Good Harbor in Leelanau County, MI

How about another sunset? This guy used to live on the coast of Good Harbor. I think it was Kevin that first showed me this magical place. I cannot go to Michigan without going here to walk around at least once. I got lucky on one of my trips up there in the 90's and captured this nice sunset. I just scanned it in today and I am very pleased that this particular negative is not scratched all to hell. I increased the contrast a little bit but otherwise this picture has not been messed with. I have always liked the swell you can see running down the coast line. I'd like to say I planned that but I just got lucky.

The Alden Boat Landing

One of my favorite places in the world is the boat landing on Torch Lake located in the village of Alden in Antrim County, MI. There is a L shaped breakwater with moorings for small boats. It's always drawn me and my Dad. You can walk aways out into the lake, feel the breeze and watch the water change color as clouds move across the sky. There's never really any other people down there, it seems, and it's a good spot to enjoy the lake by yourself. I used to walk down there a lot on weekends when I stayed with Dad during my teens while he sat in the local restaurant and finished his coffee while reading the Sunday paper.

View Larger Map


View Larger Map


If you follow this link you can see the L shaped breakwater. That is where the pictures below were taken in August of 1997 on a cloudy day. What you always hear said about Torch Lake is how beautiful is the light green color in can produce. You can see that here in the top picture. I'm disappointed because the slide is damaged. There are scratches on it and a discoloration going horizontally across. I even had the scanner set to maximum retouching and that helped some..


Literally minutes late the clouds to the west started breaking up and the sun started shining under the clouds and one of the best sunsets I have ever seen developed. First it looked like this.


As the sun moved lower and the light got more red in it an amazing thing started happening.


Then the sky exploded.






The only places I have seen where the sunsets rival those on Torch Lake are in the Mojave Desert and Okinawa.

Another Racing Picture

This is another picture from my fall trip to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 1991 Winston Cup Mello Yellow 500. This shot is from turn 4 looking toward the start finish line. You can see race winner, Geoff Bodine, just crossing the finish line while taking the checkered flag.

We Are Open

Yes, it is President's Day and the banks and schools are closed but the public library is open for business. There is a short waiting list at 1:50 pm for out internet computers but the wait is only about ten minutes. There are still some open tables if you need to study and our wireless appears to be functioning.

Cross Posting

Since I have a hard time finding the opportunity to post on this blog I am gong to start cross posting here from my personal blog. My daily life is so much a part of being a librarian, both in the library and outside it, that my personal and professional blog pretty much are the same thing anyway. If I read a good book I am going to mention it on both blogs so why only cross post occasionally?

A Couple of Literature Related Links

This is a cross posting with the Morrison Writers Club blog but these two links are too good to not share.

I found out today that the Virginia Quarterly Review is putting a bunch of it archives online. You can read about that here. First search I am going to do? Donald Hall, of course.

There is a great science fiction short short story on the New Yorker's website here. It has a great twist on the first contact/alien invasion story.