Thursday March 31, 2016

It rained all night. Light sprinkles when I went out early this morning. No bike today, I put on my rain suit and walked to the Y.

The rain suit kept me dry but it cannot breathe so I end up sweating. The Y was nearly empty today. I assume since Spring Break starts tomorrow most folks were home packing.

It was really raining hard when I left the Y. At Panera I sat near the fireplace to try and dry out my sweaty clothes.

The law of unintended consequences alway rears it ugly head. An article today in the WSJ told of banks being fined because of the possible transactions with money laundering folks. This fear has forced some legitimate money transfer firms to close bank accounts and now they must carry huge amounts of cash overseas, usually via airlines. The downside is that without bank accounts the Feds cannot track the activities of the bad guys.

Why are the GOP elites backing Ted Cruz and not Gov Kasich?

I always read about Government corruption because I hope we have enough safeguards to stop it in the USA. The top leaders in Malaysia and Brazil seem to think they are entitled to rob.

The rain had stopped when I left Panera. As soon as I got home we took a 1.25 mile walk. We know it is 1.25 miles because Nancy had her new Apple watch on the Activity app. She was able to see her pace/mi, elapsed time, distance and heart beat. I like the heart beat function.

After the walk I changed out of my sweaty clothes and had lunch. Nancy made a trip to our travel agent to pick up a package for our Ireland trip.

I took a short nap. It is now 1700 and I am sitting in my office writing this blog. Presently we are having thunder storms. If they stop by 1730 we will go to Bagger Dave's for a burger.

It is now 62 but the temp will drop sharply to the high 30s by 0800 tomorrow. A cold front will move through this weekend with snow expected on Sat.

This date in 1938, Ossineke, Mi: Great grandfather Sanborn wrote that the smelt were running in the Devil's River. If you have not attended a springtime smelt fry you have not lived.

In High School I had an afternoon job at Scott Engineering, my Dad's firm. It was a fun place to work. The office was located on the banks of the Thunder Bay River between the Ninth Street Dam and the River's outlet to Lake Huron.

I remember one nice spring afternoon in the middle of the smelt run. My Uncle Jim, Dad's brother and another MSU Civil Engineer, said let's have a smelt fry. It was about 1300 and everyone quit working and got their smelt nets and headed to the dam. A huge number of smelt were caught and my Uncle cooked them in a deep fat broiler. The employees had beer and smelt, a great way to spend a work day afternoon. That is why Scott Engineering was a great place to work.