The cough was harsh and bothered me all day. The anti-cough meds made me fuzzy all day. I started to get organized and pack. I will have to pack on Sunday night as my flight is early, and I need to drop off the rental car, Air Kia, take the shuttle, check a bag, and then reach my gate by 6:20. Yikes! Just one early flight on this trip, Dec 30, Monday. Deborah will take the glassware that Linda, my sister, sent me for Christmas and ship it to Oregon for me. Deborah will send it later this week, as I will not be home until late Sunday, Jan 5, 2025. It is about an hour’s trip to the car rental place, meaning I will be there at about 4:20. I will drop the car off and find a shuttle. While worried about the timing, I can’t be the first person to do this. Besides missing the flight, the worst case is that I have to roll my bag onto the plane. I have already contacted Clint to be picked up at about 9ish in Boston. From there, we will find my hotel and I will align with the plans for the Hill and Weis clans.
Though ill, I spent most of my day with Deborah, who made it delightful. I decided to stay in my room for the morning and hung the sign to stop cleaning the room early. I was up before 8, waking as usual with the first light of sunrise. My unconscious mind seems to love first light–I think I could sleep through a few. Dad Wild, gone for years now, used to say he would rise every morning to see the sunrise; there were only so many left for him to see. Dad wanted to see as many as he could.
Dear reader, join me early on one of these sunrises. Lift a cup of Fair Trade coffee, so-called liberal coffee, to another sunrise, and maybe there will be a tear for those who went before us. Remember, there are only so many for you to see. Wipe the tears, and then start your day ready to see what another day on this Earth brings you.
I wrote until about 11ish with interruptions to update my accounts in Quicken, transfer money to my checking account, and pay my travel bills, most of which were charged to my Alaska Air Visa. And while I do not have income from a job, the interest and dividend income have taken a bit of the bite of the trip. I also spent all the Nike bonus money (about 10% of my annual salary) on these trips.
I am slowly getting used to a fixed income and have started to reduce some of my less critical spending, though I did buy two board games (but they are exceptions; Devine Right and Burnering Banners are Fantasy hex-style war games). I also used miles for these flights, costing me $35 for flight insurance and $35 for my bags on three flights. I have poor seats but use the money I saved on the flight to buy nice dinners, better hotels, and decent rental cars.
The coughing subsided for a while, and I finished the blog at about 11 and then dressed. I wanted to walk and move as breathing was easier if I stood and moved. Sitting or, worse, lying down causes the post-nasal trip to run right into my lungs. Ugh! Walmart, a store I never visit (preferring Costco if I am looking for large or cheaper things), was a short walk away. The air is warm today, and there are only a few spots of snow here and there. It was a nice walk, though I had to walk through some grass as no sidewalk adjoined the buildings.
The place is enormous, and the electronics deals looked excellent (when did giant-screen TVs become less than $400?). The food looked higher priced, but soon, I was directed to walk to the far side of the store to row G. The scheme of letters, logic, and sequence was unlike anything I had experienced before. I passed ‘H’ often in my search for ‘G.’ I found the painkillers in a set of shelves marked G for reasons that escaped me (I decided not to ponder these Walwart mysteries), got a very cheap bottle of ibuprofen, located travel sizes, and renewed my supply of toothpaste. Check-out was without smiles and a do-it-yourself (DIY) experience with only one checker available in the ten-plus usual lines should you wish to skip DIY and use a more human process. I followed the procedure and found that ‘tap’ was not a technology embraced by Walmart. Hmmm. I pocketed my items thanks to the watcher of DIY and finally got a smile.
Deborah was delayed, and she did not appear until after 1. She had Air Mini, and we headed to the Michigan Central Train Station (MC), now remodeled as a retail space open for the holidays. But first, we had Eggs Benedict at Dogwood in Pontiac and had the same waiter. I forgot her name; the joke was that she stole my hat to make us return for brunch. I drank only water (having three cups of coffee to make the day less fuzzy) and refilled my glass so many times I consumed a pitcher full of water! The brunch was outstanding. With my hat recovered, we headed to Detroit.
