A Bad Memorial Day

Our weekend started out pretty bad and didn't improve a whole lot.


Arthur (our grand kids protector) was a big giant Chocolate lab who was as gentle as could be, the average weight for a lab is between 55 and 85 lbs, Arthur weighted in at 127 lbs and he wasn't fat just very very big and loveable.

Friday they dropped him of at the pet saloon to get his nails clipped, play with all his buddies there and end the day with a nice bath and shampoo, his idea of the perfect day. During his bath he collapsed and despite CPR, Mouth to Mouth and twenty minutes in the vets ER it was to late. It appears that it was a blood clot in the lungs

Arthur was loved by a lot of people and will be missed for a long time. .

RAIN-Rain-rain

We have been wanting to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and get some things done on the lot so we can just sit back and enjoy the some, notice I said wanting to, the weather just will not go along with our plans. In the last week we have had one day without rain and that day it got all the way up to 52 degrees, the nights have been dropping down into the low 30's and one night it went into the 20's.

I have managed to line up and electrician to wire up the grand kids shed/bunkhouse (my MAN CAVE) and he has a friend that does the additions to the shed so if all goes well I should have all of that done in the next few weeks and be ready for the kids when schools out.

With all this rain I was updating some of our travel website we use and figured I would list them, some are very helpful and others not so helpful but here they are:

http://www.discoverourtown.com

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America

http://www.museumstuff.com/museums/

http://www.factorytoursusa.com/

http://www.museumlink.com/

http://www.history.army.mil/museum.html

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/bystate.htm

http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/

http://www.civilwartraveler.com/

http://www.localharvest.org/

http://www.radio-locator.com/

http://www.roadfood.com/

http://www.festivals.com/

http://www.booksalefinder.com/

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/search/

http://www.freecampgrounds.com/

http://www.roadnotes.com/info/

Hope you find some of these useful.

The Thin Blue Line

Someone killed a policeman today and

A part of America died.

A piece of our country he swore to protect

Will be buried with him at his side.

The suspect who shot him will stand up in court,

With counsel demanding his rights

While a young widowed mother must work for her kids

And spend many long lonely nights,

The beat that he walked was a battlefield too,

Just as if he had gone off to war.

Though the flag of our nation won't fly at half mast,

To his name they will add a gold star.

Yep, somebody killed a policeman today

In your town or mine.

While we slept in comfort behind locked doors,

A cop put his life on the line.

Now his ghost walks a beat on the dark city street

And he stands at each rookie's side.

He answered the call, of himself gave his all

And a part of America died.

Detroit Police Officer Brian Huff Killed,

Four Other Officers Wounded.

This was the headlines I woke up to the Yesterday May 3rd,2010.

It's been a long time since I took off the uniform for the last time and pulled the pin, July 4th 1997 I declared my own personal Independence Day and retired after 25 years of service with the Detroit Police Department, but it still hits home when a Detroit Cop is killed in the line of duty, it's one of those things that you never get used to and I've had plenty of opportunities to get used to it. During my 25 years with the department their were 52 Officers killed in the line of duty, hell during my time in the academy and my first year on the street until I was confirmed as a REAL Policeman we experienced the worst time in Detroit Police history with 13 officers killed in the LOD. Needless to say my mother wasn't too pleased with my choice of occupation.

I didn't know everyone of the officers but I knew quite a few of them and three of them at one point or other were my scout car partners. You can leave the uniform behind but never the memories or the profession.

R.I.P. Brian

Homer, Michigan

If you drive down Main Street of downtown Homer Michigan (both blocks) you will see banners on all the street lights proclaiming that “Homer is Home” and so it will be for us for the rest of the summer.

We got back to Michigan early this year, normally we would still be in the Tennessee and Kentucky area trying to dodge all the floods and tornado's that have been hitting that area, it's been cold and wet but nothing to bad. We got her April 20th and since the park opens April 15th we're some of the first one here, we came up early so we could attend our grandsons Confirmation on the 23rd, then Grandparents day at our granddaughters school and a couple of baseball games and we've been staying busy.

Last fall be bought a lot in the Lighthouse Village Resort, we got it right at the end of the year and didn't really have time to do to much to it, there was a big Ash tree that was dead and they cut that down right before we moved in which let us with a big stump right in the middle of the yard. During the winter they ground the stump out but there is still a lot of roots to deal with, we decided that this will be the main garden area and hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have it pretty much filled in. Cathy started this week with about 20 small plants from Home Depot, it looked like a lot in the back of the car but once she had them spread out in the ground they didn't cover much.

Cathy's big project is getting the yard in shape, hopefully we'll find a few farmers markets where we can load up on flowers and shrubs cheap and my project is making the shed into a bunk house before schools out for the summer so there will be no more sleeping on an air mattress or couch. No not the kids, me, I'm the one that always get stuck on the short little couch because it's to short for the kids to sleep on comfortably but apparently it fits me perfect. So I'm going to make a MAN CAVE out of the shed so I can stretch out on a full size bunk while I'm watching the ball game on my flat screen TV with Direct TV hooked up and if I get thirsty for an ice tea I'll just have to reach into my refrigerator for one.
I feel a Tim Allen (the comedian) grunt coming on.

This what we came back to , where they ground out the tree stump. It doesn't look like much now but Cathy will have it looking great by mid-summer, the little green patches you see our the ones we picked up the other day, she'll be adding to it all summer and I'll post another picture of it when it's full.




This is our lot at LVR, we're on the very last row as far from the gate as you can get. The lot is about 85 feet deep and about 42 wide and there isn't a ton of elbow room but it fits what we were looking for very well. The neighbors on either side are only out here for the 3 holidays, about 1/2 the park use it on weekends and for their two week vacation and the rest of the park is snowbirds using it to visit family in the area. The park is a none profit co-op so the yearly association dues are very very low, the amenities of the park match just about any park in Florida. Pool, hot tub, sauna, two club houses (one adult one kids) putt putt golf,15 acre stocked lake with two beaches, the St Joseph river runs along the one border, six miles of roads for biking or walking and a lot of other stuff. Of course if you want to go to a grocery store it's a 25 minute drive through Amish country so you may be stuck behind a slow moving horse drawn wagon for a while.

This is the view from the front of our lot looking towards the lake, one of the things we like about this road is the open space across the road from us, they were going to put in more lots, they cleared the trees and graded it when the State stepped in and said no more lots, you've reached your limit for the EPA stuff. So we have no one across from us.

Good news on May 1st Michigan became the 38th state to enact a smoking ban in public buildings and locations, so now we can go to our favorite locations for lunch without having to race home to get out of our smoky cloths.