2015 Part 3

In 2015 Part 2, we reached through the end of June, which I was hoping was the end of the "toil and trouble" portion of the year. One thing I forgot to include in my June comments was my attendance at the 28th annual Spinner Invitational where I, for the 28th consecutive year, did not win the coveted Governor's Trophy (see previous post Spinner Origins for the background on this event). The good news is that I also didn't win the equally distinguished Captain D. H. Wyatt Trophy, presented to the golfer with the high net of the day (yes - last place). I will dispense with more on this year's Spinner tournament as I will go into the topic in detail in an upcoming follow-up post on the event's history. So let's move on.

July

Daughter Cathy and her hubby Matt had moved back to Michigan in March and had been bunking in at our house during their search for a new home. In May they found one in Beverly Hills that suited them just fine. After closing in late June, they were ready to move in. 

When Cathy moved from Michigan to Alexandria, Virginia, in 2008, we packed everything she owned into our van and the trunk of her Pontiac G6. Here are a couple of shots from that memorable relocation.

Although Cathy and Matt have been zealous in including only essential possessions in their apartment moves from Washington and Hoboken to San Francisco, they now have more stuff than would fit in the van (also, key members of the old moving crew have taken senior status). So now they're "pod" people. Here are a couple of shots of Matt with father Paul, working the pod.

And a shot of the new abode in "The Hills". If they ever move again, they'll have a basement to contend with.

After a few days recovery from watching the Kuhlman move, the family retreated to Wiser Times for a little R&R. Here's a shot of WT all spruced up and ready for company.

The weekend included my mother Dolores and sister Wendy who came up from Florida for the party, shown here lounging on the deck.

Also attending from left to right below were sister Cindy, Nancy, Cathy, Matt and Christy, enjoying some time on the beach.

Coco was there as well, Here is a shot of the little darling fresh from a dip in the lake,

And another of her engaged in a favorite pastime, nuzzling deep into smelly, matted lake weed (which of course, necessitated a second cleansing dip in the lake).

 

Of course, the day wouldn't have been complete without an appearance from this regular, whom I refer to as the "Mighty Kickboarder" (this is the photo I now use on my AARP ID card, as it clearly confirms how comfortable I am with my senior-hood).

A couple of weeks later the family was back in town for a bridal shower for our "vacation" daughter, Taryn Dyle, and her betrothed Sam Kim. They met on the love boat known as the GM Tech Center. Both are artists at heart with day jobs to fund their projects. Here's a shot of the Burk family representatives, daughters Cathy and Christy flanking my lovely Bride.

And the happy couple-to-be, accepting cards and gifts.

Here's a shot of Sam and Taryn with the gracious shower sponsors, Taryn's mother Robyn and Aunt Liz.

Now we go from the sublime to the ridiculous. The week after the shower Robyn and Dave joined Nancy and me at the cottage for a quiet weekend of recovery. But, always thinking of my guests, I decided to lay in some entertainment - the installation of a new septic field. See how the Dyles were enjoying the show, by their expressions below, as we had a simple lunch sufficiently away from the work zone.

Those of you less fascinated with the more basic elements of just how the world works, might want to skip down to August. For you heartier souls, here is a blog-suitable summary of this noteworthy event.

First, let me say that as a city boy, and a humanities major, my understanding of life-support engineering principles was limited to what buttons to push or levers to pull to get through the day. But as life has unfolded, especially cottage life, I've slowly built a working knowledge of what to do if the buttons or levers don't work (that is, if the yellow pages are unavailable). But the sophisticated and mysterious operation of a septic system was still beyond my ken. So the fact that we had reached the point at the cottage where a new system was needed, held both trepidation (financial) and excitement (new learning) for me. 

It began simply. Two guys showed up in a pickup with some large diameter PVC pipe, some space-age plastic that looked like barrel halves, and a couple of shovels. That was it. No fancy machinery, no special protective gear, no yellow police tape. The older of the two guys asked where the old field was, and the two commenced to digging. By hand.

As it turned out, I was lucky. My tank (a very large concrete cube with two chambers) was fine. Indestructible might be a better word. Apparently the old concrete tanks hardly ever go bad. It was the drain field from the tank that had failed. I say field, which is slightly overstating the case. Because of the nature of the ground here on the shores of mighty Lake Huron, all the old field consisted of was sections of terra cotta pipe laid end to end, with no seals between sections. The pipe ran about 18-20 feet buried in sand, which fortunately serves as an excellent natural draining material. It had likely lain there undisturbed since the house was built in 1972. 

