Thursday, 6/30

How can it be the end of June already?

Seriously...how can 2022 be half over? It seems like it just started, yet here we are at the halfway point between January 1st and December 31st and what do we have to show for it? More gray hair? A bigger headache? Jaws hitting the floor wondering just what the heck happened to the first 180-some days of the year?

Yikes!

This may just be me--heck it probably IS just me--but since the silliness started on our planet a little over two years ago it seems like our perception of time has somehow gone really askew. I don't know if it's just because so much wackiness has been compressed into so little of a time span, or if because our altered lives have led to Loraine's concept of "Blursday", but something has seriously changed since the Before Times.

Either that, or I'm just losing my mind. And don't think that concept hasn't crossed your mind once or twice while you've been reading these.

Sadly, I don't hold out much hope for this to change during the latter half of 2022. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if things never go back to the way we used to perceive them. Maybe that's a good thing; maybe every once in awhile we need to be shaken up just a little, to be knocked out of our complacency and made to look at the world from a slightly different point of view. Change, after all, is not a bad thing. Neither is an altered perception of how you view the world. However, when they both occur at the same time...

Well, you get 2020. And 2021. And the first half, so far, of 2022.

So with that in mind I hope the first half of YOUR year has been, if nothing else, not too chaotic. And I fervently wish that the second half provides no new surprises, no new distractions, and no new life-altering situations, either in your personal life or in the world at large.

I won't be surprised if it DOES happen, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen to you.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 6/29

If you think that you have any privacy these days, that any part of your personal life can't be bought or sold...

Then I have a tale for you.

I don't shop at Meijer at Marquette a lot; there's really no reason for that, other than the fact that I could find myself addicted to the cornbread in their bakery and it's probably better for my health and my waistline that I'm not a regular shopper there. It's a fine store and the people who work there are top-notch.

I'm just not a regular-regular customer.

But every so often Loraine and I head out there to pick up household items or to grab things that may not be available at other stores. Last time around, in fact, I picked up, among other things, protein bars, dental floss, and green tea with blueberry and acai. I would normally pay cash for that mix, but I wanted to see if they still do something I started noticing a couple of years ago.

And I got my answer when I came home and checked the mail last night.

Among the things I found in the mail was a little package of coupons from Meijer, addressed to me. What did those coupons offer for sale? Well, how about protein bars, dental floss, and green tea with blueberry and acai, among other thing. Now, I'm not a Meijer mPerks member. When I bought the protein bars, dental floss, and green tea with blueberry and acai, I did not tell them who I was. The store has no way of knowing I would like to buy protein bars, dental floss, and green tea with blueberry and acai, among other things, unless they noticed someone with my credit card number bought them, and then paid and/or traded with my credit card company o find out who owned said credit card number.

This isn't the first time that's happened. And it happens at stores other that Meijer, as well.

That seems to me to be the only way that Meijer (or any other store) would know that it was me who purchased the protein bars, dental floss, and green tea with blueberry and acai, among other things. And I don't know what I find more discomforting—the fact that Meijer (or any other store) can buy that information, or the fact that my credit card company would sell it. I mean, I'm as aware as anyone that we have no privacy these days, that information about us is bought and sold multiple times an hour. But to see such a...demonstrative example of this when I opened the mail last night was, well, a wake up call. Proof positive that it happens whether we realize it or not.

And yet another rude welcome to life in the 21^st century as we know and live it.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 6/28

Look. Nary a mention of pr*stitutes today. Well, okay...after THAT nary of a mention of them today.

8-)

One recurring topic I WILL bring up today, though, has Loraine and I trying, after several years of being blocked in every single way, to head back to Europe again. Yup; we are shooting for a late September/early October jaunt over to Leipzig to get our feet wet again and to see RB Leipzig (hopefully) wallop Bochum FC.

Wish us luck.

As you may recall, we had two scheduled trips unscheduled by Covid back in 2020, and then sat through 2021 and (part of) 2022 waiting for various travel restrictions to be lifted. Well, those restrictions now have been lifted, and we've decided to jump back on the horse with a (fairly) simple trip that involves only one location, no rental car, and with the expectation that something unplanned probably WILL happen.

These days, I guess, you take what you can get.

