Visitors

Nancy and Jim dropped by last Friday on their way home from Wisconsin.  They found me without much difficulty, despite the tendency of GPS units to claim "You've arrived!" when a traveler is still a half-mile from my house.  I gave them the Cook's tour of my new place, including "my pride and joy," the little log splitter.  Then I showed them a few of the local sights — Post Office, Library, Association clubhouse, Old Lighthouse, New Lighthouse, Portage Party Store, and so forth.  (Nancy mentioned that a volunteer group is forming in Grand Haven to help maintain that town's lighthouse.  Excellent!  In this digital-is-faster-and-better age, only volunteer interest will keep our lighthouses from being torn down in the name of "progress.")  We finished our tour at the Portage Restaurant with an excellent lunch.

Nancy's lovely poem awaits hanging in my front entry.  I've delayed hanging any wall art until I've moved all the furniture in and had a second coat of wall paint applied.  But in time it will have its place of honor above my grandmother's English lyre-leg table.

This morning I had my first water aerobics class in the clubhouse pool.  Sharon and Attila have been after me for months to join the group, which is led most effectively by a 90-year-old lady who stays around afterwards to swim laps!  This afternoon I moved more rock at the rear of the house, and also began working on the front.  Then at 4:00 a dip in Lake Esau... a pleasant half-hour drying off on the sunny back porch... and at 6:00 a township meeting at the Range Light Park.  At this meeting there was much heated discussion of the (new this year) Porta-Potty enclosure, which some residents feel does not adequately disguise the facilities within.  "When people drive by, all they see is a portable toilet!"  I suppose we could have asked for a P-P made up to look like the Shrieking Shack in the Harry Potter films — "the most haunted house in Great Britain."

Local politics is the death of a thousand complaints, most of which are issued by two or three people. •••