The Month That Was - August 2023

Storms -- we had awful storms, high winds, tornados, power outages.  I can't remember a wetter summer.  Correspondingly it's also been a greener summer than I can remember.  Whenever I travel down to southern headquarters I am reminded of what a lush, verdant state Michigan is.  It is a thing I will miss if I leave.

I say "if" because I had the SO and daughter up for extended time in the mitten.  We visited Saugatuck and Traverse City and they were very impressed.  It's hard not to be impressed with Michigan when the weather cooperates.  It kind of re-opens the door to staying up here and simply snowbirding down south when it gets cold.  

As a strange surprise, my Michigan income tax return was held up for review this year with the result being they found a larger refund than I calculated.  Which is mind blowing because, a) they did it at all and, b) I'm pretty good at taxes and I'm pretty sure I did them correctly.  Now I'm concerned they will find it was a mistake and ask for it back.

Maybe I should spend it quickly. 

Content this month is light.  Visitors and travel have been a big distraction.  More next month, including my eulogy for Jimmy Buffet.  

[Rant] Tell You of my Dreaming

[TV] Unjustified

[Travel] Parks Outside the Box

[Rant] Tell You of My Dreaming

For the bulk of my life I thought I didn't dream.  In time I came to understand that I did dream but I had no recall of the dream. My dreams were completely ephemeral, vanishing on waking.  The story in the past few years has gotten more complicated.  Lately, the memory of the details has lasted longer although I still don't retain them for more than a few seconds, I am left with a very distinct impression of the tone of the content.  Not the details of the dream but the underlying theme of it.  It's all very strange. 

Literally every dream I have had in recent years has involved me wanting, planning, or needing to perform some activity or action and not being able to do it.  It could be some innocuous task and I keep getting distracted, or it could be a crucial activity and I'm roadblocked, but whatever the case, as soon as I start to realize I'm being stymied, I wake up.  Within seconds the details are gone, but the impression of the essential motif remains in absolute clarity.  

None of this is in focus, of course.  It's in dreamtime so there are shifts in perspective and rules and behaviors that are irrational, but I can't emphasize enough how clear the underlying message is.  Not just clear, the theme and the memory of the associated frustration is persistent, like actual memories, not a vanishing sensation.  This is very new for me.

These are not recurring dreams.  They are never the same.  It is only the sense of frustration at being unable to complete the task and the anxiety over the failure that is recurring. 

I really don't know what to make of it other than I am acting out comparable real world emotions.  In all likelihood that's all it is, just my anxieties manifesting during sleep.  The odd thing to me is not that I have anxiety dreams -- on more than one occasion in my life I have woken up shouting in panic. The combination of the common theme and persistence is what makes me think it is a meaningful development.

I have no idea what to do with this information. I am merely documenting it. I hope this new journey will lead to something.   But realistically, I expect, be an unsolved mystery.

[TV] Unjustified

I mentioned this last month but it merits repeating: the follow up mini-series to my beloved Justified is truly awful.  Normally I wouldn't give much of a hoot beyond simple disappointment, but this is border-line offensively bad.  This is an entirely emotional reaction on my part.  I really loved Justified.  I thought it had about the best writing a TV show ever has had.  Although for high concept and stunning dialogue it is topped by Deadwood, for effectiveness in the TV genre Justified was unsurpassed.  On more than one occasion I have been told that I have a demeanor similar to Deputy U.S. Marshal Rayan Givens, which is a great, and probably undeserved compliment.  A rewatch of a season is a go-to for me to purge the blues.  I don't know who is involved in this follow-up but it has no good qualities at all.  It is truly a first to worst scenario.  I have to admit I've stooped to hate-watching at this point. Of all the disappointments in television of recent years, this one really pissed me off.

I can't help but think somehow they realized what a disaster it was because, in the post-script we get to see the return of Boyd Crowder and a hint of some of the old energy.  It's as if they were saying, "Sorry about this pathetic mess, we'll do better next time."  I would love to see that follow up, but only if it's handed to a team of writers who respect the source material and can actually, you know, write dialogue.  And a showrunner who knows how to manage pacing and tone.  I won't hold my breath.

[Travel] Parks Outside the Box

I've spent a fair amount of time in National Parks.  They are wonderful places and I'm glad I saw so many before the deluge. I have visited many of the places mentioned in that article and can confirm the mass increase in visits.  A few years ago when I visited Zion to hike the Narrows I literally walked right in from my hotel just outside the park and hopped the (mostly empty) first shuttle of the morning to the river trailhead. I set off almost in complete solitude and maybe encountered 10 people along the 10 mile river route.  There is a picture of that trailhead in that article and it looks like Woodstock.  The first time I ever went to Arches National Park in Moab, I casually showed up and explored without a second thought.  Now, I believe you need a reservation.

Yelling at clouds aside, I really hope the Park Service manages to find a good way to maintain control of this without making it too onerous to visit. The article seems to blame this on Instagram or other social media, but that is, after all, the purpose of the parks.  To present natural beauty and generally cool stuff -- things you will want to take a picture of to share and remember. 

And while you may have second thoughts about visiting some of these more popular parks, I can assure you the less visited ones are also filled with visual delights.  Here are 13 good ones from Outside Magazine.  I can vouch for Everglades with its 13-mile loop through gator country.  Death Valley, the largest park in the lower 48, with great views, bizarre landscapes  and one of the best lodges in a National Park, the Inn at Furnace Creek, which has one of the best pools I have ever swum in.  I was just recently in Sleeping Bear Dunes with its challenging dune climbs and pseudo-California style views of the coast. I have Isle Royale on my bucket list.  And for getting yourself turned into a missing person statistic, Canyonlands has some of the most remote hiking you'll ever dare attempt.  Outside my comfort zone are the huge parks in up state Alaska that you have to be flown into.

So, yes, the big names have traffic issues, but think outside the box and you can be on the cutting edge of Instagram.