Celebrate Life

Memorial for Bill Swan (a Midlander) will be held on July 6th,2011, at 11 a.m. at St. Bartholomew's Anglican Church in Woodinville, Washington.

Scotts awa'

Dear readers,

Bill is no longer among us. He slipped away on Saturday morning at 9:09 pacific time in a Concord, California hospital. He fell ill during a church Synod where we were both delegates. Once he stopped breathing on his own he never regained consciousness.

It is my intention to make the tour of Michigan as he proposed and perhaps to scatter some of his ashes in Lake Michigan. When I go, I will need company.

Thank you for following his writings and for being such dear friends to him.

His wife of 32 years,
Kathy

We probably won't make 2012

Dear readers,

There is no delicate way to put this, so I will give it to you straight: Bill is on life support at a John Muir Medical Center in Concord, California. Bill fell ill during a trip to the East Bay for a church Synod and was admitted a week ago last Thursday, May 19th. He has not regained consciousness at this time. Your prayers for his recovery are solicited and very much appreciated. Thank you for being his friends.

Kathy Swan
(Wife of almost 32 years)

Plan change

Between the last post and now a lot has changed. Most of it to do with upcoming travel: my "summer at home" is now shot through with short trips, though at least they are no further East than Milwaukee (so far). Not that the extra distance to the East Coast makes much difference.

But my European meetings for next year are being set and between Madrid in April and Stockholm around October, well, I just need to take Kathy with me and tour the scenic locales. (My mother has long told me I'd love Spain, and Kathy seconds the motion.) She knows these places and speaks the languages fluently, which is an asset. But those trips alone will blow next year's travel budget.

So maybe the Grand Tour of Michigan will have to wait until 2012.

Goodbye for now

Dear readers,

I should have done this a few weeks ago, but allowed myself to get caught up in the whirlwind of this spring's travel season first. Back a few days ago from the second business trip in as many weeks, I fly out soon for another running through next week... and so on until the end of May after which, if nothing else pops up, I will have a *long* stretch at home before things pick up again in September.

In any event, last summer's visit back to Midland is receding. It leaves in my memory an odd and sad overlay of Midland as I saw it recently on the Midland I remember.

Truly you cannot go home again.

Our thoughts of a second visit next year, encompassing more of the state, remain. But until we start planning that, barring things unforeseen I will have nothing more for the blog. But I will leave it open, and will be notified of any comments.

Later...

Bill

Skiing the golf course

One of the nice things about the Internet age is the ability to keep tabs on things elsewhere. The Midland Daily News online is such a resource, and I'm never sure what I'm going to find on it. That Dow is preparing to manufacture solar shingles and (presumably) high-capacity batteries is a Good Thing, if the economics are there. I'd even hope they were there for my house, but nestled in a forest of 150' to 200' cedars in our more northern latitude with mild, damp climate it's not likely; in just the first year or two moss would take over everything. (Hmmm... are those shingles chemically resistant to moss-kill?)

But today I saw a column on skiing the golf course. St. Andrew's, I presume? What a great idea! It was sledding/tobogganing/saucer heaven when I was a boy. Of course they had the only slopes around, and one of the challenges was to try to get to the river -- and not go in if you did! (At least once I had to bail off the sled at the last minute.)

Not sure what "skating skis" are, but we have a couple of pair of telemarking skis. Unfortunately they are little used due to a physical condition that came on soon after purchase, plus lack of time, plus we rarely have snow conditions (of any sort) less than a significant drive away... but maybe... sometime... Kathy can revisit her Swedish girlhood.

"Winding Down in WA"

Amusing to read Kim Palka's column with the title above in the Midland Daily News online. She drove from Spokane to Port Orchard, WA to visit a cousin. (Wonder if she took the ferry across Puget Sound? That's always fun).

She mentions robins, buds on trees, and bulbs starting to come up. Well yes, spring gets a much earlier start here than Midland, where for me it was seeing the crocuses coming up through the snow in March. But it's a very long, drawn out start very unlike Midland's comparatively rapid switch from snow to soggy soil to sun, and without the delicious smell of the warming soil.

But, as she no doubt discovered right after submitting that column, at least through April we are subject to sudden plunges right back into winter.

(And I see from the comments section that there's another former Midlander out here.)