Wednesday March 4, 2009

Wednesday is my easy day. I did not wake until 0637. I had breakfast at the Brandywine. After breakfast I took Ms Petunia around the block so she could do her bidness.

I loaded up the Aztek with my road bike and headed to Riverside Park. I did detour to Meijers to purchase some bird seed and the GR Bike Shop to get a small bag to strap under my bike seat.

I also stopped at the office to get a scratch paper notebook made. It took about 10 minutes including talking to the guys.

When I got to Riverside Park I strapped on my GPS and headed for Rockford. The trail was clear of all snow and ice. Although it was 32 degrees I started to sweat about 5 miles into the trip. It took 57 minutes to get to Rockford. The GPS said it was 11.02 miles. I had to buck a light headwind on my way back but it did not influence my time. The entire trip took 1 hour and 58 minutes and covered 22.04 miles. I love the GPS.

When I got home I took Ms Petunia for a 1.1 mile walk. She appeared to have no problems with this distance.

JD sent me a set of plans to review. I will send my comments tomorrow.

Tonight is cereal night. Nancy bought some blackberries to put on the cereal. Tonight I will catch up on reading back issues of Time. I also will read the GR Press. The GRP has been mighty small recently. Not much on TV so I will continue reading 'Two Years Before the Mast".

Alpena, Michigan this date in 1907. Margaret Louise Hughes, my mother, was born. Today mother would be 102. She graduated from Alpena High in 1924 and U of M in 1928. Mother's first job was teaching school in the small St Joseph County city of Constantine. She loved the community. After the 1929 stock market crash the City paid its teachers in script. Mother moved back to Alpena so she could live with my grandparents. Mother taught English and French in the Alpena system until she married in 1936. In 1936 married women could not teach. It was felt they were taking a job away from another family.

On mother's birthday in 1943 my father was working in Chicago for the US Army. He sent my mother a present that was wrapped in funny papers from the Chicago papers. I thought it was neat to be able to read all these different funnies. I have nothing but good memories about mother. I remember when I was in high school and had a summer job working for Scott Engineering making $0.50 per hour. Scott Engineering had also hired another student who was a year ahead of me. I found out that he was making $0.75 per hour. When I told mother at lunch one day about the pay difference, she left immediately for the office. That afternoon Lloyd, the accountant, told me that I was now making $0.75.

Ossineke, MI this date in 1938. It was 0 degrees in the morning. GG drove to Alpena and bought 300 units of an unknown substance. It cost $1.70 per 100. They were home by 2:30 PM.

Did you know that before 1948, March 4 was Inauguration Day for the US President?