Exciting East Lansing 2026

I just came back from my (almost) annual trip to Michigan State University in East Lansing. I flew to Detroit and stayed overnight at the airport hotel, then took the bus the next day. It is much more convenient to fly into Lansing (the state capital) but I could not find connections that worked this time. 

I collaborate with Keith Promislow in the Math Department there. He is a long time friend and colleague. This year, we worked on new models for energy gradient flows of surfaces. These have applications in materials science and microbiology. We had an incremental success with previous models (curve motion in 2D) and started something more involved with axisymmetric surfaces in 3D. 

I took the opportunity to touch base with researchers in the Plant Laboratory. I am in a joint project with them that will start in December, looking at the behaviour of cuscuta, a parasitic plant. The project will (hopefully) identify the genes responsible for the ability of the parasite to detect its host. I am the data analysis guy in the project, that is funded by HFSP (Human Frontiers Science Program). Our job will be classifying the behaviour of growing cuscuta plants from time series photography. On a tour of the lab, I got to see the end stages of infection of cuscuta eating a tomato plant. They are growing this one for seeds.

I have a routine there when not working. I rent a bicycle at the campus bicycle shop, host G&T nights once a week, and go to the local Art Festival to look for new tie dye shirts. I also do some paper mache crafting in my long stay hotel room, with supplies from the local Hobby Lobby. 

I picked out some local sights for you that I thought were interesting. They have drive through banking (I don't think we have that in Canada) and banks with strange names. 

There is a parking garage on the bike route to the nearest big grocery store (Meijer) that they seem to have forgotten to add the walls to:

There are some back "yards" that make me envious:

Odds are I will go back again next year... 

Calgary Road Trip

I took a short holiday and drove to Calgary to see three groups of friends. I took two days going up, with the first day to Revelstoke via Lillooet. I have been on most highways in BC but I think that was the first time on that route for me. Beautiful scenery all the way along.

Our little car, "the Egg", did the trip well. Good road conditions most of the way, some construction delays. There is a special Hell for slow traffic that speeds up at a passing lane. 

Lunch at Lillooet. A&W is a typical stop in the Interior. The family stopped often at the one in Quesnel (just off the highway, big parking lot) on the way up to Babine Lake. 

Straightforward motel (Northwinds) in Revelstoke.

Then on to Calgary, lunch stop at KFC in Golden.

In Calgary, I had a room with an unsatisfactory "kitchenette" in the Sandman Signature Hotel downtown. Otherwise the room was good and I did some work in between socializing. 

First group was old friends from Physics undergraduate days at the University of Victoria. They fed me dinner. 

Second group was the Calgary "breakfast boys". We had dinner at the Keg.

Last group I knew the husband from UVIC Physics, but we had also gone to elementary school together. They fed me dinner. 

Notice they all got some paper mache crafts. They had big houses, have not yet told me they do not want any more. One day trip home (11 hours driving). It went fine, but I think I will take two days next time I do the trip unless Veronica is coming along to do some of the driving. 

 

Mr. Handy

You know I ended up as a Mathematician. There are a few in my profession who also have home handyman skills, but I am not one of them. My latest home improvement project was not exactly improvement but just fixing up something that had gone wrong. Some time last year, out of nowhere, we had some boards in our wooden floor pop out. We suspect (but can't prove) that it was a result of the building construction next door. An expert we had in to the building said that the settling might continue for a couple of years. Thus, it did not make sense to pay someone to come in and replace the whole floor. There was a call to "Mr. Handy" (that's what my kids call me in this role) to do a temporary fix. 

I bought some equipment (a grinder, a vise, some floor board glue) and spent a few months building up momentum, then I tackled the job. There were 20ish boards to fix and replace. I think it went well, as long as you don't look too closely...

   

My children have grown up and don't live with me anymore, but they live in Vancouver and I see then fairly often. Our tradition is that after any project they ask me how many times I swore (none this time, maybe I have finally achieved enlightenment). The one event that was really worthy of foul language was when I ground through the electrical cord of the grinder. Nothing that a wire stripper and electrical tape couldn't fix. Anyone want a slightly damaged grinder? 

