Sausage Day

This should have been taken care of a couple of weeks ago, but who would have guessed we'd get two feet of snow so early.

It was more work to get Sunny ready to cover this year because I had to get all the snow and then water off the top. But today was almost 40° and sunny, so the top was dry. The ground, however, was really wet. So I got pretty much soaked getting the straps underneath and tieing it up like a little gray sausage.

But, I got 'er done. I had high hopes for taking the trailer out at least for a couple of days this fall, but it didn't happen. Sigh. This is not the latest I've gotten it covered, but it's the first year it had that much snow on top that I had to clear!

It was a busy day. Edited, etc. Did errands, took something to Cathy's. Josh stopped by. Put Sunny to bed to hibernate. I'm rejoicing in the extra minute of daylight!

Today's LOL moment. I saw a meme with Morgan Freeman looking stern and saying "I don't know who needs to hear this, but throw away the box your phone came in."

This made me actually laugh because while hunting for my camping-themed ornaments this month, I found a box full of empty phone boxes that Om has saved, possibly from as long as we've had cell phones. I think he's actually going to recycle them now.

See Sausage Time for Sunny

Chrismons

I learned something new this week! The white and gold ornaments on some Christmas trees have a name. They are called Chrismons- a portmonteau word of Christ and monogram. They are always symbols of the Christian faith. That much I knew.

Not being raised in a liturgical church, I did not know that white and gold are the liturgical colors of the Advent season.

Just to remind you, here is the Chrismon tree at the Lutheran church next door.



This type of ornament was first created in 1957 by a woman named Frances Spencer who made all the ornaments for the Ascension Lutheran Church Christmas tree in Danville, Virginia. She said the tree was not complete until someone had the story of Christ explained to them through the symbols. So... a truly US-based tradition that has spread to many denominations and throughout the world.

Here is a small Chrismon tree at the Ludington Methodist church.

I have some closeups of the symbolic ornaments, but not all of them are great pic. I'll highlight a few.

Symbols of the trinity are always featured. These have three connected circles (a trefoil), or a triangle, or both. They represent the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The trees also have only clear or white lights if they have lights. You can see that some have strings of white and gold beads.

This picture isn't very good, but it shows a shell. This is the symbol of baptism (because a shell can hold water), the beginning of a journey (as baptism is seen as the outward display of a serious desire to follow Christ), and spritual growth. The ribs of the shell symbolize paths to spiritual truth. Actually, I'll bet a lot of you already knew this, even if you didn't know you knew it. The shell is associated with St. James (Iago), and the Camino de Santiago- the way of St. James in Spain- uses the shell as its trail marker and symbol. I know two people who have chosen to get a small shell tattoo as a reminder of their walk of the Camino.

Behind the shell is a star- a fairly well-known symbol of Christianity not only for the Christmas star, but as a reminder that Christ is the light of the world, and we are to be the light to others.

Various kinds of crosses are alwyas found. The cross, a Roman emblem of shame and execution, became the symbol of triumph for Christians as Christ rose from the dead. You'll find any number of styles of cross. This one has something hanging from the arms. The left one is probably Alpha, but the one on the right does not look like Omega, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. God and Christ are called the Alpha and Omega- the beginning and the end, a symbol of their eternal nature.

If you look at the pictures of the entire trees, you'll also see sheep (Jesus as the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for our sins), doves (symbol of the Holy Spirit), circles (symbol of the eternal nature of God), the Chi Rho cross, which looks like a P with an X on the upright. These are the Greek letters chi and rho, a monogram for Christos- Christ in Greek.

Here is a crown- symbolic of our future reward in heaven, and that Christ is King.

Some other symbols that may be used are the shepherd's crook (Jesus as the Good Shepherd), the butterfly (eternal life), the rainbow (God's promise to Noah), the chalice (symbol of the Eucharist), and the anchor (God is an anchor for our soul).

