January or February

 Test post to see what month it is.

Ok. This posted in January. Cool.

I had 17 posts in January, compared to 1 in December, but I had almost a thousand more views in December.

Thanks, FaceBook.

I Wander on a Wednesday

 The blog title is a lie.

At least in a physical sense. I don't intend to go anywhere today. Except for short walks.

Monday, I went to the local library and read a children's story. Tuesday I did my Treasurer thing at the church. Today, I have no outings scheduled.

Not going out does not equate to not doing nothing. I'm writing this now, for example. I have other exercises as the day goes on, including sciatica exercises and the treadmill.

I was out for a walk before the sun rose. It was only about 45 degrees, but I wore sweatpants and my Michigan sweater. I had my earphones on, listening to a podcast.

I'll read today. I will read some online comic books from my Marvel and DC apps. I'll read one physical comic book (today's is Action Comics #1061, and one short story from the current issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. I also may read more of The Matlock Paper by Robert Ludlum. He is most known for creating the Bourne character (like The Bourne Identity).

At lunch, I will watch an episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  I've been tracking my food this month, recording it on a spreadsheet. This is to help me stay in balance more than anything else. The major goal is to help control my blood pressure and blood sugar. I have lost a small amount of weight, and my blood pressure has improved this month. I hope to keep it up. I have a long way to go.

Then there's always Fibber McGee's Closet. Currently, there is a large number of trading cards I am trying to organize enough to offer in trade to a comic or card shop. I'm really not concerned with making money off them. I don't want to keep them, but I would rather give them away than throw them away.

Was I disappointed by the Lions loss to the 49ers? Yes, but I'm not angry about it. Was it wise for the Lions to keep going on fourth downs? Probably not, but that is what the coach is known for and what brought them this far. I'm not in any way knowledgeable enough to question a coach's decision. I barely understand most of what's going on on the field.

Anyways, that wasn't what the NFL scripted. They wrote it for the 49ers to play against the Kansas City Chiefs and for the Chiefs to win so that Taylor 'n' Travis can endorse Biden and sweep him to a second term. Or some insanity like that. I find right-wingers ten times more confusing than I even find football.

Tonight, we'll continue with the fourth season of For All Mankind, the brilliant alternate history show that my son, Greg, helped edit. We're at about 2003, where we have a working base on Mars, and the President is Al Gore. Those are two things I devotedly wished for that didn't happen.

I know that nothing I'm doing today sounds that useful or interesting. But it's retirement, and I love it.  

Soon, I may need to do something to earn a bit of money. But that's not today.

Maybe tomorrow. We'll see.

Wanderingly yours.

T. M. Strait

P.S.  Grammarly was not functioning this morning. That happens sometimes. Would love to see what it said about my sentence with the triple negative!

P.P.S Grammarly worked this afternoon.  Only had to make a couple dozen changes.  I did overrule it on the triple negative.  Sometimes ya just gotta break the rules.

Standing on the Outside

I'd like to officially announce that my bid to be on the local library board was a bust. They chose instead a teacher, so I'm hoping that is a good sign for the local library. Not all teachers are enthusiastic about the library. Most believe that banning books and excluding serving all patrons is wrong, but it's not universal. 

 The Pierce County School Board has withheld its share of public library funding. Hopefully, that is temporary, but I fear that it is not. Meanwhile, the public library has had to reduce hours and staffing to stay within its reduced budget. 

It breaks my heart. Some dedicated workers need to see promotions and pay raises, not reductions.

There is absolutely nothing specific that the library has done. For better or worse, they've never had displays welcoming the LGBTQ+ community, nor is there anything offensive in their book collection. The people who oppose the library use the LGBTQ+, particularly the transgender community, as smoke screens for their real desires - to eliminate public spaces and to take control of them as mouthpieces for Christian Nationalism.

The LGBTQ+ community is not trying to indoctrinate anyone, but they sure as heck are.

