Good Things and Not so good things Thursday

 

Mother's Day gift from my cat, Al

Good things:

My youngest son and dil took B and I to Sault Ste Marie for Mother's Day on Saturday.  It was a long car ride but good conversation made it go quickly.  The guys were going to a gun show at the local university so my dil and I went to Hobby Lobby to shop.  We had fun.  They were having a sale on items for the lawn.  I thought about what B would say if I bought a 7ft metal flamingo for the front lawn or maybe a very large metal Tyrannosaurus Rex.  We laughed a lot about his reaction to that.  We walked around the store and saw some cute things and picked up a few.  We were disappointed to see that the store already had out Autumn & Thanksgiving decorations.  I don't know about you but I dislike when stores rush the seasons.  Just as we were leaving the store, the guys called to say they were done and to pick them up which we did.  Then we went for a little tour of the university as my dil had graduated from there.  It is a very nice university being the smallest one in Michigan.   We then went down to the boat locks and saw an iron ore boat going thru.  We went to lunch at a very nice place across from the locks.  Afterwards the kids took us to a beautiful mountain overlook.  We could see Specter Lake as well as Lake Superior and the coast of Canada.  It was beautiful.  They then took us to see the lighthouse at Whitefish Point.  We didn't go up in the tower (these old legs weren't going to do that) but we did walk around and look at the view of Lake Superior.  We also saw the wind turbines on the Canadian side of the lake.  All in all, it was a wonderful day with the adventure but also with the company.

My dil in Nevada sent me this picture of her lilac bush from the yard.  I am so jealous.  Mine only has buds on it and to be honest will never look like hers. 

B found this metal bench at an antique shop on sale and got it for me as a Mother's Day gift.  I had been looking for one for the back yard and this one is perfect.  He said he would paint it if I wanted to do that but I like it just the way it is. He did put a piece of plywood across the seat so I could set plants on it.  He also painted it the cedar color that we have on our decks.

Not so good thing:

We put out the front deck furniture on Sunday and everything looked so nice.  Then the wind on Monday came up.  We get wind here all the time but nothing like we got on Monday.  The wind was so strong that it lifted the deck swing right off the deck and sent it sailing halfway over the railing.  We had even wired the deck frame down so that wouldn't happen and it pulled the wire right out.  Between the two of us, we were able to pull the frame and swing back on the deck but decided we couldn't have the awning on it anymore as the wind might make it happen again.  No damage to the swing and frame but it was a scary moment.  Good things on this is that there was no damage to the swing or frame.  I am glad about this because I sit out on the swing every evening in the warm weather.  It is my way to get in touch with nature, become calm and peaceful after a busy day and more important, have a nice conversation with God.