This trip is actually almost identical to one of the canceled 2020 jaunts, even using the voucher we received from Deutsche Bahn to cover the cost of the train from Berlin (where we fly in) to Leipzig and back. The only thing that's different is that we're spending an extra day there and RB Leipzig is playing Bochum (instead of, I think, Dusseldorf, or whoever they were supposed to play back in the Before Times). Otherwise, Loraine just took the itinerary she had laid out from 2020, changed the dates to 2022, and printed it out again.

We'll see if it works out this time.

Normally, when we decide to take a trip like this, I have six to eight months to get ready for it by working ahead and getting everything set. Now, that'll be squeezed into three months. I don't think it'll be a problem, but it'll be interesting. And this will be interesting, as well. We fly back into Marquette the evening of Wednesday, October 5^th. Less than 36 hours later—Friday, October 7^th at 9 am—I'm scheduled to shoot the season premiere of “High School Bowl”.

Hopefully, the jet lag won't be too bad.

So if I start babbling about Germany a lot in the next few months, please forgive me. And think of it this way—at least I won't be mentioning pr*stitutes as much as I have recently.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 6/27

Okay...let's give it a go and see if it works.

As you may recall, Friday I tried to post a blog that Google's Blogger website said violated their “community standards”. The blog was a riff on a joking title I've been given by the Marquette Regional History Center; namely, that I'm “Marquette's Great Living Authority on 'The Oldest Profession'”. However, “The Oldest Profession” was not the actual word. The actual word, which was in the blog 12 times, apparently tripped some kind of robot alarm at Blogger and wouldn't allow me to post it until I put an asterisk in place of the “o” in the actual word.

But then it's apparently okay to have in a blog 12 times.

So here's the blog I intended to post Friday, just with asterisks in place of the letter “O” in one word. See for yourself if it violates “community standards”.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

*****:

Maybe they could change the title just a little bit.

I was walking on South Beach yesterday morning when my phone rang. It was my friends at the Marquette Regional History Center, who had just been contacted by a lady in California looking for information on pr*stitutes and logging camps. The people at the History Center couldn't find information on this particular incident, so they called me because they believe, and I quote the person who called, “You're the greatest living authority on pr*stitutes in Marquette”.

Wow. THAT'S a title I never thought I'd be given!

And it's not really a title that's totally accurate. I mean, the title as stated --”Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitutes”--makes me sound, you know, a little skeezy. Like there's something in my background I really need to hide. As we all know, I'm nothing like that. I'm just a historical researcher who who has a bizarre fascination with the history of pr*stitution in Marquette. And not even really the history of pr*stitution in Marquette. I'm more fascinated by the puritanical...obsession that journalists of the era had with the working women of Marquette. The biggest laughs I've ever gotten during a program was when I was reading—verbatim—over the top newspaper accounts of pr*stitution and the people on both sides who kept the business going.

That's why I'm “Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitution in Marquette”. And that's why I've typed the word “pr*stitution” almost a dozen times in the last two paragraphs.

Sigh.

Maybe the title should be something along the lines of “Marquette's greatest living authority on the history of pr*stitution in the city”, or, more accurately, “Marquette's greatest living authority on the history of press reaction to pr*stitution in the city”. Because when you think about it, I really DO know quite a bit of the colorful history of the working women of Marquette in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. It's just been part of my research, and those sensationalistic newspaper articles with which I have a bizarre fascination do hold a lot of history within their florid prose. So I'm comfortable with a title like the ones I've described. But a title like “Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitutes”?

Well, I'm flattered.. And part of me believes it's hilarious that when people think of pr*stitutes in Marquette, they think of me. I always thought I was destined for one or two bizarre things in my life.

I just had no idea it would be something like this.

Have yourself a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 6/24

 Okay...this is really stupid.

I just tried to post today's blog and found it it wouldn't post.  I wasn't quite sure why, until Blogger--the Google product we use to post these things--gave me a message telling me the post violated "community standards"--

I has no idea why the blog violated "community standards"; after all, I try quite hard to make sure that everyone cal read these.  And then when I was going through the blog, trying to figure out the reason behind the ban, I realized how it violated Blogger community standards.

Because I used the word "pr*stitue" in it 22 times.

It wasn't in any malicious or salacious way; it was basically one big long joke about how someone from the History Center called yesterday and referred to me as "Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitues", wondering if I knew a fact because someone from California was looking for information on a brothel near a lumber camp (and, if you're curious, no I didn't know.  So I guess I'm not worthy of that title, as it stands).

