Tuesday, 4/21

At least it won't be snowing today.  It'd better not be snowing today.

On another April 21^st, a long time ago in a galaxy not too far from here, Loraine and I stood on the steps of the Marquette County Courthouse and each said two little words, those words being “I do”. We did it outside because it was a nice spring day, and the Magistrate who married us suggested the picturesque locale. I'm glad we did it outside; not only was it beautiful, but it started a tradition that has been followed by other members of the family.

Of course, if we had been married on another April 21^st, we may not have been able to do it outside. There have been April 21sts that have been freezing, there was one memorable April 21^st a few years ago when I had to drive out to Harvey in a blinding snowstorm to pick up a cake someone had made for us, and there have been April 21sts where almost two inches of rain fell. And there have also been a lot of April 21sts that have just been normal, much like today, if you consider the weather of 2026 “normal”.

So in that respect we were very lucky.

I also think we've been lucky in another way. In a world where almost every other single person we know of our generation isn't married any more (or never got married in the first place), we've stayed hitched. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but I certainly am thankful. I mean, we're not perfect, and I'm sure other couples might look at the way we live our lives in amusement and/or horror, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Besides, who else would I want to kick soccer balls with a warm summer day? Who else would I want to act as a kitchen guinea pig and occasional kitchen muse? Who else would I want to drive around Europe with me?

No one.

So happy anniversary, Loraine. The weather might not be as nice as it was back all those years ago, but that's okay. We have plenty of other nice days in front of us, among many, many other things, other things for which I can not wait.

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

****

Now, onto another important matter. Which topic did I choose for last night, snot or poop? Well, see for yourself--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 4/20

Yay. I get my hair cut tonight!

Now, I realize that celebrating a hair cut may not be the biggest cause for joy in the world, but because things have been so hectic and because schedules haven't coincided it's been a bit since I've had a haircut. As it turns out, a little longer than normal. And because of that, if you know what you're looking for, you can really tell I need a trim.

Especially when I'm on TV, as I will be just before I get it cut tonight, you can really, really tell.

I can't speak for anyone else in the world, because as we ALL know I'm not like anyone else in the world. But for a certain window in the hair growing process—say five or six weeks after I get a cut—my hair starts to get really weird. For the next two or three weeks it starts to get curly. Really, really curly. Whatever natural wave my hair has to it gets really exaggerated. For those two or three weeks I can look like I'm a human mop, a human mop that just stuck a finger in an electrical socket. And then, if I keep growing my hair, it starts to look normal again.

But for those two or three weeks—the two or three weeks I'm in right now—I can, on occasion, look like Carrot Top, expect my hair's brown (& gray) instead of red. Yikes!

Normally, I'll get it cut before that happens, but like I said, the last month or so has been kinda hectic. So for the past four or five mornings, non-TV days, I might add, when I get up for work or to lounge around, I look at the mass of hair sticking here and poking out there and just chuckle. It'd be easier if I wore hats, because I could just throw one on and be done with it. But since I don't (another story in itself) I try to tame it.

The operative word, of course, being “try”. Because when we're in that little hair growth window, like we are now, my hair pretty much has a mind of its own.

I really don't care if my hair is long or if it's short; as long as it hasn't totally fallen out (yet) I'm happy. So I suppose I could try to live through the next few weeks and let it grow out to the point that it looks normal again. But that means I'd have to spend the next few weeks looking at it in its present state and trying to make it presentable. And that, in all honesty, just takes too much of my (rapidly diminishing) brainpower. So by getting it cut tonight, I can now spend the next four or five weeks not even thinking about it. I can think about, oh, going to Germany with presentable hair instead.

And I'm fine with that.

Now, we just have to make sure that my next hair cut happens on schedule. Otherwise, I'll be right back at the same place, looking at the same curls and the waves that are currently invading my head, and starting the process over again. Either that, or I could just start shaving my head and be done with that.

