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My Town Monday: The County Courthouse

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It used to be called Livingston Centre. Now, the city is called Howell. It’s small, for a city, but still the largest town in the county. Howell is halfway between Michigan’s largest city– Detroit– and the state capital in Lansing.

It is also the county seat. In the vicinity of Howell is the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department, the Livingston County Jail (LCJ for the wiggers who think they’re tough after spending a few hours or days in there) and the county courthouse.

The courthouse was originally constructed in 1847. Before that, court was held at the Eagle Tavern, which also housed a bar (obviously), the post office, a grocery store, and the other important county functions. Legend has it, the drunks would be ecorted out in the morning to make way for court session.

The first court house constructed was a wooden building. When constructed, it was not only the courthouse, but housed the jail and sheriff’s residence on the main floor. Also, it served as a religous buildings for, as it says in the Howell Bicentenniel, “all but the Presbyterians who had their own building.” County and jury rooms were on the second floor. It was replaced several times.

In 1889, the wooden courthouse was deemed unsound. A proposal was submitted to build a new courthouse, at the cost of $30,000. By this point a new jail and sheriff’s residence had already been constructed. The new building was constructed on the same land as the old, sitting one block east of the center of downtown Howell (formerly Division and Grand River, now Michigan Ave and Grand River. Howell doesn’t have a “Main Street.”)

The county courthouse is a grand and imposing building. Those doors really are ginormous. I’m thinking 10 feet tall, maybe.

<< Back view of the courthouse. The cars are parked right next to the building.

The courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was restored in 1979, with a narrow majority voting to keep the old building instead of tear it down for a new and “better” building, which was the trend at the time.

Beside the courthouse is an open air amphitheater. More county offices are houses int he building next door, as the 1890 structure isn’t quite sufficient in size. Though, you can’t quite compare with the grandeur of walking into the County Courthouse.

The courthouse lawn is often used for outdoor concerts and other events. And right on the corner is a Dairy Queen.

<< Courthouse on the right. View of Grand River, Howell, 1908. The trees were smaller then.

I’ve only been in the courthouse once. That was to get my marriage license. I could have spent all day nosing around that building, which is as spectatular inside as it is outside. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the inside. It is still used today and hopefully will continue to be used in the future.

They just don’t build them like this anymore.

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My Town Monday: Yum Yum Tree

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Nestled in downtown Brighton, there’s a little restaurant called the Yum Yum Tree. It’s easy to spot, being painted red brick and having a bright, cheery red and white awning out front.

The Yum Yum Tree is conveniently located right near the Mill Pond. This building stands next to the old Brighton Town Hall.

From what I can tell in my research, the building was built in 1871. Like many things in history, there’s no straight line. Especially for a not-particularly important building. According to the 1895 Plat Map of Brighton, this spot was where The Bank was. It’s only marked as Bank. In the 1880 History of Livingston County, it states that there was one bank, owned by B.H. Lawson in Brighton. Other historical records show that G.J. Baetcke purchased the bank from Mr. Lawson in 1891. My historical research was severely hampered as the library is only open for a few hours on Sundays. And they won’t let me move in and live in the local history room… maybe it’s the way I drool when they unlock the door.

To enter the Yum Yum Tree, go around to the side. There’s a nice sloped entrance there, replacing the front entrance, which has steps… as it seems was common on old buildings. Inside the Yum Yum Tree, the original wood floor is there, looking worn but nicely so. There’s also a neat trap door that I don’t have anything but wild speculation for. (A bank… with a trap door in the floor… hmm. Anyway.)

The Yum Yum tree has been around for over 20 years, a staple in Livingston County. They have a full menu, but some people honestly never get past the ice cream counter inside the entrance. Especially since this building is right off the Mill Pond, which, if you recall is home to the Imagination Station playground. There’s some other fantastic deserts there, such as the Mount Brighton, named after the local ski hill and the Turtle Sunday (which I recommend. Yum.) They’ve been voted the Best Desert in Livingston County for 20 years.


The full menu includes some fabulous food, though it’s hard to pay attention to food, even if they are delicious Belgian waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. There’s two big distractions awaiting patrons as they sit in the old booths.

