Leelanau Whippersnapper

Baby Christopher was born July 16, not on July 17th like I had said earlier.  Seems my days are all running together lately as I’m sure the happy parents days are too with a serious lack of sleep.

I will know today or tomorrow if I got the condo or not.  I’m getting ready to dish out some serious bucks here up front so that I can have some overlap between my current lease and the new one.  More later, have to head off to work.

I admit it, I’ve been a little lazy when it comes to this blog.  Today I got emails from my web host letting me know what I’ve got a month to renew my domain names (leelanauphotography.com and leelanauwhippersnapper.com).  No big deal, $8 each.  I’ve also got to renew my subscription with Zenfolio by the end of August in order to keep the photography site alive.  Again no big deal (hey mom and dad, how about that birthday gift?).  I’ve added some new functionality to the blog tonight.  On the right, you’ll see 12 pictures.  They are random samplings from my photography site.  They will be something new each time you visit the blog.  Just a good way to promote the photography web site I think.  I’ve also added a post calendar so you can see what days I’ve actually written something and I’ve added a search box in case you ever need to find something that I’ve written in the past.  WHOO HOO!  Right?

Well the apartment hunt is going pretty well.  I toured a condo today that I think I’m going to take if I can get it from the Realtor who was showing it.  I’ve already sent in my application and told him I’m ready to go TODAY.  This was a great little 2 bedroom 2 bath condo right off of Garfield.  Comes with a small fenced in yard for Gavin and a 2 car garage.  It’s in a managed community with a pool and other amenities.  It’s also listed for sale but apparently the owner will take whoever makes an offer first so I made an offer on it.  Pretty much right within my budget and very close to work.  Just crossing my fingers now waiting for a call back telling me I got it.  Then I have to round up the cash to make it happen right away.  I’ll have to be creative with that.  Anyhow I hope I get it.

After the tour, I took Gavin out for a boat ride at the cottage.  Pretty nice day today.  Not crazy hot but really not unpleasant.  I decided to test my shallow water skills and we took the boat through the narrows and out to the North Lake.  Always a trip to do that, no problems though.  Had a swan hiss at me, what evil birds they are.  Tonight I’ve just been sitting around doing not much of anything.  I’ve not had a day like that in a LONG while.  It’s nice to just relax now and then.

So, off to bed now, I’ll be writing more about the apartment hunt again soon.

Looks like they grow more than just Corn in Iowa.

Well for those of you who have been hiding under rocks, you can now call me Uncle David!  Sarah and Brain are now proud parents of a healthy baby boy - Christopher Wallace Peterson.  Both mom and son are doing well and I suspect as I write this my folks are on their way down to Iowa to do a meet and greet.  I’m so happy for both Sarah and Brian and wow, I wish them the best of luck as they bring up this child.  He will be surrounded by so many wonderful people, it’s hard to imagine what great things he will accomplish in his lifetime.  So that’s the big news right now.

In other news, I am still continuing to look at apartments.  So far, I’ve seen 2 complete DUMPS that these landlords are trying to pass off as livable places.  What a fucking joke.  I was told in my pursuits here that I have only a year before I can really afford to buy my own place.  I just need to find somewhere that is not infested with roaches and mice to live for a year.  I am going to see 3 condo’s this weekend in Traverse, hopefully one of them will be what I am looking for.

On a sad note, the pets are really hurting my chances at finding something worth while.  One complex I am looking at is brand new, gorgeous, has all the amenities that I require HOWEVER, they allow only one dog and one cat.  I have 2 cats.  That place is also the most likely place that I can get into and I hate to say it but if it comes down to choosing an apartment or my cats I have to say at this point I have to choose the apartment.  I intend to do everything I can to accommodate my own children but even though I do treat them like my own kids, they are still all pets.  They don’t pay the rent (and in fact eat me out of house and home) and I may have to make a choice.

Work is crazy right now.  I’ve managed to put in about 55 hours for 2 weeks straight now and next week looks like more of the same.  Major re-set’s going on with lots of new product hitting the floor for fall.  It’s really keeping me on my toes and lucky for me, my team has sensed my urgency and really started to perform up to my expectations for speed.

Tonight I am painting the vanity in the bathroom so now it’s off to do a second coat.  That is the one thing we never finished when we redid the bathroom so I am finishing it now so that it looks like we did what we said we were going to do.  Enjoy your weekend!

I thought that I might not write again until Monday however I didn’t mention this in my last post and wanted to do so before I forgot about it.  Today was Sarah’s baby shower and I got to hang out with the ladies for a while this afternoon.  Quite pleasant really, no drama, lots of fussing, and I didn’t have to do anything but sit back, watch, and take pictures all afternoon.  Not bad really.  Sarah looked like she really enjoyed herself (why wouldn’t she…she and Brian have made out like bandits with lots of loot for baby Christopher).  I’m getting very excited for them, Brian and Sarah will both make great parents, it will be fun to watch their family grow.

