Reunion vacation trip and work

 Well, I’ve spent the weekend wrestling with the dark forces of hot water heater installation and lived to tell the tale. It was a big water heater. It was a strong water heater. But, it is now just my water heater. Just like 27 years ago when I replaced the last one in Dallas, I went to plumbers for bids mostly to gain motivation for doing it myself. I did find out in the process that I needed a permit. It was no big deal. Of course, I haven’t passed city inspection yet. I am pretty sure I will. I just took the old one out and put the new one in just the same as it was. Even though there was a gas shutoff right at the heater it was installed in such a way as to be completely useless. I had to shut the gas off outside anyway. Fortunately, the only pilot light left in the house is in the water heater. I really wanted to get a tank-less water heater and save the $50 a year on gas, but I am not up to installing something that complex, and the plumber wanted $1500 more for it. That is 30 year’s worth of extra gas expense. By then I’ll need another water heater anyway. This is another of the mysteries of life. A tank-less water heater is not three times as hard to make and install as a traditional one, so we waste tons of natural gas using the old style. Alas. Our economy fails, because vested interests in businesses and governments are in charge and consumers/producers are not free to do what makes best sense for themselves and the world.

The bigger news is that I have been on vacation for two weeks and go back to work tomorrow. I didn’t write about the trip beforehand because I didn’t want everyone with an internet connection to know that Kathy was going to be home alone. She didn’t go along. In any case I could not have posted from the road, because none of my attempts to get connected to the Internet worked while up there. Silly computers.

I took two weeks off this Summer in order to get one full weekend, which is the weekend of the Rapson family reunion in Bad Axe, Michigan. My father is the president of the reunion planning committee and I have fond memories of them from my childhood. I have probably made it to only 5 of them since leaving Michigan 37 years ago. We used to always have them in Harbor Beach near the small town of Rapson, Michigan named after my folks who settle there to grow beans, make grindstones, and mine coal. We moved the celebration to Bad Axe 5 years ago or so. Attendance is down from 300 or so to 100 or so. I don’t know if the family is not so committed as before or if too many of us just live too far away to come every year. Priorities. I have had family trips to take that have otherwise kept my vacations booked for other dates.

So, it was nice to get to Michigan and see lots of family. There were about 20 people at the Rapson family reunion I knew, but there were another 20 that I would have liked to have seen there. I don’t know why many people won’t drive across Bad Axe to see family when some family came from as far away as California to see them. That was the big story of this gathering. A cousin showed up from California. She was actually a Canadian Rapson transplant, and no one listed her in the big family genealogy until some medical need caused her to look up her great grandfather, who turned out to be the supposedly childless Lonnie Rapson who spent some time in Canada but settled in Michigan and married without ever knowing he fathered a child in Canada while there. I may not have all the details right, but that much sounds like a Rapson!

The other reunion was my Mother’s side of the family. 100 years ago or so, two Roberts (my mother’s maiden name) boys married two Arnot girls so when they grew up with families they invited both families to start an annual picnic to celebrate it all. There were about 100 of those two families gathered at Oak Beach on Saturday, the day before the Rapsons gathered in Bad Axe. The beach was great. The food and the company at both events were great. All of my immediate family made it to both reunions except my older brother, Dan, who skipped the Sunday Rapson one. I got to see my Dad three days while up there, my brother Dan three days, Mom four days, Ted three days, and Sister Brenda three days, but all different days. I was up there from Thursday to Tuesday.

I stopped at The Jungle (resale/costume shop) and saw Mary Anne Ney Carder. I was glad I did. Her facebook picture makes her look like a fat old lady (sorry, Mary Anne), but in person she was a fetching as ever. She was gorgeous and popular (not in the snotty cliquish way either) in high schoool and looks as nice as ever. I was happy to hear the first words out of her mouth were how much fun she thinks my wife is. That way, I know she didn’t think I was there alone to flirt with her. She said Ted, who is single after all, stopped by this Spring. I wonder if Ted asked her out? Probably not. It was so nice to see her, but sad to hear how bad business is. Michigan is in terrible economic shape.

An odd aside…..When I was a kid deer hunting was fun, challenging, and popular. Ten years ago when I was home they had so many deer and an odd wasting disease was so bad that the state was paying people to kill deer and a friend on my cousin’s actually shot over 100 that Fall/Winter. When we went through a little town south of Owosso on M52 each year we saw a market of some sort that had huge bags of huge carrots outside. This year no carrots. This is because they passed a very strict law against feeding deer. It seems this sharing of food was spreading disease and weakening the herds. It is so big a deal that when one farmer spilled a load of corn an acquaintance of my Dad’s put his gun up and gave up the hunt for the day so as not to risk a huge fine for hunting where the huge pile of corn might look like a baiting violation. So, they were not selling the huge bags of huge woody carrots that people have bought for years to feed to wild animals for fun or for hunting.

On Sunday morning I went to the Bad Axe Free Methodist church with my Mom. She goes there every week. It’s quite a coincidence that she and I both wind up in FM Churches when neither of us were raised in them. I was surprised to see several people there I knew. Doctor Kube put the stitches in my right thumb in 1968 or so. He was my doctor when I got my tonsils out in 1972. He and Al Long were members of the First Baptist Church when I got saved there in 1971. A close Christian friend from high school was there too. Patty Shepherd (formerly Bard) was a Roman Catholic friend. She and I didn’t date, but we were in a close group of Christian friends who held out against the evils of high school and witnessed to others. She was Catholic, I Baptist, Cathy Bernthal Lutheran, and Ralph Haley (a couple of years older) was Charismatic. I still remember my favorite, most meaningful communion service ever at Ralph’s apartment. We all knewthat our churches might condemn us for not only having communion outside the faith, but in someone’s apartment without any ordained clergy leading? What if we messed it up? God was so happy that night, though. Patty is now married to the guy who beat me out for the position of guard on the Junior Varsity football team. He was good. Better than me, even though he was a year younger. It was nice to see the Longs, Kubes, and Shepherds in a nice church like Bad Axe Free Methodist. They have a nice big new building and nice people there.

Well, I got back to Decatur on Tuesday night, took Wednesday off, and started on the water heater and garage project again on Thursday. I had actually planned to have the garage done before I left for Michigan, but weather and equipment troubles kept me from it. I now have the garage powerwashed, paint stripped, and ready to paint, but will have to just work on it with brush painting a little at a time each night after work. It may take me the rest of the Summer to get it done, but it is no big deal if it does. I am not going to buy or rent another $150-300 worth of painting equipment to get it done all at once. I am simplifying my life. No more tools I don’t need.

So, the trip was a success, the garage is well underway, and even with the unexpected job of installing a new water heater, I accomplished quite a bit while on vacation.

The weather was so hot on Friday that I tried to paint and just gave up at 11:00 AM. It has turned quite balmy and mild tonight. Much better since a big storm front moved by last night. Good sleeping weather tonight for a return to work tomorrow.

Here is my sister’s darling granddaughter, Lilly. She is a blast. Just a wonderful temperament and a little doll.

This is my Mom, who also liked the playground.