Hey, it’s Black Iron Days festival this weekend? Yeah, I’m in! I haven’t been to Hartwick Pines in probably 15 years and I think it’s been longer than that since I’ve been to Black Iron Days. I’m usually not at the group home the same weekend as Black Iron Days is scheduled. I might be in the area, rocketing by on the I75 SUV Speedway. No time to stop, gotta get back to the Planet Ann Arbor to my swampy, rodenty, cluttered landfill and work et al. Not today. It is the end of August and I am actually at the group home at Houghton Lake and it is colder than blue blazes here and drizzly. I didn’t quite need any little knit glubs today but it was a great day to be wandering around amongst all the blacksmiths with their hot coal fires.

And so we filled the Ninja vee-hickle with folks and hot-rodded (of course I am waaaaayy overstating that) up to Hartwick. We parked far enough away that we were able to walk through the beautiful old forest to get to the festival. I’m not going to write a whole bunch about the festival. It was fun, we talked to a lot of friendly artisans there including an Otto who lives near the moominbeach and has been acquainted with some members of my family as well as another Otto that we all know and love. I didn’t buy anything today except a hot dog and a cup of coffee from the boy scouts. I did pick up a bunch of business cards. I really wanted to buy some cute little trinkets for my beach urchins but then I remembered that they are not six and nine any more and they definitely do not need fancy bubble makers with sparkly stuff tied all around them. Although, as one woman pointed out, maybe it is *me* who needs one o’ them thar fancy bubble makers with the sparkly stuff tied around them.

Alas. The only problem. I didn’t consult The Spreadsheet at any time during the last week and so we totally missed the Marquis and Pooh on their return trip to the Planet Ann Arbor and then Saint Louis. The irony is that we narrowly missed seeing each other today. To make a long, complicated story short, I was standing on the main street in Grayling and I asked, “Where are you?” “Oh, we’re south of Grayling.” Our summer is not quite over yet but it was a hectic one and I feel very sorry that I didn’t have more time to spend with many of my cousins and their families. I do love you guys.

We are grilling stuff at the group home now. No, we won’t burn the place down. Faarrrr later? Hope so. Y’all down there in Florida, thanks for letting us know when the webcam doesn’t work and as I write this, I realize that the lakeside is still not working. Hand hang on to your shorts! And click here or on the photo for more.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.