Pictures from Manistee: Day 1

Here are pictures from yesterday. Posts and pics from today yet to come.

The Tapley Family, my hosts in Manistee!

Sunset at Manistee North Pierhead (Douglass Park)

Sunset at Manistee North Pierhead (Douglass Park)

Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse

Manistee: Day 1

This will be a short post--sorry. I'm in a tent next to a railroad track (at a campground), it's 1:30am, and I'm online using a wireless network. Very strange.

Today was basically a long drive from Elyria to Manistee, and fortunately uneventful. I'm visiting my good friends, Chris and Kari, who are up here for a week's vacation. After I set up my tent, we went to their rental house, chatted for awhile, and then had a fabulous dinner in town. Oh, and I purchased a folding chair for my campsite. This evening, we had a campfire outside of their house. It was all very pleasant!

My brother called me today, too. When he realized I was in northern Michigan, he was wondering if the sun would be setting. To my surprise, it has not really gotten darker than twilight. We were looking at reflections of trees on the water well past midnight--an interesting phenomenon.

I'll offer a better re-cap of the Manistee trip--with photos--later. Just wanted to keep everyone informed. Not sure what days I will have internet access between now and Monday night, so bear with me.

Audio 01: BGSU Alma Mater

So, I'm slightly embarrassed by this post for two reasons. First, I'm pretty sure I've never publicly released any recordings of me singing solo (and I know I'm not very good). Second, I sang the lyrics incorrectly in the first verse, but only slightly.

The following is my solo recording of the Bowling Green State University Alma Mater, recorded August 2, 2010 while driving between Toledo and Elyria at night. Do not attempt this in your own vehicle.

[OK, no luck with uploading with current files/software configuration. So, you can download the file HERE]

Well, I may or may not attempt other songs for future posts. It seems like a fun thing to do on long drives (I'm already singing, so this just requires pushing an extra button). Maybe I can find some public domain pieces to avoid copyright issues ;-)

A Day with the PGA

I spent today with my dad at Firestone Country Club for a practice day of the Bridgestone Invitational. This was a first for me (being at a professional golf event) and the first time for my dad to share the experience with me. I think it was also the first time for my dad to go on a Tuesday, and also a first time to go in the rain.

I'm not really sure if I have much reflection from today, yet, except that it was a fantastic day walking and talking with my dad, and that these guys really are good! It is more apparent than ever to me that a good golf swing has more to do with focus than effort (although effort should not be undervalued).

I'm only going to post one picture here, and it's my dad standing near the #16 green:

I do welcome you to view the many other pictures I took today at my Facebook album (no Facebook account required--just follow the link).

I'm tired from a slight lack of sleep last night, but I need to get packed and ready for the road. Tomorrow, I head out to Michigan for five days. If I have a chance tonight, I'll post the audio file from last night's "road recording." Otherwise, that will be in the near future.

Tour Begins!

It's late, so I may need to post more from today at a later time. However, I'll do my best for the moment.

I started the day traveling to Bowling Green to take care of a few items, including the cashing in of 11 years worth of change (now gas money for the tour). While it was certainly time for that event, I added to the "time is now" tour by visiting a lawyer and drafting both a will and a living will. As a student at BG (through this coming Friday), I have access to free legal services through Student Legal Services, so I took advantage of the opportunity. I will actually finalize the documents by signing when I go back to BG next Monday. I'm glad to have this item off the list, and I look forward to not using either document!

I had lunch with my former grad student, Caitlin, which made me very happy as always. Then I played golf with Reggie, which also made me happy although I did not play well.

The tour kickoff was this evening--a cookout for my academic cohort at a classmate's house in Toledo. Below are just a few pictures from the event:

Part of the cohort with Dr. Mateso's dissertation!

Me trying to steal Dr. Mateso's dissertation

Meat. Grilled meat.

Although there wasn't a genuine "first time" event involved, this was a celebration and farewell for our first cohort member to earn the degree, Dr. Peter Mateso. It was definitely time to celebrate and to glean wisdom from Peter's experience before he goes back to Tanzania with his Ed.D. and dissertation in hand. It was certainly a good night for all of us!

I did not spend the night with my host, Gretchen, since I have an early morning departure from my parents' house on Tuesday morning to an event in Akron.

The drive back was long and dark, and I had trouble staying awake...UNTIL...I discovered my portable recording studio! I'm traveling with an audio recorder, so I decided to formally turn my car into a mobile recording studio. I will get the audio posted tomorrow, and I expect to have more clips in the future.

OK, I really need to go to sleep.

Out of the Apartment!

Today was the day, and the ups and downs continued just as with the earlier days this week. I'll spare the details here, but thanks to Reggie Shouse for coming to my rescue...again!

I had way more stuff still hiding in corners and cubbies than I realized before. Still, the 10x21 storage unit kept welcoming me back. Here are some views at the end:

A few from the ground

A view from "above" holding the camera above my head

Yes, that's all my stuff, spanning 21' deep. Well, everything there is mine, but I actually have more--an entire car (floor to roof, dash to bumper) full AND a decent load of non-perishable food that my parents moved earlier this week. Hard to believe!

So, I'm out of the apartment and in Elyria tonight--it feels good. I'll be back in BG on Monday to take care of some business and play some golf (note: golf is "free" with my student membership--I'm not paying for golf, yet), and then start the Bum Tour at a cookout with my academic cohort. I'll try to encourage someone there to try something new as an official start to the "The Time is Now" Tour as well.

Oh, and my MacBook is fixed and back in use, so I'm online and mobile!

I need sleep. More soon!

Exhausted

This has become one of the most exhausting moves ever...and I move frequently. This is my 3rd move in 3 years, and my 8th move in 15 years. Seriously, I'm beat.

In all honesty, I would probably be dead or crying in a corner somewhere if I did not have such amazing friends. I just can't do it alone, and some year I will remember that fact in advance.

Everything is coming together. The apartment is 99% empty, I'll run a few more things to storage in the morning, deliver items to Goodwill, pack my road trip items in the car, and get the place cleaned before the carpet cleaners arrive (hopefully). Then it's off to my parents for the weekend.

Still no laptop--I hope it's ready on Monday when I come back into the vicinity. In the meantime, I may not have any updates (but my parents do have multiple computers, so we'll see).

The phone interview with MIT went as well as can be expected. Everything else yesterday did not go as expected: Budget transferred my truck reservation to a dealer 27 miles away without telling me, I lost a few hours of daylight packing, it felt like about 120 degrees with 90% humidity while packing the truck, the truck was just barely large enough, and the storage unit was just barely large enough (pictures forthcoming). Plus, I had to pull in a friend to unload the truck at 7am this morning in order to get the truck back on time (ran out of time last night). Oh, and it rained, but that did not really mess anything up.

All that being said, it still could have been worse...much worse. It would have been much worse without friends to help. Thanks, friends!

I took a break today and played a round of golf (perhaps my last free round on my student membership--time will tell). I also had two good meals today.

For any hosts on the tour, my books are printed and I'm looking forward to sharing copies with you all. Until then, I need to finish in Bowling Green and get on the road. Cheers!