Parking was a challenge, and we did a few loops. We finally parked within sight of the Michigan Central Train Station (MC) in a space that Deborah backed into. Air Mini fits well in the extra-large slot. We walked a few blocks through an impromptu sidewalk soup kitchen with items to buy, still being set up (it was gone when we returned). I tipped my hat to the various folks, and that got smiles. Most people want to be seen.
We were amazed at how nice MC looked now, being an infamous, wrecked, and ruined building for years. It was once the emblem of Detroit’s failure. The Ford Motor Motor Company had remodeled and restored the first floors to a lovely retail space, repaired the facade, and plans to use the renewed building as the center for its Corktown (as this area is called) campus.
We stopped to take pictures outside and found a whole group doing this. We soon exchanged places with someone who took photos and then exchanged phones to take pictures of the next group. There were many smiles and photos. Soon, we joined a fast-moving line to enter. They had reached maximum capacity, but the traffic was moving fast, and soon, we were inside.
The building reminds me of Union Stations in Chicago and Washington, DC, except for no trains. The place looked terrific, and we took endless pictures, as did many. I bought a card and pen (the plastic pen for Liam, Deborah’s son, who loves trains) from the MC store. We also looked at the smaller shops interspersed with relics and documents from the MC. Bits of broken tile and stone, certificates, and even ticket stubs all brought back the days of trains. I did not see any blueprint versions for me to buy.
It was after 4 when we stepped outside. From there, we saw the Ambassador Bridge, which leads to Canada. Yes, you could see Canada from there! There was a slight wind, but we were happy to get out of the warm station and air out in the cool breeze. It was too early for dinner, though Slows Bar-B-Q was there to tempt us. But we decided instead to walk in Rochester with all the lights. Soon, Air Mini was escaping Detroit’s potholes (strangely mostly found on ramps with the streets and highways in good repair) and soon parked in a parking garage (all the street parking taken and also a challenge with all the traffic) in Rochester.
We walked the streets and decided on Kruse And Muer On Main for dinner. Next door, there is a tarot shop, and I made the faux pas of suggesting their pendulum and boards are covered in Magician books on how to make them do anything you want. This is part of the Magician’s Mentalism tricks I know–I have the book by the same name. This offended the store clerk, and I left sad that I was just thinking out loud when I saw the equipment and did not mean to be offensive. I was considering getting some of the equipment to do the trick but did not think of a New Age or Tarot store as a place to get them–they must know the reading can be faked without effort, even if you let someone else hold the string to the bobble. Sigh.
We found a lovely new bookstore and sandwich shop with an eclectic collection of new books for sale. We wandered through their choices for some time and sat in some over-stuffed chairs for a while. They had recommendations and the ‘like this, then try this’ selection, including some kids’ books. I was tempted by a few books, but I am still reading my Analog Magazines and have some gaming stuff to read. I resisted.
We got our text after forty minutes to return to Kruse And Muer On Main for our table. We were informed there was a two-hour limit to the table. This would be unheard of in some countries (Belgium, for example), but here in the USA, that is the new norm; I was happy we were allowed two hours! Deborah wanted to try the fish and chips while I went with the seafood bake. I never ordered seafood in Michigan until this trip, except for freshwater items, and it has markedly improved. Our meals were terrific, and the service friendly, if not a bit fast-moving. The place was busy. Our shared dessert was an average Apple crisp as the bread pudding was out; at least the apples were fresh and still crunchy. Still an excellent meal.
My cough was worse, and the rest of the night was me drinking water as we chatted and Deborah leaving me around ten. I was soon asleep in room 303, Benadryl, helping. After midnight, I returned to the awake world. I did not know how my bladder could refill so fast. I repeated the waking and provided hydration three more times, seemingly minutes apart (I suspect I unknowingly nodded off between each trip to the restroom). I finally slept with no more coughing fits or refills.
Thanks for reading.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 