Home Hardware on Commercial Drive

I lived in East Vancouver roughly in the Commercial Drive area (officially the Grandview neighborhood) from 1993 to 2016. My first wife and I lived in two rentals and then bought a house there. My two children were born in that neighborhood and my son and his partner live there again. It is a great area, interesting and diverse but not unsafe. One of the fixtures of the neighborhood is the Home Hardware store just north of first avenue. They have everything (except lumber unfortunately) and the staff are extremely helpful and knowledgeable. I went there recently for a bunch of supplies for our home and my studio.

 

The Unblogged: Anthony Robinson Ashes Tour Summer 2025

My father wanted his ashes to be scattered next to my stepmother's which had been placed at the top of rock bluffs overlooking Babine Lake in Northern BC with a South facing view. They had had a rustic cabin on that Lake together. She had lived in that area and had the property before they married. Her son, my step brother, has the place now. Although we did not grow up together (he was grown up and had left home before I showed up on the scene with my Dad) we have a good relationship. He spends six months of the year up there, the rest in Canmore. 

There were scenarios planned where I would go up with Veronica and/or my kids possibly with their partners. There was talk of renting an RV. In the end, I just drove up in our car with Veronica and stayed at a rental home. We had hospitality from my step sister, Gloria, and her husband, William, in Price George one night on the way up. Veronica stayed the first few days and then I drove her back to Prince George so she could fly back to Vancouver for work. 

It was great to see the Lake again. I had spent many months there over the years growing up and then with my kids. I had injured my leg learning to play pickleball but John and his son, Dain, delivered the ashes to the right spot. 

The view from the cabin. I don't need the picture, I can just close my eyes to see that view. 

It turned into a road trip. I went from Babine back to the local town of Burns Lake on highway 16 on to Terrace to see my nephew and his family. I had lunch with a retired colleague in Houston on the way. Then a couple of days retracing my steps back to Prince George and on to Calgary to see old friends. 

The Unblogged: Peru Trip Spring 2025

My wife has committed to before and after school care for one set of the grandchildren several days a week. I take over the occasional day when she cannot do it. This means any long trips we do together happen when school is out of session. Our trip to Peru happened during Spring Break for the schools last year. It was a guided tour with the company, Exoticca, which I can recommend. We were picked up, and driven around everywhere, and accommodation was all set up for us. We had guides and most of them were quite entertaining. 

We started in Lima for a few days. The area we stayed in was much like Vancouver. The only noticeable difference was that many street intersections, even some major ones, did not have traffic lights. Like many places, local driving culture made it all work. We heard that other neighbourhoods had developing world conditions. We ate well (including ceviche with a pisco sour) and enjoyed walks in parks near our hotel.

With a guide, we saw some of the historical sights in the city.

Then we had some more time to explore on our own 

    

Yes, those are vultures in that ruined church. Then we were flown to Cuzco and bussed to a small hotel, a staging area for the trip to Machu Pichu. We were into the foothills of the Andes at that point. 

Machu Pichu was a highlight of course. The architecture and engineering to build it all at the top of a mountain was impressive. I also admired the whole idea that it was a self sustaining colony. 

They got the Aspergers citizen to fit the rocks together nicely

Then we were on a bus to the city of Cuzco. Along the way there was a research farm used by the Aztecs to figure out what crop varieties grew best at different altitudes. The scientist in me appreciated this.

Some interesting things along this route: small three wheeled cars with motorcycle engines and many varieties of corn. I ate a guinea pig. 

Cuzco was at an altitude where we began to notice it with lack of breath. 

Then it was back on the bus and on to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Here, I really noticed the altitude or I started getting sick with whatever bug I came home with. We ate quite good pizza at a tourist place and went on a boat tour of the Lake the next day. An early steamship (the Yavari) built in England was brought up piece by piece with mule train and assembled at the Lake. It had both military and transport duty. 

We visited two indigenous groups: one living on reed islands and the other, said to be direct descendants of the Aztecs, were on a solid Island. 

 

Two long days later and flights back to Lima and then Vancouver brought us home.