Leelanau Whippersnapper

Something for you to appreciate.  I’m in one of those moods lately.  Ta Ta

What a GEEEEEEKKKK!!!  Here I am, outside enjoying a campfire at the cottage, and I’m sitting here with the laptop writing a blog!  Can I never escape technology?  The fisherman out in front of the house must think I’m crazy.

So anyhow, I’ve built a campfire and I’m trying not to get burned up as the wind blows directly into my face.  Gavin is asleep behind me.  We had quite a busy day today.  We hiked Pyramid Point today.  It was quite busy, lots of people around.  Gavin did well.  I have to practice waking with him on a leash lately, he’s so used to not having one and now that the Parks have started issuing tickets rather than just warnings, I have to keep him on one when we go anywhere in the park…(unless it’s completely deserted).  It was quite a nice day for a hike.  Low 70’s and a little overcast.  I got some great pictures that I will likely upload later on tonight once I go back inside for the night.  After that we went down to the beach for some stone hunting.  I found one Petoskey today.  They are getting harder and harder to find up here.  I think the tourists must have figured out what they were and they are taking them all.

After the beach we went home where I promptly fell asleep on the couch for 2 hours.  I was rudely awakened this morning by someone powerwashing my garage doors.  Apparently those are going to either be cleaned now or painted.  I don’t know which one but they could have at least waited to start that noisy shit until 8am don’t ya think?  Anyhow, that pissed off the dog and I just decided to get out of the house as soon as possiable today.  What I was getting as is that I was still quite tired.

It’s getting dark so early now.  It’s only 8PM and already it is dark…dark enough to make me look stupid sitting here outside with the laptop writting in my blog.  Oh well, at least it’s possiable to do.  Now that Dad is wireless, I can use all my toys inside and out and I can write in my blog while sitting in the boat!!…not exactly but close enough.

I’ll write more sometime tomorrow.  Look for new pictures at www.leelanauphotography.com either sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Alright, I really should be sleeping right now but I got working on this little video project just to play around with my software and I ended up creating a cute little video about Gavin and I’ve uploaded it to You Tube so you call can marvel at my technological prowess.  I’m not quite sure the music works but oh well.  This is only the first.  I’ve got a ton of short video clips that I’ve taken with my digital cameras over the years.  I’m sure that I’ll create more of these…of course I can also do photo sideshows too, lord knows I have plenty of pictures I can play with.  Enjoy!

I’m a lush for technology.  OK, more like I just enjoy spending my money.  There were a couple of important items that I lost in the “divorce” so today I went out and purchased them.  My paychecks seem to be getting bigger and bigger at the moment so I figured I would take advantage of it before the $4.35/gal gas prices actually started sinking in!!  Today I purcahsed a new “all-in-one” printer, scanner, copier at Best Buy.  I need to have a printer and I have been looking at the multi function units for quite a while.  Today I got the HPC4385 all in one unit and I love it.  I’ve spent the last 45 minutes scanning pictures (see below) and it is SOOOOOO much quicker than the hand-me-down scanner I got from dad (thanks though).  I also picked up another wireless router since Jirar will be taking the one we have (not much cost involved there).

I’m off now for the long weekend.  I have 3 days off!!!!  Amazing.  Things are getting to crunch time now.  I’ve got “the letter” prepared for the landlord and ready to be sent off on the first of June explaining the situation and the fact that I’ll be moving.  I’m nearly decided on a storage unit to put all this shit and with the exception of my school loan, I’m nearly debt free (I still have a credit card out there that I’m paying on).  Things are looking good for me right now and I’m pretty happy about that.  Getting out of this house though is the biggest challenge in front of me.  There is just so much to do and I have just so little time to do it.  I’ll get there.

I’ll leave you tonight with a picture from my childhood.  Sarah, I don’t know what is going through your head here but wow, clearly your son (though me) will have easy access to LOTS of embarrassing pictures of his mother and his grandmother!!!!!  Good thing you live in Iowa.  You want to bet that by the time he’s 3, he will know how to use a mouse and will know more about technology than you and Brain???  I think I was a senior in high school before I mastered a mouse!!  Love ya.

The following has been stolen from Wally’s Joke Mail and reposted here without permission.  I did not write these but I’m not sure Wally did either since I’ve seen these same things posted elsewhere.  Pay attention to the highlighted ones.  These are statements I find particularly disturbing and true in my neck of the woods.  Traverse City is not by definition a conservative area in the same way that Grand Rapids is but some of the back woods boys up here would sure like you to believe it’s all about American Flags and guns!

1. You have to be against abortion, but support capital punishment on demand.
2. You have to believe that governments create oppression and businesses create prosperity.
3. You have to believe that the man wearing a turban in the airport is more of a terrorist than the white man carrying a concealed gun.
4. You have to believe that federal funding is a handout and that disadvantaged people should be able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” just like you and your daddy and his daddy before him.
5. You have to believe that someone made up global warming to scare you into not driving that gas-guzzling SUV.
6. You have to believe that being sexually confused is an abomination that God hates.
7. You have to believe that the people advocating those afflicted with AIDS should “stop whining.”
8. You have to believe that if schools don’t provide sex education and/or condoms, then kids just won’t think about sex and it will all just go away.
9. You have to believe that animal rights activists aren’t doing “what God intended,” but hunters are.
10. You have to believe that if someone has fallen on hard times it is their own fault and they should be given no help.
11. You have to believe that God lives in your own little box and that He hates all the same things and people you do.
12. You have to believe that the ACLU is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the NRA is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
13. You have to believe that the tax on your yacht is too high and that the homeless man isn’t being taxed enough.
14. You have to believe that the contributions to American history made by Caucasian men are more important than those made by women and African-Americans.
15. You have to believe that Black History Month is reverse racism, but the Confederate flag is just a historical symbol.
16. You have to believe that any war we fight is for a good reason, because the president said so.
17. You have to believe that God loves everyone, except for gay people.
18. You have to believe that this message is part of a crazy, left-wing revolution.

Some people are just irritating.  Others are just plain stupid.

The population is beginning to change now up here for the summer.  Today I pulled into The Coffee Bean to grab a cup of coffee on my way home from work and I had to park next to what I think was the BIGGEST SUV I’ve ever seen in my life.  It was the size of a small school bus, it was BRIGHT white (I hate white cars) and it was clearly driven by someone who cares nothing about how that vehicle makes them look when gas is now at $4.00 a gallon up here.  I would venture to say that the owner of that car has been made rich by the stupidity of others and is now showing off his ego. The only thing missing from this truck was a set of bulls balls for the hitch. (I don’t know who the woman is below, this is just to show you what bulls balls are).

Summer time up here brings with it some pretty crazy people.  Some even more so than the back woods meth-heads that populate the area in the winter.  These people have money, love to show it off, and care about nobody but themselves.  To the locals these people who come up here only on the weekends and then somehow think they live here are known as Fudgies…a horrendously bad nickname in the first place.  These are the folks who whistle at me at work in order to try and get my attention to help them.  Guess what folks, I don’t stop for people who whistle at me.  I’ll loose a sale before I am treated like that.  I’m not a dog, I don’t have a tail.  If you want to treat me like you would a dog than you had better have a treat for me in that fucking bag of yours or I’m going to jump on you, bite you and give you rabies you stupid fucks.  Pardon me, will you help me?.. works much better.

Have you got any cheese? Great web site, you should check this out! Monty Python Video Wall