Happy in Michigan

 It’s a great time to be in Michigan.  We did plan it this way.  The weather now is mostly mild and nice.  What Mark Twain said about San Francisco (“if you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes”) seems to be true about E. Lansing’s weather.  With the warm days, the trees have leafed out fast and now my favorite spring lime green color of the leaves has darkened to summer green.  

I’ve been very busy, jumping right into many activities.  A week ago we activated our membership at the MAC, the local big gym we use.   I’ve been walking 2 miles nearly every day on the track and working out with weights.  Today I met with Katie, Paul and Paula’s trainer.  She was fantastic!  She listened to what I wanted, gave that to me and made wonderful suggestions about classes that might be helpful and fun for me.  I’m set now with something to do there each day.  Monday is Gentle Yoga;  Tuesday and Thursday is Water Aerobics for folks with arthritis, and Wednesday and Friday is Golden Fit, a strength and balance class.  Plus now I have a routine for the machines.  

I have enjoyed the granddaughters who seem to have sought me out more this time.  Erika to sew some shorts.  We did much better on the second pair that came together very quickly and easily.  We both felt we’d learned how to do this.  Erika measured herself and modified the pattern to fit her.  Now I just have to hem the shorts and we’re done!  Sonja pops in for this and that.  We made a date to go out and get a charm for her silver bracelet.  As she said, “now this is a tradition, Gramma.”  It was fun to see her so happy with the one we found, a silver infinity symbol with the words “Family Forever” on it.

We’ve been attending Erika’s concerts.  So far, we’ve gone to two.  The first was the E.L. High School Band and Wind Symphony concert.  It was exciting to see Erika in the First Chair!  I loved that the players seemed so joyful and that came through in their music.  Last night we attended the Mid-Michigan Youth Symphony.  Erika had been recruited I think by the band director.  While the music was more complicated and very well played, the joy just wasn’t there.  It’s a trip down memory lane to go to concerts cheering on our family members.   It’s the last, as none of the other grandchildren play instruments.  

I’ve jumped back into Bible Study at the church.  I was warmly greeted by the members.  I love this group as the members are so lively and the discussions always good.  I went on an outing to Detroit, as a friend organized the Daffodil ladies to go to see the bulbs we planted last spring, now blooming.  As an extra, we went to the First Congregational Church of Detroit to their Underground Railroad presentation.  A group has created a walk through experience in the church basement of what the runaway slaves might have experienced.  It was an experience I won’t forget.  I felt a little sad as the huge downtown church building now has a congregation of 25-30 members.  I don’t know how this Experience can provide enough monies to even pay the pastor.  

And of course, I am walking each day to spot things of beauty along the way.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  With the MSU campus so close and the beautiful yards in the neighborhood, there is no shortage of things to photograph!  So life is good here in Michigan!  

Back to Michigan

 Events in my life were so exciting in March, it wasn’t surprising that things in April were more quiet.  Mostly it was spent preparing the house, my garden, myself both psychologically and physically for a long 8 week trip to Michigan.  

We arrived here late last Friday tired but happy to be here.  I’d arranged to have the house deep cleaned and it was certainly worth it!  The house has never been so clean.  Not only the floors, but the walls, all the ledges and nooks and crannies were cleaned.  The inside of the cupboards were cleaned.  It has made a big difference.  There is no smell of cobwebs, dust or mold anywhere and I didn’t have to do it!

Saturday was Sonja’s 15th birthday!  The first celebration was a brunch at 10:30 with fresh donuts from QD (Quality Dairy) and delicious fresh fruit.  I gave her the special card I’d bought on 4th St in Berkeley.  She liked it.  After breakfast Erika said she’d like to make a pair of shorts and could I help her?  I wanted to get an appointment to get my haircut with my best-ever Michigan hair stylist, so out we went in search of her.  I was sad I couldn’t find her where she had been.  Erika said, “Don’t worry Gramma we can do a search on-line.”  Because it was across the street we went into Hobby Lobby.  We looked for a pattern.  Patterns now cost $21.95!  Wow, big inflation.  While Erika was looking through some patterns she found on sale for 99 cents, I did a quick google on my phone and found my stylist and made an appointment.  I was happy.  Erika found some fabric, the zipper and thread and we were set to begin our sewing adventure.

