This past week involved a lot of sleepless nights for some reason. I really do wish that I knew what brought me to these sleepless nights, and a better way to get through them. Maybe I just need to hit the sleeping pills earlier. I can understand the days that I take a nap, that all makes sense, but otherwise, not so much sense. Tuesday was a lazy day around the place, and I was really wanting to go out for some wings over at B-Dubs, and somehow I guess that Nate was reading my mind. I got a call and we went out to grab some wings and a brew or 2. I was happy to make it out of there alive after cheering the Sox to the victory over the Tigers. It was nice to make it back out for 30 cent wings out there. I really didn’t do too much during the day on Wednesday, though the evening brought me baack to the way things used to be. I had my first Abby date in a while, and we went to see Anchorman and went for dinner at the Olive Garden. The movie was absolutely hilarious, and dinner was excellent as always.

Thursday held not much for me other than a little work. There wasn’t too terribly much to do at work, but I did get to address a few things with Tom about hours and whatnot. I find that I will be working pretty good Labor Day weekend, Thursday, Friday and a double on Saturday. Which should give me the time I wanted to go out to Owasippe for at least part of the weekend, this will work better than the Sat and Sunday afternoons that I had originally planned. After work, I had agreed to go pick up KT and Pam from the airport and take them to Pam’s man’s house in Standale. That was a bit enjoyable to see them again. As a thank you I received a bottle of Mexican Tequila, that I guess barely made it back across the border through customs. I was also informed that I need to come out to State and pay a visit out to a few people. I could not fall asleep later that night, I don’t know why, but I didn’t end up falling asleep till almost 6am. Though I did get through most of a copy I made of the Last Samurai. I was finding out the how well a piece of software worked to backup DVDs.

Friday I went out to take care of a few things, I got a haircut, so I feel a little better now. After having issues with my phone when I got up, and was going to have the Nextel place look at it and see what was wrong, but I was again got full service when I pulled from the complex, onto my beautiful GRAVEL ROAD. I stopped at the mall to check for a book at Barnes and Noble, but they did not have either that I was looking for. I did run into vanbergs and vanlandw. That was interesting. The parking situation at the Mall is out of control, they have closed over half the parking deck and the ground level, I would assume they are going to level it out a bit, but who really knows for sure. I’m sure if I had read the signs it might have given away some clue. Anyhow, I was getting deep into the Bears game on radio 780 and the Sox online and radio 1000. After a while I realized I was a bit late in getting out to Mulligan’s I was having way too much fun with my Chicagoland sports. That was a good time, good to get back out there, with a nice small group of people. Fun to see that birthday girl get ripped, and just chat with everybody.

After about an hour and a half of sleep, I had to go into work. There was really nit much going on at work, I was able to get some work done and then I got really slow, so I watched the first 6 hours of 24 season one. After work I caught some TV, and got mentally prepped for the GV game. After I caught a half hour nap, Abby showed up and we headed out to Big Rapids. We got up there about 45 minutes before game time, so we went and grabbed some Grinders over at the Scoreboard. After that we went to the game. It was a great time and always nice to see the Lakers play, even better to see them win. And it was all capped off by hearing that Saginaw lost their opener. So that already boosts GV up ahead of SVSU in the GLIAC and overall. To make the evening even better, we listened to part of the Sox game on the ride back to GR from BR, and they won, so that was a good night.

Today was undeniably boring at work, I got 3 phone calls. I had to re-establish connectivity to 7 servers after I was finally able to locate them in the Data Center. I caught another 6 episodes of season one of 24, bringing my halfway through the first season. After work I came home and watched some TV, and I wanted to go to the Polish fest, but I was so wiped, I passed out and back in and out from 4 - 9. I was tempted to go back to 80s night, but not this week. IT would have been fun with The Bamms and a few others, but I really didn’t want to go out drinking tonight, and why would I go to a bar if I didn’t want to drink. So here I sat and paid some bills, and just relaxed. I should hit the sleeping pills soon so that I can fall asleep at a decent hour, as it is 1:00 already.