Anyway, the blog was one long riff on that joking title, but Blogger didn't' see it that way.  Because Blogger didn't see it that way it wouldn't post the entry as I originally wrote it.  So here's what I'm gonna do--

If it posts this one, the one with "pr*stitutes" all over it, over the weekend I'll change all the real words in the original to the ones with the asterisk, and see if we can make it go for Monday.

Wow...the things you can (and can't) get away with these days.  If anyone tells you we're living in strange times, they're not wrong.

8-)

Have a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 6/23

Are you taking advantage of every single second of daylight these days?

Mandy and I were talking about the longest and shortest days of the year on the air yesterday, focusing (for some reason) on the first day of winter, when people can leave their home, go to work, go home, and not see a lick of sun because of the shortness of the day. Well, last night, for some bizarre reason, I was jolted awake in the middle of the night by the thought that the exact opposite of that is happening right now.

And then, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep.

But when you think of it, it's true. Say someone goes to bed at 10pm and wakes up at 6am. If they were to do that any time during the next few weeks in Marquette, they'd be going to bed just after the sun had set and the sky was still light. They'd then be waking several minutes after sunrise, when the sky was filled with light. They'd go to bed when it was light and wake up when it was light, not seeing a lick of darkness, just like some people don't see a lick of sun on the first day of winter.

Nah; I don't think it's a concept worth getting up for in the middle of the night, but what does my sub-conscious know, right?

Back in the days when I Roller-bladed (back before I cracked a rib after wiping out and Loraine told me I couldn't Roller-blade any more) I used to go out at 10pm on the first day of summer and blade around a bit, just because I could. I mean, there aren't a lot of places in the U.S. where you can do that. But because we're on the far western edge of a time zone and because we're quite far north, we get to do stuff like that. I always felt that I should do just because we could, just because no one else could.

Maybe THAT'S why I wake up in the middle of the night with weird ideas.

Anyway, now that we're living through the longest days of the year I hope I won't be awoken with any more weird ideas such as that one. I mean, I'm not counting on it, but one can always hope, right?

Anyway, hope you're making the most of the daylight this time of the year!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 6/22

I wonder what you'd find if you DID look down there.

While in Chicago last weekend Loraine had a thought, a thought that popped into my head again yesterday morning as I was walking to work. Loraine's thought, as we were riding the L train, was this—what would you find on the bottom of yours shoes if you did a DNA test on them after a day in Chicago?

Odds are, the results would not be pretty. Especially if you, like we were doing at the time, had just ridden the Blue Line.

Like I said, I thought about that again walking to work and noticed one of those piles of vomit that seem to grow on a daily basis halfway up the Front Street hill. Add to that the usual stuff you find on a city sidewalk--spit & sweat of runners, the blood of bikers, the waste products of dogs, and the, uhm, wastes of people who may have spent the night passed out somewhere, and your shoes would probably be covered with a gumbo of humanity.

But, sad to say, probably not a very tasty gumbo. Or a very healthy one.

Until Loraine had made that crack last weekend, I never actually devoted much thought to what I walk through on a daily basis. But maybe I should. I mean, when I go running early on a Saturday morning, before people have had a chance to clean things up from the previous night's activities, I can see some pretty nasty things. I don't run through them, but they're there. And even after the clean-up occurs, I'm sure some trace lingers. So when you consider everything that gets “expelled” by humans and animals on a sidewalk or a bike path, it's a wonder our shoes don't somehow mutate from all the DNA, and get up and walk off on their own.

Although that could be an interesting concept for a horror movie, when you think of it.

Of course, we come in to contact with all kinds of disgusting stuff on daily basis, as Covid proved, and try not to give it a second thought. I suppose if we did, there would be some among us so repelled by the thought of everything we're stepping in that we'd never want to step outside again. Thankfully, I'm not one of those people, although, like I said, I'd never devoted an ounce of brain power to it before last weekend.

But now that I'm thinking about it...

8-)

Don't worry; I shan't become one of those people I just mentioned. Too much of my life (many of my favorite parts, in fact) are lived outdoors. There's no way, especially during what passes for “summer” up here, that Id lock myself inside just to avoid a little “human gumbo”. However, that does not mean that I won't be looking a bit askew at the bottom of my shoes next time I take them off.

After all, you never know what might be residing down there!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 6/21

We're back!!