The first distraction is all the stuff on the walls. My favorite are the historic photos of down town Brighton. It’s so cool to see what things used to be like. There’s also vintage decorations and warm-fuzzy wood plaques and old advertisements.

The other distraction is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a restaurant in all my days. The train. Near the ceiling, there’s a small train that circles the dining area.


It chugs along past little wooden buildings… hey, wait a minute… those look like… yup.

The little wooden buildings even include downtown Brighton. You can see the red building that’s the Yum Yum Tree and the Town Hall next to it. Okay, that’s too cool for words.

But that’s not all. The train goes through a tunnel over the cash register.

There’s six trains that are changed out during the year. The little train goes about 3.4 mph as it travels the 140ft of track around the dining area. The train has little whistle. Whoowhoo!

If you happen along in the Brighton area, you have to stop at the Yum Yum Tree.

reposted with permission

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My Town Monday: Summer Weather

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As a Midwest Town and Michigan town, the weather around Livingston County spans a pretty good spectrum. Usually, it stays pretty mild. Being surrounded by a few large lakes helps take the edge of the weather.

So, for a “typical” summer day like today, it’s about 73 degrees–which is right within the range of my optimum operating temperature. My AC doesn’t even kick on in weather like this. I’d open the window if my paper-covered office didn’t flutter about.

We occasionally get temperatures shooting into the 90s and sometimes 100s. Being out here where it’s still more green than blacktop, it’s always a bit cooler in Livingston County than it is in places like Flint, Ann Arbor, or Detroit.

Currently, we’ve got some sort of hot and cold air collision happening just West of Michigan that’s made for some interesting rain and thunderstorms lately.

I stole this picture off the local paper’s website because I didn’t happen to have my camera when this happened last summer. I’m sure folks have all seen pictures of busted fast food signs– I know I have. But every other time I saw them, they were from news footage of Kansas or Florida or something. Not in MY town.

No idea what exactly happen to the sign, but a nasty thunderstorm went through the town earlier that morning, making quite a mess of the area. There’s still a few broken signs and other debris. Power was out in the center of town all day– I was working my retail job and it was quite surreal because we were running on generator. But I was working in receiving unloading trucks, and we had all our lights, power and were otherwise running as normal in our corner of the store. Then I’d turn to go down the hall and it’d be pitch black. Or I’d go to the sales floor where only one out of every tenth light was on. Surreal is the best word for it.
The broken Wendy’s sign has been removed, leaving the empty frame. And beneath it, they’ve got a sign that says “Ouch. Yes, we’re still open.” I laughed. Even if I am mad that they now only offer fried chicken on their salads instead of the grilled chicken.

Quite a few thunderstorms have rumbled their way through the county lately. Including one that was heading northeast and passed right between Brighton and Howell as Hubby and I drove home the other day. As we’re heading down the road, it started raining, then raining HARD, then hailing. Then, we go around a corner and it stops raining. Then, not even an 1/8 of a mile further, we round another corner and it’s raining again.

And today. As I was busy at work on the NEW old computer that replaces my old computer (which was suffering dreadfully from narcolepsy) I heard it raining. But, no, because I could see the sunlight glinting off my pretty computer monitor. Though, it sure did sound like it was raining. So I took a peak.
You can see the sun, and the wet ground. It was very much raining. And the sun was shining just a bright as can be.
Of course, I was standing outside with my camera hunting for rainbows. Almost makes me wish Hubby hadn’t lost the umbrella by leaving it under a desk at college one day. Except I would never purchase an umbrella.
But once I went back inside as the rain picked up, the rainbow came out. I peeked out the window just to see and there it was in all it’s prismatic glory. So I grabbed the camera, ran downstairs, opened the door, turning the camera on as I went. I aimed at the sky, but the rainbow had already faded.
It really is there. Very faint.
I’ve grown to enjoy summer thunderstorms. I’ll admit that I used to be a big scaredy cat when thunderstroms rolled in. But as I’ve been living much closer to town than I did growing up, I’ve taken comfort in the proximity of tornado sirens. They tell me when to panic.
So, I finally understand my family’s fascination with standing with noses pressed to the window to watch sideways rain and green skies and trees whipping all over the place. In my current residence, I don’t even have to worry about the trees. (Scroll back up to the second picture and see just how big the trees are around here. Yeah… I think even the birds scoff at these trees.)
This is summer weather in it’s finest in Livingston County. Warm days, a few thunderstorms and rain showers to keep things cool, low humidity, and not much on the itinerary. It all looks great from inside. Where I’ve happily got most everything back on my computer– especially my customized version of Word 2003. Yep. All is good.

