Madison IN

Finally a heron seems to have returned to the Ohio River in our neighborhood. I have seen him several times in the last couple of weeks.

Black vultures and starry little starlings abound. Today I saw three red-headed woodpeckers. First I heard them though, and was surprised at their tap-tap-tapping. I always thought they would drill more rapidly.

So what was Woody Woodpecker? A pileated woodpecker? Or was he more generic?

It seems as if herons should be worthy of cartoondom. Their beaks are so long and they can swallow such humongous mouthfuls! Their legs are so long and comically spindly and their voices croak so harshly.

Herons are a little shy and skittish. They fish alone, for the most part. Even a pair will be well-spaced along the shore. After all, they are fisherbirds, not scavengers like the vultures.

The vultures hang out on our dumpster sometimes. The other day while I was walking towards the dumpster to pass it on the way to our apartment I broke into a trot to try to scare off the vultures. They did not budge. They were not alarmed.

After I got home I commented to my partner about the big birds' brazenness. He didn't say a word. He just stepped out onto the balcony and clapped his hands a couple of times, cupping his palms to make the sound more resonant, like gunshots. On the second set of two claps, they flew away.

The man has hidden talents.

Madison IN

Why do some of us seem to do better falling asleep sitting than lying down?

Is it natural selection of ancestors who couldn't seem to stay awake on night watch? That doesn't make sense.

Or from ancestors who kept watch through the night over sick relatives? That could be, perhaps, although I haven't done it once in my life. Not once. Not even children, although I did once spend a night on the bathroom floor with a child who had the flu.

Am I just waiting too long to go to bed, so I miss my sleepy time?

All I know is, I can go to sleep in the living room when I want to stay awake watching a movie or reading, and I can't go to sleep at night in bed in the bedroom.

Why are some of us like that...

or am I the only one?

Madison IN

I cannot believe August is almost over. It has been such an exciting month that I have been distracted from the fact that SUMMER IS ALMOST OVER! At least, effectively. You school kids know exactly what I mean.

I haven't had the heart to write. Or the mind, maybe.

Hurricane Harvey is traumatic to the whole country, I believe. It demonstrates the biggest sign yet of what global warming might mean to coastal communities in the whole country.

Other countries of the world, of course, have already lost hundreds of thousands of citizens in weather set up by the increased level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.

I've read lately about major attempts at reforestation and afforestation, a new word to me meaning planting forests where no trees had been living before (at least, I assume they mean, in recent or maybe recorded history.)

This word makes no sense to me. It sounds more like chopping down forest to me. Who made up that lame word, anyway?

Well. Um, according to Merriam Webster dictionary the word was first used in 1598.  Where, I wonder?

Hmm. I'll look that one up and get back to you. Someday. When not paralyzed by North Korean missile threats, Presidential antics and exercises in anti-diplomacy, and a flood the size of Kentucky, not to mention a looming root canal.

Or being doped up on antibiotics. Maybe I can blame creative listlessness on the effects of antibiotics. I'm sorry I don't have an interactive website so I can get your reaction to that idea.

It's worth it, though. I get enough weird responses to my comments on Facebook to know I don't want to hear responses to most of what I write.

You can yell at the screen. You know, like I have to yell at the TV screen or talk to real human beings completely unheeded.

Oh well, if you were wondering, I am still alive.

Just a victim of incipient Fall.

Madison IN

*Dolores Claiborne  More than one mystery is solved in this tale of domestic emotional squalor. An entertaining tale which involves, coincidentally enough, eclipses of the sun. Or maybe it's not a coincidence. Maybe it was on the current viewing list precisely because of Monday's eclipse.

Yesterday

*The Deep Blue Sea  Well-enough done, I guess, but a little thin for a full-length film.

Madison IN

*Merchants of Doubt  No doubt that the architects of climate denial are lying just like cigarette manufacturers lied. This is a wonderful documentary which tells the stories of scientists and politicians who came to realise that climate change is real and caused by humans. Ah, what to do about it on a personal level is another matter. Makes me want to move away from this coal-burning power plant that supports our electric habit, but at the moment that is just not practical. As far as the liars, these lies make them murderers also. As one female scientist says in the film, "People will die."

Madison IN

*The Circle This film had its moments, but it was all front, no back. And I really got tired of our heroine's pained heroic smile look.