Rest assured, I will not stop advocating for the public library. I will continue to support them every day I can. I will continue to use the library, participate in activities, including book clubs, their Eating Well program, Friens of the Library, reading at Storytime, donating books, volunteering for events, helping donate prizes. I will speak out whenever I can. I will continue to welcome everyone, even those intent on destroying the library.

Libraries are for Everyone.

I don't want that to just be a slogan.

I want it to be the accepted reality.

Join me in supporting the library. Become a user and enjoy the many benefits of participation. Speak out about your love for the library. Join me in opposing those who would destroy it.

The Original Goth Girl

Continuing my plundering of Fibber McGee's closet*, I've opened up a Pandora's box of early family photos. And when I say early, I mean...EARLY.  

There are photos dating back to the beginnings of photography. Some are labeled, and some are not.

All of it was pretty interesting, and along with other research my Dad did, I may be able to piece a lot of it together. It will, however, take some time.

And then, I came across this photograph - 

 

Oh, my lord! What is this?

I've found the original Goth Girl! It's not just the dress; it's the picture as a whole. The eerie, dark background, what she is holding, the spidery top to her umbrella, her Wednesday-style expression - the whole effect is...very gothic.

Who is she? As best I can tell, she is a daughter of Reuben Strait. Reuben is, if I got this right, my great-great-grandfather. On the other side of the picture is a portrait of Reuben and his entire family. She also appears to be in that picture, although she is less "gothed-up."

When was the picture taken? It is not dated, but I found a picture of Reuben, showing the Strait family men who were part of a Masonic Lodge. The image is dated as 1898. Reuben is identified as being 64 years old at that time. He is visibly older than the family picture on the Goth Girl's reverse side.

My preliminary analysis concludes that the family picture is likely from the 1880s, perhaps in the middle of that decade. The Goth Girl appears slightly younger than in the family photo, but that is a supposition.

My best guess at this time is between 1880 and 1886. Hopefully, further research will provide a clearer answer.

So many questions?

Why is she holding a tilted cup?

What is she holding in her other hand?

Part of the backdrop looks real; part looks like it could be a scenery backdrop.

Is that a steamboat in the water behind her?

There are so many stories swirling in my head! My creative juices flow, but I need time to let them fumilate**. 

I like to write fiction on Friday, but my mind is overwhelmed with the possibilities here.

Please give me a week, and I hope to begin something...special.

Gothically yours,

T. M. Strait

* please see earlier posts.

**yes, Grammarly, I know that's not a real word.  I don't care.

Tom Strait AKA The Dancing Machine

Still going through old boxes of stuff.

I found one centered on my amateur acting career while going through the boxes in Fibber McGee's closet*.

And how could I not treasure this award for achievement in dance the most?

Until the memories came back that it was a good-natured joke.

I played Lazar Wolf, the older butcher who wants to marry one of Teyve's daughters. He leads a dance to the song L'Chaim (To Life!), a lot of fancy Russian dancing (well, fancy to me). I struggled. It was not pretty. We had to rehearse a lot just to get to something passable. And I was the chief culprit who was not getting it.

Dance has always been an interesting challenge to me. There is some kind of wiring delay in my head that causes all my movements to come out about two seconds later than they should. That is if I get the movement right at all.

The first school dances that I went to, in Junior High, proved to be a major attraction, and not in a good way. Other students would stop and watch my gyrations. I found myself surrounded by a rapt audience as if I were John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. But not in a good way. More like a jaw-dropping stare at the geek way. I had a few girls want to dance with me, girls who otherwise would not want to go near me, just to see how lunatic I would dance.

Throughout my acting experience, I always had difficulty with the dance element. I've been sidelined in several dances, which probably limited my usefulness in musicals. I could sing pretty good, but most of the good singing parts also required dancing. Most of the parts open to me were comic relief, and the singing I had to do was more bass/baritone, when I am a first tenor.

