Reminder: Happy Hour Oct. 20th
Also: local rainfall and the bag of rocks I brought home from Michigan.
Greetings readers!
Welcome to fall. The City of Ojai received its first precipitation of the season this week — about 1.91 inches of rain, according to data from Ventura County Public Works (VCPW). That’s 726% of our average rainfall for this time of year, VCPW says. It’s a data point I find kind of amusing. (The 25-26 rain year began on October 1.)
But that’s not the reason I’m writing you today. I want to remind readers that our community will gather this coming Monday, October 20th, at the Ojai Valley Brewery for fun, conversation, and fellowship!
And, I have a special surprise! I’m bringing along a bag of carefully collected Lake Superior beach rocks, and will invite attendees select their favorite. I know — random! Let me explain…
I recently came home from a trip to Michigan, where I explored the Upper Peninsula and Lake Superior, and visited family in the “mitten” (lower Michigan).
Readers, I cannot express the degree to which I am obsessed with the Great Lakes. I have a particular love of Lake Superior, which holds ten percent of our Earth’s freshwater!
Superior, known by the Ojibwe people as “Gichigami,” or “Great Sea,” is beautiful and dynamic and dangerous. Superior herself is responsible for more than 500 shipwrecks, some of which have never been located. (Ever heard of the Edmund Fitzgerald? That was Lake Superior.) The Ojibwe people traditionally navigated the region, including wild Superior, in canoes carved from birch trees. In total, the five Great Lakes account for more than 20% of our planet’s freshwater.
Amazing, no?!
The more time I spend exploring the area, and the more reading I do, I realize how fundamental the Great Lakes are — to our planet, to Indigenous Americans, to the histories and economies of western European nations and the United States.1
My Lake Superior fixation, lately, has morphed into a geology fixation. The Great Lakes rock! Once you learn a bit about geology, you realize that each individual rock, each cliff, each beach, tells a story. The rocky beaches of Lake Superior provide a window into the formation of the Earth, and tell a story of massive glacier retreat. It’s all in the rocks.
So, readers, I spent many meditative hours sitting on one of Lake Superior’s beaches, scanning infinite rocks, each unique in color, size, and materials. I picked out “special” rocks and toted them home in an old ice cream bucket with a Green Bay Packers logo.2
Later, I sorted the contents of the bucket on the kitchen table of an AirBNB. Only the extremely special survived; the rest were returned to Lake Superior.
The chosen rocks (I know I sound insane, but whatever) eventually made their way to my backpack, which I toted through security at the Detroit airport and onward to LAX. One TSA agent held my backpack, looked at me and inquired, “What do you got in here, rocks?”
Yes. About 15 pounds of rocks. Special rocks, all individually shaped by Lake Superior. And I’m toting these rocks to the Ojai Valley Brewery on Monday the 20th, where I will invite you to choose your favorite(s)!
In closing, please enjoy this photo of my eldest cousin’s eldest son, Julian, up a tree. I’m gladdened that some things never change.
I look forward to seeing some of you on Monday.
Think: fur, timber, minerals and the ability to transport — by boat and railroad — and sell those resources. The abundance — and the wealth extracted — is somewhat unfathomable.
The western Upper Peninsula is culturally Wisconsin. They are connected, after all.
I’ll def be there! Rocks! Yes! I’ll see if I can get Nutmeg to come…