Monday Change of Cities

(sunrise over the hotel in Rochester Hills/Troy)

Monday is a change day, and I leave Rochester and the Greater Detroit Area for Lansing and East Lansing. I will miss Rochester and Deborah, but the bathroom door that can’t stay open and hits me will not be missed. I rise at 6:30 (3:30 PDT), and there is no coffee as the room was not reset the day before. I soon shower, shave, dress, and get ready. I had already started packing, but as this was a week trip, there was no need to do more than toss the clothing in. I started the blog, but it is a travel day and likely will be finished late. I also collected all my goods and made two trips to Air Hyundai Red. Soon, I had the laptop and wrote the blog while waiting for Deborah.

Soon, her blue mini drives by, and I meet Deborah for breakfast at the hotel. We spend part of the morning together eating breakfast. The last time we ate breakfast together was in February in Oregon. Off to work for Deborah, and me driving to Lansing. I checked out, and the staff remembered us from my last trip in the holidays.

The drive to Lansing has no direct route, so I headed north to Flint on Highway 75 and then cut over to Highway 69. Most of this was at speeds ten over the speed limit (or more), and the Hyundai often flew with traffic at 85. The roads are not smooth, and I did slow to 60 (the legal speed) for some construction, but they worked well at over 70 mph. Unlike the Portland Area, where a few miles can seem to be a lifetime of slow driving, the distances disappeared quickly, and I was in Lansing in ninety minutes.

I took a picture of the old hometown sign, Laingsburg, on Highway 69. I grew up with the repairs of Woodbury Road and the completion of Highway 69. Yes, we both are showing a bit of age now, but we can still move fast and get ‘er done.

I had stopped at the rest area before Lansing, proved the impact of too much coffee, and reset my Nav to head to Mom Wild’s new place. I finished 69 and entered Lansing and Haslett. I entered the wrong number into Nav but found the correct place after turning around. I use CarPlay and my phone map app to find my way in the red car.

I was soon checked into the facility, Brookdale Meridian Assisted Living, and met the director, Derrick, and he took me to Mom Wild’s room, A-9. The place has carpet and none of the terrible smells of these places. Excellent! Derrick woke Mom, who had slept in. I spent a few hours with Mom and gave her the sugar egg from Eastern Market. She had my cards and postcards, but the Easter bulb-based flowers had yet to arrive (it was delivered a few hours later). We talked for a few hours, and the staff carried away the ignored breakfast. Mom introduced me as her brother and referenced her hometown. We discussed Dad Wild and family items, but she remembered I was her son. All good. The words were just mixed up a bit.

Mom Wild said she was accepting the place now. At first, she told me, it was hard, but she now likes it, and her room is comfortable and arranged with multiple recliners. She also told me she apologized to my sister for being angry, and she is happy now.

It was time for lunch, and I got a text from Leta, Susie’s mother, that I could meet her at the usual Panera by Lansing Mall. Linda texted me, and we had set up dinner at Bravo, Mom’s fav. With dinner now on the schedule, we made our goodbyes (these trips I make are always full of hellos and goodbyes), and I set Nav for Lansing Mall and soon crossed Lansing with my memories of each location coming as I drove by. I always miss ‘Elric’ Anderson (he passed away unexpectedly last November) when I drive through all the places we used to visit in the distant past, which often seem like just yesterday. Susie is always with Leta and me when we meet (Susie has been gone for a while now).

Leta and I had a nice lunch together, and I had soup and half a chicken salad sandwich. We talked about the impacts Trump and DOGE were having on people and the fear that I might not get my Social Security next year. However, the Republicans in the Senate are not headed that way. Though Elon and company may mess up the government enough to prevent my application from being processed or, more likely, the processors will find non-existence errors in my application and then refuse me. That is the typical process of an authocratic government. I will be sixty-one on Wednesday and drawing immediately next year (62), assuming I can complete the process. I will also need health care from the end of 2025 until I am 65. I am now paying about $730 a month through a COBRA offering from Nike.

For my political friends, I am trying to be positive, and I understand the emotions of my Republican supporting readers. However, I do not agree with most of Trump’s agenda (I can’t find anything to agree with so far, but I will use the lighter wording as something might show up that I like). I believe the DOGE process, having been through the matching process of layoffs at Nike (every two to three years over 27 years), only increases chaos and expenses but allows for some very shallow claims of victory and some promotions of idiots. Sorry, my few Republican readers (and I value them), but it looks too familiar and wasteful to me. I never saw a layoff produce good results in the multinational company I worked for, Nike (and I remember a few missing critical backups of computer systems when responsible folks are lost).

I got a message that my room was ready at the Fairfield Inn at Eastwood, and I said goodbye to Leta (I will see her for my birthday). I headed to East Lansing and parked by MSU. I decided to finish the blog at El Azteco 2, an old fav. I invested in two house margaritas to finish the blog. The college year was winding up, and it was a warm, if windy day, and the town was full of college students walking and running. Different than my mid-winter visit last year. As usual, I headed to Curious Books, and the owner, Ray Walsh, was in the store. Now, a wreck of boxes of books were blocking the narrow walkways, as they were closing (still) their other location. Ray apologized to me for the mess, but it has been this way for years. I could not find the Elric book I was looking for (I will have to head back to Seattle’s Pike Place Market book store), but I found some other Elric books, a 1920s history of a Drake (I think), and a water stained $20 book of facimilies of letters from H.P. Lovecraft. Ray told me it was priced to move (I think he was thinking $25-$30, and I would have still bought it). He showed me a rare book he has for $2500, which covered more of H.P. Lovecraft’s writing. I took a picture to share it.

Ray took my business card and will have the books mailed to me for $7.50. Perfect. We shook hands, and I told him to look for me again in the winter. Another hello and goodbye.

I checked the MSU textbook store, but no intriguing math or computer books were for sale. I always check what is in the graduate level stuff. I still plan to pick up mathematics again.

With that, I returned to Air Hyundai Red and soon checked in at the hotel with a friendly staffer, Eli. We talked about Opera for a while. He might check out the movie theater presentation of the Met Opera on Saturdays or Wednesday night repeats. One of the elevators was broken, but these are still faster than the ones in Rochester!

I soon dragged all my stuff into the room, took off my shoes and sweater, and rested. I nodded off. I rose again after some chirps from my phone. Linda was headed out soon. I called Deborah again, and we mainly chatted about health (as we get older, we find this a more persistent topic); we miss each other already. Linda called, and I needed to move.

Linda beat me to Bravo, which is minutes away from the hotel. Mom was sitting in her rollator. Dinner was a bit industrial Italian with bits of greatness. The desserts were huge, bright, and perfect. The wine was overpriced but good (the glass cost was half the price of a bottle at a store). I could have done the salad and piccata better, but it was not terrible. Mom’s shrimp dinner, an appetizer, looked excellent (she ate them all).

With dinner and dessert inside us, yet another goodbye, I was back at my hotel. Mom Wild and Linda will see me again soon. I soon was in my PJs, reading and then sleeping. I missed a goodnight message from Deborah as I was asleep already. The rush of days and travel was adding up, and I got my first long sleep from the trip. I woke to adjust the heat and prove hydration. I remember dreams, pleasant, and woke without an alarm.

Thanks for reading.