A pleasant autumn day of three more pleasant houses in the area.




To see previous homes click HERE.

Art Reach of Mid Michigan hosted a reception this afternoon for the young artists from area schools whose works appear in the 2012 Art Reach Calendar. Each of 22 K-6 schools sellected one work to be included.

There are so many lovely homes in the Mt. Pleasant area. Here are three more. The photos were taken on a beautiful Fall day. I hope you enjoy them.

To see earlier homes click HERE.

Three more winsome homes in the Mt. Pleasant area. It doesn't matter exactly where or why they appear here. I just like them as symbols of a simpler, more happy time. I hope the people who live in them don't mind this intrusion.




To see earlier homes click HERE.

Two amazing graphics, one from the Wall Street Journal and the other from the New York Times show the dramatic nature of the current recession. Each covers several business cycles from 1970 to the present.

The upper image from WSJ shows jobs added (above the line) and those lost (below the line) for five business cycles. It resembles a saw-tooth succession from left to right. The first four show job growth expansions increasing from roughly 6 million in 1974, to 13 million in 1980, 17 million in 1990, and 22 million in 2001. The teeth are separated by single and double dip recessions with job losses being about 1 million in 1971, 2 million in 1975, 3 million in 1982, 2 million in 1992, and 3 million in 2003. We are in the final cycle at the right. Jobs had grown by around 5 million in 2008. Then disaster struck: the housing bubble burst, credit borrowing exploded, the financial industry foundered, and we became embroiled in two anti-terrorist wars. At its depth in 2010 more than 8 million jobs had been lost.

The Federal government began at once to prevent a depression. Banks “too big to fail” were given loans, and the Fed bought up U.S. bonds, and jobs programs filled in the gaps.

The second image compares recessions and recoveries by measuring job changes as a percentage of what the level was at the start of each recession. It includes the one ending in 1980, and the recessions of 1974-6, 1981-3, 1990-3, 2001-5, and 1970 to September 2011. Each is shown for months after the peak of the recession involved.

The present recession is monumental compared to those of the last forty years. It is bigger and will take a longer time to end. We are now in the 43rd month of recovery, and there are 6.6 million more jobs required to get us out.

Here is the most significant aspect, comparing the two charts: Beyond the worst dip, the rate at which things get better is about the same in most cases. With the tools available to it, the current administration has done as well as can be expected.

The Republicans in Congress have blurred the progress being made, and fight attempts to create jobs at a critical time in our Nation’s economy. To maintain the rate of recovery requires more jobs now. Any interference with that progress delays the time when this country will be able to compete in the worldwide market.

I grew up in a New England now gone. The wonderful homes in that part of Connecticut were destroyed to make room for the urban sprawl resulting from 9/11. Mt Pleasant has many fine houses, and we should appreciate them. Here are three more.

For previous homes click HERE.

This is another round about a round about!
There was a lot of comment about the new round-abouts in Clare and Mt. Pleasant, one lane each.
The first round-about in Paris, France was built in the 17th Century. The round-about around the Arch-de-Triumph has 12 lanes. The car on the right has the right away. Chaos reigned but everyone kept going around and around with no accidents and they got on and off, all at a very high rate of speed. Traveling by bus has many advantages and riding around and around and around the round-about in Paris is one of them.

A ride on the high speed rail from Dijon, France to Paris, France is a great experience. It is a distance of about 130 miles and we traveled it in about one and a half hours, at a speed of about 130 miles per hour. The ride is silent and absolutely smooth. They had conductors who punched our tickets, just like an old train, but that is all that was like an old train. The only noise was the noise and feeling of a sonic boom as one train met and passed another high speed train.
As we were touring the French country side we saw the train many times, and it looked like it was going really fast but when we were riding it there was very little feeling of high speed, unless you looked out the window and realized that the cars on the road were almost standing still. A fellow passenger explained that the windows were treated so you did not get the feeling of speed and get motion sickness.
The train stopped at one station along the way. There were two other stations but as long as no one was getting on or getting off the train did not stop or slow down. The tracks of the train are mostly between high banks and it goes under or over all of the roads. It does not stop for traffic and traffic never has to stop for the train.
There was no security check, we just got on at the Dijon station. We had assigned seats, we took our seat and left the station.

I have a fascination for older houses that have been kept up with pride. I don't know a corbel from a lintel, so don't blame the randomness of my selections. They are annonymous homes throughout Mt. Pleasant. They are not regal, perhaps, but they do have dignity.



To see previous homes click HERE.

My wife, Nedra, and I grew up in New England. One of the reasons we settled in Mt. Pleasant was that there were so many houses reflecting the grace and stance of many homes here. From time to time I shall provide you with more images.

Here are three as a starter. I don't claim to be an architect; I don't know a gable from a cornice. The houses I like, however have character. They say something about the people who live in them. In some cases there will be a feature which appeals to me. That doesn't mean that a house I photograph is superior or inferior, beautiful or ugly. I just like it.

I won't identify where the houses are, though a few pictures have road signs. They are scattered through the Mt. Pleasant area.

This is better in full screen mode........

Legendary British film director Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film making contest for aspiring directors. It's titled "Tell It Your Way". There were over 600 entries.

The film could be no longer than three minutes, contain only 6 lines of narrative & be a compelling story. The winner was "Porcelain Unicorn" from American director Keegan Wilcox. It's a story of the lifetimes of two people who are totally opposite, yet, very much the same - all told in less than 3 minutes. I can see why it won - enjoy!



Thanks to Ken Beeson for sending this to me.


Press HERE