ANOTHER SNOW DAY IN ST. LOUIS

It started around midnight with only dusty snow continued throughout the morning. My husband took "Luc" (Chinese name for the Mazda 6) since we heard that there would be accumulation in the evening. Being front-wheel drive, Luc would be much better than the Mustang when going up hill. (The 1st snowfall in January, CP had to park his Pony at a church parking lot and walked to his office.) So far this was only the third snowfall in the St. Louis area during this year so-called winter. Actually, the 2nd snowfall last week had only a few flurries and did not last more than an hour or so. Not that I complained about the mild winter, just don't want a serious drought in the summer.

This is our 17th winter in St. Louis and I sure don't miss living in Michigan during the winter months. Even though I was well aware of the harsh winter in Grand Haven, nothing prepared me for the experience of actual driving on US-31 in white-out condition and ice covered roads. One time, the snow from an 18-wheeler completely covered my windshield when the truck passed me. For a moment there my wipers could not get the snow off quick enough, I was driving blind and my guardian angel took over. Also, let's not forget all the 3-hour drive trips to Detroit at Christmas time. To this day I still remember the time when a van spinned out of control on I-75, then I saw its headlights shinning directly thru the passenger side (that was my side), somehow my husband was able to swerve out of the way. How he did it on the snow covered icy road I never knew!

ALONG THE BOARDWALK

We spent Tuesday, July 5th visiting my husband' sisters (I never thought of this before, but all of his three sisters (and one brother) live around Detroit, Michigan. The other two brothers moved to Colorado and South Carolina.) We went to Hockeytown store but I did not made any purchase since I already had all the Red Wings stuff I needed! After lunch with P&M (my husband's youngest sister) and their son, A, (they live in Rochester Hills) we made a quick stop at a Polish Art and Bookstores in Troy.

Wednesday, July 6th - We drove from Detroit to Grand Haven. It is about 3 hours driving time. It was a beautiful sunny day, just like the image in the postcard my husband sent me when he tried to "trick" me into marrying him and moving away from NYC in 1988!

We walked along the boardwalk, stopped by "Pronto" and had our usual corndogs.

Grand Haven holds special memories for us because it was where we began our married life and where my husband bought and renovated our little 100+ years old home. The pace is no longer as slow as when we used to live on Franklin Street. There have been many new developments and changes, both positive and we-are-not-too-thrill about! The town still has the charm that draw tourists (mostly during summer time) and people who just love the quiet living.

ANOTHER LONG WEEKEND HAD GONE BY!

Another long weekend had gone by! Originally we had planned a road trip to Grand Haven this Labor Day. We even took vacation day on Friday with the plans to start driving from St. Louis to Bloomington/Normal (Illinois) on Thursday evening. That would take off half of the 7.5 hours driving time and on to Grand Haven early Friday morning for breakfast at a place we called “Potato Joint”. The restaurant has changed to another name under new ownership but we still remembered the giant potato in front of the building. We thought we would drive to Traverse City on Saturday. We used to go camping there. If we were up to the challenge, we might even went to Mackinac Island on Sunday.
We decided to stay home instead, still took Friday off, after reading the Grand Haven local news website that it called for rains and temperature in the 60s. It was a good decision since the entire weekend was sunny, beautiful weather in the mid-80s here in St. Louis. I saw the reports of the high waves crashing on to the broad walk and along the pier to the lighthouse. It would not be much fun at all if we were there in Grand Haven. These photos were taken last year with a different kind of weather!

I spent the entire Friday re-organized all the boxes that were full of photos we accumulated the last 20+ years. I found the negatives of our trip to London and Paris in July 1999. It was our 10th wedding anniversary celebration. I also found a tin can full of Kodak Advantix developed films, some marked and some would be mystery for many years to come! It would cost $7.99 each roll to transfer the images onto a CD. I shredded all the duplicates and images from events or people I no longer care about.

Saturday I enjoyed a nice sunny and comfortable morning in the patio, reading and relaxing. In the afternoon we spent a few hours visiting a friend at St. Clair Hospital.

We attended noon Mass on Sunday and then took the T-bird to Jefferson City. It was a glorious day driving in the convertible with the wind gently blowing our hair and the sun warmed our faces.

