Gettin Dummied Up on the Net

A rare Sunday blog as I will not be around for a real blog later. Today I'm going to Fort to help mom with an interview with a home nurse to see where things are on safety.

If you did not know my mom recently had a series of minor strokes that have left her missing much of her vocabulary (bringing her closer to my world). Oh the thoughts are still there and the logic for expressing herself are there but the words just are not coming. The connection between the thoughts and expressing those thoughts seems to have been snipped. It' like someone emptied the brain bucket of all nouns. You can still talk coherently but a noun would REALLY help at times.

Hopefully it is not a permanent but she is 81 years old with #82 coming up on Earth day.

So while we feel she is not in danger if you have had 4 strokes you can always have another one so it's good to see what can be done around the huse to make things safer. 
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HEY - it's opening day for the Brewers and they might have the Dome open at Miller Park - UNHEARD OF!! All of my flowers and trees are showing green except my Jolly Bee Geraniums who are always slow anyway.

We only received 0.12 inch of rain Friday/Saturday and things are pretty dry! Expect maybe some T-storms Monday night and scattered showers most of the upcoming week. Maybe another 3/4 of an inch is on it's way.

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DJ and I have this Lincoln/Kennedy thing going where before we met we lived sort of identical lives. Weird things like both growing up very very near slaughter houses, DJs dad was resued in WWII by the same type or plane my dad flew as a rescue pilot . Both parents had the same age difference between them, we both have brothers the same 7 years older and DJ and I have the same age difference between us as our parents did. The list goes on and on - sort of creepy.

Well - we  BOTH listened to EVERY Milwaukee Bucks game on the radio when we were young. This explains my fascination with the Bucks . . . WELL

Freaking Milwaukee Bucks. They are FINALLY, after 18 years, having a good season and the USA Today had a full page article last week named FEAR THE DEER. So what happens?  Their Center (Bogut) having a career year, dunks the ball, comes down hard and not only dislocates his right elbow, but sprains his wrist AND breaks his right hand.   GONE!!  I'm sure it's on You Tube but it is Joe Theisman-ish to watch, pretty ugly.

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Saturday my buddy is over and he spends like 4 hours on 4 ground covers, mixing the EXACT top soil and Humis and gently patting it down inch by inch.

On the drive to Columbus we take the back roads and I take a few photos that I'll show you this week.  But first . . . . . I entered my 3rd Art Fair.  So at the moment Portage June 4th and 5th. Sun Prairie June 12 and Columbus July 3rd.  none are confirmed yet . . not sure how long that process takes.  All are juried except for Columbus (meaning I might not be accepted).

ANYWAY - I think I might have one half of a wall in my little canopy called Experimental.

This is a 12x36 inch panorama. I wish I could show the actual size as it gets pretty pixilated when it gets dummied up for the net.

Spring Oaks

 
I,ll talk to you Tuesday.

Oh yea = Check out the Tyranena Brewery Website - if you click on the Tasteing Room square one of my photos will pop up of their tasting room. 

Cheers
GO BREWERS!!
Rod

It's a Ghost town!

Madison is empty of souls today.  With the County workers taking a furlough day and many other places closing early it's pretty empty.  State Employees do not get time off as this is a religious day and the whole separation between church and state thing makes it illegal for us to say the word Easter or something screwy like that.

Hey we can't even observe Christmas and the tour guides in the Capitol can't even call a Christmas tree a Holiday tree because it has the word Holy in it. It's called the Doyle Tree. 

ANYWAY - today is Good Friday (also known as Holy Friday, Black Friday, and Great Friday - by people that have it off I guess) and is a holiday observed primarily by Christians and non government workers commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death as believed by said Christians.

I'm not going to go into this whole Christian thing as there have been a number of books written over the years. Go to your public library to learn more.

HOWEVER - something many people wonder about is how is the date of Easter figured out. Well, it's the first Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon, the full moon on or after 21 March.  Next year's Easter will be on April 24th, the latest Easter until 2038.

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In celebration of Easter I was looking at some older photographic folders and found my images of the Easter pumpkins.

Well - I was actually looking for some other photos.

Here is an obvious tip for photographers. When you get done with a project or a day of shooting, create a folder that starts with a date (20100202blahblah) so your photo folders will always be in order and easier to find, copy everything from your card into that folders. THEN you can create other folders of the good shots and bad shots but get those images saved some where. Cards can go bad!!

I was looking for a particular photo and found the gourdes images I took . . . bingo.
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GREAT news for the economy -  I wish the Stock market was open today.  The U.S. added 162,000 new jobs, the most in 3 years. This combined with other very good news earlier this week ("consumers are increasing their spending and manufacturing activity is growing at its fastest pace in more than five years") is all looking good.

Of course the Fox-publicans view this as all BAD news.

