Takin' the Blog for a Walk

.                                                              .

To all the people who've lended me a hand, been nice to me when I was crabby, made room, seemed interested, had patience... To friends I've known for years and those I've lost touch with. To friendly neighbors, store clerks, teachers, students, clergy... To fellow ballooning crew, Vincentians, my family here and at St. William... I'm thinking of you today.

Happy Friendship Day!

There's already at least one discussion on the topic of a stadium in Frame Park for a Northwoods League team, so I won't start one here. But because it's outcome could affect most everyone who goes Downtown, it's important that those who would have an opinion after it's built speak up now, before it's approved. 

My opinion is it should be built in Frame Park as presented. I'm aware of much of the discussion and saw many valid questions raised during the Committee of the Whole. There are probably as many opinions as there are people opposed to it, and by my not living very close to it my opinion shouldn't really matter, but...

If we don't want to sit in traffic or continue to send entertainment dollars out of town to Miller Park...

If we want to see more out-of-towners in our downtown...

If we'd like to see quality affordable baseball...

I've thought about all the times I've headed east for entertainment. Variety, quality, opportunity. And I've thought about the reasons for not having a small baseball stadium at Frame Park. Litter, noise, lack of parking, traffic. We could pass every opportunity that came along and get all our entertainment from Milwaukee, or we could think of new ways to enliven our city.

Milwaukee has a shortage of street parking yet still looks to develop parking lots into more hotels. A stadium in Frame Park is within walking or biking distance of the highest concentration of people in Waukesha. Most of the attendees of the games would be families - not the worst litter offenders. It likely would be noisy, but almost all games would be over by 10:00 p.m.

The lighting will be improved to greatly reduce stray light and the footprint of the ball field would hardly encroach on the park. I'm not a huge user of Frame Park but I know it's already a mixed use park. There's already trails, natural areas, playground, recreation building, volleyball and baseball. If the park were a nature center or if any of the existing uses were removed to make room for the stadium I'd have reservations about it. The stadium would not substantially change Frame Park.

As this proposal moves through the various committees and the City Council I feel the right thing will be done in the end. If everyone opposes it we'll just continue spending too much money too far from home on baseball.

************************on another matter*********************

The city would like to see your ideas on it's Strategic Planning Survey. Time is short - they'd like you to take it by this Wednesday the 6th! It's a good way to tell the city where we'd like to see it in five years and what to do when money is in short supply. What service would you be willing to sacrifice and which ones can't you live without? If nothing else it gets you thinking.

Spent several hours at Pewaukee Lake yesterday. With the no wake law still in force it's unusually quiet, and if my canoe didn't still have gaping holes in it... So we fish from shore. Very peaceful watching the regatta of around 50 sailboats. Later in the day was Taste of Lake Country and fireworks, but that's another story.

Making every cent of my weekend dollars count I went to Milwaukee today to do several things. I parked under the Hoan Bridge by the river, saving $10.00. I attended a very nice Lutheran service in the Marcus Amphitheater and was allowed into German Fest free, saving $13.00.

German Fest is one of the few festivals I missed last year, (Pride Fest will still have to wait) and I wanted to get there for the food and music. I haven't been to this one before. I wasn't into the music and dancing all that much, but the scents, tastes and sights were overwhelming. Got my first look at the new Harley Stage also. Very cool.

Wandered over to Discovery World next door to use the pass I obtained with the purchase of my Les Paul concert ticket, saving $17.00. I spent the next couple hours in my first tour of the Technology and Aquarium Buildings and the Les Paul House of Sound exhibit!  The Les Paul exhibit, indeed all of Discovery World, was way more than I could've imagined. I enjoyed handling everything, trying it out, playing with things, discovering at my own pace.

Discovery World has to be seen to be believed. When I thought nothing could possibly top the Les Paul exhibit, I had doubts while touring the rest of the building. The bed of nails was one very interesting interactive feature of the Technology Building. Fun to try. The Great Lakes are to scale in the Aquarium complete with interactive locks, rain and storms, and bluegills (not to scale). Also had fun touching the rays and lake sturgeon.

The schooner in the Aquarium Building is a fun play thing. Lots of things to touch, turn and see with many things identified with labels. I played with as many things as I could today and the best thing is I only got yelled at once - at the German Fest Splash Pad for not taking my shoes off!  

