you can visit but sometimes hard to leave town

The main entrance into the town where I reside encompasses a very large hill that presents a beautiful panoramic view of Lake Michigan at the top when you enter town. When you leave town in the winter, however, a little different story as many a vehicles have made it up halfway of the attached hill only to spin their tires, slowly do a 180 and head back down the hill in search of another way to leave town. I shouldn't laugh (but do) as I had a mini-truck (2WD) awhile back and attempted to make it up a friend's driveway one time. The driveway was not that steep but yours truly did not make it; and others laughed.

With that, if you are ever leaving the Frankfort area on M-115 headed east, punch that accelerator around the A&W or the little train that could won't.

Trail Head

Religion

Comedian Jim Gaffigan has the line, “I do want everyone to feel comfortable, that’s why I’d like to talk to you about Jesus.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny_lqceOGx4#ddg-play

Not to be outdone, George Carlin doesn’t mince words on the subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpawdjeH-8w#ddg-play

Queuing the way back machine to my youth and the subject. My dad was raised strict Catholic, went to Catholic schools and was a lector at the local church wherever we were residing at the time. With that, it was tradition for the family to hit mass every Sunday. They dragged me to catechism (literally, one of the memories of my youth was crying my ass off as I was being dragged into a room of other kids). My brother was an altar boy and while I was either drifting off to day dream world when it went down or other, but the story goes that my brother was holding a lighted candle and just about burned the person’s hair standing in front of him if it weren’t for someone interjecting at the last minute. 

As we grew older, my parents left it to ourselves in attending. I eventually became an annual attender. Observations at that point: 

- What is with all the kneeling as most masses have quite a bit of elders? 

- There was always that family that would bolt after communion and that was frowned upon. 

- The awkward time after mass when everyone would hit the donuts/coffee in the back room. 

- My dad took his lecturing seriously as you would hear him practicing around the house quite a bit. 

- My mom was going to join the church choir but us kids talked her out of if (we are either going to heaven or hell for that action but my mom was tone deaf).

I currently live across the street from a Lutheran church and couldn’t ask for better neighbors than the pastor and his wife. She can belt out “I’ll fly away” better than the Gillian Welch/Alison Krauss’ version. They have helped me out from time to time and vice-versa so one Sunday morning I walked across the street and attended a mass. What is the difference between Lutheran and Catholic? I had to look it up but not much. My friend Greg calls Lutheran “Catholic-light” and that rings true as there is no kneeling in the Lutheran world, attendees have tumblers of coffee in tow within the pews, one of the ushers regularly wore a Packers hoodie and instead of the Catholic “peace be with you” hand shake tradition where folks more or less shake hands of the people directly around them, the Lutherans will walk around the place to shake anyone and everyone’s hand (I stay at home base during this time). I’m not looking for salvation, it’s just a nice peaceful hour of reflection and giving thanks, no more, no less. Kind of like what we do when we fish, a lot of reflection time while waiting for the fish and giving thanks when the whopper hits your hook. The religion of Tim I guess is to be cool to your fellow brother. If they are assholes, ignore them and move on.

Funny I got one of my rare A’s in college taking a religion class and had never gotten so lucky on guessing on some of the quizzes. The gods were shining on me that semester, I guess. 

Is there a heaven/hell, doubtful but someone created these funky bodies we maintain with all the parts. 

If there is a higher power looking down, as the song goes, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me, I'm alive and doin' fine. Woo!"

Trail Head

Censored

In celebration/mourning of the 2025 football season in Michigan, both college and pro, coming to a close, we do a rewind to around September when we didn't know our teams were going to suck yet. My employer, looking to stir up some comradery in the office (which is great), sent a note out asking everyone to submit any past pictures from playing or attending football games.

I sent the attached picture (quite a capacity crowd there...), not even thinking twice about the name on the jersey. The secretary compiling the pictures jokingly replied to me that she was always a Cowboy fan growing up. When it came time for the big reveal of pictures, however, said picture was nowhere to be seen. 

I didn't dare ask what happened as my dim light bulb eventually figured it out and I don't work for "Tim, Incorporated," so absolutely understand.

Go former mascots!

Trail Head

Friends on TV

While I have seen my sister's family quite a bit on the television whether it be my sister promoting something on the local news or my bro-in-law talking art on Antiques Roadshow, friends/classmates have also made television cameos over the years. Case in point about 20 years ago when I was watching Wheel of Fortune (rarely watch the show) and one of the contestants was a Milford grad. I texted friend Jim, "Are you watching Wheel of Fortune?" "Yep, crazy!" Milford grad Joe H. didn't take the grand prize as I recall but bumped into him years later and he told me about all the hoops/interviews he had to go through to get on. 

