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High surf on Lake Michigan is normal for this time of year.\u00a0\u00a0That photo is now a year old.\u00a0 It was part and parcel of what was going on with the weather and the arguments about climate this and eco-that, and now that turmoil has died down. The volume levels of water in the Great Lakes, per the Army Corps of Engineers, rise and fall repeatedly, and have done so for thousands of years. The Big Deal over the winter, before all the attention was turned to a micro-bug that scares the bejesus out of people, was that Lake Michigan (Michi Gamu) was well up over its banks and the shores were eroding. The same was probably true of Lake Superior (Gichi Gamu), which is well-known for its ability to swamp and sink ships when the weather goes foul.<\/p>\n
Now: well, none of the state parks lining the shores of Lake Michigan are open, which means that unless you live on the shore line, you can’t get those fine views of high surf. The county-owned parks are open for hikers and bikers, and the “free fish” hunters are trying local ponds and rivers, and the restocking that normally occurs in state-owned lakes has probably already taken place.\u00a0 I doubt that anything state-owned will open up until the end of May. That means I will miss these little guys below, too, and I won’t get to see the younglings getting their flight feathers.<\/p>\n The local branch of the Army National Guard has been putting field hospitals together in what are normally convention buildings as a\u00a0 means of accommodating excess Covid-19 patients, should the need arise. All the birds that normally return by this time of year have returned, but it’s too cold out for bugs to be plentiful, so the feather flockers are returning to my feeding station. I think the hardware store might deliver bird food if I ask them about it. Having two red-bellied woodpeckers show up for chow is a bonus.<\/p>\n We did have snow, however light an amount, on Thursday, and the weather insists on staying cold. Mail still comes on time, and the local grocery stores are open for business. Some have limits on how much you can buy, others don’t. There does not seem to be any panic buying in my AO, but some shelves were bare of things like paper towels. My\u00a0 habit of buying ahead has paid off.<\/p>\n The real issue is not The “Bug”. It’s being confined to avoid spreading The Bug. Is it a Plague? Depends on your point of view. No harm in taking precautions, but when I go to the store and see people in line ahead of me wearing cowboy-style bandannas at the checkout spot, because they don’t have those masks, my response is a muted giggle. Yes, I do take The Bug seriously: it is nasty and can be lethal, and precautions are necessary and smart. But when all I can do is pull the neck of my turtleneck sweater up over my face and try not to giggle, things almost seem normal again. The ‘surprise’ was that most people never shop ahead for anything, or stock a pantry or cupboard, which is what I do.<\/p>\n It does not mean I won’t take a daily walk up toward the highway and back, or that we should not be careful. If a vaccine that prods a response from your immune system is under development, then there is real hope for an end to this. The abundance of caution has both good and bad points, which is normal. But it makes people like me chafe at the bit and paw the ground now and then.<\/p>\n Let’s just hope this ends well for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Nippersink-goose-with-goslings-5-11-2019-300x137.jpg\")