A few years ago, an elderly couple bought our neighbors house. The couple was from out of state and had no friends or family in the area. The house that they bought was large, expensive, rather secluded with a lot of steps and five garages. Rather odd for a couple that can barely get around. Plus, they pretty much kept to themselves.

We haven’t seen him in several years. We think that he died a few years back. He had a history of heart problems. There was no notice in the paper regarding his death but since they were not apart of the community, there was no reason to do so.

Well, their house is for sale. A few weeks ago, there were about a dozen trash bags sitting along the curb waiting for pickup and a for sale sign in the yard. It was as if someone had cleaned the house out of stuff like ketchup and sugar and flour and salt and pepper, all of the basic staples of a house. We think that she has either died or has moved into a retirement community.

Still the question remains, why would someone who has no friends or family in the area move to Lowell from out of state? The house that they bought was expensive and ill suited for an elderly couple. They had no need for the 5 garages and all of the steps and since they had no need to be in the area, they would have been better served to have purchased a house elsewhere.

The only thing that might interest them about the house was the seclusion. It has to make you wonder why.

In case you are wondering, there is now a week long gap in my blog.  This is do to a technical hiatus.

My blogging program, Word Press, is out of date and they have been urging me to upgrade it.  So, last weekend I attempted to do  the upgrade.

While I upgraded my blog program, it also wiped out every thing in my blog.  BAH!  However, thanks to the help of my every resourceful son-in-law,  John, he walked me through the steps to restore my blog.   With the exception of a week long gap, I am now back in business.

A huge thanks to John for all of his help!

I don’t think I will be attempting any upgrades anytime soon.

The other night when we were in Cincinnati, we decided to go downtown to eat. As we were driving through the nearly empty streets, we noticed a shabby dressed man wearing a back pack and carrying a large cloth bag.

He was obviously a street person and since we sledom see them during the day, I commented that he must be settling in for the night. Sure enough, he disappeared into a thick clump of bushes along the side of an overpass. And, since it was only 7:30, I though “early to bed, early to rise….”

Well, Michael Jackson died yesterday. That was a bit of a surprise. I know that he hadn’t been looking too well lately but I didn’t expect him to die, or at least not as quickly as he did.

I grew up listening to him and the Jackson Five. He was quite the entertainer. Of course, his private life was something else, but then again, so is Britney’s.

Now, I am sure that given the suddenness of his death, there will be those who will speculate that he is not really dead, kind of like Elvis. Who knows, five years from now he may be spotted in a Burger King in Kalamazoo having lunch with Hoffa. I guess, like Elvis, he will be remembered long after his death, unlike Red Foley.

I just hope that Janet doesn’t have a wardrobe malfunction at the funeral.

Iran has acknowledged that there were mistakes in the election process. After recounting the votes, they discovered that they had 3 million more votes than voters.

Chicago would be proud.

The other day as we were traveling through Ohio, I spoted a guy on a motorcycle in the lane next to us. He was mid 50s, wearing a shortsleved blue plaid shirt, blue jeans which were held up by suspenders and white socks. Clearly a chick magnet.

On our recent cross country trip, we noticed a Catholic high school that had a chain link fence around it. While normally, such a fence is not unusual, this one had razor wire on top of it.

This, of course, led to speculation on my part. Initially, I thought it was to protect the school from unwanted invaders such as Protestant boys trying to seduce Catholic girls.

But then, another thought struck me. Since I have heard the horror stories from my Catholic school co-workers, it may have been to prevent escapes.

I suppose the razor wire is cheaper than gun towers.

This last weekend was Birthday Bash.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Birthday Bash, it is a free country western music fest sponsored by a local radio station that is held each year at the Ionia County Fairgrounds.

This years event was a little different.  On Friday, there was an above average amount of rain.  And, since the fairgrounds are on a flood plain next to the Grand River, the place started flooding on Saturday.  By the end of the event on Saturday, many cars were under water.

The Sunday event was canceled.  I guess it could be called Birthday Bath.

In the past, our video store had their videos arranged alphabetically. And on the outside of the video case, it was labeled as to the genre. But, that became too complicated for those folks who had to shelve the returned videos. So, they started just shelving the videos based only on the first letter of the title. This made thing much simpler. The “A” movies go on the “A” shelves, the “B” movies go on the”B” shelves, etc.

Now, they have stared shelving the movies based on the genre and then alphabetical. This makes renting a movie a little more complicated if you are looking for a specific title.

“Beaches” for most people would be considered to be a drama but it is often categorized as a comedy. “Ben Hur” is considered to be an action movie yet it is classified as a drama. So, if you are looking for a movie, you can’t tell if it is not available or if you are looking in the wrong section.

This too shall pass.

Today is the first of what will probably be many furlough days.  The State doesn’t have enough money to run the government and the governor and the legislature can’t agree on a budget.  So, the state workers end up with unpaid days off.

Every few years, we get a pay raise but then we loose it with furlough days.  And, if the furlough days were consecutive, we would be able to draw unemployment but they are not.  So, we get nothing, not even extra vacation days.

Of course, a few years ago, the legislature voted a 34 percent pay raise for themselves.  After all, it is hard to make ends meet when you are a full time legislature that works less than 1,000 hours a year.

Unfortunately, the poor people on unemployment will have to wait until next week to get their money.  Who knows what next years budget will be like?

The motto of state workers is “well, at least I have a job.”