Weekend Update
May. 30th, 2011 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelSo, last Memorial Day weekend, I'm pretty sure I just hid in the house complaining about the heat wave that rolled through to spoil my plans to hit the World Steam Expo.
This weekend, I took Friday off and went down to the local Farmers' and Artisans' market to buy cute and yummy things, which is something I never get to do because said market is only on Fridays. Which makes no sense to me, because some of the stuff is NOT cheap and I can't imagine there are that many people who don't work on Fridays with money to burn on $18 handmade soy candles every week. So after I acquired my fresh cheese, locally made soup and gnocchi, and tiny little asparagus bundles, my excellent spouse and I dropped the cat off at Grandma's house and went Up North to join the party at the place our friend "Brad" keeps up there for star parties. We missed the one super-clear night, but it was also 30 degrees that night so I'm not sorry. A cloudy night meant a bonfire, beer and cookies, and a bunch of our buddies relaxing and chatting and having a good time, so all was good there. Some of us had rented out these awesome cabins pretty close to Brad's place, so it was a very enjoyable stay.
So, on Saturday, we rose fairly late and did NOT go canoeing on the Manistee as planned, but instead went to breakfast with friends at the local pancake joint before going back to Brad's for the annual cookout and raffle. Food was great and I took grand prize in the raffle, which was fan-freaking-tastic (a new Antares 6mm eyepiece-- you'd need to be an astronomy geek to know how cool it was). Then some of us took a nice long walk through the woods before heading out a very nice dinner at the finest place in town. By this time the strong and eccentric personalities were beginning to clash, and I started feeling sick after dinner from a sheer overload of food, so I didn't get a lot of observing done that night. The skies were decidedly mediocre, but the die-hards were trying to look at Saturn and such anyway. I thought it was just nice to sit back and see stars at all after a long gray Michigan winter.
Sunday, we rose late again and puttered around the cabin before packing up and thanking Brad for another lovely weekend. We cut across the state headed for our own place on the Lake Huron coast-- not to stay, but to investigate the crawl space for leaks, mold, etc. It was a beautiful drive, with the lilacs and apple blossom in bloom. We saw sandhill cranes nesting in the marsh along 127-North, watched a black bear run across the road, and surprised a bald eagle that was nomming on roadkill in a ditch. He took off, crashing into the tops of saplings as he glanced over his shoulder at us in mid-flight. Haven't had an eagle experience that up-close and funny in years. Then we got to the cottage and my husband had his Crawl Space Adventure (leaks, affirmative; mold, affirmative) and retrieved my FE9 memory card. Then it was a long drive downstate back home, which we reached at 1:30 AM.
Today, it was off to Greenfield Village for the Civil War Remembrance (one of our astronomy friends is a re-enactor), an excellent lunch at the tavern, and a lot of sunshine. Today was HOT. I felt very sorry for the costumed people, though it was a fun game deciding which participants were legit Civil War buffs and which were escapees from the steampunk Expo. The ones with the corsets on the outside were definitely steampunk. :)
So, I acquired myself a union infantry cap and some frozen custard, and then it was a long and hot walk home... upon which we jumped in the car and I drove to Grandma's to show my f-i-l the crawlspace pix. And then we retrieved the cat and came home, for real. And now I'm drinking a beer and catching up on what I missed.
Which seems to have been wank. Glad I was offline.
I had something to say about the Civil War and the skeevy parts of reenactments and celebrations, but I doubt anyone cares. I'll just say this: yes, the war was about slavery. Really. If you don't believe me, go read the text of the actual Articles of Secession passed by the rebel states. It was, current popular opinion to the contrary, about keeping dark-skinned human beings as property. There was more to it, but that was indeed the core issue. So sorry if that spoils the romance.
This weekend, I took Friday off and went down to the local Farmers' and Artisans' market to buy cute and yummy things, which is something I never get to do because said market is only on Fridays. Which makes no sense to me, because some of the stuff is NOT cheap and I can't imagine there are that many people who don't work on Fridays with money to burn on $18 handmade soy candles every week. So after I acquired my fresh cheese, locally made soup and gnocchi, and tiny little asparagus bundles, my excellent spouse and I dropped the cat off at Grandma's house and went Up North to join the party at the place our friend "Brad" keeps up there for star parties. We missed the one super-clear night, but it was also 30 degrees that night so I'm not sorry. A cloudy night meant a bonfire, beer and cookies, and a bunch of our buddies relaxing and chatting and having a good time, so all was good there. Some of us had rented out these awesome cabins pretty close to Brad's place, so it was a very enjoyable stay.
