Personal Finance Topics / Macroeconomic Trends and Risks
No. of Recommendations: 3
No. of Recommendations: 2
...and consider what there is to do.
I found that, since I retired, and am not forced to put up with coworkers all day, every day, I can tolerate small doses of other people a lot better.
And there is lots to do in southern Michigan. Except this weekend which is a washout. I went to a conference yesterday, only to find that the conference was cancelled due to illness of one of the participants. I was going to go to a car show today, but we are having an all day rain, so that washed out.
In the summer, there are things going on here every weekend. Often I need to choose which event to go to. From late October to late April is a cold, grey, bucket of zuk, however. Some years, I have tackled a months long project, over the winter. Winter activities are down to monthly lectures at the Dearborn Historical Museum, and occasional lectures at the Dearborn public library. The air museum at Willow Run has monthly lectures as well, but they got greedy, and I got disgusted with how they waste their supporter's money, so I don't attend that lecture series anymore. The Packard Proving Grounds also hosts a lecture series, but the PPG is a long, irritating, drive. The Gilmore museum has a lecture series, but the weather needs to be perfect, for me to make that drive in the winter, as it's a 120 mile drive, into the "lake effect" belt.
Steve
No. of Recommendations: 0
"And there is lots to do in southern Michigan."
I enjoy quick visits to metro Detroit, and the city of Detroit. All sorts of
things to do. But after a couple of days, am ready to get back North.
GR on the south west side has got a lot going for it, too.
People really need to consider the type of medical care and facilities in the
areas they intend to move to. 60 mile drives in the winter up here can turn into
2 hour drives due to road conditions. And the rural areas are pretty ( not
completely ) MAGAish, which usually means a bare minimum of services, and
grocery stores, etc.
Keeping my fingers crossed that we get the "return to normal" winter that is
being predicted. I'll believe it when I see it, but we're due for a heavy
snowfall season.
No. of Recommendations: 1
60 mile drives in the winter up here can turn into
2 hour drives due to road conditions. In the days before cell phones, the local news (I favored channel 8 in GR), every year, would report on someone out in the boonies, got stuck in the snow. The person would see the lights of a house across a field, and start walking toward the light, but freeze to death before they reached the house.
Typical lake effect belt weather. I know this bit of 94 well, just west of Battle Creek. A few years ago, MDOT rigged the cable barriers visible along the road. The idea of the cable barriers is supposedly to catch cars before they slide across the median, into the opposing lanes. But, instead of rigging the barriers in the center of the median, they rig them just off the shoulder of the traffic lanes, on one side or the other of the median. So, if you need to duck a crash ahead of you, if the barrier is on the same side of the median as where you are traveling, you don't have anyplace to go, other than racking up your car on the barrier. Between the roundabouts, "diverging diamond" intersections, those cable barriers, and the "flow control" traffic lights on freeway on-ramps, that prevent you getting a running start so you can merge into traffic, I need to ask what sort of dope the MDOT people in Lansing are on, to be so delusional.
193 Car Pile Up I 94 Michigan Snowstorm Jan 2015 RAW VIDEOhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTJ-FXRX-FgSteve
No. of Recommendations: 12
I can't comment on moving to Michigan. But I can comment on one's first exposure to the weather there.
Back in the "80's", an iron ore company called Cleveland Cliffs Iron had a huge mine in Michigan near Ishpeming. It was a billion dollar investment built around mining non-magnetic iron ore. And they realized that they only had one supplier for a chemical needed to separate the iron ore from the sand in which it was embedded. So the whole investment depended upon that suppler. Their CEO ran into the President of Exxon Chemical USA and asked if Exxon could help find a second supplier. I ended up with the job.
I had no knowledge of the iron ore industry. So we established a relationship with Michigan Tech located on the upper peninsula of Michigan. They knew the technology. We reached a research agreement where we would provide different chemicals for the iron ore flotation used in the CCI plant. Those that would prove promising would then be tested at the big plant.
It took a couple of years - but we found, and patented, a couple of alternate chemicals for CCI. We became a supplier, and acquired a company to supply them based in Wisconsin. Their manager, who re-acquired the company when Exxon Chemical divested it's smaller companies later. He also later resold and moved on to become the committee head for the Republican convention that nominated Trump for his first term. He was later named the ambassador to the Czech Republic as a reward.
We also hired an experienced technician from Mich Tech to service the annount.
I became good friends with the head of the Michigan Tech R&D function. When I first became acquainted with him during the summer, I noticed the tall wires with a flag on top on the streets leading to the university. I later learned that these were to enable identifying the streets during the winter snows. One year he bet me that I couldn't guess their snowfall for the past year. I asked how close did I need to be and he said five feet. I asked what I paid if I lost, and he said nothing. But if I won, he would buy me a bottle of my favorite rum. I guessed 240 inches, and lost. That year the lake effect snowfall reached 400 inches.
