Catching Up with a Few Late August-Early September Photos. . .

 

Kind of a loony last couple of weeks with the usual start-of-classes for everyone business complicated by a local power and internet outage that last four days over most of the Labor Day holiday weekend here in the US. The result of an apparent tornado that touched down east of us but close enough to take down many large trees and power lines across two power grids in the area.  [Come to learn, that it was actually something called a downburst.]

Keep in mind, our local storm sirens never sounded, and the weather radio, which we were listening to in the kitchen, never mentioned taking shelter in the East Lansing area.  Hmm.  We later figured straight line winds, but apparently it  was a tornado.  The resulting power outage was challenging despite a generator in the garage and two Jackery rechargable generators for the kitchen and related limited use situations.

At any rate, the Young Master has upped his style game recently, and is dressing kind of like ol' Dad most days.  There are still a few details to work out and nail down with him, but you can't fault the boy for trying.  He looks better than most male teachers and the principal at his large suburban high school, a few of whom do indeed look like they have pulled on odd things from beneath the bed in their rush to get out the door each morning.

Not to be outdone, I chose linen and a Panama hat for the first day of my semester/term on September 1st last week. Light, airy, cool, and. . . wrinkled.  But as my late mother and grandmother used to advise, those who know will recognize that the fabric is linen.

Finally, the Grand Duchess baked us one of her plum tarts early last week.  A Pflaumenkuchen in German. It lasted about three days before only crumbs were left.  Buttery and oh so good.  Amazing with fresh, strong coffee. Easily one of the best she has ever made by virtue of the sheer number of plums and the crust.  Holy cow!

-- Heinz-Ulrich.