Guess what? The weather changed! I know that everybody thinks they have the most crazy weather around, but I’m here to say nobody beats Michigan for crazy!
My backyard just this past Monday!
As you know, last Saturday I was with my mama and our friend at a Michigan state park. It was sunny but cold and windy. Perfect.
Me just last weekend!
Then on Monday it snowed! Yes, snow. Not just a little bit either. It snowed most of the day, big wet, sticky flakes of snow that piled up.
I hope the lady doesn’t forget to put out breakfast for us!
The birds didn’t know what to think of it all.
Waiting for our hummingbirds.
But I knew exactly what we should do — we should go out and explore! So I bugged my housekeeper mama and out we went!
Mama! This is crazy good!
We had so much fun! Mama said it wouldn’t last long so we should enjoy it while it was there. She said she’d try not to grumble about it too much.
It’s crazy, but it’s fun too! Never complain about another fun day spent together, mama!
Then we got a couple days of rain. I don’t mind rain, it just gives me an excuse to be lazy and nap all day. (Not that I need an excuse, I get to do whatever I want because I’m the only royal resident around here.)
Do not interrupt the royal nap, mother!
Thursday the sun came out and mama said we shouldn’t waste a sunny day either. Especially a sunny day that was still cool enough for me to enjoy it.
I’m camouflaged, bet you can’t see me!
So off we went to one of my parks and we walked in the woods for a long time.
I’m a happy girl when I’m in the woods with mama!
Mama had her stupid camera (of course) so she was lollygagging along taking pictures of not me. I don’t know why.
Signs of spring were everywhere.
I had to wait for her all the time. But that’s not unusual. When I think about it, I’m always waiting for my mama.
Will you come ON, mama?
Waiting to go outside. Waiting to go on a walk. Waiting for an adventure. Waiting for my supper.
I’m still waiting, mama!
Well. I don’t wait for supper very long because I tell her off if I have to wait for that! Anyway, we had a wonderful time in the woods, and there’s proof of spring popping out all over!
Spring is hiding in the woods, ready to surprise us if we look!
Mama says if we just wait a bit it will probably snow again, and I wouldn’t mind that at all, but daddy says enough is enough, he’s ready to get on his big riding mower and take a spin around the yard! And mama says it’s time to clean up the gardens.
She says we have a lot of work to do out there.
Hey mama! You brought treats…right??
I don’t know who this we is that she’s referring to. She’s probably hired help or something.
I’m watching you, mama!
Of course I’ll be out there to supervise. Royal responsibilities never end. Talk later, I need to get rested up for the upcoming royal weeding.
One of the things about the trucking industry that makes no sense to me is the way many commercial truck drivers are paid. They get paid by the mile. The more miles they can fit into a work day the more they are paid. It’s on the drivers (and sometimes dispatchers) to figure out how to get the most miles into their day.
It’s a fundamental problem underlying many of our safety concerns surrounding fatigued driving.
For years those of us in the truck safety family have known this, but the pay structure for drivers is so entrenched in the industry’s business model it wasn’t even open for discussion. Lately there’s been some discussion about the unpaid waiting times drivers have to tolerate at many shipper’s and receiver’s loading docks.
In fact, there’s starting to be a swell of voices, some from within the industry, some from safety advocates, about the responsibility sections of the supply chain have been avoiding for years. There’s no cost to a company shipping product if the driver of the truck hauling that product is held up waiting to be loaded. There’s no cost to the retailer if the driver has to wait hours to unload.
The cost rest squarely on the truck driver’s shoulders, because they are not paid for those hours. They’re only paid if their wheels are rolling. And if they spend hours waiting while watching their income be frittered away, they will generally driver longer and faster to make that income up.
And that’s the risk to all of us.
My dad, sitting in traffic, was a victim of a truck driver driving all night to try to earn a living. Dad isn’t the only one to die because of the way drivers are paid. There are thousands of families just like mine.
Approximately 5,000 people die annually in crashes with commercial trucks. Eight hundred truck drivers die every year. Not all of these crashes are fatigue related. But a lot are. There’s no box on the police accident report to indicate fatigue was a factor in a crash, and we know that fatigue is grossly underreported.