Where to start, I have become lax in my updates to this site. I can’t say that I am entirely sad/disappointed in this, but maybe more of a lacking desire. I haven’t had the reason to update lately, I enjoyed my week with the family. As I recall, I last updated while watching the Olympics last Sunday morning. Since then not too terribly much has happened. I went out with Al every night that I was in town, and got to see Beth and Elizabeth again out at the bar. For a change I also went out with another lady while in, I hadn’t seen Kelly since Christmas when we went out for lunch before I had to come back up here to work. I was really just happy to see some old friends and go out with them and just chat a bit, I wish I had more time to do that, but such is life that it rarely allows for that to happen. I discovered that I really did not like the Bloody Mary’s at Bourbon street, though the ones that I am having as I write this a lot better, just some Mrs T’s Bold and Spicy Mix and some Vodka.

After traveling back up to Grand Rapids, I did little but work for the next 4 days. I was simply quite exhausted while I was not at work, so I just laid around and slept. I am very thankful that football season is kicking off again. I will watch just about any game that is on the tele. I really cannot wait to catch a Bears game on TV, and hopefully soon I will have the NFL network in my lineup. On the plus side the Bears have won their first 2 preseason games, and the look very good in their performances from what I see, or hear rather. I am really getting disgusted with the play of the White Sox, they seem to steadily be on the decline ever since the All Star Break. I have caught some of the Olympic games, and am amused at what I see, most notable I was really happy to see Tyler Hamilton and Boby Julich medal in the Men’s road time trial, with the absence of Lance, I was happy to see the Americans taking the Gold, though a little disappointed to see us not take the road race.

Last night at Billy’s was a great time, 80s night. I can’t say that I knew what to expect, and I had fun. I met some new people and had some fun, I was even convinced to come out onto the dance floor after a few pints. I was a bit disappointed to not meet a girlie there, but such is life, I will take Jeff’s advice next time, wear the ring on the left hand and see what the women say to a married guy. In any case it was nice to go otu with Darrin and Jenn tonight, to have some time to just shoot the shit. I really cannot wait until Abby gets back up here because I really do miss her, the dates, and just having someone around that I can always count on. If all goes well, we will go out Friday night as well as attend the opening football game up at Ferris. I did post some pictures from up camping at Wilderness and Taqhamenon Falls, I still have some from the Sox game and othe things to post. But check those out in the gallery.

So many things happen in life, some things affect us for the better, some for the worse. It was definately a rough time to go and get things switched around and work a second followed by a first shift, but that was good enough to get me time off to make it in for a wake and funeral. I was already planned to be out on Sunday, so things kind of worked out. It was nice to see some of the family out at the event, but not under the best circumstances. I would still like to take Dorothy’s request and run into Fred and Sue, maybe for lunch or something. After the family time on Friday night, we visited the Station restaurant and brewery in Flossmoor, it was good food and good brews, what more do you need to relax after a long day. Saturday after the funeral, time was spent getting the entertainment center together at the new house, running some voice and data lines to different locations around the house.

After getting out of the house after getting most of the entertainment center together, I headed to pick up Al from his place. We went to get some things for Beth for her graduation party. Eventually Al was ready to go, and we somehow found our way over to her house in Tinley. The party started off a little slowly for me, but things got rolling and I got to talk to some people that I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to in quite some time. I had a great time chatting reminiscing with Al and Beth about the good old days, and some stories from back then. It was nice to see her and a few others. I met some people that I don’t remember from back in High School, but apparently they remember me. Not only do they remember me, but they remember me by name. In anycase, it was a very good time and I am glad I made the arrangement to make it in for the gathering. I hope to be able to get together with some of the folks later this week to hang out and reminisce some more. But after last night I had some time to think, and that isn’t the best idea in the world these days. Some bittersweet memories and just some interesting times. But I digress, Time to watch some of the olympics, but I really don’t have too much interest in most of the games after the road cycling has completed and an American did not medal.

I spent the last few days out in the woods relaxing and thankfully getting away from technology for a little while. I took the trip up to Mackinac from GR and spent Monday-Weds with Tod and his family out at Wilderness State Park. It was a nice little campground, and a little different from what I would have expected in the campground, though I guess family camping is more inclined to trailers and sites with “hook-ups”. The weather was a little bit of a downer on the trip, but really it just made the time out there a little different from the norm. They were camped at a site not too far from the beach, but what good is that on the overcast windy days. My normal staying up late and waking up late schedule did not work well while camping. Since I could not fall asleep well on Monday night, I got up after an unsuccessful attempt counting sheep, to find that the clouds had cleared and there was nothing but a starlit sky above me. I took a few pictures of the moon above the clouds, the Big dipper, and as I sat on the beach I was just happy to be there out in the woods and not working. I came back and played a little bit with the dwindling fire, and then I figured I might be able to fall asleep so I did.

