It’s good to wake up to sunshine flowing in the windows. The Duo knew it was going to be a good day. They just didn’t know whether the excellent walk or the excellent breakfast would come first. I stepped out on the deck to assess the situation. OK, I would definitely need a jacket, and, um, shoes too. Walk first. You come too.
It is so pretty out there . . . but man it was cold, too. Even the trillium shivered and drooped. I’m hoping that it was, as usual, warmer up on the ridges where the orchards grow.
I’ve been scooped again, this time by the Record-Eagle. Unbearable. Anyway, the redoubtable Joanie Moore has a front page photo about the Mercedes that went swimming in Torch Lake yesterday afternoon.
I know that sharp curve, and a couple of others as well. I cannot fathom why we are not able to establish and enforce a lower speed limit along North East Torch Lake Drive. But there I go, being cranky again. Anyway, if you are from Around Here you know how twisty and turny that pretty drive is. If you are from Away, stand warned. You, too, could be driving with the fishes.
So lessee, you’ve had your weather report, your news update, the nature segment . . . ah! Sports news! Jasmine Hines, a very nice girl who plays basketball for Central Lake High School, was named to Parade Magazine’s All-America Team. Unaccountably the cover features Johnny Depp and a young woman who does not play basketball at all. That is probably because Jasmine is taller than Johnny Depp.
To say that Jasmine plays basketball is to say that it snows in the U.P. Jasmine is Michigan’s Miss Basketball for 2011, and owns the career scoring record for high school basketball players–girls and boys. And she’s going to Michigan State in the fall. (♪ ♫ Go right through for MSU . . .) I have no photos of Jasmine, but there are a lot of nice ones on Jim Schoensee’s website. Jim covers the Central Lake Schools like a down comforter.
Torch Lake Views 
La Mirada Bob
May 15, 2011
OOPS.
Ours was not a Mercedes but a ten-year old 1936 Ford. The road was not curvy but corrugated. Your Father of the heavy foot bounced the car into the ditch on a one mile stretch between farms in Pine Lake Township, after leaving a Canasta party at Dahlstrand’s farm.
All the other Canasta players drove by and laughed as your Grandfather pulled the car out of the embarrassing position.
Gerry
May 15, 2011
BOUNCED the car into the ditch. I’ll bet Grampa wasn’t laughing . . .
Katherine
May 15, 2011
My great grandfather on my Dad’s side used to tie a string to the steering wheel and when the road was straight the string would have to be hanging down straight…. No adjustments made in the steering. He went into many ditches that way but I never heard he went into the lake
Gerry
May 15, 2011
My grandfather once hit a tree and allegedly stormed around demanding to know “Who put that there?!?” I don’t believe he ever went into the lake either. (Dear Insurance Company: Nope. Katherine and I do not think that never having driven into the lake is a mark of excellent driving skills.)
Scott Thomas Photography
May 16, 2011
Sunshine? Where? We had it for a bit and now it’s gone back into hiding. Disguised as a veil of gray. Hope to see it again soon.
I am astonished to read of a girl basketball player not going to UConn. Thank you, Jasmine!
Next time I drive a Mercedes, I’ll watch it around curves. They obviously are not a good handling automobile. 😉
Gerry
May 16, 2011
We are having sunshine again, which is the only reason we are not freezing to death. The Duo go out to their playpen in mid-afternoon to bask, and hurry back in the moment the sun shifts. Such a spring.
Keep your eye on MSU . . .
I would razz the Mercedes driver except that I know that curve. If you come upon it unawares, or while admiring the lake, you will have a heart-stopping moment.
Fee
May 16, 2011
Merecedes do make some rather nice cars, but I don’t believe any of them float awfully well. A friend of mine used to live on a back road used as a short cut – in the space of three years she had seven cars end up in the front garden. Thankfully, the garden was on the long side, so none of them ended up in the lounge, but that’s still a bad corner on a bad road – and we have far too many of them (not to mention, far too many idiots in charge of cars!).
Gerry
May 16, 2011
Makes a person want to put in a lot of shrubbery, doesn’t it! We have rather a lot of bad corners too–particularly noticeable in the winter.
Katherine
May 17, 2011
The problem, as I see it, is the need for speed. Everyone just wants to get there faster… putting everyone’s lives in jeopardy (including their own).
Gerry
May 17, 2011
It wouldn’t hurt us a bit to slow down and enjoy the ride. There are a couple of spots along there, though, that require extra attention. I don’t know where we’re all going in such a hurry. Oops. Gotta go–have to get showered and dressed in, lessee, half an hour.
La Mirada Bob
May 17, 2011
[La Mirada Bob, a/k/a Dad, sent this comment and said I could amend as necessary. My notes are in the square brackets. ~~ Gerry]
Binnewater, New York. A sudden rain shower. A curvy road with a big LEFT TURN AHEAD sign. A 1957 Plymouth with torsion bar front suspension. Mom and two kids in the car, no seat belts in those days. [We were coming home from that place that made such good ice cream right at the dairy farm. I had a double dip of Dutch Apple. Mom was in a little bit of a hurry. We’d left wash drying on the clothesline and all the windows open.]
A skid. A brief FLIGHT across a lawn. [We went airborne just in time to clear a rock retaining wall. All, that is, but our back wheels. Good thing, too. On the other side of the wall was a looooooong vertical drop into the valley below. The car teetered and came to rest, nose down, hanging by its back axle.] A passerby helped everyone get out. No one was seriously injured and the Good Samaritan took them all home.
Dad and two more kids arrive home over the same road and are surprised to see Mom and the other two in the house. “Where is the car?” [Mom, still just a wee bit upset, could not speak. She just pointed across the valley, where the bright blue car hung jauntily. And, er, vertically.]
A quick drive back toward the scene. Dad clambers down the bank to the car and looks at it in shock. Carefully closes door and, as it latches, car descends another twenty feet into the farmer’s muddy field. Wrecker arrives and pulls car up the cliff; it has suffered only minor scratches where the wrecker scraped it against a concrete post, no other damage. [I tell you, they used to make cars tougher in those days.]