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Windows Timeline

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Windows 7 is heading into production, likely to be launched early next year.

So, just for giggles, let’s take a stroll down Windows’ Memory Lane:

  1. Windows 3.1 is the first Windows Operating System (Versions 1 and 2 never made it to produciton.) Date 1993. Windows 3.5 was released in 1994
  2. Windows 95 updated 3.1 and attempted to add “Plug and Play” features, which in theory allowed hardware and software to be added and removed easily. This feature earned itself the nickname “Shrug and Pray.”
  3. Windows 98 was not really an improvement on Win95. It is widely recognized as being buggy and unreliable.
  4. Windows ME was a partial upgrade from Windows 98. ME stands for Millenium Edition. This is pretty much the Edsel of Microsoft. It was realeased in 1999.
  5. Windows 2000 followed. Windows2000 intended to combine the relative ease of use of Windows 95-98 with the security of the business operating system Windows NT. Plug and Play mostly worked by this point.
  6. Windows XP improved upon what was started with Windows 2000. There was increased security, working “Plug and Play” and stability. (I admit that I love my WinXP.) This OS was released with a Professional version and a cheaper Home Version. Why, I may never know.
  7. Windows Vista was plagued from release date with compatibility issues and security problems– particularly with the security being too tight. As in the OS was trying to protect users from themselves, and perhaps did so too well. Updates have largely removed most of these issues and created a rather stable operating system, however, rumors have damaged Vista. Not to mention the plethora of OS choices.
  8. Windows 7 is the next release. If you count, Windows 7 is not the seventh version of Windows. I’m not sure what the 7 is for.

What would you call Windows 7 instead? What would make it stand out?

(Source: Wiki Timeline of OS)

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Printing Unprintable Pages

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So you read a neat article or story some where and want to print it off to share with others or save or something. But when you go to print, the text doesn’t show up on the page or hangs off funny or some other weird thing that prevents you from having a print off.

Well, I don’t like being thwarted by a mindless collection of sand and metal. Computer… there are ways of making you print!

Method 1:
Copy and Paste
Nearly every program has the commands Copy and Paste. One method to access them is to select the text and press Ctrl-C (Ctrl plus the C keys). So to copy text from a page that doesn’t print, select the text with your mouse as you would highlight text in any other document, then hit Ctrl-C. Then, open up MSWord and press Ctrl-V. Ctrl-V is the paste code.

Okay, what? C is for copy, but V is for paste! Actually, it’s not random. X is cut, C is copy and V is paste. The three keys are in a row on the keyboard. And Z, if you recall, is Undo.

Now that you’ve copied the text and pasted it into MSWord, you can fiddle with formatting and print it. I suggest making sure you have the source in case you ever want to go back to the original document.

Method 2:
Screen shots
Some pages don’t allow copying from the browser. They’re trying to control access to their page. Fair enough, as sometimes people will lift content and pass it off as their own. But say you need to print a page because your Luddite of a boss doesn’t visit the link you sent him. A screen shot will capture what you see on your screen.

Navigate to the page you want to capture. Then press the Print Screen button. You won’t see anything happen, but buried deep in the wires and capacitors fo your computer, the machine has taken a picture of the screen at that exact moment you pressed the Print Screen button.

Now, open MSWord or Paint. Either progam will work. Pain will save it as apicture and Word will save it as a document. It depends on how you want the picture. Then, his Ctrl-V to paste the screen shot into the open program. This is how I get all those handy screen shots of my comptuer to show you how things are done. It’s also a way to preserve things that can’t be printed, such as locked webpages or the Internet History files.