Monday was another relaxing day - just a short drive around town after brunch. We had a nice steak dinner out in the patio. That completed our Labor Day weekend - goodbye summer and hello football season :)

WATER AND SKY - GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN

CENTRAL PARK IN GRAND HAVEN, MICHIGAN

These photos were taken last August when we went back to Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Festival. We got confirmation that Dan Bylsma (head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the 2009 Stanley Cup Championship team) was going to be in the parade, we just packed our bags, drove 8+ hours on Thursday so we could attend the parade on Saturday morning and to say "Hi" to Goober! (Dan Bylsma is a native son of Grand Haven and my husband used to play on the softball team with his family.)
What you see in these photos is all there is of the 4 acres of Central Park in the center of downtown Grand Haven, Michigan, very small compared to the Central Park in New York City. Grand Haven also has a community theatre group named Central Park Players. I was involved with the group for a few years working back-stage, ushering and serving refreshment during intermissions. I even dressed up as a nun when we presented the "Nunsense" production.

A FUNNY STORY AT THE HOLLAND MUSEUM

While re-organizing the CDs, I came across this photo of the Holland Museum, taken last year on our trip to Grand Haven-Holland, Michigan. It brought back fond memories when I was a docent for about a year, probably in 1992-3. I became interested in volunteering after learning that the museum needed extra docents during Tulip Time Festival, especially with a special exhibit of an original painting by Vincent van Gogh. You probably are thinking, "So why the title of this post, A Funny Story?". Well, it just happened that after the Festival was over, I stayed on because I really enjoyed being a docent. One Saturday afternoon, I was the only docent there and a group of European (probably Dutch) Americans walked in. They looked at me, an Asian American chubby woman, as I greeted them, "Welcome to the Holland Museum", then hesitated whether they were in the right place. Then they looked at "Eddie" standing in front of the gift shop. Here is why it is a funny story, Eddie was a student at Hope College but was born and raised in Laos and came to America when he was about five years old. I could tell that these visitors were confused since they did not expect to see two Asian faces in a museum that was supposed to be about Dutch culture. I introduced myself as their docent and began leading the tour. After the tour, the group spent time in the gift shop, talking to Eddie and purchasing souvenirs. I received compliments for being a knowledgeable docent and providing an interesting tour. (I received one hour of hand-on training and written materials of historical facts for each item in the exhibit. I did not let the compliments went to my head because I knew any dummy with good scripts/speech writers and a teleprompter could give an impressive speech filled with fancy words and empty analysis.)
Would you like to share a similar funny story that happened to you?

HUMOR OF THE WEEK - IT IS STILL A PIG!

Spotted this painted pig while driving along Lakeshore Drive from Grand Haven to Holland during our recent visit earlier this month. You could see Benjamin tried to say hello to the Pig. Lakeshore Drive is a pleasant road with cottages, nice homes, a few mansions with great lakeview and mature trees lining both sides the road, providing a romantic feeling for travelers seeking a slow pace instead of the highway US 31.

Benjamin commented that with the all fancy colorful painting, it is still a pig!

THE CLOWNS

We had a great time at Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival Parade. We "ran" into Rose and she invited us to sit with her family. The evening before the parade, Rose and many others were allowed to set up their reserved space with chairs and blankets. Initially, my husband and I planned to stand along the parade route waiting for Dan Bylsma. Rose was nice enough to offer us the chairs so it was very enjoyable watching the entire parade. My husband used to work with Rose's husband, Sid, in Muskegon, Michigan. We kept in touch once a year at Christmas time. We did not plan to visit anyone, but it was nice seeing Rose, Sid and their children again. Actually, their middle son got married last year and now has a 5 months old son.

The Parade was scheduled to begin at 11:45 a.m. and last until about 2:30 p.m. featuring local marching bands, community floats, Coast Guard bagpipers, local and state government dignitaries. We were among thousands of children and adults lining Washington Street in downtown Grand Haven waving and cheering as the floats went by. We all stood up when the veterans groups and United States Coast Guard Color Guard went by.