After four glorious days in Chicago (and an extra bonus day off for Juneteenth) it's back to reality, at least for a little while.  We had an amazing time in our second favorite place in the US, eating, walking, eating, walking, and, uhm, eating & walking.  Seriously--we must have hiked at least 10 miles a day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, so we were able to justify all the pizza, Mexican food, cookies, baked goods, and chocolate we devoured.

Add to that that it was at least 80 (or felt like 80) every day we were, and we had a great time.

With all the walking we did we were actually able to visit a lot of places we had not yet visited before, so that was kind of a bonus for the whole trip.  One of the hikes we took was on a bike/walking path that extends the entire length of the lake shore.  In fact, there were great views when we started--

And even better views once we reached where we were going--

We also checked out a plethora of parks, including Grant Park, which has perhaps the most famous fountain in the midwest--

We walked through genteel neighborhoods, where you could see some of the houses built over a century ago out of Marquette sandstone--

But two things really stood out on this trip.  One is that Chicago has one of the biggest communities of Ukrainian immigrants in the country, which manifested itself in stores--

At construction sites--

And, most importantly, outside the Ukrainian Consulate just a few blocks from our hotel--

As cool as that was, that was nothing compared to a group staying at our hotel.  When Loraine and I went down to breakfast Saturday we noticed a bunch of guys wearing the same shirt with a suspiciously familiar logo on them.

Believe it or not, we had a Bundesliga team on a US tour staying in our very hotel--

Loraine was in heaven, getting her picture taken with several players.  We also had a nice elevator conversation with one of the coaches, who was surprised we knew anything about SC Paderborn and was even more surprised when we professed our fandom of RB Leipzig.

So who would have thought--a German soccer team spent the same weekend at the same hotel in Chicago as we did.  That just made a fantastic trip even more incredible.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 6/15

We are off to see the Wizard.

Well, not literally off to see the Wizard, but Loraine and I are heading down to our second favorite place in the US early tomorrow when we hop aboard a plane in Marquette and, 45 minutes later, touch down in Chicago. We haven't been there since 2019, and we haven't actually spent more than six hours in the city since 2017.

So, I'm thinking, this visit is quite overdue.

We're looking forward to revisiting the places we like to visit and eat at the places we like to eat. I know some people have looked at us askew when we mention we like to keep going back to the same place, wondering why we don't try some other locale we've not yet visited, to which I reply--

Why do that when we have Chicago?

I often joke that Marquette and Chicago are pretty much the same city; one's just a thousand times bigger. And it's true—they're both on a Great Lake, they're both very progressive, they're both very art-and spectacle-oriented, they both have big educational and medical components, and they both have some of the most amazing restaurants in the country. There's a reason so many tourists from Chicago visit Marquette.

And that may very well be because it's like they're heading to a smaller version of “home”.

As for us, we're heading to a bigger version of “home”. Whether or not it'll seem different after all these years and/or because of Covid, we have no idea. I just know that we're both looking forward to spending some time wandering the streets, enjoying the (forecasted) 80+ degree temperatures, and taking pictures like this--

Wish us luck. Back with a new entry Tuesday with all of the (fingers crossed) highlights!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 6/14

Do you remember where you were 15 years (minus six days) ago today?

Fifteen years (minus six days) ago today, June 20^th, 2007, was a date that will live in weather infamy here in Marquette. It was then that the great hailstorm of 2007 hit a surprisingly small portion of the city, yet a big enough chunk to cause over $50 million in damage, thereby single-handedly keeping local auto body and roofing concerns in business for the next year or so.

Now you remember where you were 15 years (minus six days) ten years ago today, right?

I was actually taking one of my half days that day, as the morning was quite beautiful and warm. Walking to work, though, I could tell something funny was up by the way the sky looked; I had never seen clouds that looked quite like that. And no more than 10 minutes after I walked into the station, our Emergency Alert System started beeping and sputtering and the skies opened up. 10 minutes after that, I took these pictures--

The first is of the storm at its peak; the second is off all the hail that had fallen right outside the studio, just a small example of what had hit the city. When I walked home that night, I was amazed by the damage I saw--trees were down, houses had been pelted, and every single car roof I passed looked like Swiss cheese. As I got closer to my home I feared the worse--after all, my car (yes, I had a car back then) was just sitting in the driveway--but once I arrived in my yard I noticed Mother Nature had been looking out for me. You see, my car was in the driveway of the place we were renting at the time, but it was parked under a big tree. The leaves and branches of the tree had absorbed the force of the hail, which meant that anything hitting my car wasn’t going fast enough to do any damage.