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My Town Monday: Vocabularly Lesson

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Livingston County is part of Michigan. Around here, we call this:

In Michigan, we also have Faygo. It’s a Michigan product. And one of Faygo’s products is Red Pop.
Because this is Michigan and we call it Pop.

We’re also likely to pick up our Pop at a Party Store. Apparently, people in other non-mitten shaped states would go to a Party Store to pick up paper plates, hats, balloons and streamers. Our party stores mainly sell Liquor. And overpriced Pop.

You can return your empty Pop (but not Soda) bottles, along with your empty beer cans at the Party Store to get your deposit back. Carbonated drinks have a 10 cent deposit in Michigan. You pay the extra 10 cents on carbonated drinks, but you get the money back when you return them. Unfortunately this does not apply to water or juice, even if it comes in the SAME bottle as, say, your Pepsi. I hope legislation will change this, but, well, probably not since they are legislators. The idea behind the deposit was to keep litter down and help recycle. 10 cents is enough to get most people to return their bottles.

Growing up in Michigan, it’s not at all uncommon to go hunting for bottles tossed out car windows. It was a few bucks to spend on candy.
Or Better Made Potato Chips.

Another Michigan brand.

Like Vernors. Another kind of Pop. Apparently some folks never drank Vernors. Makes your nose feel all fizzy. I mistook a cup of beer for Vernors when I was young… that was very disappointing.

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Around here, you’ll find quite a few folks who head “Up North” for vacation, usually to hunt. They may or may not make it across the Mackinac (that’s pronounced Mack-i-naw, of course) Bridge to the UP (or Upper Pennisula.)

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Or they might travel to the “Big Lake.” Yeah, in a state surrounded by Big Huge Lakes, everyone who goes to one of the Great Lakes really does just call it the Big Lake. My family usually went to Lake Huron– that was our “The Big Lake.” And we always brought pop for the trip.

I know the obvious Michigan words, but some of them surprise me. Apparently the rest of you don’t say “Doorwall” for a sliding glass door.

We say ‘kitty korner’ rather than caddy corner. We usually say freeway or expressway (or eway) but not highway. And apparently the rest of you thaw or de-ice while we dethaw.

Around here, you might cry alligator tears if you’re losing bad at Euchre while outside there’s a toad drownder going on.

Or at least in some regions we do.

But we still drink pop. The only soda we have is baking soda.

Because this is Michigan.

And if any of you guys (not youse guys) know any other words that are uniquely Michigan, please, let me know! As a life long Michigander (do NOT say Michiganian!) I would love to hear what we say that you don’t!

reposted with permission.

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Office 2007 and beyond

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I hear a lot of complaints about Office 2007. The main root to all the complaints is “DON’T CHANGE IT!” Other complaints are “It’s too different” and “They moved everything” and “I can’t find it!”

With all those big buttons and labels and you can’t find what you’re looking for? If you say so… I found it easier to find things than previous versions of Office, actually.

On an unrelated note, I bought a new house this winter. It took me MONTHS to get used to the new locations for the silverware and the fact that I have stairs and other such things. I had to figure out where to put my furniture that worked, since the layout was very different from the old place. There are somethings that bother me because they aren’t how they used to be. And there are somethings that I would like to change because they just don’t work. Maybe it is related… Buying a new home is an awful lot like a major face-lift for software.

Perhaps the difference between buying a house and buying new software is choice, as people often don’t choose (or they choose to be unaware of the differences in) the new software. Many people I know who upgraded bought new software rather than using their old discs and installing the old, familiar software on their computers. Interesting… when I got a new desktop, the first thing I did was put my old programs back on it. This also saved money on buying programs, since I didn’t need new versions. But I’m cheap that way.

I encourage people who HATE Office 2007 to give it a chance. All your buttons are there. In fact, they’re even easier to find than before because they’re not hidden away. There’s also a lot more toys and features in the new versions of office. You’ve just bought a new house… take a little time to explore it– with an open mind.

And remember, argue for your limitations and they will be yours… if you insist that you can’t use Office 2007, that’s it too hard and too diferent, then, you will be right. You won’t learn it. Now, I’m going back to messig with the picture tools. Just don’t tell the boss that it took four hours for that brochure because I was playing…

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