So, on Saturday, we rose fairly late and did NOT go canoeing on the Manistee as planned, but instead went to breakfast with friends at the local pancake joint before going back to Brad's for the annual cookout and raffle. Food was great and I took grand prize in the raffle, which was fan-freaking-tastic (a new Antares 6mm eyepiece-- you'd need to be an astronomy geek to know how cool it was). Then some of us took a nice long walk through the woods before heading out a very nice dinner at the finest place in town. By this time the strong and eccentric personalities were beginning to clash, and I started feeling sick after dinner from a sheer overload of food, so I didn't get a lot of observing done that night. The skies were decidedly mediocre, but the die-hards were trying to look at Saturn and such anyway. I thought it was just nice to sit back and see stars at all after a long gray Michigan winter.
Sunday, we rose late again and puttered around the cabin before packing up and thanking Brad for another lovely weekend. We cut across the state headed for our own place on the Lake Huron coast-- not to stay, but to investigate the crawl space for leaks, mold, etc. It was a beautiful drive, with the lilacs and apple blossom in bloom. We saw sandhill cranes nesting in the marsh along 127-North, watched a black bear run across the road, and surprised a bald eagle that was nomming on roadkill in a ditch. He took off, crashing into the tops of saplings as he glanced over his shoulder at us in mid-flight. Haven't had an eagle experience that up-close and funny in years. Then we got to the cottage and my husband had his Crawl Space Adventure (leaks, affirmative; mold, affirmative) and retrieved my FE9 memory card. Then it was a long drive downstate back home, which we reached at 1:30 AM.
Today, it was off to Greenfield Village for the Civil War Remembrance (one of our astronomy friends is a re-enactor), an excellent lunch at the tavern, and a lot of sunshine. Today was HOT. I felt very sorry for the costumed people, though it was a fun game deciding which participants were legit Civil War buffs and which were escapees from the steampunk Expo. The ones with the corsets on the outside were definitely steampunk. :)
So, I acquired myself a union infantry cap and some frozen custard, and then it was a long and hot walk home... upon which we jumped in the car and I drove to Grandma's to show my f-i-l the crawlspace pix. And then we retrieved the cat and came home, for real. And now I'm drinking a beer and catching up on what I missed.
Which seems to have been wank. Glad I was offline.
I had something to say about the Civil War and the skeevy parts of reenactments and celebrations, but I doubt anyone cares. I'll just say this: yes, the war was about slavery. Really. If you don't believe me, go read the text of the actual Articles of Secession passed by the rebel states. It was, current popular opinion to the contrary, about keeping dark-skinned human beings as property. There was more to it, but that was indeed the core issue. So sorry if that spoils the romance.
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:09 am (UTC)The reenactment actually sounds really fascinating. And the current wave of "it wasn't about slaves" is really. . . baffling to me. I mean the Civil War isn't my area of expertise at all, but all the sources, primary and otherwise, seem to point toward the slavery direction.
It just doesn't seem like something we can suddenly understand in a completely different light. Smells suspiciously of BS.
Then again, the only person I've met personally who's claimed slavery wasn't at all part of it, that it was all STATE'S RIGHTS, has Confedarate stickers all over his apartment and half his belongings.
(He's also my dad, but let's forget that unfortunate detail.)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:20 am (UTC)that it was all STATE'S RIGHTS
It was. It was about the rights of states to keep people as property.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:23 am (UTC)Which is arguably something like how they thought of slavery, but. Still.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:18 am (UTC)Not something you posted about, but -- The part that makes me "eh" a little at the Northern representation is the popular notion that the North was more moral in their willingness to abolish slavery. There's a crucial difference in that they were not nearly as invested in the slavery issue. (ie, "Easy for them to say!")
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:28 am (UTC)The Northern narrative is bull, as well-- but it's the Southern one that seems to be gaining the upper hand at present because of the current crop of states-rightists running around. I saw a number of "Don't Tread On Me" shirts and flags today.
Our reenactor friend? Jewish, lifelong Michigander, Tea Partier, and Confederate color bearer.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:31 am (UTC)I have honestly never been in an area where the Southern narrative is predominant. I have heard, however, that Detroit is the most segregated city in the US.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:37 am (UTC)I can't imagine what they mean by that. Livonia (inner-ring Detroit suburb) holds, or held, the title of "whitest city in America" while Gary (Indiana) was the "blackest. Detroit certainly lost most of its white population-- most of its population, period-- but as far as "segregation" goes, I'd have to see your source to know what they were talking about.
If they mean "had a lot of neighborhoods where blacks weren't welcome" that was definitely true. But that was in the pre-riot days, and is an interesting story in itself.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:42 am (UTC)If you're really interested, I can try to dig it up again.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 01:47 am (UTC)I bet they meant what was going on with the white-only neighborhoods. I'm sure the Ossian Sweet case came up.
The riots changed the whole demographic, though.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-31 02:05 am (UTC)http://www.amazon.com/Arc-Justice-Civil-Rights-Murder/dp/0805071458
I guess he was busting the Northern narrative with his lecture.