I don't see any fish on these trees, but this is one of the oldest of the Christian symbols IXTHUS means fish, and it's an anagram for "Jesus Christ God's Son our Savior." Early Christians would identify themselves to each other by scratching a semicircle in the dust. If the other person completed the fish, they know it was safe to talk of spritual things.

Of course, many of these symbols are now mocked or discarded. But I like symbols. A lot. I have several books on symbology. They are great as mnemonic devices, and they are sort of like puzzles in pictures. I'm glad I learned these ornaments are called Chrismons.

And here is another full tree- this one at the Methodist Church in Manistee a few years ago.



I got quite a lot done today. Hopeful for more of the same tomorrow!

See Concert at Our Savior Lutheran

Bell Choir- Christmas 2025- Part 1

The handbell choir prepared four songs for the holiday this year. Here are two of them. We performed all four at the two previous concerts, and did three this morning. We'll do all four again on Christmas Eve. I'll share the other two that day.

Here is "We Three Kings," always a favorite. No title screen. I truly hate the "new" free video software that came with my computer. Apparently you can get the old version, but you need a piece of translation software that I'm not up to dealing with today since I'm also trying to get another new piece of software to work. And trying to get my calendar to sync across devices. So annoying.



Next up is "One Star."



I'm saving my favorite to post on Wednesday.

I must have hit stop on my alarm instead of snooze this morning. So when I did wake up the second time, I had to leap out of bed and dash out the door. Of course, I couldn't wake up and felt like crap all day. Mostly ate junk which is often my response to the days that start out like this.

I did go for a walk after church. The trail was bumpy ice with crusty snow over the top, but I walked 2.7 miles.

Finished my column for the paper, did other computer tasks, and tried to stay awake in the afternoon.

Miles hiked in 2025: 475.5

Ludington School Forest, various trails, 2.7 miles

See Bell Choir- November 2025

Three Tales of a Tree

I was going to share a Tale of Three Trees. Instead, it's more interesting to give you three tales of the same tree.

This tree is a small apple tree in our side yard. In the 30 years our house has been in this spot it's grown small wormy apples once. It never seems to get bigger. It's a pain in the butt to mow around. So why don't I cut it down?

Sometimes it's my own personal bonsai tree. This is last week on one of our snowy days.

Here it is on a foggy winter morning in 2018

And a sunrise picture also from 2018

I was pretty good today. Editing and all that. Cleaned up the kitchen. Wrote my column for Ludington Daily News. Also wrote a shopping list. Good writers are versitile like that.

There was an LOL moment. I'll share.

See Great Balls of Fire! Or Not

Kitchen Puzzles

Well, I don't have too much to share today. This was the best moment. It wasn't quite truly a LOL moment, but I was so surprised I did grunt and say, "Ha!"

Om bought some chicken salad that was so sloppy with sauce he didn't even want to eat it. We pushed it through this strainer and got it reduced to a much better texture. When I turned it over (not sure why I did this- just to expose that side to water to clean it, I guess), this design became evident. It just tickled me because it was a surprise. Doesn't take much to entertain me, right? It looks like some kind of game maze.

Ignore dirty dishes behind it.

The other kitchen puzzle is that we got a cheap air fryer. We weren't sure, still aren't, how much we'll use it, so we didn't want to spend a lot for features that we don't care about.

I've used it about 5 times so far- trying to get better at understanding it. Pictured on the plate is a low-calorie cinnamon roll. I made a small pan to see if they were edible enough to have for Christmas. As mentioned before, Om and I are both attempting to not turn into blimps over the holidays. And I baked the pan in the new toy. New recipe and new appliance is a real puzzle. Could have been a total disaster.

Anyway, they aren't like wheat flour bread, but they are OK, so we'll have them for Christmas breakfast.

In other news- I worked at all the usual things.

See A New Kitchen Toy

Howard Meade Rowe 1881-1941

I learned a little bit more about my maternal grandfather this week. I actually found his obituary. It told me things I did not know, but also teased me with more tiny snippits of partial info.

