To start with, the questions about Mom Wild. She is in Sparrow on the 7th floor, feeling better, and is a terror to the crew there. While her condition is serious enough to have her monitored, she is improving and may make a full recovery. Details do not belong here on social media, but Mom Wild is better. To keep the confusion down, I did not visit on Thursday, as she was mostly sleeping and needed to focus on Linda and Jesse and on getting better. I did see her on Wednesday.
The local health care system, in Lansing, is overwhelmed with cyclosporiasis cases.
Returning to the narrative, I rose at 6:30 with an alarm, sent a good morning to Deborah, who is always up early, and she texted back that she was drinking coffee. I usually make the coffee, and she said she missed me bringing her coffee. My coffee comes from a machine at the hotel. I soon showered, shaved, and so on. Next, I performed the usual updates to Quicken, reading email (mostly deleting them), and getting updated on the news (mostly depressing).
I headed down to the lobby at the Holiday Inn Express for their industrial breakfast and had the usual tasteless eggs, some sausage, and potatoes. No bananas today (“Yes, we have no bananas today”). Kevin is working, and we chat a bit. I am a repeat customer, spending weeks here every year (their website says 35 nights at IHG). I spend at least 1/4 of the year on the road now. Though this year everything is 30% higher for rooms. Thus, my focus is on Hampton Inns, which are not kicking their prices up as fast and have excellent service. The prices are coming down in the fall as I look out towards my next trips.
I read an update from Holly at AAA that the tickets are booked (and my prepayment worked to ensure AMEX would not freak out again) for our church trip to Brazil (19Nov-29Nov, with some adding three days for sightseeing). We are adding on trip insurance and health care coverage through the United Methodist Church-based policy. With my experience on this trip and having to cancel and rebook everything elsewhere, I am more than willing to cover the cost of this trip with these add-ons! Plus, the medical coverage after seeing what is happening here in Michigan!
Yes, dear reader, the irony is not lost on me that when traveling I avoid salads and washed veggies in less developed countries. I was not expecting to add the USA to my list of places to avoid salads!
I unload the car as I have to pack on Friday and wince at the new NOAA jacket and book I have to fit into my bag. I have loaded it with more stuff before; I have a 70-pound limit for bags as a Platinum Delta AMEX card carrier.
I invest the morning in writing the blog. Deborah invites me over for a lunch she will make. Arugula-based salad from her own garden (no cyclosporiasis) and tiny homegrown and delicious tomatoes. I pick up some mozzarella pearls to add to the salad. Deborah plans to grill some chicken that she picked up. I also return to the hotel to get a charger she is missing.
Her dogs, Trixie and Zelda, are happy to see me. There is much petting of dogs. Deborah and I spend some of the morning and part of the afternoon together, and I help, to a small degree, make the fresh salad, and I am surprised by how much zing fresh arugula has. Just a spray of oil and a swish of balsamic vinegar finishes the salad.
Deborah has a work thing, and I head to Lansing at 2, 90 minutes away by way of Flint (it is the fastest way on 70+ mph highways). My Nav in my Chevy is set for the Curious Book Store, and I hope to see Ray Walsh, the owner, and ship a few more books to Oregon. Linda texts me to go with that, as Mom Wild is mostly sleeping and waiting for a room, still in a hallway in the ER at Sparrow. I arrive in East Lansing without incident, and my only driving challenge is to keep my speed to match the flow of traffic.
I park in the usual parking garage and soon have a new collection of books, mostly nautical, at Curious Book Store, and I remember “Elric” (Eric), Tyler, Jamie, Todd, Jim, Rusty, and others who have been here searching for a cheap SciFi or classics (we read both). That would be followed by Arby’s and then a movie, usually an adventure movie or a comedy. Eric would laugh loudly (I can still hear his laughter). Then Pinball Pete’s, the old Frandor location (long gone), was our usual haunt. I remember when the expensive pinball game Dragon’s Lair (1983) came out, and Eric spent buck after buck to learn it. Later, I remember him playing it all the way through (after investing a pile of tokens over many months) and winning. It had a laser disk (yes, this is the 1980s) to play a movie that you interacted with (it has aged poorly, here)
I skipped the pinball today. I did stop by the student books and resisted their 99-cent book sale. Last time I brought three home, but I used a larger suitcase that time. Still, there were a few…
Next, with just 45 minutes left before dinner for Linda’s birthday (on the 23rd), I headed past the place and to the capital area to grab some peanuts and cashoes at the Nut Store and then some Doom comic books (Doom is still a favorite and something I shared with Eric; there were many “Dr Doom” characters) from the gaming store, Summit Comic and Games. Out of time, I make it to Soup Spoon Café a few minutes before Jesse and Linda arrive. I had thirty minutes on my parking app and managed to get it all done without an issue.
The food was good, but mine was average, with good flavors. Jesse hit a home run with the walleye. I would suggest sticking to simpler items and not the pasta. Still, it was a good time, and the desserts were great.
Linda discovered that the coffee grinder, which had appeared without any information, was included with the subscription for Portland Roaster beans she was receiving. Being her brother, I did not see any reason to explain, hee hee.
With dinner inside of us, we said goodbye, and I then headed back to the greater Detroit area. I filled up the SUV with gas at Costco before hitting Highway 69. Cheaper gas is always welcome. I truly miss my EV, but I was not going to use an EV on this trip (the planned or ad hoc trip).
I returned to my hotel, talked to Joan S about my travels (she is in the Pacific Northwest), and asked if she could pick me up at the Beaverton Transit Center on Saturday around noon (I will take MAX for $1.80 to Beaverton from PDX). All good.
I then read Doomquest comics in which Doom creates a time machine, and his nemesis, Richards, traps him on the sinking Titanic. The second in the series describes his attempts to escape. It was interesting. I have backed a Call of Cthulhu based on the Titanic sinking. Hmmm.
And soon I was asleep and woke at sunrise from a dreamless sleep. Thanks for reading!
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 