That, however, would probably open up a whole 'nother can or worms, a can I'd rather not deal with at the moment.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 4/17

Snot or poop. Those are my two choices.

Now, if I were an extraordinarily cruel individual, I'd just stop there, and leave you wondering as to just what the state of my mental and/or physical health is. But, thankfully, I'm not, so I'll explain by what the first sentence meant.

I do, indeed, have to choose between snot & poop.

Don't worry; I don't have to literally choose between one physical activity or the other (thankfully). Instead, I'm trying to figure out what to discuss on TV Monday night. You see, last week I talked about my favorite part of Spring—the ice shelves you get to stomp on as everything's melting. So, for the next edition, I figured I'd discuss my LEAST favorite part of the season, and I'm having trouble choosing between hay fever or the fact that after the snow melts you can see evidence everywhere that dogs owners don't clean up after their animals.

Hence, the choice between snot & poop.

Because I'm going to Germany in two and a half weeks I've had to work ahead on all kinds of things, including my TV schedule for the next month and a half, and I had stuck “hay fever” into Monday's slot. And, to be totally honest, I think I'm still leaning toward that topic, if only because a great one liner about the subject popped into my head a few days ago and I'd really like to use it.

But with the rapid snow melt we've had this week, a massive amount of dog crap has been unearthed, showing that during the winter people REALLY don't pay attention to the fact that Marquette has a pooper-scooper law. And since that, for whatever bizarre reason, is one of my (pardon the pun) pet peeves in life, I'm stuck with a tough decision--

A great one liner, or dog owners messing up the city? Snot, or poop? With decisions like that to be made, is it any wonder I say my life can occasionally be weird?

Thankfully, I have a few days to ponder the situation and, perhaps, seek the advice of people I trust. That includes you, so if you have a thought on the matter, let me know. After all, it's a unique decision, one that most (if not all) people will ever even have to consider even once in their life.

Snot, or poop? To quote a great British philosopher, that is the question.

8-)

Have a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com

Thursday, 4/16

I wonder if Motel One will remember us?

Whenever we're in Germany, as we will be when we land three weeks from today (!), we usually stay at a Motel One. It's a European chain that's kind of like a budget hotel but not really. The hotels don't have things like phones in the rooms, and the rooms themselves aren't suite sized, but the locations are great, the staff amazing, the bars and breakfast rooms funky, and the look of the hotels are stellar, if only because just about everywhere you look you see this color blue--

It's a trademark of the chain. The staff wears that color; the sugar packets you see at breakfast are that color; and if you go more than 3 meters without seeing that blue, you know you've left the hotel (or, at the very least, this plane of reality). They take pride in the way their hotels look—in fact, their slogan is “Like The Price, Love the Design”--and that blue is the centerpiece of it.

It would be like McDonald's without the red, or the Detroit Lions without losing. I mean the Detroit Lions without silver and blue. That's how central it is to the chain.

The other reason we like Motel One so much? Loraine's fish.

It's actually not Loraine's personal fish, so much as a fish she likes to see. You see, each Motel One room has a loop of a fish aquarium on their TV system that you can play in the background. It's actually quite relaxing, and we've gotten into the habit of just leaving it on when we're doing other stuff. Loraine's favorite fish is the blue & yellow one in the lower right hand corner (the one that looks like Dory from “Finding Nemo”) We've gotten pretty good at knowing when in the loop her fish will show up, so we'll make sure we say “hey” to it when we first get in.

Yes, apparently we're easily amused.

So if you ever find yourself in a city with a Motel One I highly recommend trying it out. Like I said, the rooms aren't huge, but they have fish. And a blue that will soon sear itself into your brain. And we'll get to see one three weeks from today!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 4/15

What a difference a month makes.

