Abandonment

Yet another story of a good building gone bad, once it's abandoned.

Today, in the Detroit Free Press, is an article about the abandoned Highland Park (MI) Municipal Building complete with a slideshow from forgottenmichigan.com.

Visitors to the abandoned building reveal in photographs the decaying state of parts of the building. What surprises me, as in any urban exploration tale I read like this, is just how much stuff is left behind. Items of all types such as old police records and even old guns are in plain sight for the taking.

Rather than commenting further, let me take you to the page in the newspaper. Right here.

Time to try something new...

I've been following the Sudoku craze for some years now. I've seen the many variations used but what I saw today tops all that...

Called "KenKen" (not to be confused with TomTom GPS devices), it is the latest twist to Sudoku. Using the cover of the magazine pictured here, a 6 x 6 grid is created. As before, only numbers 1-6 (in this example) is used and the placement is determined by how the numbers create a math problem whose solution is shown in certain adjacent squares.

Using one of the cover's examples, one would need to find out how 3 squares added together using only 1-6 to come up with 13 and where they fit. The puzzles in the magazine start out easy and get harder the further in the book you go.

I'll keep y'all appraised as to my progress (or lack of) in this book.

By the way, if you stumble across this blog entry and your name is Ken, sorry this isn't about you. And I do know a Ken that could potentially read this entry.

1st visit to... Midland's new Qdoba

This is a restaurant I've been wanting to check out since it opened here in Midland a few months ago - Qdoba Mexican Grill. Rather than indulging myself on Fat Tuesday pastries and get immensely fat later, I decided to try this place out.

Located adjacent to the Midland Mall, Qdoba is in a standalone building that it shares with Petsmart. It is the former Toys R Us building.

I arrived just after 1pm after all the lunch crowd went back to work. There were a few people left over enjoying what was left of their lunch but no one in line. That allowed me time to scan the menu and pick what I want.

I chose the fajita Ranchera Burrito with chicken. The description in the menu says: "red onions, bell peppers and our zesty Ranchera sauce (no beans)." That actually worked that way. I loaded it up with extras and also the 2nd hottest salsa they had there (I'll go for the hottest one next time). Complete with a fountain drink, I ended up paying $8.03 for my meal. And don't let the picture fool you, this is a meal in and of itself.

Being only one of a few people there, I had my pick of seats. I chose one of the tables over the benches only because the benches were snug though spacious (family size).

I ate my meal and decided to wait a few minutes before leaving. I took a few photos pretending I was doing something on my phone (which I was - surfing the web). Then I left. I plan on coming back again sometime and try something else.

Grade - A (plenty of choices for a meal in and of itself). Only demerit was the fixed bench seating.

The face of cars (revisited)

It's time to revisit the blog entry where I mention about how it seems like cars have faces anymore (the original Dodge Neon, etc). To further prove my point, here is a co-worker's Chrysler Town & Country minivan.

Think about this one: The headlights are the eyes, the grille is a sizable nose, that long slit at the bottom (between the fog lamps) is the mouth, and the two narrow slits above that and below the grille could be considered a moustache.

See it?

In Memory of Socks

I have some sad news to report. It has come to my attention that one of the more colorful characters of the Clinton White House has passed. Well, maybe not colorful as he had only 2 colors.

Socks the Cat had to be put to sleep at age 18 following a brief illness. For the official article posted on Yahoo! News, read below...

Socks, the Clintons' White House cat, dies

Sleep

Would someone explain this, please...

I can go to bed at night, sleep for many hours, dream lengthy dreams, and when I find myself waking up I think it's close to sunrise and therefore it's almost time to get up. When I turn over to look at the clock on my phone, it's usually been (at the most) about three hours since I went to bed.

This has happened more than once. As one would expect, the idea is worse this time of year because of the later sunrises.

Floyd Church Adult Winter Retreat Part 1 - Storm before the Calm

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” - naah, sounds too much like a chiché .

“It was a dark & stormy night”. - not even close. It was too nice this weekend.

Here’s the basics. I attended my church’s annual Adult Winter Retreat this last weekend at the Springs Christian Camp near Gladwin, MI. That’s the easy part. The hard part is coming up with the spin to put on it.

Do I share how it was a life changing experience? About how I managed to sled down the hill around 10 times this year? About how I managed to look iky in front of my friends playing some silly game in the Friday night follies? Or do I share about my victorious conquest in this year’s Carpetball tournament?

Answer: No. Because none of it happened.

My main goal of the weekend was to relax for a while because that’s exactly what I needed, and that I ate a lot. That’s the spin this’ll take.

