Common Ground

Something to replace the old Standard gas station on the corner of Moreland and Delafield has been a long time in coming.

The plans for it are a Starbuck's, Edward Jones investment services and an undetermined food establishment. Starbuck's will have a drive through. That will come in handy when I know the rush hour on I94 will be a long one.

So why the lull in construction? A steel shortage, I am told. Probably from all of our scrap metal heading to Japan and then being used in the Pacific Rim and projects in Dubai.

A birthday was celebrated a few days ago and for supper we wanted a good steak. Having been happy with a place located on the east side of town where you really don't know if it is Waukesha, Pewaukee or Brookfield, we went there again.

All of you have likely heard stories about foreign objects in food or even lawsuits over hot coffee. When I hear that someone found something in their food, like a finger, I am skeptical. However, many years ago I had a bone fragment in a bratwurst and cracked a molar. The latest cap cracked again recently so the event has cost me much money. Therefore, from personal experience, foreign objects in food may be more of an occurrence than many people would expect.

Back to the present. My wife was enjoying her salad when she bit on something hard. It was a piece of glass the size of a corn kernel. We didn't feign disaster but when the waitress came to ask the famous "How's everything?", she was told of the glass and a request for another salad.

The manager came and offered an apology and an order for another salad. That was it. Being the old time people that we are, we did not demand title to the business, dial up our lawyer on the cell phone or issue a press release.

We enjoyed the rest of the meal. Both of our steaks were marvelous. However we left disappointed that some token wasn't offered. A couple free deserts would have been nice. As it is, this place will no longer be at the top of our list when hunger for a steak happens.

What would you have done or expected?

If we are going to promote downtown and wish to keep buses with enough passengers to quell a taxpayer uprising, lets consider something that other cities are trying.

When I tossed my hat into the ring to fill the vacancy of resigning alderman Steve Panozzo, all the candidates had to give a dissertation on why they wanted to be the alderman. What the council wanted to hear was a Miss America type of baseball and apple pie speech. I should have stopped there, but I'm known to have my own opinions and to speak them.

One of the things that I said that I'd like to see are the buses having bike racks so a person could take the bus to where ever, downtown perhaps, and take their bike along for transportation once there. Shortly after I was given my hat back. If anyone thought that the idea had merit, I've not heard so.

You see, I used to spend a good amount of time in downtown Milwaukee. I don't anymore. The last few times that I did, however, I wished that I could have had a bicycle to get around to where I wanted to go. A small number of towns have tried to furnish bicycles either by rental or providing them free but painting they yellow so anyone seen outside of the area would be obvious.

I'm thinking that Waukesha should consider something like this. Close off the streets between St. Paul and Wisconsin and Barstow to where Main meets Wisconsin. Make it pedestrian and bicyclist only, other than deliveries. Enlarge a crosswalk from the Bus terminal so bikes, wheelchairs and personal scooters can freely cross St. Paul.

That, my friends, could bring a lot of outside people with money in their wallets to check out a downtown with something different to offer! A side trip up to Frame Park or down the Fox River would be frosting on the visit.

What do you think?

Even though Pat and I live on the northwest side of town, we have visited Jennifers and Calypso from time to time. With the new ownership and being renamed Alexis, we have stopped by several times for dinner. A familiar looking menu did have some new items. Having had a search for tasty Tex-Mex style food, I zeroed in on the Taco dinner. Pat ordered the chimichanga with chicken. I was pleasantly surprised to find the beef tacos filled with ground chorizo. Delicious! Pat enjoyed her chicken chimichanga so much that she ordered them again on the next visit. I tried the enchiladas and enjoyed them.

Pat wasn't so pleased though. Upon mentioning that the chicken did not taste as good as the first time, it was explained that they had ran out of the seasoned chicken and made a substitute. My advice is to just say you are out of a product rather than risk disappointing the customer.

On another visit, to Pat's horror, I ordered the fillet mignon. Pat knows I'm fussy about my steak. I ordered mine medium. I got it well done. It came covered with onion rings and canned mushrooms. Had the the mushrooms been sauteed for a few seconds, it would have been more appetizing. I did enjoy the baked potato though!

The owner was gone that evening. On previous visits he made the rounds to make sure everyone was satisfied. There was a noted lack of supervision this evening with his absence.

We will return, if only to enjoy the Tex-Mex food and other items that we haven't explored yet. A new business will suffer some growing pains. We allow for that and recommend a visit.

As work is slow this afternoon, I was thinking if a holiday would ever get old to the point of not being worth celebrating anymore. I mean, we are so buddy buddy with England that we might someday want to discuss a merger! So much for independence.

Many of us don't get much vacation, or any. National holidays are often the only break from work many of us get. So, unless we work for the federal government or at a bank, a few more REAL holidays would be welcomed. Anyone for making Cinco De Mayo a new holiday?

I'd like everyone to be safe and sound this 4th. So, if you bought fireworks, you can't legally use them in Wisconsin, anywhere. I don't know the approved method of disposing of them but soaking them in water until soft seems to be a start.

Which brings me to my gripe. Why do we allow the sale of something that is illegal to use? And why do some municipalities issue permits to use them, knowing that they are in violation of state law? Greed perhaps? I understand that each year someone introduces legislation to outlaw the sale of fireworks within the state and it gets shot down. Who is "shooting it down"? There can be no good reason to allow the sale of an illegal and unsafe product, so again the root of all evil enters the picture.

A very similar situation exists with motorcycle and car mufflers. It's illegal to modify them to be louder than what they came with but it isn't illegal to sell or buy them. What sense does that make?

Complain about someone setting off fireworks or driving by with loud pipes and the police say they have to be witness to the situation to issue a ticket. I can understand that. However, that makes enforcement near impossible. So it points to the need to ban the sale of the products in the first place.

Illogical laws foster disregard for the law. We need to have that corrected.