Notes From Michigan

Soooo... missives from vacation tend to be... lethargic, laconic and lots of other things meaning to express to a general lack of....doing-ness. I have been parked up in beautiful Arcadia Michigan at the Becker summer compound. Two kids, one wife, two dogs and a variety of house guests throughout the week. There is always the illusion that there will be some contemplative time and the fact is that it is just an illusion... and that it might be an out and out lie.

The first two days were filled once again with Arcadia Daze. Fior those of you unfamiliar it is a two day event in Arcadia Michigan including a craft show, a parade and two nights of drinking in the city park which is fenced off with snow fence. "Drink in a pen with your friends". It does not get any better. $2.50 for a can of beer. A DJ playing in the pavilion and every manor of poor, fat, northern Michigan white trash. It cannot be under estimated the poor quality of people who generally attend. Many of them are my friends. Because there is Camp Arcadia up here the Daze tends to be a reunion event and there will be 50 or more camp people wandering around the pen. It is not as fun as it was formerly because now we have a house and most of the people come and drink there before, and sometimes after, the Daze. Mixed blessings.

On Saturday night we cooked out with Pastor and Mrs. Tiemann. They drove in from Rochester New York just for the weekend to cut their lawn and putz around in their garden and check on their house. There are some medical issues at home which are keeping them away this summer but they are parents of one of my best friends and are just some really fine people. We cooked bratwurst. t\They were happy. Me too. There is something about an old Lutheran Pastor. A certain obstinance and crustiness if they have been allowed longevity. And this one married above his station in life. Good company and I like having my kids get to know them. Truly a different era.

It is great seeing all these people and it is also great when.... they leave. The camp runs family weeks all summer long which means people arrive on Saturday and stay to the next Saturday. We sit in our little house three blocks away in town and watch the people come and go and some are nice enough to stop by. there is always a St. Louis contingent and this year we had the Buemers, the Bergmans and their extended families in camp and also the Rozkem clan from Chicago. They came over and we drank while we watched my son and his friends move the beer they are brewing in our kitchen to "secondary fermentation". It tasted good.

The rest of the week has been spent swimming, laying around, touching base with work, walking around, driving around and generally, chilling. Chilling is good. The Dean at Camp this week is Scott Bruzek and he is talking about Justice and Mercy as a Christian. being a lawyer they are interesting discussions as it seems like all anyone ever tells me is about how they want "justice". It is interesting as a Christian to contemplate whether they are the same thing, or two sides of the same coin, or whether they run counter to one another. I am thinking that you cannot have one without the other. Anyway, that is what we do in the morning...talk about stuff like that. It makes me think outside myself though and that has to be good.

Wednesday we went to morning program and then with the Kuklas drove up to Glen Arbor and ate outside at Art's Tavern http://www.artsglenarbor.com/. Good burgers, great tater tots. Then we drove over to Traverse City and bought brian Kukla a "slack line" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacklining. then we saw "Inception". Then we had dinner with John at "The Blue Tractor"http://www.bluetractor.net/. Then we came home and went to bed sober. "Inception" was an interesting (albeit long) experience and I am still processing it. There were some really meaningful themes in it. The whole dream within a dream, world within a world thing is interesting... bit not intellectually interesting. It is interesting in a way like unicorns would be interesting (this from a man who believes someone died for his sins). I have never been a huge Di Caprio fan (at least after "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?") and this did nothing to dispel that. He can act but... so can a lot of people.

Thursday.... Thursday was a good day. Got good nights sleep Wednesday and then made the decision not to play golf. Arcadia has one of the best golf courses in the country in Arcadia Bluffs. http://www.arcadiabluffs.com/. It is an awesome course carved out of the dunes and it is way too much course for me. Soooo...I walked on the beach, took a nap, read another book, went swimming in the lake and then went and met the golfers as they were coming off the course and had a few drinks. Brilliant. I came back, we ate, we drank on the porch until late. Good day.

Friday. I cannot really remember Friday. We had a shrimp boil for dinner.

Saturday it rained. We walked the dogs. Had breakfast at The Bayside in Frankfort. A friend from DC was in and I had lunch with him at Riggers. I finished another book while the rest of the gang played gin. Don and I went and gambled at the Little River casino. I downloaded the new Joe Pug EP. We cooked some steaks. The people who were coming in the next week at camp started to come by. Matt Carlson, Kyle Dewees and his betrothed Leah Meier. The Gallos. It made me sad i was leaving. We drank a little more. I went to bed early.

I got up early Sunday morning and headed south at 6:00 A.M. planning on taking a long way home through Indy to Shapiros Deli. You just get on 31 outside of Arcadia and point your car south. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_31. Somehow while looking for directions to Shapiro's northern Indy location in carmel I didn't make the right merge and ended up on highway 20 for about 20 minutes before I even noticed it. I of course am an idiot. To get an idea why this place is worth the long detour: http://www.shapiros.com/locations.htm. I ate a huge corned beef sandwich and a potato pancake. I noshed on the road home from Indy. I was happy.

I got home to a house being repainted. 95 degree heat and listening to the Cardinals pounding the Pirates. it was a good holiday. Too busy. I did not get done any of the important things I intended like discussing my future vocation with my wife or even spending any time with my wife. We have got to be smarter about this stuff. Anyway...vacation 2010 in Michigan. BOOM! that just hap[pened.