My workweeks start on Wednesday, and I knew right away something was up. I started to develop a case of the sniffles and started coughing and sneezing more. I knew I needed to shake this right away before Friday rolled around. Which, by the way, did not happen.

When I put in to take that Saturday off, I thought nothing of Friday night. I figured I’d end up working til 7 then go home, get my stuff together, feed the cat, then drive up there possibly catching some of the Friday night activities. That’s exactly what happened except 7:00 ended up being just past 8:30 because we were extremely busy. Oh, and did I mention that when I went to Burger King afterward to get a quick bite to eat that my order was goofed up.

Everything was settting itself up for a long evening.

I arrived by 11:15, the last to arrive for the night. The Friday night follies had long finished (which I could care less about anyway) and many had settled into their rooms for a short night’s sleep.

My mother had previously called me already and let me know that we would be rooming together. Another youth group was using the rooms we’d normally use separately and I guess that probably meant we’d be using one of the married couples rooms.

Much to my surprise when I dragged myself and my stuff in that the room we were using was roughly a couple hundred square feet in area more than that of my house. The bunks in the room were arranged in a way that it look like we had two separate huge rooms.

After visiting with a few people and getting settled in, I decided it was time for a long deserved bedtime. It was around 12:15am.

Floyd Church Adult Winte Retreat Part 2 - Time to Relax

For our church’s stay at The Springs in 2009, the cost was a mere $98. This is a bargain by any standard. But by the magic of fundraisers (bake sales, etc.), the cost was lowered to a mere $75 per person.

Now just what does one get for that $75. Two nights of sleep in our rooms, or in my case two nights in my “house” (see previous entry). $75 also went toward the five meals we were treated to. Each of these meals is expertly prepared by the very talented chef Meredith and her crew of expert, um, volunteers.

I won’t go into detail about the meals except for one - Saturday afternoon’s pizza meal. I’ve worked with pizza for the last 10 ½ years. I guess that makes me an expert, right? Well, maybe in pizza whose toppings and dough and cheese and sauce are sent to us from other places and is made exactly the same way every single time - the cookie cutter approach. But I do know good pizza when I taste it, and The Springs makes pretty darn good pizza.

Several kinds of pizza were offered to us in both round and square varieties. I found later the round crust was made onsite while the square was already premade. This explains why the cheese and the pepperoni pizzas whose sizable slices I enjoyed were understandably my favorites. The taco pizza was good, though I felt something was lacking about it. What surprised me was the one pizza that impressed more people than anything else - the chicken alfredo pizza. That was actually pretty good with real chicken chunks and a good sauce. I can actually see why my employer stopped offering its own c.a. pizza, because it was rather tame by Springs standards.

Now, no church winter retreat wouldn’t be complete without services wouldn’t it? Isn’t it an amazing coincidence that during an adult retreat held during Valentine’s weekend that the focus of discussion would be on relationships? No, really! Being the only single guy there amongst all the married couples, divorced, and widowed people I should have (and probably did) seen this coming.

First on deck. Saturday’s morning service was led by the youth pastor of the Faith United Church of God in Grand Rapids - Matt Stone. To any Floyd Church alumni that read this, it is that Matt Stone. Matt and his wife Kristin joined us where he led a discussion about “…beginning and new relationships in our lives”. These are the words copied from the program and not my own. Not having seen much of Matt’s growing up, it’s nice to know that the kids we do know now eventually grow up.

I wish I could say how great the evening service was that night led by church member Kevin Kindy. I’d be totally lying to you because I wasn’t there. I decided to take temporary leave after dinner to take care of a few things at home, such as the feeding of the cat.

This leads to the rest of the day. Ah yeah! That original plan was to get some rest and take it easy. Easily done. While Friday for me was working with the craziness of the real world, Saturday was simply R&R for want of a better term. During the afternoon free time, I checked in with what was happening around the building and was simply starting to tire of it. Did I mention earlier that I wasn’t feeling well headed into the weekend? I decided it was best to do my own thing, you know the photography thing, a little reading and a few games on my own.

Come to think about it, that’s how the evening went after I returned to camp. Activities were split between watching the movie “Fireproof” and the annual carpet ball tournament. Me, well I was simply content in doing my own thing such as reading in bed (a rather dangerous activity).

What can be better than this?

Floyd Church Adult Winter Retreat Part 3 - Time to Go Home

All good things must come to an end… Or how about the song I heard as a kid about having to come down from the mountaintop experience back down into the real world. Whatever the favorite way to express it eventually any good adult retreat held at the Springs must come to an end.

