe race. Canoe race weekend is an important time for us as a family and I have written about this weekend in past years. The canoe race is always the last full weekend of July.
The canoe race is begins in town and ends 120 miles down the Au Sable River in Oscoda, Michigan where the river empties into Lake Huron. For many, the race defines this town, but Grayling is much more.
the view from my perch at the table… I can see the lake and both feeders.. and Saturday morning’s gentle rain
The rivers have been important where trapping along the three rivers – Au Sable, Manistee, and Muskegon – which begin here in the Michigan Highlands was the first industry when Europeans arrived in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Grayling, the town, was established as a logging town when it was settled in the late nineteenth century. Logging, forestry, and wood products are still key industries in town, but tourism – hunting, fishing, and recreation – is the industry that sustains this little town near the headwaters of the Au Sable River.
When the pandemic began last year, the cottage along the lake was my hideaway. I spent the last two months of the 2019-20 school year teaching remotely from our place on the lake up here. I felt safer away from our densely populated home region. In many ways we were safer here – there are significantly less people in the county and the reported COVID cases were significantly lower here than our suburban county.
And because there are less people wildlife thrives and is more abundant in the absence of people.
During this time by the lake shore, the beginning of the pandemic, change, real lasting deep change, began for me and my family.
We spent more time paying attention to nature and spent more time walking. I walked more last year with my wife and kids than I remember. I also stopped listening to music, podcasts, or audio books when I walked and I started listening to the birds, the trees, and nature around me.
And, I have paid more attention to nature.
For Father’s Day, my wife gave me a couple for bird feeders and shepherd’s double crook to hang the feeders for our lake house. I placed it just off the deck where we can see it when we are sitting in the front room or on the deck. Continue reading Friday morning birding on Saturday→
