A Canoe Trip

On October 5, 2018October 5, 2018 By Joseph McMahonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

It was a nice enough day for late September in Michigan. Overcast, yet warm enough to get away with a hoodie or light jacket. My friend and I, finding ourselves with not much to do and a need for nature, headed down to

While wandering through the woods, we came upon one of the canals which run through the island park. Noticing the recently installed kayak launches on these canals, Mike had the (bright) idea to go back, grab his family’s long unused canoe and go for a jaunt around the Isle.

Before we really get started, please know this one will have some length to it. My feelings won’t be hurt any if you skim through.

Casting off at Blue Heron Lagoon (not even bothering to use the kayak launches on the canals which inspired this excursion, since they wouldn’t have helped us get on the river) on the Northeast end of the island, we headed for the Detroit River.

I haven’t canoed in about 20 years, so I took the front seat while Mike steered in the rear

Approaching the inlet(? I think that’s the right geographic term) to the river, you can see the famous marble lighthouse

Admittedly, we barely got into the river. Nonetheless, it was very exciting to be on the river, in between two countries, not far from where giant freighters pass every day, in this little two-man fiberglass tub. The water was very calm that day, so we had few worries.

That’s the US side of the river, a power plant can be seen to the right

Then we hooked a left and headed sort of Westward, down a……you know what, I’m not sure what the word is for a narrow body of water between two islands, one of which (to the right) is basically a sandbar, so I’ll call it a canal.

Along this canal, you will find the infamous Hipster Beach where all kinds of filth goes on. I somehow didn’t grab a picture of it, so just imagine a dirt clearing on the left bank where nonsense occurs. That’s right, the beach isn’t even sand, it’s dirt.

Anyhow, here’s some cool pics of canal traversal:

In this one, you can just BARELY see a rope, to the left, used to swing into the canal

Eventually, we came upon this bridge, which leads to the intake for the city’s water treatment plant:

Getting close to the river again, we spied a large Crane in a tree:

Popping back into the river, we took another left and went past the Detroit Yacht Club:

You can just barely see it, but there’s a muskrat just about dead center in this pic

It went back under when we got too close

You can see the Detroit city skyline through the trees here

At this point, we can upon the bridge leading to the Yacht Club, which, due to the high water level, we were unable to pass under. We had to pull the canoe out, walk around the bridge and plop it back in. This was our first, but not last, portage.

Paddling the rest of that canal, we ended up at the real beach. It wasn’t very lively, for obvious reasons.

After relaxing on the beach (you know, coconuts, sea shells, Pina Coladas, that sort of thing), we decided to hike the canoe about 100 yards inland, to explore the interior.

That shifty-looking bridge connects the two halves of the old (now overgrown beyond use) golf course. The picture doesn’t really show how high the water is in relation to the bottom of it, suffice to say it was tight enough we hesitated going under.

Onward into the interior canals!

At this point, we came to the Zoo. The Belle Isle Zoo has been closed for many years and is a tragic sight. I won’t get into the how’s and why’s, it’s a real ball of wax.

The elevated walkways, once a joy to walk along, now look like a series of Halloween props and backdrops or maybe something from Jurassic World:

The overgrown fences and concrete embankment along the canal add to the “Oh jeez, a Velociraptor is going to jump out any second” feeling:

Here you can see the roof of the long-deserted visitor center, roughly in the center of the Zoo:

Moving along, we found ourselves behind the island’s maintenance yard and face to face with more creepy abandonment:

Eventually, we ran out of canal and had to head back the way we came. One last neat surprise was waiting for us though, a rather large frog who just sat there and looked at us:

That being said, we loaded the canoe back on the Jeep and headed home!

Thanks for reading along and I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our wacky Belle Isle!

Trunk Tune-Up

On September 14, 2018September 14, 2018 By Joseph McMahonIn CarsLeave a comment

I’ve never shared the monster lurking in my garage before, but here it is.

Well, here’s a dumpy picture of it anyway

It’s a 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo, all the way from Nevada. The tale of how I wound up owning such a thing is long and convoluted, perhaps a story in and of itself.

Anyhow, this thing has been sitting in my garage for five years and I intermittently get a wild hair up my ass to put some work into it. I won’t mince words, it’s a real piece of shit, so there’s LOTS to do.

Sometimes I just want it out of my life altogether and put it up for sale on Craigslist, but it doesn’t work out and I’ve realized I’m probably just stuck with it, at least until it’s in proper running, usable order.

SOOO I decided to take a step in that direction yesterday. While helping a friend do some odds and ends on his Jeep, I was bitten by the car-working-on bug. It is an insidious little bug and the virus it carries is difficult to cure.

Picking up where I’d left off last year(!), I opened the garage and was greeted with this filthy mess of a trunk. I had spent HOURS stripping nasty old paint off of, only to walk away frustrated, thinking it was never going to get done.

The work I had done already was riddled with surface rust, my own fault for leaving it be for a year, so I just got down to scraping paint from the areas I hadn’t done already.

I quickly realized there really wasn’t much paint left to scrape off, as I had done all the truly difficult work previously, without even knowing it. I wasn’t looking to remove ALL the original paint from the surface, only the nasty stuff hiding rust.

Pleased with this realization, I removed what could reasonably be removed paint wise and applied a rust dissolving solution to the…..rust.

This stuff is great, easy to use AND it’s a fun gooey pink color

This picture is a little ahead of the game, as you can see, I’ve already primed a few areas and the mocked up battery box is in there

As soon as the rust was gone, I sprayed primer on the areas I had worked on before.

