Warming trend

 We went for a walk at Seven Lakes today.  It rained.  We actually saw some people out on the ice, ice fishing, but I certainly wouldn't've wanted to chance it.  There was a good layer of water on top of the ice and it was in the 40s (F).  A bit different from 2013.  It looks more like late March than late January.

Gone, Gone, Gone

 We visited Target one last time before it closed at 10 PM last night.

 It was picked pretty clean, but they weren't doing slash-to-the-bone sales because there's another (not half as nice, much less convenient) Target on the other end of town, so they could just shift any unsold merchandise over there.

 Sad, eh?

 Or not, if you're Jimmy.

And here it is today.  Didn't take them long to get the sign off and board up the windows...

Water, water everywhere (contd.)

At least, discussion of the Flint water crisis is (finally, about a year after the fact) everywhere. New York Times Editorials, The Guardian, late night TV commentary:
Hillary's talking about it:
Even Ted Cruz is helping out - with a catch. Oh, and of course there's Cher.
Most relevantly to us, the National Guard is coming door-to-door: we've had TWO visits from camo-clad military types, politely bearing 24 packs of bottled water (yes please!) and water filters (too late).

Another one bites the dust

As with VGs last year, Target is doing well enough nation wide, but not well enough in dumpy towns like Flint. So, our favorite store will be gone in less than two weeks. Not only is it conveniently located, Thomas and Frederick have a real affection for the place. [Thomas always intended to have it be his first job. He even applied last Summer, but too late, as all the student workers had got in ahead of him. There's another Target way across town, but he refused even to consider it. It was this store or a life of unemployment...] Many people who work there have worked there since we moved here--one security guard regularly asks after Thomas--she's always telling me she remembers him from when he was carted about in the child's seat of the shopping carts.



Last time I was there I asked a young guy who was restocking the milks what was going to happen to everyone. He said they were all offered the option to relocate and 40 people (mostly older full-timers) took that offer. That's the good news. The sad news is that they don't get to pick their relocation and are being scattered to the winds. The nearest place is the west coast of Michigan (which is where he is going) but he expressed concern that he won't earn enough to live well there. Others who have family ties to Flint can't move and so who knows what will happen to them. The part-timers, who are mostly high schoolers are, of course, not relocating so they will just be out of a job.

New Sink!

By now readers are well aware of the water problems (still) plaguing Flint. First, the poisonous water. Second, the "big flush" of chemicals that were added to the water to kill all the toxic life forms that were causing death, disease and cognitive impairment. Third, the toxic flow of toxic waste when that "flush" eroded 100 odd years of slime buildup in the lead pipes which, we were assured, were "good bacteria" that kept us safe from toxic waste. Fourth, the dissolving pipes eroded by the toxic flush. Now we are told that, in theory, the water is fine but it's the "clean as a whistle" lead pipes that are killing us. So which is worse: toxic water or lethal pipes? Only time will tell. In retrospect, it's all clear. Our half-bath off the living room has tissue paper thin pipes/fittings which, we were told, should on no account be touched by anything other than air currents otherwise they will crumble and we will have Old Testament style flooding within our walls. Our dishwasher, food disposal and washing machine are constantly breaking down, leaking or throwing fits. (One would think a top of the line Bosch dishwasher would last longer than a few months, wouldn't one? Well, one would be mistaken.) Then our kitchen faucet started dissolving. First it was the goose neck fitting between the base and the nozzle, then it was where the base attached to the sink. We had to shut off the cold water as it was gushing out. Finally, when the downstairs toilet exploded last week (again--and, again, flooding the livingroom) we caved and called out Two Mikes Plumbing. Old Man Mike owns the business. I asked if the young guy with him was Young Mike. Apparently not! Young Mike was his older brother, who has forsaken plumbing. So New Young Mike (whose real name is Dave) is stepping in. They weren't going to change the business name as they had worked too hard to establish a bit of name recognition to risk it, but the inaccuracy clearly rankled both. Many times did I hear how happy Old Man Mike was that "this one as least did what he was told". Old Man Mike also like to tell horror stories, in particular ones involving little old ladies traumatized by bursting pipes. So, with significantly lighter wallets, we have, again, fully working toilets (all of them!) and a fully functional, non-leaking kitchen sink and faucet.

What next? Well, the oven took over an hour to ignite yesterday. We went through similar business last winter, too, each day the oven taking progressively longer to "kick in", a tiresome affair when it's winter and everyone wants something hot to eat and salads just don't appeal.

Martha is cold

So cold she braves the wiggles of the smallest human:

Geese invasion

High School: down the stretch for Thomas, false start for me

First day of class in Thomas's last semester of high school - I won't miss getting up at 6 and driving 40 miles in the pitch blackness. I THOUGHT today was also my first day of teaching high school kids in one of the university's experiments in outreach. So, having dropped off Thomas at his school, I drove another 40 minutes to Utica and showed up early at the converted elementary school that UM-Flint has annexed:

The fact that my car was the only one in the (freezing, windswept) parking lot gave me pause...

but at least there was a big banner welcoming UM students...

and a nice big logo on the window...

But, it turned out, the building was closed.  I drove to a nearby diner and via email discovered that, despite Utica High School starting today, classes didn't start till Wednesday.  Still, all was not a waste - I discovered ANOTHER library, this one in Sterling Heights, just 5 minutes away.

And it has ursine statuary, too.

On the way home I discovered a place called "International Foods" that sold all kinds of things (Quality Street chocolates and dried chickpeas at 99 cents a pound) next to an Indian food store that sold all other kinds of things (exotic dried snacks, cheap loose-leaf tea and all kinds of curry pastes), so on the whole a good experience.  Thomas seemed strangely cheerful for somebody who'd only had about 3 hours sleep and was back to school.  Could it be he doesn't hate his school as much as he claims?

Seven Lakes: nippy but unfrozen

Succulent City

This is a small selection of the pots that Frederick made in his various pottery classes during the past few months.