One month ago today marked the beginning of the “Storm of the Century (so far)”, that two day blizzard that (literally) shut down the UP and had far ranging, far lasting effects--

It was a horrid storm, one that people will be talking about for decades and using as a benchmark for winter storms yet to come. But that was a month ago. Here's that same picture yesterday--

It's amazing how a month can make that much of a difference. I believe some of us thought the snow would never leave, but thanks to April sunshine and a lot of rain the past few days most of that dumping of snow has disappeared. Sadly, some of it turned into flooding that's been affecting various parts of the UP the past few days, but an amazing amount of it has disappeared in a very short time.

And we couldn't be happier to see it go.

I've been wondering what kind of effect our “Throwback Winter” will have on our upcoming summer. I mean, I know one's not (necessarily) related to the other, but after what we went through you can't blame someone for being a little gun-shy about things. I don't know what'll happen, but I do take solace in the fact that despite the snow and cold of the past five months Lake Superior never froze over. We've had open water most of the year, which means that the lake will get an early start on warming up, which means we may have slightly less in the way of a cooling lake breeze as the year goes on. There's also a strong El Nino forecast in the Pacific, which usually means slightly warmer summer (and much more mild winters) in the Midwest.

So we'll see.

Like I keep saying, I'm not a meteorologist, nor do I play one on TV, but after what we've been through the past five months, I'd like to think that we deserve a break this summer. And if we can have as much of a change in conditions the next few months as we've had in the past month?

I'd be okay with that.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 4/14

I'm not the only who does it, am I?

Please tell me I'm not the only one.

First of all, it appears that our “Throwback Winter” may finally—FINALLY—be on the wane. Temperatures are finally above freezing, the snow is finally melting, and I saw this on my way home from TV last night--

It's funny I saw that sign of Spring on the way home from TV, as my piece last night was about another sign of Spring. Technically, I'm not sure if it's a sign of Spring for everyone, but I know that for me, it's been a sign of Spring since I was, I dunno, nine years old.

In fact, every time I take part in this particular sign of Spring, Loraine will say something along the lines of “What are you a nine year old?”, to which I proudly proclaim “Why yes, I am”.

And yet she still sticks around. Go figure.

8-)

I have no idea if I'm the only person who takes part in this particular activity. It actually acts as a catharsis for me, shedding the yuckiness of winter for the promise and joy of Spring. Of course, I'm guessing not everyone else feels that way, but I'd have to believe that there's at least one other person out there who does what I do.

Either that, or I'm a lot more unique that I thought. And that might be a little too scary to contemplate.

So what exactly IS it that I do to mark the beginning of Spring? An activity that hopefully at least one other person does, as well? Well, check it out for yourself--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 4/13

It's nice that we're growing. It'd be even nicer if there was somewhere to put us all.

The US Census Bureau has released their annual County by County Population Estimates, which use all kind of data to figure out whether or not each county in the country is growing or shrinking. As usually happens, it's estimated that Marquette County grew by several hundred residents in 2025, with the county's population topping 68,000 (68, 064, to be exact) for the first time since the Baby Boom and KI Sawyer Air Force Base years of the 70s & 80s. Marquette County, in fact, led the growth of five other counties in the UP, while it's estimated the remaining nine lost population.

In fact, it's estimated that Menominee County had the biggest drop by percentage in the state last year. Hopefully, for them, that's just a blip.

A map (courtesy of MLive) showing which UP counties have grown in the past year (green) and which have shrunk (red & tan)

Marquette County's slow but steady population growth is, of course, a good thing. The bad thing is, of course, that most of that growth is centered around the city of Marquette, where there is already a lack of affordable housing. And that, of course, sets up a cycle—more people want to live in Marquette, which means that the number of available housing units shrink, which, thanks to the law of supply & demand, means that whatever's left goes up in price.

And that's not a good cycle.

When asked about the city's biggest problem, most community leaders agree that affordable housing at the top of the list. And efforts are being made to alleviate the problem, but thanks to everything from the current state of the national economy to a lack of construction workers, those efforts can only go so far. And it'll probably be like that in areas with continued population growth, like Marquette County, for some time to come.

