No Post November?

Hello everyone, and yes, I'm still alive.  My apologies for not posting anything in weeks.  It's been a pretty rough fall so far around here.  My last post was Halloween and it had snowed a couple times.  In the weeks since, we had a few more snows and even a week of bitter cold that is normally not seen until January.  Thankfully, I think it was the Wednesday after Halloween, I came home after a long day of work and cleaned the gutters and raked/mulched the leaves as it was supposed to snow that night again.  And it's a good thing I did as we've had standing snow and ice ever since up until a couple days ago.  If I hadn't gotten it done then I would have been doing it yesterday - and I did see others cleaning their gutters yesterday.  This past week it has finally gotten a bit more seasonable and the snow is almost all melted again, but the trees are bare, grass is dull and the days are pretty gray.

Last year my last fire pit was on the winter solstice, December 21.  Friday afternoon the conditions were well enough I had my first fire in a month and it very well may be the last of the year.  I already miss the quiet time sitting outside, staring into the fire.  But it's cold now and no longer ideal, yet if I get another chance I probably will.  Also, our grill is also out of gas but with the weather I've been in no hurry to fill it.

I've had a lot of thoughts lately about someone very close to the family that has been dealing with a terminal diagnosis.  I can't imagine the hardships they've been dealing with lately, but hopefully hospice care can help things become more manageable.  We will be making the short trip for a visit sometime soon in the coming weeks.  Until then, I hope they know we love them and are thinking of them.  Aside from grandparents I've not had anyone close to me die, so I guess I've been lucky so far, but that luck is running out.

Well, I don't mean to end on a downer but there's nothing else really happening around here.  We have the holiday season almost upon us, soooo, we got that going for us.  Yay.

Halloween 2019

We got 3 inches of snow a few days ago, then we got 5.1 inches on Halloween day.  While most walks had been cleared it was still below freezing with snow and leaves everywhere for the evening trick-or-treaters.  I wasn't really surprised that there were less this time, maybe two dozen or so, less than half of last year.  It just means we have waaaay too much candy left over.  Dammit, I like candy.  But I'm not used to eating a lot of it.  I may get a tummy ache!

This is the third year I've used the mummy in the corner window.  It was just a cheap decoration - two plastics sheets to tape in the windows - but I got a lot of compliments from the parents on it this year.  In fact, one said it was the most Halloweeny house on the street.  I think the effect from the corner windows is good, especially if you are walking toward it down the street.  I also got a cheap red strobe light that I put in the kitchen window, just for fun.  After dark it seemed like a nice effect, anyway.  Also cheap window decals went unused due to the cold glass.  I did have a new skull mask with a moving jaw, but I think I only answered the door in it a couple times and even then quickly removed it.  I guess I was apprehensive about scaring the younger ones.

All in all a nice, but slow, snowy and cold Halloween.  Almost felt more like Christmas out there.

Second Snow... and Meat!

Two days after the first snow we get the second - and this was a pretty big one.  Traffic was terrible all day until this afternoon when it stopped and cleared up a bit.  Here's a view of the freshly covered back yard from the warmth of inside.

Also this afternoon, thankfully after it was more clear, I went and picked up our fourth quarter cow.  It was a bigger cow than last year, we got about 132 pounds of meat at less than 5 bucks a pound, and that's for everything - steaks, roasts, ground and more.  Not too bad, and the meat is so much better than the local grocery store.  This will probably set us until early 2021!

That's all I can write for now, it's Halloween and the trick-or-treaters are starting to come around.  Boo!

First Snow of the Season, 2019

First snows according to this blog - October 10, 2009; December 4, 2010, November 9, 2011; December 9, 2012; October 23, 2013; 2014 not noted; November 20, 2015; December 4, 2016; November 18, 2017; October 20, 2018; and today, October 29, 2019.

The unmelted lumps of snow in the driveway are on leaves.

The first snow of the season is something I've noted here before, usually, see above, so I shouldn't have been surprised as it's not too early for it.  I did see on the news last night that they were expecting 1-2 inches, but they also said it would melt during the day.  Oh, it's melted some, but there's still more than I'd like to see out there this afternoon, and it's been sunny all day.

The picture above is from before 5:00 this morning as I headed out to work.  At the time it was 30ºF and there was least two inches and likely more of the wet, heavy stuff - and still snowing.  Here, right, is the same view as I got home early this afternoon.  Roads, driveways and walks were mostly melted even this morning as the ground is warmer, but snow still lingers on the grassy areas.

