Tillson Street Halloween Decorations

Now is a special time for residents on Tillson Street in Romeo who decorate their homes and front yards for Halloween. Kathy and I took our walk up and down Tillson Street which stretches from Van Dyke to Sisson. It is amazing. Each house (there are about 30 in all) has there own theme: a graveyard with headstones of prominent historical Romeo figures who are recognized by street names in the village, a castle home to tens of skeletons, one dedicated to cartoon character Charlie Brown and his search for The Great Pumpkin, and an extremely large collection of jack-o-lanterns carved to represent cats, dogs, happy folks, and sad sacks. The list goes on. As does the fun.

Kids love it, as do their parents and grandparents. If Spencer and Garrett were here, we'd certainly take them on the yearly fun visit to Tillson Street.

New QBs Not The Answer

The Lions used two quarterbacks, Dante Culpepper, who was signed earlier in the week, and his backup Drew Henson.  Neither had the kind of day that would keep the Lions from losing their ninth of the season without a victory.  They started the 0-12 in 2001 but as I recall they looked much better and seemed to be somewhat competitive--not so this version.

The defense was shredded for five consecutive touchdown drives by the Jaguars.  Don't remember that happening before.  And the Jaguar defense could have kept the Lions to ten points except for a face mask penalty on the Lions first touchdown drive that gave them first-and-goal instead of fourth-and-goal.

Another non-sellout so television blacked out locally.  The crowd is getting quieter by the game.  And leaving earlier.  You would think if anyone would understand customer apathy the Fords would.

Worse yet, the Romeo Bulldogs lost to Lake Orion in the high school football playoffs Friday night.  Too cold and damp for us to attend, however I picked up a live internet broadcast of the game and could hear enough bits and pieces of the description--the quality reminded me of early radio and television fading in and out. 

On a higher note, both Michigan State and Michigan won on Saturday with MSU at 9-2 and heading to Happy Valley in two weeks for a showdown with Penn State with the winner sharing the Big Ten title (assuming PSU beats IU and OSU wins at Illinois and at home against Michigan).

GO GREEN!  GO WHITE!

Weekend Warrior

Kathy and Brenda went on a Longaberger baskets trip to Dresden, Ohio with Jan and Patti.  They left by bus Friday morning (had to meet the bus at 5 am) and are returning tonight (Saturday) about 11 pm.  Kathy and Brenda went before and had a great time--I am sure this trip will be great also.

That left me to fend for myself.  So I sandwiched errands around our usual Friday breakfast.  That evening I went to Sterling Heights to see Romeo play Stevenson in football.  It may have been my first time back to Stevenson football since retirement.  Saw some staff that I worked with including Tracy Bigelow who joined the science department about seven years before I retired.  Kathy was Tracy's kindergarten teacher and she knew her parents who worked for Troy Schools.

I left in the fourth quarter with Stevenson ahead by 19.  At the time it seemed they had control of the game and I was getting a little cold.  As it turned out Romeo came back to go ahead late in the fourth quarter only to have Stevenson score a touchdown with 6 seconds left to hand the Bulldogs their second straight defeat after opening the season with six straight wins.

Stopped for coffee on my way to Oakland University for their version of Midnight Madness.  They gave away Golden Grizzlies caps to the first so many in attendance.  University staff were introduced who threw tee shirts into the crowd.  Teams of three with one being a student had a three-point shooting contest for gift certificates. A tumbling team from the Pistons along with their mascot dunked after launching themselves from trampolines.  Sports teams were introduced.  An athletic supporter donated $5k to the Grizz Gang, the student section.  Individual basketball players were introduced, alternating between men's and women's teams, then the coaches and their staffs.  The teams took the floor with the women's team putting on a 3-point shooting exhibition and the men's team showing off their dunking skills.  My main reason for going was to see Blake Cushingberry, freshman from Romeo. 

Saturday I got some chores checked off my list.  Friday I noticed some damage to an insert in the front bumper of the Cadillac and upon inspection realized it was from the raccoon I hit returning from the lake last week.  The parts were easy to reconnect by lining up a slot with a tab and pushing them together.  A crack in some plastic underneath is not noticeable.  Thought at first the damage was greater than what it turned out to be.  In addition I watched some of three blowout football games--first Purdue, then Michigan State, and finally Michigan.  Not a good day for my teams.

Kathy and Brenda must have had a good time because it's nearly midnight and I hear them laughing as they bring their shopping bags up the walk.  It's showtime!

Indian Summer...

is always special in Michigan. The calm before the storm. The last of shirtsleeve weather. Final days of mowing. Cold nights and warm days. Should we turn the heat on to take the chill off in the morning? Leaves beginning to change colors.

After a week and a half away the yard needed mowing. And we did that. Also cleaned up twigs and branches and picked up pine cones brought down by the early-week winds.

Then in the afternoon we went geocaching at Wolcott Mill Metropark. Trails were drying after the rains. Leaves changing. Two other cars in the parking lot. Found five of six caches and dropped the three travel bugs we picked up in Snoqualmie last Sunday.

And lots of ash trees cut down, dead from the Emerald Ash Borer introduced into southeast Michigan from Asia around 2002. In addition there will be more to cut--we saw several stands of dead ash on our walk. Now other trees will have room to flourish but that will take years to see.

All in all, a great day.

Basketball Season Has Begun

Three games in five days.

Jim Bade, Ken Dupuis, Craig Morris, and I went to U of Detroit to see them play Butler last Thursday. Butler came in undefeated, including wins over U of M and Ohio State, and ranked in the mid-teens. Butler won a low scoring, defensive struggle 53-46. I was especially impressed by Butler's Matt Howard, a 6-7 freshmman from Connersville, who scored 20, some on twisting, acrobatic layups; he also had 12 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.

On Saturday, Kathy and I went to Oakland U to watch the Grizzlies play Southern Utah. It was Kathy's first visit to the O'Rena which is the reconstructed fieldhouse where Kathy graduated back in the day. She tried to call them the Pioneers, their original nickname! A seesaw battle most of the game, Southern Utah pulled ahead late to win by nine. Oakland's Matt Kangas shot 8 for 16 three-pointers and wound up with 27 points, and Geoff Payne from SUU scored 32. Very entertaining evening. Tee shirts thrown into the crowd by swimming and diving team, putt a golf ball the length of the court into a small opening for a semester's tuition, free pizzas, dance and cheer teams performing, shoot three-pointers for gift certificates. And a great place to watch basketball.

Then Monday up to Romeo High School to see the Bulldogs take on Dakota HS. (Strange to have boys basketball on other than Tuesday or Friday, the traditional days for as long as I can remember. But with girls now having their season in winter instead of fall, boys and girls will share those days.) Blake Cushingberry led Romeo to a 73-62 win with 36 points and 18 rebounds, his second consecutive 30-point game. Blake is the third Cushingberry brother we've seen play and he appears to be the best. A little taller and much stronger than his two brothers he can dominate physically as well as skillwise. Others on the team are very good players in their own right. And I suspect without Blake they would have a fine season. They are quick, run the floor well, and pass. By midseason, after they've played together for awhile, they will be very good. They will be fun to watch the rest of the season.