Mine, in fact, was probably one of the few cars in this part of Marquette to have been outside during the storm and yet escaped damage free. For that, I thank the tree. And Mother Nature.

So that’s what happened 15 years (minus six days) ago today, in case you needed your memory jogged!

(jim@wmqt.com), writing about this now because I'll be on my way back from Chicago when the anniversary actually rolls around!

Monday, 6/13

Well...I never expected THAT to happen.

I had a meeting at a restaurant Friday morning and when I was walking out a woman came up to me with a question I actually get asked quite often--”Are you Jim?” Since I am, I nodded, and she proceeded to tell me a story that kind of blew my mind.

The person who came up to me is a second grade teacher at Superior Hills Elementary School in Marquette. She told me that her class has their “must do” work (you know, like math & stuff) every day, and when that's done they then get “want to do” time. And what do the kids in this second grade class at Superior Elementary quite often choose to do during their “want to do” time?

They choose to watch the history videos I make.

I've often had individuals—adults, to a person--tell me how much they enjoy those shorts. But an entire class of second graders? An entire class of second graders that actually chooses to watch them?

Now do you see why my mind is blown?

As I've mentioned in a couple of times in here, when I make those videos I have no idea who will end up watching them and what effect they'll have on those who choose to view them. I'm mostly doing it for (literally) history. I'm doing them so anyone who stumbles upon the History Center's website and wants to learn something can. I just never imagined that a group of second graders would one, stumble upon them, and two, actually want to go back to them again and again.

I mean, who knew?

I thanked the teacher for making my day; heck, the way 2022's going I probably should have thanked her for making my year. Of all the things that I hoped might happen when I started making them two years ago I never could have imagined that a group of second graders would find them so fascinating that they, as a class, would choose to watch them.

Now do you see why my mind was blown?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 6/10

154 years ago tomorrow Marquette burned to the ground.

That line, in its many different variations, is actually one of the favorites of mine that I've written. I've used it in blogs, I've used it on tours, and I've used it in videos. It's simple, it contains all in information you need, and, I'd like to think, it grabs your attention and makes you wonder about the rest of the story.

Tomorrow is the big anniversary of the night a great chunk of Marquette went up in flames. There are some amazing stories to the night, some of which you can find out in a paragraph or two and all of which you can (if you wish) hear when I give a walking tour on the subject tomorrow afternoon (3pm at the Marquette Regional History Center, should you be interested). There are a lot of communities that have stories of the day or night they burned to the ground; the Great Fire of 1868, however, played a direct part in making Marquette one of the most unique looking communities in the country.

You can find out how if you join us tomorrow. Or, I guess, you can always find out why by watching this video--

Have a great weekend. And remember—no burning down the community in which you live, okay?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com) 

Thursday, 6/9

Well, I didn't expect that to happen.

As you may recall, yesterday I wrote about looking forward to hosting the Marquette Regional History Center's annual trivia contest last night. However, sad to say, that didn't happen. Thanks to not quite having enough teams to make it fun, it was decided to pull the plug on the event a few hours before it began.

Bummer. I mean, I understand why, but a bummer nonetheless.

Don't worry; it's not like I'm (understatement alert) lacking for anything to do for the History Center. Since it looks like it'll be nice out this weekend I'll be doing a pop-up walking tour Saturday on the 154^th anniversary of the Great Marquette Fire. Later this month I'm giving a couple of tours of a historic house as a fundraiser. And then on July 6^th I'm giving a Jim Koski ™ walking tour around downtown using urban archaeology to talk about railroads and how, everywhere you look, you can still see signs of where they ran.

So I have plenty to do. Don't worry about that.

Oh—and have I mentioned the Loraine and I are heading to Chicago for a long weekend? Because we can't leave the country without the possibility that we might not be allowed back in (seriously—you still have take a Covid test before flying into the US, and if you test positive you can't re-enter for 10 days) we just decided to head down to our second favorite place in the country and fly to Chicago a week from today. We'll be gone for four days eating, playing, and (hopefully) enjoying what the long range forecast says should be temperatures n the 80s.

The best part of it? We don't have to take a Covid test to head back to Marquette.

So yes, it will be a busy rest of the month. But after last night, it became a little less busy.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 6/8

Doing anything tonight?

