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.