Just like any parade, there were legislators riding in classic cars, waving and smiling. Then it occured to me that after awhile, we could not tell the clowns from the politicians! We even attempted to make our points across to a senator who has not done much since he first got elected in 1990. "Senator Pork Barrell, please read the entire bill carefully before you vote on this so-called health plan", we called out and the senator responded, "I heard you, I will". When another went by, we again made our opinions known, "Congressman Say-Anything-to-Get-Elected, make sure you find out how to pay for it before you vote on any plans." (It did not matter that we were no longer Michigan voters). I was glad that we spoke up and reminded these politicians that they must listen to the people and that they work for the people. (Just for the records, we were not at the town hall meetings in St. Louis that made national news. We would not want to be labelled "angry mob" or "un-American". I believe it is juvenille and coward to play the name-calling game just because the people would not allow politicians to pass legislative that carry hidden agenda.)

IT IS HOT IN ST. LOUIS

As expected, the temperature soared over 100 last weekend. No surprise here, it is August in St. Louis except we just came back from Grand Haven. It was 70 degrees there with the low in the 60s when we walked along the boardwalk in the evening. The beach and the lake looked so inviting but we could tell that the kids were shivering from the cold water. We watched these boys having fun waiting for the waves rushing onto the end of the catwalk, then laughing while running away from the splash.

The catwalk looked so inviting, yet it could turn deadly. Almost every year, someone (sadly teenagers) got swept away when the large waves together with high wind crashing across and dragged the person down into the lake. There is a memorial plaque at the beginning of the pier for two young men, both 17, lost their lives in 1995 when the first young man got washed off the pier and his friend tried to help him but both were shocked from the cold water and then got pushed off further and further out away from the shore.

After a busy schedule in Grand Haven and all the driving and making so many stops along Route 66, we were so happy not having any plans this weekend. I stayed in all day Saturday. After the 10:15 Mass on Sunday, I went to the grocery store and again stayed inside the rest of the day. Too hot to be outdoor and it was one of those days when I did not feel like doing anything.

Here is Benjamin having a relaxing day on the beach, watching the mallards lining on a tree log while a lonely seagull chilling out on one of the wooden pylons along the marina. (I had to remind Benjamin that getting a suntan might not be good for his "fair" complexion - haa haa).

BENJAMIN AT COAST GUARD FESTIVAL PARADE

Benjamin had a great time at the 2009 Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival Grand Parade on Saturday, August 1st. The Parade started at 11:45 a.m. at the intersection of Sheldon Road and Colfax Street. The parade then headed north down Fifth Street, turn west down Franklin and two blocks to Third Street. From there, the parade continued north to Washington, east to Seventh Street and south to end at Grant Avenue.

Just like any typical hot-blooded white American male (well, it is yellow for Benjamin), Benjamin enjoyed the parade the most when the floats carried lovely young ladies, Miss National Asparagus (below) and Miss North Ottawa Community Health System (above).

Benjamin got pretty excited when he thought he saw a long lost cousin from Kentucky. Turned out it was just someone who dressed up in a yellow outfit (photo below) that looked like a chicken, definitely not a relative. Benjamin quickly got over his disappointment, thanks to the lovely young ladies smiling and waving back at Benjamin from their floats.

HEADLINE OF THE WEEK

I have been reading the Grand Haven Tribune online for over a year. I just want to keep up with what is happening there, not that it would matter to me or any changes would impact my life here in St. Louis. My husband and I have fond memories of living there, it was where we began our life together as husband and wife and the town is charming with its downtown, the boardwalk along the beach, the lighthouse and lot of snow in the winter!

I had a good chuckle when I saw the headline "Neighbors want cemetery expansion plans to die", how appropriate! I know exactly where the cemetery is and I could understand why the homeowners who live nearby would not want the expansion plans. According to the article, residents and council members dislike the idea of cutting down 82 trees and disruption of natural dune habitat. Also, the homeowners would not want to BBQ in their backyards and looking at the headstones. The chairman of the cemetery board explained that expansion plan was necessary because of the high demands of adjacent burial plots for families wishing to bury loved ones (who were already dead, of course) side by side.

I sure hope it will work out for the cemetery expansion plan and the residents so the issue could rest in peace!