I did not know where he and Granny were living when he died. However, they are both buried in Spencer, NY, in the Fisher/Rowe family plot.

Friend Diane was able to look up the 1940 census info and determine that they were living in Hamilton, NY, in 1941. I only knew the year of his death. However, none of the papers in Tioga or Madison County carried an obituary.

So I took my searches in another direction. I knew that he was a lawyer, so I added that to the search. Up came his obituary in the New York Times, of all things! I'm not totally surprised. I knew that was where he practiced law for a number of years, particularly when my mom was in high school. And then I had to find a friend with a NYT subscription to get me a copy of the page.

But the obit tells me that in addition to being a NY City lawyer, he was an official of the Nestle Food Company and also of Fort Schuyler Farms of Utica, NY. I think this is an error, and it should say Fort Schuyler Club, an exclusive private club founded in 1883. I knew that he had quite a lot of prestige, and Granny was very proud of that. Date of death, March 14, 1941.

Here is another picture I've shared before of Howard in 1911 with Jacques on the left and Catherine (Mom) on the right, ages 4 and 2.

He was born in Norway, Maine. I've always known that, but I didn't realize the Rowe family is fairly prominent there. I found a news clipping from 1903 where a Mrs. and Miss Rowe were guests at ex-governor Perham's home. I suspect the Mrs. Rowe was Howard's mother Annie- see link below for a picture of her in her last year of life. The Miss Rowe might have been his sister Helen.

And this suggests a few more explanations. Annie's mother was a Perham. So they were probably related to the governor. And somewhere among my many boxes and trunks is a dress that was supposedly worn by someone to Governor Perham's innaugural ball. So that begins to make some sense.

This search was brought on by my reading a novel where someone finds out, shockingly, that an aunt committed suicide. Since, sadly, that was how Howard died, it made me newly curious.

I went to my appointments today on the correct day! Did errands, tried a new recipe. Didn't sleep much last night. May have to go lie down soon.

See How Far Back Can You Go?

cARTier trail

I can't believe I never shared any of these with you before, but apparently not.

Cartier Park in cooperation with the Ludington Area Center for the Arts has installed three large frames that have art displays that change every few months.

The three currently on display are: "Peace" by Francie Skarritt. She "likes to have fun experimenting with different ways to portray real and abstract images." (part of the text that is displayed below the image)

This one is "Thy Own" by Erin Houghtaling. She "explores the interplay between identity, memory, and myth through the medium of collage."

The third is more traditional "Lincoln Lake Birch" (and the park is on the shore of Lincoln Lake) by Helen Heddens. "Landscapes are her favoirte subject; the natural beauty around this area of Michigan lends itself to many beautiful scenes."

Someone has also decided there should be a little Christmas cheer in the park. I found three trees that had a few decorations hung on them. This is the most showy.

So the day got off on the wrong foot. I have two appointments... tomorrow. But I went to town for them today. Um. That didn't work. So I went to the park and walked instead! That did work.

The biggest project at home was getting 20 inches of packed snow off the trailer roof. I really goofed and didn't get it covered before snow hit this year. I got it pretty well cleaned, but not dry. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I don't think I can cover it then. We are supposed to have three days above freezing next week, so I'm taking a chance on being able to do it then.

Miles hiked in 2025: 472.8

Cartier Park, Ludington, MI. Twice around the loop plus spurs. 2.8 miles

See Photoessay in Black and White

West Shore Concert Choir- Christmas 2025

Tonight was the full concert of the West Shore Choir. This is the choir that sang several songs at St. Joseph's last week, joining with the bells to create a full hour of music.

They had eleven pieces, an ambitious program for only one rehearsal a week! But it was great. Director Becky Sopha always gets mega music out of the group. Of course, quite a few of the members are friends of mine, too.

These young people, Grace and Carson, sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "Let it Snow," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

It's really hard to get pictures to focus in the low light. I took lots more, but you are seeing a few of the better ones that show some of the variety.