First up, the sun. Sunday had the only visible sunrise that weekend. Out with the camera and in search for a good spot to shoot. In previous years, I sought out the most likely spot that would have an open view of the sunrise. Sunday, I chose a spot in my own room to take pictures of the sun coming through around a bunch of branches. In other words, I chose a spot that would stretch my skills as a photographer a little further. And it worked. Some of my best sunrise photos came out of that shoot. I can honestly say this though this photo doesn't show it.

One more service to go… Sunday’s service was led by former Floyd Pastor, Jim Shanks. Pastor Shanks has been Senior Adults pastor at cross-town church Eagle Ridge Church of God for the last 15 years. But he, and his wife Maudie, still feel connected with the folks at Floyd and thus were able to join us for the whole weekend. The printed material says he talked about “sustaining relationships in our lives”. What I will walk away from that service with is the realization that Pastor Shanks actually tells funny jokes. This is the same person who my sister says she can almost predict what he says next.

We all packed our things and loaded our vehicles up for the trip home. We all had our laughs at one last meal. Then that was it. Time to leave. I purchased a new ball cap then waited until almost everyone was gone before taking leave myself.

What a beautiful place that God has given Michigan. This is a wonderful place that has a wonderful ministry, not only for the people that have retreats here but for other programs such as the annual summer camps. I look forward to coming back here as often as I can for many years to come and watch this place grow and develop.

An aerial shot of The Springs, from Yahoo Maps…

Visit The Springs website à http://www.thespringscamp.com/

Who am I?

Who am I?

I am a rear-drive subcompact from Chevrolet. I was made from 1976 to 1987. I started out life as a 3-door hatchback but for '78 a 5-door hatchback was added. My standard engine averaged in the upper 20's mpg (under 2008 standards) but the really optional limited edition diesel engine in the early 80's pushed that number well over 30 mpg. Forget about optional equipment. I was sparcely equipped but that didn't stop nearly 2.8 million of me produced through those years (more if you count my nearly identical sister car at Pontiac from 1981 to 1987). I was about as basic as you get in a car. Oh, if you set a 3-door '76 and '87 model of me next to each other they're essentially the same (only the grille and taillights were different).

Figured it out yet?

I am the Chevette...

(79 3-door pictured)

This really was about as basic as you get. No frills and even fewer thrills. And it was still a decent car for the time period. I know that since my late grandfather had 2 ('78 & '85 3-door models) and they served him well for many years.

It's been 22 years since the last one rolled off the assembly line yet they're still around. In recent weeks, I've seen at least 3 driving around or through Midland which isn't bad at all. What this shows me is this: 1) Chevette owners are an obviously loyal group or insane group. They'd clearly have more than one of these models handy which leads to... 2) They are obviously still easy to maintain after all these years with parts readily available from their junk Chevettes within arm's reach.

Today's generation of subcompacts are generally more safe to drive, better equipped with luxury features, and get just as good or slightly better gas mileage on a front drive platform. Get them on a race track next to a quarter century old Chevette though and I think the Chevette can still teach them a thing or two.

What to do when it is too late!!!

I've been wanting to do this entry for two weeks, but I only found my notes for this in the last few days. Let me set this up...

In addition to what I do at my home church, I maintain a foot in the door at the previous church I went to since I still know a lot of people there. How I do this is attending one of the church's small groups that meet, usually, every other week. The current focus of the group is studying and disecting the pastor's sermon from that morning. I'm usually at a disadvantage since I never hear the sermons unless I'm given a copy of the sermon in advance.

That week's sermon was from a story in the book of Jeremiah that I don't recall ever reading. All points that follow are not mine but belong to the pastor that gave the message. The commentary is mine though...

1. Real hope begins when other options have been taken away. In chapter 32 verse 2, the Babylonian army is at Jerusalem's front door and Jeremiah is watching events unfold from his jail cell at Jerusalem Gitmo. It's the end of the world and Jeremiah is watching his options fly out the window faster than a fender rusting on a Chevy Vega. What options does he have left, wait and see?
2. Real hope is not always popular. The next set of verses (3-5) tell us the reason Jeremiah is in jail is because of his delivery of an unpopular message to the king - your kingfullness, Jerusalem is about to be destroyed. It's a common fact that doing the right thing is not always popular, so I sense that doing the right thing is where real hope begins and is the option left to us in such circumstances? Next, God tells Jeremiah what to do next.
3. Real hope must be acted upon. Jeremiah is in jail and the city of Jerusalem is about to fall. What does God tell Jeremiah to do next? Buy a thousand shares of GM stock? Starting in verse 6, God tells Jeremiah to buy land. The text goes into detail as to the steps that go into buying land, but the message is clear - look past the Babylonian army and find hope for the future in your own country and land.
4. Real hope must be explained by anyone who has it. In verses 37 to 40, God promises a future for his people in the land even though it looks like the end of the world to them now. One day, Jeremiah's family will occupy the land that he had just bought.

