Husqi Tales resumes: A Snowy May

It is May. It is spring. And it is snowing.

That was the news on Saturday, when snow greeted Copper Country residents, plus all of the visitors in town for Michigan Tech’s commencement. I suppose it is only fitting that all of those who have footed the bills for the past four years get a taste of our most abundant natural resource.

Even for winter sports enthusiasts, snow at this time of year is depressing. This is the time for long walks in t-shirts . . . o.k., that may be optimistic for early May. But at least the temperatures should remain above freezing and the precipitation should be liquid, not frozen.

So enough about the weather, you might say, what’s going on?

Here’s an update. I returned to the Keweenaw two years ago, almost to the day, from an eight-month experience at Clarkson University in northeastern New York. You will recall that I promised I’d continue to write, just like your old high school girlfriend or your Spanish pen pal. And just like those intentions, mine fell by the wayside of adjusting to a new life in a new location.

But I did miss you. Honest.

Just like I missed the Keweenaw, which is why my tour in New York lasted less than a year. My family remained in Michigan, since 2005-06 was my daughter’s senior year of high school, so the move back was relatively easy.

Here’s how it went. I packed my stuff in the back seat of the 2005 Malibu I purchased in Potsdam, New York, from a car dealer named “Con” (and that’s the truth), pointed north to Ottawa, traversed northern Ontario, spent more than an hour sitting on the bridge at the Soo, and headed west on M-28.

Since that time, and thanks to some of the great folks I met in my 20 years at Tech, I have managed to make a living writing, editing, developing websites, and doing other communications work. I rent office space in a business incubator at Finlandia University’s Portage Campus (the old hospital in Hancock), which is 1.1 miles from my house.

I know many of you feel like you watched my kids grow up, so I’ll give you a quick update. My daughter, Laura, is home this week, having just finished her second year at Tech. She is the third generation of our family to attend Tech (both my wife and her dad graduated from Tech, as did I). My son, Jay, is just about to finish his junior year in high school and will work this summer at the Quincy Mine as a guide (hopefully providing some stories for these pages).

I got the writing bug again in March, when I spent nine days in Anchorage at the cross country skiing junior nationals. I set up a blog to communicate with other parents back home.

I plan to write regularly and distribute these via Google Groups and on that blog (www.keweenawtrails.blogspot.com), where I will also be posting photos. I’ll also provide you with news from the Keweenaw – most of it true, but undoubtedly filtered.

If you know of others who would like to receive this newsletter, just have them send an email to Husqui-Tales-subscribe@googlegroups.com.

Until next time,

Dean