Was glad to hear I might be crewing this weekend. Weather's been less than ideal lately. Summer's half over and I've only helped a few times. First possibility was Saturday morning, but was too windy. Saturday night was better, but still iffy.

While waiting for the breeze to calm, I asked the other crew members if they knew which balloon landed and stopped traffic on Hwy. 16 in Hartland Wednesday night. I read an In Brief article in the Freeman regarding it and had cut it out. Talking with someone who went out Wednesday, and talking with other crew on the field, came to find out it was one of the three balloons waiting, like me, for the wind to die down. They told of the police coming, a nurse offering help. While it's fairly common to take down the envelope on or near quiet residential streets it's an FAA violation to land on Hwy. 16. The pilot in question actually landed a distance from 16 on a frontage road... and no one was hurt.  

All hot air balloons have names. It just makes it easier to communicate by radio. Names are usually descriptive of the color or shape, have something to do with freedom, floating... things like that. I have no idea where the name came from for the balloon I was crewing for, but I crewed for Gilbert... twice. Early this morning and last night.

We waited for the last possible minute to fly last night and still get a decent flight in. Flights last about an hour, and they have to be down by sunset. The wind just wouldn't die down. The three balloons finally took off and the passengers in Gilbert had a good flight. Father and daughter were both born on the same date and were given the flight for their birthday.

Gilbert landed at the driving range of a golf course northwest of here after 8:00 p.m. A nice slow decent after a rather fast-moving flight. A few people around thinking it was pretty cool we were there. The envelope was down and the air squeezed out when all Caddyshack broke loose. The sprinklers turned on! You've never seen us move so fast or get so wet. It's not nice to ride Gilbert hard and put him away wet.

So the passengers had a good flight, crew got a funny story to tell, and because Gilbert was taken out again this morning, he's all dry now.

I blogged about a similar topic in November, but this week's event promised to benefit the earth and fellow man. I was able to catch the last half hour of a pedal-powered concert in Wales on calm Tuesday night. Because the event was affiliated with the MS150 bike tour, it raised both awareness of wasteful energy practices and funds to help battle multiple sclerosis.

I was already in the Wales area for a dinner meeting in the beautiful Hills of Delafield, so Hazie and ScorpGirl can relax. I did not drive all the way out there wasting gas. I probably would have, though, had I known how cool the warm evening on Main Street in Wales would be.

About ten stationary bikes littered the lawn of an 1887 Queen Anne Victorian lovingly restored into the Pedal'rs Inn B & B. The Inn's claim to fame is that it was the location of George Webb's first restaurant. Because I arrived late, I found out about the house tours too late to see if there were two clocks side-by-side in the dining room. 

The stage was lit by energy-conserving LED spotlights powered by bike riders, many of whom wore colorful riding jerseys. It was mostly dark where the riders were, but even though I could see at least one biker going wild to the music, I saw no helmets.

This night was quite different from November's barn dance. It was outdoors, a lot warmer and a lot less crowded. But still I wondered if I'd get my first chance at pedalling. Is it hard? If I did get on, would I tire before someone relieved me. I asked someone if it was difficult and she said since she does spinning it wasn't too bad. That was no help because I don't even knit.

A bike did finally free up and I realized several things. People are more friendly to you on a bike. Either because bike riders are generally friendly toward one another, or because I was helping power a really good concert, either way people just seemed more open and friendly. The pedalling wasn't too difficult but was sweaty because there's no wind on these stationary bikes. I felt much more absorbed by music I helped power - felt connected to the musicians. The musicians felt connected to us - if they still had people willing to pedal, they'd be motivated to continue playing. The concert volume wasn't too loud, it was adequate. With each of the 9 amps I was putting out being put to use, low volume was just fine. And finally, outdoors on a summer night is the perfect venue for a concert like this.

Even with a little rain and without Skyfest at the county fair it's still a good weekend. Anytime there's more fun things to do than time to do them it's a good thing.

Friday was a wonderful night to be out for Freeman Friday Night Live downtown. The foot traffic was as good as the music. It's always nice to see Downtown alive. Chad James was sounding especially fine outside Steaming Cup as was the 12 year old guitar player keeping artist Chuck Weber company outside Almont Gallery as he painted.

I popped into Plowshares' new Mainstreet location and was pleasantly surprised. Even though the space is smaller than the old Grand Ave. location, it's much brighter with a full wall of windows and higher ceilings. I saw many new items and the prices are still too low to believe.