 

Nashville, TN

Today we went to the park across the street from where we are staying and tested the weather. The most spectacular part of the walk around the lake were some flower boxes bursting with spectacular blooms. They were intoxicating! I could have hovered around them like a butterfly but we were heading to the Parthenon.

No sooner had we gotten to the steps than we were approached by a refined-looking woman who asked if we were willing to be interviewed for a documentary about Downs syndrome as seen through the lens of society. Well, of course I didn't hear all that and just thought it was just some questions to answer. By the time I realized it would all be FILMED I was walking toward the camera, telling my sisters who declined the experience, "I'll be the fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread."

The person in charge of the interview was the husband of the woman who had enlisted me. He asked most of the questions but a couple of questions were asked by a young Down's syndrome woman who held a microphone in her hand and handled herself with more poise than I. 

My, it was a warm day! All I had on my face was sunscreen and sweat. The questions were thought-provoking. I just hope the makers of the film are merciful. In return for my participation I received a card with their names and information about other documentaries they have made.

That card is still in the pocket of my pants because the morning's excitement was nothing to the high point of the day - and possibly the month - the solar eclipse!

Yes, here in Nashville, Tennessee we saw a total eclipse of the sun and we cheered and shipped like wolves in exuberance. The lead-up to totality was suspenseful but very slow-moving. We had plenty of time for moving in and out of the building to stay cool, for eating and drinking and talking. Most of the time I viewed both through my polarized sunglasses and the special eclipse glasses, but as the sun began to emerge, for a split second my hand slipped and I exposed my eyes unprotected at the worst possible time. I can only hope that my artificial lenses, which are supposed to filter out UV light, did their job.

Time will tell.

We were on an apartment rooftop, so we didn't observe the effect of the eclipse on animal life. It did not get very dark, more like the way the world looks right after sunset at twilight. The experience does make you analyze exactly what all those transitional words really mean.

Is the temporal order sunset twilight dusk? Or are those words merely synonyms, as I always assumed before? Research for another time. 

This evening my sister showed us some water aerobic techniques in a saltwater pool.

Today was an altogether memorable day!

Nashville TN

Here in Nashville for sisters reunion and the solar eclipse!

Today we celebrated a birthday by eating at the Sitar Restaurant which offers a luncheon buffet even on Sunday. Very good! And the chai, though spiced very mildly, was not too sweet.

Went to the Greenwood (?) Mall after lunch as a continuation of the birthday observance. Nothing like a present chosen by the recipient! And shopping with my two sisters was a fun throwback to my teenage years. There are some fabulous sales on right now, only to be eclipsed by the great eclipse in the sky scheduled for early tomorrow afternoon.

The weather today would have been perfect for a viewing. Let's hope tomorrow is just as good.

Meanwhile, while writing these few sentences I have fallen asleep five times.

Goodnight!

Madison, IN

Prediction:  Trump will resign to avoid conflicts of interest and because of "pressing business concerns."

Prediction:  Trump will be impeached because he didn't take the smart way out and resign.

After all, no one can take the fact that he was elected President of the United States and did not serve the shortest term in history away from him!

Prediction: Trump will perform a coup and become the first dictator in American history. Of course he will still be called Mr. President or maybe Lord President.

And remember -you read these predictions here first!

Hahaha hahaha!

*Inferno  I take issue with the assertion that Dante has formed our conception of Hell, which for most Christian Americans is still a fiery furnace, but oh this film ended up being so much fun! Flash and excitement galore.

*The Lovers This film starts in an unusual place and ends that way, too. Er, for a film. For real life? Maybe not so unusual.

Madison IN

Madison exceedingly muggy today. Glug glug glug.

Maybe it was merely that I was outside so much, but I don't think so.

*Beloved Sisters Good but long film about Schiller and his relationships with two sisters. Inexplicable behavior, but that's humans for you.

Madison IN

Today I am giving up on recycling - at least for the time being. The recycling collectors have not picked it up from the back alley where I have been leaving it. I don't know what the problem is. The owners of the recycling bin I use gave me permission to use it, although I do often feel like an invading bag lady when I am in the neighborhood.

My landlord tells me the trash collectors who empty our dumpsters recycle, but I doubt they do what the city does in the way of resource recovery. I just don't know.

One good thing about our environmental situation, though, is that purple marten houses on poles have appeared in one of the big lawns along the Heritage Trail. In the same area there is the beginning of a wildflower patch - maybe fifteen feet square - that I hope will soon be one of many on the same acreage.

