The high school football ratings came out the other day. The Lowell high school football team was rated number 1 in the nation.

This is truly awesome! Occasionally, Michigan will have a number 1 team but usually that team is from a major city. So, the fact that little old Lowell was ranked number 1 has excited the whole town.

Of course, a number 1 ranking doesn’t make them the state champions, but it is quite an honor none the less.

A co-worker and close friend of mine and I went to lunch yesterday at our favorite Thai restaurant.  We go there several time a month and over the years I have found a few menu items that I really like.

My favorites are Pad Thai, Gang Gui and Pad Talay.  Pad Thai has a lot of fresh bean spouts and noodles where as Gang Gui and Pad Talay have a basil coconut curry sauce.  Yum!

Well, yesterday, I ordered chicken satay, which are chicken strips on a wooden stick.  This really surprised the waitress as I have never ordered it before.  My friend, who is Chinese, explained to the waitress that I try to eat low carb foods and she did so in Chinese.

So the conversation between the two of them consisted of a lot of sounds that I couldn’t understand with the  occasional “starch” thrown in.  In the end, the two women concluded that in the future, I needed to order number 4.

The waitress turned to me and said “number 4.  Very good for you.  Lots vegetables.  No starch.  No oil.”

Well, I guess next time, I will have to give number 4 a try.  If I don’t, I am sure that I will get concerned looks from both of them.

We have a county on the shore of Lake Michigan which prohibits the sale of beer and wine on Sundays. So, the residence of the county go over into the next one to dine on Sundays.

Well, there is a ballot proposal lift that ban. The restaurant and bar owners of the county are in favor of it. But the restaurant and bar owners of the neighboring counties are opposed.

It seems that if the ban is lifted, the restaurants and bars in the neighboring counties will loose a substantial amount of business.

It should prove interesting.

A co-worker of mine is running for the Township Clerk in a near by township. He campaigned hard during the primaries and beat out the 22 year incumbent. And since he was running unopposed, as there are no Democrats in the area, he was almost guaranteed the position.

But, in a strange turn of events, the incumbent is running as a write in. Plus, the township boards threatens to cut the pay of the position if the incumbent is not elected.

This puts a strange turn on things as my co-worker was one of the managers in the department. The department was recently reorganized with the idea that he would no longer be a manager. If he fails to get elected and continues as a manager, they will have to reorganize again.

Progress.

MSU beat UM and I am glad that they did. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a UM fan. The problem is that I work with a bunch of MSU fans and they are very poor sports.

When ever MSU wins, they run around the office “high fiving” each other, slapping each other on the back and then taunting us UM fans. They won and that is fine. They are entitled to there celebration.

However, when UM wins, we have to keep quite. Don’t show too much glee and certainly don’t “high five” anyone lest you face the wrath of the half crazed MSU fans. Just sheepishly smile at one another and say nothing.

Plus, when MSU looses, I must endure weeks of whining about the bad calls and the dirty tactic’s of the UM team. They would never say that their team didn’t play up to standards. And heaven forbid that they admit that UM played a better game.

Well, UM lost. MSU played a better game. And as far as I can tell, MSU did not use any dirty tactic’s and the officiating was far and unbiased.

I would rather endure the taunting than fear for my life.

As long as I can remember, Lowell high school has alway been good at football.  And this year was no exception.

Last night, Lowell played there rival East Grand Rapids aka East.  Both teams went into the game 8-0 for the season.  Well, East is now 8-1.  I don’t want to say that it was a shut out but at 35 to 12 it wasn’t really that close of a game.

One of the highlights of the game was a 60 yard completed pass by Lowell with a run into the end zone.  In many respects these high school games have more action and excitement than some of the college games that I have attended.  And definitely more action than a Lions game (don’t get me started).

Anyway, Lowell is headed for the playoffs again this year.   Go Red Arrows!

Palo Alto is home to the Tesla. In case you don’t know, the Tesla is an electric two seater sports car that can go from 0-60 in 4 seconds. Not really a speed record but definitely a significant move for an electric car. Plus, it has about a 200 mile cruise range.

At $109,000 base price, I won’t be looking to buy one any time soon.  But, it was still interesting to look at.

On our recent vacation, we decided to cruise up Highway 1 in California. After leaving Half Moon Bay, we headed for San Francisco.

We were surprised to note that we were heading up into the mountains. The view was spectacular. We were driving on switchbacks, high above the coast. Suddenly, we came upon a highway project called the Devils Shoot.

They are literally cutting a hole through a mountain for a road. It seems that the old road washes out from mud slides, so they are eliminating that problem by eliminate part of the switchback.

The old switchback was fun to drive.

A co-worker of mine has a daughter in Syria. She is over there as a Fulbright scholar. The State Department last week announced that all Fulbright scholars are to leave Syria by November 6 and didn’t say why.

This makes me uncomfortable. I can’t help but wonder is some military event is going to take place. Stay tuned.

The church that we attend is fairly good sized.  Weekly attendance is over 6,000.

Since the church prides itself on being contemporary, it plays contemporary Christian music through out the building before each service.

Well, the other Sunday, we were hanging on the bridge with the band when the opening riff to “Sweet Home Alabama” came pouring out of the churches speakers.  Everyone look at each other and then started laughing.

Apparently the sound techs were have some issues on Sunday.