I returned Downtown Saturday, by bike of course, to see racers from around the world compete in the Carl Zach Cycling Classic - the 15th time the Classic has come to Waukesha. The rain had stopped by the time the 100k men's professional race began and the temperature was quite nice. There could have been more people watching but it was nice to be so close to the action. The wind generated by a peloton of 40 or so riders pedalling at 30 mph felt more like a high-speed Acela Express than a freight train passing by. A three time Junior World Champion, past and present Olympians, Australians, Columbian riders... it was great to see them all. Thanks to Couri Insurance for their continued sponsorship, Alderman Randy Radish, Race Director, and all who make this possible.

Later Saturday I joined my ballooning friends for an Un-fair Skyfest get-together to break in a new grill. I've never had so much fun catching fireflies! We also roasted marshmallows, kicked the soccer ball, told stories, played games... Almost as much fun as ballooning.

We'll be leaving for the fair and it's tractor and truck pulls in a couple minutes. What didn't I have time for? Festa Italiana and the WEAL highway clean up in Eagle on rainy Saturday morning.

Now that the County Fair is here I'm looking forward to some hot air balloon competition at the annual Skyfest rally. Maybe crew with someone new. Maybe run into friends from out of town. Or so I thought.

Pay no attention to the cover page of today's edition of WaukeshaNOW paper. It was wrong. "THURSDAY  The sky will be adorned with color during the SKY FEST HOT AIR BALLOON COMPETITION at the Waukesha County Expo Center." I wish! Fourteen years of ballooning at the fair was put on hold this year as no corporate sponsors were located.

Before learning of it's fate, I wondered how the weather would affect Skyfest this year. The weather's been pretty poor for ballooning lately, and this week's forecast looked like it had a lot of possible thunderstorms. Indeed, the first day of the fair saw a severe storm. Might not have had a lot of flight time anyway.

So we made the best of opening day at the fair by watching the tractor pulls - the lawn tractor pulls - for a few hours. The rain cooled things off but it also made a mess of the track. The competition got a late start because the mud had to be scraped off and the track smoothed out. I've never seen the competition before and was pretty amazed at some of the machines. Was surprised to see 8 year olds steer modified 10 hp, 900 lb machines 130 or more feet while dragging a weighted sled.

Stayed long enough, and when the expensive-looking dragster style tractors still hadn't run by 10:30 we knew it was time to leave. We got our dollar's worth.

I hope there will always be somewhere to go where they know your name, and I'm not talking about an automated voice reading it off your frequent shopper card. There are few places left where you can pick up your cup where you left it the day before and share conversation and coffee with the butcher behind the meat counter every day at the small mom and pop grocery like my dad used to do in Mercer. Doesn't really matter how big the place is.

Even though Pick 'N Save takes way too much of our money we still like shopping there. Prices are comparatively low, people know us there and we run into people we know there. It's like the small town post office, where conversation is free-flowing and eventually, it seems, you'll bump into everyone. 

P & S does what it can to cut down on aisle clogging conversation. They make narrow aisles (the most popular ones of course) even narrower with free-standing displays. The end result is there isn't room anywhere to even park a cart out of the way. On busy Saturdays you have to wait for traffic to pass before reaching for some things (if they're going to make aisles that narrow they need to make them one-way or have narrower carts).

Even though P & S has installed some self-serve check outs for smaller orders, it's still nice to talk to live checkers who know you. We've know some of the checkers going back 15 years and more. They want to know how everyone is, where my wife is when she's not with me, and they comment on how big the kids are getting (I blame that on them). When we went shopping there yesterday we didn't go to the shortest line, we went to Linda's line. I love kidding with Linda. When she gave us our whopping total I told her to catch this one and I'll get the next. I love her laugh.

They tell Linda and Sally and others not to talk so much, that their lines are too long. But I say their lines are long because people want to wait for checkers that know their names. We did.

Pick 'N Save is running a promo of a $25.00 gift card if we transfer a prescription to their new pharmacy. Don't want it. Walgreens has usually treated us fairly. Went there Friday and the pharmacist called me by name as I approached. There was no waiting. The order was ready and he was efficient and friendly. He could have been extra nice for the survey I could take for a chance to win $3000.00, but maybe the new competition in town is forcing it. Either way, as long as Walgreens continues to take care of us and acts like they know us we'll continue to do business there. 

