So it’s nice and sunny today so I decided to go for a bike ride and go get lunch at Einstein Bagels. It’s sunny but it’s chilly so I bundled up; but the cold still made my eyes start to water a bit. I used to ride my bike in the winter when I was younger and I mean cold winter days with snow + ice. In particular I remember a few situations when I was riding in the winter:

Touchdown! MSU Homecoming

Originally uploaded by garylapointe

So I drove up to MSU to meet some friends for homecoming and here we are at the game. It’s 7-0 right now…

Update: Final Score MSU wins 52-27!!

On the banks of the Red Cedar (at MSU)

Originally uploaded by garylapointe.

This was one of my favorite places to sit when I went to MSU. Just to study, relax or read.

The river just rushes by and the white noise just blots out everything else. You could be there for a little bit and turn around and all sorts of people could have shown up and you wouldn’t even know it.

I shot some video (with the sound) too, I’ll upload it later. Here’s the video.

(I don’t think I’ll ever just be able to upload them straight from the phone, they start out in some 3g2/3gpp2 format that everyone isn’t set up to read.)

Williams Hall, MSU

Originally uploaded by garylapointe.

So I’m back in East Lansing qgain, wandering around Michigan State University.

This was my old dorm when I was an undergraduate. I loved it here, it was a really small building (about 250 people) and it was a lot more comfortable than those big buildings.

She did it!!!

Originally uploaded by garylapointe.

This is Bekah (and brother Darren) right after graduation. She graduated from Sexton High in Lansing, Michigan. It was at Breslin Center at MSU.

It’s such a great day I went up to Michigan State University to wander around. It’s a great day, it was a little hot for rollerblading though. Campus seems pretty covered with WiFi, I like that :)

I’m off to Charlie Kangs for dinner. That would be “beef with broccoli, with no vegetables, but I want the broccoli (just not the other ones)”…

Scientific American magazine always lists what was happening 50, 100 & 150 years ago. In the September 2005 issue they mentioned an award given to Samual Morse (by the Emperor of Austria in 1855) for his valuable services to the world with his contributions of Morse Code and the Electric Telegraph. It was twelve years after the first public experiment, between Baltimore and Washington, and there were now 50,000 miles of wire in operation.

Communications has changed quite a bit since then. Where would we be if it weren’t for our phones, Internet and cellular phones to keep us in constant communications with the world? How many miles have the electrical impulses that I just generated with this message traveled so far? How many search engines have picked it up so far, how many have just come along to read it, how many feed readers just set off a little flag to alert someone to a new post? Communications has definitely come a long way in the last 15 years, let alone 150…

FYI – 1855 is also the year the Michigan Agricultural College was established. Eventually this college would grow up to be Michigan State University. I remember this because the campus information phone number (like everything else) started with a 355 and they appended the year to make the phone number for information be 355-1855…

I’m off to East Lansing to get Chinese Food, Ice Cream, see the beautiful campus, get happy hour (Wings, Nachos, Long Island Iced Teas) and more Ice Cream. If you’re around we’ll be in P.T. O’Malleys at 4:30 for Happy Hour (Grand River and Abott) feel free to come by and I’ll buy you a drink (or two).

We’re talking about easily accessible things here (in no particular order), like:

One of my favorite bands, The Indigo Girls, released Rarities this week. Eighteen tracks of odd stuff. Demos, different mixes, live cuts, EP versions and some tracks I don’t know if they’ve ever been released (like Ramblin’ Round featuring Ani DiFranco). If you get it at the iTunes store it comes with 2 bonus tracks.

I’ve probably seen them at least a dozen times not just all over Michigan (Auburn Hills, Clarkston, OU, MSU, Mt. Pleasant, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti) but I’ve seen them in Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and I’m sure some places I didn’t think of here…

Harry loved the Harrison Roadhouse so after the funeral (see my earlier post) we went to the Roadhouse to eat and drink (and be merry) and they had changed the sign out in front of the restaurant to read “We Luv Ya Harry”.

The funeral was at the MSU Alumni Chapel and it was packed to capacity (standing room only). Harry seemed to know everyone and everyone seemded to really care about him. The service was great and Darren gave an excellent speech on Harry meeting Melissa (Mom) and becoming part of their family and Harry becoming his and Rebekah’s Dad. A few others had things to say up on the podium but we weren’t really sure if we should applaud but when Darren was done we knew we should…

Harry Carswell passed away last week… I’ve restarted this a few times and I guess I don’t really know what to put here… I’ll start with a story: About three or four years ago I was visiting Harry in the hospital, I don’t remember exactly what he said the doctors told him, something like “six months to live” and I laughed and then he joined in so I felt a little better about it because I knew he knew why I laughed. We laughed because ten or fifteen years before that after some major heat surgery they had given him three to five years (or some other deadline he was way past). I’m sure a few other times (not even related to those issues) they had given him some other timelines and they all passed but then he’d have some other problems every so often. He knew it was time this time and moved back into his home last month because that’s where he wanted to be.

Harry worked at Michigan State University with Student Services, the Homecomming Committee, Student Life and I’m not sure what else; it seemed like he knew everyone there. It’s funny, I never had any direct connection to him when I went there or (kinda) worked there. I met him through one of my best friends and he eventually married her (and her kids). They got married at the president’s house at the university (I told you he knew everyone) and remember videotaping the wedding. He was only forty-nine and in addition to squeezing a hospital visits into his time he sure managed to squeeze a lot of life into it too.