I plan to do community theater again, but I am picking my spots carefully. With my periodic arthritis (centered in my knees and feet), it makes it difficult to do if there is a flareup. So, this dancing machine may be retired from that element of theatre.

I've said this before, but I'll repeat here my theatre motto - 

I can act with the best of them. I can sing with the rest of them. I can dance if everyone closes their eyes and pretends.

I can still dance at home alone. Well, with the pets. But they're ok. They don't judge me.

*Fibber McGee's closet was from a well-known radio program, Fibber McGee and Molly.  Every time the closet was opened you would hear sounds of a deluge of things falling out of it.

Kneel Before Trump!

In the Superman universe, which I love so much, one of the major villains is General Zod.  A military leader who tried to overthrow the rightful government of Superman's home planet, Krypton.  It failed, and he was exiled to the Phantom Zone.

But that didn't stop Zod from being an arrogant son of a bee.  When he escaped and resumed his venomous attacks, he would demand complete subjugation of those who would dare to oppose him.

Thus comes the iconic saying...

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

Last night, 91 felony count twice impeached misogynist racist bully conman former president Trump was in full Zod mode last night.

He was crude.  He was vindictive.  He thought his 12-point victory should be enough to end democratic attempts to thwart his vicious will.  He was furious that Nikki Haley didn't immediately drop out and endorse him.  He was blind-drunk angry that she wasn't instantly kneeling before Trump.

At his "victory rally," he told one former candidate he'd only have one minute to speak.  He used a derisive nickname for another rival WHO HAD ALREADY BENT THE KNEE.  He said another rival who swears fealty, and lives in Haley's home state, that the rival must really hate Haley to endorse him instead.

He even made fun of Haley's dress.

There is no limit to this man's misogyny and bullying.

I can't hardly look at anyone who hears this stuff and thinks, "Yep!  That's my man!"

If you bend the knee to someone as monstrous as Trump, I don't know what to say about you anymore.

God help us all.

Tuesday Twitter Questions 012324

 Maybe it's X. Maybe it's the Muskaverse.  Maybe it's Maybelline.

I don't know.

Anyhoo, this is that occasional blog feature where I try to answer the first five questions posters ask on my Twitter/X/Muskrat feed.

1) What was your last research read?

Well, I really don't have to research much of anything. I'm retired. I don't do papers or non-fiction.

Sometimes, I have to look up (ha! - I mean GOOGLE) stuff to clarify my blog stories. Like the last blog story about the Detroit Lions, I looked up (GOOGLED) their playoff history (it could fit on a postcard).

I've had to research accounting, tax, and payroll information/procedures in my role as Treasurer of the church. I've vowed to eliminate any contact with accounting, but somehow, Church Treasurer got grandfathered in.

I read about history a lot, but that's just for me. Currently, I'm watching from Kanopy (a library-associated streaming service), a series of talks about the everyday person's life in different ancient cultures.

2) What sides would you add with beef short ribs?

I haven't had beef short ribs in a very long time. I love them, but they are not something we normally find or prepare.

My thoughts initially turn to corn on the cob. Also maybe a salad.

3) What's a good side dish for lasagna?

Man. I'm on a streak of foodie questions! Alison makes the best lasagna on the face of the earth. I never order it when we go out because it will never be as good as hers.

The only side needed is garlic bread with sprinkled parmesan.

4) What is the saddest death of a fictional character?

The death of Buffy's Mom on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It just came out of nowhere. For a fantasy/horror-themed show, it was just so shockingly real.

5) name a movie character who was perfectly cast

I don't know if I could come up with better than the character that was in the picture of this post -

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

Payoff for the Long and Faithful Slog!

 To say it has been a long time coming is the sports understatement of the century. Well, two centuries, actually - the 21st and the 20th!

No fan has proven their loyalty more than a Lions fan. To stick with them is an enduring prayer of hope.