The final segment of the program featured several selections from Handel's "Messiah." For those there was a live mini-orchestra. I love it when local performances take advantage of local talent. I didn't manage to get all the instruments in the picture- the light wasn't consistent and either one half was too dark or too light. But you get the idea.

And this is the soloist, Neysa, who sang "O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion."

There was a visit from Santa Claus, more solos, and the ensemble I showed you at St. Joe's that sang "Carol of the Bells."

I skipped a Zoom meeting to attend this. No regrets.

In other news, I was super-good today. I edited and stuff like that. Did several jobs outside since we are going to have a mini thaw and I need to finish up a few tasks, then I took a short snowshoe walk, went to bell practice, and then to this concert. Full day!

Miles hiked in 2025: 470.0

Ludington School Forest- various trails, 1.1 miles.

See Concert at St. Joe- 2025

Two More Snowy Miles

Cathy and I and a third person went and did another two miles on the NCT on snowshoes. We went where others had hiked just before the weekend, so the snow was not completely unbroken.

Even though there was a path (partially filled in from new snow), we were perfectly content to just do a mile in and then back out. That was tough enough. I apparently have less stamina on snowshoes than I used to have.

It was cold, but we bundled up and were plenty warm. Good to be outside!

I had another event this evening, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Miles hiked in 2025: 468.9
Miles hiked on the NCT in 2025: 253.8

North Country Trail, Manistee County, MI. North from Udell TH one mile and back.

See Spirit of the Woods Hike- December

We'll Be Home For the Holidays- 2025

I guess I've managed to miss this concert most years. Seems like I've been to one since 2018, but maybe not. Between Covid and my NCT hike, three years got knocked out of the possibilities anyway.

This is the annual Christmas concert at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts. LACA has expanded and improved mightily since it's beginnings about 15 years ago. All the performers are local to the region.

Their building is the former Methodist Church, and it is right downtown. The auditorium has been converted to a stage.

The music was a great mix of different instruments and styles. There were two piano solos. This one, and one by a boy.

LACA now has a Youth Chorus. They sang two songs and did a very good job with them.

There was a clarinet band! Four different range clarinets playing together.

One male soloist with guitar did "Mary Did You Know?" very dramatically. And the closing two pieces were a female duet that were very, very good. The closed the concert with "Sleigh Ride."

Several soft rock/folk bands played and sang. This is the group 80 Cows that also played at the vendor event I did in October.

And of all the goofy things- this was totally unplanned. I went to my favorite audience spot in the balcony, and friend Loren was there! So I sat with her.

The pics aren't stellar- it's hard in the lower light. But still fun.

In the middle of posting this, Doug came to plow our driveway, and we had to move the cars to do that because Om wasn't able to get all they way up this afternoon. But, this means the driveway should be in good shape for the week. Hopefully, the rain on Thursday won't turn it all to ice. I've got a lot going on this week.

I'm enjoying hitting some extra Christmas concerts again this year.

See We'll Be Home For the Holidays- 2018

Blue

No, I'm not feeling blue. I just like the approximately 30 minutes, right at dusk, when photos look blue.

I don't even mind that this looks fuzzy. Actually, the air was kind of fuzzy. It's not snowing, but it's like there is a mist hanging around making layers out of the various distances.

And I've shown you one window full of my blue glass collection previously (link below). But here is most of the rest of it. The real cobalt blue glass does not fade in the sun. Some of the pieces are no big deal, and some are kind of special. Maybe I'll talk about individual pieces some time.

This is the left side of the kitchen window. The pieces that look yellowish in the photos are white milk glass.

And the right side.

I really love it! Blue is my favorite color, except when it's yellow. Blue and yellow together really make me happy.

I got myself in gear today and did some editing and cleaned up the kitchen yet again.

BONUS: Here is today's LOL moment. My friend Sue posted this. She said she had proof that today was pretty cold.