We saw a lot of milkweed on our drive into Michigan. I think the increase is intentional. Good news for the monarch butterflies!

Otherwise all the populated festivals interfere with the wildlife along this half-mile of riverbank.

Meanwhile, my partner, perhaps in response to the cutting down of several trees within a block of our apartment, has added live plants to our indoor environment. I will report any indoor wildlife sightings in consequence!

*Funny Games  Nasty piece of work that did keep us on the edge of our seats - except really, the script gives away the game. It's a powerful film in kind of the Clockwork Orange genre. If you watch it, maybe you can guess what tipped me off re the outcome. I just suffer through stuff like this.

*Salt of the Earth  Documentary about a wonderful photographer and cultural adventurer whom I had never heard of before - except one of his photos I recognised. Only one. (Well, I was pretty cut off from the world at large for decades. Inexcusable.) Anyway, Salgado and his wife were a great creative team in more ways than one. I am going to have to rate this a MUST-SEE.

Madison IN

My summer reading as been, among other things, the Travis McGee PI novels by John D. McDonald. It is creepy how prescient he was about our society. The morning after a car rams into a crowd at political rally, I read a paragraph he wrote in the mid-sixties about the human animal running amok. About how, among other atrocities, people will be driving cars into crowds.

I do remember a woman driving her car into a family of four intentionally in Albuquerque in the late seventies or early eighties, killing two and seriously injuring a third. By now it is not even an unusual way to wreak havoc, but I sure hadn't heard of it happening before 1965.

McDonald also predicted the degradation of the environment, but of course if you keep your eyes open for a couple of decades you are bound to see it.

I'm kind of mystified as to why I am using his work as escape fiction. It is more like confrontational fiction. Fifty years later the realization that what he predicted way back when has come to pass - with a vengeance.

*Boy Missing (Sequestro) Spanish film with an involved plot and at least three groups of people acting at cross purposes. Suspense and intrigue. These thrillers take days off my life, but they're worth it. 

Yesterday

*Passengers  Science fiction completely convincing until it is just too improbable to be believed. But of course, it's science fiction, right?  No, some science fiction is really only science a little ahead of itself. Well, we liked the film. It's engaging.

Madison IN

Just saw an R. Crumb cartoon about Donald Trump from decades ago, describing his bragadoccio and materialism and selfishness and foolishness. Ha ha ha ha ha!

People have been warning us about Trump forever. Why didn't Americans listen? I used to wonder why he was so hated. If I had read R. Crumb way back when, I would not have wondered.

Alas, now it is too late. Impeachment may be our only hope.

My partner suggests Trump could find a health or other plausible reason to resign - something that would allow him to save face.

That would be great, but I am afraid dT cannot admit that he is thrashing in deep water - even to himself. 

*The Ottoman Lieutenant  Physically beautiful, stunning scenery, but a lackluster script and performances that just don't quite pull it off.

The other day

* Three Generations Discontent reigns, even for the viewers, I'm afraid. This film just irritated me in spite of some good performances. Uncalled-for secrecy may make for more plot material, but aaargh! Enough already.

Madison IN

So now food is going unharvested because we don't have enough immigrant labor to do the work. People think our citizens should be able to do the work, but even if they would, I am not sure they could.

What we call low-level physical work requires expertise and practice to do quickly, efficiently, and well. Those who have never done that kind of work - harvesting romaine lettuce or picking blueberries - are often contemptuous of it. "Oh, anyone could do that."

Well, no. Not so.

Corporations are having trouble finding people who can pass the drug tests, but they do manage to hire some people. Many of the hires don't last more than a week or two. Why? Could it possibly be that people feel that life with a job like that is not worth living? I wonder why that would be?

I heard a news program talking about the kind of job where someone has to commute hours to work and is told unexpectedly after two hours to go home.

The show reported that Oregon has passed a law requiring businesses to schedule an employee's work a week ahead so she can plan her life. Big whoop! This makes the national news!

A law has been passed to assure employer behavior that should have been accorded by common consideration.

I'm shaking my head.

*Proof of Life  One of those thrillers that shortens your life a little - so much tension! Stunning scenery as a backdrop to kidnapping and violence. Still, a highly romantic film.

*Frantz  France and Germany after World War I remain at odds and human relations are affected. The events of this film are unlikely ever to have happened, perhaps, but it is convincing and touching.

