| New Year's Day |
Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first day of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.
-- Henry Ward Beecher (circa 1870) In her 2008 biography of Beecher, titled "The Most Famous Man in America", Debby Applegate wrote: At his best, Beecher represented what remains the most lovable and popular strain of American culture: incurable optimism; can-do enthusiasm; and open-minded, open-hearted pragmatism. This is not much of an entry for New Year's Day, but I believe that Henry's words, and especially Debby's description of him, are appropriate for the time. |
| January 2nd | Okay, it's time for the annual New Year's Eve 3D puzzle picture. It's the Cologne Cathedral. Click HERE to see a picture of the back of it. Click HERE to see the puzzles from the last seven New Year's Eves, which includes a picture of the front of this one. (Notice the missing piece. Darn! I'm trying to contact the company to get it.) |
| January 3rd | The "Stories, Poems, & Anecdotes From the Northland" page on the LBLR website still exists, but there have been no new entries since January of 2015. That's when "Erin's Tumble into the Fire Pit" was added. Sheesh! That's four years ago, and it would be nice to have some new entries added to it. Tons and tons of you regular customers (and Daughters and Grandkids, and in-laws) must have many things you could write about.......and it's an easy thing to do. If you've already written one, write another one! The stories should be short, one or two pages (or even just one paragraph), and they should be connected to the Northland in some manner (hopefully vacation related but not necessarily about LBLR). Small memories written in just a few paragraphs, or even just a few words, make great entries. Many of the current stories are only one paragraph long. For some examples of "one-paragraph" stories, read Em's First Snowfall, or Erin's Tumble into the Fire Pit, or The Firemaker, and there are several others. If you're shaky about the writing, get the rudiments down and I'll help you with the rest. Think about it.......contact me and we can talk about it. By the way, click HERE to see the complete list of stories. |
| January 4th | At 1:48 tonight.......well, actually at 1:48 AM which is really tomorrow morning, the earth will be at perihelion, its closest point to the sun for this go-round. Could that be why we're having such warm weather as of late???? |
| January 5th |
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES! Entry for January 5, 2013, (7 years ago today): This is Sarge showing off for his Texas Grandsons. He's colder than he looks, by the way. Click HERE. Update -- It was quite cold that day. I remember Sarge yelling: "Hurry up.......take the [darned] picture!" He was back into his coat about 5 seconds after the camera clicked. I assume that you remember that, right Sarge? Did you ever get any feed back from your Grandsons? (And by the way, Sarge and his wife Ann now live in Texas near his Grandsons, and his Son & Daughter-in-law). |
| January 6th | Amazing! Deb and I finally did some skiing. It was on a golf course and the conditions were not good (they certainly would have been better up north), but at least we got out. With any luck there will be several more outings this winter, hopefully with better conditions.......and at least one of them WILL be Up North. Click HERE. |
| January 7th |
A new story, which is titled "The Case of the Mysterious Beer Bottles", has been added to the "Stories, Poems, & Anecdotes From the Northland" page. The page is HERE, and the story is HERE.
PS: You may have already read about this mystery. It was referred to (along with the pictures) in four entries of the Chronicles at the time it was unfolding in January of 2012. |
| January 8th |
January is National Hot Tea Month! You knew that, didn't you? But did you know that today, January 8th, is also:
National Joygerm Day, National Bubble Bath Day, National Argyle Day, National Winter Skin Relief Day, and National English Toffee Day. That's very interesting information, is it not? And if you're interested in the details (like for instance, what in the world is a Joygerm?), click HERE. That web-site also describes the recommended ways to celebrate each of the items, but I prefer to stick with the old stand-by method of simply toasting each one with a shot of Bourbon.
Or, you can simply click HERE. |
| January 9th | Oh-no(!).....only 351 more days till Christmas!!!!! We just nicely get finished with one, and another one is nearly upon us. Sigh....... |
| January 10th | In January, when the weather was cold and the snow was deep, wolf packs often howled hungrily outside Indian villages. That's why the Indians called January's full Moon the "Wolf Moon". Tonight is the "Wolf Moon"! |
| January 11th |
Hey Frosty, did you happen to watch your team beat Ohio State this afternoon? It was a good game!
By the way, the Vikings lost and I'm not sad about it! |
| January 12th | Nothing but football and basketball today, therefore I have nothing to say. |
| January 13th | Hey Steff, thanks for the gifts; they arrived today. And I love the apron.......nice choice. Personally, I think it makes me look better than Bobby Flay. |
| January 14th | Now that the LBLR Days are gone, there aren't nearly as many activities to procrastinate about. I'm getting out of practice. Things sure have changed. |
| January 15th | To see the relationship between Little Bass Lake and the Detroit Lions, click HERE. |
| January 16th |
Beware the Pogonip!!!