So while it's a good thing people want to keep moving to Marquette, it's also a bad thing, too. Because until things change, there may not be a lot of places to put them.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 4/10

I miss “Stump Jim Day”.

Those of you who've been listening for a thousand years may remember “Stump Jim Day”, which occurred every Friday when listeners were able to turn the table on me. Instead of me asking them a question about a movie, they would ask me one, and if I didn't get it right (which happened on an almost weekly basis) they'd win. The reason I miss it is two-fold—first of all, I got to see just how unknowledgeable (if that's a word) I was about certain kinds of movies or certain actors. I'd like to think that I'm fairly literate as far as film goes, but over the years listeners figured out that I did have certain Achilles Heels—Disney cartoons or Nicolas Cage flicks among them. So I'd often get asked questions about my “heels”, and listeners would (usually) walk away happy.

Then, every so often, I'd get one of those questions right (usually just by sheer luck), everyone thought I had studied up on the subject, and they'd move on to something else. Of course, I really hadn't studied up, but the people asking the questions didn't need to know that, right?

8-)

The other thing I miss about not doing “Stump Jim Day”? Well, the whole concept had kind of turned into a “thing”. People had tried to get through for weeks or months or (in some case) even a few years just to try and stump me, and even if they weren't able to, even if I answered their question correctly, they were just happy that they were able to get through.

And if you're looking for proof that it worked, even though it's been 10 or 11 years since we last did it, I still have people come up to me and (proudly) announce how they stumped me one day. That's the kind of thing that makes me realize we were on to something, and that's a kind of “something” that you don't easily come across in this business.

Now we just need to find a sponsor that'll let us bring it back, and we'll be all set.

On that note, have yourself a great weekend. Even though it'll still be kinda chilly, I hope you can at least get out and enjoy some of the sun that's been forecast!!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 4/9

Have I ever mentioned my life is weird?

I joke, of course. It seems like there have been weeks recently where I do nothing BUT mention my life is weird. But it's happened again twice, and it's all History Jim's fault.

First of all, the annual UP History Conference is being held in Marquette in June, and I was asked if I would give a walking tour. I, of course, said yes, and yesterday the organizers let me know that there have already been a bunch of people who've signed up for the event, not even knowing what the topic is, but because—in several cases attendees coming from downstate—they've heard that I give fun tours and they wanted to experience one for themselves.

Okay.

The other? Well, the quarterly newsletter from the History Center just came out. There's a big article in each edition (I've written a few myself), and when I started to read this quarter's I came across this--

I am apparently now someone to be quoted when individuals write long, scholarly articles. It took me a few minutes to actually remember where the quote came from (I believe from a Mining Journal about the Great Fire of 1868), but my tales are now being used as reference materials by serious people doing serious things.

They DO know who I am, right?

I'm sure there may be a day when stuff like this happens and I won't be fazed, but I'm guessing that day is probably quite far away. All I know is that, on an almost daily basis, something like these two incidents happen and I have no idea why.

Well, actually I do know why. Why? Because my life is weird.

There's just no other answer.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 4/8

I don't have a car, so I don't have to buy gas for a car. But if I did, I don't know that I'd let it sit there just running, and running...

And running.

For those of you not fortunate enough to live a (mostly-car) free lifestyle, just let me say this—I feel your pain. Every time I walk past a gas station and see prices driven sky-high by a war of choice I myself cringe a little. I can't imagine what it's like having to drive 15 or 20 or 60 miles a day.

It must be painful.

So that makes me wonder about the guy around the corner from where I live. I don't know him, but he's one of those stereotypical guys around here who drives a pickup truck. He also, from what I can tell, has a habit of starting his pickup so that it's warm when he gets into it. With the weather we've been having recently I don't begrudge anyone that. I really don't.

But...I went running this morning. When I ran past his truck it was turned on, the engine roaring like the engine of a diesel pickup truck usually does. I finished my four miles, which means that about 35 minutes later, as I was walking up the street cooling down, I noticed that his truck was still running.

