Transition(s)

Pink October

Once again I’ve been thinking about all the pink ribbons and once again wondering. Wondering if it really does any good. Hopefully there will be lives saved by the awareness campaign. But I wonder.  Might there be better ways to invest the bucks and the energy? I’m guessing that a huge percentage of the dollars and the decorations and the hype really doesn’t make any positive difference for anybody. I hope I’m wrong, but I wonder.

Sad Remembrance

October has also been set aside as a time of awareness of pregnancy and infant loss. Long a hidden and overlooked issue, I’m glad that steps are being taken to recognize how real and how painful this grief can be.

It’s personal

Both of these “commemorations” are personal for me. I am a breast-cancer survivor and I’ve experienced the loss of miscarriage. I understand at least a bit of the fear and grief involved with both. I hope that I am sensitive to others affected by them. 

It's time to move again

During September and October - between our commitment at the lighthouse and other short trips - we have been parked in our daughter’s yard. This campsite does not boast full hook-ups - which means that the usual convenience of RV life has been traded in for more of a camping lifestyle - but the joy of being near to help with the little one tips the scale.

And now the temperature is falling so we need to winterize the RV. Therefore we move tomorrow into a furnished apartment for November and December. It is right along Stacy’s route to work so we can help with child-care once she goes back after maternity leave. Then after the holidays, at the beginning of the year, we will head to warmer temps.

It’s NaNo time!

November is National Novel Writing Month and once more I am participating. It is my sixth year and has been a great experience for me. A great time to do some concentrated writing. I plan to crank out 2000 words a day to make it to the goal of 50,000 words written during the month. I will gladly accept encouragement and questions about how it’s going.

The little pharologist

We knew that one of the things I would love about working at the lighthouse would be the chance to meet people. Interesting people. People who are travelers. People who are thinkers. People who love nature and appreciate history.

Sure enough; that was true. I completely enjoyed that aspect of the job - the chance to meet people. Fascinating people. People from all over the world really. I had not realized how far some travelers come to visit Big Sable Point. But yes, we had guests from all over America as well as from Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Brazil, Austria, Canada, Mexico... and more.

Some people are fascinating because of their travels and others because of their interests. Some are learners and some are experts. Most are very open to sharing their knowledge with those who are interested. We learned much simply by listening and asking questions.

And then there are the pharologists. Quite a few of them actually. I even learned that I am a pharologist - someone who studies or is interested in lighthouses. Yep, that would be me. And that would include people who are interested enough that they would choose to walk nearly four miles to visit. People who come back to visit time after time through the years. People who have visited lots of lighthouses - lots more lighthouses than we have. People who have lived and worked at lighthouses.

There was the "real" pharologist, the lighthouse expert. The one who gets paid to travel around and speak to groups about lighthouse history because he has studied lighthouses so extensively.

There was also the "real" lighthouse keeper, Ken, who had lived and worked at Passage Island and Rock of Ages lights in Lake Superior. And I don't mean the way we "lived and worked" at a lighthouse. I mean that he ran the lighthouse when lives depended on the light burning and the fog horn sounding. Oh, my; what fun to listen to his stories - especially some of the close calls on dark and stormy nights!

But my favorite pharologist was only three years old. When his family arrived, he immediately began telling me about lighthouses. Turns out he knows lots about them and has an unusual fascination with them. He could identify pretty much any lighthouse by its picture and pick out the different ones in our display of models. What a neat kid!

Even though like me, his parents had probably never heard the term before, they were intentionally feeding his interest in pharology and had already taken him to several other lighthouses. One can only imagine what may come of this passion so they are treating it as something serious and worthwhile. Good for them!

I had so much fun watching him study the different model lighthouses and play with the magnets. By the way, he also likes boats, too. He had great fun with the magnets of the SS Badger - and he chose the model "with the boat in it" to hold for his picture.

Without a doubt Ben was the youngest pharologist I met and quite possibly one of the most knowledgeable. And certainly the cutest! You and your family made my day, Little Ben! Thanks for visiting Big Sable Point.

...

And a little note to Ben's mom: I hope you didn't give up on me and that you did stick around long enough to find this post. If so, please leave a comment below. And thanks again for a fun day!

The Lighthouse - more stories still to come

It happened again. I got too busy traveling and experiencing life to have time to write about our travels and about life!

It has happened before, more than once in fact, and I'm guessing it will happen in the future.

I want to write more about our two weeks at the lighthouse, but somehow life has happened and miles have been traveled and I haven't been able to keep up with writing about it all.

So if you want to hear more stories about living at the lighthouse, maybe you could leave a comment and hopefully it will nudge me to get some more of them done.

And please stop back again to see whether there are new posts.

Brand new cousins

You can't imagine how fun it is

to be grandparents!

That's what our friends used to tell us. We were past sixty before we had grand-kids which meant that many of our friends were well ahead of us in the grandparent game.

Turns out they were right. It IS great fun to be grandparents. I'll never forget how amazing it was to hold that first little off-spring of the next generation.

And it just kept getting more and more fun as she grew and began to know us and then to respond. What fun to watch her begin to talk and to understand things and to learn. Just like with our own kids, each stage brought new delights.

What could be better?!?

Well, then she had a little brother and the fun began all over again.

This time there was the added feature of watching her with him. The awe and amazement on her face were intense. Her desire to touch him. Oh, what fun to watch them grow together. Good buddies they are. Most of the time.

What could be more fun?!?

 

Well, now along comes a cousin. The first cousin. Oh, the wonder of the fact that there is a baby growing in Aunt Stacy's belly. Getting to help open all the fun gifts and cute little clothes at the baby shower. And now finally getting to meet their face to face. Oh, what fun! Amazement, astonishment, fascination and giggles about the funny faces she makes. The thrill of being able to feed her from her bottle.

Oh, how fun for this grandma to hold these little cousins on my lap as they begin to get acquainted with each other.

What could be better than this?!?

Life at a lighthouse

Bob writes about our time at the lighthouse and some of our duties there - the light housekeeping as well as lighthouse keeping.