Today is officially a day for me and my family. Actually a whole weekend for us. For some reason I did not book June 14th this year and I am pretty happy about that fact. It feels nice to have nothing to do for a weekend.
I have been traveling to Southwest Michigan on a regular basis and I will continue to for the rest of the year and the future. It is a 5 hour ride for me and I stay at my house that is on the market. My brother also lives in SW MI and he now owns my beautiful, and comfortable sectional couch that we could not fit in our new, smaller house.
What am I doing this weekend? We had plans to meet up with my buddy in Northern Wisconsin for the weekend but that all kind of went to the fritz when the storms came blasting through the Midwest. There are roads closed and flooding all over Wisconsin so we decided that it was probably better to do it another time. Kind of bummed about that but what can you do with mother nature. Pat, my friend from Wisconsin, was my college roommate for 4 years, he stood in my wedding, and he is still a close and true friend.
I have to tell you how we met. First of all, I am one who believes that things happen for a reason and that there is an energy in the universe that draws things and needs together. At orientation in college it was my first time away from family for more than a few weeks. My mother dropped me off and I knew no one. I walked into the hall where the orientation was to take place and signed in. The person at the desk said that I could head in and that it would start in 15 minutes or so. I decided that I was going to hang out and people watch and stuff. I took a seat next to a guy and we started talking. This was Pat. We asked to be roommates that day, we played football together, we both loved sports, and we just enjoyed hanging out. A lot of people joked that we were going out.:-)
To get off the subject even more, when I went out to AmeriCorps in Northern California for the Watershed Stewards Project I was looking for the orientation location and was lost. I stopped at a roadside park and pulled next to a wagon from Ohio. Turns out this was Dave and he became my best friend out there for over two years and he stood up in my wedding, and we are still great friends, in fact I need to call him today. I don’t think that either of these stories were just coincidences.
Back to my weekend, my beautiful wife and I are heading to Mackinac Island. There is a lilac festival going on right now and there is a dog parade at 1pm. We were going to take our dogs but we wanted to go in shops and bum around a bit. I am going to try to meet with some people while I am out there and leave some cards and samples too. I have spoken with a few of the vendors out there and I am looking to work with them.
Tomorrow is going to be a painting day. We have this large wrap around porch and we are going to prime and paint it all. We are excited to get this going and finished because it will make the house look so much better. We live in this house built in 1880 and it is a two story brick house built by the original owner of the Rudyard Brick Company. I guess that he laid the brick and made the mortar different then any of the other houses in the area, and supposedly the plans are in the yard somewhere by a non existing tree. We also need to paint our back bathroom which is a deep blue right now. We are going neutral in hopes of selling or renting this house someday.
Sunday will hopefully have enough time in the day for a kayak trip too. We are hoping to get out and boat a bit while it is nice. Lots to do with so little time…
I am off to make a productive weekend. Hope everyone has a blast! Check back for some images of Mackinac Island and the doggy parade!
