Mary as Marie / Bike Freedom Day

Today was the Wax Museum at the elementary school. All the fifth graders put on their costumes and got out their notecards and props, and stood in the hallway behind their desks as the parents and siblings walked around, pushing buttons to start the "presentations".

Mary performed as "Marie Curie".

She did quite a bit of research on Marie, so her presentation was very interesting. Cheryl helped put together the costume. Grandpa Green donated the lab coat. And I got to figure out how to make the "radium" glow in the beaker!

Mary was excited that Miss Susie (the Children's Minister from church) appeared, since she had been especially invited. Thanks, Miss Susie!

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It was very warm today; in fact, today is the warmest day so far this Spring. Seventy-four degrees!



There was no way on earth it was possible to just sit inside and do "work" on a beautiful day like today. I wasn't convinced it would ever occur again, regardless of what the weatherman said. This day must not be wasted! So I hereby declared it to be "Bicycle Freedom Day". And you know what that means!


Yes! It was time for the bikes to be "freed" from their winter prison! It was time to pull them out of the garage loft and set them on the ground and check their tires and tighten the bolts and oil the chains and get them in motion!



And then, it was time for me to jump on my bike and ride several miles to make absolutely sure that everything was working exactly as it should be! And for my first little bike ride of the season, I rode up to the high school (3 miles) and back (total=6 miles), even taking a side trail through the little swamp park nearby (yay! bike covered with mud! crossing creeks! soaking my socks and shoes!). What fun!

I can't wait til tomorrow so I can take another ride!

Another Road Trip with Adam

He's so intense when he drives. Does it really require that much concentration to drive these days? I can't remember what it was like to be a new driver; 1979 was a million years ago. But surely there were smiles, grins, laughter, something other than grim determination on my face during those first few long-distance drives.

There was some dramatic improvement in the entertainment on this trip. Adam brought along his MP3 player, and we hooked it up into the car's tape deck so we could listen to his favorite selections. As Navigator, it was my job to make sure the music played correctly. It was more relaxing than looking out the window at the traffic zipping around us.

To Adam was given the task of determining our destination. He chose Muskegon. I think he was hoping to go to the Lake shore, but the temperature, combined with the wind, would've made that somewhat uncomfortable, so we opted for the downtown area instead.

Downtown Muskegon was rather barren and empty, which was a surprise for a Saturday afternoon. I'd been visualizing crowds walking around the Square, enjoying the relatively warm day - but there was no one but us. It was eerie.

So we walked the Square, trying to make up for the missing crowds, posing with some statues, taking pictures of others. The Central Square is essentially a monument to the Civil War. The Square is surrounded by some very pretty buildings, most of which were funded by this gentleman named Charles H. Hackley, a "lumber baron, who applied his fortune during his lifetime to create a city of distinction. His gifts included a library, hospital, and art museum of the highest quality, the first kindergarten and the first manual training school in the state of Michigan, and the park towards which his bronze now gazes." [as stated on the plaque next to his statue]

It is a beautiful little town square, which makes it all the more sad to see it so empty. I sincerely hope something comes along to bring Muskegon back to fiscal exuberance.

"I consider that a rich man to a great extent owes his fortune to the public." - G.H.Hackley, August 18, 1900.

Mary Performs at the Universal Music Concert

Tonight was the Elementary School's "Universal Music Concert". Each class participated with unique songs from other countries, or about other countries.

Mary got to put on a hula costume and dance a Polynesian dance, sing a song about a Russian child, and then a final number about the "Fifty Nifty United States".

Here she is before the concert:



Here she is in her concert outfit:



And here she is demonstrating the Polynesian dance:

Have You Seen This Boy?

currently posted all over the place in the church building

LYL 086 again

The long winter is coming to a close, and the end of winter means that it is time to deal with the consequences of all the salt that was spread all over the roads to lower the freezing point of water. Salt and water and bare metal combine to form rust. Rust on cars is bad.


I hadn't been paying attention to the rust until a couple years ago, when the Corolla started to display signs of pitting. Back in Washington, little rocks and stones from the road would occasionally chip the top coat of paint and expose the primer underneath, but it was nothing to worry about because, generally speaking, the primer coat was still thick enough to keep the rust from forming.

But here in Michigan, half of the rocks and stones from the road are salt, or salt-encrusted, and the salt attacks the primer (and the bare metal) and causes the rust to decimate the cars. The Corolla was starting to look like it had a case of the measles! So as the warm weather started to return today, I decided to do something about it.

First I put the car up on the ramp. I don't like crawling under the car even if I'm laying on a sheet of cardboard. I've gotten seriously claustrophobic in my old age. Too many stories about guys who got crushed by their cars when they put them up on blocks or something wobbly to work on them. Not me! I want good solid ramps underneath before I'll crawl underneath to check out the exhaust system.


And it is the exhaust system that takes the worst beating from all the snow. The heat of the exhaust system is bad enough; it totally destroys any finish on the metal, and accelerates the oxidation process. In the case of the Corolla, the pipe just past the muffler had weakened enough that it broke, and the two sections separated by about an inch. Not having access to any real welding equipment, the best that could be done at this point was to drill holes in the sides of the pipe and tie them together with coat hanger wire, then wrap the whole thing with heat-activated fiberglass (this is fiberglass soaked in a heat-activated resin which hardens once the pipe gets hot) and hope it holds long enough to save up some money for an exhaust system replacement.


