September, 2021
As usual, summer has flown past. We flew to Cincinnati from Antigua in mid-May. Karen & Mark put up with us as long as they could, and on June 1 we drove to Traverse City to see what wonderful changes had happened in the Michigan house. We found a new bedroom and bathroom almost ready for us to move in. It just needed carpet and a dresser. And I needed furniture. So, we spent about two weeks ordering furniture, waiting for (and then unpacking) the things we had kept in storage all these years, and setting up our room. I also used that time to smoke, cook, prep, and freeze about 14 meals for when the Hoenke Clan descends in July.
Next, we headed to Florida. We went to help settle the estate of Mark’s cousin who had passed away in the early spring and we used it as an excuse to spend time with long-time friends, Bob & June Seidel, Clara Morgan, Dean & Linda Lucko, and Karl & Susan Burkhart and cruising friends Jim & Meryl Felds.
We got back to Michigan on July 1 and for the next three weeks we played and parties with Ann and her family, Karen and her family, and 15 other assorted friends and family who came and went. (Twice we had 16 people overnight.) I’ll never get credit for it, but careful meal planning and pre-preparation really paid off. Boy did we have fun. We played games, picnicked on the various islands in the lake, went to a baseball game, swam, collected Petoskey stones, went fishing, tubed, canoed, and just did whatever sounded like a good idea at the time.
How to Eat a Berry
She learned from her cousin
And then they all left.
It was suddenly quiet in the house. Mark started working on projects. Last year the radiator in his classic Mustang sprang a leak. And then the heating coil went. He was pretty upset about it but then stopped to think and realized that he hadn’t really worked on the car in 40 years, so while he was at it, he replaced a bunch of hoses, did an oil change, and a whole bunch of other things that I can’t begin to remember. By mid-August it was up and running again and he was a happy boy. Then he started working on his Tornado catamaran, repairing cracks in the fiberglass and replacing worn fittings and finally repainting it. It’s not finished yet – he has another 2 weeks to get it done – but it should be done before we leave town.
I found a Mah Jongg game! Don’t try to make plans with me on Tuesdays.
Meanwhile the parade of visitors has continued. We have been lucky enough to have had guests off and on, all summer long. We will end up our Michigan season on October 16. Fourteen of those 16 days of October we will have guests. Again, there is meal-planning and pre-prepping going on and there will be eating, drinking, and partying until we leave town. If it didn’t get so cold, we might stay all year!!