I meant to write an entry yesterday, but I came into work and found my office had flooded as a result of the rain Ike’s remnants had dumped on Michigan, so I spent time I hadn’t planned on dealing with that, sorting through the things that had gotten wet and deciding which needed to be trashed and then finding a temporary spot to work from while the shop vacs and heavy duty fans were brought to bear. I hope my regular space will be habitable again sometime later this week, but in the meantime, I’m in a small, noisy, too brightly lit, ergonomically incorrect cubicle down the hall. Annoying, yes, but nothing compared to so many people this storm hit so much harder, like my friend Mel who’s not sure when she’ll be able to get back home to Galveston or the folks on the other side of my township who had the roof of their apartment building ripped off by a tornado on Sunday. I know I’m fortunate, but that doesn’t always keep me from being whiny.

The only thing I had to whine about this past weekend was the weather, because the rest of it was just good fun. A couple of my friends at work know the owner of a craft retreat house up north on the sunrise side of Michigan; they reserved a couple nights there and invited several more of us crafty ladies from the office to join them. I took Friday off so I could take my time getting there, and I sure did take my time. I stopped to snap pictures at several Big Boy restaurants in my continuing quest to document all the outdoor Boys in the state even though the rain meant I had to shoot from under an umbrella most of the time. In between Big Boys, I met up with Jodie and her girls for lunch and shopping. The omelette place where we ate had so many good choices I seriously considered planning a stop there on my way home. After a stop at the grocery store for snacks, wine, and the ingredients for the Saturday breakfast I’d volunteered to make, I finally made it to the house around 5:30, the first one of our group to arrive.

The greeter gave me a tour of the house and just as we were finishing up the next two ladies arrived. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and eating and talking and taking another tour of the house every time a new person showed up. There were a lot of quilts and other colorful elements in the house so these tours never got boring. We also did some sewing; we’d all brought our quilting projects and supplies and the house had a very nice setup for us to work in. A couple of us brought knitting, too. Saturday was a continuation of Friday’s fun. Three of us went for a run in the morning even though it was drizzling. We did about three miles, and it felt much easier than when I do that distance on my own at home; we got to chat while we moved and the surroundings were more interesting than my usual routes, what with Lake Huron right there and a triathlon that happened to be going on at the time (we saw tiny bits of the swim and bike parts). Later, all of us made a field trip to the quilt shop nearby (so nearby we could walk) before settling in for still more talking and eating and crafting. It was so nice to not have any schedule to meet or to do list to mind. By Sunday morning when we had to pack up and go home, I was feeling really relaxed and happy. Driving home in the worsening rain dampened (hah!) that mood by the time I got home, though. I did get a chance to walk on the beach for a short while before the sky opened up but didn’t enjoy my stops at a couple of cemeteries I’d spied on the way up as much as I would have if the conditions had been less soggy. One bright spot was seeing a small group of wild turkeys grazing along the roadside; they didn’t seem to mind the rain.