We traveled to those areas in both summer and winter during the project. One summer we flew to Marquette hoping for relief from the Houston heat. It was near 100F when we landed - and the motel had no A/C. To make it worse, the huge summer mosquitoes were out, so we couldn't open windows to get any breeze off the lake. People were swimming the canal from the power plant - the lake was still too cold. Thankfully, it only lasted two days.
We also encounter winter weather where we were stuck in Marquette because the airports were closed. Perhaps the worst part of the travel back then was that you could get to Europe from Houston faster than to Marquette. There was always a four hour break in O'Hara airport between flight connections. And flying back to Houston, we often missed connecting flights during the winter. On more than one occasion, we found alternate flights to Dallas, rented a car, and drove the four hours to Houston.
One lesson we learned was to not joke about the weather when winter hit Michigan. They didn't want to hear about Gulf Coast weather - the contrasts weren't funny any more.
So I have both fond and mixed memories of Michigan weather and the people. One thing we did remember was that the work ethic of the people was higher and more friendly than Houston.
When I was first developing the business, we flew in one January to Duluth. Each year when the lake froze, the miners from Michigan and Minnesota would meet there for a convention - translated as big two day drunk. The airlines didn't have direct gate connections back then. I got off the airplane for the walk to the terminal - and immediately knew I was in trouble. My NYC winter clothes didn't cut it - it was a -20F wind chill. That night I'm told it reached -60F. I skipped the convention the next morning and went downtown to buy some suitable clothes. I gave them away when I retired in 1994.
We even had weather problems with the company we bought in Wisconsin. We kept all the existing management except for a financial manager to be sure they met Exxon standards. We sent the third family for the job before we found one willing to stay during the winters.
So I admire the folks who endure Michigan winters. But have no desire to join them.
No. of Recommendations: 1
So I admire the folks who endure Michigan winters. But have no desire to join them.The weather is much more reasonable around metro Detroit. The last couple years, I haven't used my snow shovel or "snow sneakers" at all. I put the snow tires on the car, more because the cheap, steel, rims the snows are mounted on are preferable pot hole sacrifices compared to the $450/ea VW OEM alloys my summer tires are on.
That being said, the scenes in "Fargo" where there is no horizon, because the land is white, the sky is white, and the air is white, are very familiar to me.
Fargo - "...And it's a beautiful day" good stuff is at about the 1:27 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmoYpJIUWhYMy aunt used to live at a lake, in a forest, that looked much like the lake where the kidnappers hideout was.
Michigan tourist bureau view of winter.
Pure Michigan - "Snow Days"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuwKCX9X8NIand a little counterpoint.
Pure Michigan: Winter Virginshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsR0DeY7f1gMy neighbor just got back from Florida today. Yesterday, was like much of September and early October: sunny with temps in the 70s. Frank comes back, and today, we get all day rain, and 50 degrees. Wow was he howling.
Steve...end laff break
No. of Recommendations: 2
"I guessed 240 inches, and lost. That year the lake effect snowfall reached 400 inches."
Work sent me up to Marquette on the Monday of Good Friday week, I think it was late
March ( years ago ). I'd travel up on Monday morning, and come back Thursday afternoon. Had a ton of work to do down in a windowless equipment room on Thursday. It was snowing hard when I got to work at 6am, but nothing I hadn't seen before.
Around 10am, one of the local techs poked her head in and asked if I was going back home, and told me if I was that I'd best leave ASAP. We were in the middle of the biggest lake effect snowstorm I've ever seen. They got 72 inches of snow in 24 hours. No exaggeration. The Houghton area got more, so I was real lucky I had worked there the previous week. The local's advice for driving was to go south toward the Lake Michigan shoreline, and avoid at all costs trying to go back via the Lake Superior shoreline highway, even though it was fewer miles. It was hairy driving, but got slightly better the further I got s and e of Marquette and Lake Superior. Remember being one of the last vehicles allowed to cross the Mackinac Bridge before they shut it down. And once in the lower Peninsula, it was just a garden variety snowstorm. Also remember my boss coming up to me and shaking my hand, telling me how glad he was to see me back safe,lol. Must have been feeling guilty.
I still visit up there in the winter, definitely check the weather forecasts
before leaving home. The plow crews do an incredible job of clearing snow and laying down sand for traction. As a retiree, I'd just stay put till the LE snow
machine calmed down, if I got caught up in anything like that work experience.
