On the road again.......

Actually only Carolyn was on the road. During winter break (the UP has no spring) Carolyn flew to Oklahoma to see the new grandbaby Liam (a beautiful baby if we may say so) and Ella. And, of course, their parents, Andrew and Carolyn's Mom. When Carolyn left the UP there was about a foot of snow left on the ground. When she came back it was all gone - temporarily. Here is a picture of the kids (Ella and Liam) chillin' outside in the 70-plus weather in Oklahoma.

After being home 3 days, Carolyn drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Michigan Science Teachers Association Annual Conference where she gave four presentations and stayed in the very posh Amway Grand Hotel.

She was home again for 10 days and then flew to St. Louis for the National Science Teachers Association Annual Conference where she presented with a group of NASA educators and scientists a full day workshop on Living and Working in Space: Habitat. A highlight of the trip was sitting by Buzz Aldrin (who walked on the moon) on the shuttle. Shuttle bus but still...it was pretty cool. We plan on going back (together this time) this summer to see a Cardinals game and do some more visiting.

Here she is enjoying the weather and scenery in downtown St. Louis. The picture on the right is Carolyn in the workshop.

Now she is home again for about 19 days then she drives to Lansing for the annual retreat of the Michigan Science Teachers Association board. She is the Region 13 Director. So, basically, between March 1 and April 22 Carolyn has been gone 21 days. Lots of people do that but not us - it is pretty tiring especially when teaching in between.

The Ardmore Connection

Life is sometimes so strange you have to wonder. When we lived in Colorado daughter LR (she wishes to remain anonymous) went to college at BYU. While there she met a young woman who became a very close friend for the remainder of her college years and even until today. We will call her AB. When we told LR we were moving to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and that it was in the Green Bay Wisconsin Stake of the Church she said that she thought that was AB's stake. It turns out that, not only was it her home stake, but her father was in the stake presidency....

Pretty strange - but it gets lots stranger. I have to back up a few years. LR's father was married for a time to a woman who had a daughter about LR's age. They became friends and she even went to girl's camp with us. But, when the marriage ended they lost track.

Back to the near past. A few years ago LR's sister JT went to college at BYU Idaho. She became engaged to a young man whose last name I will call Bing. Mr. Bing and JT didn't work out - end of story. Sort of. JT came back home and her friend BW went out to Idaho at the same time. After a while BW became engaged to a man named Mr. Bing. Different Bing but same last name nevertheless. Interesting thing - he was originally from Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Ardmore, Oklahoma is a smallish town very near Lake Murray where I took the kids to camp many times during their growing up years. We often ran into Ardmore to get more food or ice. So we were familiar with Ardmore although practically no one outside of Oklahoma would even have heard of it. Of course, Oklahoma is my (Carolyn's) home state. I am so Oklahoma that my great grandparents lived in Indian Territory.

BW (JT's friend) who became Mrs. Bing continued living in Idaho after their marriage. Meanwhile, LR's good friend AB married and moved to .......guess where?.......Ardmore, Oklahoma. How strange is that. One day, out of the blue, LR thought about her former step-sister. Her dad had mentioned that he thought she was married and living in........Ardmore, Oklahoma. So LR e-mailed AB and told her to look for RS (the former step-sister). AB said she met her in church and, in fact, sat next to her on Sunday! Wow - talk about coincidences! And even more interesting than that, RS hadn't been to church in several years. Their kids were about the same age and they became friends.

Back to Mr. and Mrs. Bing living in Idaho. They recently moved to.........Ardmore, Oklahoma. And every day, our son AD drives past Ardmore for his job. For all I know, he probably delivers shoes or something there. I have to wonder what will happen next in Ardmore, Oklahoma!

Just Like in the Movies!

Well, this is my third attempt to get this into the blog. The first time I never finished. The second time I dumped my first draft and began again. I had the story done and put in the picture when my computer locked up and I lost everything. This time I am typing it into Word first.

This event was one of those heart-pounding adrenalin-pumping times of our lives. After checking out of the hotel in Florida we had several hours before we needed to be at the airport. We decided to go to the manatee watching area south of Tampa at Apollo Beach. As we drove along on US 41 (kind of funny since that is the same highway that goes through Marquette) Kevin (driving) looked out his side window just after we passed a major intersection. In that split second that he wasn’t looking a little white car ran the red light on the cross street to turn left into our lane, came whipping up behind us, went around us and zoomed in and out of traffic. Just behind him was a policeman with his lights flashing and his siren blasting. “Good” I said to Kevin, “He’s going to get that guy.” “What guy?” Kevin asked and, as I began to explain, another cop came, then another and another. It was then that we realized this was a made-for-TV type high speed car chase!