The last time that they won the National Football Championship was 1957. I was two years old.

They have never won a Super Bowl. Well. They've never ever been IN a Super Bowl to win it or lose it.

In the Super Bowl era, they have been in the playoffs 12 times, losing in the first round 11 times, winning the first round once, then playing in and losing in the conference championship. They beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-6 and then lost to Washington 41-10.

One of my strongest memories was the first time I saw them in the playoffs, 1970 when they lost to the Dallas Cowboys 5-0. Yes, that is a correct score.

In 1971, I was watching the game where a player, Chuck Hughes, died on the field. It took us a while to understand what we were looking at. At first, we just wanted the game to go on. It was later that it hit us how serious this was.

Although this remains the only on-field death in pro football, it is a violent and brutal sport. As medical analysis of players advances, we have only begun to catalog the extensive damage it does to a person.

As time has passed, my interest in American football has waned, and my love of soccer has grown. Soccer is not injury-free, but it does not seem as cataclysmic as American football.

Nevertheless, there are still terms I follow and cheer. I was elated this year when my alma mater, the University of Michigan, won the National Collegiate Championship. The last time they had won a SOLO championship was 1948 (they were co-champions in 1997, but I don't want to write about that ridiculousness). I like the Georgia Bulldogs.

In pro football, I only care about the Detroit Lions. Alison and I used to like the Atlanta Falcons, but that faded. I actively despise the Dallas Cowboys.

Most years, I am done with football by mid to late December. This has been an unusual year. I stayed interested in college through the National Championship. And, even more unbelievably, I still care about the pro football playoffs.

It's so exciting!

Go Lions!

Social Media Circa 1953

 

Wow! Newspapers would post the most trivial things! Mr. & Mrs. Clyde Strait (my grandparents) go away for the weekend with another couple - AND IT'S IN THE PAPER!

I mean, I know Hanover, Michigan, is a small town, but does everybody know what everyone else is doing on the weekend? And do we really care?

Would I want my travels broadcast to the world (well, the world of Hanover), or would I want that kept private?

This was a common thing for local papers to do back then. They had a lot of space to fill, and there was only so much happening that was real news. How often does Farmer Jim report he has a record-breaking pig? How many traffic accidents? How many meetings are there with the township council or the school board?

All that was needed was to get down and personal with other people's lives. Who is going out of town? Who had a party or reunion? Who took whom to the dance?

Of course, all the juicy details are implied rather than explicit. Exactly what were my Grandparents and the Leggets doing on this trip? I would get anything too wild out of your head - these are my Grandparents, after all - the wildest I knew they got was an intense game of Euchre.

I have a vast trove of stuff I have unearthed from my father's ancestral research, so maybe someday I will find what this weekend's quest was all about. Most likely, though, it's simply lost to the mists of time. 

As intrusive as we might think this is, remember this - this was the social media of the day. My Grandparents probably wrote it up for the paper themselves or let an intrepid reporter know. And it was significant enough to them that it clipped and preserved for me to stumble across 71 years later!

Think of our flood of social media today. Not only would we know about their trip, we would have pictures of every meal they ordered. Oh, look! It's a pasty and some Mackinaw fudge, with a fresh root beer to wash it down!

We have the urge to share. We are social creatures. Even us introverts. What is this blog but a bizarre attempt to share facets of my personality and life?

Still, I'm glad all my outings aren't posted in The Blackshear Times.

A Cold Without Snow

 

It happens all the time.

The temperature suddenly drops, and all my Southeast Georgian friends are all a-twitterpated. Oh, no! It's below freezing! What are we gonna do? We're not made for this! Does the Piggly Wiggly still have bread and milk?

But you know what it doesn't do?

SNOW!

We don't get snow. We might get something significant once or twice a decade. Maybe.

It's something to do with how the Arctic air drops down to us - cold and dry. Then, when that passes, and it warms up to the 50s, or so, then it will start to rain.