Madison IN

I used to wonder, why would cleanliness be next to Godliness? I decided it must be because when you wash you are the avenging God that wipes out generations of bacteria. Take that, streptococcus and gonorrhea!

I still do think that. Plus it seems more godlike to be well-groomed. Think Beautiful People.

Today I realized it might be more personal than either of those things. We think of God as being above sexual temptation. Godly behavior kind of implies control of the sexual urges. Of course, when you wash your body you wash away accumulations of pheromones that would make you more irresistible to the opposite sex.

Imagine the old (old, old!) days when people did not bathe for weeks at a time - how maddening those sexual lures must have been! (And how repellant the body odors! That must be one true origin of approach/avoidance behaviors.)

To the extent that human nature has been able to replace physical beauty for pheromones as an aphrodisiac, cleanliness may have lost some of its proximity to Godliness, but modern science tells us chemistry still plays a strong role in attraction.

Maybe those we like to consider godly are just allergic to pheromones.

May they are just more comfortable hiding themselves from the contaminants of civilization, including the sweat glands of close neighbors.

*Cold in July  Take a revenge tragedy and a big dose of the wild west and a mystery that couldn't be bothered to get solved and you get this film begging for a sequel. It was good! But it needs a sequel! Questions still unanswered.

Madison IN

Beware the Internet, my friends, the words that scare, the fears that bite....

Almost every day I see a doomsday article about how all the fish in the Pacific Ocean are getting too radioactive to eat or that the zika virus is heading north at an alarming rate or "the goblins will get you if you don't watch out!" Okay, okay, that last is a quote from a James Whitcomb Riley poem.

For me, Thursday evening after all day in the car (literally almost twelve hours) my partner's scary Internet research on my behalf involved a tooth. Specifically, one of my molars right next to a wisdom tooth.

I was brushing my teeth in front of the mirror (doesn't everyone?) And one of them looked pink. Odd. Even after I finished it looked pink. I checked with my partner. "Does this tooth look pink to you?" "Yes." I felt no pain, but while I busied myself flossing he busied himself on the Internet. (What a doll, right?)

It seems, he reported, that a pink tooth is perhaps a bumped tooth but definitely a dead or dying tooth and would have to be treated with a root canal. No big deal, the Internet said. A root canal is not as bad as you may have heard.

In my experience a root canal is a big deal. It takes time and painkillers and that is not counting the aftereffects, which two days after my first root canal was a blast of fatigue that kept me in bed for at least a day. Okay, okay, maybe that was just a coincidental flu with no nausea, no muscle pain and no fever. Whatever.

What was definitely not coincidental was the whopping two thousand dollar dental bill for the procedure. That was no coincidence.

Oh, dear. I might need a root canal. Trauma! But I am a grown-up. I tried to stay calm about it. Hey, I am getting older. Having your teeth fall out is no longer a nightmare, it's just life. After all, on our little trip north I had committed a few dietary outrages. There will be consequences. Oh, and I forgot my night guard that one night....

I called my dentist and left a message asking for an appointment. The next morning they called me back: they had a cancellation, could I come at eleven o'clock?

Yes! The tooth was no longer pink, but I better get it checked out.

My tooth was okay. Seemed fine. The tooth next to it, however, had a broken filling that needed replacing, did I want to take care of it right away?

Yes! Get it over with! It was just a filling. No big deal. My share should be about $77.00. We shall see.

Of course it would normally have been a little bit of a big deal. My monthly toothcare budget doesn't really plan for anything besides the $60 I pay for dental insurance. Yeah, you read that correctly. But hey, it's a lot cheaper than a root canal, and maybe next year my insurance will cover that.

The moral of the story? Take the advice and "news" of the Internet with a grain of salt. A big grain of salt. Snopes.com is my go-to source for the truth when it comes to Internet stories.

Hmmm... come to think of it, I'll look up pink tooth in (on?) Snopes.

Later. No word on pink teeth in Snopes, I guess. But - I did learn that most people who got cancer did NOT have an infected tooth first, as some "news" articles would have you believe.

Well, that is good to know!

Madison IN

How much can a human being take? When I was younger I was shocked to hear tales of soldiers shooting enemy combatants who had just surrendered. That was against the rules of war - the Geneva Convention!

Is it too much to expect a human to protect and care for someone who a few minutes before was trying to kill him? Maybe it is. Maybe there is a limit to what a person can be expected to do.

