I have returned from our 2013 sojourn in the wilds of the UP of Mich.

It was cold and we had terribly destructive storms, and I was ill twice--- early on with a terrible sore throat that then resolved after 5 days and turned into GI problems. But now seeing the Chobani item here on our Health News Headlines, I think maybe it was a factor in making me sick? I stopped it over 7 days ago, and my GI problems cleared up! I lost over 10lbs over it all... a tough way to lose unwanted weight!

I have some new photos in my album. I couldn't get out much, and it was so cold, but I did manage some interesting photos.

Weezie our cat, enjoyed herself. She caught many pigmy shrews, and caught and ate many grasshoppers. (when the weather permitted).

One night we had a 8hr storm with constant lightning and 3.5 in of rain! Our cousin's boat sank that night and had to be towed into the marina to dry out the motor! That was a first for HER!
It is a molded old fiberglass vintage thing so it didn't have a cover and quickly filled up with water and the dock pulled it onto its side and down it went! The second big storm blew out hubby's windshield on his antique old family wooden boat. We looked for it 3 times and still could not find it. (it was a plexiglass replacement). That storm frightened Weezie and she howled thru most of it and I had to hold her most of the night. She has never been afraid of storms before this. And there were some very close lightning strikes which were alarming.
(since we have already been hit before). Our son was up during this 2nd storm, and he was on his iPhone constantly and we lost
service for a few hours, and that alarmed HIM. But by morning everything was back to normal. The AT &T service was upgraded to 4G and that was faster than this DSL connection!

The laundromat went out of business much to our chagrin , but my iPhone which is new this year allowed me to keep up here pretty well. Just keeping it charged up however, was challenging. We have a JumpStart Battery with a car plug so we
got some phone charging from that (about 6 iPhone charges until it needed a recharge itself). Hubby would take it in once a week to the marina which graciously let us charge it there overnight. They also let us use their wifi...so hubby could pay our bills with his laptop (which we used to do at the laundromat).

Thanks to all those who have helped our members, during my absence...by providing links and references, too.

Sorry you were ill and the weather was bad etc. Glad you are home safely.

Good to have you back MrsD! Hope you enjoyed it even through the storms!

--that you don't deserve to get away for a while from time to time, but I'm always glad when you return.

Glad to have you back safe and sound. Scary about the Chobani...glad you're feeling better.

Long long time ago, John and I were in the Detroit area and a storm came through. It was the most severe lightning and thunder we've ever experienced. I cannot imagine an 8 hour storm up there.

While it doesn't sound like a dream vacation, I hope you still had fun over there. And welcome back!

Our iPhones came in handy watching the Weather Channel.
That second storm, filled over 1/2 of the UP map with RED cells...and was hours long. I've never seen so much red on a map before. Being on an island, with no help or electricity is not helpful for fear either! Being ALONE in a thing like that is pretty awful. I suspect Weezie our cat, could feel the electrical charges building up. She is almost 3 yrs old and has been thru many storms with no reaction whatsoever...but this one really pushed HER buttons! At one point during the second storm we lost our phone coverage. I was calming poor Weezie and my son was on his phone ...none of us slept that night in fact. When the phone went down, my son started in with the fear factor too.
There was no one to calm me however.... LOL

I have some cloud pictures in my album here to illustrate other severe formations we had too. example:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/al...pictureid=7596