Yes, the back yard is still mostly covered in snow still as it has only risen to 36ºF this afternoon, but the front yard is a more dramatic picture with the snow, leaves and drooping arborvitae.  Not surprising since this is the north side of the house.  Every winter I try to knock the snow off the bushes as soon as possible, which I did right after this picture, or it really takes a toll and they have a hard time straightening up again in the spring.  I did remember this year to give them a good, long drink of water before putting the hose away a couple days ago.  I forgot last year and the two taller ones are still a bit ragged in their bottom halves from whatever happened to them over last winter.

At least we finished winterizing the yard and gardens on Sunday.  Still left to do is leaves and gutters, but there are still leaves to fall yet.  The back yard gets mostly the black walnut leaves from next door, which are done now, so I mow to mulch back there.  The leaves in front will eventually get raked into piles and vacuumed up and mulched for the flowerbeds.  I see many people here have already raked several times, and they always put them out for the city to pick up.  While I have mowed to mulch in back, I refuse to rake the front until the leaves are done falling.  And I'm not putting them out for the city - ever.  I never really saw the sense in that when they make good mulch, if not for flowerbeds then just mow them into the lawn.  Putting them out for the city to pick up seems wasteful and inefficient, to me anyway.

It seems like I've said much of this before, so sorry if I'm being repetitive.  What do you do outside to get ready for winter?

October This-And-Thats

With no real subject to write about and knowing I've not posted much of anything aside from the creek in some time, it's time again to sit down and start writing about whatever comes to mind.  You know the drill, now here I go!

• I got sick for the first time this season, starting over two weeks ago.  I was so miserable, and for so long.  I think it was just a real nasty cold virus, but it may have been a bit of the flu - even though I got my flu shot less than a month before.  (Some say that's what got me sick, but I think they use a dead virus for the vaccine.  What do you think?)  I was off work for a whole week and it's been lingering in the week since.  At least my boss felt sorry enough for me that I wasn't required to do the mandatory overtime this past week.  Yay.
• I was poking my nose around in blogger and I just happened to notice that Delcatto's comment on my last post was my 1,000th comment!  Doesn't mean much unless you're a numbers geek, and I'm sure about half the comments were me.  That's my random fact for today, I guess.
• The trees are turning colors and some leaves are falling already.  It seems odd in places because some trees are almost bare while others are still green.  Some trees just drop their leaves earlier than others.  Also, it's time to clean up the yard and gardens, which I have a small start on but hopefully will have more done by the time this weekend is over.  This is not my favorite time of year, it is the time of impending winter to me.  I much prefer spring and the time of impending summer!
• We just put in the order for our next quarter cow.  This will be the fourth time we've done this, and the meat seems to last us a little over a year.  It's nice to have all that meat in the freezer, and it's cheaper in the long run.  Plus, we enjoy it more than the meat from the grocery store.  Lots more, it's just a higher quality meat.
• Without much else going on, I did enjoy my last 3 posts.  I enjoyed the walks and getting outside, and trying to get good pictures.  I'm sorry to have stretched it out a bit, but I was busy/had nothing else to really write about anyway/was in no particular hurry - take your pick.  I actually feel a little guilty if I don't post anything for too long, but it can be hard when not much is happening.  Even this post was pretty much put together over several days of wondering what I would write.

I can't think of anything else to say right now.  I guess that's why I've not posted anything recently.  Oh well, no news is good news, I guess.

The Starkweather Slide Step - Part III

Yesterday afternoon the sun finally came out, so after the Badger game I took the walk around our section of Starkweather creek to get a closer and different look at the new steps and slide.  I've never done this short walk before and this seemed like a good reason to get out and do it.  I start at the end of our street and walk north, crossing the bike path bridge then walking south to the Milwaukee Street bridge, and then back north a bit to our street again.  All pictures in this post, and there's quite a few here, were taken on this walk.

Google reminded me that a year ago today I posted about the creek and the flooding and the progress of the water as it was going down a bit.  Things look a bit greener this year than last, you can take a quick look at a year ago today here, and all my flood-related posts here.  While the levels look a whole lot better than this time last year, all the lakes are still well over their set summer maximum levels.  The creek empties into Lake Monona, which is still much too high so the creek is at least a foot and a half higher than it should be right now, by my reckoning.  Lake levels can be checked and animated here, at least until Flash Player goes away.

But enough of that for now.  Come and walk with me around this section of Starkweather Creek - after the break, of course.  And mind the ducks!

