Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

  Health Insurance – Celebration Day Originally published in the Lowell Ledger 6.7.23 I am writing this on the first day of June. Not only is it a nice, warm day with lots of sunshine, it also happens to be the first day that my health care coverage switches over to Medicare. For a partner in a mom and pop business this is a day to celebrate. Ask anyone who is self-employed or owns a micro sized business like ours and they will tell you how awfully expensive health care coverage has become. Let me spell it out for you. Julie, my wife and partner in our small business, was eligible for Medicare last April. Prior to that, the cost of coverage for the two of us with Priority Health was $1,428.64 a month. The sticky wicket in that equation was that we had a deductible of $9,500.00. Each. Yes, we were paying $17,143.68 a year for health coverage but if we both had something serious happen in one year, we would have to come up with an additional $19,000.00. Once she switched to Medicar...

Why would I give the Hillis Brothers Painting Company a Five Star rating/review? Glad you asked.  Before we chase that answer down, how about a look at how our house used to look. Nice, but a wee bit boring not to mention the need for massive amounts of scraping, caulk and paint. We have lived here for five years now and the paint job was over 20 years old, so change was in order.  I am not one of those who toss out reviews, much less five star ratings, with abandon. There really is no one thing I can point to in order to justify my happiness with Hillis Brothers. Step one came into the picture when we sought bids for our house last year. We got three. The prices were similar, but Hillis offered a two year warranty on their work, the other companies offered one.  The next element was Alana, she came and met with Julie about color choices. She asked Julie for our favorite colors with the instruction that she not think about the house before she answered. Julie loves greens...

 Published in the Lowell Ledger 5.17.23 Dixon’s Violin captivated a full house of music lovers at Sound Check last Friday night. Who or what is Dixon’s violin? Great question – it is a musical experience provided by Ann Arbor musician Dixon and his violin. What or where is Sound Check? It is the great music venue tucked inside the Lowell United Methodist Church at 621 East Main Street. If you appreciate local and regional music in a quiet, intimate performance space with great sound then this is the place for you. (www.facebook.com/SoundCheckLowell) Back to Dixon – he just goes by the one name. When considering Dixon it is a hard call to talk about his music or his personal journey first because the two are so integral to the Dixon experience. (Excuse me while I flip a coin.) Music wins the toss. Dixon's Violin making beautiful music in Lowell. Dixon approaches his musical performances in a manner unlike anyone I have ever experienced or worked with. Most artists have a set list...

Originally published in the Lowell Ledger 4/19/23 WARNING: Trying to keep up with Kate Brim can lead to amazement, jet lag, fatigue, wonderment, and the overuse of the word “Wow.”. For those of you new to her story, Kate has taken her love of para-cycling from the streets of Lowell to the mountains of Colorado, the desert around Phoenix, AZ and across the ocean to Maniago, Italy where she just blew by the competition in three days of road racing and time trials there. Did we mention her appearance in the Corewell Health Super Bowl ad “Can We”? Did you know she has been named an Ambassador for Team Novo Nordisk? If that were not enough, she took time to go to Las Vegas for some national competition with the Grand Rapids Thunder rugby team. How about we slow down a bit and dive a little deeper into the last few months of our favorite Olympian. To say Kate was over the moon excited when she was accepted as a member of Team USA would be selling her reaction short. The timing of finally get...

Originally published in the Lowell Ledger, August 2022  You can follow Kate's adventures on her Facebook Page: KATE BRIM ON FACEBOOK Katie Brim – The Rest of the Story Katie did, yes she did. Hopefully you read our coverage of Katie Brim when she was on her way to Canada to compete in the UCI 2022 Para Cycling World Cup held in Quebec City, Canada August 4-7 followed by the 2022 Road World Champions August 11-14 in Baie Comeau, Canada. Katie surely did – she came home with four gold medals from the four races she competed in. She won the Time Trial and Road Race for the World Cup and did the same in the Road World Champions four days later. In the time trials, the racers compete alone and the road races pit them against each other. Not only did she win all four, but she finished 10 minutes and 39 seconds ahead of second place in Quebec City and 11 minutes and 9 seconds ahead in Baie Comeau. Fun fact about Katie, she enjoys pedaling her bike uphill more than any other aspect of t...

This was originally published in the Lowell Ledger 3.8.23 In addition to his wife and three children, Alto resident and musician extraordinaire Kyle Rasche loves a bunch of things. Among them are writing and performing music, musical theatre, Michigan, the Great Lakes, and lighthouses. If you appreciate one or more items on that list, then you should probably secure a ticket for an event Sunday March 12 th at 4 pm at the Sound Check in Lowell. Sound Check is a great little music venue located at the Lowell United Methodist Church at 621 East Main Street. The event provides a unique opportunity for lovers of music, musical theatre and the Great Lakes to participate in a workshop for “The Keeper”, a brand new musical written by Kyle Rasche in collaboration with Annie Bacon, a singer songwriter based in Ann Arbor. When artists “workshop” a production like “The Keeper”, they perform it without a full cast, set changes or costumes in front of an audience. Think of it as a Focus Group...

This op-ed piece was originally published in the March 2023 edition of InStore magazine.  InStore is a trade magazine directed at the jewelry industry for over 20 years. Click here to read it on their website: Click Here I WOULD LIKE TO poke a bear: The alleged “investment value” of jewelry and/or diamonds. Over 27 years in this business, I have always told customers that with the exception of Rolex watches, vintage designer pieces or something with provenance linked to someone famous, the jewelry regular people purchase is just like anything else that is used: The value decreases. I am convinced that we as an industry have done a disservice to people if we even imply that some piece of jewelry we sell will hold or increase in value. To all of the jewelers out there planting the idea that mined diamonds “hold their value” compared to lab-grown: Suppose someone buys a $7,000 engagement ring from you today with a mined diamond. After the divorce 11 months later, how much are you goin...