A brief summary of my trip to Michigan:
Weekend 1:Braved whiteouts and -6 degree weather to visit cousins north of Chicago (including this new little guy)
Weekend 2:Saturday, 8am, awoke to thunderstorms. I could see the lightning through closed eyelids. I went down to the basement to make myself some coffee (my dad has renovated an espresso machine or two, they're in the basement awaiting placement in the new addition) and stepped in a big puddle and got my socks sopping wet. The drain outside the basement door had flooded yet again, from the rain and melting snow. The thunderstorm was caused by a heatwave (yes, 40 degrees is now considered a heatwave) coming through, the warm rain melted all the snow and there was fog rising up from what remained of the drifts.
This is the view from the house, looking off to the west towards what will soon be apple orchards.
Weekend 3:The highlight of the trip (sorry mom and dad) was getting to see the
Siegel-Schwall Band. Hands down the best concert I've ever been too. My dad listened to them in his teens, and their first album was the very first record I ever owned (the second was the Flamin' Groovies).
I gave in to peer pressure and got a picture with Corky Siegel. (the bald guy on the right was their former bass player, who sat across the aisle from my dad and got up to play a song with the band)
The main purpose for my trip was to help put in the ceiling in my parents new addition (is there a limit on how many years it can be referred to as 'new'?)
we had a lift to get the sheets of plywood up to the 18' ceilings
Marc, me, my dad, putting a sheet on the lift
the scaffolding, viewed from the loft
I manned the lift while the guys screwed the plywood into place
Then my dad passed the last of the insulation up through a 1'x4' opening to Marc and me
It was three feet high at the top, sloping down from the peak... Which eventually caused a small encounter with a roofing nail...
I lost.
and here's the moon and Venus at sunset...
Then I came home.