Times, also, are changing. Technology changes. Now a person can be sitting in his room, having decided in his mind that war and violence are not the answer to the world's problems and, before he can so much as pick up his cell phone, be killed by a drone.

Instead of being more conciliatory with each other, it seems we citizens are becoming less so. When I articulate A, B, C, D, E in the logic of an argument, people react as if I were saying X, Y, Z in a way I never even dreamed of. Take one step along any given continuum of thought and you'll be accused of the most extreme position as if all the other letters of the alphabet didn't even exist.

The U.S. seems to me to be getting taken over by super conservative extremists (at least they are trying hard) that are going to get us into serious trouble. I haven't been so personally afraid of nuclear war since the seventies. How are we going to deal with totally irrational enemies if we can't be reasonable ourselves?

One time a woman in a book club went off on me - on everyone else, too, really but specifically addressing me. I made the mistake of responding directly to her, denying her accusations without accusing her of comparable behavior. She stormed off, and another member of the group told me that a direct response such as I had made did not work with someone so off-the-wall and delusional.

What am I trying to say here? I guess I am trying to say that if you jump from D to Z you end up falling into U. Sometimes, if you are going to surrender anyway, it might be wise to surrender before the war starts. If both sides of any given issue do this, nobody has to surrender when has become a matter of life and death.

Maybe we really only need to get to C as in compromise.

*52 Pick-Up  Quintessential Elmore Leonard. Kooky characters, casual murderers, and collateral damage galore. Well-done thriller.

Madison IN

Profundity rotundity fecundity simple ditty simplicity multiplicity perplexity major city witty

Day crawls night falls reason calls pity pity sprawls unconscious calls new deal repeal thought sought rough slough sleep falls Here, kitty kitty kitty....

*Mulholland Falls  Cracked hard-boiled detective investigates a case altogether too close to him. Some magnificent cinematograpy. Looks to be set in the fifties, but for a 1996 movie the music and color treatment seemed anachronistic, reminding me of the seventies. Some great character acting

Madison, IN

Back home again in Indiana.  Looking out at the muddy Ohio not quite as special as the sparkling blue of Lake Huron. On the other hand, winter here involves clearer walking surfaces and more comfortable temperatures.

Bathroom cleaning, laundry, dentist, dishes, dishes, dishes, unpacking, bread-making, reading, trips to the library, movies on the medium screen, TV.

Not a bad life. Not a bad life at all.

*Norman Excruciating to watch. I would rather watch a thriller showing someone fighting for his life because at least I could identify more with that human than the one portrayed here. But, in the end, persisting, suffering through it, the film is interesting and farcical. I found myself laughing. Well, maybe helplessly. Is this character one of those whose feelings predominate to the point that he actually manages to create a reality? Like a savior, or a painter, or a maker of movies?

Madison, IN

Back home again in Indiana... sigh.

The whole trip was lovely except - Indiana. Especially southern Indiana. We certainly seem to be taking care of infrastructure here. At least four roads we tried to take had detours, sometimes with no advance warning and no alternative routes.

Indiana. I saw a map shared on Facebook that purported to identify what every state hates the most. I'm sure it was a complete joke, but what Indiana was supposed to hate most was bloggers. Ha, ha, ha!

I won't even start on some of the sins of Indiana drivers or what I imagine are signtwisting proclivities on the part of rural dwellers. After all, we make driving mistakes also, and my paranoid imagination is powerful - fed partly by the Confederate flags which seem to abound here.

We did not, however, suffer the same phenomena in Michigan that we experience driving around Southern Indiana. Of course it makes us wonder.

*Gemma Bovery  Beautiful and sad but mostly very funny French film about a baker living in Flaubert country prone to turning his neighbors into archetypes.

St. Ignace, MI

We are lounging around in bed in the Boardwalk Inn, the first lodging establishment in town. Lounging, because nothing providing an early breakfast close by is open. Looks as if we will eat the continental breakfast provided here and just take whichever ferry leaves when we get to the dock. We already bought our tickets.

The Boardwalk Inn is clean and comfortable. Relaxed and very conveniently located.

Yesterday we ate two meals at the Galley. The coconut jumbo shrimp was crispy and came with two sides (in my case a good-sized salad and a side dish of carrots, parsnips and green beans plus a dinner roll. For seniors, the price of $11 was eminently reasonable. Oh, I forgot the other side: a view of beautiful blue lake water! Also perfect service. We had two meals there.