We can add all the safety features invented to a commercial truck, but if we don’t fix the way they’re paid, if we don’t reduce the need to get a full day of wages by working more than a full day of hours, then the fatigue risk will always be there.
But now, finally, there is some movement in Congress to address this problem. Representative Andy Levin (from Michigan!) introduced H.R. 7517, the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act (GOT Truckers Act), which would void the exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act that exempts truck drivers from receiving overtime.
And here’s where you can help. Please email your House of Representatives member, and ask them to cosponsor H.R.7517 to allow truck drivers to be paid overtime. You can find the name and website of your Member of Congress here.
This bill won’t fix all the issues surrounding fatigue in the trucking industry, but it’s a start. Let’s see if we can raise our voices for the safety of everyone. Truck drivers included.
Thank you, as always, for your support. I recently did a birthday Facebook fundraiser for the Truck Safety Coalition, setting my goal at $400. I raised $1,000. I have the best friends. If you happen to have missed it and want to tip me over that $1,000 mark, the fundraiser is up for a couple more days. And if you donated already, thank you soooooo much.
You guys make me smile. I think Dad’s smiling too.
Katie here. You knew it was going to be me, right? Cause who else do you know that loves an adventure as much as me?
This is mama’s artsy-fartsy image of me racing up a hill.
Saturday mama and I went to walk with my friend Queen Abby’s mom. You might remember that Abby got her wings in January of this year, so her mom has been a little sad. We thought maybe getting to walk together, even without the Queen, might make her feel better.
Abby would have loved this park.
I have to say it was kind of hard to be out there without Abby, but we think maybe she was with us even though she wasn’t physically pulling on the leash.
I pulled on the leash enough for both of us.
It was a perfect day for a walk!
We met at a state park I’ve never visited before, and there were a couple of trails we walked, mostly through the woods. I think I walked over a mile! It was so cold that the mamas wished they’d brought heavier clothes, but I was a happy girl, trotting up ahead of them most of the time, even up the hills!
Not going to look at you, mama!
It was such a pretty park, with winding trails and roads and it even had a campground, which of course mama had to explore.
And then we walked down near the lake. It was much windier there and I wasn’t sure about the waves blowing in. I didn’t want to stand close to them just for mama to take another picture
Don’t like those waves sneaking up from behind me!
So I didn’t.
Nope, not going to sit this close to those waves!
But I chose a spot just a little bit away from the pesky waves and let mama take one more picture.
Hurry up mama, let’s not waste any more time on silly pictures!
And then the mamas sat on a bench and talked and I took a little nap on the cement underneath. It was nice and cool and the wind ruffled my fur and I was so happy!
I wasn’t really sleeping, I was just resting my eyes.
This was the longest car ride I’ve been on since I got sick. At first I thought I was going to the vet and I was scared. But mama stopped at a rest area on the way so I could walk around and stuff. That never happens on the way to the vet, so I began to get excited.
Let’s explore up this way!
And once I was at the park and walking with the mamas I was sooooooo happy! I pranced all over that park and couldn’t stop grinning.
I smiled all day!
Thanks, mamas, for taking me on a grand adventure that was the perfect size for my status! Why, I’m still dreaming about it today!
Waking early to another cold morning here in Michigan, Katie and I wandered out to the backyard to fill the feeders. I knew the birds would be hungry. Katie waited up on the deck as I went down to get seed from our metal storage bin.
As I was pouring seed into a flat feeder several yards away a little chickadee dropped down to the rim of the bin, checking to see if there was anything good within reach. I waited quietly for him to decide. Noticing me, he flew up into a nearby tree to wait.
I slowly walked over and he hopped down a few branches. Watching.
I reached into the bin, grabbed a handful of oilers and offered them, hand outstretched, to him. He dropped down a couple more branches. I stood still.
From another encounter. This morning I had no camera and little light.