Sometimes, we'll get what I call "frost on the pumpkins," a frost-like coating on the grass that will last until the sun evaporates it. Ungaraged cars may need to be idled for a while to defrost.

Growing up in Michigan, I was no stranger to Winter and snow. Sometimes, we had snow drifts so big we could walk onto the roof of our house, 

I moved to the South in 1978. Even living in North Georgia until 1997, I missed the snow and the seasons.

That has changed. I no longer long for the long, cold winters. One of the best things about it was that the snow would make people stay home once in a while, and you didn't have to go to school. Now I'm retired and that don't work anymore.

It took forever to change, but I no longer have the tolerance for the cold that I used to have. I spend the cold days inside wearing a thick University of Michigan sweater. 

I wouldn't mind seeing snow every now and then. I feel like it's fairly useless to have freezing temperatures and no snow. Seems like such a waste.

I might finally be transitioning into a true Southerner. First, the food. Then, the weather.

And then I remember the politics here.

Nope. That ain't gonna happen.

The Legacy of Monday Musings

A brief return to a legacy feature of The Strait Line - Monday Musings. 

I usually have one show that I watch before I go to bed. Currently, that is Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. I have seen some Godzilla and Associates movies over the years, but I would not describe myself as a huge fan, nor would I say I thoroughly dislike them.

This one has its pluses and minuses. The biggest plus is that it has one of my favorite actors, Kurt Russell, and his son, Wayne Russell. Wayne plays the same part as his Dad at an earlier point in history. He does not have quite the skills and charms as his father, but he doesn't miss by much. The biggest minus is that there is a lot of focus on a trio of young adults whose storylines are not that interesting - suggestive of a CW show or a less-funny Scooby gang.

The monsters in it are huge, but somehow they don't seem too threatening.

------------------------

Generally, by this time of year, I am completely done with American football. But Michigan went all the way to the National Collegiate Championship (and WINNING it!), and even more incredibly, the Detroit Lions are in the NFL playoffs, and they WON their first game (first playoff win since 1992).

Could the Lions win the Super Bowl? Oh, my Lord, I can't believe I just wrote those words. Take it a game at a time, Son. A game at a time.

----------------------------

The low-turn-out Iowa Caucus was held last night. There was terrible weather, and that helped diminish attendance. Only the most dedicated and crazed showed up. And guess who benefits from that? The Orange Insurrectionist got a bare majority, 51%, earning about 56,000 votes from fellow fascists; that represents roughly 1.75% of Iowa's population.

None of this gives me any comfort whatsoever. The fact that anyone is so far removed from American Democracy that they would consider voting for this misogynist racist chills me to the bone and keeps me up at night.

-----------------------

I made good progress on my lifestyle changes last week. My weight edged down, and my blood pressure improved. Then the weekend came. Oh, well. I'll get the hang of this yet.

---------------------

Please keep checking out your public libraries. Besides wonderful books, many are always doing special programs and events that are fun to participate in.  And the price? FREE!

Musingly Yours,

T. M. Strait

Mean Green Republicans: Saturday Political Soap Box 294

 Look, I know that this isn't straight green. The color is actually described as apple green.

The 118th Congress, the least productive Congress in modern times, did not like their original pins. You see, they were navy blue, and by golly, I guess any shade of blue is official property of the Democratic Party. Well, they can't have that! So, the House Republicans dropped another 40K so they could all change over to a different color.

True, even though it's not a lot of money in the scheme of things, it is endemic to the misplaced values of the Crazy Conference.

Every action or proposed action the House Republicans take is about grievance and preserving power for the wealthy, corporations, and Christian Nationalists.

They have little genuine legislative power at the national level, thanks to a Democratic Senate and President. But they can threaten to shut down the government (hurting countless people), stop forward progress on any genuinely beneficial legislation, block support of the Ukrainians in their battle against a Russian dictator (Speaker Mike Johnson is practically handing the keys to Putin and saying, "Here, Puty, take 'er out for a test drive!"), and hold endless hearings about Hunter Biden while Marjorie Taylor Greene holds up dick pics.

