Bad Luck, Magical Places and and More Tariff Shopping

Never declare yourself to be on the top of world because that's a long way to fall if something goes wrong. That's what happened to my youngest niece this past weekend. She called me on her way up to her 'happy place' to tell me she'd paid off her mortgage and her husband just got clean blood work from an infectious disease clinic where they'd been dealing with for several years. At one point, after multiple knee surgeries and bad infections, they were told his lower leg might need to be amputated, but it's finally free of infection after a doctor from a foreign country took a different approach that worked, and my nephew-in-law just got cleared to start driving again. During the phone call my niece listed all the positive things going on in her life and they were celebrating with a long weekend in Traverse City, Michigan. 

I've grown up thinking of Traverse City as a small tourist town and I'd been to their famous Cherry Festival many times since I was a kid and before my husband's stroke in 2000.. It's also famous for its artist shops, gorgeous views of Lake Michigan along a peninsula drive and rows of Victorian era houses built during the lumber baron era. But while I wasn't looking it became a place for millionaires to own homes. The things you learn with a Google search such as, "More American millennial millionaires live in Traverse City, Michigan, than in any other ZIP code in the US." In recent decades many of the rolling hills that produced the sweetest cherries in The States have been replaced with wine vineyards. 

I went on a day-long a wine-tasting bus tour five-six years ago that was organized by our senior hall and I was shocked at how the Traverse City area has grown and changed since it was a regular summer destination for us. And if you like history this place is steeping with it between its eighty year old coast guard station, the lumber baron era, and a state hospital that housed everything from the mental ill to polio, tuberculosis and typhoid patients. It closed in 1903 and today you can go on a two hour tour of just the hospital featuring its Victorian Style buildings, underground tunnels and places that are supposed to haunted. Recently they've developed one of the buildings into artists' work spaces and local shops and boutiques. I bet most Michiganders would list Traverse City in their top five places to go locally and my niece even has a favorite hotel where they stay when they go up north and walking along a sidewalk she got her toe caught on something and down she went. 

Fortunately, the emergency rescue squad saw her go down so she only had to wait seconds for help to arrive. The bottom line is on Saturday she had a total hip replacement in the hospital up there and was sent home on Sunday. I can't imagine having a surgery while on vacation, in a strange hospital with doctors and surgeons you don't know. She says the nurses were all super nice and professional, and all males---didn't see a female nurse the entire time she was there. I'd love to know why and I have my theories. At least she was only two and a half hours from home and not in some third world country where she doesn't speak the language. (That's my dad's philosophy being channeled through me. No matter what went wrong he could always come up with something worse that could have happened. I'm quite proud that I took that feature of his character and made it my own.) 

Change of topic: I went to the Dollar Tree store to do some more tariff shopping before the 145% tariff kicks in for good made in China. I figure it won't hurt to have six months worth of stuff I use all the time stocked up. I came home with 5 bags of stuff for only $34.00. Stuff like, post-a-notes, and envelopes (from Canada), paper clips and a organizer for my bathroom countertop from China and bunch of fake flowers to decorate a hat for a Kentucky Derby Hat decorating contest we're having on campus in May. I kind of resent spending money on that hat decor but it was only five dollars and I plan on adding some vintage horses that came from my youth. I found a straw hat at Goodwill for ninety-nine cents. It won't be a 'pretty hat' per say, but it will match a new blouse I bought before all the tariff talks. It may be that last piece of new clothing I get in 2025. I also bought cookie and banana bread mixes, trash can liners, olives and mayo. I love those petite sized mayo jars they sell at Dollar Tree. I don’t use enough in a year to buy the larger sizes. I also bought a bag of potting soil the same size and brand as I bought at the grocery store last week only for $2 cheaper. 

I don't know why I was such a snob about not wanting to shop at dollars stores back twenty-five years ago when my dad was alive and I'd have to drive him and his girlfriend to a dollar store on their weekly dates, but if they can see my now I'll bet they're laughing at my changing attitude and Dad's girlfriend would say, "I told you so." Dad would be kinder and tell me that the Dollar Store gene is given with our with our Social Security Cards. Truth be told maybe I was banishing myself from the dollar stores because the only thing I ever shopped lifted in my entire life was from a Dime Store back when I was 10 or 11 years old. It was a cross cut out of a sea shell---or all things---and I still have it today. Every time I see it I'm reminded of my short-lived life of crime. I don't know, maybe I expected the Ghost of Woolworth's to descend upon me as the reason why it took me twenty-five years to get over my fear of going inside a dollar store aka modern-day dime store but it's as good of an excuse as any.

Until next Wednesday.©

 

The old Traverse City State Hospital