Thursday, 3/6

To quote a great American, when I'm wrong I say I was wrong.

And boy, was I wrong about this.

As you may recall, when we last met I expressed a little skepticism about the possibility of a winter storm actually occurring, going so far as to post a picture of what it was like before it all began--

Well, if you're wondering how my prediction turned out 24 hours later, here's your answer--

Yup. I might have been a little off in my prediction. Just a little.

8-)

And that's just what it looked like here in downtown Marquette, where we really haven't had a storm like this in almost two years. Away from the city and away from the lake things were probably twice as bad, with more snow, higher winds, and additional junk that we didn't have to face here. I'm not surprised that almost literally every single school and business in the area was closed.

And since it's just starting to wind down, I'll be curious to see how many of them are closed today.

In a way, of course, I'm glad that if it had to happen that it happened this week. Can you imagine if I was trying to get to or from Florida, like I'm planning on next week? That would not be fun, and my heart goes out to anyone who's had a flight canceled or re-routed the past few days.

Let's just hope everything's back to normal by Tuesday. I'm going to delve into the cancellation list now, and see what's open & what's closed. After all, I'm sure that, with everyone still digging out, the former will outpace the latter.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 3/5

Well...this should be interesting. Or maybe it'll just be the same as it has been the past few years.

As I type this we're in the middle of a Winter Storm Warning for what could potentially be a HUGE winter storm, with up to a foot and a half of snow. Or, it could be a HUGE dumping of rain. Or both. At the moment, we've gotten rain mixed with maybe an inch of snow, which has made things a bit of a mess, but with the way our winters go, nothing we get over the next 24 hours would surprise me, up to and including a plague of locusts.

Because that's how we roll up here.

Yesterday, before the event started, I took this picture--

I took it as part of a “before & after” series, because every so often I'll get someone who doesn't believe that we don't seem to get major winter storms—or any major snowfall, for that fact—here in downtown Marquette any more. When I say there's hardly any snow on the ground, I'm not joking.

Really, I'm not.

So tomorrow (assuming we all survive whatever comes) I'll put up the “after” picture, and we can all compare and contrast. Will this storm (for once) live up to expectations? Will it be another tale of lots of snow to our east & west but nothing here? Or will this finally be (for the first time in a few years) “the big one”, and we'll get a taste of what winters used to be like around here?

I guess we'll find out in the next 24 hours, won't we?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 3/4

Did I mention I'm going away for a few days?

That crossed my mind this morning when I realized it's just a week before I head down to Florida for a few days to visit daily blog readers Chicky-Poo & Dar in Melbourne Beach. I know I had informed my boss (who them promptly forgot) but I don't remember who else I had told. And looking back on the past few entries I noticed I hadn't mentioned it here.

So now I am.

It's actually going to be a quick jaunt for a variety of reasons. My TV schedule's one, while anther's the fact that I only decided to do this a month or so ago and, as you know, I have to work ahead and haven't had a lot of time to do so.

It's also quick (Tuesday through Friday) because, as I discovered if you want to fly on a weekend the cost of a ticket to Florida in March can double in price. And since I'm almost paying as much as I did to go to Europe last year...

Tuesday through Friday it is.

Actually, I'd pay any amount to hang out with my parents for a few days. They're snowbirds over half of the year, and those seven months can be a long time. Sure, I talk to them and video chat with them, but it's so much better when you can see them in person.

And I'm REALLY looking forward to it.

So next week when you don't see anything new here or I mention on the air Monday that I'll be gone the rest of the week, that's why. Seeing as how I keep forgetting to mention it, I figured I should do so now.

You know...just in case I forget to do so again.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 3/3

In case you're wondering, the traffic cone is still there.

You may recall when, at the beginning of the year, I wrote one of these blogs about some construction work they were doing on the upper floors of the building in which I work. The construction crew had left a couple of traffic cones around the building, to make sure that people walking by didn't wander into a dangerous area. Well, as often happens in downtown Marquette, one of those cones was picked up by (I'm guessing) someone walking home from a bar late one night, and placed (or thrown) on top of the Range Bank ATM building across the street.

As of last Friday, guess what was still on top of the Range Bank ATM building?

I'm not surprised; after all, when I wrote the original blog, I wondered how long it would be up there. And after two months, it's kind of become a piece of downtown. Every day when I walk to work I see iconic buildings & the equally iconic sight of Mount Marquette looming above the area. Now, I also check to make sure the traffic cone is still on the roof of the building.

And it still is.

I have no idea how long it'll be up there. Loraine works at Range Bank, and she's told several people about the cone, but it hasn't been removed. Maybe they feel about it the same as do I...that's it's now part of downtown Marquette, and as such, should be left alone.