Inspector FEMA stopped by early Saturday morning to stumble through our cluttered basement. I debated asking for the visit because there was very little damage from the Flood of 2008. Even though sewer backups are covered under our homeowner's, we didn't even apply. But it's extremely rare (thankfully) that FEMA is in town, we have a $500.00 deductible, and the sewer backed up not once, not twice, but five times within one week last month.

Didn't really want to ask for help because there were far more families and businesses worse off than us. But this flooding shouldn't have happened and I wanted someone other than the city to know. We've had sewer backups in our neighborhood for years, for whatever reasons, and was told by the director of public works two years ago that the replacement of pipe in our street would solve the problem. They did smoke testing to find illegal hookups and added more storm drains. The city seemed to do everything it could, short of increasing capacity or redesigning our connection to the main line, and for a while it worked. June's rain was the first big test since the new pipe was laid. 

I wish it wouldn't have happened, because now it means we still have to worry about basement flooding every time it rains hard. What if we're away when it rains? We have a new, very expensive furnace / a/c down there among many other things. The only storm water allowed in the sanitary sewer should be through the floor drains of flooded basements. I have a feeling more basements were flooded through floor drains than were saved by them. I have a feeling leaking pipe, manhole openings and illegal hookups are allowing too much stormwater in. 

By getting FEMA involved there will be a clearer picture of what happened and what needs to be done. When all monetary damages from the storm are added up the state will be given a percentage of that in a federal grant for infrastructure improvements to be distributed to counties according to need. I can see a need in our area for larger capacity pumps.

FEMA for Waukesha is currently set up at the County Highway Department off Grandview Blvd. between Northview and Silvernail from 10:00 to 7:00 every day except Sunday. Representatives from local, state and federal agencies are there to offer any assistance they can. Of the three times I visited there was never a crowd. Besides the free clean up kits offered, there is plenty of useful literature. One of the more interesting things offered is a U.S. Small Business Admin. Disaster Home Loan. If we apply and qualify we could get a loan at less than 3%, which would make it our lowest rate. (I can think of a few needed car repairs with that money.)

We didn't really need help but since FEMA is there... I picked up some ideas and made others aware of the problem in our area. If you don't need help but know of someone who might, be sure to suggest they stop in. FEMA won't be there forever.

Takin the blog for a walk in the neighborhood of Wealthy Street we often see sidewalk art. Last Sunday was a rather elaborate affair; A heart with angel wings, the word "Hope" written in the middle, and sunflower seeds set in a little pile in the middle of it. There was a little angel statue and a pinwheel next to it.

Was the artwork done by a child who lost a young brother or sister? Was it some kind of memorial to a soldier? I wondered if the angel had a connection to the bird seed.  What was the thought? That the birds would be taking the blessings of the angel or the young artist up to heaven? We were curious, but not enough to knock at 5:30 a.m.

I meant to come back for a picture later on but forgot and rain washed it away. The artwork was just unusual enough that I felt a connection. Remember, I had just lost my uncle, an artist, two days earlier and was leaving later that day for the memorial service. Like life, the artwork was temporary. 

A day or two after my return from Omaha I determined to find answers to the art even if it meant rapping on the door. Fortunately someone was outside when we passed by and was willing to talk. The person we saw was the artist and, without disclosing her age, lets just say she's no child.

Throughout the next couple hours she proceded to tell us about herself, ask about me, show us pictures and a painting. I told her about my trip to Omaha and what my uncle meant to me while she got me a chair and Sir Fido a bowl of water.

She was going to replace the washed out artwork while we were there but not until she was sure we were comfortable. She brought out bottled water, a couple beers and, when it started to get cold and dark, sweatshirts.

She's been doing sidewalk art for quite some time but doesn't consider herself an artist. The one piece I saw was the first time she added angel wings. So what did it all mean? Nothing really. She just likes to be creative and she likes feeding birds. I suppose it's like any other art and means different things to different people. (It could've been a trap for curious individuals. Anyone who bothers to ask will have to meet a most interesting individual.)

A fellow blogger passed away a week ago today. He was born and died in June... with eighty years in between. He led a very interesting and full life, spoke many languages and had friends around the world. 

He began blogging three years ago this month and, while I've read them in the past, the posts have new meaning for me now. He was a somewhat eccentric character, and his writing certainly helps to demystify his complexity.

