Huff and Puff

As promised, let me tell about all the excitement we've had this past week here in South Haven. With steady 40mph winds and regular gusts to 60mph, Lake Michigan was as angry as several of the old timers here had ever seen it.

Churning and boiling like a pot of jambalaya, the normally placid lake was angry as my wife when I interrupt her Wii game. Trying every few seconds to knock the smithereens out of the old lighthouse, Mother Nature drove the lake unmercifully. I figure collectively, the folks here in South Haven must have pissed off the old girl (Mother Nature not Sharon) someway and she needed to show the town who's boss.

Hugh waves rushed up the channel each like a Pacific tsunami, some over 4 feet above the blue safety rail along the channel. Just to give you some idea how high that is ... the normal channel water level is about 5 foot below the walkway that runs alongside the channel ... the rail is about 4 foot high so add another 4 foot or so at the peak of the waves and you have waves in the channel in excess of 13ft. It sure kept the local dinghy jockeys dockside.

Looking across to the North Shore beach, the end-loaders were busy trying to scoop up the blown sand that was piling up all along North Shore Drive. Steadily they worked to keep the road open but it was the home openers I felt a little sympathy for. Driveways were filled and I can only image the mess each owner had to clean. Great place to live if you don't mind a little sand in your shorts.

I quess it was just another day at the beach for the local gulls. With Pallisades nuclear power plant in the background, the little scavengers just hunkered down and looked for whatever tasty morsels of garbage were blown ashore.

So in our sheltered retirement life a little excitement broke out. No harm ... no foul. Except for the mess it left in my yard.

On another subject ...

Now and again we're asked what we do all day. It's sort of like they want want me to admit out loud that we don't do a thing all day... you know, maybe lay in bed till 10 ... get dressed at noon ... maybe take a short nap ... barely get up in time for happy hour at 4 ... stagger home and grill a dog or two for dinner... watch TV for a few hours ... surf the web for a couple of hours ... then turn in for the night. Well okay ... you caught us! So maybe we do do these things occasionally but, so what! To the victory goes the spoils ... right? After winning the work battle with over 40 years each, years of toil, some of our spoils are a little goofing off. No excuses ... and as the more we think of it, the more we wish we could have started sooner.

Now we've not done this all by ourselves. With the help of the LaForests, Tafts, VanderWalls, Isaacsons, Holts, Martins, Schrems, Hattos, Schlatters, Jajes, Evans, and the Murphys our summer has been filled with steady stream of friends and family checking in and verifying that we have indeed been goofing off. Thanks again gang ... it would have been boring without you. However you all better get your bags packed as we getting ready to hit the road again.

So gas up the Nash, call TWA for a reservation, and don't forget those $9.95 rooms at the Red Roof Inn and join us at our next stop.

Still livin' the dream,

Phil