Maple & Main

It became apparent again today that Downtown Waukesha is really changing.

While out walking the dog this morning, I noticed this through the trees.

 

It’s the Ogden Condo project- and this is the first, four-story unit. It will be situated along the Fox River near the west end of Main.

The development is said to occur in three phases, the first of which will include 11 units facing the river, and 10 row-houses facing St. Paul Avenue.

I am going to have a lot of new neighbors here soon.

However, I have a concern. Phase one of this project is being built on the property of the former Pic-a Bac bookstore, which has since been razed.

I heard rumor that the bookstore was haunted. Do ghosts relocate after their former homes are destroyed? Or do they sit dormant until the current construction is complete, and then return to haunt the new digs?

What does a brand new, haunted condominium go for these days?

Check Ogden’s website for more information.

Once again, the blog suffers due to the inconvenient interruption known as life, but today I have found myself with a leftover fifteen minutes, so it will be spent here, in blog land.

Pressure from the weather has consumed my attention for the past two weeks. As the fall-like conditions persist and the downtown Christmas parade looms ever closer (November 18^th at 4PM), the need to put up the holiday decorations weighs heavy.

So last week, I dragged all the boxes marked “Christmas” out of the cellar and began the tedious job of attaching thousands of tiny fire hazards to our building.

The recent balmy weather made for a rather enjoyable experience however, and I think I may have even gotten a little sunburn in the process.

It reminded me of Christmas in California. As a matter of fact, I still remember the huge turnout our local grocery store in Santa Margarita had when they decided to rent a snow-making machine and build a man-made sled hill in their parking lot.

It was pandemonium. Many of the kids had never seen snow before.

And there is something to be said for drinking ice cool lemonade in the shade after spending the day on a hot roof putting up plastic Santas and reindeer, or getting doused by your lawn sprinkler while running an extension cord through your back yard to power the Christmas lights in your palm trees.

However, if you really wanted a true taste of what a snowy day was all about, you could leave the warm confines of southern California and, in three hours, be shoulder deep in so much snow and ice it would make a Wisconsin blizzard look like a snow globe.

Thunder, lightning, white outs, chains on tires, and narrow mountain roads that could mean certain death with a wrong turn, these are the memories of a California winter that I will never forget.

I love Wisconsin.

But what was nice about the winter in California was that you had a choice in what kind of weather experience you wanted around the holidays.

Too hot- go to the mountains. Too cold- go to the desert. Too dry- go to the ocean. Too wet- stay at home and watch movies. What ever your fancy, it was always available.

On the other hand, Wisconsin winters definitely make you appreciate the beautiful weather we have in the spring, summer, and fall. And if it was nice here every day, then EVERYBODY would want to live here, and Wisconsin would become just like California.

And we wouldn’t want that- would we?