ROAD SIGNS

Would it be great if we have "life signs" like these so we would know not to make the wrong decisions such as accepting dead-end jobs or choosing careers that down the road would be "no outlet" after you already invested 10, 20 years of your life or walking down the church aisle toward the altar and seeing the sign "wrong way" before you said "I do" and made promises to the "wrong" person, "till death do us part"? I noticed that in the cities, all the "dead end" signs were replaced with "no outlet". Some streets only have small yellow signs "no outlet" above the green street signs. I guess people don't want to come home, turning into their street and see the sign "Dead End" everyday! Only the country still have the dead-end signs as the people who live in the country don't get excited over small stuff or not overly sensitive about a street sign like city folks do.

When we were looking for a home after moving to St. Louis in October 1994 from Michigan, we were informed that we had to be willing to pay more for homes that were in cul-de-sac. Homes that were backed to wooded area would cost a little more. But the realtors could not tell us if these wooded area would not be developed in a few years. We did not want to pay an extra 10K for the feature and down the road, looking at our neighbor's bathroom window instead of the trees.

I saw a sign that reads something like God gave us freewill and He allowed us to learn from our mistakes and that is the reason for U-turn. There are times in my life I pray for a sign from God to tell me what to do or whether the decision I was about to make is right or wrong. Then when things don't work out, I blamed God for not answering my prayers or sending me the wrong signal. Could it be that I only looked for signs that I wish to see and ignored those I did not like? Why is that when things are going well, we praised ourselves for being smart, passing batches of honors, calling each other "heros" and took credits for making miracles happen. Yet, when disasters take place, most of the time generated from our destructive hands, from the evils minds of certain group of individuals, or from our stubborn refusal to believe that we are just small particles in the universe that God created, suddenly we acknowledged God's existence (not that He needs our acknowledgment), blamed God for all the terrible things and asked why a merciful God would allow such horrible things happened.

Whenever I see the sign "Wrong Way", I always thought of the people for whatever reasons (drunken, old age or just careless) caused fatal accident by driving the wrong direction, did they not see the red sign with white letter clearly written "WRONG WAY"? Why is that the people who caused accidents only receive minor bruises and the driver/passengers in the other vehicles usually died? I saw on the news last night that a pick up truck driven by a drunken driver (probably just coming from Mardi Gras in Soulard) rammed into the back of a sedan, sending it into incoming traffic, killing instantly both the driver, 26 years old husband and his 24 years old wife and their 4 months unborn child. It is not simply an accident, it is murder and the drunken driver should be charged with such crime.

I WILL NEVER LOOK AT THE FIRE HYDRANT THE SAME WAY AGAIN!

The Macomb Daily and the Detroit News reported that a 68-year Michigan woman faced possible jail time after she painted over a fire hydrant near her home. The hydrant had been painted white with black spots by school children of Mount Clemens, a suburb of Detroit, as part of a citywide art project.

The old woman argued that the black-and-white hydrant would be difficult to see in the winter and safety was at stake. She painted the hydrant yellow, the color it was supposed to be. She was charged with misdemeanors of defacing public property and violating the fire code. She could have been fined $500 and faced up to 90 days in jail. Luckily, a District Judge had some common sense and dismissed the charges against the old woman. That is the legal system for you. No wonder we are in this terrible mess with budget deficits and too many oxygen thieves! After reading this story, I would never look at the fire hydrant the same way again and not think of this story.