Well, if your answer was “not much” or “trying to remember where I put the the vase for my lilac collection”, you're more than welcome to join me at the Marquette Regional History Center for their annual trivia contest, where I get to do the only two things for which it seems I'm uniquely qualified—ask people questions about history, and then make fun of them when they get them wrong.

If it's anything like previous editions of the contest, it should be a blast.

Because of Covid we haven't done it since 2019, but the previous times we had a packed house, and I'm hoping it'll be the same tonight. The fine staff at the History Center has put together 50 questions, all based on exhibits or newspaper stories or tours (some by yours truly) or videos (all by yours truly) and now everyone who takes part will get the chance to see if they can answer them for fun (& prizes). People who participate are more than welcome to bring their own adult beverages (a factor that made the contest quite amusing the past few years), and I've been promised there will be snacks, as well.  So if you're interested, it's a great way to learn a little and raise money for a great organization.

Oh—and to be made fun of if you don't know the answers, too. But in a kind & gentle way. That I promise.

8-)

*****

Since I don't have much more to say about it, here's one of those videos on which a question may be based (a history video that's actually timely, needless to say). Details on how it all went tomorrow!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 6/7

If I'd known it was that easy to get a bunch of “likes” I wouldn't have put so much work into them!

Now that I'm done with the “Pieces of the Past” history videos I've made this season I'm able to do other things, like walking around and sniffing (and photographing) lilacs. That's one of the things I did between showers over the weekend, and I posted a few of the pictures I took on Saturday on Facebook. When I woke up Sunday morning I had over 300 “likes” on the pictures. I'm not surprised, I guess; people love lilacs, especially when they're combined with historical Marquette landmarks (or bees). Here's what I find funny—I spent ten minutes taking the pictures, and got those 300+ “likes”. I can spend four or five hours putting together a “Pieces of the Past” video, and get 100 or so.

Which one seems like a better return on investment?

8-)

I'm not complaining in the least. It's just an observation. I know the videos aren't everyone's cup of tea, while I know of very few (if any) people who don't like lilacs (if that's even possible). As always, I just find it...ironic that something that took me a few seconds to do ended up more popular than anything on which I can spent hours.

Oh well...c'est la vie, right?

And I don't suppose I should be surprised, not when the pictures look like this...

Or this...

Or this...

There you go. Ten minutes of work, 300+ likes. This social media thing is easy, isn't it? You just need lilacs, and you're set.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 6/6

I wonder what happened to the piece of chocolate?

You may recall last Tuesday, my final day as an employee of Taconite Broadcasting, when I spent most of my day mired in a power outage. I spent three hours of my afternoon waiting for the electricity to be restored following a transformer fire up the street, and during that time my office was encased in total darkness.

Now, I wasn't in my office that much during that time, trying to do whatever work I could in our front office, which has huge windows looking out onto the sidewalk and letting in a huge amount of natural light. But every so often I did have to venture back to my office, if for no other reason than that's where my chocolate stash resides. When I needed a fix snack, I'd use the flashlight function on my phone, go back and get a piece, and then venture back into the light.

I'm sure there's a metaphor for my chocolate addiction in there somewhere. I just don't know if I should go looking for it.

Anyway, one of the times I went back to get a fix nibble I dropped a piece on the floor. Looking around with the light off my phone, I couldn't see it anywhere. When the power came back on I checked, and still couldn't find it anywhere. Even this past weekend, when I was here catching up on a few things, I searched near and far, and came up empty handed.

So just what DID happen to that piece of chocolate I dropped during the power outage last Tuesday?

Now, I know I did drop a piece that day. It was the last chunk of a little 70% bar I picked up at Aldi when we were visiting Loraine parents a few weeks ago, and it's one of my favorite bars (at least among those you can buy in the US). With everything that was going on that day, I was looking forward to the last bite of the bar, and when I dropped it I was even going to violate the five-second rule once I found it.

THAT'S how much I was looking forward to eating it.

But now it belongs to the universe, I guess, proving that even the universe has a sweet tooth and appreciates just how darn good that particular kind of chocolate is. I still have a few more bars of it, so it's not like I'm going without. But still, I would really, really like to know--

Just whatever DID happen to that piece of chocolate?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 6/3

I enjoyed my walk to work yesterday.

As most of the planet seemingly knows, I'm not much of a morning person. But there are a few weeks each year when I actually don't mind being out before 10 in the morning, and this is one of those weeks. Why, you ask? Well, I answer, it's because of the angle of the sun and fresh aroma of the newly bloomed trees & flowers. I'm not quite sure how or why, but the two of them combine to make me actually want to be up early, and that rarely, if ever happens.