Quite a number of police vehicles passed us going after the car. We couldn’t even pull out of the way because they were going around us both ways. After all the cops were ahead of us we made our way once more toward the manatees. As we got down the road I could see a lot of people standing in their yards and on the corner looking down a side street. Good, I thought – they got that guy.

We drove on a little ways and Kevin glanced in his rear-view mirror and said, “There’s someone coming up behind us” about the time I kind of yelled “That’s him!” Once again he came right up to us before going around on the right. We pulled over onto the center median to let the jillions of cop cars get past. We could see that they had formed a road block up ahead. Good, I thought, they got that guy. We were sitting on the narrow median behind another car caught in the middle of the chase. In order to stay completely out of the way, Kevin had pulled a little into the oncoming lane. No one was coming that way since the road was closed off by all the cops. And we waited for the situation to clear up.

All of the sudden Kevin realized that the little white car had managed to escape once again and was heading right for us! He backed up a little and pulled out of the oncoming lane just as he passed. When he passed, the driver looked right at us into our eyes. I remember thinking “I hope he doesn’t have a gun.” By this time there were probably 20 different police vehicles – different city cops, state police, sheriff deputies, etc – following the crazy guy. We sat there until the cars all went past us and we thought they had the guy. We went on to see the manatees most of which, because it was so warm, weren’t there anyway and the ones that were didn’t come up much.

When we got home we looked online to see what was up with the crazy guy. It turns out that the man, John Mullaly, flipped out about 7:30 that morning. His girlfriend called police and told them he was unstable and would likely hurt himself or someone else. They began chasing him after he stole his father’s truck (notice I didn’t say little white car). When they received a call that the truck was involved in an accident and had flipped they called off the search and proceeded to the accident. Mullaly had hit a car with a woman and her children (luckily no one was seriously injured) and flipped the truck. End of story…..

Except…..he got out of the truck wielding a machete and carjacked a small white Mustang from a young man (the little white car). Thus began the high speed chase. The police finally stopped him by throwing things to pop his tires under the car at the end of a dead end road. It turns out that he tried to run over 2 deputies, bit 2 policemen during his arrest and was talking about Aliens and President Ford.

Here is a link to a video of the end of the chase – after he turned off 41, then somehow managed to turn back toward it again. http://tbo.com/video/xml/MGBO049DPWE.html

This was certainly a moment to remember but the kind of event I hope I never have to remember again!

A Perfect Day

While we were in Florida for the conference we took the opportunity to spend the day following the conference walking to Caladesi State Park. Here's the "secret" although apparently well known by locals. It is no problem walking to the park. Yes, the walk is fairly long but, while I was somewhat worried about the water level, it was apparent that water seldom, if ever, covers the beach to the island. Because this is not the typical way to get to the park (taking the ferry is the recommended way), there were shells galore. Not huge ones, but beautiful ones of many colors. Most of the Whelks were living so uncollectable but conch shells were abundant. We also found probably $100 worth of natural sponges. I am hoping they are salvageable. They are currently frozen in a bag in the garage. The sun was bright and the temperature was in the 80's. The water was warm enough to be comfortable (a virtual bathtub compared to August Lake Superior temperatures). We were able to get many wonderful photo's of Florida water birds. The only downside to the day - and that doesn't count at all - was the long walk back to the car loaded down with shells and sponges. I told Kevin I thought it was an almost perfect day. He said "almost?" and I have to agree. It really was a perfect day.

The View from the Hotel Bathtub

Doesn't that sound like a movie or something? A novel perhaps. At any rate, the people who built our house did really strange things like put the dishwasher on the opposite side of the kitchen from the sink. But the 4 baths are interesting. Actually we have a half bath behind the kitchen that is pretty normal. The bath in the basement is something you would expect - a small shower stall, small sink, and toilet. But the other two baths are something to behold. The one upstairs is hot pink. Yes, the sink, the toilet and the shower. The one on the main floor is the same basic plan, a little smaller, but with an identical shower stall, this time in apple green. There is no tub in the house. No place to soak my toes or take a bubble bath. So whenever we travel I take bubble bath and enjoy the bathtub.

Hotel bathtubs come in three kinds. There are the oldest ones - huge, deep porcelain things. I love them. The mid-age tubs are comfortable, vinyl, and not as deep as the old tubs. They are OK - definitely relaxing. Some of the newest tubs are made for torture. They are tiny with straight up-and-down backs. That means you can't lean back and relax. They are shorter and your knees stick out of the water. Beware the new tubs!

