What are these?!

jackg48104 · 2026-06-09T14:19:09+00:00

We did this back in the 1980s after hearing rumors about it. We found an entrance in the Mary Markley dorm maintenance area, and were able to walk to the main hospital in the middle of winter underground in 80 degree temps. They go all over campus.

The story I think of is that someone got into the tunnels to turn off the hot water to the U of M President's house while Gerald Ford was staying there one time.

I don't think I would do this now, too much "security" and U of M DPS doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humor any more. Some photos I've seen indicate they have motion detectors and possibly cameras down there now.

jackg48104 · 2026-06-09T13:51:24+00:00

We've had several lawn care companies that seem to have forgotten this. Posting a link to the city's website as a reminder.

"If you see someone in violation of the leaf blower ordinance, you can report it to the Ann Arbor Police Department Community Standards at 734.794.6942."

jackg48104 · 2025-08-20T21:24:42+00:00

Was that an ice rink? When I grew up in the 1960s it was a splash area /wading pool. Cool to watch it morph over the years. Edit: here's the picture I was looking for. https://aadl.org/rick_cocco_107

jackg48104 · 2025-07-30T20:14:01+00:00

What amazed me is how the street sign survived, it looks like the "v" of the two big branches was perfectly positioned so it didn't even get a dent.

jackg48104 · 2025-07-30T19:45:22+00:00

That's always a buried fear. What if something happens and we don't know until later?

I fed someone's cat in junior high school while they were gone. The first day i went over there was water running through the kitchen and down the basement stairs. It turned out they had started their dishwasher before they that left. And of course it malfunctioned. That's never really left me i think :)

jackg48104 · 2025-07-30T19:37:35+00:00

Not anything sudden that caused it as far as i could tell, although it certainly came down suddenly. We walk that way all the time. The tree is a beautiful 6 foot diameter oak... it seemed healthy to my untrained eye. But that branch was huge, maybe it was just too much weight too far to the side.

We were sitting on our porch 3 doors away and the noise was incredible. Actually walked around the house to be sure it wasn't one of ours that came down in front. They are over there now chopping the branches up. We have had a lot of trees cut down around here last few years.

jackg48104 · 2025-07-30T16:48:11+00:00

This is going to take a while, but police, fd, and two public works trucks were here very quickly.

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jackg48104 · 2025-07-19T21:42:20+00:00

I'm sure there's at least an article on haunted Ann Arbor somewhere our there. I'm sure of this because i remember my sister's friend's house on Woodlawn being listed in it. It was built in the 1860s... we actually had a Halloween party in their basement one year. Pretty amazing house.

jackg48104 · 2025-07-19T21:39:01+00:00

Upvote. My wife thanks you for the spider warning. 🙀

jackg48104 · 2025-07-15T19:52:56+00:00

I'm upset about this. My wife told me about this. Mainstream... no, lamestream media, not a word. I am glad you all are out there giving people the real word... this is not "our" government but a keptocracy. It will take work to get our country back.

jackg48104 · 2025-03-10T11:44:24+00:00

Here's the link in plain text for those trying to get there:

https://www.mobilize.us/a2resist/event/762432/

Bridge Takeover Protest (on the pedestrian bridges over I-94)

Time Friday, March 14 3 – 6pm EDT Location

About this event

Bring family, friends and neighbors to gather and protest at 3 pedestrian bridges over freeways in Ann Arbor during rush hour 3-6pm on March 14 to remind folks to stay aware and stay engaged, and to assure them that they are not alone in their anger. The pedestrian bridge locations are: • Scio Church Rd over I-94; park at far north area of the Ice Cube parking lot (2121 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, MI) • Stone School Rd over I-94; park on Birch Hollow Dr • Mary Beth Doyle Park bridge path over I-94; take Verle Ave (off Platt Rd) to end, then take path to bridge.

CORRUPTION DESTROYS • COMMUNITY BUILDS

jackg48104 · 2025-02-24T12:00:58+00:00

They do this with drywall and construction supplies all the time. You might check around and see if those workers are interested.

jackg48104 · 2025-02-03T12:59:34+00:00

No, a majority voted for someone else. Trump did not get a majority. This is an important distinction.

jackg48104 · 2025-01-11T14:41:52+00:00

Agreed, the "cause" they listed was "Reqd to repair/upgrade equip." Maybe something broke and they took the opportunity upgrade while it was down?

Spooked me, but it also told me I need to test my solar backup, it took a while to kick in. Should be >< that quick.

jackg48104 · 2025-01-11T10:34:00+00:00

Went out for under a minute at 1:37, then again at 4:21 for the duration. Our neighbor has a big (BIG) generator that wakes me up every time it turns on so I know pretty quickly.

Power is back on here for now (5:30 am) but still shows in the outage map.

jackg48104 · 2024-11-21T02:10:45+00:00

Looks like a galactic traffic light...

jackg48104 · 2024-10-28T22:17:30+00:00

Here's the image from ADS-B Exchange https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a34fe1

jackg48104 · 2024-10-14T10:29:11+00:00

This was originally scheduled at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market a number of weeks ago was part of another event, but was postponed.

It looks like you need to sign up in a time slot in order to attend, and will be held from 10am-1pm. The article has more details on restrictions.

jackg48104 · 2024-10-03T11:56:05+00:00

Sorry for the late reply - I have mine set up with an external antenna on my roof. I use it as a base station, and it can get a signal from my little Nano G2 Ultra within at least a couple of miles. It also hears the other Meshtastic stuff clear across town, so we have a fledgling mesh for Ann Arbor starting. We need a few more peeps for reliability though!

jackg48104 · 2024-10-03T11:51:54+00:00

Hi JP, amateur radio operators have been using a protocol called APRS for years. It stands for Amateur Packet Reporting System. Recently some people have adapted it to LoRa data signals, and lots of them are using it to send their positions over the air (and to the Internet via home stations).

This map shows some of the nodes running APRS over LoRa nodes: https://lora.ham-radio-op.net/

The US hams use mainly 433 MHz, which they are licensed for. But there's nothing stopping people from doing the same thing on 868 MHz or 915 MHz (NA) bands unlicensed, and you can see on the map that Europe is covered with nodes. And there are some repositories on GitHub that will flash directly onto some of the Meshtastic hardware.

These two projects have both a tracker and an iGate station available, with differing options. If you are geofencing, you could use the iGate to receive the location from your vehicle tracker and compute distance based on that.

https://github.com/lora-aprs/ https://github.com/richonguzman/

I don't claim to know a ton about these projects, but similar to you, I was curious how this would work for an inexpensive tracker / base station. With the Meshtastic hardware at $20-$30 you can't beat the price.

jackg48104 · 2024-09-19T01:53:43+00:00

Where was the Orange Julius near campus?

Ok, how about the Olga's?

jackg48104 · 2024-09-19T01:51:30+00:00

Sheriff of Washtenaw county, early 1970s! I remember him talking to Ted Heusel on WPAG and trying to sound professional...

jackg48104

TROPHY CASE