the larsen's series of unfortunately fortunate events

today started off normal enough. made coffee with vanilla creamer and sugar, woke liz up, then hopped in the shower. although its saturday, i had work to do in the lab. but upon arriving at the kellogg biological station, almost a hour later than anticipated, i found that my cultures had not lysed enough for the dna extraction i had planned. unfortunately fortunate event number one.

but today was beautiful. the sun was shining, fresh snow on the ground, and i had my sister for company. she enjoys photography as much as i, so when my lab work fell through we decided to go to the lake and take pictures.

the lake michigan shore in south haven is about an hour drive from kalamazoo on michigan highway 43. south haven, mi is one of the many lake tourist attractions during the summer months, growing from a winter population of around 5000 to nearly 15000 at the peak of summer. it is also home to a very basic, but picturesque lighthouse.

during this time of year, the waters in the harbor chill to an icy 30 degrees fahrenheit. today, they were around 37 or so, making one of today's goals to not slip and fall into the water. most of the pier was covered thick fragments of ice, added to continually by the energy of water crashing against the pier.

the beach was covered with anywhere from 6 inches to several feet of powdery snow that ended in several feet of layered ice sheets at the waters edge. today, we were able to walk on the solid phase of water.

unfortunately around mid-afternoon, we were both freezing (due to our lack of gloves, hats and adequate snow boots for liz) from our majestic view of water and ice. this prompted the decision to return to lansing while it was still light. on our way back north along I-196, my rear passenger tire blew to shreds and left us stranded on the side of the road.

fortunate for us, it was still light, dad had supplied me with a hydraulic jack for my 16th birthday and i am not a wuss around cars. so instead of rocking the "call for roadside assistance", i rocked changing the tire. we had three people stop to help us, but each time i said, nope... its ok... i've got it. and i did, except taking the damn thing off. it was stuck. so i kicked it. and i kicked it. and i kicked it again. then i pulled. and then kicked. and finally it fell off. stupid thing. and the most unfortunate part was that all the tire places in the area were closed! the oddest thing about the entire tire changing business was that despite the chill outside, i was so fueled with adrenaline at the thought of what might have happened that i stripped down to my last layer. and was still hot the entire way home.

but despite the series of unfortunately fortunate events, i wouldn't trade the memories for the world. thanks for driving with us. i hope to see you again in the passenger seat.