Reunited and it feels so good

The title of my blog today is the first line of the refrain from a 70s song by Peaches and Herb. It happens to be the subtitle of my sermon for Sunday. I will not recite the rest of the song because it is a bit mushy and some of the lyrics have double, no make that triple, meanings and I do not want to defend them in church. So the title for Sunday is a masquerade...but the subject is clear and on target. The text happens to be Genesis 45: 1-15 which has to do with Joseph (and his amazing technicolor dream coat) forgiving his brothers after they sold him into slavery...ah. Another subtitle might be: How to act when you have the upper hand. I'm a workin' hard on this one.

We had a beautiful time camping Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Lakeview is a Methodist camp...no dorms or common areas, just 70 camp sites along a lake off M-46 east on the way to Alma. So we had it virtually to ourselves after all the families pulled out Sunday evening. We rented a canoe for 24 hours and paddled around the lake several times. It was interesting how the ski boats and wave runners stayed clear of us when we ventured into the deep. It was like they had been told...beware of old people in red canoes; they may not hear or see you. So we went where we wanted and they took off only to come back when we left...amazing. It was like a flock of birds returning to clean up the seeds on the ground after you have walked through their territory. I have to tell you I really dislike wave runners. They are loud, they are soley for personal gratification and they tend to be driven by folks in a show off mode, so I am not sure they are thinking clearly. The ski boats and tubers I can relate to, however and I do tolerate them much better.

The sky on Sunday night was absolutely brilliant with stars. I so wish that all the celestial navigation I learned in the Navy would come back to me...I need to be reading Burkey's column in the Sentinal and get back some of what I lost. I have decided to go into a retraining in dendrolgy soon...maybe when we finally get to Oregon. I loved being able to identify trees even from a distance...I need to get that going again. Also, I will be starting an insect collection in the next year as we travel about. There are too many things going on in nature for me just pass it off by saying...I knew about them once.

New pictures and reports from Cooper Seymour tell the story of a little boy growing stronger by the day. He looks really good, albeit he still has lines and tubes connected to various devices. Thanks to Jodi and Micki for sending pictures and updates...

Lily is home for a few days. They have scheduled her bone marrow transplant for later in August so they sent her home to get stronger. She left a message on our machine Sunday evening. I think Aleene will call her tonight. She was to be in Ann Arbor for the day on Tuesday. She is in our prayers...

Sister in law Midge is having her second hip replacement surgery today. She will now have two artificial hips. She has had great success with the first and anticipates the same with this one...relief. Midge has been a great addition to our family...talk about courageous women.

Brother Jim and Nancy are due in next Tuesday. They are going to Houghton Lake for the weekend to see their friends (Nancy's college room mate) the Sharps. He is an MD that found his way from NJ to MI...first GR now HL. They will be here through the next weekend. Their son in law, Philip the Jazz Pianist, is teaching at Blue Lake that week and we will go to the final concert on Saturday night. Aleene and I ventured up to see him last year and it was SUPER. The jazz faculty (6 folks) do a 20 minute program between the band and orchestral presentations that the kids do.

People checking into motel accommodations for Jeff and Mary' wedding are finding rooms difficult to secure. It would appear that there is some race (too early for snowmobiles and too late for boats) event going on that weekend. So folks may be staying in rooms all over the north woods. The up side is that the colors that weekend should be brilliant north of the 45th Parallel.

This is getting way too long....see ya.