Michigan by the Numbers

After a long break, Karla and I finally got another daytrip on the books. And it was the usual great experience. We still needed to cover one state highway in Michigan, M-6 , to complete the first ten state highways. All of them so far have been in the City of Detroit. But today was a long day-trip to Grand Rapids. While we were there, we moved on to M-11 , which also goes through the Grand Rapids area. Our drive today would have the added value of testing whether or not Karla and I could stand each other if we were in the same car for six hours. We could. Going in, I knew a few things about Grand Rapids. It is the second largest city in the state, and thus the artistic and industrial hub for the entire region. It is the world headquarters for the office furniture industry. It also is a major center for the Christian Reformed Church, mostly originating from Holland. As such, you see plentiful names of obvious Dutch origin. And, it is the birthplace of the Amway Corp. Gran...

I've got a dozen or so very important, and wonderful friends and family members, that get on me about my Facebook posts. They push back. They tell me to stay away from politics. They tell me I do too much multi-tasking on Facebook. They say I should limit it to three posts a day, and none at all about anything even remotely political or controversial. They complain that I don't listen, or that I always criticize (when I am just being devil's advocate or disagreeing). These people are important to me. Occasionally, I will take down a thread entirely, if by their response I can tell it was a "miss." One of my closest life friends, since 6th grade, 45 years ago, has been particularly irritated at me for over a year. The political climate has pushed her to the Left, like . . . all the way to the Left (as far as I am concerned). But I am a passionate believer in the Center. To me, the Center is highly principled. It is very narrow ground. It is a high-level concept. ...