Closer, closer, he skipped from branch to branch, clearly fixated on the oilers in my hand. Inches away he considered how to get breakfast, but wasn’t quite brave enough to make that last hop.
I moved my hand closer to him. We were at eye level and he looked at me. I looked at him and moved my hand a fraction of an inch closer.
He stretched out and delicately chose an oiler from my palm, then hopped up to a higher branch to enjoy it.
I had a rendezvous with a chickadee this morning, and I liked it.
Just last week I was heading up to Michigan’s thumb to attempt an astrological photo shoot. As you read, it didn’t exactly go as planned. But I did get this:
The last shot in a fun photo shoot.
So I’m happy. But I also can’t wait to try it again! The end of the month will be more moonless nights…if I can get the weather to cooperate maybe I can get an even better image. Maybe one with the whole Milky Way in the frame!
But until then there are always barns.
The cow caught my attention. Yes, it’s a real cow. I wasn’t certain at first.
On the way home from my starlit night I took my time, wandering around big farm blocks, teased by wide open vistas filled with barns.
Just a plain grey barn is beautiful too.
There are so many beautiful barns in the thumb!
I’ve shown you this one before, but it’s so cool, it deserves another showing.
It seemed like I’d see one across a huge field, get there, and then see more on the far side of another field!
This is the sweetest little barn.
I wasn’t too sure where I was during most of my barn hunting, but it didn’t really matter — how lost can you get in a thumb?
Classic red always works.
But it wasn’t just barns that I found fascinating. I loved the big expanses of fields, and the tree lines in the distance too.
The pops of white birch and the bit of yellow made this a must take shot.
And there was this guy who moved a wing and caught my eye while I was focusing on a barn over his left shoulder.
He stared at me, decided I was no threat and went back to surveying for food.
What barn was I focused on? Well, these two:
A two-fer.
But there were so many to choose from.
One of my favorites from the morning.
I could have driven around looking at them all day. It was almost as fun, in a different way, as shooting at night out under the stars.
Katie here! Mama says lots of you are anxiously awaiting my test results so I figure I should let you all know that the Vet called today. She was very very happy.
What did the vet lady say, mama?
She said while my numbers aren’t perfect, they hadn’t gotten any worse than when the blood tests were done in late February. She said I was stable and doing really well.
Well, I could have told you that!
Time to go celebrate mama! I have parks that need inspections!
I’ve been feeling my oats lately, and telling mama and daddy off if they are the least bit late for any of my six meals a day. And don’t let them even think about forgetting my bacon at 8 p.m!!*
So anyway, the vet lady said I didn’t have to go back for 3 whole months! Wow! No scary car rides, no needle sticks, no smelly offices for, well, like almost two years if we’re counting in dog math.
But on the other hand they give me treats at the vet’s office and mama doesn’t do that anymore.
Don’t call me late for dinner!
So maybe I should fake an illness….
Talk later, my dinner #2 is due in approximately 11 minutes and I need to keep a close eye on my serfs.
Chop, chop! Let’s get moving people!!
*Mama note: She gets a liquid med at 8 p.m. that tastes like bacon so we just told her it was a treat. So far she’s buying that.
I’m taking an online Milky Way photography course. There are many modulus, lots of basics, but lots of details too. Our homework this ‘new moon cycle’ was to take a single image of the Milky Way. I’ve been trying to get somewhere dark on a night when there are clear skies.
March 12 at Katie’s park. Clouds AND too much light! (Bortle 5)
It hasn’t been easy. There is so much light pollution where I, and most of us, live. You can check out the amount of light in your area using a light pollution map. There are 9 levels of light pollution, from a bortle 1 (darkest) to bortle 9 (the most light).
Friday late afternoon I drove a couple of hours up into the thumb of Michigan, with a specific destination in mind. Though we were under heavy cloud cover the weather people said the sky would clear by 9 p.m. and stay that way up till 3 a.m. The Milky Way wasn’t scheduled to rise until 3 a.m. But I was running out of nights when there would be no moon, so I decided to hope and headed north.