I was going to rant tonight about my experience almost getting a ticket at the beach the other day but I’ve decided that those people who might have found this story amusing have already been told.  I didn’t get a ticket but suffice to say I won’t be making many trips to the national lake shore this summer.  Way to loose the support of a local dip shits.  Clearly the feds want nothing to do with me or my dog.  They sure want my money though.  I’ve got mixed feelings about what happened but I’m still not really that happy about it.

Awesome weather here lately…all over the country really.  Sarah and Brian go back to Iowa tomorrow, from what we understand most of the state is now under water.  It should make for an interesting trip home for them.  Saw some really great clouds tonight.  Check out leelanauphotography.com for more but here is a sample.

Another rainy day here in Northern Michigan.  I am gearing up here for quite a busy 3 weeks.  This weekend is Sarah’s baby shower so all the relatives are up here.  I’m going over to the cottage at 2 on Saturday to take pictures of the festivities.  Typically baby showers are girl events (dad, Brian, Lou, and Frank) are going golfing.  I’m not your typical guy I guess.  I don’t really mind hanging out with the ladies.  I’m sure they don’t mind it either.  Anyhow, it should be fun.  Sarah received a diaper cake (I’ll post a picture next week) and I’m curious to see what else baby Christopher will get.  All the fuss about a new baby makes me want to get in line for one..no, wait, they are cute for about 5 months, then it’s all about them for the next 18 years!!!  Sorry, my ego can’t take that kind of blow.  I’ll be content to be the uncle who can spoil the kid rotten and at the end of the day when he’s crabby and whiny, send him back to mom and dad so they can deal with him!

Well the weather is getting pretty violent here so I won’t write more tonight.  Next post will be early next week.

It’s been an interesting year for me this past year.  I’ve split up with the person I thought I might spend the rest of my life with, I’ve discovered (although I already knew this) that I don’t live well with people I don’t care for, and I’ve been able to evaluate my life as a single person now in my mid 30’s.  I found some old cassette recordings of me singing today in the basement with lots of other shit that I was going to toss.  I thought that I would try and salvage these from sure ruin.  It amazes me to think how far technology has come in 20 years.  When this recording was made, cassette tapes were still the norm.  CD’s were just getting off the ground and digital recordings were unknown.  Tonight I was even able to edit this recording to make it cleaner and easier to listen to.

Click Here and read on:

The recording you are listening to was created my junior year at Grand Valley State University.  I am singing Dixit Dominus and I am sining countertenor.  I had perfected my upper range at the American Boychoir School after my voice had changed and this became my range of choice when I got into late high school and into collage.  Nobody else that I knew could sing in this range like I could and I was never one to blow my own horn but I was pretty dam good.  When there was an alto or countertenor solo to sing, I got the part, when it came to teaching it was perfect because I could sign in the same range that the boys I was teaching could sing in so they understood what I was looking for.

This recording was made during a fairly critical year in my quest to pursue a music education degree.  I had become by this time rather cynical of my education and actually I had become exceptionally board with it.  I was in my 4th year of teaching for the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys and my 4th year of Collage and I saw little value in the education I was getting as it did not relate to real life at all and was in fact quite far removed.  NOTHING I was learning in collage even remotely related to what I was teaching with the GRCMB.  Not even close.  Sadly, that narrow view of reality would continue until I eventually dropped out of collage about 2 semesters short of graduating with a degree I would never end up using anyhow.  This recording was an attempt to escape the mundane and lackluster world of higher education and try to join the ranks with what I considered to be the premier mens chorus in the world: Chanticleer.  They did not develop a relationship with the American Boychoir School until several years after I had graduated but they were indeed the gold standard when it came to professional choirs.  Having been let down tremendously by the substandard and rather pathetic choirs of high school and collage (and even the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys although that was a higher standard than I could get anywhere else), I wanted to experience professionalism again and I held Chanticleer on an exceptionally high pedestal (and still do).  It was a long shot to audition considering the members of Chanticleer were all well into their 30’s and 40’s and all  professional musicians but I wanted to try anyhow just to see how I stacked up.  My impression from the note sent back to me from Mr. Jennings was that I was certainly qualified and capable but not yet mature enough in my age or technique to join their ranks.  I wasn’t shocked but I was disappointed that my exhibited talent had been reduced to a simple lack of professional experience.  Oh well, it was not the end all for me but it set me on a path that would end my collage career and put me out into the world pursuing other dreams in unrelated fields.