We cut out the shorts on her living room floor.  I found the pieces, gave them to her and she pinned the crinkly tissue paper patterns on according to the layout.  She said she usually wears a size 6 but I had her cut them out on the size 8 line.  It being easier to make the shorts smaller than to make them bigger.  It all went well.  In the morning we moved over to my house and set up shop on the sunny back porch.  She brought over her sewing machine, pins and pin cushion and we began.  I was touched that she is using the embroidered heart shaped pin cushion I got in Denmark in 1967 and sent to Edith for Christmas.  We’d consult the pattern instructions, using the diagrams more than the words.  I’d hand her a piece pinned in place and she’d sew it.  I’m afraid I taught her some of my bad habits like just pinning the seams instead of basting them.  Gradually we made progress.  But when we got to the invisible zipper we were stumped.  It took us two days to figure it out.  She learned she had a zipper foot that could be put on her sewing machine.  Today we got the zipper in.  I’d basted it.  So we were ready to put the pieces together.  I told her first I had to baste it so she could try on the shorts and we could adjust them as needed.  She came out pale-faced saying, “the shorts are too small.”  “Not to worry,” I said and I began to let the seams out as far as I could.  When I’d done that, I gave them back to her.  They still didn’t fit.  They are really too small and there’s nothing to be done.  Erika was crest-fallen and I felt pretty badly too.  I told her maybe a big purpose of this endeavor was to spend time with Gramma. I’m not sure that consoled her much.   Gramma says, “it is the journey that is important not only the finished product.”  That didn’t make her feel much better either. Nevertheless she did learn a lot about how to sew using a pattern and how to use her sewing machine in new ways.  And we both learned patterns aren’t sized as store bought clothes are.  I wonder if that is why these patterns were on sale.  None of that mattered and my heart sank as she left feeling so badly.  But tomorrow is another day, I must teach her we can do this.  We’ll go out and get another easier pattern and some more fabric and try again.  

The Big Eclipse

 Yesterday the total eclipse made its way across a big swath of the US with the zone of totality going from Texas in the south to Maine in the north.  I heard it described as a cosmic line dance between the sun and the moon.  There’s been a lot of publicity about this recently, with the experts pontificating.  We even flirted with going.  Friends wondered in late January or February if we’d like to join them going to Texas to see it and then do some birding.  Turns out we were a year late in trying to get reservations for a place to stay.  They had all been booked up months and months before.  One friend of ours rented an RV and drove 30 hours to a space he’d reserved in someone’s yard in Texas.  Erik went to Indianapolis to meet a friend to see the total eclipse.  It was a cosmic event for the millions to see.

I thought it would be fun to meet our friends, the ones who wanted to go to Texas, on Monday, and view what we could of the dimming (30 percent here) of the sky and while we were at it have lunch together.  We did that.  It was a celebration of sorts.  At the appointed hour, we couldn’t see any dimming with our eyes.  No one us had eclipse glasses.  But techie Bob looked at his IPhone’s graph of our solar panels production and saw a drop in their output about equal to the lowering of the light.  So indirectly we saw it.  Then we called our friend in Texas and asked him if he’d seen the moon blocking the sun.  “Not yet,” he answered, then added, “ I have to get back to the telescope.”  But it cloudy in Texas.  As we ate our Mexican food, Erik began to text us photos from where he was.  It was looking promising for him.  I began to see coronas all around, even in the shadow of Bob’s beer.  Bill regaled us with a story of his experience seeing a total eclipse in Colombia.  After lunch as we walked to get coffee, our friend in Texas called and told us just at the midpoint of the totality, the clouds parted and he got a very brief but perfect view of the eclipse.  Sadly some high cirrus clouds came over where Erik was and the darkness of the eclipse was spoiled by reflected sunlight from the clouds.  

I’m happy we did something special with our friends and that we were connected to others in the zone of totality.  It was after all an eclipse to remember.  The next one, here in the States will be in 40 years.  I’m sure I’ll miss that one.