PS: It's only 9 below zero this morning. It's a real shame to use the annual "beware" message with so warm a temperature, but that's the coldest night we've had so far in this neck of the woods, and with the way this winter is going, that might be the bottom. However, it appears that they've had much colder weather Up North this winter. |
| January 17th |
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES! Entry for January 17, 2005, (15 years ago today): At about 6:00 AM this morning the temperature was 49 below zero. Since it normally goes down a degree or two as the sun rises, I expected it to get down to -50 for the first time in ten years. But by 7:00 it was -48, so it looks like -49 was the low at LBLR this morning. Click HERE! Update -- As you can see in the picture, the graduations lines on that thermometer only go down to 50 below zero. Three times during the winter of 1995/1996 (I don't know exactly what dates they were because I wasn't keeping good records back then), it registered colder than 50 below Zero. On one of those mornings, though the lack of graduation lines made it difficult to tell exactly, I estimated that it was 55 below zero. If you're interested, click HERE to read some more about that very cold period of time. |
| January 18th | Just curious. In the air photo of the lake that's in the January 15th entry (see above, or click HERE), where is LBLR located? How many of you could immediately point it out? |
| January 19th and 20th |
Click HERE. Sigh....... |
| January 21st | Life as a Butler (or is it a Valet?) isn't all that bad. In fact, it's pretty darned nice. |
| January 22nd | Hello Barb(!), and thanks for the chat; the first one in many years. Let me know if you see this, would you? PS: As we discussed yesterday (among many other things), it would be nice to get a story from you someday. |
| January 23rd | To Gary in TN: Good one! But it wasn’t oriented like that to fool you.......the plane just happened to be in that position when the picture was taken. [Aside -- This is in reference to the entries of January 15th and 18th, see above. -- End of Aside] |
| January 24th |
We lost a friend....... Due to the absence of the Chronicles during most of 2019, I missed noting the passing of Jim Turner, a long time customer and a good friend (click HERE). As the patriarch of the group often referred to as the Fire Bug Carlsons, you've read about him in these Chronicles on many occasions. Their first trip to LBLR was in the summer of 1997, and since that time they have vacationed there for a week in the summer and part of a week in October every year. I don't believe they missed a single year. In the Chronicles, his group was always referred to as "the Carlsons" because the person who made the reservation that first year was his Daughter Colleen (Carlson). The group should have been called "the Turners", but once the Chronicles began referring to them as the Carlsons, it stayed that way. He was not only a long time customer and good friend, but he was also the source of many many fond memories (click HERE to see one of them). By the way, to see Jim and his whole group of Fire Bugs, click HERE. That was taken in 2015 on a Wednesday, or Glensday, as they call it, referring to Glen's Army-Navy Store in Grand Rapids. Notice the t-shirts. Obviously, that's Jim in the center of the front row. |
| January 25th |
Darn! Every year in these Chronicles, I wish a Happy Birthday to my Dear Baby Sister Beth, who is a Yooper.......but this year I forgot. Her birthday was yesterday and she is now 70 years old. Oh well, it can't be helped now. Happy (belated) Birthday Beth!!!!! |
| January 26th | All of the entries for "Today's Picture" for the year 2007 are still on my hard drive. That was the first year for it and, unlike some later years, I kept up with it pretty well that first year. What would you think of following that year by using all those pictures again as "Today's Picture"? Some may be interesting, but most will just be scenes of everyday life at LBLR during the year. Any comments? |
| January 27th and 28th |
Oh-no!!!!Click HERE. Sigh....... |
| January 29th |
Persons attempting to find a motive in this year's Chronicles will be prosecuted. Persons attempting to find a moral in them will be banished. Persons attempting to find a plot in them will be shot. Persons attempting to find humor in them, will probably be disappointed. -- By Order of the Author. -- Mark Twain (1884) From "Huckleberry Finn", but with appropiate alterations |
| January 30th | Note to my Dear Baby Sister Beth: For your information, when I remembered your birthday (a day late unfortunely) I really struggled with mentioning it at all. (See the January 25th entry, above.) It's just that I've mentioned your birthday in these chronicles virtually every year since their inception, and I knew that I couldn't mention it again this year without a reference to your new milestone. And knowing how girls are about such things, I thought that perhaps the prudent approach might be to "overlook" it this year. Obviously I decided to do it anyway, and to mention your age as well. But remember, you're still younger than me by a few years. |
| January 31th | And so ends my favorite month! Well.......it WAS my favorite month during the LBLR era; not so much anymore. |
