Out and About – Week of May 3rd

“All great achievements require time.” ~ Maya Angelou

Three Rivers has been known as the half-way point between Detroit, the “Motor City”, and Chicago, the “Windy City”. Detroit’s nickname is understandable, but Chicago’s nickname did not come about just because of the average 10.3 miles per hour winds. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Colombian Exposition, honoring the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World. The underlying reason for hosting the fair was to show off the city’s accomplishments. So boastful and overblown were the local politicians’ claims about the exposition and the city, that a New York City newspaper editor, nicknamed Chicago the “Windy City”. The fact that Chicago, was, indeed, a windy city, helped the name stick.

Thursday, May 6, is the National Day of Prayer. People of Faith usually pray at least once a day, everyday. During these troubling times we definitely have plenty to pray about, whether asking for blessings, or for forgiveness. We are all in need of prayer, and believe it or not, we do have plenty of which to be thankful.

It’s been a while since I shared some thoughts of Randy Pausch, so please read on. They all make a lot of sense:

“Don’t focus on little issues while ignoring the major ones.”
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”
“Failure is not just acceptable, it’s often essential.”
“The person who fails often knows how to avoid future failures.”
“Go out and do for others what somebody did for you.”
Now that we are finished with April, perhaps we won’t be having so many different seasons in one week. A week or two ago, we had temperatures in the thirties and sixties within just a few days. It was difficult deciding how to dress to go outside.

By now, just about everyone living on a lake or river has their dock in, along with a boat or two. It hasn’t gotten that busy on the water yet, so we have had the opportunity to look into the water and see quite a few aquatic plants. After Memorial Day, visibility becomes much more difficult.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share some information on the many aquatic plants that can be found here in Michigan. Some, such as coontail, milfoil, and elodea, reproduce by fragmentation and can quickly reach nuisance density levels.

Chara (muskgrass) is an advanced form of algae, which resembles higher plants. It is easily identified by its musky odor and gritty texture due to mineral deposits on its surface. Chara rarely creates a nuisance as it usually grows in low, dense mats, or grows sparsely where nutrient levels are low. Chara grows in clear water and is quite dense, because like other algae, it filters nutrients out of the water instead of the sediments, therefore, Chara is a highly beneficial vegetation.

“Golfers! If fewer strokes are what you crave, you’re out of the rough with BURMA SHAVE”

See you Out and About!

Submitted by Norm Stutesman

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