The sermon closed with a couple of questions. 1) Is there some property (not necessarily land) that you need to buy? Is there something God needs us to have done looking past the sour economy and falling stock prices in the process? 2) Is there someone in your life who only sees the Babylonian army outside the walls? Face it, all of us know at least 1 pesimist amongst us.

Free Grand Slam Day

I braved snow, ice, cold, and the presence of TV reporters but I did it. I decided to take advantage of Denny's Free Grand Slam Day today.


I made it to the closest Denny's in Saginaw right around noon. It was later than I planned but I found out that was actually a good idea. There was a line headed out the door and down the sidewalk but at 6am the line stretched much further than that.

I had to wait outside for approximately an half hour for enough people to leave. A television reporter from the local ABC affialate was talking with various people. That's how I found out that at least 1 person just in front of me actually came from New Zealand to be here today.

Security people were handling the flow of traffic into and out of the building, which I noticed as I approached the building. I was eventually seated at the bar stools next to others who had been waiting for a while.

By the time I got my meal, another half hour later, more people left and others replaced them. I just went on my way and ate my Grand Slam. As you can see in the photo, it was worth the wait.

A couple dollars worth of tips for the waitress, and I was on my way by 1:30 pm. I should come back some time...

There really is such a word!

We hear the word all the time anymore and we all know what it means. Yet the word only has been around for a short while.

The word: Ginormous

I don't know if it has a dictionary entry yet, but I actually saw the word on the item pictured below while visiting a dollar store last week. I guess that makes it official.

Matt Millen Warning Label!!

It was almost like that. Citizens of Detroit and fans of NFL's Lions are not about to forget former team President Matt Millen anytime soon.

WDIV, Detroit's NBC affialate, actually got creative anytime Millen appeared in the Superbowl Pre-Game Show.

Read the Monday Detroit Free Press article to find out what happened!!!

Lee Township - City water is another step closer...

I saw this on my way home today. A bunch of piping for a waterline sitting on a lot at the corner of M-20 and Meridian roads. Most people probably didn't notice them and the guy behind me at the stoplight was probably wondering what I was taking a picture of.

But what this tells me is this: Lee Township is another step closer to bringing its residents something they have wanted for decades - city water.

I am so looking forward to this. While we have better quality of water than many of our neighbors, it is because of an extremely shallow well in our yard.

What this means? During any dry spell, we have to set limits in our home as to how much water we can use from any water source. Try imagining only being able to flush the toilet once a day and you can see how the arrival of city water will help out during those dry spells.

Can't wait!!!

I know the temperatures need to warm up - at least this beats Hell!

Don't you love this. You can find this sign near Walgreens in Eastlawn Plaza on S. Saginaw Road in Midland.

This sign has been problematic since it was installed some years ago. I recall one summer that whenever the sign looped around and displayed the time and temp, it was usually a different temperature each time. I chuckled at the time (even though I never got a photo) because the temperature sometimes varied by hundreds of degrees in each time I saw the temp.

Nowadays, each time the temperature is displayed it is usually 505 degrees.

I kinda miss the wild fluctuations. What is it they say about Michigan weather? Wait five minutes and the weather will change. The temperature will change too.

Ground Rules - Papa John's Unlimited Topping Pizza

Some of you in the tri-cities may have received this ad from Papa John's in the mail today (02.02.09).

I need to share with you, as an employee who will be taking your phone calls, some ground rules per se.

• Please read the fine print. There is a limit on the number of topping you can put on any one pizza. Online - the limit is 7 items. The amount available on phone orders will vary by franchise. In our franchise, the limit is also 7 items. The reason for a limit is that a pizza will have a tough time cooking all the way through if there are too many items. If a pizza leaves the store not fully cooked, this is a violation of many states' health codes.
• Please do not ask your order taker for more items than allowed - there is no way they can do this. With most stores' computer systems, the computers are programmed and locked at up to a certain number of items.
• Please do not harass your phone operators and/or managers of said stores. We are the ones implementing this special based on criteria given us by the higher ups - in other words, corporate.

No matter the number of items allowed, this is a very good special. In our franchise the price of a large 7-item pizza (with 6% tax) is almost $27.00. It is (along with several other specials we have) something I think you should take advantage of.

Laugh-In's amazing predictions

Follow the link below to a "Laugh In" clip on Youtube from 1969. It seems their "News from the Future" segment was actually accurate in a couple of instances.

Laugh-In Link