Ever.

As a couple of examples of why I enjoyed my walk to work yesterday? Well, there were the trees...

The flowers...

The purple things that seemingly take over a lawn...

More flowers...

And, of course...

Even Mr Bee (look closely) thinks they're kind of cool.

I'm hoping I get to have a few more days of being up early and enjoying my walks to work. I know how fleeting this time of the year can be, so I plan on spending as much time as humanly possible, inhaling the sweet smells of the season. So if you happen to see me out and about this weekend with my nose stuck in lilacs or something other multi-hued, multi-flowered plant, please forgive me.

It's just that time of the year.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 6/2

Well, whaddya know. Maybe the stories are actually true.

For as long as I can remember I've heard stories about people around here having seen snow in the air on the Fourth of July. I usually chalk it up to the telling of tall tales, because in all of the Fourths that I've been around (and that's what...12 or 13 of them?) I've yet to see anything resembling snow flakes. I've seen sun, I've seen rain, I've seen fog, and I've even seen my breath, but I've never lived through a Fourth that even comes close to having conditions for snow.

I was discussing this on the air with Mandy yesterday. I think she had made a crack about snow on the Fourth, I told her all the tall tales I've heard about it, and we both had a good laugh. As soon as I hung up the phone with her, I received a call from a woman in Republic, who had this story to tell--

Back in the late 60s (1968 specifically, I believe) Republic was celebrating its centennial on the Fourth. Everyone had made heavy wool period costumes to wear, and everyone who was taking part was worried that they'd be sweating to death in the Fourth of July heat. However, something weird happened. The woman, who was just a kid at the time, remembers the sky getting strange, the temperature dropping, and to the astonishment of everyone, snowflakes started to fall. They didn't stick, melting as they approached the ground, but as she saw with her own eyes, snow fell in Republic on the Fourth of July.

And as she put it, “everyone was really glad they were wearing their wool costumes”.

Wow. Can you imagine what it must've been like, seeing snow on the Fourth of July? Minds would've been blown. People would be staring at the sky in a state of shock. And if you think I whine a lot about cool summer weather now, think what I'd be like if snow started to fall.

I'd be insufferable. Or, at least, more insufferable than I am now.

Thankfully, I think I know enough about weather to know that, at least here in Marquette, we'd never see snow on the Fourth. Lake Superior would see to that. But then I also know enough about weather to know that if it could happen in Republic, there's always the chance—however slim—that it could happen here, too. I don't think we'll ever see snowflakes in July, but I would guess that's the same thing people in Republic thought before that one Fourth back in the late 60s.

So to everyone who's ever told me they've seen snowflakes on the Fourth of July, only to be met with a scoff on my part, just let me say this. I apologize. You were right. I was wrong. I will never doubt any of you ever again. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sit in a corner for a few minutes and scream in fear that it never happens again.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 6/1

THAT was an interesting way to spend my final day as an employee of Taconite Broadcasting.

I had to run out to a meeting around noon yesterday, and when I returned a little over an hour later I came back to a station shrouded in darkness. I also saw a pillar of smoke rising from behind the Landmark Inn, a block up the street from us. I walked as close as I could, being stopped by the two fire trucks, when I noticed the electrical transformer that supplies power for our section of downtown Marquette had flames shooting out of it.

I'm guessing that's not good, right?

Three hours later, our power came back, which means I spent my last day working for my old company scrambling around and trying to get everything to work again. Who knows; maybe the radio gods wanted this part of my career to go out with a (literal) bang.

All I can say is that I hope the first day with my new employer goes a little better than the last day with my old one.

It's funny, as well. The way that power cables go through downtown Marquette means that the station, the Harlow Building next door, and the Peter White Public Library up the street were all dark. Yet Loraine, working at Range Bank, right across the street from me, never saw a glitch, a drop, or an iota of power loss the entire time.

Lucky Range Bank.

But, that's all now history. There's a new transformer in place of the old one, and hopefully whatever caused the old one to catch on fire yesterday won't rear its ugly head today.

Otherwise my new bosses might just start to wonder what they got themselves into.

*******

And as a note to daily blog reader Betsy in Reese (and everyone else waiting the news with bated breath), look what's out!

(jim@wmqt.com)