Takin' the Blog for a Walk

A bit frosty this morning. Thirty-five degrees. The hot air inside the balloon I crewed for this morning reached at least 200 degrees. The white-covered ground set off the colors of the envelope spectacularly. Skies cloudless, the waning almost-full moon shining in the west and the winds calm.

I've been concerned about the hot air season coming to a close before we're through having fun. Now that the beautiful fall colors are here the weather seems to be going through a change, bringing with it too much wind, sometimes rain. Even though you can balloon year round in Wisconsin, I'd bet most people would prefer not to go in winter.

So I appreciate every opportunity to crew this fall and I'll be going again in an hour. The days left to do this are numbered and for all I know this could be the last for a while. It's too bad really, because more fields are harvested now - more landing spots - and the fall colors are so vibrant though short-lived.

If we made no changes to our lifestyle here at the Lee household, the new state budget will cost us almost $1200.00 more in 2008 than this year. That's a lot of groceries!

How will the new budget affect you?

Don't go near Shattuck Music Center / Hall / Auditorium this weekend at Carroll College / University if you don't enjoy great music. Besides the wonderful offering this Sunday at 3:00; a combination of the Waukesha Choral Union, Carroll Concert Choir and Children's Choir of Waukesha, there's world-class sax player Johan Stengard on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. 

I don't want to recommend one over the other, they both sound great, but the Johan concert is a benefit for the St. Vincent De Paul Society. As you may already know, the Society helps the poor in our area and any proceeds from the concert go to help the needy in Waukesha. As a member of the Society, I know there are plenty of underemployed, injured, homeless, unemployed . . . in the city that could use some help. 

Tickets for the Johan concert are $15.00 at the door. I guarantee you'll walk away from the concert feeling good . . . in more ways than one.  

It would be easier to mention what I didn't like about our trip to Whitewater Saturday for the State Marching Band Championships. It would take too long to mention everything I did like. I don't have that kind of time.

With both boys at North it made sense that this was to be the year we finally experienced the excitement of the championships. With North winning the mood never dampened. 

Though the weather was nice all day, we arrived after 8:00 p.m. Got there too late to see West but got to see South and North instead. I'd seen North's routine before at a halftime, didn't get it then, and didn't get it when they repeated it Saturday night. A Montage of Three doesn't seem to have any memorable tunes and the shapes the marchers made didn't work for me either. Fortunately, the judges saw something I didn't because, besides first overall in class AAAA, they awarded North for best visual, best color guard and best percussion.

Even though I don't understand how a deaf, dumb and blind kid can play pinball, it was easier for me to relate to South's Tommy routine because the music was at least recognizable.

 I enjoyed all the groups and wish we would have arrived earlier. The kids and directors all work incredibly hard for this and it shows!    

Missed the last bus to my regular stop Monday evening. The alternate was to wait 20 minutes for the next coach and take it all the way to Downtown Waukesha. Without phone change, I walked to Christina's Family Restaurant on Delafield St. to see if I could call from there.

At Christina's I noticed a free-standing sign on the sidewalk, (a sandwich board?) advertising gyros on a stick. Now my familiarity with gyros is extremely limited, but I thought it was a sandwich and wondered how the stick fits in. Peggy was nice enough to tell me all about the sandwich and George let me use the phone.

Two things in my favor; First, I was on my own for dinner Monday night so nothing but leftovers to look forward to. Also, my wife told me to stay right where I was and they'd come to get me. By now it must be around 7:00 p.m. so I ordered a gyro and found it really delicious. There is a rather tall cylinder of lamb meat in view behind the grill gyrating on a verticle spit, cooking in front of a red hot heating element. The meat is taken off the cylinder in long thin slices. It's served on pita bread, not a stick. The spit is the only stick involved. For less than $7.00 I devoured an interesting sandwich, ate a cup of hot cream of mushroom soup and shared piping hot fries with the son who came to get me. A heck of a good deal I would immediately repeat.

If anyone has wondered who Christina's Restaurant was named for . . . be sure to check out the trio of choirs Sunday the 28th at 3:00 at Carroll College. Christina will be one of the featured soloists.

There's more than thirty events related to Big Read Waukesha this month. It's the first time Waukesha has done this community-wide program and I hope it's not the last. I picked up my free book, "Fahrenheit 451" and I've started reading it. I'm checking the program brochure often and attending the events that interest me.

Tonight, the event that interested me was the "So You Think You Know It All?" trivia contest. I arrived in the middle of it and immediately found it entertaining. One adult was pitted against five eigth graders to answer questions from five categories for points. Former mayor Carol Lombardi hosted the contest in similar fashion to the show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" There were four teams of eigth graders but not enough adult volunteers, so I stepped up after watching for a while. I answered all five questions correctly! Not difficult when you consider one question was "Which book is Waukesha reading for the Big Read?"

Thanks to many, many sponsors there were generous prizes for the student and adult victors. Unfortunately, the top two adults, me among them, and the top two student teams were tied. I went head to head with the woman who volunteers at the Waukesha County Museum and I missed a couple. She got every one right!  Each student on the winning team left with prizes worth at least $60.00 and the gal that beat me? A gift basket of tickets and certificates worth $350.00! I'm not bothered by not winning. I went to the Civic Theatre to watch and ended up having a much better time than I thought I would. 