So, all my local sanitary engineers had to do was remove the old pipe (which was fully engorged with long, stringy tree roots), lay the new unified PVC drain pipe of equal length, cover it with the plastic barrel halves to create an air space to accommodate temporary overflows out of the tank, and rebury the whole structure back under the sand. The whole thing was done in less than three hours, and came with pretty much a lifetime guarantee (yes it was verbal, and no I got nothing in writing, not even a license plate number).

I must say, it's been about nine months since the work, and we've had several large crowds without any septic-related issues. So I'm optimistic we have a long term solution at what I would consider a bargain-basement price. Anyway here's a brief photo history of the job. First we have the engineers having dug out the old pipe and widened the trench for the new apparatus. Note the close watch Coco is keeping on the work. Digging in the yard usually falls within her jurisdiction. 

Here is a shot of the old pipe, flowing with compacted tree roots. Before this project, I always thought tree roots were the large, gnarly things I trip over while mowing the lawn. These things look like something out of a cheesy sci-fi movie - The Thing That Ate Wiser Times, or Attack of the Giant Brussels Sprouts.

Here we have the new plastic half-barrels that form the overflow chamber,

And the local engineers admiring the completed field just before burying their wizardry back within the ground for (hopefully) another 40 years. I'm amazed at how well 16th century engineering can work with 21st century materials.

July ended with a customary Burk family get together at the beach. Here are a couple of opening pics of first Uncle Matt getting reacquainted with the other two little kids in for the weekend, Leili and Cyrus.

And the reunited family sitting down to dinner. From left to right - yours truly, son-in-law Matt, daughter Christy, Nancy, daughter Cathy, granddaughter Leili, son Ted and grandson Cyrus.

August

August began with continuation of the family visit. Keynoting the visit this year was what I call Texas kayaking. Here's how it went. First a crew was picked. These two were first in line, so they got the gig.

Next, an appropriate craft was needed. This sleek beauty filled the bill - an LL Bean two-seater convertible ocean style kayak with detachable back rests and paddle straps on the side (no compass in the stock, unfortunately).

So we were ready to install the crew and launch. This proved a little tricky, but was successfully accomplished with the assistance of additional staff.

Finally, the adventure was off. Here are a couple of shots of the mission, including an unannounced visit by the Wiser Times shore patrol to check on progress and adherence to safety protocols. Note that the captain is using the "three kayakers-one paddle" technique, to avoid unwanted splash play from the forward cabin. The outing was considered a fine time by all.

Unfortunately, while the shore patrol was on their inspection tour, there was a little larceny on the beach. A popular green sand bucket came up missing. The Wiser Times security cams caught this shot of the thief in the act. We had a suspect in custody, but the charges were dropped.

  

Shortly after the kids' visit ended, I returned to Florida to hang out with my mother for a week. During that visit I was able to visit Baxterland, a stylish retreat on the northwest corner of my mother's property, frequented by my mother's Boston terrier - Baxter. Here's a shot of this new addition from the road, complete with custom signage. Note Baxter himself coming forward to see what the commotion was about.

And a second shot from the rear entrance, showing the guest accommodations. Baxter loved to monitor the traffic on Carnation Lane from his shady special place, and enjoy some quiet outside time.

I should note here that as of late January, Baxter is no longer with us, passing away just a few days from his 12th birthday. The loss was not unexpected, as poor Baxter had acquired a host of health issues in his later years. But he was my mother's best friend, and had been a source of great solace since my father died in May of 2014. Here is a picture of Baxter during happier times, patiently waiting his turn to rip open a present, Christmas, 2010.

On a brighter note, Lola has moved in with my mother. She is a four pound, six-month old pure-bred Chihuahua. She seems to be friendly, smart, cuddly and easy to train. I'll meet Lola next month during my next trip to Florida, after which I may have a more elaborate report. For now this recent pic of the new roommates will have to suffice.

One other event occurred in August last year that deserves mentioning - my 50th high school reunion. The reunion was so rewarding for me that I'll soon write a post about the whole experience, my role as a new reunion committee member, the old friends I have reconnected with already and others that I hope to reconnect with in the near future. Let me just say for the moment that it was great. We spent the weekend in Bay City where I grew up, had a tour of the newly-energized city, a visit to the refurbished and enlarged T. L. Handy High School (now one of the better-equipped middle schools you will ever see), a ride around the Saginaw Bay on a tall ship based in Bay City, and an excellent dinner and program with 179 of our nearly 500 surviving class members.

More to follow in that dedicated post, but for now let me share this group shot taken just before the formal reunion dinner. So to my fellow classmates I say "welcome to the blog". I'm the good looking guy in the light blue shirt.

That brings us to September, for which I will need to go to Part 4.

I have to say, looking at these good weather pictures has made life through dreary February a little more palatable. I'm already thinking about escaping the great indoors.