CONGRATULATIONS TO DAN BYLSMA

"Dan Bylsma has been named head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins," with great excitement that I informed my husband of the wonderful news. Bylsma is a former NHL forward for the Los Angeles Kings for five seasons. Dan signed with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2000 and made it all the way to Stanley Cup Finals in 2003. The Ducks lost to the New Jersey Devils. Knee surgery and other injuries took a toll which resulted in Bylsma's retirement as a player in 2004. Bylsma began his coaching career with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in the American Hockey League. In 2006 the New York Islanders selected him as an assistant coach. Dan was the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton "Baby Pens" AHL team when he got the phone call from the general manager of the "Big Pens" with an offer he could not refuse.
"Why all the excitment, TOTA?", you may ask. Because Dan Bylsma is a native of Grand Haven, Michigan and my husband played in a softball team with Dan's father, Jay. We knew Dan's family as they all are very athletics and the kids were standout in many sports, including golf, baseball, and ice hockey. The family was also community minded and good people you would like to associate with. For 11 years Bylsma provided financial assistance thru a charity to assist youths with expense of playing hockey.
Dan and his father, Jay has written four books, including the one below, "So You Want to Play in the NHL" and also "So Your Son Wants to Play in the NHL". The books were written to share the lessons and values instilled in the Bylsma children by their parents. It is nice to see good things happen to good people who reached their success thru hard work and perseverance.
Now I am sure Dan probably won't remember us and would question who is the chubby Asian woman that holding the sign "Congratulations Coach Bylsma! Good Luck to you and the Pens". We are so proud of you. Good luck and best wishes Dan.
There is a very nice display of photos and items belonged to Dan Bylsma at Apple Bee Restaurant in Grand Haven, Michigan. The gallery is a tribune to Dan Bylsma for his NHL career with the Los Angels Kings, photos and items from his college days at Bowling Green State University.

THE BALLOONS THAT GOT AWAY

My adoring fans and faithful followers probably ask, "TOTA, what with your obsession of balloons getting stuck on the power lines?" Below is a previously published post which might explain where it all began and when my obsession (I think it is fascination) started with balloons got stuck on the wires, struggling to break free. I think it might have been the memories of living in the refugee camp (Indonesia) for 7 months after our boat journey from Viet Nam in 1979. After five days on the open sea, evaded the pirate ship (it was a miracle that we were not captured), we were rescued and transported to an island in Indonesia. We broke free from the Vietnamese communist government but we lived in limbo, people without a country, without a home, waiting to be accepted for settlement but did not know where (which country). There were many refugees that waited for years before leaving camp and after that they did not reunite with their family even after their settlement. My family was very lucky that we were together, from May 1979 when our planned escape in the middle of the night leaving My Tho, South Viet Nam to when we came to New York, and then I ran off to Michigan after I got married in 1989!

In previous post I wrote "As I was sitting in traffic, I saw one of the balloons broke away, (from a parking lot at a car dealership) flew off but then caught on the wires. As I watched the balloon swaying in the wind, I thought how sometimes in our lives we feel as if we were the balloons stuck on the power lines. No matter what you try to do, you could not break free. Just like the balloons, you were up high but going nowhere, flapping around in the wind, slowly losing the air inside, then the emptiness took over, still hanging on the wires but nothing left of what was once a pretty balloon full of air."

There a pink balloon that flew as high as the height of the ceiling of a meeting room at a community center. I was there that morning for a business seminar. The pink balloon must be from a birthday party that took place the day before. The party either was for a little girl or a baby shower for someone who already knew that she was going to give birth to a baby girl. Or it could be a bridal shower and pink was the bride-to-be favorite color.

One time we were at a hockey game and the litle boy next to us wanted a bag of cotton candy. The father pushed the boy's hand away when the boy reached for a bag of pink candy from the vendor's container and said, "No, pink is for girl, take the blue one." The boy insisted on taking the pink candy and started crying when the father told the vendor to give the boy a bag of blue candy. (Since then I noticed that the candy has both colors, blue and pink, in the same bag.) The father had an embarrassed look on his face as if somehow his manhood was invalidated because his little boy chose the color pink instead of blue as traditionally the color of manly man/boy. (Although a girl, I never care for pink.)

I also thought the pink balloon getting stuck on the ceiling could be interpreted as the "bamboo ceiling" for Asian American women. Career coach Jan Hyun wrote in her book, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling - Career Strategies for Asians, that traditional Asian cultural values can conflict with dominant (non-Asian mainstream) American corporate culture resulting in lost career opportunities and not being promoted or included in corporate boardrooms. Asian Americans are often not considered as authoritive and management materials. I could be as qualified as the other person but employers would not give me the same consideration because as an Asian woman I would not be able to speak with authority at negotiation tables or the labor unions might not accept the terms/conditions coming from a woman., especially an Asian. I could talk and know more about football and hockey than the men at work and I could even learn to swear like a drunken sailor but I could never be treated as equal.

Well, enough of my rants and raves. My goodness, it all started with the a balloon getting stuck on the power lines, swaying in the wind, trying to break free!