I’ll be posting other mp3 files in future posts.  I have one from when I was 2 years old sining nursery rhymes with dad and I have one of Sarah and I singing show tunes in high school.  It was important that I try everything I can to preserve these recordings even though the quality is lack luster.  The memories are worth hanging on to.  Here is another picture I found the other day.  Early on in life Sarah and I were treated to the establishment of traditions.  To this day, I still shove my hands into pumpkins and revile in the gooey mess.

Well today was an exceptionally productive day!  It was hot as hell (upper 80’s and humid) but I got lots done.  The day started off getting a new mattress from Aunt Joan and Uncle Lou.  Mine was getting pretty old and I have no issues using expensive hand-me-downs.  Tonight I shall see how well I sleep on it.  In any case, it’s leaps and bounds better than what I had so all is good.  I met the Indian that lives in Lou’s garage as well.

From there the parents and I headed back home and swapped out the mattress and took the old one to the storage facility for Jirar.  He will get that one.  We then went through lots of rooms and filled up the trailor full of shit for Goodwill.  They took everything but 2 air conditioners (which I was able to unload on a team member at work) and an old chair.  Got rid of a LOT of stuff today and it feels good.  Thank God for Mom and Dad, I never would have been able to accomplish what I did today without their help.  Anyhow, tonight I am now relaxing and scanning pictures.  I was thinking about how in the world I managed to get up to this part of the world.  I found a picture that explains it.

Ok, the 2 are not mutually exclusive but for the sake of argument I’ll separate them for a minute. What a day at work today. I’ve forgotten that it usually takes me about a month or so to make the transition from redneck land to stick up their ass tourist land. I’m convinced only of 2 things. First, 99% of people have apparently never worked in the service industry and have never learned proper…fuck proper…how bout they have just never learned how to be pleasant people. Second, there are only a FEW select people who should do things themselves and there are only a FEW select things those people should ever attempt to do. No, I’m sorry I am not going to tell you that it’s OK to put deck sealer on your roof becuase it’s cheaper than new shingles! Sorry, dweeb, I’m not willing to guarantee this product is going to work if you are TOO FUCKING LAZY and CHEEP to follow the fucking directions and do the job right.

Dad, you’ll like this: From my childhood there is one lesson you taught me at the top of your lungs over the screaming lawnmower and it was a comment you only ever had to say forcefully to me once (although you repeated it many other times throughout my life in various circumstances): If you AREN’T going to do the job RIGHT, than DON’T do it at all!! Certianly your job as a parent was to instill the value of responsibility for doing something well and having a successful end result. It was not exactly something a kid wanted to hear whilst trying to maneuver an out of control self propelled machine that certainly was bigger than me at top speed through loose sand. You made your point and I learned a lesson, that lesson being: when you cut corners you set yourself up for failure. Academics aside, it is a lesson I took into adulthood by becoming a careful and deliberate person in my professional life. I don’t cut corners, my actions are deliberate and planned, and I am successful. There is a reason for everything I do and for everything I say. It is a value I try to impart on my employees and it is something that I must very carefully, everyday, try to impart on customers who come in to my department. “If you are not going to do it right (you lazy fucking redneck), don’t waste your time, try this product instead, it doesn’t require as much work or preparation (I’d love to watch you fail miserably at your project becuase it’s funny but I really don’t want to listen to you when you come back and bitch at me for selling you something you couldn’t figure out how to use becuase you couldn’t be bothered to read the fucking directions).”

On to Babies. When the hell did the baby market explode and why was I not around to make any money on this? I spent several hours tonight looking at some of the plastic baby items that Sarah is going to be getting (or has already received) for her baby shower. Notice the inserted word “plastic”. You know, the huge metal Tonka Trucks that were just fine when I was a kid, why did they switch to plastic? Why are Lincoln Logs now plastic? What happened to Tinker Toys and Light Bright? Why are there batteries in the Etch-A-Sketch? What the hell is a Diaper Genie? Somewhere between 1974 and 2008, Johnny Jumpup become the “Graco Jumpster in Jungle Jubilation”, a wholly unnecessary sentence to describe a pair of oversize shorts sewn on to a couple long elastic straps that provide hours of entertainment to small children who secretly wish to fly. Well Sarah, that’s what your getting for your shower from me. Check your email, I sent you a note about when you’ll get it.

So now I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is another day in do it yourself land.

3 Pictures for you, spring is a great time to see birds. These were all taken at the parents house on Lake Leelanau. As I get used to my camera, I should be able to get even better pictures.

Purple Martin

Baltimore Oriole

Yellow Finch

More pictures are being uploaded into a new album tonight called PANORAMAS. In it are several panoramic photos that I’ve taken over the past few months. I will continue to add more to that album as I have time.