The trunk has three holes along the bottom where the spare tire is stored, two of which are tiny and one of which is nearly four inches long and an inch wide. I hadn't noticed them til midway through the winter, and by then the rim of the spare tire was sitting in a quarter-inch of standing water, completely rusted. I was puzzling over how to cover over these holes with something that would prevent rainwater from forcing itself up into the trunk compartment. Thought about screwing down some galvinized metal, thought about clamping two sheets of metal on either side of the holes, thought about using spray-foam. Then found some weatherstripping epoxy in the toolbox, so decided to cut some pieces of rubber from some sheets I had, then glue them down directly onto the metal using generous globs of epoxy. Used bags of aborbent kitty litter to hold them down (and soak up any moisture should the seals break), then placed the spare tire on top to keep the pressure on it while it cures.

Finally, I painted all the rusted spots with a special primer that binds to iron oxides and prepares it for real paint; and painted the bare metal spots I'd sanded with rust inhibitor. Next time I get the chance, I'll need to sand and refinish the rest of the rusted areas.


This is the price we pay for living in Michigan.

What Does It All Mean?

James was given an assignment to create a painting on canvas, and this is it. Can you figure out the deep, hidden meanings behind this image? If you can, you are well on your way to becoming a teen counselor. Can you see the angst? The horror of the present, coupled with the small hope for the future? Or do you just see a bunch of zombies tramping through New York City on their way past Central Park?

Engineering Day

It was "Engineering Day" at the Middle School, and The Company sent a contingent of engineers to the various Science classes to present some material [which had been blessed by The Company Lawyers] in order to promote the idea of Becoming Engineers.

Having two children in the Middle School, I quickly volunteered to present for one of the classes. In particular, the sixth-grade class. Actually, it turned out to be three periods in the same classroom, but that was fine because all the material was basically the same.

(I didn't do any presentations in my children's classes because I wanted to avoid any potential embarrassment.)

The presentation starts out by asking the kids, "What is an engineer?", then goes through all the things that an engineer does, the careers that are available to an engineer, the education required to become an engineer, and ends by showing all the products that The Company produces. There are two activities in which the students participate: a Slinky experiment, and a bridge-building exercise.

At the very end, two aircraft "Black Boxes" are handed around so that everyone can have a hands-on experience with real product.

For all that, the most fascinating item in the presentation was the radio-control mouse I'd brought from home. This is a toy which can be purchased in just about any pet store, a little mouse-on-wheels used to drive cats insane (it works!). It has particularly clever packaging: the base of the display case is also the radio control panel.

The kids thought it was hilarious.

Looney Runes

This Looney Tunes puzzle has been sitting in its can for many years, waiting for the right moment to come out and play. Puzzles are meant to be brought out and worked on at specific times of the year, when family is gathered around chatting around a table and hands are wanting for something to do while mouths and brains are otherwise engaged. Lately, Cheryl and the kids have been enjoying some puzzling activities, so it seemed the appropriate time to put it out on the table and see what came of it.

Didn't take very long to solve, actually. One of these days we'll glue it all together and frame it so we can hang it up somewhere in the house, like Grandma Downs used to do.



Every day the kids come home from school looking for snacks. Every evening, about an hour or two after dinner, they start talking snacks again. I don't recall when this tradition started, and it's probably not one of those traditions that's necessarily healthy for everyone. But it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm, especially those with the hollow-leg syndrome (James, you know who you are!).

Some days, Mom and Dad are feeling guilty about all the sugary snacks which are lying about, and insist that the children choose something else. There are always healthy choices available: apples, oranges, bananas, yogurt. And ... toast? Well, I suppose that's somewhat healthy, so long as one doesn't overdo the butter thing.

I bore the children to tears telling them about the time my sister and I stayed home from school to watch Sesame Street (ostensibly because we were ill); to soothe our misery, we ate an entire loaf of bread. We toasted every slice. As you can probably imagine, we weren't eager to repeat that experiment any time soon. The digestive system can only take so much abuse. My children look at me as though I've lost my mind. Who in their right mind would indulge themselves in such a gluttonous manner?



The girls enjoy learning how to cook treats. They like to have something fresh-baked to put in their lunches for the next day. Mary took on the task the other night. I don't remember what the snack was. Brownies? Cookies? Something like that. She looks cute in that apron, doesn't she? I like the way they just jump right in and decide to make something.



Cheryl is the Instructor in these little snacky adventures. She's got a million recipe books, full of all kinds of wonderful treats. So far, the girls are sticking to the one's they're familiar with. One of these days, though, they're going to get adventurous and try some of the more challenging ones. I can't wait. I love snacks!



Sometimes snacks help to make the other little chores a bit less tedious. Like homework. As the kids are getting older, the homework is getting more complicated. Adam likes his math homework; not sure if that's because he gets to use his fancy calculator, or if he just likes playing with numbers. Deb likes math as well, but she is much more concerned about getting it exactly right. She asks a lot of questions along the vein of, "What is the teacher asking for?" Many of the math questions were obviously written by someone who doesn't understand how completely ambiguous the English language can be. Ambiguity is something Deborah despises. I think she gets this from her Dad.