Thursday August 9, 2018

Thursday August 9, 2018

Blog time 1130 at Panera

Got up with the sun this morning, 0640.  The days are getting shorter.  Nancy headed out to her Thursday swim at MVP.  It was sprinkling lightly when I first went out.  After breakfast I put on my rain jacket and pedaled to the Y.  Encountered no rain on the 7.7 mile ride.  Summer classes at the Y are still going full blast.  They should be winding down soon because school starts on August 20.

 Natural disasters are dominating the news.  150,000 are displaced by the earthquake in Indonesia.  The forest fires in CA continue creating havoc.  In CA they have 14,000 fire fighters working to contain the blaze.  Photos of both disasters show the scale of the devastation.

On these hot August days I recall a project I worked on in the early 50s.  A large limestone operation south of Roger City shipped the stone out on large lake freighters.  The new lake freighters needed 30 feet of water.  The existing harbor was too shallow.  Dad’s firm was hired to measure water depths and prepare a map so the contractor knew where to dredge.  We outfitted a wood boat with outriggers.  My job was to drop a weighted tape into the water and shout out the depth to the engineer on shore.  There were three of us on the boat.  I wore a swim suit.  It was very hot and the water was clear and warm (for Lake Huron).  At lunch and coffee break time I would jump in the water and swim around.  Best tan I ever had.  I couldn’t believe I was paid to do this job.

After lunch I headed down to my office and completed some projects.  We are meeting with our financial guy next week.  I put some of our data on a spread sheet.  It had been awhile since I have used a spread sheet so I needed some refreshing.  I first started using a spread sheet in 1983.  It was called VisiCalc.  I used it on my RadioShack TRS80 computer.  Has anyone ever heard of VisiCalc?  

I also contacted Trinity Lutheran to get my name on a list to do some weekday jobs.  The church is undergoing a big renovation and volunteers are needed for light chores like painting and moving furniture.  

Final chore was to bike to Macatawa Bank to get money for Kim.  She will clean tomorrow.

Nancy had a 1400 appointment with our dermatologist, Dr Mary Yurko.  She got a clean bill.

We had a light dinner.  Dishes, a walk and snacks before we settled down to watch an episode of DCI Banks.  I read several chapters of the Clinton/Patterson book.  I like the short chapters.