Happy Halloween 2024

The windows mummy is no more this year, but I did get a neat black skeleton with lit eyes to hang on the front door tonight.  I also got a cheap purple spider web that I was hoping to cover from awning to bottom rail but it was way too windy to try and set that up, so it'll be put away for next year.  A flickering flame porch light and a couple squat pumpkins would round out our Halloween look this year.

I had a good day with some Halloween celebrations at work, then getting ready for trick-or-treaters at home.  We'd had great weather the last few days.  I was even able to wear shorts and sandals out and about the last couple days, but today was to be different.

It had been windy recently with a couple nice warm days, but today was more windy, sustained winds 15-20 mph with gusts that can stop you in your tracks.  Thankfully that's easing off a bit tonight, but we've also gotten so much colder with this front coming in.  By morning we'll be near freezing with barely a breeze.  

Despite the weather, we had a few more trick-or-treaters than last year, but still only 14 by my count.  We shut it down before 8 tonight, more than a half hour since the last ones.  Gave out less than half of the candy we had, so now we have that problem, too.  Happy Halloween, everyone.

Street Reconstruction Part 13 1/2: A Different View

I noticed today the gap between the base of the tree and where it was growing over the old curb and now with the new curb and thought to provide a different view here.  The street is one foot narrower on each side now.

Street Reconstruction Part 13

There hasn't been any big updates lately, they've just been cleaning up the terraces and where they had to dig out for new sidewalk to a depth of so many inches, presumably for fresh soil to plant grass and trees.  They've also been raising/replacing the water valves (blue marker) to be at the height of where the ground will be.  I don't believe they had to do ours as it is close enough, I guess.

I'm afraid this series will last until spring for the planting of the terraces, but we'll see what happens.

Car Is Fixed & Mom Worries

There hasn't been much visible work done on the streets since last post.  It appears they have prepared some of the terraces for adding dirt, grass and trees, but no update until ours is done.  They've also not started on the foot bridge that is part of this project, and I hope they came to their senses and save that money but probably not.

I got the car back on Tuesday last week.  All they found was a wheel bearing that needed replacing on the right front.  Thankfully it wasn't more serious, that bearing made a hell of a scraping sound.  So about 100 bucks to tow it to the shop then about 900 dollars to fix.  Could've been worse and I consider myself lucky.

Also Tuesday after work I returned the rental car, so I had the rental for 8 days.  It was all rather confusing when I rented it, but it appears the rental car cost me about 50 dollars a day.  All in all, not as bad as I feared, yet the total cost of my car breaking down approached $1500.00.

Also on Tuesday evening, after returning the rental and fetching my car from the shop, I got a call from my sister.  Seems my Mom was having a health emergency.  I talked to her but she didn't want me to come down because they were hoping to get her into a Madison hospital the next day, which they did.  So I met her at one of the hospitals here in town the next morning.  Later that Wednesday she had a procedure done, and the next day she was discharged in the early afternoon.  I took her home and spent the night, but wound up leaving around midday on Friday and my sister and her kids got there later in the afternoon and spent the weekend with her.

Mom will be okay and has a chance to recover completely, but will need to exercise, take her medicine, listen to her doctors and go to therapy.  So it will be work, but I know she can do it.

Pretty good view from Mom's hospital room of downtown, lakes and the capitol building, but distant and always a better view in person.  The closest car here on the 4th floor of the parking garage is mine, fresh from the shop, and coincidentally across from her room (valet parking).

Street Reconstruction Part 12, & Car

The work this week consisted of wetting, grading and compressing the gravel, and raising the manholes to the new street level (the orange barrels in the middle of the road).

 Then on Friday they laid down two layers of asphalt.

So by the time I got home from work we had a completed street!

There are still wires to move, poles to remove, terraces to finish, trees to plant (next spring?) and signs to put up, but the worst appears to be behind us and the end in sight.  We've been parking a block and a half away for quite some time now so it will be nice to park at home again - though we may not be able to some days due to the continuing work.  And I'll have to have the local second hand shop pick up a dresser in the garage so I can park in it again.

As for my car, I talked to the shop first thing Monday and they were booked for the week.  I've been taking my car there for 15 years and trust them, so do I wait or try to get it into an unfamiliar shop earlier?  I chose to wait, but did have it towed to the shop that day as they said if they had a cancellation or extra time they may be able to look at it earlier, otherwise it's scheduled for Monday.  Well, I heard nothing from them all week so I assume they never had a chance to check it out.  I have the rental car through Friday though I hope to be able to return it sooner.

Street Reconstruction Part 11, More

It appears we're ready to have a new street installed very soon.  There's not been a whole lot of activity lately other than grading and compacting the gravel.  They didn't work at all over the weekend, so maybe Monday.

I've not had many fires this year, and I've kept short the few I've had.  It was either too hot, too windy, or I was just too tired on weekend evenings.  Now, with cooler weather and an earlier sunset I may get out there more.  I did get out there for a bit on Friday evening.  It was nice, but I did build it up and let it burn down in just a few hours rather than spend all night.

And Basil got a visit from a neighbor cat.  People aren't supposed to let their cats out here in the city but many do, even despite the construction and large machinery going back and forth all day.

On my way to pick up groceries this morning I noticed an odd sound as I arrived.  I didn't see anything outside the car so kept the radio off and paid close attention on the drive home and I heard horrendous noises coming from the car.  I'm not sure what's going on, but first thing in the morning I'll have to try and get it into the shop.  I can use my wife's van sometimes, but I need my car.