See Unusual Apparitions

True LOL Moments

It's not a rule like finding something quality in the day, but I sort of always hope there will be one true laugh-out-loud moment in every day. A lot of days there is one.

If there's a rule, it has to be that whatever the "thing" is, it must produce spontaneous audible laughter from me. Since I tend to be a Dismal Desmond. Or at least a little too serious, it must truly tickle my funnybone.

I briefly thought about trying to add the moment to the blog each day, but I doubt I could regularly pull that off. But it would be nice to remember some. I'll share them from the last three days. I can't guarantee you'll find them as funny as I did.

Here is yesterday's. I stumbled onto a game called Sled Surfer. The video teaser was a better one than this, with a much longer run. But the idea is that you make the penguin on the sled have a good long run. Sadly, it's also a game you can't get rid of the ads without paying money, but I just think it's hilarious. I made a recording of a successful run, but the video was too long for blogger to deal with. The crash is funnier anyway.



Two days ago was also from a game. This game is only okay, and also has ads you can't get rid of without paying, so it went bye-bye. But their logo is... a SHARK! Actually, when you first load the game you get a splash screen with a big shark, but I can't seem to react fast enough to get a screen capture of it. Here's the Level header with the default icon for ME- the shark!

I have found one hole game (where you move a hole around the screen and it "eats" things, that I really do like, so I'm putting up with the ads. I can't believe I'm doing that, but I am. (If you care, the one with the shark is "Black Hole," and the one I like is "All In Hole.")

Today's LOL moment is really more than a moment. I saw this online. I did not write it. I sure wish I had!

I don't even know who to attribute it to, but it was posted by someone called "Michigan Field Guides"

The Michigan Secretary of State is not a government office. It is a psychological test disguised as a building. You do not simply “go renew your license.” No. You embark on a spiritual journey through time, bureaucracy and the limits of your own patience. Every Michigander knows this. The SOS is where confidence goes to die.

First you try to book an appointment. “Next available time: three Wednesdays from now at 7:14 a.m. in a town you have never heard of.” Amazing. Perfect. Love that for us. If you dare walk in without an appointment, you will sit there so long you will start forming alliances with the other survivors like it is a winter cabin scenario.

Then you finally get inside. The air is heavy with the scent of paperwork and regret. A row of chairs filled with people staring into the void, silently wondering if they will ever see sunlight again. A toddler eating Cheez-Its. A man clutching a folder of documents he definitely forgot half of. Someone’s grandma explaining she has been coming here since the Carter administration.

When they call your number, it feels like winning a raffle you did not sign up for. You run to the counter before they change their mind. The employee asks for nine forms of ID, your water bill from 1998, two proofs of residency, a blood oath and possibly a notarized statement from your childhood dentist. You hand over everything. They stare at one paper like it personally offended them. “This is the wrong version.” Of course it is.

And yet, every Michigander does this dance because we have to. We renew. We register. We pray the photo turns out okay. We walk out holding our temporary license like it is a war medal. We brag to friends that we got out in only an hour because that is considered “record-breaking.” The Secretary of State is not just an office.

It is a shared trauma.

A bonding experience.

The official Michigan rite of passage that proves we are stronger than paperwork. If you walk out with everything done on the first try, congratulations. You have achieved what scientists call “a statistical miracle.”

I hope one of these at least made you smile.

I totally blew the day off- played games all day. Sigh. Maybe I'll be better tomorrow.

See Robbery!

An Evening with Dale and Kathy

Om and I went to Newaygo tonight to hear Dale and Kathy Painter talk about their book- a memoir of a hiking life.

I've heard Dale speak before about one of his hikes (link below), but tonight's talk was more about the book. However, questions from the audience we more about the hiking.

It was great to have a little time to chat on a more personal level.

Just in case I haven't pushed it enough in other places, here is the book



I worked at shoveling out the mailbox, and puttered at things.

See Pacific Crest Trail Hiker