What I am thankful for

Now that the never-ending campaign for president is over and this being the season of harvest and thanksgiving, my thoughts turn to what I am thankful for. Here are a few of them: I'm thankful for the health of my family and I. In the past 12 months both my son and I have spent time in the hospital for different illnesses. I'm just thankful for the wonderful doctors and our great insurance that covered the thousands of dollars in expenses.

I'm thankful for the absolutely beautiful weather we have enjoyed this fall. I can't remember a more perfect fall as far as color and weather.

Every time I get something out of the fridge or cupboard I am thankful for farmers. The American farmer receives too little recognition (and money) for what they do for this great nation. There's an old saying that goes, "You can't insult a farmer when your mouth is full of food."

I'm thankful for this great job of providing this gift basket service that also does two other important things. By sending these Michigan gift baskets you help promote Michigan and we donate 1% of each sale to the Food Bank Council of Michigan.

I'm thankful for coffee. Without which, I would have a difficult time starting my day and getting anything done. I have a shirt that says, "Coffee is my favorite meal of the day." It's true.

That's just a few of mine. Feel free to share what you are thankful for in the comments.

Don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend

This Sunday at 2 a.m. is the official time change. Be sure to set your clocks back Saturday night (for those like me who are comfortably asleep in bed at 2 a.m.) one hour. Enjoy the "extra" hour of sleep. The downside is that it will now be darker much earlier. It always makes me want to hibernate when it gets dark so early in the evening.

Have a Great Weekend and a safe and Happy Halloween. Watch out for the trick-or-treaters tonight.

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy this video of a clever Yooper scaring the kids trick-or-treating at their house.

Have a Safe and Happy Halloween!

A Michigan voting primer

In case you've been hiding under a rock and didn't know it - Election Day is coming up. This Tuesday, November 4th, is Election Day. Did you know that you can look at your own local ballot online before you go to the polls? Yep, you can be all prepared and read up on all of the politicians and proposals so you don't waste time in the voting booth trying to figure it all out.

Just go to www.Michigan.gov/Vote and login using either your name, birth date and zip code or your driver's license number and birth date.

You'll be able to see your ballot and there is even a nice little map showing you where your local polling place is. How neat is that? Print out your ballot and look it over so you'll be well prepared come Election Day.

New snow removal system cuts costs for cities

There's a bit of a chill to the air today. In fact, the weatherman said we could see some sn, sn, snow (there! I said it) this evening. With that in mind my thoughts quickly turn to shoveling snow, driving in snow, and getting stuck in the snow. The Free Press is featuring an article on a snow removal system from Denmark called EPOKE that reduces the amount of salt required to keep the roads free of snow and ice. With salt prices increasing around 30% this year it has become a priority to not use as much salt, but keep the roads safe too.

Basically the EPOKE system is an add-on to the traditional salt trucks. A grinder crushes the rock salt into a fine powder. Then, brine from the on-board brine tank is added to the salt powder as it exits the spreader. This mixture creates a paste that sticks to the icy road and melts the ice faster.

Sounds interesting. This system has been around for over 30 years in Europe and it is already used at airports across the U.S. We're just now seeing it adopted by municipalities here because the cost of road salt has finally reached the point where it is cost effective to purchase the EPOKE system.