I travelled 600 miles to Omaha by Greyhound Sunday night for the Monday memorial service. I had wanted to visit while he was still alive but something always came up. The last time I saw him was by way of a Skype video connection. He knew he was dying.

The memorial service was a fitting send off for an extraordinary man. It was the perfect mass with stories and testimony from many of his friends and colleagues. It celebrated his long, fruitful life and quirky nature. There was read a long poem about him, songs and readings he would've enjoyed, tears of joy and sadness... and plenty of humor. If I live to be a hundred, I will not again witness such a wondrous mass for as unique an individual.

I was to return to Waukesha the following day, so while there I had to explore the Iowa dish antenna farm known as SCOLA started by him. It's an imposing sight in the middle of an unimposing cornfield. Huge dishes sprout from the fertile soil like trees in Arthur C. Clarke's imagination. The bowls in the corn stand ready to accept flakes of information. The studio digests programming from around the world and spoon feeds it to subscribers via a regular schedule. (SCOLA used to be seen on cable in the Waukesha area several years ago. It was the channel with the foreign news broadcasts.)

Before I left Tuesday, I wanted to sign the guestbook for the room on the Creighton campus I was staying. It was started in the late 1980's, and as I paged through it I wondered if I'd see him mentioned -- he had taught at Creighton for many years. Right there on the second page, a note from a Frenchman visiting SCOLA, thanking Father Lubbers, SJ, my uncle, for the hospitality.    

My Uncle Lee was uncommon and we had a lot in common. He loved to book shop, more than he'd ever have time to read, it seemed. He gave me a enormous "The Last Whole Earth Catalog" and "The Zen of Running" years ago. He left me his well-used "Roget's International Thesaurus" which I will use in blogging and used for this one.

He took the nieces and nephews skiing many times, and these are favorite memories. It took Lee's enthusiasm to get teenagers out of bed before dawn on a freezing winter vacation day, cook us a hot breakfast of grits, drive for miles to the ski hills on snow-covered roads, and ski all day even when it was coldest. Three times he took us skiing out West and you will see skiing and mountains prominent in his art from that period.

After Uncle Lee's brother died in the 1960s his sister, my mother, began an Easter egg hunt tradition. It was the first big holiday after the plane crash and she wanted to do something to help the five orphaned kids get through it. Again my uncle's enthusiasm took over and he really, really, enjoyed hunting for his own colored eggs well into his 60s.

It was always fun seeing my uncle for holidays. He'd share stories and ideas from his travels and get us to try foods and drink we were unfamiliar with. He liked strong, black coffee and liked sweets and French foods, especially cheeses.

I could go on and on about his art, his marrying us and baptizing our baby. About a trip to Missouri for an antenna. About sailing ... Maybe later. 

My uncle began the art department at Creighton University and is still instructing even in death. His body was donated to science. 

My last remaining uncle has died.

His life in pictures.

Les Paul flips me off. Really flips  me  off! Have to forgive him though; I think at 93 he's entitled to be a little crotchety. After all, we deserved it. We were clapping too much and giving him standing ovations. I really don't think anyone took offense at his one-finger salute - anyone who knows Les understands his brand of humor. Besides, with badly arthritic hands, it hardly even qualified as a "bird".    

I could make this story short and just say, "heard some old guy play guitar and tell stories at the Pabst Theater last night", and direct you to read the concert review at jsonline. But that wouldn't be any fun.

I was thrilled when I heard Les Paul would be performing at the Pabst Theater for one sixth the price of last year's fundraising concert and dinner. As luck would have it, there were two tickets left in the cheap seats when I called. I ended up buying a ticket in the next price level anyway because it included a pass to the Les Paul exhibit at Discovery World. I wondered who I'd be sitting next to. 

I was directed to my seat in the 2nd floor balcony next to a man and his young son before the theater was half full. Bob's son Hayden has been taking classical guitar lessons for seven years. We speculated who the "friends" were mentioned in the billing; "an evening with Les Paul & Friends, His 93rd Birthday Celebration... in Music." Maybe it would be one of the many rock stars Les knows? But I doubted it. Would have been cool to see him play with Eric Clapton though.

