This weekend could be an instant replay of the same weekend a year ago: Balloon rally in Hartford, Arab World Fest in Milwaukee, last weekend for State Fair in West Allis, car show in Waukesha, Bluesfest in Delafield. Heck, it even rained on Saturday afternoon, same as last year! Guess you have to stick with what works.

A little nervous when I heard that the only change to Bluesfest, beside performers, would be the ticket prices. Not enough people showed for the first one and, though we enjoyed it, thought it would take something major to bring it back again this year. It was $37.00 for a one day ticket last year compared to $15.00 each for advance tickets this time.

The restaurants were the same as last year, vendors same, artists same. Same park, Naga-Waukee. OK, even the same person accompanied me, Mom-in-law. But are fourteen artists in a tent gallery enough of a distraction for a 9-1/2 hour fest? Is there anything for kids to do?

Yesterday I'd heard that Friday's crowd was pretty light. I was afraid of that. I wanted to see this work for people like myself who enjoy this type of music, and for Waukesha Rotary Club's Charitable Fund, recipient of the proceeds.

We arrived around 1:00 for it's start and found everything as we left it from last year. All eyes were on the people, ears on the music. Would more people show than last year, and did the lineup suffer from the ticket price cut? The same tent with the same amount of chairs were filled with a similar number of blues fans. But then something started happening. A couple decent local acts played and people started arriving. Portable chairs were set up, picnic tables filling, artists seeing customers. It was a relaxed atmosphere where us mainly middle-aged folk could go barefoot, smoke, drink or get the blues without much restriction. I didn't see anyone get out of hand, mom-in-law excepted.

By the time the first of the three head-liners played, the tent seemed to be 3/4 full. We were really getting into the artist born in Two Rivers who later moved to New Orleans. His nieces took the stage to toss Mardi Gras beads to us and I caught one for Ma. People started cheering for me and I didn't know why. Correction, people were cheering for Bryan Lee not Brien Lee and it was because his group was really great. He signed my t-shirt the same way I often sign my name, B Lee, a neat trick considering he's blind.

As the evening wore on the tent filled almost completely and I was satisfied the one change made to the ticket price was enough. Younger fans appeared as day turned to night. Many dancers were enjoying themselves, especially to the tunes of The Bel Airs. We had an enjoyable night and will go again next year.

I usually get the blame for things that go wrong around here. If something should leak or break ten years after I repair it, it's got to be my fault. Car not running right? Yep, it's me. Not enough snacks / bread / milk / money... you guessed it.

I don't always agree that I'm responsible indefinitely for something I may have fixed years ago, but with the sewer flooding our basement this morning for the fifth time in a week, I will accept most of the blame... this time.

I'm upset that tens if not hundreds of thousands of tax dollars were spent a year and a half ago replacing sewer pipe on my street. (We were informed it would fix the flooding problem)  And I'm upset that I didn't just plug up the floor drain before last night's rain. Last week plugging it worked OK, though water poured in through a different orifice anyway. I thought checking the basement throughout the night would be enough. I finally got some rest after the heavy rain let up. Unfortunately for us, the backup didn't happen until after the rain stopped. This morning I found the largest puddle yet; about a quarter of the basement, but still not as bad as many others in the area.

I'm mad at myself for not remembering other times when the backup started after the rain stopped. We could've prevented so much just by plugging the drain once we heard how bad the weather was going to be.