Tuesday was more of the grey skies and threats of rain. While sitting around camp with Tod, waiting for it to clear up and his wife to arrive back at the site with the children, we sat chatted and just had some good tiems around the fire, still remaining from the previous night. After a lunch of Smoked sausages and fried vegetables, we took the “short trip” over to the Old Mission Penninsula to go visit the Chateau Grand Traverse Winery. The truip became exceedingly long due to the pissing of rain and people not signaling turns, as well as people just not knowing what to do in rain and how to keep a constant speed. After a 3 hour drive from the campgroud to the destination, we spend maybe 25 minutes there sampling and buying, then turn around to come back. The return took closer to the estimated time putting us back up in 2 hours, but still just being generally frustrated by the rain and stupid drivers. Tod was amused by episodes of Futurama on the laptop. We arrived back to camp to make some dinner and relax and enjoy the “fruits of our journey”. After waking up with a sore back I decided that I would attempt to nap the night away in the Hammock, and luckily it chose nto to rain, as I lay in the hammock wrappen in my woll blanke staring up at the clouds.

Wednesday was to be the day of the excursion across the bridge into the UP. I had the fun job of navigating this time. We headed up to Taqhamenon Falls and spend some misting time out there. the first stop was to the Lower falls, which I almost think look nicer than the Upper falls, but what do I know. I just enjoyed the smaller falls, and the row across to the island. Next we traversed up to the Upper falls and tookin both angles, the gorge and the brink. I believe I captured a few photos with both the digital camera and the analog SLR. After that little venture and talking to some people, we visited the gift shops and I picked up another surprise for Dad and Jon. I wish I could remember what year it was that we took our family vacation up there, I vaguely remember the Toonerville Trolley, and I seem to even remember being able to walk out onto the lower falls, I may be mistaken though. I cannot even beging to place the year though. After leaving the falls, we headed to Cut Rock to see the bridge and kill a little time before stuffing our faces on some burgers from Clydes drive in. The 3/4lb burger was definately delicious. A trip into the city to pick up some things for people and then back to the campsite. I was unfortunately not able to stay another night, but I needed to make it in to GR to get to work today. Which I really don’t know how I feel about that.

The title of this post may sound familiar to some, it may not. I was at the Upper falls and I saw it on a sign that contained some more poetry. I was never really aware of the source of this quote before, nor which source I now knwo it from to be the original. This is a quote from Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha:

…..
Ye who love the haunts of Nature,
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries;–
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
…….

So nothing too terribly exciting has happened recently, mostly just working and watching TV. After working the last 4 day shift in a while, I will now be switching back to my weekdays off and maybe have something to do in that time. Friday we celebrated Rusty graduating, so that was a good time. Unfortunately it was not as fun as some of the times we have headed out there before. I did go ahead and waterproof the bottom of my tent on Friday. I hope to get out camping a little bit, I should be heading up to Mackinac this week for a few days of fun in the woods, but I don’t know if I really want to take the drive. The phones were pretty slow at work this weekend, especially Sunday. I went 6.5 hours at the beginning of my shift without getting a phone call. I had some good time to go ahead and read another book this weekend. I did read the First Robert Langdon book by Dan Brown, Angels and Demons. It was an enjoybale book, but unfortunately seemed to very much follow the same pattern as The Da Vinci Code. On the plus side I was able to read the book in about 11 hours, which was pretty good for a shlock like me. I do want to get a few more books and read those, possibly even get me a library card. Today the Sox finally won a game, that was great ….. the Cubs lost, making it even better. Anyhow, I miss talking to some people I haven’t seen or talked to in a few weeks/months. Hopefully some of that will be taken care of soon as people return from their summer distances. Talk about people you don’t talk to often, I have just recieved a communicae from Hoover. That was an unexpected surprise. but I have totally lost any more desire to write here tonight.