The Starkweather Slide Step - Part II

When I posted a week ago I didn't know it would be a whole week before I could follow it up with part two, but a busy week and required overtime and here we are.  I'll tell you right now there will be a part three because I do want to get out sometime this weekend to make the walk around and see the view from the other side of the creek to get a closer look at the steps and a different view of the slide.

But first things first, let's take a look at the completion of both projects, steps and slide - after the break!

The Starkweather Slide Step

I mentioned previously that the city was going to put in a canoe/kayak slide into Starkweather Creek at the end of our street and, further upstream on the other side, steps leading down to the creek.  I also said that I would post a pictorial of the process, which I found a little difficult because I have a whole bunch of pictures and needed to pare them down.  In the end, I decided to go in date order, only of the days I made the walk down to see, of course.  There's still a lot of pictures, but date order should help keep them in context.

The project started later than expected, it was scheduled to begin August 12.  We received a letter from the city earlier in August letting us know of the plans and the schedule.  I'm sure other projects were delayed, you can't really depend on timelines for these kinds of things as they are at the hand of the weather.  And it seems the contractor concentrated on completing the steps before fully starting on the slide.  At least they did not limit our parking as we were told would happen and all in all it was no bother to us.

So let's begin - after the break!

My Fall Vacation

Hello everybody, welcome back.  I hope you've been well.  I know I've been more absent than normal lately.  I had a vacation and, well, it was different for me so I guess I've just not been sure how to write about it.  But that never stopped me before, so here goes!

I took last week off as I've done for several years now.  Long after I had secured the week off my wife found out she was being flown out to the east coast for work for much of that week.  My first thoughts were that it would be kind of nice.  In actuality, I got kind of depressed and lazy.  Now, the weather had much to do with that, being overcast and/or rainy most of the time (despite the pictures I have here), and my back wasn't that good so I couldn't do much of what I had planned, but my mood certainly lifted when she got back home late in the week.

The weekend before was a pretty normal weekend, and I got up early Monday morning to take her to the airport.  That wasn't such a bad day, I made some rather large but necessary purchases (new bed and glasses) and grilled out brats for dinner, but scrapped plans for a fire due to impending rain.  Tuesday was much warmer and very humid, but the heat and humidity broke in the evening so I did spend a good amount of time by the fire that night.  Over the course of these two days I also got another piece of wood cut and painted for the cat box project downstairs, but with my back acting up I did not get any further on this project, disappointingly.  Wednesday was also hot and humid, even more so than the day before.  By this time I was sleeping about 10 hours a night and that felt good, but the weather was just so damn gloomy and if it wasn't raining then rain was coming soon.  I figured it was just a matter of time until water got in the basement, another excuse to put that cat box project off.  Thursday was pretty much the same, gloomy and wet, but the storms stepped it up a few notches that afternoon.  I felt pretty crappy that day, probably due to drinking too much and sleeping too much the previous few days.  I can see now I had fallen into a bit of a funk.

On Thursday night I was supposed to pick my wife up from the airport, but her first plane was delayed due to the weather in Chicago, then her next plane actually tried to get to Madison but the thunderstorms and lightning we were having here were too much and they had to turn back.  My brave wife ended up getting a rental car for her and her coworkers and made the drive from Chicago to Madison in the middle of the night and through the aforementioned severe storms.  The airline was of no help and the next plane was the next night so she didn't have much of a choice, unfortunately.  But thankfully she made it back safe and sound and the cats and I were very happy to see her.

All that, and before she could return the rental car and pick up her luggage on Friday a branch fell from a tree out front and smashed the rear window of the rental car as it was parked in our driveway.  Alas, just the icing on the cake of a very bad travel night and day for her.

Since then the weather got a bit nicer and I got a few more things accomplished, like power washing and water sealing the back steps and washing all the windows.  But the cat box project, the one I've been mulling for several years now and finally got a good start on, still stalled.  But that's okay, for now.  I have all the hardware, wood and paint that I need so I'm going to run out of excuses eventually!

So that was pretty much my week of vacation.  I wasn't at work and I got a lot of rest so it was still a positive for me.  One thing I didn't mention yet was the several walks I took up and down the creek as they worked on the steps and canoe/kayak slide.  It seems everything was completed on Saturday, so that will probably be my next post, with a pictorial of the process.  See you then!

Sunday Pictures

I don't know if this is a new 'thing' for me or not, but again I'm tired and I don't feel like writing a whole lot tonight so here are a few pictures I've taken since the last time.

 I should have more to talk about very soon as there are things that I want to do very soon, but if I promise I'll jinx myself.  How's that for a cliffhanger?