Moving on to a few areas which still needed rust removal, I then primed the rest of the trunk floor and sprayed some generic matte black.

Yes, I am only using rattle cans, I don’t see any need to get all fancy for this sort of project

Slowly painting small sections with light coats is the trick, I imagine I’m sort of reverse dusting

At this point, you can still see some primer peeking through. This was intentional, as I don’t plan to carpet this trunk, so I finished it out with…..

Truck bed coating, to give it a bit of grip so should I actually decide to put anything back there, it won’t fly around.

I left the wheel wells alone on purpose, my only goal was to have a clean, rust-free area for a trunk-mounted battery and any cargo. That battery will likely be the next project when I get around to it, which knowing me, will be sometime next year.

As always, thanks for reading along!

Steak. Eggs. Veggies.

On September 13, 2018September 13, 2018 By Joseph McMahonIn foodLeave a comment

Hey there, I know it’s been a while (I’ve been up to my eyeballs and frankly uninspired to write anything at all) but I made breakfast just now and thought it looked so tasty I’d share with you. I won’t go into too much detail about the food, everything I’m eating is self explanatory and simple, however I will share my trick for steaming veggies FAST:

Super easy: put them in a (microwave safe!) bowl, season to your liking, then add about three tablespoons of water and microwave for two to three minutes. Done!

NOW COMES THE INTERESTING PART

Why no hash browns? NO TOAST? Another simple answer, I’m on a low/no-carb diet. It’s not quite keto though, as day to day all I’m eating is beef, chicken and veggies. I heard about this weirdo diet from Dr. Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist of some note, while he was being interviewed by Joe Rogan. That’s a link to the rather long winded interview, clocking in at a little over three(!) hours. The diet part starts at about the 2:44 mark if you’re interested, but I don’t know how to embed the link so it starts there, however the whole conversation is fascinating and sometimes challenging. I heard this MADMAN describe his diet, was immediately interested, said “Well, hell, I can do THAT” and decided to try it out, starting with the beef, chicken and veggies only menu last week.

Anyhow, the eggs are even an oddity, although I find them to be within the realm of a “modified carnivore diet,” whatever that (or anything anymore) even means. I have dabbled in cheese for the same reason. I’m more after the discipline of not eating carbs and sweets (I especially enjoy having pizza dangled in my face and yelling at it rather than eating it), the health benefits are icing on the cake. Watching my spare tire slowly melt away is a joy and I can report I have lost five pounds in a week!

One weird thing, my thoughts have been a lot clearer and I have had many dreams I can remember and have some degree of lucid control over while in the dream state, both of which are odd for me.

I do not have any target weight goals for this diet, my only goal being to keep it up for one month, see what happens and go from there. Also, I’m not a doctor, this isn’t medical advice and only YOU can decide what to put (or not!) into your body.

All of that being said, today is CHEAT DAY and I will have Burger King for dinner. Call the police.

As always, thanks for reading along!

How I Cook Cheeseburgers

On July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 By Joseph McMahonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Lunchtime came. The hunger gripped me like an owl in the night. What was I to do? Why, the only sensible thing for a big American guy: CHEESEBURGERS.

First things first: get your cooking surfaces in order. I use a cast iron pan for the burgers and a nonstick for fries. The cast iron gets pre-heated at about medium heat.

While that’s going on, prep your taters, burgers and buns. Nothing fancy here, I just use frozen patties from Kroger with salt, pepper and mustard. The thick cut fries get the same, minus the mustard, add a dash of garlic. The buns, however, are a different story.

Yep, those are jalapeños. Fresh from my friend’s garden (I traded her a dozen eggs for a bag of peppers), paired with a BBQ sauce and yellow banana peppers, from the same garden. A standard slice of American cheese rounds out the bun situation.

Sometimes I use olive oil for the fries, sometimes it’s butter. Today was obviously butter. I turn the heat up to about 3/4, just under full blast.

When the butter gets to this point, I add the fries.

They’ll fry in there for a few minutes (four or five) before the burgers get tossed in the cast iron.

The frozen patties cook super quick, maybe two minutes per side, so you have to be fast with your flipping.

The potatoes get flipped around this time

It’s all done! Let it cool off for a minute!

Ready for lunch, served with a dab of BBQ sauce and ranch for dipping. Coffee is mandatory.

Everything was delicious, as expected. What I didn’t expect was the jalapeños. They were SO HOT I had to wash them down with a glass of milk.

And that’s lunch. Hopefully you saw something interesting or were inspired to do it yourself! Thanks for reading along!

It Begins: Train Room Paint Job

On July 10, 2018 By Joseph McMahonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Finally, the long awaited train room painting could begin. I started in the closet, as I will need a place to stash train parts and other things, which are currently filling up my dining room.

What a mess.

I am using a Behr satin enamel and a Zibra brush. The tarp was part of a Halloween decoration, so don’t be alarmed by the blood spatter.

Just from cutting in for the first coat, you can see how dilapidated the poor closet was.

The first coat went on well enough.

This side of the shelves turned out well also.

For whatever reason, I didn’t do the trim until the next day, even though everything ended up being the same color.

The finished product.

I didn’t bother with the outside trim, I figure I’ll do the whole room’s trim in one shot. I did take a couple of pictures to show the difference and how a little paint goes a long way:

Newly painted trim on the left, unpainted on the right.

Over the next few days, I’ll be prepping and painting the ceiling.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading along!