Those of you who know Richard will not be surprised to hear that he scuba dives.  David does too.  They went for a practice dive one day to test their equipment before diving a wreck in Lake Superior.  I was there to record the event.

There was supposed to be a wreck in the Michigan Tech area, and they were going to try to find it during the practice dive.  Barb did some preliminary scouting by snorkling the area, and said visibility was nil.  The guys, being guys, disregarded the scouting report and went in anyway.  Their report:  visibility was nil.  It took them way longer to put on all the gear than they spent actually in the water.

Well, no.  I didn't take the last two.  They were taken by Richard during their dive to the wreck in Lake Superior.  They found it and had a great time exploring it.  This is not a sport for the faint of heart.  Or for the claustrophobic.

Remember this?

It's an old abandoned dredge that's probably been in this spot since the '20s.

Talk about an engineer's paradise. When we saw it, we knew it was only a matter of time until ...

... Richard climbed it.

Which meant, of course, that ...

... David climbed it.  This is why grandmothers have gray hair.

The engineers had a high old time checking it out.

Grandma was very glad the thing didn't choose this moment to collapse.

These days it would be dismantled and repurposed, but back then they just hauled things ashore and left them.

BUSTED!

So we were trying to break into a building on the Michigan Tech campus.  Here's the group plotting.

We had almost accomplished this brazen, broad, daylight caper when a campus police car drove up. The young people immediately fled, leaving Grandma and Grandpa to face the music.

This is what the world looks like from the back of a police car.

It's not as comfortable back there as it's cracked up to be.  You can't open the doors, there is wire mesh all over, and the seat is narrow and made of hard plastic.  It seems students sometimes emit body fluids while back there and it has to be hosed down.  Who would have thought that about modern American youth away from home for the first time ...

It looks spiffier from the outside.  Let this be a lesson to you - always stay on the outside of a police car.

Oh, you say - you want to hear what really happened?  Even though it's not nearly as good a story?  All right then. 

We arrived by boat and had to walk up a hill to get to the campus.  It was about 90 degrees, and I don't do well walking up hill in the heat.  Once up there, we walked around and went into one or two buildings.  It was Sunday and nothing much was open, but I think David called someone and got permission to go into some places.  He is what we used to call a Big Man on Campus.

Anyway, it was decided we would try to get into a building that had an elevator down to lake level so I wouldn't have to walk back down the hill.  That's when the police car rolled up.  When the very nice Mr. Policeman heard the story, he offered to drive Sam and me down to where we had left the boat.  And so he did.

Everyone is so friendly up there.  Say what you want about Yoopers (people to live in the Upper Peninsula - UPers for those of you unfamiliar with the lingo) we find them very open and accommodating.

I told you the true story wasn't nearly as interesting.   

HOME SAFE AND SOUND

We had a great week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in the town of Hancock which is across Portage Lake from Houghton, the site of Michigan Tech where David will be a junior this fall and Catherine a freshman.  And I promise never to have any more run-on sentences in my blog, until the next one.

Ken was there for two days, but the rest of his family couldn't make it this year.  Natalie is in Mexico at the orphanage where she's developed a great relationship with the staff and children over the course of several visits. Stephen was in a big swim meet in Iowa this weekend, and the rest of the family was out there to root him on.  As the grandchildren get older, it gets harder to get everyone together.

So Julie - no coloring with little girls this year!

We rented a house sight unseen from the Internet, so imagine our surprise when we got there and found this:

Oh wait. That's another place and a story for another day.  Here's the house we really did rent:

It was the nicest one we've ever rented, only two years old and a model home which the owners rent out year round.  Everything was first class.  We were very comfortable there, as who wouldn't be?

The weather was well-nigh perfect all week except for the first day which was too hot for up there - about 90.  And there was one thunderstorm at night. The rest of the week was wonderful - high in the mid-70s.

More tomorrow, and all week.

We'll be away for a few days, acquiring riotous stories of adventurous living among three generations.  Or maybe taking naps.

THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES STRIKES AGAIN

Why do so many people never think things through to their logical conclusion?

Here's an article to make you think.

As usual, Peggy Noonan comes through.  And don't worry, all you liberals out there, it's not political.  Unless you hate America.  In which case, get lost.

My paternal grandparents came here from Scotland in 1898 because there were no jobs for them back there.  My grandfather went to work in the granite quarries on the little island of Vinalhaven, Maine.  The work was hard and dangerous.  When the quarries closed for the winter, there was no income.  People ran up a bill at the grocery store and it took them all summer to pay it back, and then they started the cycle over again.  The streets were not paved with gold.  But they sent both their children to college.  My aunt, who was a year older than my father, postponed her college education to help him through the co-op engineering program at Northeastern University in Boston.  She then went to "normal school" for two years and was a teacher for over forty years.

When the Depression hit, my father lost his job and he, my mother and my brother moved in with my grandparents and aunt near Boston.  My aunt supported the whole family on her teacher's salary, along with what my father could earn doing whatever work he could find.  Times were tough.  My father eventually got an engineering job in Philadelphia, and I was born soon after. 

There was no government help back then.  People did what needed to be done and helped each other.  I'm very proud of that background, prouder than I would be if I had been born with a silver spoon in my mouth.  We didn't have a lot when I was growing up (engineers didn't make then what they make now), but I had what my friends had and I always felt secure.

America has been good to my family, as it has been good to most of those who came here looking for a better life and were willing to work hard. Often the generation that came here didn't prosper greatly in material things, but  - oh - the opportunities that opened up for their children and grandchildren!

All this is what grieves my generation when we see America declining morally and spiritually and in so many other ways.  We are embracing Socialism, expecting the goverment to be our god instead of looking to our God.  Instead of looking at a rich person and saying, "I can do that," we look at a rich person and say, "Give me some of what you have." 

It cannot end well.  

Thanks to Anne for this one.  I've seen it before but it still makes me laugh.  I flunked.

Nothing blogable is happening.  Talk among yourselves until we actually do something.

I did pull some weeds this morning, if that qualifies.

Whole forests of trees are laying down their lives for this.