As soon as friendshipships were sealed with Bob and Hayden they were redirected to the next section over when the seats' rightful occupants arrived. It's odd, because an usher had sat them there in the first place. Had a few things in common with the next couple. Paul and his wife were also from Waukesha. (What a great way to meet people; just sit there and let them come to me.) They recognized me from somewhere, probably WaukeshaNOW. He's retired from the Journal Sentinel so we talked about that and other things. We were enjoying our visit before the concert's start when I glanced at my ticket before putting it in my pocket. Now I don't know where "2 FLR-RGT CTR D" is, and I'm not sure the usher knew either, because I think I was seated by the same usher as Bob and Hayden and was in the wrong row!

Sitting next to the third couple in fifteen minutes, I'm wondering if I'll eventually meet everyone in the theater one musical chair at a time.

.

****pause for blog intermission... to be continued...

The theater was packed - even the $500.00 seats appeared to be sold out. The Pabst is absolutely beautiful and, even though it's older than Les, he'd never played there before Saturday. The stage had a relaxed and comfortable feel to it. Several people sat at pub tables and chairs around the perimeter giving the setting a jazz club atmosphere. The tuxedoed gentlemen falling off his stool just added to the realism of the bar scene.

Les played many decent tunes accompanied by three other men, but he could have played tiddlywinks and we would have applauded. The three hour program was kept interesting with new introductions every few songs, and with stories about him and by him. One of the first introductions was quite auspicious because he represented the future to Les' past. An eight year old boy played guitar beautifully with Les and even sang a blues tune. By our tickets, we were all contributing to the new "House of Sound" educational exhibit, and by this young man we knew we were doing the right thing. It didn't take much imagination to think of this boy as young Les as he played beside the 93 year old. Les was eight when he began playing an instrument.

It's harder to imagine what Waukesha was like 93 years ago when Les was born. It had been 80 years since the area was first settled, and 20 years after Waukesha became an incorporated city. He was born around the same time the health resorts were dying in a little house that used to be where the downtown Walgreens is now. He entertained at Waukesha Beach on Pewaukee Lake and his first concert was at Marquette University. 

Several other friends performed with Les, mostly those he plays with Monday nights at the Iridium in New York. Besides the eight year old guitarist, a singer, a violinist, harmonica player and tap dancer all performed to much applause. Bob Reitman was the logical choice of MC as both gentlemen are legends.

After meeting Les last year and watching his biography I thought I knew him pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised last night that there is much, much more Les.

Happy birthday Les, and many more!

I guess I'm OK when it comes to predicting the future, but are we going to be the last ones to get the Economic Stimulus Payment? I predicted we'd see our cash at least a month ago. We filed taxes early and electronically. We've had so much time to think about how we're going to spend the money that we'll have to borrow to do half of it. (It's what the government is doing for the money anyway.)

As a matter of fact, I think we already spent the money and will just use the payment to pay on debt. Kind of sounds familiar; borrow to pay a debt.

The weather cleared in time for an enjoyable Father's Day though rain dampened Flag Day and graduation day celebrations Saturday. Congratulations to all grads and dads!

It's this blogs second blogiversary and I just want to say thanks. It's really been a pleasure. I am more active in the community now than ever before. One of the side benefits of writing is needing something to write about. I've volunteered, attended plays, concerts, festivals, services... enjoyed it all and enjoyed talking about it too.

I've posted 50% more blogs in this last year than I did in the first. The most popular post, Matzah and Messiah, was 2-1/2 times more popular than the next highest viewed blog. Not sure why.

Last year I mentioned my favorite post was my letter to Dad. My favorite post this year is This Is My Prayer.

I've met a lot of really interesting, fun and hard-working people in the last two years, more than I can count, but the one I'd like to recognize tonight is Les Paul. He's a genuine person full of humor and talent who is a real pleasure to write about. I'm looking forward to seeing him again next weekend.

Thanks for your interest, and keep reading and commenting.

I usually get the blame for things that go wrong around here. If something should leak or break ten years after I repair it, it's got to be my fault. Car not running right? Yep, it's me. Not enough snacks / bread / milk / money... you guessed it.

I don't always agree that I'm responsible indefinitely for something I may have fixed years ago, but with the sewer flooding our basement this morning for the fifth time in a week, I will accept most of the blame... this time.