More later today, if the ferry ride and island don't wear me out!

Later - At 9 a.m. we took the ferry that goes under the Mackinac Bridge before it goes to the island. It was great to be on the water! Mackinac Island was crazy with bikes partly because it has no cars. Cars not allowed! Yay!

Horses and carriages abound, and are a pleasure. We mostly walked around gawking at all the wonderful Victorian mansions and the gardens.

Which brings me to the subject of (sigh) the flowers of Michigan. First I noticed fab daylilies and monster hydrangeas. As we drove north we observed more and more abundant and colorful plantings and unrestrained hanging baskets.

The town of Charlevoix has plantings along our route for what seemed like a mile - looked like petunias but we didn't stop to make sure.

St. Ignace, on the north side of the Mackinac bridge, is our home away from home. Within a short walk from the Boardwalk Inn is a park maintained by the Kiwanis Club with the most outrageously opulent and species-rich four-foot wide strip between sidewalk and street that I have ever seen. Sedum, petunias, dahlias, nicotiana, snapdragons, pinks, ornamental cabbages, sage, sunflowers, blackeyed Susans, what looks like ageratum but it is so big! There must be art least four dozen different kinds of flowers and other ornamentals vying for your attention and appreciation. I couldn't even name them all.

If possible, Mackinac Island is even more blossom-proud. This is a place trying to be Paradise and coming damn close to succeeding. In early August, that is. Winters are no joke up there proximate to three great lakes.

One funny note, though. Upon coming down from the Grand Hotel back to sea level, I remarked that the identifying smell of Mackinac Island - (at this point my partner smirked. He knew exactly what I was going to say!) - is an exotic blend of fudge and horse shit.

And what do you know, that must just be the scent of Paradise, because we are dying to return!

Cadillac, MI

Yesterday, if I had written, I would have written about the craziness and weirdness of traffic from the day before: the drivers who push you so hard from behind that you are afraid to make your turns off even secondary highways. It's as if they have seen so many movies about bullies pushing people off the road that they think it's okay if you're only thrown off course. (Or, in a different time, you might say they played too much croquet?)

Or I might have written about about the last day of July. I would have, too, but WiFi was dead to us last night. No, to be completely honest, it was dead to my partner's device. He is always more eager to take on the connection problems in our new locations than I am. My companion takes care of business.

We saw the month of July off with a bang. Leaving Indiana and Lake Michigan behind this time without a glimpse of its shores, we dove up into Michigan via Niles (charming!) non-stop through Grand Rapids (cities are uplifting in their own way, aren't they - the tall buildings) on Highway 131 which is four lanes like the Interstates but not quite as crazy as usual east of the Mississippi.

I'm wondering why it isn't an Interstate. Maybe it's because there are numerous car-pooling parking lots all up and down its length.

Very late in the afternoon we started seeing clouds ahead - even some distant veils of rain. In no time at all we were in a heavy downpour that made even some trucks pause. We ourselves took refuge in one of the commuter lots.

Cadillac became our automotive (heh) destination of the day because not only does the name denote richness and quality, but because it was near a couple of lakes on the map.

Near is not the word. Cadillac is ON at least one lake. Kind of reminds me of Bemidgi in Minnesota, although that is further north, I guess.

Dodging showers we tried to land at Cheryl's Landing, but it was full up. The very helpful man in the restaurant made it seem like a good place to stay. Its setting seems just beautiful.

Taking a break from room-hunting we ate at the Asian Buffet. Really good, with a clam so fresh it is still sandy, though. (Oops!)

We ended up here at the Evergreen Resort in a reasonably priced room that is in desperate need of a new carpet. There are golfing facilities here which I don't understand but which provide a little walking area - not the patch of wild woodland you can reach from the Chesterton Hilton, but pleasant enough.

Cadillac, it turns out, used to be the Village of Clam Lake but was renamed in the 1880's for an aristocrat from France. It was formed originally as part of the logging industry. Cadillac deserves to be a destination locale, but we have other plans. I would love to return for a longer stay.

Later - Turns out the Evergreen Resort has 27 holes for golf, a very nice restaurant with some fancy stained glass which provides a complementary buffet breakfast in a dining room overlooking a lot of green. (Ghosts, too, rumor has it. A fun place.)