It appears that hotel managers and people who do housecleaning have no idea what can be seen from the tubs in their establishment. It is amazing what you can see from there. You can see under the sink in many rooms. No one ever dusts the U part of the pipes - the trap part. Often the pipes are rusty. Sometimes way back under the vanity are things left by previous inhabitants. Bobby pins are the most common things. Sometimes the broom doesn't appear to reach all the way back. In the hotel where we are currently staying - a Hilton I might add - the back of the toilet has about 5 years of dust on a little ledge back there. I am not so finicky that I can't stay in a room where there is some other person's bobby pin, but some people are. Hotels pride themselves on making everything appear as though you were the very first person in the room. Nice hotels even do little origami things with the Kleenex and toilet paper. May I suggest that hotel managers occasionally sit in the bathtub and look around. They might be surprised!

Christmas Day 2006

Well it is now the day after Christmas although we didn't go to sleep........zzzzz......It is now January 4. What a long nap!

Christmas was interesting in a quiet sort of way. Kevin and I shared our day with Jennifer and Robert. We had two gift duplicates but none of that could get in the way of the joy Kevin felt when he received his Easy Bake oven! Melvin got high on catnip and took over Carolyn's ottoman tray. Carolyn, Jennifer and Robert received wonderful gifts and even Kevin got some things he wanted (besides the oven!).

After Christmas Mandy and Ella came to visit. We love having the grandkids here. Ella really loved Melvin ..... and Nana, Grandpa Kevin (G-Kev), Aunt Gigi and Uncle Robert (Bobo?).

On December 28 we left for the Twin Cities to visit with Mark and Camille for a couple of days then flew off to Clearwater Florida where I sit now. The beach is among the most beautiful in the US if not in the world. The weather is perfect - about 75, not too hot, not too cold. The water is too cold for me (Lake Superior summer temp) but it is wonderful to wade in and just sit on the beach. Yes, all you envious Yoopers, I know it is rough. But someone from NMU had to come and represent us here at this conference. To be honest, I am going to the conference while G-Kev lounges on the beach reading a novel.

Virtual Christmas Letter I - The Early Days (of 2006)

Welcome to the Lowe Family First Annual Dissertation! We wrote a very lengthy Christmas letter to enclose with our Christmas cards (that we are actually planning on sending!) But then it occurred to us that those to whom we send cards fall into three basic categories: 1) they could care less and certainly don't want to read a dissertation, 2) they were there for most of the events and don't need to read about them or 3) they care and want to know. If you fall into categories 1 or 2, skip to the Devil TV below. If you belong to category 3 HELLO! We are glad you are interested! Please read on and, most importantly, share your happenings with us via postings here or e-mail (if you don't want your gall bladder surgery all over the web. We are shameless when it comes to that). We decided to break this newsletter up into 3 parts - Jan - March; Summer and early Fall, and after Thanksgiving. There are 2 posts below this (below the Devil TV) about Thanksgiving with family and our temple sealing so we didn't include that here. So begins our virtual Christmas letter:

We share authorship of this letter to bring you up to date on the extraordinary events of the last year. Carolyn began the year with a conference trip to Portland, OR where she had an enjoyable day with Aunt Beth and reacquainted herself that evening with her lifelong college friends Cindy and Steve. In February, Carolyn was working with NASA on some curriculum for the Explorer Schools in Wash DC, when she awoke dizzy, her eyes out of focus and askew (seriously – it was very strange). Kevin left church when he received her phone call and drove straight through to pick her up. It was pretty scary, but all is well as it was diagnosed as a migraine issue; we spent the next few weeks leading up to Jennifer’s wedding in doctor’s offices determining exactly what had happened.

In March, right after we had returned to school following winter break, daughter Jennifer and son-in-law Robert were married in a beautiful ceremony here in Marquette. The whole family was able to be here and it was a wonderful time. The theme was "snow" and the weather cooperated with a blizzard earlier that week. The newlyweds set up house very near to us and last month they purchased land even closer, right down the street where they will begin building a home this spring. Robert is a master plumber who has one of best work ethics we have ever seen and is extremely kind and generous. Jennifer, now graduated, has several interests and is employed at the Home Builders Association. Below is our favorite picture of all five "kids" (although they are getting rather old to be called kids - what do you call them? We haven't figured that out yet. Do we say "here is a picture of our adults"? That doesn't sound right). From left to right are Chris, Curt, Jennifer, Andrew and Lisa. It was taken the morning after Jennifer and Robert's wedding.