And as far as I can tell, it hadn't moved an inch.

Gas is what...four-plus bucks a gallon, at least here in Marquette? How much gas—how much money—must a big diesel pickup truck left idling in a driveway burn up in that (at least) 35 minute span? I mean, forgot about all the toxins you're spewing into the atmosphere by leaving your pickup running for at least 35 minutes; that's a rant for another day. How much money do you (literally) burn by letting your truck run just so you'll be warm?

I just don't get it. But then, I'm not a pickup owner. Heck, I'm barely even a driver of a (fuel-efficient) car. There may be a reason for letting a truck run every morning, just as the money that goes out the tailpipe may not be an issue. But still...you're wasting a finite resource (gas). You're throwing away a valuable commodity (money). Where's the sense in that? Where's the logic in that?

Some days, I see things that make me realize I'm not like other people. What I noticed while running this morning was one of those things.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 4/7

Ever wonder how my mind works? Well, apparently, THIS is how my mind works--

Those are notes, scratched out over the span of a few days, for my TV piece last night. I've mentioned about how, on occasion, the bits pop into my head fully formed. The one I did last night, sadly, was not like that. In fact, like most of them, I had a broad idea, and as I then as I pondered that idea it came more fully into focus, allowing me to write thoughts and/or complete lines that might eventually be used in the piece.

That sheet of notes is fairly typical when I'm writing, although it's also atypical in that if you were to see the other side there would be even more jottings and arrows pointing from one thought to another. I usually just cover one side of paper; I guess this time, I was just lucky.

Of course, I WAS writing about one of my favorite things of all time, space. It's funny; until last Friday, it didn't even occur to me to talk about the Artemis mission, if only because it really doesn't have a lot to do with the UP (I mean, aside from me being a space geek). However, and don't ask how I connected the two, the Seney Stretch popped into my head as a metaphor, I jotted that down, and before I knew it, I had the sheet you saw above.

Well, actually I had both sides of sheet, but you get the idea.

Was I able to somehow meld a trip to the moon with “Life n the 906”? Judge it for yourself, and remember--

It all started with a bunch of almost illegibly written notes on a small piece of paper--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 4/6

You know, it would be one less thing to worry about.

First of all, hope you had a great Easter, and that all your chocolate bunnies were actual chocolate and not just “chocolately flavored candy”, as a lot of them are these days. I had a great weekend myself, making pea soup and trying my hand at making Bienenstich, or “Bee Sting Cake”, a traditional German goodie--

It was yummy.

Speaking of Germany, we're now at T minus one month (to the day) before we (hopefully) head over there for a few days of fun. Over the weekend I took care of a bunch of little things, ranging from beginning to write my “Life in the 906”s ahead a few weeks to starting to decide what goes where in luggage, backpacks, and carry-ons.

Plus I wondered about the blogs.

Here's the deal—as you may recall, every time we go to Europe I'd write a blog on a nightly basis about what we did that day. People seemed to enjoy it, even if it does seem (at least to me) to be a little humble-bragging about what we were doing. But seeing as how it's been two years since we've gone over there and have done anything like that I'm starting to wonder--

Do I need to do it any more?

There are several points behind my pondering the question, not least of which is the fact that we have no idea whether or not this trip is either going to come off as planned or even come off at all. Because of strikes in Germany and TSA troubles here in the US we could find ourselves stranded at Frankfurt Airport for four days or find ourselves struck in Chicago because, well, it's 2026 and nothing seems to be going right in 2026.

Not only that, but we're not actually doing much this time around. We're just going to basically one place—Saarbrucken--to check out the area, see a favored soccer team of Loraine's, and head across the border to France & Luxembourg to buy (real) chocolate. Do people really want to read about that? I'm not sure. It's not like we're meeting people or will be the subject of a news conference (which, as we all know, HAS happened in the past). Of course, without a lot of concrete plans for the days we're there I might have the extra hour or two each night it takes to put one of the blogs together, and, if I'm being honest, it HAS been kind of fun going back and reading them for the past several trips, so...