Yes, their childish antics can be entertaining. But they're also destroying any ability to get anything done.

Not so in states with Republican Governors and Republican-controlled legislatures. They have run roughshod over voting rights, and the lgbtq+ community, directing tax cuts to the wealthy and increasing the tax burden of the poor and middle class, supporting book bans, undermining public education, blocking Medicaid expansion, and so many other mean and frankly anit-Christian actions.

Currently, some of these Republican states have sounded off about summer feeding programs for children. The Governor of Mississippi wants to discontinue it because it fosters dependence on a "welfare state." This is the same state that has NO state minimum wage, only the federal minimum of $7.25. Guess they don't want to foster dependence on an employer either.

Georgia is in the same boat. Only Governor Kemp tries to hand out cookies to teachers to bribe them to his side. Maybe they won't notice all the stuff he's taking away from them, including support for summer feeding.

Republicans. They just can't help being mean, green, antidemocratic machines.

But, what the hey! They do have spiffy pins!

Bending for the Dog

 

He bends down slowly. The only way he can bend now. The sciatica screams at him. The pain descends into his right thigh and calf.

But this is a good doggy. And he deserves a pat. And the man is determined to give it.

He pats the little dog, ignoring the pain. The joy of his little companion makes the pain drift away, at least for a few seconds.

He leashes the dog, and they go for a walk. Sometimes the walks help subside the pain,  Sometimes it does not.

Today is a winner. The pain no longer dominates his every thought.

The man sits in his reading chair, the dog on his lap. He loves to read. He can go anywhere when he reads. He can become anyone. Today's story is a mystery from Ellery Queen's magazine. He becomes a gumshoe solving a case in 1930s San Fransico. He has no sciatica and can run, twist, and deck a bad guy with one punch.

He gets up and does some sciatica relief exercises with the help of a YouTube video. It's the same video done by the same lady. She is friendly and calm, like an NPR host. The sight of her has become a comfort to him. One time, he thought he heard her use his name, but that couldn't be. He made a vow to never tell anybody. He didn't want his grown children to put him away.

He has lunch; salad, and some mixed fruit. He drinks a Coke Zero, his great daily indulgence. The salad has some chicken, but he doesn't eat it all. Some of it winds up in his little dog.

He takes out an old coin collection and, using an app on his phone, tries to identify its value. If he finds enough valuable coins, he might be able to afford a cross-country trip to see his family. It's a long shot, though. Most coins aren't worth much more than their face value, and the coin market is not that good.

He takes another walk with his dog. The sciatica continues to fade. This really is a blessed day, he thinks.

Later, with supper, he watches an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He likes watching older TV shows, especially mysteries and cop shows. The episode he watches tonight came out when he was three years old.

He reads for a while and then finally goes to bed, the little dog with him.

He lays awake, haunted by the past, worried about the future.

But the little dog is there, sleeping quietly. The dog calms him. He pets the dog.

He falls asleep.

Dreaming about Waffles

 Poor girl.

Her parents posted a video about her obsession with waffles, and now it's gone viral.

The dudes above even set to song.

And now here I am, posting it as the main picture to my blog story, where another, I don't know, ten or twelve people will see it.

I don't know how the little girl feels about it, but I'm guessing the parents are pretty pleased. It's the apex of our society now to have something go "viral."

I'm not immune to this. My blog has been up since 2009, and I just passed 500,000 views. Or, the number of views that Instagram gets in about 1/13th of a second.

Would I like to have a big hit? Sure. It wouldn't hurt. What would be real nice is if I could make a tiny bit of ad money, but I received the death penalty on that years ago.

I do have one post that has over 112,000 views. That's Authentic Frontier Gibberish, a title borrowed from Blazing Saddles. I think that it just happens to hit higher in the search engines than the others.

