Road Trip

I woke up at 5:50 AM on Saturday. Scruffy was sleeping at the foot of the bed, so I grabbed the cat brush and started to brush him (he’s been looking a little bedraggled). I didn’t expect him to thank me, but I didn’t expect him to turn around and bite me in the wrist, either!

So, the first thing I did after getting out of bed was to wash the wound with peroxide and put a big bandage on it. Then I put on a pot of coffee.

I posted the Blog entry and a photo. Next I filled out and printed this weekend’s ToDo list. Then I went through the usual morning routine, watching a few episodes of the Rifleman.

I dawdled long enough that it was almost 10:00 PM when I hit the road.

First stop was Home Depot when a nice young man got and loaded six bags of mulch for me. Then I drove onto I-96 and headed for Telegraph Road.

By a happy happenstance, I had found there is a Joann Fabrics on Telegraph and Long Lake Road. So, I stopped in and spent a long time searching for just the right pattern. I want to make a new pad for the back of the rocking chair. I didn’t have a “specific” pattern in my mind. I just looked at heavy duty cloth over and over again until I found some that reminded me somehow of the various pads on the rocker backs when they were still on the cottage porch.

Not knowing how much my friendly seamstress will need, I got two yards of it. Then I bought a two-inch foam pad measuring 16” x 24” and two zippers (one 16 inch and one 18 inch – I’m not sure which one she will need to use). Now, the original ones didn’t have zippers, but I have long-haired cats.

Back in the car, I headed north again. I was going to the cottage to take that photo I needed. It was still overcast, but the clouds were breaking up some. My biggest fear at that point was that I would get there and they would have already started renovations, making taking the photo useless.

I took the way I always have since I moved to Redford: Telegraph to Square Lake; Square Lake to I-75; I-75 to Lapeer Road (or M24); Lapeer Road to Clarkston Road (right next to the Lake Orion Kmart) Clarkston Road to Sherry Drive (just past the dentist office) and then Sherry Drive until it dips down to Heights Road and ends, right at the beach across from the cottage.

Unfortunately, just after Summit Drive, where it dips, there were “no parking” signs. And the fence across the road at the beach was right tight next to the road. So, I turned right and turned around in the Waconda parking area. Note: nothing outside or at least visible had been done. Whew! I drove back to Sherry Drive and went up a little ways to Summit Blvd where I could park.

Then came the thrill of walking down a steep hill on cracked and uneven pavement. I have never had to use the brakes that many times before, but the damn walker kept trying to get away from me! I like to think of myself as a freewheeling kind of guy, but that was ridiculous!

I finally was on the beach (I had to abandon the walker when I got to wet sand). Two mallard ducks standing on the beach looked at me with disgust, got into the water and slowing paddled away. But, they are in the first photo I took.

I took shots at various angles and places until I thought I had enough to work with. Then I retrieved the walker and went back up the hill to Summit Drive (not easy and hard on the legs and lungs). Man, that little hill never seemed so steep when I was driving!

Since I don’t think I’ll ever be back in Lake Orion again (The house on River Road taught me that: You can never go back and you really shouldn’t try!), I drove through town for one last time. They’ve done a great job of renovating the original town, but instead of seeing what was there, I kept thinking about what used to be there when I was a kid.

Hell, I can remember when my Dad used to have to drive to Oxford just to go to a hardware store!

I drove down a few side streets in town and those houses with their arbors and picket fences do still largely look the same. I laughed when I passed the restaurant at Atwater on my way back south. That used to be a big lumberyard next to the train tracks and it was called Skunk Road back then.

Turning my back on nostalgia, I turned the car around and headed for home. I was hungry and had to pee, so I stopped for lunch at the Big Boy on Telegraph, just north of 8-Mile. And that reminded me of how Lu, the kids and I would sometimes stop there and pick up a strawberry pie or two on the way to visit Bob and Lu's Mother in Redford. Memories can be sneaky!

I finally got back home and back to the present at 1:30 PM. I checked the odometer and I had put 72 miles on the car!

I took off my clothes and got casually dressed, put all my work clothes in the washer, took off my brace, took a pain pill and laid down for a rest.

B___ called and we talked a while, catching each other up. He said he had gone out at midnight with his camera and tripod and got some great shots of the "super moon" Friday night. I asked him to email me one, and we discussed my photo project. He gave me some helpful hints on photo retouching. Then we hung up and I hung up the shirts and pants.

At 4:00 PM, I put my brace back on and went outside. I slid each of the mulch bags over the lip of the trunk and half into the wheelbarrow, where I used the razor knife to slit it open. I used all the bags of mulch doing the front garden (the only one left to do) and still need one more! But it looks damn nice.

I filled in the holes I dug yesterday with leveling sand and found I needed one more bag of that, too.

I relocated the bird feeder, the bird bath and the can of bird seed to the concrete slab by the fire pit (that reminded me I still have to finish burning those diaries). I took down the last suet cage and hung up the wind chimes.

I was done working outside (well, I was tired out, I should say) around 5:30 PM, so I spent some time putting tools away, closing gates, etc. Back inside, I washed my hands and folded the rest of the laundry from the dryer. I noticed I had tracked in bits of mulch on my socks, so I swept the kitchen, hallway and bedroom floors with the electric sweeper.

I wasn’t hungry just then, so I drank two glasses of apple juice while I filled the Blog post in to date. Then I played around with the photos. I finally picked out the best three and started changing one from color to sepia tones. I need it to look old and grainy, you see.

By then it was too late to watch the news, so I watched a couple of DIY shows until an old favorite movie, “Navy Seals” came on. I watched that until it ended.

I forgot to mention I finally finished that huge book, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” but I did Thursday night. So, I switched to reading the book Jake sent me. George Carlin is a very weird (but very funny) guy... Very weird...

I, too, went outside on the front porch in my bathrobe around midnight. I didn't want to take a picture of the "super moon," I just wanted to see it. But the clouds had it socked in. So, I went back in and back to bed.