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A friend at work had never seen Deadwood and is a huge western fan. I told him it's REALLY gritty and he said bring it on as he is a big Dexter fan and was not afraid of nastyness.

So I was looking for a trailer and found something that just made me LOL.

If you watch this PUT ON HEADPHONES and hide the children there might be one or two F-bombs!!! I think most Deadwood fans will get a chuckle. He watched it and is going to rent the DVD's this weekend as he can't f*cken wait!!



STILL - the best show ever on TV!! 
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HEY - DIRECT TV - how many shows are on Video on Demand (VOD) anyway.  Somehow I missed Episode 8 of Caprica and did a search - saw it was on VOD and got to see it immediately.

SWEET
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Speaking of Columbus - sounds like plans might be going forward for a riverfront development on the Crawfish, not unlike Fall River. Watch or go to the City Council meetings for more information.

We did break records yesterday. In fact every NOAA reporting station in Wisconsin broke a High temp record!

Rain should come in late late tonight and last through the morning Saturday and clearing with scattered showers in the afternoon. Look for about 1/2 inch of much needed rain. 

I don't know if anyone else noticed but things REALLY grew overnight - the buds on the trees doubled in size with the warm night!!

Have a great weekend and don't freeze withe 10 degree above normal temps!

Rod

Missed it by THAT much

No records yesterday or this morning when it comes to temps. However - welcome to TODAY when records will fall.  Boy are we going to be spoiled.  Remember,  April is the battle month between winter and summer.

The record high for today is 80 and we will be very very very close to that record.  The warmest Low temp is 53 and we will crush that record tonight/tomorrow morning. 

For March the AVERAGE high on the very last day of the month is 50 degrees. That was the average FOR THE WHOLE MONTH this year.  Today we COULD be 30 degrees above average!  This means that we also, at some point get 30 degrees below average (which would be a high of 20 degrees).

April has a 94 degree swing from record low ( 0 ) to a record high (94).  So Saturday the high should be about 60,  brrrrrrrrrr get the winter coat back out!! It's only 10 degrees above average.  Expect Saturday to be very windy with scattered thunderstorms and low 60's I figure.

Here is the newest prediction from NOAA for April.  Warm!!!
I hear people worrying and waiting for the real rotten spring weather to return - not going to happen - this is it, the peddle is to the metal for summer.

What I'm wondering is should I water my gardens? We were 1.57 inches below normal in March and 5.3 inches below normal in snow!
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The rest is all about Columbus

I wish DIRECT TV would have a local channel so I can watch the City Council!   There are some pretty exciting things coming up that have yet to surface and it involves the Udey Dam. If this goes through which it should I'm all for saving Udey (I think it will be the glass Skywalk that will hover people who pay $50 over the Crawfish river at a dizzy height of 4 to 5 feet ABOVE the water).

Seriously though  - During the gloom and doom period of Columbus I kept telling people that from MY point of view things were turning around. There was a hidden and quite glow of enthusiasm even when there was all sorts of crap going on. I would talk to people and TO ME, there were many things being put in motion that would take a while but Columbus was heading in the right direction.

I feel even more excited on Columbus now.  From what I can tell Columbus is ticking like a well oil machine with all different parts of the government actually working together AND listening to each other.  WEIRD!!

The Community Development Authority, the dudes and dudettes who are in charge of the long-range planning for Columbus . . ROCK!! They are the tip of the spear and are coming up with fantastic and doable plans and get this . . . . the City Council and Mayor are listening. WELL DONE! BRAVO!! THAT is what I'm talking about! That is what makes a small town strong! Good idea people and then good people that put things into motion!  TEAMWORK!

I've attended the CDA meetings and in the last 6 months they, along with the Mayor, have visited many small towns, toured the communities looking at what is working, what is not working and then they come back and discuss the findings. How can we do this and how do we NOT let that happen and so forth.

What I personally am excited about is that all sides are very forward thinking with the downtown area. They realize that the heart of Columbus is the downtown. If the center of the town dies Columbus dies and it seems they are gung-ho on not letting that happen.

You know - at this rate Mayor Bob . .. I know I know this sounds crazy . . .could be our NEXT Mayor too. WHAT, a Mayor two terms in a row?  When was the last time THAT happened! (know really, what was the last time that happened).

And cudos to Boyd Kraemer the City Admin and Steve Sobiek (who's title is embarrassingly long) the Economic Development/Energy Sustainability Director for being the tip of the tip of the spear. I have heard that Steve is now working 140 hours a week and sleeps in his car in the parking lot under his very own LED street light.

BTW - who ever is on charge of FutureColumbus website should up date it! Ya got the wrong Mayor.

Speaking of broken websites - I wish the Columbus Chamber Commerce would get off their ass and get their and together and get a website. Don't businesses pay them to be in their club?  They are slowing the growth of Columbus! Perhaps we need a new Chamber of Commerce.

Rod