I'm upset that tens if not hundreds of thousands of tax dollars were spent a year and a half ago replacing sewer pipe on my street. (We were informed it would fix the flooding problem)  And I'm upset that I didn't just plug up the floor drain before last night's rain. Last week plugging it worked OK, though water poured in through a different orifice anyway. I thought checking the basement throughout the night would be enough. I finally got some rest after the heavy rain let up. Unfortunately for us, the backup didn't happen until after the rain stopped. This morning I found the largest puddle yet; about a quarter of the basement, but still not as bad as many others in the area.

I'm mad at myself for not remembering other times when the backup started after the rain stopped. We could've prevented so much just by plugging the drain once we heard how bad the weather was going to be.

The entire city of Waukesha is under water! The normally high and dry bronze map of the city on the walk near the State Office Building is under about 6" of floodwater.

I had a wild ride yesterday as I tested the Schwinn for sea-worthiness. Many downtown streets were, and still are, closed and the bike was the best way for me to get around. Was able to keep it upright through a foot of water on Corrina, (what an experience!). Certainly great to see all the people downtown. Large crowds were seen along the river as well as at Allo! Chocolat and Divino Gelato. The flooding was something most of us have not seen before and it brought people together with a common curiosity. Waukesha seems rather pedestrian-friendly right now. There's a Norman Rockwell feeling of what it must have been like before autos took control of the city.

One can often see great sunsets after storms have passed through. The lingering clouds are a great palette for the setting sun's reflection of violets, purples and reds. It hasn't been easy to find a decent sunset lately because one rainy day has followed another. Finally saw a good one yesterday though!  

.

Even though the weekend started happy it ended rather crappy. After pedalling over to WCTC to see Lance Armstrong and the start of the Trek 100 on Saturday morning, I drove to Eagle for a 5 mile hike on the Ice Age Trail. The hike was through the Scuppernong Prairie and we encountered dozens of runners taking part in the 13th Annual Kettle Moraine 100 endurance run. Some runners were doing either 100k or 100 miles. They started at 6:00 in the morning and would finish the next day.

The hike was nice for me because I did see and learn a lot about glaciers and such but the weather was a little warm and humid for the runners. Since I was so close to one of my favorite places, I stopped by Paradise Springs just outside Eagle after the hike for a cool refreshing sip.

Then the weather started. It rained. The sirens went off. Relatives living in a mobile home took shelter in our basement. And it happened... the basement flooded. Four times between Saturday night and Sunday night sewage came up. We were fortunate in that we caught it in time and fortunate it happened on a weekend. Because it's happened to us before, we were  more prepared. We were more fortunate than some of our neighbors whose whole basement's were under water. And much more fortunate than the poor souls who ran right through the the night in storms and mud during the Kettle 100.

Hours were spent either cleaning up or controlling the backup. Last weekend was Wisconsin free fishing weekend. I wonder if we can get a rain check on that?

Deer are generally pretty cool to observe in nature as long as they're not damaging crops... or windshields. Today's AP article appearing in the Journal Sentinel mentions June as being the first or second-worst month for deer crashes in the last four or five years. There were almost 18,000 deer / vehicle crashes reported last year in the state - 655 in Waukesha County.

One of the reasons deer crashes are so numerous in June is the yearlings are starting to wander away from their mothers. Didn't the mothers teach them to stop and look both ways when crossing streets before sending them out on their own?

I had to wonder who taught or didn't teach the young dear I saw crossing Moreland at Michigan against the light over the weekend. I wondered, if the 12 or 13 year old was allowed to ride his bike away from home, why wasn't he first taught the safest way to cross a street?

A short while later I saw another young dear on a bike by the Mobil station on Summit, not far from Moreland and Michigan. He was wearing the same kind of shirt as the first kid and I wondered if it could be him. When he crossed in front of my moving car, barely looking, I knew it must be the same one. 

Like many deer, this dear on a bike was now travelling with another. The second was even more careless and within about 15 feet of being run over. Like deer in the headlights, he froze when he realized how close I was. Not the safest.

Now that summer is starting and school is ending I urge everyone to not only watch out for deer but also for dear. It also  would be nice if parents taught their dears the correct way to cross busy intersections before they wander away from their mothers. 

****** 6/8 addition ******

Saw a young deer by Grandview Park early this morning. Lost sight of it as it headed up Easy Street. I see deer in the city on rare occasion, but have you ever seen a road-kill deer in the City of Waukesha? There was one about four or five years ago, an adult, just a block from the hospital's emergency department.