Oh, the Midwest.
1. Holy shit, I am moving to Wisconsin tomorrow.
2. In aid of the above, today I drove with my dad into the wilds of the Michigan Thumb to retrieve the only U-Haul truck in Southeast Michigan (oddly, there seems to be a shortage of moving trucks resulting from a net movement of people out of the state with the country's highest rate of unemployment; they're offering fantastic discounts to anyone doing a one-way move into Michigan). Driving my dad's car back while he lagged behind getting the truck sorted out, I drove east to the Lake and then south back to my parents' house down the lakeshore road. I stopped at a turnout and stood for a while on a steep slope above the water and stared out at the smooth, dark blue line of the horizon. It's true, it isn't really anything like the ocean; it's enormous but almost still, even though it's flowing all the time, alive and clear and clean. It's laidback and quiet--at least on a sunny day like this--which is probably somehow essentially Midwestern, in contrast to the wildness of the ocean.
Anyway, it's all pretty rural up there, but there are all sorts of small businesses along the two-lane highway, resulting in signs like
MARY'S
PIE SHOP
HO'MADE
I don't think that means what she thinks it means.
And also
ST. JOSEPH POWER TOOLS
CATHOLIC SUPPLIES
...I guess he was a carpenter...?
2. In aid of the above, today I drove with my dad into the wilds of the Michigan Thumb to retrieve the only U-Haul truck in Southeast Michigan (oddly, there seems to be a shortage of moving trucks resulting from a net movement of people out of the state with the country's highest rate of unemployment; they're offering fantastic discounts to anyone doing a one-way move into Michigan). Driving my dad's car back while he lagged behind getting the truck sorted out, I drove east to the Lake and then south back to my parents' house down the lakeshore road. I stopped at a turnout and stood for a while on a steep slope above the water and stared out at the smooth, dark blue line of the horizon. It's true, it isn't really anything like the ocean; it's enormous but almost still, even though it's flowing all the time, alive and clear and clean. It's laidback and quiet--at least on a sunny day like this--which is probably somehow essentially Midwestern, in contrast to the wildness of the ocean.
Anyway, it's all pretty rural up there, but there are all sorts of small businesses along the two-lane highway, resulting in signs like
PIE SHOP
HO'MADE
I don't think that means what she thinks it means.
And also
CATHOLIC SUPPLIES
...I guess he was a carpenter...?