Well I have certainly missed NOAC this year. I missed the people, I missed the event, and especially just the atmosphere of what was going on. I guess this is one of the first National Events that I have missed in a while, I don’t really consider Indian summer that big … but I supopse it would’ve counted. I’m not the only one that missed this one, I know catfish didn’t make it out there. I was getting rather nostalgic looking at the photos from the shows and everything. I hear some news through the grapevine that the 2006 NOAC will be held at MSU, right here in our backyard. This should be a great time, it should be close enough that I should be able to attend, as well as possibly helping out the Host lodge if I am still in the area. I should have a full time job and even some time off by the time that point in life. I was also disappointed to hear that the National Comittee has decided that we will not use Lodge numbers anymore, it almost seems that they are removing most of the things that we have been associating with different aspects of the Order. I suppose I will no longer be part of Owasippe Lodge 7, but Owasippe Lodge 118, representing the CAC number. Everything will be cool though, things will roll on, and possibly even improve. I was thinking this week that I would really like to get established in a full time job so I would be able to arrange my time to get myself involved with Jambo 2005. I kno I can’t be on the council contingent, but I shoudl be able to find a position on staff somewhere. All in all I want to get back a little bit into Scouting. I miss not being involved with the troop, or the youths. The orderr is really great, but not the same as passing on the integral knowledge to the youngins. Maybe getting that crew going would be a good idea. Again full time employment would have to be the first step, and we will continue to persue that angle.

Hanging out with the Aunt and Uncle was a good time. I have never been one a small sailboat like that before, more or less been trusted to take the boat out of the harbor. It was a nice little 42 foot sailboat, and I seemed to have less of a problem piloting the boat around than the captain did backing away from the dock. Apparently he forgot a safety cable that he had from the boat to the dock, that snapped. Then when he went forward again to investigate, he knocked the front end of the boat off the dock. Interesting. We also just chilled out by the beach and walked around the town. We got to stop by and check out an antique store, and I found an old scout handbook, but I did not buy it. I figure its better to not spend too much money. Later after dinner and coming back to GR, I went to the Black Rose with Darrin, Jenn, and Jason that was a good time, all but having to watch the Sox drop another game to the Tigers. We ran into a few people that we knew, and headed over to Mojo’s after a while. It was a bit of a surprise to run into another person I knew at the second place I went out to that week, granted I would not have recognized her.

Saturday was a good day at work, not a lot going on, I did have the opportunity to get to reading Messiah, by Boris Starling. So between that, a few problems, and searching for a way for my brother to be able to stream video from NOAC I was kept relatively occupied. After work, and the drive home, just some TV and napping to take care of the remainder of the day. Unfortunately I had the opportunity to watch the Tigers steal another one from the Sox, they are limited to winning by counting on the Sox walking a few players. Sunday provided the opportunity to finish up the reading I started. Aside from that work allowed for some web browsing, but not a whole lot of other things. I headed by Tod and we chilled out and talked shop and business. It was a beautiful afternoon to be in the Hot Tub and the pool. All in all it worked out to be enjoyable. After all that was time for the man date with Dutchy. We saw the Bourne Supremecy, it was a good movie, but I don’t think that it was as good as the first one. The chase scene as well as the first car chase almost made me ill with such a tight picture bouncing around. It was worth the price of admission though.

Today didn’t provide all that much excitement. I was able to sleep in a bit so that was nice, otherwise I took few of a few errands. I got that software updated on my phone, so he claims anyhow. I still see a date of Feb 2002 on the phone. The guy at the Nextel shop seemed like a moron though, when I was asking about the i305 phone. I really wouldn’t mind getting a new phone, but I would liks someone who could actually think straight. He claims that I can’t get my discount through them, I would be paying about the same at their price as I would from Nextel directly with my discount. I think he is full of shit, so I will have to check elsewhere. I did pick up the Silverstar foglights today, So I will have to check those out when I am out driving tomorrow night. They didn’t make too much a difference for day driving, even with the near black stormy skies. I found out today that my Sams card is no longer valid, though I wasn’t in the mood to find out what was going on with that. But I did end up with some junk food and deep friables. Now with that in, I am going to chill out and get prepared to go back to work tomorrow.