Hillside Drafting Studio
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Expedition Unknown
Anne recently read a Facebook post from one of her many, many cousins. In this case the post was from Janet, or rather Dr. Janet. She is not a medical doctor, but rather a PhD. In fact, if she was examining you, you would already be dead. She works as a forensic archeologist for a Defense Department organization called Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Her job is to recover the remains of U.S. military personnel lost in combat. Based in Hawaii, her job takes her around the world. During the last government shutdown, she found herself trapped on Wake Island and had to “pilot” her own C-130 away.
Janet’s Facebook post announced that DPAA personnel were featured in episodes of the reality TV/documentary show Expedition Unknown. This long running TV show is hosted by Josh Gates, who in addition to narration, provides much of the series’ comic relief. He reminds me of the Netflix movie We Have a Ghost, where a reality TV star, played by Jennifer Coolidge complains, “I have to get out of basic cable, it is so unprofresh.” In these episodes he is first searching for American POWs lost during WW II, in the Pacific. He inconclusively dives to find lost Allied soldiers on the Hofuku Maru, a notorious Japanese Hell-ship. These so-called Hell-ships were floating prison camps used to transport POWs back to Japan.
In the next episode, Josh is allowed to join a DPAA recovery mission. This deep-water dive in Subic Bay, Philippines is investigating another WW II Hell-ship that was sunk during the war by the U.S. carrier Hornet. This episode introduces the salvage vessel U.S. Salvor and fellow forensic archeologist Megan Mumford. By this time though Anne was falling asleep and the neighbors, the Ojibwe and everybody else were launching fireworks. I’ll get back to this later.
Happy Anniversary to My Bride!
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Happy 4th!
It’s not too cold, but it is not exactly warm either. Here on the shore of Lake Superior there are only two seasons, winter and the 4th of July, and I think that the 4th this year is here in name only. While the rest of the nation swelters, I’m huddling around the space heater. Yes, the space heater! It had been warm here before yesterday’s snap cold front. I was even able to get in the lake a couple of times. Again, it is not too hot, nor too cold, certainly not cold enough for a fire, but I am wearing long underwear and sporting Polartec.
We have a party to go to today. It will be in another one of the original three log cabins. The one next door. All three of these log cabins were built by the same man, Pat Ginter, and his mule. At the time, a hundred years ago, he lived nearby. He built our cabin first and the next two on subsequent summers. It will be interesting to see the differences and similarities between the structures. A fourth log cabin was eventually built. Constructed from logs that had washed ashore, from back in the days when booms of logs were floated down to the Soo. Unfortunately, that building recently burned and has now been replaced.
Anne and Bill, mainly Bill, have been furiously re-webbing the lawn furniture. Getting into the Mister Fix-it mood, Anne and I hung the new IKEA spring-loaded desk lamp on the wall. Naturally, it took us three tries to get it right. We may not be handy and some of us are not even men. Still, it looks nice. Unfortunately, it calls for a no more than 13W lightbulb and all that we could find was a 13.8W. I hope that this does not burn down the cabin. Anne tested it and found that she could reach it to turn it off without getting out of bed. Even if it is on fire?
I have been leisurely creating this post all morning long and as the clock rises slowly to high noon, the mercury continues to wallow in the low sixties. During the IKEA lamp episode, I got warm enough that I shutoff the space heater. Afterwards, sitting has chilled me again. There is a breeze out now and splitting firewood would warm me up, but that sounds too much like work.
Taliesin Ceiling
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Humpty Dumpty
This guy is at House on the Rock. He was featured on Antique Roadshow and was originally used as a prop to sell diamonds. Today’s big event was a luncheon with Anne and Bill. We all went to Cozy Corners and all had whitefish. This celebratory lunch was in honor of Anne and Bills anniversary. Their treat. We will reciprocate after our anniversary in a couple of days. Tis the season! It was warm when we went out for lunch, but a passing front has cooled things off. After lunch, we drove around the countryside. On a dirt road we came upon a huge hay fly hatch
