A Big Thank You...

...to Wendy Saha of MODPLEXI...for the gorgeous house numbers now adorning our wall.

Another couple of views...

yep, that's me in silhouette...think of it as "aht"...

We absolutely love this mid century modern flair that combines the pretty with the practical...no more delivery people driving up, leaning out and asking, "is this 391?"

And Wendy is great to work with...a real pro in all things plexiglass and a precise crafts(wo)man when it comes to your finished product.  She's careful about all the details to be sure you end up with an item you love.

Find Wendy and her MODPLEXI shop on Etsy and at MODPLEXI   You'll be glad you did.

Got out on the course with my hickories and walked 9 this morning...

...it was a balmy 43 degrees to start but warmed up nicely on this beautiful fall morning...

...and it was a tale of two rounds...holes 1 through 5 were pretty good...highlighted by making a 35 foot uphill putt for a bogey on #3, and a par on #5...but then I pretty much fell apart completely on 6 as if I'd never even seen a golf club before...recovered a bit on 7, and righted the ship on 8 and 9 finishing with 2 bogeys.

Then we were out and about running errands...along the way picked up this beautiful Howard Miller clock that now graces a stone wall near our dining room...

...the one that was there got moved to our master bathroom...

...where it's currently tick-tocking obediently for us.

As part of the day's activities we decided to embrace the local Dutch heritage - we do live in Holland after all - so we stopped by the Dutch Village that's about a half mile from our house.

Bought some delicious dutch treats and browsed the shops there...

This is a cool "tiny clock" that chimes the 4 quarters and the hour on the hour...didn't buy it but was tempted.  They have many German cuckoo clocks there as well, some for more than $1,000...gotta really love cuckoo clocks at that price.

Browsed various and sundry dutch knick knacks...

...and of course the requisite wooden shoes...had a pair when I was a kid living in Texas believe it or not...

...love the Dutch street names...

...and the statue of a fisherman enjoying a salted herring...yummmm...

Came across some cool art deco pics / signs, included here for no other reason than I like that style almost as much as I do mid century modern:

But now, let us all give heed to this eternal truth...

...and so I shall on this gorgeous fall day...

later, mcm fans...

Hottest Day Of The Summer...

...turned out to be the first day of Fall...and even though it really only got up to 92 degrees, not 110 or whatever my thermometer-in-the-sun thought it was, it was still pretty ding dang diggety dong hot out there today.

Thankfully I had today off from work because it's our anniversary...

...so how about some champagne and roses?  We kid each other about this one being the dirty dozen, but apart from trusting Christ as my Savior, Karen is the best thing that's ever happened to me.

And today she wanted to put her toes in the lake, so even though I was sure on the hottest day of the year it was going to be jammed, off to the beach we went...

...and to my happy surprise, it really wasn't that crowded at all...no problem finding a parking spot and the beach was occupied but not swarmed.

That's a view of the Spyglass Condominiums...Karen and I have talked about retiring there sometime in the next decade or so.  To do so I'm going to have to sell a lot more books than I have to date, so I need you and 500,000 of your closest friends to each buy two...that's not asking too much, is it?

More pics from the beach today...

A gorgeous day and even though we weren't there all that long it was a good time...

...and I started the day off pretty well, too...got out on the links to walk 9 and did ok.

For whatever reason things made sense today...finished with the same golf ball I started with and hit my mashie 165 yards a couple of times...that's good for me...hit it 150 yards several times, and was consistently in the 135 to 140 range.

Even birdied the short par 4 #6...slight fade on my drive, short chip onto the green and a 1 putt of a 15 footer for a bird.

Of course 7 was one of those holes when I lost track of the stroke count - hey, can I help it I only have 9 fingers?  After a decent drive from the tee, things kind of fell apart...ended up in the sand trap and 3 putted...only hole I did that today.

Oh well...overall it was a good round for me and a very pleasant stroll through the country.

Even got to see a free range chicken at the end...

...which confused me bc I frequent Pheasant Run golf course, not chicken run golf course...

Anyway, this was a good day...Karen made burgers on the grill tonight and we finished the day watching a movie together...color me a happy man.

And we still have the weekend in front of us...insert woo hoo! here.

but now it's late and I'm off to dream land...

later, mcm fans...

Merry Christmas Y'all...

...and Happy Holly Days...thought this stuff wasn't supposed to show up until Christmas time, but here it is in all it's Glo-ry in front of our wall.  It's pretty, but no thank you...not ready for Christmas yet.

However, the change of seasons is fast approaching...temps are dropping into the low 50's at night as the days continue to get shorter...O joy...

...but it does make fires in the early evening enjoyable...

So I shelved my book, "On Being A Man...in a pajama boy world", mainly because it wasn't the book I intended to produce.

It's kind of a long explanation how I could end up completing a 200+ page manuscript and then conclude, "hey!  this isn't what I wanted to write!"

Sounds absurd, but there is a logical progression that occurred at a turning point when I made a conscious decision - the wrong decision I believe now - to keep moving forward in this "new direction".