I mean, I doubt you, but you never know, right?

Anyway, I'll keep my eyes on it. And who knows, maybe in another two months I can write another entry here, and further update everyone on whether or not the cone is still there,

I bet you can't wait, right?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 2/28

Given my past (and, if we're being honest, my present) you think I would have known this.

I don't know how this escaped me, and if I hadn't been reading an article in a newspaper (you remember what those are, right?) I still would be in the dark about this. But here it is—there's a town in the U.P. named Vulcan, named not after a legendary science fiction planet but instead after a mine that the town was built around. But it doesn't matter where it got the name. What's important to know is that there's a town in the U.P. named Vulcan, and in the town of Vulcan there's a business that calls itself Starship Enterprises.

Greatest. Business. Name. Ever.

First of all, kudos to the Trekker who named the business, which deals with things like wood products, Starship Enterprises. It takes a special person to put the town name and the business name together, and I bow down to shower them with as much praise as humanly possible.

I really do.

But second of all, how did I not know about this? It seems like somehow, sometime, it should have come to my attention. Admittedly, Vulcan's about a hundred miles away from Marquette and, admittedly, it's been a while since I've even been in the neighborhood. But usually, when there's something strange, quirky, or just plain awesome in the UP I do find out about it eventually. So why didn't I know about Starship Enterprises of Vulcan? The nine year old me would have exploded in joy, just as the modern day me exploded with joy when I read about it in the newspaper.

Yet did I know? Nope. I must be slipping in my old age.

So the next time you find yourself in need of something like wood flooring, you really need to beam yourself to Vulcan. Apparently there's a company there that will help you get up to warp speed. And, if you're lucky, by the time you're done you'll be able to live long and prosper.

And with that, I'll show myself out the door.

8-)

Have a great weekend!!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 2/27

My life is weird. And it keeps getting weirder.

I know I say that a lot, but I keep saying it because it's true. Every week, it seems, something happens that I never thought would happen, and I just kinda shake my head in bemusement and/or amazement at the twist and turns my life seems to be taking.

If you watched the “906” video I posted yesterday, the one about Shakespeare, you may have noticed that Kevin congratulated me on something at the end. On what did he congratulate me? Well, in the latest twist and turn of a very weird life, I can now call myself an award winning TV producer--

That's right; “Marquette @175”, the history show that Kenn Baynard and I put together for TV 19, won the Michigan Association of Broadcasters award for Best Special Program in the state for 2024. I'm a bit surprised, considering it's basically just me and other history geeks talking about history, but maybe these days I shouldn't be surprised about anything.

After all, my life is weird.

Joking aside, it is quite an honor. The awards were judged by people from another state, so there would be no possibility for bias and favoritism, and it still walked away as the winner. As the writer and host, I can say it was a blast to put together. And then when Kenn worked his magic editing it and sticking in all the pictures I provided, it because something even better.

And I guess the MAB agrees.

I don't know if my life can now get any more weird than this. And I say that knowing full well that the way things are going, it WILL get more weird. It's just that at this moment, I have absolutely no idea how.

8-)

Wanna see the (now) award-winning show? CLICK OR TAP HERE..

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 2/26

It's all Jimmy Ludwig's fault.

Spread out all over my kitchen table I have Post-It notes, scraps of paper, and pages of legal pads filled with potential ideas or lines for a future edition of “Life in the 906”. One of those that's been on the table for, oh, probably over a year was “Yooper Shakespeare lines”. I never developed it any further because it was just an idea with nothing solid (at least yet) to put in it.

And then I interviewed Jimmy Ludwig.

Ludwig is a Yooper who went to New York to act on Broadway and has come back to his home region as a theater instructor at NMU. He and a bunch of students are currently in the midst of a two-week run of the Shakespeare comedy “Much Ado About Nothing”, but set at a UP deer camp. I interviewed him about it last week (by the way, he gives GREAT interview, as would befit a Broadway vet), and after the interview rolled around in my head for a few days it triggered something.

Namely, the bones for a “906” bit about Yooper Shakespeare lines.

Like many of the segments I've done, once that trigger was pulled the ideas just came flowing out of my brain. But unlike some of the segments I've done the ideas kept getting weirder and weirder, especially as I recalled more and more of Shakespeare's most famous lines. As I was typing them into my laptop at home I alternated between laughing and shaking my head at the sheer stupidity of some of the lines I was writing, causing Loraine to look at me like she often does.

You know, like I'm a little puppy who runs into a wall, thinks it's cute, and keeps doing it over and over again.

So—was it a good “906” or one of those that seems to amuse only me? Check it out for yourself. If you think it's a good one, then thank you. And if you don't?

Well, then its all Jimmy Ludwig's fault.

 

(jim@wmqt.com)