Phone, Weather, and Tulip Tree Seed Pods

Last night the phone went out before I could publish the sock post. It didn't get published until today even though it has yesterday's date on it.

There are trade offs living in the wilds of VanBuren County in SW Michigan, and good phone service is one of the things we traded. It goes out periodically without warning, usually returning after a few hours.

When we moved here from the city 18 years ago, we tried to learn about all the trade offs before hand. The phone service was an unpleasant surprise. After buying the house and calling to get phone service started, we were told we would be on a four party line. That was 1991. Who ever dreamed there were still party lines in 1991?

Since I was occasionally on call for my job, my boss found this unacceptable. The company I worked for, (The Upjohn Company, anybody remember them?) paid off the phone company so we could have a private line. No guarantee the line would be in service, but it was private. We were grateful.

This is the first year I remember when it hasn't snowed by the first of December. The snow clouds have been gathering and our winter reprieve is ending tonight.

Temps are dropping. There is snow in the forecast for the rest of the week.


Some animal, I'm guessing a squirrel, has been piling up tulip tree seed pods to feast on this winter. There was a bumper crop of the pods this year. There are three piles like this in the back yard.