Without delving into the minutia, the high level explanation is I veered into theological fields I didn't originally intend to plow...

...and as we all know, politics and religion are two subjects capable of eliciting very strong emotional reactions from the hoi polloi, the great unwashed, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free...

As an example, I asked a competent professional female who makes no claim to being a church person if she'd like to read the manuscript before I published it.

Before she did so, I would have told you we were on friendly terms.

Afterwards, not so much.

In fact she was so incensed by what I'd written she told me in very specific language what she thought of me.

I won't repeat the two word epithet here, but will note both words begin with “a” and the first one is “arrogant”.

And while none of that changed my mind about anything I'd written, I decided there are better, more capable men and women to carry whatever banner I may have been waving with that book.

So I've filed it for now under the "potential re-write" category, because I may in the future revisit this subject in the way I had originally intended...pointed, but lighthearted...bc I do believe we have an epidemic of pajama boys skipping about our collapsing society.

When you're 25 years old and the biggest thing you have going is capturing legendary pokemons and choosing the right facial hardware to complement your man bun, something has gone terribly wrong.

It's both hilarious and tragic all at the same time, and I may make attempt number two at chronicling this sad estate.

I't's Saturday morning with much to do on this beautiful late summer / early fall day, so...

later, mcm fans...

Holy Fountain...

...Of "Man Is That Thing Ever Heavy"...it has to weigh 300 pounds altogether...thankfully it's in three pieces but still...the base and shell part have to be more than 200 pounds...my achin' back.

Karen wanted it out of the little pond in our courtyard...that's going to get filled in - after I jackhammer a drainage hole in the bottom...and we're going to put a pool in front of that area - but still within the courtyard.

So Jack and Jill, engaged in a questionable water activity, had to go...to the front yard, apparently.

In the heat of the day on Saturday...

...ok, it's in the direct sunlight, but it was still pretty hot...

...we were treated to a turkey parade...

...until the deer feeder opened fire on them...

...those little dots under the feeder are kernels of dried corn - deer feed, apparently - being hurled at a high rate of speed across the yard.

This happens 4x per day, at 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm.  The turkeys were pelted at precisely 2 pm on Saturday afternoon...they squawked appropriately and turkey trotted their feathered behinds out of there.

You do NOT want to be standing next to the deer feeder when it unloads; this I know from experience.

Right after I got it set up I decided I should test it out, so I knelt down and pressed the "test" button.

I noticed it started a countdown...10...9...8...

Around about 5 it occurred to me that maybe they gave you time to back up a bit so you didn't get deer feed dropped on your toes...so I backed up a few steps.

3...2...1...and then my deer feeder turned assault weapon commenced firing hard dried kernels of corn at me, pinging them off my arms, legs, noggin, etc.

Naturally I engaged in a dignified if somewhat hasty retreat ("what the...? ouch!  holy crap!  OUCH!") but had to put almost 20 yards between me and the loaded weapon to get out of bruise missile range.

If any deer are peacefully feeding when that thing launches they're going to be in for a surprise.

"Honey?  Why are there unconscious deer lying in our yard?"

later, mcm fans..

A Crack Team...

...of ace mechanics...laboring tirelessly to fix what ails Mr. T.  With this group, Mr. T may in fact be a goner.

Like the faux mechanics above, I need more practice.  What you see is the result of my first time messing around with some picture overlay stuff.  Kinda fun.

Another week has clicked on by and here we are in August.  For those of you wondering if it's time to panic over the rapidly disappearing summer...

...the answer is YES...when you can tear off two of three months from your calendar that traditionally define "summer"...

...it's that time.

So don't just sit there, DO something...get outside when the sun shines and embrace each day...smell the flowers, listen to the birds, jump in that lake, catch those fish, golf, kayak, bike, hike, beach it, sit by the fire at night, stargaze, take that vacation, skinny dip, drive with the top down, play horseshoes, bocce ball, croquet, barbeque on the grill...whatever yanks your chain and blows your hair back...

So taking my own advice, I hit the links with my hickories and enjoyed a pleasant stroll through the country...

A one putt would have given me a bogey on three, but I settled for a double bogey.

Settled?  Who am I kidding?  When I double bogey a hole I'm doing handstands and cartwheels on the inside.

Ran into one of my distant relatives on the tee at four...

Family ties notwithstanding, I told him to beat it...I golf alone...

Here's my lie after a less than stellar tee shot on par 3 hole five...

...at least it was in the fairway, but I hit my mashie fat from the tee and so was shorter than usual  If I hit it right I can strike it about 125 or 130 yards...and since all I use is my mashie, niblick and a putter, I rarely have to ponder complex questions re: club selection.

This was definitely a niblick shot, about 70 yards out from the pin.

I'd love to write that I chipped in from here for a birdie...so I will, since that is in fact what happened.

Local media are referring to this as "The Miracle On Five"...well, they might if anyone besides me was there to see it.

Of course, they would also have penned "The Disaster On Six" if they'd hung around for the next hole, but thankfully there's been a media blackout on that.

