Bits & Pieces

•  Snow melted.  Four more inches yesterday April 29.  Walking group hiked anyway.
• Easter was glorious.  I was able to do several readings during the week's many services.
• Only one restaurant open in a 15 mile radius last Friday night.  It was packed and I knew lots of folks who came in.  All restaurants going next weekend for fishing opener.  At least people can eat because there won't be much fishing except on the rivers.  Our lake still has ice but we are beginning to see open water.
• Best product placement ever in a TV show.  The Blacklist had a chase scene with one guy who we don't know if he is good or bad - driving a 2015 preproduction "Guard" color Ford Mustang.  Chase scene over and immediately the commercial is the same actor standing in the warehouse he just drove out from saying,  You don't know if I'm good or bad but don't you just love the new Mustang?  Then he drives a "Race Red"  Mustang around like he is being chased again.  A delectable by product was watching a 1970's Chevy Camaro being smashed as it was chasing the new Mustang.  Only car people would get that joke.

Why You Don't Live in the Northwoods

APRIL 17, 2014

 View out my kitchen door this morning.  I am not leaving the house today.  Hoping to be dug out by Easter to go to church.  Don't know how much there is...when you get to double digits, does it really matter? 

Fun in Line at the Post Office

The Hayward Post Office still has the original style in the lobby area.  One door even says, "Buy War Bonds."  It is warming to see murals of the local area and seriously patriotic artwork and statues.  Plus there is a Muskie mounted on the wall as well.  It is Hayward, you know, Home of the World Record Musky.  As I was standing in line, the clerk asks the customer in front of me if she needs any stamps.  It is their usual question.  The customer was a petite older woman, demurely dressed and also in demeanor.  She replied no.  The clerk continued,  "Are you sure?  How about Jimmy Hendrix stamps?  Or Harry Potter?"  The clerk and I are laughing quite loudly.  The customer chuckles and replies no thank you.  I thought the clerk was joking. 

I went home to check the post office website.  Sure enough, there were Jimmy and Harry.  Why can't there be the U.S. Flag and call it a day?  Obviously, I am not a stamp collector.  Anyway, it made for a fun visit to the Post Office.

A Trip Away

It is wonderful to get away to visit friends and catch up.  Actually my brain feels happy when I see a familiar face from my past.  Thanks, everyone!  I included a visit to downtown Chicago where I worked for 6 years in the 1980's.   My office overlooked a deserted rail yard that you didn't even want to walk by.  Though I had an expansive view of Lake Michigan so that more than made up for the eyesore.  The rail yard has since been turned into Millennium Park!  In the 80's I was in the right place at the wrong time.  Always fun to visit the Bean.

Election Day-Northwoods Style

Case filled in as an election judge yesterday because one of the usual people was ill.  He and other judges arrived at 6:30 am to open the town hall and set up the equipment.  Voting was from 7 am to 8 pm.  Yes, thirteen long hours.  There are 320 registered voters in the Town of Spider Lake.  (Illinois folks - just think township.  There are no "townships" in Wisconsin.  They are called towns.)  Forty-eight came out to vote.  Elections were for school board (2 contested seats), county supervisor (one contested seat), and town board members (2  seats running unopposed).  It certainly wasn't a glamorous election.  Writing this on Wednesday I can tell you the results that all the incumbents won.  At 8 pm, the judges counted the electronic votes, paper votes and absentee votes (2 this time).  Then they put away the equipment.  Case was home after 9 pm.   I don't know what he earned, but it wasn't enough in my opinion. 

Case said he learned a lot.  I ventured a guess, "How the wheels of democracy roll at the grassroots level?"  "No," he replied.  "After each voter left, I was filled in on their story.  I was fresh meat for the usual judges to tell the tales."