One Week

Apparently it is a tradition here in MC to guess when the ice tower will melt. This is the ice tower in January when it was built...or dripped...or whatever form of construction took place to create it.



I stole this pic from Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferry. I hope if you ever need to get to Mackinac Island in the future that you'll let Shepler's take you there. It's a clean, fast ride provided by a very friendly staff and I'm not just saying that because my husband works there!

MC has a Winterfest every January with fun things like euchre tournaments, snow-sculpting contests and something called Outhouse Races???? We were in the Caribbean during the ONLY EVENT IN THIS CITY ALL WINTER so we missed out (cough) on all the fun. Rumor has it that the city sells "guesses" at the Winterfest. For $5 you can guess when you think the ice will melt and the person closest wins the money. According to these rumors, there is a device inside the ice with a timer on it and when the ice melts it falls to the ground and the timer stops. Neat, huh? For some reason they didn't sell tickets this year....so I hear. I have to stress that this is all handled like everything else seems to be handled in this city - by word of mouth. If there's a newspaper, citywide memo, newsletter or monthly calendar of events, I haven't gotten a copy in my mailbox yet. The only thing I've ever received in the mail from the city was the school's bus schedule, which, by the way, is not by street name or intersection but by -get this- NAME! It clearly says the bus will be at the Smith house at 7:02 and the Jones house at 7:03. CRAZINESS!

It's kind of disappointing to me that a city with 300 people doesn't get together more often than once a year. That's really not much bigger than a large family so it should be relatively easy to get people involved. And it's only fair. We entertain tourists all summer long, so why shouldn't we have fun in the winter?

If I was in charge there would be fun. (I now have Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved" in my head but I've changed the words to "there will be fun." Feel free to sing along!) We would have euchre tournaments at least once a month. We'd have poker runs, bake-offs, cook-offs, art exhibits, a Mackinaw Idol talent competition, open mic nights, a craft fair, tarot readings, a cake carving contest, a mini-Mardi Gras, scavenger hunts, amateur stand-up night, and definitely some kind of film fest at the theatre. Along with the ice tower we'd have an ice slide, you know, for people to go down with their sleds! We'd heat a room to 85 degrees, throw some sand on the floor, rent a surf simulator and have an indoor BBQ complete with grass skirts, leis and a roasting pig with an apple in its mouth!

Certainly there is fun to be had here so why isn't anyone having any? I suspect that people are having fun somewhere and just not inviting me....and all I have to say is that if there is a pig roasting somewhere in this village (and believe me, I will smell it), and I wasn't invited to the "pickin," I'm gonna be pissed.

Ok, now back to the ice tower - you saw what it looked like when it was dripped 2 months ago. This is what it looked like when I drove by on Sunday.


It doesn't look like much, but every little bit gets us closer to SPRING!!! We are only one week away. A lot can happen in one week, you know. There's another rumor going around that all of Heaven and Earth were created in just 6 days so certainly we can melt this tower! If gas wasn't so expensive I'd drive by the tower everyday just to watch the SOB fall. I might even kneel at the base and pray...

Oh, and speaking of spring, I heard Little Miss Sunshine in the kitchen yesterday screaming the way she does when someone eats tuna and doesn't share with her. I went in there to investigate and what did I find? A fly. The kind that goes buzz buzz! The kind that doesn't hang out in the winter! That kind of fly! Never thought I'd be so delighted to see a bug!

I've almost made it, people! Just one week.