See why I can't decide anything yet?

Thankfully, I still have one month to the day to make that decision, as I probably wouldn't be able to write anything until we get to Frankfurt on May 7th. If you have an opinion on the matter, please let me know, as I don't write the blogs for me, I write them for anyone who wants to read them.

So vote early, and vote often. Your voice is the one of the most important as I ponder whether to do these again or not.

Thanks!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 4/2

That was kinda cool.

I know I haven't written about it all, what with my recent obsession over the weather, but the space geek in me has closely been following the developments around the impending launch of the Artemis II mission around the moon. As we all know, I was warped by being a little kid during the Apollo missions a thousand years ago, and seeing this is the first times human have attempted the trip to the moon since then...

Well, you can kinda guess my reaction to it.

I had the launch coverage on in the background as I was working yesterday, and while I didn't get a chance to see much of it I did note the little kid in me would have been quite jealous regarding what little kids can see of a launch these day. Back a thousand years ago when the Apollo launches were taking place you could only see whatever Walter Cronkite (or whoever you watched) saw and whatever CBS (or whoever you watched) decided to show you. But now, you can just watch NASA TV and see (as I did) over four hours of pre-launch coverage, featuring cameras inside the capsule and a whole bunch of helicopter beauty shots of the spacecraft on the pad.

Can you imagine what little kid me would have been like had I been able to access coverage like that during Apollo? If you think I'm geeky now...

8-)

Anyway, I hope things go well during the duration of the flight and, more than anything else, I hope it's not another half century before I get to watch the launch of humans to the moon. After all, that's a long, long time to wait.

*****

Because tomorrow's a corporate holiday I have the day off, so there won't be a new one of these. Before I leave, though, I have to wish a happy birthday to one of the two people without whom I wouldn't be here geeking out at the launch of a spacecraft. It's my Mom's birthday on Sunday, so I hereby declare that she gets to spend the day munching on chocolate Easter bunnies.

After all, next to a rocket launch, that might be the best way to spend a big day, right?

Happy birthday in advance, Mom!!

Love,

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 4/1 (no fooling)

Please tell me this isn't a very bad April Fool's Day joke.

Please.

As you know, we have had one horrendous winter around here, with snow storm piling upon snow storm. After the historic event we lived through a couple of weeks ago one would hope that Mother Nature would take a little pity on us but sadly, that does not appear to be the case--

Forecasts are still varying wildly, and will probably change eight times before tonight, but while it seems like we here in Marquette will (hopefully) see a bunch of rain mixed with snow, outlying areas outside of the city could see up to eight inches of snow, some freezing rain, and, given the way our year has gone so far, a plague of locusts.

Okay, maybe not that last item, but it looks like ti could be a mess, something that we really don't need as we're still struggling to clean up from the last mess. Take Marquette for example—the winter parking ban has been extended through April 15^th, city crews are working day and night to fully clear off streets & sidewalks, and the DPW is—literally--running out of places to dump the snow they remove.

Do we REALLY need another eight inches on top of everything else?

Now, hopefully, this will be a like a lot of Spring storms, and either not live up to its potential or hit the hardest away from the lake. Of course, if it hits inland, that means our friends in places like Negaunee or Republic or Big Bay have to deal with it. And while they probably have a little more space in which to dump the snow they're trying to remove (unlike here in a packed city) they've also received more snow.

And after the dumping upon dumping that we're endured the past few months, I wouldn't wish that on them as well.

We'll have to see how it all turns out. If it fizzles out, cool. If it doesn't, we'll just have to keep muttering “is it June yet” to ourselves until it actually IS June.

And if that doesn't work? Well, we'll just have to hold it against Mother Nature for playing one of the cruelest April Fools Day jokes on us that she could come up with.

(jim@wmqt.com)