Things I would've blogged about if I had the time:

I'd vote for him again. Even though I think we're overdue for a woman president, I'd vote for former V.P. and now Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Al Gore, again. I know I've voted strangely in the past, Ed Thompson for one, but Mr. Gore has shown the kind of leadership we need now. It's safe to say the war in Iraq wouldn't have happened had my vote counted instead of the Electoral College's. If Mr. Gore became president I don't think the auto makers and polluters would love him, but after reading his book Earth in the Balance, I think his term would be good one not only our country now, but for the future world also.

For once I didn't mind donating $200.00 to Pick 'N Save. This was one shopping trip when I actually wanted to spend $200.00. Pick 'N Save is running a "Bonus Bucks" promo where you receive a coupon for savings on your next shopping trip by spending X amount of dollars. It's not a bad deal, 10% savings, if you pay attention. The promo is incremental. If I spend $80.00, I'll probably get a coupon for use with a $120.00 minimum shopping trip. The coupon I used yesterday was $18.00 off a $180.00 shopping trip, which means we probably spent $120.00 previously to get it. The coupon we received yesterday for spending $200.00? $40.00 off a $400.00 or more shopping trip. I don't think so!

A couple good columns I read last week. A Miami Herald writer, Leonard Pitts, turned 50 and had the humor and seriousness to write about it. It was reprinted in Thursday's Journal Sentinel. This makes two very good column's from him in two weeks. Also, I found it interesting, in last Sunday's Journal Sentinel, that Historian John Gurda had joined a Father Groppi open housing march 41 years ago when he was just 19. Being one of the few white faces in the crowd, taunted but undaunted, he helped carry the American Flag at the head of the procession. He said, "Never before had I felt so angry, so scared and so exhilarated, all at the same time."  I guess you could say it changed his life, because a couple years later he was determined to be part of the solution; he took a job at Journey House to work with the kids who were part of the brick-throwing mob who greeted Fr. Groppi.

Oddly enough, the shrill beep of the smoke alarm this morning coincided with the start of fire prevention week. All the fire-related events this weekend made me think about the two out of three alarms we have without batteries. I put a used 9 volt in one of them after it tested OK, but it must not have been strong enough and set the alarm off.

Yesterday I was invited to help out at the Town of Waukesha Fire Department's pancake breakfast by Rod, a hot air balloon pilot. I gladly accepted and helped set up his balloon for a demonstration. We soon began giving free tethered rides to fire fighters, EMTs and families, only stopping when it got too windy. I was glad to be there, lots to see and do, and happy to give back to the community - Rod donated his time and fuel for this fun event.

From one fire station to another. The official dedication and open house of Fire Station #1 in the City of Waukesha soon followed the festivities of the pancake breakfast. I enjoyed the tour a lot. The kitchen is beautiful as are so many other areas; the outdoor grill, den, workout room, conference room... I enjoyed meeting the alderpeople, mayors past and present, county exec., and firemen. I also enjoyed receiving a free Bradbury book, Fahrenheit 451, from David the librarian, who was in attendance to promote the month-long Big Read Waukesha.     

My neighbor has been exercising freedom of speech in front of his Grandview Blvd. home for the last year or two. For awhile it was just a small homemade "War is Stupid" sign. But then something started to happen. Smaller signs started popping up beside it with "I agree." A colorful round sign was recently added: a peace symbol someone took time to carefully construct.

As sometimes happens in areas of potential controversy, his yard started to look a little cluttered with opposing viewpoints. One sign even proclaimed "Shame on all of you! We should be supporting our troops and elected officials!"

My neighbor has, in response, sometimes added more signs or wrote on the ones there to better explain where he's coming from. It turns out he is a war veteran who lived in Europe during WWII. His first hand knowledge of war and it's aftermath leads him to believe War is Stupid... and I agree.   

There's always something happening at St. William's, my home parish at 440 N. Moreland. Last weekend was the rummage sale. Today we hosted the St. Matthias meal for the needy and tomorrow is blessing of animals in observance of the Feast Day of St. Francis. This Sat. at 6:00 p.m. is wine and cheese and Sunday is a pancake breakfast from 7:30 to noon -- both in the Parish Hall, and both a fundraiser for Cooperating Congregations of Waukesha County's new kitchen.

I'll be helping out in the kitchen Sunday for a couple hours, but may have to miss linking with fellow parishioners for the Life Chain on Bluemound between 2:00 and 3:00.

The following Sunday, the fourteenth, should be interesting. J. Christ will be in the Parish Hall and the Packers will be in the gym! Jennifer Christ will be talking about the rosary at 10:00 a.m. and the Packer game will be shown in the gym at noon. Tickets for the game are only $5.00 at the door and include a brat or hot dog, chips, soda, etc. There's a movie and sitter for the kiddies and raffle for the big people. The game is a Home and School fundraiser for Waukesha Catholic. Meeting J. Christ is free. As it should be.

I should be happy that I'm even asked an opinion. I usually say "no" but at least I'm asked.

They want a pet, I say no. Then they get one anyway. After years of feeding and cleaning up after them, I realize how lucky we are to have them, and slowly start liking them. Especially Pepi. I really put my foot down when they wanted him, we already had a cat, but I grew to love his warmth, softness and weird idiosyncrasies.

Why should it surprise me then that the one person to object to my son's ear piercing, me, is the one parent that takes him and signs the papers for it?

I asked for opinions on my Sept. 18th Fearing the Earring blog, didn't get any, and now look what happened. But after years of feeding and cleaning up after him, I'm really starting to like the kid. We're lucky to have him - even with the earring.