Days off!

Finally, two days off after 12 straight days of work. I'm too old for this.

I got to spend Sunday with the kids -- needed family time. Jayne took her mom out for the day to thank her for doing extra duty with the kids while I was at work, so I was solo with the girls.

We picked out some pumpkins. Slim pickin's. With the dry season and us waiting until the last minute, we didn't have many to choose from. Each girl found one she liked, so I lugged them back to the car then in the house. They drew faces on them and instructed me where to carve.

We now have two stinky ghouls on the front porch just waiting for the neighbors to smash.

Sorry, no pictures. I can't find the camera.

Thought: Keep going Bills!

Day Tripping

I'm on the day shift now at work while one of my co-workers covers the Janet Chandler murder trial.

Chandler was gang raped and killed in 1979 in Holland, and her body was dumped on a freeway turnaround in a snowbank. The case broke open more than a year ago and now four people are on trial for the death (two have already pleaded guilty). I recommend you check out The Sentinel Web site -- it has a special link to the history and trial -- at www.hollandsentinel.com.

Anyway, while my co-worker covers the trial, I'm working days Tuesday through Thursday, and night Friday and Saturday. So, I see what the day-side folks do and, well, let's just say it has been an eye-opening experience.

One of my night shift co-workers got mad at me about something last week and called me a "day-sider." Now that hurt!

So, needless to say, I'm frazzled, tired, irritable, prone to typos and falling asleep on the toilet (and you needed to know that?).

And, Jayne discovered a virus in our computer that knocked it out for a day or so. I think it's still a threat. I may be the cause of it -- I've been hitting some family history and cemetery sites in my research, so those might be the carrier. Or maybe it's the porn sites. That's research, too. ...

Thought: Go Bills!

Goosed

I took the kids to Fennville's Goose Festival on Sunday and, true to form, it rained. It rains every Goose Fest, so why should I be surprised? The weather folks predicted cloudy. What do they know?

I guess Saturday was nice for the festival, but the girls and Jayne were heading to Chicago for the day with some friends and I was at work. The traveling Haydens had a slight mishap, however, on the commuter train in Michigan City, Ind. Their train was struck by another train and was derailed. No one hurt in Jayne's party, but they didn't make it to Chicago. They did some shopping in Michigan City and came home. The girls were disappointed because they didn't get to The American Girl store.

So, the girls asked to go to Goose Fest Sunday, and I couldn't turn them down. They rode their bikes to the high school -- the festival was moved this year from its traditional locale downtown to the school campus.

Weather was cloudy -- as the weather forecasters said -- when we left, but drizzle started as soon as we arrived. Then the deluge.

We did have time for a Sno-Cone, but the rain got so heavy that the rides stopped running and we called Jayne to pick us -- and the girls' bikes -- up from under a sparse apple tree.

Thought: Who got goosed?

Under the sea

My wife was looking at music reviews online the other night and called me over to look at some for The Beatles album "Yellow Submarine." She noted some of the user-submitted comments were not flattering, comments like "worst Beatles album ever" and "a waste."

And I have to agree it's their least appealing album, though the movie is wonderful.

The album includes mostly earlier released material, including four releases from "Sgt Pepper's." That's so wrong -- "Sgt. Pepper's" is meant to be listened to as a whole. It's like taking the ear of the "Mona Lisa" and calling it "Mona Lisa Redux." But that's another blog. ...

The other "new" songs were cast-offs from other recording sessions, songs not good enough for a "real" album. So, with "Yellow Submarine," you get old material and second-rate songs. No wonder folks don't like it!

What's strange about the album, though, is its different incarnations.

Jayne got me the CD last year -- part of my goal of updating my more than 30-year-old music collection. The CD includes 15 tracks:

"Yellow Submarine"

"Hey Bulldog"

"Eleanor Rigby"

"Love You To"

"All Together Now"

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

"Think for Yourself"

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"

"With a Little Help from My Friends"

"Baby You're a Rich Man"

"Only a Northern Song"

"All You Need is Love"

"When I'm Sixty Four"

"Nowhere Man"

"It's All Too Much"

My old cassette has these songs:

"Yellow Submarine"

"Only a Northern Song"

"All Together Now"

"Hey Bulldog"

"It's All Too Much"

"All You Need is Love"

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

"Pepperland"

"Medley: Sea of Time and Sea of Holes"

"Sea of Monsters"

"March of the Meanies"

"Pepperland Laid Waste"

"Yellow Submarine in Pepperland"

I think it's like the album "Help!" In America, "Help!" had a side of instrumental from the film. The Beatles fought against this releases and hated it. In Britain, the album was complete with their songs.

