The dog days of summer are upon us. It might be hot and hazy, but you won’t hear me complaining. All I have to do is think of last winter’s brutal cold and how often I daydreamed about a hot, August day. You can always find a way to cool off at the many beautiful lakes and parks we have right here in Genesee County. One of my favorite things to do is pack a picnic basket filled with snacks and icy cold drinks, head for Seven Lakes State Park in Holly and spend a day on the beach with the grandkids.
With its proud stature, white head and tail feathers, strong talons and sharp eyes, the bald eagle is a sight to behold. America’s national emblem, bald eagle sightings in Michigan used to be a rarity, but today people are reporting more sightings of this majestic bird as its numbers continue to rise. It wasn’t always so. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources reports that the bald eagle population slowly declined in the early to mid-1900s, and then sharply declined during the 1950s to the point of near-extinction in most of the country. The increased use of pesticides in those years, particularly DDT, caused reduced or delayed breeding in eagles, and some pairs did not breed at all or produced eggs with fragile shells that broke in the nest. Chemicals washing into the waterways contaminated the fish that the birds consumed, resulting in the overall poor health of the species.
Let it be known that I do not condone stereotypes. Not negative ones, certainly, or even positive sounding ones. But, alas, they do exist, and if you think Europeans don’t stereotype Americans, you’re dead wrong. Believe it or not, we’re not known internationally as “The Greatest Nation on Earth.”
“Where are you from?” It’s such a loaded question. It really should be an easy one to answer, but as one who has lived across the country and even overseas, it has always been pretty complicated for me.
Per Investopedia, a consolidation is defined as “the movement of an asset’s price within a well-defined pattern or barrier of trading levels. Consolidation is generally regarded as a period of indecision, which ends when the price of the asset breaks beyond the restrictive barriers. Periods of consolidation can be found in charts covering any time interval (i.e. hours, days, etc.), and these periods can last for minutes, days, months or even years.”*
Everybody loves the month of July with its delightfully hot summer days. Many people vacation during July and, of course, it is the month when we celebrate our country’s Independence Day with fireworks, parades and backyard barbecues. As I was doing a little research, I discovered there are some other observances in the month of July. It’s no surprise that July is National Blueberry Month, National Ice Cream Month and National Hot Dog Month! According to the National Sausage and Hot Dog Council, Americans are expected to eat 155 million hot dogs over the Fourth of July holiday alone, part of the seven billion hot dogs eaten over the summer season from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Ice Cream Day is observed on July 19 and it’s reported that Americans consume 13 liters per person each year (the most in the world).
Traverse City, MI holds a special place in my heart. My daughter and my grandsons lived there for several years and I would head up North to visit them as often as possible. They lived in a subdivision in Blair Township, right off M-37, near Wuerful Park, home of the Traverse City Beach Bums. We took many weekend excursions to see all of the usual tourist attractions, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Old Mission Point, Suttons Bay, Leelanau, downtown shopping and of course, sweet, delicious ice cream cones at Moomers. I golfed on some of the most beautiful (and challenging) courses I’ve ever seen, in and around Traverse City.
In my mind, west Texas evokes scenes of austere loneliness … of stately cacti daring to be touched, a tumbleweed blowing, wheeling endlessly in through the center of a deserted town. Cowboys on horseback, and leather boots, lariats and spurs.
A properly diversified portfolio will normally contain some amount of bond, or bond fund exposure. Bonds are contracts between an entity, i.e. company, municipality, or government and an investor that lends money to that entity. The entity agrees to pay the investor interest over an agreed upon time period and at the end of that period, the entity agrees to repay the investor’s principal in full (as long as the entity is solvent and able to do so).
Going to college is an important time of transition both personally and intellectually. As young adults, we try to settle on a major field of study (sometimes changing majors multiple times) while trying to figure out who we are as individuals, which values and beliefs define us and how our future careers can utilize the absolute best of who we are. We try to maintain a few connections with old friends while enthusiastically building new friendships, joining clubs, socializing, getting a college job and experiencing new things. Some choose to move away from home and stay in residence halls; others commute to campus or take courses online. Older students going back to finish a degree or pursue a career change enter a new stage in life as they step back into the classroom, accepting all of the challenges and family sacrifices that go along with their decision.
The month of May I can live with. It isn’t a summer month, and the kiddies are weeks ahead of escaping school. But if the Powers That Be in Hollywood really want to kick off the “summer” movie season in May, as they have in recent years … then okay. The line is drawn.
In 1971, Memorial Day was designated by Congress as a national holiday to honor all Americans who died while defending the United States and its values. However, before Memorial Day was declared a national holiday, Americans had been honoring fallen soldiers for many years. In May 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, the Grand Army of the Republic established this day as a way to honor those who died in the war by decorating their graves with flowers. Originally it was called Decoration Day. The month of May was a natural choice as most of the country has flowers blooming in May.
