Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 29, 2016

Frazz, you belong wherever you have the freedom to work out without restriction. It helps if the scenery and food are good and the people are friendly.

Funny thing though, Mackinac is just north of where they live already (Michigan of course). No place like home!

Another funny thing…..

Tourists from the northeast.

 

We wonder why they come here in December…

when we’re shivering in winter jackets.

 

They think 52° is warm,

and wander about in shirtsleeves.

Im quite found of the PNW.

Anywhere along the coast from San Francisco to Canada.

who says cottages?

My grandparents lived not too far north of Brown County, Indiana. It’s a lovely place, and I could feel at home there too. I never felt at home in California or NYC, but they were nice places to visit. Michigan I could call home. Didn’t get to spend much time in Mackinac, though I liked it too. Never been to Nova Scotia, so I can’t say. But yeah, southern Indiana and Michigan always felt like home to me.

If you don’t get cottages, why would you get houses? Buy a motorhome and live wherever you want whenever you want.

South Texas over the decades has gotten hotter and we don’t have much snow at all. Never did in the past, but now none but a light frost for a short time. Summers go on and an, the humidity levels are so high it is abysmal. I see our area becoming more tropical over time. Maybe no Winters at all one day soon.

After spending my first 45 years in places with sub-freezing winters, it only took me a few years in Southern California before 40º began to feel really cold!

Fairfax may be the center of all strangeness in California. Stop by Petaluma for a glass of wine!

I grew up in a desert region. When I moved to Huntington Beach to join my husband to be, he suggested we go down to the beach one evening. I went to grab a sweater and he said, “you don’t need that, it’s 70 degrees outside”. My response, “Yes it is, and I’M COLD!”

But we’re comfy when you’re griping about the heat.

Born and bred in SoCal. Going to Alpena in July for the 4th of July parade. Any suggestions on what to expect?

Heh. I’ve still got the few flakes of gold we panned in Brown County, Indiana decades ago.

Mackinac is a PIT! Only 3 seasons there: winter, July, and August. In spring, the temperature comes all the way back up to zero. IN the short weeks of summer, huge ravenous mosquitoes eat you alive. I grew up on a farm 15 miles south of Mack City in Cheboygan County. Got out when I was 17, and am SO happy to live in San Diego now.

Mearlh1, I lived in Alpena as a kid for a couple of years. Went to Ella White Elementary. It’s a lot nicer than Cheboygan County. The park on the river is a good place, willow trees, picnic areas. There was a great ice cream place there called Sorensen’s. You will enjoy the Fourth of July there. Bring a sweater.

Yes, Brown County a lovely place in the fall and the summer is not bad either. My home state

It’s a little known “fact” that, in California, 50 degrees is considered “freezing.”

I don’t understand his point about cottages. How does spending money on a small house make you give up flexibility?

Frazz, you should have stayed in Nova Scotia. Our winters and summers are tempered by the ocean – it rarely gets above 30 celsius here, and rarely goes below -20 in winter. We experience all four seasons, quite often in a single day. It is not uncommon to have the temp at -10 in the morning, +10 in the afternoon, and -10 again in the evening. Wreaks havoc on the roads though – the constant freezing & thawing causes the pavement to crumble

Rekam… there are several ways to make °.

 

It’s what is called an “alt character” ….

Being old-ish and geeky-ish I remember a lot of those…..

The “alt code” is 248 for a degree sign.

 

I hold down the alt key, type in 248, and release the alt key.

 

Probably easier to use HTML…..

HTML characters are numbers or lower case letters, with an ampersand in front and a semi-colon after.

 

° happens to be °

 

There’s a numeric version as well, but why bother.

 

If you forget, or don’t know, the alt code or HTML, there are numerous online tables you can bookmark…. like….

 

http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/ALTchrc.html

 

You can either find the code or HTML and type it in… or just copy and paste the character….

 

Or just do what most people do (but to me it’s more of a pain) …

use the little built-in program in Windows Accessories called Character Map.

 

If you happen to be on a Mac, HTML is the same, of course….

but entering alt characters is a bit different.

 

Google “Alt characters for Mac” and I’m sure you’ll find charts.

There’s probably also an equivalent for Character Map.

I remember the day I decided to leave Michigan: It was 30 below with 30 mph winds – the windchill was 67 below zero. I was out in the barn thawing plastic pipes with a hand torch so the animals could drink. The next fall found me in Ohio. Each move has been a little further south…

Yay Nova Scotia!!

rekam

On my Apple, it is alt [option in large letters] shift asterisk. Hit alt and hold the space bar and various letters for an assortment of diacritical marks, release and hit the letter and get that letter with the diacritical mark in place: e for acute, u for umlaut, etc. – but where is the hachek? Use the shift to get the capital form.

Hey…you’re welcome in Nova Scotia any time!

Don’t know about Petaluma, but I once had vanilla-garlic ice cream in (where else?) Gilroy.