Point Made

I got my bus ticket. I know where I'm going to sleep at night. There are a few appointments on the calendar to meet and catch up with old friends. I've scheduled most of my films, and I still have prepaid tickets left. Things are good. Meanwhile, trying to stay in the moment, there is a marathon race going on here in The Fox Cities. Our street is part of the course. So early and often we have entrants coming down the road in their cone designated lane. It's interesting to see the different people and their choice of attire. We got the young adult lycra rainbow. Running amongst this array are the older guys in cutoffs There are ladies of a certain age trotting in a mixed costume of a swimsuit top and baggy seersucker pink stripe shorts. I saw more than a couple of runners pushing a tricycle cart with a handicapped occupant. Flag bearers, cartoon characters, and animal imitators were running and often walking. Many were conversing with the runn...

When I logged today, the temperature was 61 degrees. The sun was peeking through the branches of the trees on the shore of Lake Maria. The air was brisk and dry. This is the climate that Mother Nature intended her brood to thrive in. Bright skies from Canadian Highs, Dry air from way up there, and low sunlight giving us deep shadows. She can be a bitch, but there are times when you just have to love her. We are twice blessed this weekend. Our Badgers beat some little kids from down the street. And our Packers survived the heat and humidity in Jacksonville. For football fans, it was a lot of beer, fear, and tears.  Thanks to two of my friends in Milwaukee, I have a place to stay for my trip to the Milwaukee Film Festival. The film choices look fabulous. This annual event is like going into an ice cream store and knowing you can't order every flavor. You have to miss one of your favorites and it's a sure thing you're going to take a pass on an u...

I haven't seen too many signs of fall at this point, but the calendar tells me I should keep a sharp eye for the eventual arrival of color nights and shorter days. The only vegetation that is showing signs of stress is the back "lawn". I put that in quotes because I want to be clear, my back yard has no grass as we would normally classify it. What it has is a rather friendly collection of low growth weeds. These are now turning kind of a beige with red highlights color. Our first hint of the upcoming fall season was the appearance of six wild turkeys in our backyard. A handsome rooster and his brood or harem, I'm not sure which, strutted into our yard about four days ago. They stroll through our neighborhood on an irregular schedule with no purpose that's apparent. Last evening, they decide to roost on my roof. I know it's kind of difficult to see, but there four of our drumstick totters that flew up there. I, like many other Wiscon...

A couple of stories that have no ending keep lingering in my life. Maria and I were sitting in the family room at my son's home in Seattle watching the news when both of these stories originally came to light for me. First, it was the floods in Louisiana. A low-pressure system was sucking moisture out of the Gulf of Mexico and delivery it in copious amounts to the western and central region of Louisiana. A high-pressure ridge to the north and east held the low-pressure system in place like a good offensive tackle on a football team, for a couple of days. Some places received over 30 inches of rain in the 24 to 36-hour time frame. This amount of rain exceeds the amount of rain some areas of Louisiana get for an entire season. Rivers climbed out of their banks, covered the floodplain, as defined by the history of these rivers, and then kept on climbing.  T he term a one hundred year flood  has become part of our language. It is defined as an event that would statistically oc...

After a redeye flight from Portland to Chicago and a foggy ride from O'Hare to Appleton, yours truly can't remember going to bed last night. My Fitbit reported to me that I did get approximately two and a half hours of sleep on the plane. I don't remember that either. At 5:45 am this morning, I woke up in our king sized bed in our home. What I do remember is six days in the company of friend and family, who live in the upper reaches of the left coast. The "ninth daughter" Anne Nagler lives in a wonderful neighborhood of one-hundred-year-old homes with trees and flora to match. With Anne, we took one day to explore the shoreline of the Columbia River Valley. Washougal, WA on the north bank of the Columbia River yielded its' Dalila's to Maria and Anne. I, in the true spirit of my mentor Danny Chauvin, spent my time chatting up the locals at the sales tent finding out about the history of the town. Not unlike Wisconsin, the sett...

After a redeye flight from Portland to Chicago and a foggy ride from O'Hare to Appleton, yours truly can't remember going to bed last night but at 5:45 am I did wake up in our king sized bed at our home. My Fitbit reported to me that I did get approximately two and a half hours of sleep on the plane. I don't remember that either. What I do remember is six days in the company of friend and family, who live on the upper reaches of the left coast. The "ninth daughter" Anne Nagler lives in a wonderful neighborhood of one-hundred-year-old homes with trees and flora to match. We took one day to explore the shoreline of the Columbia River Valley. Washougal, WA on the north bank of the Columbia River yielded its' Dalila's to Maria and Anne. I, in the true spirit of my mentor Danny Chauvin, spent my time chatting up the locals at the sales tent finding out about the history of the town. Not unlike Wisconsin, the settlement originated...

Short ribs have sauce on them, and I'm taking a diuretic. Recently I had one of those problems only we males have. My wife and I were out to dinner with some of our friends. I ordered pork ribs which were dripping with sugary BBQ sauce. I was able to keep almost all of the sauce off my clothing, but my face and hands felt like I had been bathing in the stuff. While the restaurant provided a fairly high-quality paper napkin, it provided only one. Coinciding with this event was my need to be aware how long I could go without using the bathroom. My doctor concerned with my tendency to retain water has prescribed a diuretic which causes me to need to go to the bathroom often. Might I add, that need is also accelerated if I have my occasional non-alcohol beer. When I quit drinking alcohol in 1982, I ended my career as a fairly high functioning alcoholic. In the early stages of my abstinence, I stayed away from bars and maintained vigila...