Well, it must officially be spring.  The good students of MSU had another party which ended in a riot as usual.  There were about 3000-4000 kids at the party and the East Lansing PD ended up using tear gas.

A couple of police cars were smashed and officers reported being hit numerous time by various objects which were thrown.   But, no couches were set on fire.  (This is due to an ordinance banning couches from porches.)

I guess the kids enjoy tear gas.

A company has developed a bullet proof bed. The $100,000 bed will with stand a bullet from a .357. It can even be customized with a built in toilet and a microwave oven.

Personally, if I were in a area where I needed a bullet proof bed, I would make sure that the whole place was bullet proof.

The company is making the assumption that criminal don’t use .44s.

I work with a couple of women who have been engaged for several years with no plans for a wedding any time soon. And, I doubt that there will ever be a wedding.

These women are cared for by their mates and even have an engagement rings. And, if their mate should happen to die, they will receive some inheritance.

The advantage to this is that should the relationship fail, she gets to keep the ring and he removes her from the will, while retaining all of his possessions. In short, she has no legal recourse.

Such relationships have been around for thousands of years. In the Old Testament, these women were called concubines. They were, in a sense, wives with no legal status.

Sir Paul would have been better off with a mistress than a wife. Who knows, maybe she would have stayed if she know she wasn’t going to get any money.

Last Saturday, we had breakfast at the Backwater Cafe. We had never eaten there before so it was an event for us.

The Backwater Cafe is located on the Flatriver in downtown Lowell. They serve breakfast and lunch six days a week.

Unlike most restaurants, the coffee cups do not match. That is because they have been purchased at garage sales or have been donated. The one that I had was from Corpus Cristi or at least that is what it said on the side. Kathy’s was a meadow scene.

Like most diners in the area, the Backwater Cafe offered a lot of home style food including a lot of bread and potatoes.

Good food, reasonable prices and a view of the river. Life is good.

Lately, we have been replacing our burnt out incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. They do save energy and last longer than the bulbs that they are replacing. And, by saving energy, we reduce the amount of green house gases produced by power plants.

However, according to the news, all those compact fluorescents contain a small amount of mercury which isn’t a concern unless the bulb breaks. If the bulb breaks, that mercury is released into the environment where it becomes a health concern.

One woman accidentally broke a fluorescent bulb in her house and it cost her several thousand dollars to have her home decontaminated. And to think that we used to play with that stuff in science class.

So, by eliminating one health concern, we are creating another. Maybe the local library will start a collection box for fluorescent light bulbs just like they do for batteries.

I just read an article in Car and Driver. Oldsmobile is returning! Unfortunately, not to Michigan or the United State. It is returning via Japan.

According to the article, Toyota has acquired the Oldsmobile name and plans to use it on a car line designed to fit between it’s Lexus and Toyota lines. It seems that someone from GM neglected to renew to copy write on the Oldsmobile name and Toyota picked it up.

While Toyota does not plan to build all of the old Oldsmobile models, it does plan to use some of the more popular models names on some of their new cars. In particular, they like the 88 and the Bravada models and are even considering reviving the 442.

And today is what…..?

Social scientists have defined a new type of relationship. It is called Bromance. Actually, the relationship is not new, they just finally came up with a name for it.

Bromance is a relationship between two guys. And while it is not sexual or romantic, it is a strong relationship none the less.

In this relationship, the two guy are always together because they hit it off with one another and really enjoy doing things together. In a sense, you could call them best friends.

Most often, a bromance occurs between two guys that are single. After all, when you are single, you don’t have to contend with the demands of your wife. But, sometimes a bromance can occur between guys that are married. It is just a little more difficult to be together.

I imagine that some scientist got paid a lot of money to research this topic and to write about it. Personally, I don’t call it bromance, I call it male bonding.

Our local bank was robbed the other day. In an effort to get to the bank quickly, one of the sheriffs decided to run the red light on main street. And, since it was a very busy intersection, he got hit.

Of course, the fact that he was in a fully unmarked cruiser didn’t help matters either. People thought that it was just another car and weren’t expecting it to run the red light.

I don’t know why he was in such a hurry. The bandit was last seen fleeing on a red bicycle.

It snowed last night again.  This is getting old.  While we only got an inch and it will probably melt today, winter needs to go “bye bye” as this is now spring.  And while the snow is pretty, sticking to the trees and such, it is time for flowers and green grass.

I know that this is life in Michigan but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t time for spring.  Two days ago, I had my moon roof open because it was so warm.  Today, I have to shovel my walk.  Drat!

When we were coming home last night, we noticed a lot of sheriff cars leaving Lowell.  We thought this was most unusual as we seldom see a sheriff.

When we got into town, part of main street was closed off and the fire department was there.  We assumed that there had been an accident on main street and that they were there in case of a fire.  When I got home and turned on the TV, I discovered that someone had robbed the bank

It seems that around 3 pm, some guy walked into the bank and set down a device which he called “a bomb”.  He received an undisclosed amount of case and then made his get-away on a red bicycle.  He is still on the loose.

Times are hard and I guess he couldn’t afford a car.  At least he wasn’t involved in a high speed chase.