Big doings on the Rural route this week.

The foyer of memorial weekend is always a crowded space. This holiday marks the beginning of the 90 day Summer Business Crapshoot and even Old Man Kaswicki has some pace behind his waddle.

Boat docks are unearthed, unstacked and positioned..doing handstands over the water. The lifts are grunted into place, followed by the boat trailer parade down the lakeshore road to the launches for their baptism into the sacred waters of the French Indians.

The old land line phones shake off the dust ringing for the first time in many moons. Slip covers and shutters are summoned into motion and the 2 Ladies on a Broomstick cleaning business is back in full swing. (There's actually three of 'em but the cards were already printed)

Tractors are taking up more than their share of the interstate, the town's lone cab is practicing the run from the airport to the Inn, and there's a crisis of debris and brush clearance...removing nature's various art installations from the beaches and green spaces.

Lakeshore Sign&Banner is already back logged with last minute demand from the new seasonal shops, and sagging under the weight of the village economic development team's winter brainchild, "Food Trucks and Fire Engines". Bit of a truth in advertising cheat with only one HotDog Pickup currently signed up. There is talk of a Casserole Chevy and a Fajita Flatbed but we're not getting our hopes up just yet.

The Ellsworth's niece back from the State Ag college for Summer is breathing new life into Drummond farm. She has faux painted the old farm stand, is advertising nutrition classes to be held in the horse barn Wednesdays, and Yoga&Yogurt nights in July.

The most prolific growth however is the town gossip seeded in the Bookstore Coffeshop which in a curious twist sells no coffee table books. Chairs are scattered amongst the row of books...the volunteer ladies are over by the community choir gals (in the Crafts section) and the retired Coffeepreneurs are morphing over their smallish chairs...appropriately in Fiction. The gossip (at least this morning) in "Dewey decimal" order is this:

The currently empty Ravenous Pig has been bought up by a Farmington Hills restaurant group who intends on selling cigars, bourbon and bacon wrapped hotdogs along with other gastropub fare. There is talk of a hookah bar altho no one is quite sure whether that's a type of beer or a food item.

A Saudi sailor (really) has made a multi million dollar offer to buy the town park so he can build a lake palace and a personal marina complete with heliport. He has proposed putting the new replacement park on a barge and floating off the point by the softball fields.

The kids playground wants a change in ordinance to have a 12' yellow slide installed. The planning commission thinks this might be a slippery slope that may open the floodgates for retailers to ask for colorful slides in front of their stores...so the city attorney has to be consulted and an exploratory team assembled.

And finally...

The fire that occurred out at the antique mall may be deemed suspicious amongst reports of a naked man with a gas can sighting. He was purportedly on a Schwinn or other late model bike and was seen shortly after the Friday Strollin in the Streets festivities. Identification has not been possible so far as he was apparently wearing a codpiece.