It drops way down for my second-place blog story - I Built This Business! Me! Myself! I! has 12,600 views.

My third place is my highest-ranking fiction story - The Vigil at the Honey Dew, with 8,840 views. Vigil is part of the story collection, Crowley Stories, which features interrelated short stories set in a town near the Okefenokee Swamp.

Crowley Stories is my biggest writing disappointment. It should have caught on, at least in the area where I live, and it did not. Bad writing? Maybe. Bad promotion? Definitely.

As I change my schedule, I hope to return to more fiction writing. Does it garner many views? Nah, of course not.

Nevertheless...

Like the little girl above, I can't stop dreaming about waffles.

But, in my case, writing is my dream, and to break through where I make a tiny bit of money.  

Can't stop dreaming about it.

Opening Up the Fissures of Time

 In Bemjamin's study, thre is a closet.

When we first moved in to our home on Glenwood, we had a bunch of stuff packed up that we didn't have an immediate place for.  So, we crammed it into Benjamin's study room closet.

And then, over time, Benjamin's own possessions spread, and the entry way to the closet was blocked off - at least to the extent that it would require a tremendous effort to get inside. 

Now that Benjamin has moved to Warner Robins, we've been slowly reclaming the room, designing it more for exercise, and putting in a day bed.  This reclamation project opened up the closet.

And once I got into the closet...time itself began pouring out.

I've only gotten to about ten boxes (there are still maybe two dozen more).  Each one has overwhelming whiffs of another time.

There are books and old toys and games. There are pictures of Benjamin, and his artwork,  There are items and pictures about Greg and Doug.  Alison has a couple of boxes, including old family movie reels and correspondence with friends.  There are materials from my parents, including more of Dad's genaoligical research.

I found a box of science fiction and mystery pulp magazines dating back to the 50s.  I found a stamp collection of my Dad's, Japanese yen, and a post card collection dating back to the 1890s. 

And I found pictures.  Pictures galore.

The one at the top of this blog is from a collection of pictures my Dad has of his mother.  I'm guessing this was taken sometime in the 1910s.  The back of the card has the front row identified as Ella Snow, Nellie Snow (from Mass.), and Olin Snow. The back row has Ned Tripp and Flossie Snow.

Flossie was the nickname used by people for my Grandmother, whose actual first name is Florence.

She was very smart.  She gave a speech at her high school graduation, one that had a feminist bent, extolling the contributions that women can make.  She taught school for awhile.  She got married a bit later than what was normal for that time, to my Grandfather, Clyde Strait.  She had three children, the first of which was my father, Eugene Everett Strait.

As I organize these treasure troves of the past, they should help generate a lot of stories for this blog.

No, this blog won't be just about the long ago, but it will play a part.  

Sometimes, in order to know where we're going, it's good to know where we've been.

Hail to the Victors Valiant!

 

Go Blue!

A national championship!

How long have I waited to say those magic words!

Well, there was 1997 with that weird co-championship with Nebraska. That was rare, and the asterisk interfered with the glory.

No, you must go back to 1948 to find the last time the Wolverines were the sole National Champions.

Growing up, the most legendary game was when the Bo Schembechler Wolverines beat the Woody Hayes led Ohio State Buckeyes. I remember seeing a Sports Illustrated story before that game that declared Ohio State might be the best college football team of the century. And then the Wolverines beat them 24-12. Other than the '68 Tigers, it was the bestest sports memory of my youth.

Michigan was not just a school I liked; it was my alma mater. Yes, I attended the University of Michigan from September 1973 to April 1977. I've been at the Big House (Michigan's 100,000-plus capacity stadium), enjoying many blowout games, and the fans were almost as entertaining as the game. It's where I remember the smell of Boone's Farm. 