Another friend making their television appearance just happened this past Saturday morning as I was watching one of the PBS shows that cover "good people" stories from around the state. It was a re-run of an episode but had never seen it before. Right around the 7:33 mark of the attached, we get introduced to Milford grad Sue and her incredible chalk journey. I remember seeing one of her creations back in 2019 during one of the Bald Mountain Music Festivals; pictured below. I didn't think twice about it at the time but she has been creating for quite awhile now. Her hand must hurt but she's making people smile.

(7:33 mark)

https://www.pbs.org/video/destination-michigan-1601-qj0whh/

Investigative Journalism

With the internet, we have many choices for information, some good, some bad. I like to get my Michigan State sports news from various sites as I'm too cheap to pay for the articles on the main publication sites. Being cheap has its limitations though as you have to read some article headlines that have no reason being published, like the one attached here. A walk-on football player is entering the transfer portal. Really? "I'll show the team, I'll go and walk on for another school!" 

Come on A. Brewster, you can find better things to write about.

Trail Head 

Book Reviews

With Winter greeting us earlier than normal, a good time to stay inside, sip your favorite sip and grab a book. Some recent reads by the large melon:

Shakey: Neil Young's Biography

While the the book is labeled a 'biography', the author does a nice job of mixing Young's interviews into a semi-autobiography. Neil, being Neil, didn't want the book out and fought for it's release. The book title, 'Shakey', I thought was reference to Neil's epilepsy but understand it's more about never knowing what he would do from one day to the next (reminds me of someone...). It's a long read but good content throughout, starting in Neil's Canadian upbringing with his crazy mom, 'Rassy'. Rassy has left us but if she were still here, don't fuc* with Rassy. A road trip to California (in Neil's hearse that he used for gigs) brought about Neil getting involved with Buffalo Springfield ('Buffalo Springfield' is a brand of steamroller I learned). Stephen Stills had quite the ego but what front man doesn't have one? We go through Neil's marriages (he had a little mix of everything with the wives he had) and the love he had for his kids, a couple of which had illnesses that required constant attention. Neil may have been an odd ball overall but he did not back away from being a dad. I did enjoy the way he screwed with the record labels when he could. They wanted commercial/pop songs and he would do the opposite. 

Party of One: A Fuzzy Memoir

Comedian Dave Landau's autobiography. He doesn’t fit the stereotype of what I perceive someone who went to a Grosse Pointe high school to have. But what a period of adolescence he had.  We were screwballs growing up but at least we had the benefit of dirt roads and police officers telling us to more or less "shoo" when they saw us doing something stupid; Landau, while he did push the limits to an extreme, didn't have that courtesy.

A good, short read, with thankfully a happy ending with all the times you'll say "no way" reading it.

Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses

J. Geils Band (or 'Geils Band' as he refers to them in the book) front man Peter Wolf's autobiography. The "woofa goofa" throughout his life had interactions with Marilyn Monroe, Muddy Waters, Faye Dunaway (married her),  David Lynch the filmmaker, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tennessee Williams, Merle Haggard, Rolling Stones, Sly Stone, Alfred Hitchcock, Andy Warhol and Van Morrison to name a few. The stories are incredible, however, Wolf either has an incredible memory or a creative one as he has dialogue noted back and forth with all his interactions. Not necessarily a bad thing but reminds me of Bruce Springsteen's autobiography where he had just a bit too much detail of what happened 40 years ago.

North Ride

The northern bike tour headed a little further north this week to Boyne City, a town that was almost my northern residence prior to my current locale. 

Prior to finding my place in Frankfort, I was also looking in the Boyne City/East Jordan/Charlevoix/Petoskey areas. The house that I bid on in Boyne City had about the same square footage and the proximity to water that I have now with a smaller yard, smaller garage and a smaller "to do" list. I threw a bid out there of the list price; and so did 10 others (this was on the first day of the listing) so they put in a second round of bids and one individual upped the price by $100K with their bid which put me out of my happy place for price. 

This week I got a second look around the area and while it is a beautiful city, I have no regrets as I enjoy the simplicity of Frankfort where there are no stops lights (one blinking one). The entire COUNTY only has one stop light.  

Part of the Boyne City festivities was a mountain bike ride at the local bike loop, the Avalanche Preserve. It's only a little over four miles of trail but there is a beautiful view of Lake Charlevoix at the top which then has about a two mile flow descent back to the parking lot. Attached is a short clip from the ride, a fall at the beginning followed by a deer sighting at the 15 second mark, then the lake descent. 

Trail Head