I reserved a hotel in Bad Axe, and thought I’d shoot in the Dark Sky park which has an elevated platform and pretty close to 360 degrees of sky and was located ten miles away in Port Crescent. Imagine my despair when, after checking into the hotel, I arrived at the park to explore before sunset and found it closed for the season! OH NO!!!
March 27. Too much light, and so cold my fingers froze after only 7 shots.(Bortle 4)
I drove up and down the thumb coast looking for another location as the sun began to sink. I slowly came to the realization that any open access to the beach was going to have me pointing my camera in the wrong direction. I needed to be able to see the horizon in the southeast. I’d be looking north or west on the western side of the thumb.
Downtown Port Austin. Too much light, and looking northwest.
So I drove over to the eastern shore, remembering two spits of land at Grindstone City that Katie and I had explored three years ago while camping up there. I needed to see if I’d feel safe there alone at night.
April 1. This looks promising. (Bortle 3)
Turns out one of the spits of land is a boat ramp, and the houses at the top of the ramp didn’t appear to be inhabited in this offseason of cold and wind. I didn’t see a street light either. I figured it was my best chance. I drove back to the hotel for a nap, setting my alarm for 2 a.m.
But at 2, when my phone started chiming I was so nice and warm in a comfortable bed I considered just rolling over and letting sleep claim me again. After all, the clouds were supposed to be moving in and what were the odds I see the Milky Way anyway? Plus it was a half hour drive to a dark boat ramp. Kind of scary. Maybe I’d just stay in bed.
But that would be a waste of careful (and not so careful) planning. It was my last night of clear skies before the moon put in an appearance. My last chance this moon cycle to try. So I convinced myself to at least get in the car and drive up there. And I gave myself permission to not get out of the car if it didn’t feel right.
On the drive I could see stars overhead. I never saw another car the entire trip. Arriving at the boat ramp it felt comfortable. Twenty-eight degrees, no wind, I could set my tripod up right next to the car, facing out over a small bay and Lake Huron.
I decided to sit in the car and let my eyes adjust. Also to make sure that I was alone out there. So I turned off the headlights and waited for the dash lights to dim They stayed on. And on. I thought maybe if I locked the car doors they’d turn off. So I clicked the button and the doors locked and the dash lights still stayed on. I sat there waiting and they shone brightly back at me.
Well darn.
Maybe I’d just get out and set up the camera and wait for my eyes to adjust out there. I pulled the interior door handle to release the lock and the car alarm went off. Well double darn. Here I am trying to be inconspicuous and the dash light won’t turn off and now the headlights are blinking and the horn is blaring and I’m fumbling trying to get it all to just stop!
Deliberately overexposed to check star focus. Is that the Milky Way near the tree?
I finally click the right thing and the horn stops, and I sort of fall out of the car, slam the door and begin setting up the tripod. But one of the top sections of the tripod isn’t tight, and the camera flops around and in the dark I can’t figure out what I have to turn to stop the flopping.
I take a deep breath and tighten up everything I can figure out to tighten and wonder why nothing seemed loose in the hotel room. I take a test shot, deliberately overexposed, to help me check the focus of the stars. I think I see the Milky Way in that shot, but frankly, it’s hard to tell.
Whatever, there are stars so I’m happy.
I take several (ok, 50+) images, moving around a little bit, but finding that if I move away from the car I’m in even more light from the streetlight over on the other spit of land, and hope that maybe at least one of them is exposed correctly while also in focus without tripod tremor. (At one point my camera slowly sank to the right because something still wasn’t tight!)
I never felt nervous, never got cold, and I lost all track of time. I packed it up around 4 a.m. I was pretty much taking pictures of the same tree the entire time, but I was never bored. That’s what getting lost in the stars does for me.
April 2, 3:00 a.m. Lots of light everywhere. Not even sure that’s the Milky Way, but it was pretty!
I wish I could do more of this, but it’s just so hard to find a place that’s dark enough but where I still feel safe. I’m going to start planning for the next new moon cycle. Where to go, where to go…
And a side benefit? There were lots of barns around Bad Axe. Lots and lots of barns.
Change Is Hard 