Every year, the big game would be the final game of the regular season against Ohio State. Ohio State won three out of the four years I was there, including one heartbreaker on a last-second missed field goal. The joke among my college buddies is that we all needed to try out to be the next field goal kicker because surely we could do better than that guy. In reality, most of us would even whiff at making contact with the football.

I had college classes with a few of the college players. One of the lowlights of my college experience was when I and another intellectual student went up against two college football players in debate class. We lost, and we lost badly. Their arguments were slightly off-center, and I don't always think well on my feet. I did try to take some lessons from it, and later, I coached a high school debate team that finished 3rd in the state, the best performance in the school's history.  

Living in the South since 1978, I experienced a lot of dismissive talk about the Big Ten, including Michigan. Here, the SEC was the dominant conference, the only one that mattered. I'm not entirely anti all the SEC schools. I love Georgia, which is also the alma mater of my middle son, Doug. But the drumbeat about how the Big Ten was an inferior conference just wore at me.

I worked for over two decades at a CPA firm, where my closest co-worker was an Alabama fan. The overt smug superiority of Alabama was depressing. I longed for the day Michigan would play Alabama and show my co-worker they could beat Bama. Well, it took forever, but it finally happened! The first person to text me congratulations was that co-worker. I don't think he could hardly believe it, but he had to acknowledge that it did happen.

The opponent that Michigan beat in the championship, Washington Huskies, will join the Big Ten next season. It's almost like two Big Ten teams played for the National Championship!

Next year, many of the Michigan players will graduate and/or go to the pros. Heck, there's a good chance Jim Harbaugh will return to the pros. The playoffs expand to 12 teams next year, so you'll have to win even more games to get to the top. For instance, an expanded playoff this last season would have included Georgia. Honestly, I don't know how Michigan would have fared against Georgia.

I would love for Michigan to repeat. But whatever happens, they can't take this year away from us!

GO BLUE!!!

New Year's Commitment

 Once again, I'm trying to change my day structure to....

    1) write more

    2) exercise more

    3) eat better

The writing is to get back into the habit of something I love and to feel a better sense of accomplishment each day. Maybe it will turn into money. Most likely it won't. But I can live with that if I can figure out another way to bring in a small amount of money each year, enough to allow us to travel.

That's the biggest thing  - to be able to travel more. Some of it may be sightseeing, but mostly, it's to get together with family.

Exercise and eating better are to control blood pressure and blood glucose better. If I'm going to travel more, I just don't need the finances. I also need the health to do so.

In that effort, my mornings have changed. I will get my coffee and start writing after a brisk walk (super brisk on these chilly early mornings). At first, it will be like putting a monkey on a typewriter and letting the gibberish come out. But hopefully, in time, I will improve.

I also have a series of exercises that I go through that will help with my sciatica. Some aspects have similarities to yoga, but it's mostly stretching. It helps.  

Later, in the early evening, I have a treadmill. I can watch parts of silent movies while on it. I must be careful not to overdo it because it can cause foot pains. Yes, I must balance exercise while avoiding the onset of arthritis flare-ups.

I'm returning to a spreadsheet that helps me better track what I eat to balance out different categories. It's about the same except for adding potassium, which I watch now. It's more of a check and balance system than super-restrictive. I keep a good ratio of carbs to fiber, and now I will watch the ratio of potassium to sodium.  

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There's a closet in my house that has boxes and boxes of stuff I have not looked at in ages. It was blocked off while Benjamin had the room as his study, but now it's opened up. Some are junk, but others are like taking a trip through time, with memories going back decades.

It has given me many story ideas I hope to share with you.  

New Year's commitments are difficult. I have a lot of church treasury work in the next two months that will require much time and concentration. I lost a lot of sleep last night trying to solve one particular problem, and many spreadsheets were floating through my head. I thought I had left that behind when I retired from accounting, but it's hard to tell my church no.

Best wishes for the New Year, my faithful friends and readers! Hope to be writing to you again very soon!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait