Right here on our little street!

    The heavy traffic going up our street, woke me up before quarter to seven this morning. Heavy, as in both sheer volume of, as well as in weight factor. Heavy road traffic on our little street, early on a Sunday morning!!!
    Due to the paper a man had put in our mailbox Friday afternoon (much to Boo's disapproval!!!), I knew what all of this mornings traffic was related to.
    One of the things Michigan's now out-going governor had done to try and bring dollars into our state, was to make special deals with movie and TV companies, if they would come film in our state.  
    Quite a few have. At first, we just heard about them filming on the other side of the state. But then somehow, they became clued into the beauty of the west side of our state. (Yes, I am a little bias.  :-p) So this past summer, via TV and radio stations, we kept being clued in to certain streets or areas being closed down due to filming taking place there.
    The irony is, that here in Michigan, we normally have two 'seasons', winter and construction. And construction is well known for trying to overlap it's borders! No, not housing or building construction. Rather, road construction. The first signs of spring around here isn't always the arrival of the Robin. Rather, it's the appearance of those dreaded construction barrels. They indicate the starting of yet another traffic interfering, noise producing, road construction project. The real irony is, most Michigander's have a long list of what roads they as an individual think should be a top priority, it's just that those are seldom the projects getting tackled. And when they are, we're likely to go into shock over it. o;-p
    But now, due to our governor's enticing of the TV and movie producers, not only are there areas blocked off due to road construction, but also some are, due to 'invasion of the producers'. Our old saying of 'ya can't get there from here', has become even more accurate!
    On the other hand, the 'invasion of the producers' have provided a lot of interesting things to read about on your friends Face-book pages. ;-)  Like the time a friend of mine was riding her bike the usual route home from work (in a near-by small community), only to round a corner and find herself in the midst of a filming site. She said that she really hadn't minded watching Kurt Russell stroll through her little town. Later she had volunteered to be one of the spectators at the high schools football field. The thing was, it was a HUMID HOT day in the middle of July. But they were filming scenes about high school football, which take place in fall, which here in Michigan means much cooler weather, often to the point of putting on some of your winter gear, which is what the producers asked the spectators to wear. No need to go to a sauna to sweat off weight that week!!! ;-p  
   Or the time Face-book was all abuzz about how they were filming something up at 'The Lazy T Motel' and the 'Taco Boy' on such and such a street. EVERY-body questioned just what kind of a movie it was, if they were using "The Lazy T"?!?!!! No, it's not a 'rent by the hour' place, but around here, it is known as "The Sleazy T Motel".
   At one point last summer, they were doing filming at a nearby 'collector cars' / used car lot, and the almost abandoned railroad (mini) yard, and back in at the scrap metal place. Once we found out they were filming at the metal place, we understood why the place had been making so much racket every night for the previous few weeks. They had to clear area for all of the filming paraphernalia.
   The filming crews had not had problems filling the side walks, while they were filming down town last summer. Every-body hoped they would show up in the background of that movie!! ;-p
    That is also when I learned just what the 'second film crew' is actually for. I had always wondered when reading credits, why they had to have TWO sets of film crews!  Aren't the guys on the first set of cameras doing a good enough job? But last summer I learned that all of the scenes in shows and movies that do not include direct action by the cast, are filmed by those 'second crews'. So, when you see an over view of the city, or of highway inter-connections, or just random people maneuvering down a street, etc.; those scenes were shot by the 'second crews'. We're hoping that Brian missing the fact that the light had turned red, while we were driving down a street downtown trying to find the location of Jeannie's wedding reception, does NOT make the final cut for the film!!! There was a crew filming on that corner. Would hate to get a delayed ticket due to the police seeing it in the movie! ;-p!!
   So-o-o, back to the paper that was left in our mailbox on Friday, and all of the heavy traffic this morning ....  The paper was a notification that they are going to be doing filming on our street today. Yes, OUR little street. None of us would have thought it! The listed description of activity they were going to be filming was, "Kids playing on the street, cars pulling up to house."  The letter also notified us, that the police "may hold traffic intermittently for a few minutes for some shots." And, that the approximate time for all of this going on, was from  5a.m. to 5p.m..
    We wondered if they realized that at this time of year, day break didn't happen till after 7.  Seeings how the heavy traffic seemed to have started shortly before then, I guess they had caught on. Now I wonder if they know it's usually dark before 5?
    The traffic headed on up past our block. That's too bad. Why? W-e-l-l, reportedly, George Clooney IS currently filming in our city. This vertigo girl is not up to walking up the street and into the hustle and bustle of a filming site. But I would be willing to 'sacrifice' and get bundled up to sit on my front porch and watch George Cloony in action. Yup, I am up to doing that!  o;-) !!!
    Oh, and about that 'bundled up' bit - they are 'predicting' that we're gonna get 8 to 10 inches of that white flaky type of precipitation stuff today (otherwise known as s _ _ _ . A word that my husband claims is a really bad cuss word!!! ;-p). "George, did they have you bring your warm woolen leggings? "

   corrections  ;-)
      So... according to Brian, I must have been sleeping really sound this morning if all of the traffic on our road didn't wake me up till then, because the heavy traffic did indeed start at about 5:30 a.m.. So heavy, that the policeman at the end of our street stopped traffic so that he could pull out. He wasn't sure if he should wave to the long parade, or what. ;-p
     You know how I had said, none of us would have thought they'd be filming on our little street? Well, if we had thought it possible, we definitely would NOT have chosen the house they are at, as the one to be being filmed!  It's on our side of the street, second one up from the first cross street. Yeah (for those of you whom know this area), the one where that almost bald man is sitting out on his front porch, almost twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days of the year. A-n-d, it is at least rumored, to be a crack house!
    Then again, chuckle, chuckle, maybe that IS why it was picked. It could be the theme of the movie ....
     But the biggest information I had wrong was, George Clooney's movie is being filmed over in East Town (or so my 'sources' report). Our street is part of the movie Bruce Willis is in. Is Bruce up there? Don't know.
    - Brian drove up there, but didn't catch any glimpses of anybody big named.
    - Benson's 'friend' Crystal got escorted through when she was en-route here to pick him up, but she was so thrown by all of it, she was concentrating on following instructions, not looking around. ;-p
   - and the cold north wind is far to strong today, for this vertigo girl to attempt traipsing that far. The police would be stopping me for other reasons!!! ;-p

    Well, it is 3:30 and Brian and Brandon just left. This afternoon is the dress rehearsal for our church's Christmas program, put on by the choir and children next Sunday evening. The guys report that the 'base camp', which had been set up in the big parking lot at the end of our street, is gone, but there is all kinds of movement IN the street the next block up, with high up production lights blaring away.
    If Bruce is up there, I hope wardrobe dressed him warmly!!!