Apart from the miraculous (for me) shot on five, my best hole was probably nine.  It's a dog leg par 4, and I hit 3 nice shots with my mashie...a short niblick shot put me on the green in 4 and a one putt for a bogey finished my round.

At that point as I gathered up the tools of my ignorance and strolled serenely off the green, all was well with the world...I sure hope the rest of you guys don't screw it up.

This should be a big week on the house reno...completing phase 1 electrical, having kitchen countertops installed, and finishing up the plumbing issues so we'll have two functional bathrooms.  O happy day.

But now, it's cigar time...

later, mcm fans...

That's One Small Step...

...for man...one giant leap for mankind...

So spoke Neil Armstrong 48 years ago today at 10:56 pm EDT as he stepped off the lunar landing module "Eagle" and onto the surface of the moon.

My 12 year old self was one of the billion or so humans who watched that historic event...Dad brought along a small, black and white TV for our vacation on tiny Chebeague Island off the coast of Maine, snuggled serenely in Casco Bay.

Normally TV was verboten on these summer excursions.  Dad was a harried executive type and for two weeks out of the year he worked hard at unplugging...no phones, no TV, no newspapers...nothing but golfing on the island's humble 9 hole course...

...trolling for mackerel off the shores of our quaint rented cottage, long walks along the beaches to collect shells and starfish, sitting by the Franklin pot belly stove, being warmed by the fire on those cool summer evenings when the fog rolled in off the ocean, and lots of nothing in between.

The cottage did boast a floor model Philco radio, and we could listen to that as long as it was music, not news...

But this vacation in 1969 was different.  A former engineer with Thiokol in the early days of the space program - decades before the O ring disaster - Dad had a keen interest in what was about to unfold.  No way was he going to miss this...thus our little black and white TV...

We watched in collective awe, admiration, respect and pride as Neil Armstrong, then Buzz Aldrin became the first two human beings to set foot on a celestial sphere other than our own.

They were true American heroes, well aware of the possibility theirs was a suicide mission.  The slightest error, equipment failure, misjudgment or any host of other potential problems, and they would have perished on the cold forsaken surface of the moon.

Had the unthinkable occurred, President Nixon would have delivered this speech, prepared by his speechwriter, William Safire:

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

It is a literary masterpiece, an emotional and poignant tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of fearless men who risked everything in the pursuit of new worlds.

How wonderful it was never spoken, as the world rejoiced along with the the Nasa control room at the success of this epic mission almost five decades ago.

At age 12 I did not fully comprehend the magnitude of that achievement...it wasn't exactly a yawn, but I do remember wondering why the nearly global hysteria over this event....

...but remember I grew up in an era when I was surrounded by great men and women, those who had survived the deprivation of the Depression and been tested by the fires of war, as they literally saved civilization from a malevolent evil during World War II.

When they came marching home they laid down their weapons and got busy building the greatest economic engine mankind had ever seen.

Without pride or pretense, greatness was par for the course back then.  I am reminded of the old saying, Perfection is the goal, excellence will be tolerated.

That America would put a man on the moon with less computing power than you have sitting on your desktop today seemed completely plausible to me then...of course America did this great thing...that's what we do.

Now, looking back over the widening expanse of years, I stand in stunned amazement at their accomplishment.  July 20th should be a national holiday, a celebration of an unparalleled achievement.

So Happy Moon Landing Day, y'all.  Look up in the sky and wonder at the majesty of the heavens, then ponder the miracle that we put a man on the moon 48 years ago tonight.

In far more mundane and earthly pursuits, but in keeping with the theme of the 1960s, we now have a Princess Phone...

...circa 2017...looks like the 1960's version and feels like the 1960's version...as in it's heavy and substantial, like the old bakelite phones were that could double as a weapon if the situation demanded...but this is a push button phone, not a rotary dial...a replica made by Crosley...pretty darn cool and meets Karen's requirements.

For some reason she didn't want to use my favorite phone of all time...

...the Western Electric 102B1, from 1927...so the Princess will be the main land line in the kitchen and will have a digital answering machine attached..."my" phone will be in the TV room...

...but need to get a little nicer perch for it than an old wooden stool.  Also have an old "Public Telephone" sign I'll hang near it.

And yes, the Princess phone is definitely mid century modern while my 1927 WE is art deco...so shoot me...I'm going to spread around a few art deco radios as well.

Karen commented that people are going to think the "Cinema" is the door to the right, which is actually a bathroom...perhaps, but that's a mistake they'll make only once.

There will be a few other decorative items in the room that will emphasize this is our new TV / "theater" room...we'll watch movies by fire light during the long cold Michigan winters...

Wait!  Don't say "winter"!  Even though the time is now upon us to panic that summer is rapidly expiring - it as after all, the 2nd half of July now - we still shan't say the "W" word out loud...not for months to come, by order of the grand high poobah of the Wild Hare Castle and Turkey Refuge.

apparently cave men only had 3 fingers per hand and 3 toes per foot...

later, mcm fans...