Get the grill ready
Memorial Day is a week from tomorrow. If you haven’t been using your grill already, now is the time to make sure it’s in shape for summer cook-outs.
Check your propane tank or make sure you’ve got a ready supply of charcoal on hand.
Wipe off the grill grates, especially if they’ve been in the garage collecting dust all winter. Give them a good scraping or brushing to remove any burnt, stuck-on food from last season. Then oil the grates and you’ll be all set for the debut cookout of the summer.
Get out into nature
Spend an evening relaxing in the beauty of nature during Secrest AfterHours, a social and educational event from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster Township.
Ken Cochran, the arboretum’s curator, and Joe Cochran, its program manager, will lead a discussion on trees and shrubs, followed by hors d’oeuvres in the Miller Pavilion. The event is free.
Can’t make the event? Make a point of visiting Secrest Arboretum for a stroll sometime this spring or summer. In addition to trees, the facility has display gardens, walkways and a forest play area for kids.
The arboretum is on the campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave. Details are at http://secrest.osu.edu.
Get fast and furious
With Fast & Furious 6 due in theaters this week, you may want to check out the five previous films, all of which are on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as some streaming video.
The series began in 2001 with The Fast & The Furious, starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker; continued two years later in 2 Fast 2 Furious, with Walker and Tyrese Gibson, then shifted stars and locations with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, starring Lucas Black and Bow Wow, in 2006. When that movie proved much less successful than its predecessors, Diesel, Walker and others from the first movie returned for Fast & Furious in 2009, to global success exceeded by Fast Five, the 2001 sequel that welcomed Dwayne Johnson to the show.
They include often ridiculous plots built for fast cars, faster cars, skimpily clad bombshells, big stunts, minimal dialogue — and big-screen thrill rides that millions keep wanting to take.
Get psyched out
Wondering what your future holds? Curious as to what your late great-grandmother thinks of your current spouse? Do you want to know what the lines in your palms say about your life, or any of your past lives? If so, then you should head to the Holiday Inn in Strongsville (15471 Royalton Road, Strongsville) for the Psychic Fair, taking place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.
There will be mediums, psychics, tarot readers, astrologists, plenty of products to purchase, Reiki, aura photography and angels. Call 330-667-9272 for information.
Get to know Brown
The John Brown House, 514 Diagonal Road, Akron, will be open free from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday.
The famous abolitionist lived here during part of the 1840s and 1850s with his second wife, Mary, and several of his children.
See http://summithistory.org for information.
