| The Kalendis |
Worschippe ye that loveris bene this May, For of your blisse the Kalendis are begonne, And sing with us, Away, Winter, away! Cum, Somer, cum, the suete sesoun and sonne! -- King James I (Circa 1420?) When was that nice little poem written, do you suppose? My guess, as you can see, is about 1420. The question is: which King James I wrote it? If it was King James I of Scotland then the year 1420 (roughly in the middle of his reign) would be approximately correct. On the other hand, if it was King James I of England (who was known as King James VI in Scotland) then the year would be more like 1620, which is roughly in the middle of his reign. King James I of England was a big Literary patron in his day, which would lead one to believe that it was him. On the other hand, the language and the spelling seems to be much more like 1420 than 1620, so I believe it was the earlier date. But one thing is certain, those lovely words (whoever wrote them) pay homage to a lovely time of the year. |
| May 2nd |
This neat picture was sent to me by a friend in South Dakota. It was taken yesterday (May Day). Thanks Linda! Click HERE. By the way, yesterday was the quarter century anniversary of my purchase of LBLR. Who would have ever thunk it?!?!?! |
| May 3rd | It seems that we spend the first half of our life trying to get away from home, and second half trying to get back to it. But eventually we realize that we can never really go back anyway, so Big Deal(!).......it's just a dream. |
| May 4th |
Do you realize that the fishing opener is a week from Saturday already?!?!?! That's only 9 more days! And by the way, it's Intergalactic Star Wars Day again (where has the last year gone?). May the 4th be with you! |
| Cinco de Mayo |
The front porch isn't in yet, but at least the dock is in the water and ready for it. Click HERE.
Feliz Cinco de Mayo, por cierto! |
| May 6th |
As per Steve Wright's Book of Factoids (2005): An apple, onion and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavor are caused by their smell. To prove this -- pinch your nose and take a bite from each. They will taste sweet. I haven't tried it (yet) but on the surface I don't believe it. If you try it before I do, let me know if he was right. And by the way, he didn't say that they will taste the same; he only implied that. He said they will taste sweet. |
| May 7th |
Here's something that I missed in Area Business Changes since last Summer (see the entry for April 13th): Florio's now has a cement patio with chairs and tables on the South and West sides of the building. No one is quite sure how it's going to work yet, but there will be at least some al fresco dining and drinking available on nice days this summer. |
| May 8th |
I read somewhere (I've forgotten where) that a famous author (I've forgotten which one) once (I've forgotten when) said that every book would be improved by the addition of a simple line as the second sentence. That sentence is: And then the murders began. Just think about it: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And then the murders began. Or Mother died today. And then the murders began. Or He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. And then the murders began. But wait, certainly not: On the outskirts of Whoville, there lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans on ruining the Christmas holiday for all of the citizens of the town. And then the murders began. Okay, so maybe he was wrong. Maybe it doesn't apply to every book. |
| May 9th | There will be further bulletins when events warrant. |
| May 10th | Bev and Ron arrived today.......the first customers of the 2017 season. Welcome back you guys! |
| May 11th |
Two pontoons are in the water.......but not the front porch because it needs to be recarpeted first. Thanks for the help Dotz! The last of the cabins (number 3) is now up and running and ready to be Spring cleaned. |
| May 12th |
Another dock is in the water, the one by cabin # 4. It was a big job because the ice had taken out ALL of the dock posts. Thanks Dotz! I owe you a bunch. Click HERE. That means only one more to go. Tara and Paula did the Spring cleaning in cabin # 3 today. They're all done!!!!!! Yes!!!!! |
| Opening Day of Fishing |
This is amazing! It's the fishing opener and here's the weather report for today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. North wind around 5 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon. And besides that, the gas prices in town didn't go up this year. As I said: Amazing!!! This was the Chronicles entry for the fishing opener last year: This is typical weather for the opener. It was 29 degrees when I got up this morning with a 10 to 15 MPH wind and gusts up to 25 MPH. There's snow on the deck and ice on the car, but luckily no more rain or snow in the forecast. What a miserable day to be fishing! |
| Mothers' Day |
Happy Day to all you Mothers!!!!!!! Here's a sign that the resort season is here and a view of a beautiful day: Click HERE. |
| May 15th | Four years ago yesterday the ice finally melted. What a spring that was, sheesh! |
| May 16th | There haven't been many fishing reports for the new season yet, but the few received have been mixed. No one said that the fishing was excellent or good. A few people said it was "okay", and a few people said they didn't do well. |
| May 17th |
Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night. -- Rainer Maria Rilke (circa 1900) It appears that Persephone has finally returned from her wintertime imprisonment in Hades and now the Earth is flourishing as per Herr Rilke. Perhaps "blooming most recklessly" is a bit of an exaggeration but due to the rain and warm weather, the lawns are green, the trees are leafing, and the summer plants are pushing up through the ground. And all one can say is: It's about time!!!!! |
| May 18th |
When the DNR calibrated the lake level gage on May 2nd, the surface of the lake was 1283.08 feet above sea level. That's 6.5 inches higher that it was on that date last year and only about 2 inches short of its maximum for the last 11 years. Since then it has dropped about 3.5 inches in spite of the small amount of rain we've gotten. But at 1282.79 feet above sea level, it's still about 3 3/4 inches higher than it was at this time last year, and if you remember, last year was fairly high water year. Last year's "summary", by the way, is the November 15, 2016 Chronicles entry which you can see by clicking HERE. Χαρούμενα γενέθλια Tammy. Έχετε μια καλή ημέρα. That's a Birthday greeting to my Dear Daughter Tammy who happens to be in Greece on the Island of Crete at the moment. She's with both of her sisters, a daughter, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. That's a nice way to celebrate a birthday, isn't it? But notice that they didn't take their Dear Dad along. Sigh....... |
| May 19th | There! The last dock, the one by cabin # 2, went in the water yesterday. Huzzah!!!! That's two days earlier than last year, by the way. And once again.......thanks for the help Dotz. |
| May 20th | Welcome back to the six attendees of Cindy's first "girls' weekend" since 2012 (as per the Chronicles entries anyway). After a five year absence it's good to have them back. It's too bad that the weather isn't better but they're having fun in spite of that. Click HERE. Left to Right they're: Cindy, Robin, Julie, and Donna. The "tall" face-on-a-stick is Tara and the "short" face-on-a-stick is Sara, both of whom left before the picture was taken. |
| May 21st | In case you're interested, HERE is the stick used to track the water level every summer. |
| May 22nd | Several days ago something unusual was caught in the Mississippi River just west of Grand Rapids. Click HERE. (PS to Dennis W: Thanks for pointing it out.) |
| May 23rd | This is the first sun that we've seen in several days, and even then it didn't appear until just as it was setting. Click HERE. |
| May 24th | Back in our Michigan State days there were three of us guys who hung around together for our whole college careers......me, Rick, and Mike (and to a lesser extent Mahör, who you heard about last month). [Aside -- Incidentally, Mike's last name was Basinski and since he tended to get upset when people mispronounced his name, we usually called him Baznaski. -- End of Aside] But this is about Rick. We were in our sophmore year and Rick had not had a date since his senior prom in high school. There was a yearly "Sadie Hawkins" dance at Michigan State for which the Girls invited the Guys rather than the other way around. About a week before the dance, Rick got a phone call from a girl who invited him to the dance; we were all there listening to the conversation. He was obviously delighted to have the invitation and he immediately accepted it. However, after a little small talk he had to say "Umm, who is this anyway"? Rick's last name was Bacon and she had intended to ask a guy on another floor in our dormatory named Rick Baken; she had called the wrong Rick. Our Rick was quite embarrassed about accepting an invitation from someone he didn't know and never met, especially with all of us listening.......but he got over it. I'm not saying that Rick was desperate for a date or anything, but that's exactly the way it happened. |
| May 25th | Finally this place is starting to look like a resort again. It sure takes a long time in the spring for that to happen and it feels great when it finally does. And it always seems to happen just in time.......the first guests of the year arrive tomorrow, Denny T and his group of Illini Fishermen. |
| May 26th | In the past this has been an Angst family weekend but since a lot of them spent the last two weeks in Europe, there's only one son-in-law (Jim) and one granddaughter (Kaylee) here, which makes for a much quieter than normal Memorial weekend. The rest stayed home to rest up from their vacation. And of course Deb will be here too. |
| May 27th | Welcome back for a week of fishing to Dave and Parker B from Arkansas. Usually they travel with Dave's father (Parker's grandfather) but since he couldn't make it this year, it's just the two of them in cabin # 2. |
| May 28th | With the help of Deb and Jim we made a lot of progress on a long list of Springtime resort jobs. For one thing, all the brush from downed trees, fallen branches, etc, has been cleaned up and burned. Click HERE. |
| Memorial Day | Wow! Nice fish Parker (and Dave)! The little one was about 5 1/2 pounds and the big one was a tad more than 11 pounds.......and they're both still in the lake. Click HERE. |
| May 30th | Even on a chilly morning it's nice to sit by the lake. Right Kaylee? Click HERE. |
| May 31st | Kaylee and Jim left on Memorial Day and Deb hung around until yesterday. Thanks you guys(!).......we got a lot of work done. |
