Friday Retreat Style. . .

No teaching last Friday, but a two-hour professional development committee retreat with four colleagues between 10-Noon to plan a couple of events for the Spring semester. Which, naturally, resulted in another meeting for further discussion of the matter. Trying to schedule that now. Sigh.

Still, it provided a good reason to shower, shave, and don various old favorites before the drive into campus. Similar attire today (Tuesday) with a few differences. Photos to follow tomorrow.

But last week.

Friday afternoon, the Grand Duchess, Young Master, and I escaped up north for a long weekend of cross-country skiing in the Grayling-Gaylord area of Michigan. It was amazing gliding through in the snowy woods atop some fast new Madshus skis (ordered a year ago), which took a bit of getting used to.

Much to my son's pleasure, I took a number of spills during our ski trip, including a spectacular face plant Saturday midday near the bottom of one hill where I lost my edge on one ski, as I attempted a turn, and was catapulted face-first into the snow. Occasional falls will happen. It goes with the territory even for experienced skiers. This one was my best in a long time.

But you get yourself up, dust off the snow from your seat or side, and continue on your way. By day's end Saturday, I had found my ski legs and was skiing more confidently on the new two+ meter planks clipped to my feet. Another outing followed at a different ski area Sunday with a few hours late in the morning and early afternoon Monday before we headed south.

By 6pm, we were home, the car was unloaded, and dinner was heating in the oven. The Grand Duchess and I later enjoyed a glass of wine last night by the fire before retiring about 11pm, fatigued, mellow, and happy. The Young Master, for his part, was long asleep.

In about three weeks, we are heading up north once more, but to a different part of the state to explore another Nordic skiing center outside of Cheboygan. I C-A-N-N-O-T wait!

In the meantime, time now to get some real work done.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

Classic Style

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