So, I think I may have an earlier American release on cassette with George Martin's compositions on side 2, and the British release on CD, all Beatles songs. And, no. "Pepperland" isn't that good.

Either way, I recommend stearing away from the album (unless you're a freak like me), going to see the movie (it's a classic) and getting all the other LPs with the earlier released material (so you can buy it in 10 years in some new download-able format that makes CDs obsolete like my albums and cassettes).

Thought: And how could the Bills lose last night on a field goal?

Young artist

Above is a picture of Alyssa at the Saugatuck-Douglas District Library. Behind her is her painting that was part of the Art A Loan program at the Saugatuck schools.

About 50 works of art were chosen from the entire district, then the art works were framed and put on display at the library on Wednesday. At the reception, businesses and people can "buy" the work to hang in their store or office for a year. The money then goes to the school art program.

We are proud of Alyssa for her work, a painting made by cutting apples in half and making patterns on the paper. She did this last year, so she was in first grade.

The girls got all dressed up Wednesday for the reception and had a good time. I think Alyssa liked the cake the most. Elspeth enjoyed just wandering around the library, though she was upset that her art was not chosen. We told her that this happens every year, so she could still be chosen.

I was glad I was able to take a break from work and be part of the event (thanks to Mark and Krista for covering for me!). Jayne and her mom were there, too, and we got to talk to friends in a nice social atmosphere.

Thought: I even wore a tie to the event!

Grave ride

I took some time Monday to visit local cemeteries on my bike ride.

Kind of morbid, I suppose, but I enjoy the quiet of these small cemeteries. Maybe it's like Linus and the Great Pumpkin -- it's not the biggest pumpkin patch that will get the visit, but the most sincere.

The above image is from Hutchins Cemetery on 124th Avenue (M-89), just west of home. That's my bike against a tree.

I had never been to this graveyard before. It's visible from the road, but has no access road. I climbed up an embankment, bike on my shoulder, and looked around. The main claim to fame of this site is it has stones from the Hutchins family. This was one of the original families in the area and, yes, Hutchins Lake is named for the family.

One of the family members was out harvesting apples -- the orchard is just south of the cemetery -- when I was looking around. He wanted to know if I was a history buff or a fan of the dead. I told him a little of both.

I had a nice chat with him. He is in the process of crafting a new beam for the original farm house. He's using wood from a huge sassafras tree that a recent storm felled down by the lake. Seems his great-grandmother planted that tree back in the 1800s and he wanted to use it in the house she lived in.

I posted a bunch of photos on Sentinel Spotted, a site through The Holland Sentinel. You can access the pics through www.hollandsentinel.com, then click on "You Spotted." The site is called "Ganges in October."

Good news: You no longer have to register to use The Sentinel site! Hooray. Logic has finally won out.

Thought: Did the Grim Reaper ride a Fuji?

Budget battle?

Michigan has avoided a state shutdown. Hoo-hoo.

I've been watching -- and been part of -- the media coverage of this event, and have been disappointed with the reporting.

One local TV station was actually running a countdown clock to the shutdown. Six hours to shutdown! Five hours, 59 minutes to shutdown. ... This station covered it like it was a football game. And people wonder why I think local TV news is no better than a pimple on my ass -- it's there, I have to scratch it and I can't wait for it to be gone.

This leads me to my biggest concern about the media on this.

Worst of all, the media covered this as a "battle," as a fight. Headlines and announcers called it the "budget battle." Here is the problem.

The media gives the public (which is, I must say, painfully ignorant about the workings of state government) the impression that goverment functions like a sporting event, that there is a clear winner and an obvious loser, that there are even easily identifiable teams.

Untrue. State government works on compromise that involves arguing, but there is no clear winner and loser. Since government is a complex process, not an end in and of itself, there are no clear winners and losers. All representative government is compromise, not battle, but the media won't portray it that way. Government is not flashy and will not bring in ratings or sell papers unless you tart it up and cover up what it really is -- dull but important.

Too bad the huge egos and tiny minds of newscasters and the limits of print can't grasp this. Most media -- and the public it serves -- should stick to Lindsay Lohan and the latest football scores.

Thought: The Bills finally won!