Hi All! I’m going to try and remember everything I wanted to tell you on Sunday, so here goes!
We headed to Florida on Thursday knowing we’d be busy, and boy, were we ever! While there we visited our house site (several times), delivered and picked up Matthew from soccer practice, had a two-hour meeting with our interior decorator in Sanford, FL, visited Matt’s dad in the hospital (he went home on Wednesday), watched Matthew’s soccer match on a VERY hot Saturday afternoon, and did a little furniture shopping. Just your normal road runner weekend!
Every time we pull into Sunset Inlet and see the progress on the house, we get excited once more that this is where we’ll be spending this next phase of our lives. LOL! When we signed our contract in December, we thought we’d be there a little faster, but we think the end product is going to be well worth the wait!
MACKINAC ISLAND – MICHIGAN
Last Thursday the Mackinac Island social media sites began to light up with breaking news. The 1004-ft. freighter American Spirit had run hard aground in the Round Island Passage just off Mackinac Island, something no one on-line could remember ever happening so close to the island.
The day had been a stormy one, with strong winds beginning in the early afternoon, and between 4:40 and 6:30, winds were clocked between 46-60 mph. Many are saying a weather phenomenon called a seiche is responsible for what happened, which is basically that the strong winds pushed the water levels of Lake Huron sharply higher on one end of the lake, causing much more shallow levels in the passage. The freighter, passing through at the exact time this was occurring, became stuck in the muddy bottom.
As the sun began to set, American Spirit remained firmly stuck. No one was injured on board, and there was no spillage from the freighter, which was carrying almost 65,000 tons of taconite pellets. As this photo shows, the storms were still putting on a show, and that continued most of the evening. (Photo: Susan Myron)
Darkness is rapidly approaching, as American Spirit remains stuck fast. (Photo: Susan Myron)
Molly McGreevy shot this great photo from a boat near the mired freighter.
At some point during the night the freighter Sam Laud pulled in beside American Spirit and began to offload the iron ore from one freighter to another. With a light load and with the help of the tug Missouri, American Spirit was refloated around 8:30 Friday morning. Later in the morning the U.S. Coast Guard gave her the go ahead to continue her travels. (Photo: Susan Myron)
If you’re interested in learning more about this very rare weather phenomenon, Molly McGreevy provided me with this excellent resource: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fweb2.geo.msu.edu%2Fgeogmich%2Fseiches.htm&h=eAQHLjUGT.
More Mackinac Pics:
As this photo – and the one following – shows, it’s been a week of freaky weather around the island. (Photo: Ken Feldman)
Strange cloud formation over the bluff. (Photo: Annie Lockwood)
Another Clark Bloswick beauty!
A beautiful evening shot over the Arnold Dock. (Photo: Brad Conkey)
More horses headed for winter pastures in the U.P. The seasonal circle is almost complete. (Photo: Jill Sawatzki)
Early morning shadows on the Grand Hotel Golf Course (Photo: Patrick Conlon)
Beautiful clouds hover over the Grand Hotel. (Photo: Patrick Conlon)
Sure missed attending the first-day-of -school picnic. Here the island Police Chief directs kite flying! (Photo: Jill Sawatzki)
As usual, the whole town turned out for the picnic. Everyone on Mackinac Island supports its public school! (Photo: Jill Sawatzki)
Two more blog fans I missed seeing this summer – Tony and Yvonne Pitsch. They dropped by to see Jill at the Island Bookstore.
Friend Orietta Barquero captured one of the many Monarch Butterflies that visited the island recently.
The Straits of Mackinac from Robinson’s Folly. (Photo: Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau)
Doud’s beautiful window boxes. WOW! (Photo: Jill Sawatzki)
And once again I’ll end with another “just blow me away” scene from Clark Bloswick.
LAKE BLACKSHEAR – GEORGIA
When we returned home and picked up Bear and Maddie, it was to find that Bear’s other knee had worsened (he’d begun limping more before we left). The vet is worried he’s going to have to do surgery on that knee before the other one is healed, so we are back to potty-only walks, and on top of that Bear has a new hotspot. My boy is having a hard time of it right now.
I sat down to finish writing and publish this around mid-morning today, and was interrupted by a much-anticipated first Skype call from Blake!
I’ve been having trouble with my laptop microphone (as in – it doesn’t work), so I’d already installed the Skype app on my iPhone – just in case. Sure enough, I could hear Blake on the laptop, but he couldn’t hear me. We immediately switched over to the iPhone app, and chatted with video for about 20 minutes! So good to see his face and hear his voice! They are facing some unique challenges as they settle in – distances to language school and possible work locations, stomach issues (which is normal for the first few days in a new country), and, of course, the language barrier. By the way, Ted’s photo doesn’t quite depict the quality of the video. It was crystal clear on our end.
Blake told a funny story about their team using a few minutes the first day of language school getting the Turkish word for “stomach problems” translated from English – so they could go into a pharmacy and request a remedy. He said the length of travel time to language school is very long twice a day, but they are only in temporary housing. Once they move, those distances will be shorter. Blake thinks learning Turkish is going to be much easier than learning Chinese. The Turkish alphabet has a similar number of letters to the English alphabet, while the Chinese alphabet contains thousands of characters. All in all, things are going well. Please continue to keep them in your prayers as they make their way – day to day.
Personal Note: In January I wrote about beginning to wean myself off Effexor, an anti-depressant my OB-GYN prescribed for me almost 24 years ago when the first symptoms of menopause struck. Because I was on such a low dosage, the side affects of withdrawal were – compared to many I read about in my research – so minimal I kicked myself for not getting off the drug much earlier.
To be truthful though, there have been quite a few days in the last few months when I’ve said to myself, “Self – it sure would be nice to have about a week’s worth of those little magic pills – ’cause I sure could use a little less anxiety right about now.”
It’s been quite the year. Selling our Mackinac condo, selling our lake house, building a house in Florida, Blake leaving for Turkey, moving into a rental, Bear’s ACL surgery, losing Beyla . . . on it goes. Even though some of the items on this list are positive – and things that we wanted to happen – the months leading up to those happy moments were filled with questions and doubts (will our houses sell, should we sell, should we move, are we doing the right thing). There have been many nights I’ve gone to bed with my stomach in knots and my eyes overflowing as I stared at the dark ceiling and thought, “Dear God, what are we doing?”
I remember writing Effexor took away all my emotions – both good and bad – and now that I’m off of it, I’ve certainly been able to experience joy once again. But I can tell you right now that experiencing anxiety, worry, caution, doubt, and fear is another whole kettle of fish. Those emotions are tough and having them all gang up one on top of another has been a struggle.
The good news is . . . with the help of the good Lord and lots and lots of prayer . . . . the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be in sight. When the moving truck pulls away from Sunset Inlet , and we begin to settle into our forever home, I’m going to be so excited that my emotions are zinging along at full throttle – I want to celebrate that new phase of our lives in living color. Until that day arrives – and even more so after that day arrives – I will continue to hit my knees on a regular basis. I do it now because He tells me I can do all things through Him. I will do it then to thank Him for bringing me through.
God bless.
Bree's Connecting the Dots 