Various Random Miscellaneous Updates

Over this past week I've been wanting to blog but I didn't know what to type or when I'd have the time. Since I'm not a natural writer, it always takes a while to think what I want to say and then sneak a few minutes here and there at work to get it on blogspot. Anyway, let's start with this past weekend...

After work on Friday I took advantage of the one nice day of the week and mowed the lawn. The grass was so long it was clumping quite a bit. I noticed that some of the grass didn't even get cut but I'm not going to go back to fix it! More food for the rabbits!

Friday evening we had our Young Married Couples Group scavenger hunt at B-Hawk. Good times! It was fun and not too difficult, just right. One of the things we did was to ask a person if we could pump their gas or wash their windows on their car. I asked this black guy with a little girl in his back seat and he totally wasn't into it, but he said yes anyway. Our team took 4th place!...out of 4 teams.


All week I was being bombarded with the news of all the flooding around southern WI, but Madison seemed to be pretty safe. There were road closures everywhere! I was on the DOT website most of the day on Friday because I was supposed to visit my cousin up in Hawkins since I hadn't seen him in a long while. I ended up not going because of the westbound I-90/94 closures. Since Amber was gone at a Bachelorette/Bridal Shower thingy back in Neenah, I thought it would be a good idea to help out with some of the flooding recovery efforts.


I heard on 105.5 Triple M of a Big Cleanup Day at Lake Delton on Saturday so I decided to do that. I got up at about 6:30 so I could leave by 7:30 to get their by 8:30 or so. I took Hwy. 12 up since that road wasn't blocked according to the DOT website. I left on time, but when I got to Sauk City that's when traffic was at a dead stop. Apparently there was a semi accident and all traffic was being routed up 78 to Baraboo. It ended up taking me 3 hours to get to Lake Delton, which should have only been about a one hour drive.


Anyway, I got there at 10:30, signed my life away on this form. Grabbed my trash bag and gloves and got to work. I was pretty impressed how organized things were for only having less than a week to get everything together. They had 3 huge tents set up on the new shore of the lake with water, soda, food and places to relax. The lake was essentially a huge mud pit with some water still in the deepest spots. Our duty was to collect any trash we saw. I found a lot of old cans, glass bottles, fishing lures, rods, hats, chairs. Some guy found a revolver. It took me about 5 hours to walk around the entire lake. I was covered with mud from head to toe. I wish I had a picture of me! I met some great people that drove a long way to help out. It was also very hot and humid so I started to feel dehydrated right before I decided to head home; I was just totally beat. There were times when I got stuck in the mud and no one was around me and I thought for sure I was going to sink in all the way. It was past me knees at some points. My kids will appreciate me when they have birth defects due to some substance that absorbed into skin! There was also this greasy oil slick on the water from all the gasoline from the boats over the years that settled. I cleaned up the Tommy Bartlett show area as well as that big house that you saw collapse on the news. Needless to say I was worn out when I got back home that night!

For ever man hour worked, FEMA have $7 to the cleanup effort. So the 250 volunteers averaging about 6 hours worth of work on Saturday brought in about $10,500. Doesn't seem like a real lot! They also had helicopters and planes flying overhead all day to assess the damage.

I took a nap when I got home which is always a bad idea since I'm either in a crabby mood when I wake up or have a headache. I was just a bit crabby, that's all I stopped out at the union to catch some live music with Camann and a few others. And a slice of Ian's pizza of course!


On Sunday, I felt ambitious, maybe a bit too ambitious. I decided to hit up the Glacial Drumlin Trail which runs from Cottage Grove to Waukesha. I put on the bike rack, hooked up the mountain bike, drove to the trail head and headed out. It's a great rail, an old railroad bed so it's straight, flat with only a 2-3% grade change the whole way. I hit it pretty hard and got to Lake Mills in about an hour which is like 15 miles away. I stopped at the beach there and grabbed some lunch, stretched and headed back. Riding back was a different story to say the least! The wind was in my face and my legs were so tight. It ended up taking me about 2.5 hours to get back. I had to stop so many times cuz my butt hurt and my legs were screaming "no more!" I made it home safe regardless.

This weekend we'll be back in the promised land for a wedding. Can't wait. I bought a new shirt and tie so I look super good since Amber is in the wedding party; I gotta do my part to represent!

Tonight we finally have a softball game! First one since May 22nd. Let's go Blue!