Tenney Lock, Madison

I had been planning on a vacation recap post this weekend to sum up the events of this week, and I still plan on doing that, but today's bike ride destination deserves a post of its own.  I had actually hoped to do this trip yesterday but my back was acting up again so today I made it happen and I'm very glad I did.  It was a beautiful day out, and my timing was accidental but worked out to be pretty fortunate.

As I've noted before, bike rides are fun, but I find them easier to get out and do with a destination in mind rather than aimlessly riding.  I'd probably like aimlessly riding if I didn't usually have other things to do, though.  Tuesday I decided I wanted to ride my bike to the only lock in Madison, or anywhere else in Wisconsin as far as I know, on the Yahara River that crosses the isthmus and connects lakes Mendota and Monona.  I'm sure I'll know if there are more locks in Wisconsin soon.  There would figure to be a few on rivers that meet up with one of our Great Lakes, on Superior or Michigan.

See, I've been watching a lot of narrow boat videos on the canal system over in the UK on YouTube recently, and have even subscribed to a few channels.  Notably; CruisingTheCut, Journey with Jono, Countryhouse Gent, among several others.  My interest actually started with those tiny house videos, which led me to find the narrow boat videos, starting with Great Canal Journeys, the show with Tim and Pru, two elderly English thespians, and following their adventures on different boats and canals.  (I'd love to link to all I mentioned but that takes time and you may copy and paste into YouTube, if you're interested.)

I've always known about the lock here in Madison, I just never had a need or interest before now.  I do know it was under repairs earlier this year, is all, but I do not ever remember visiting before.  Riding my bike there sounded like a good plan, I thought.  I purposely have not looked up anything about the lock other than the bike paths to get there as I wanted to see it for the first time upon my arrival.  I didn't take a lot of pictures on my bike ride there, but I those I got were pretty good so I'll post a bunch here, as I'm sure you've seen by now.

Just after I arrived the lockmaster was letting himself in.  He welcomed me and said he was just opening it up so stick around if I want to see it in action, so of course I did!  The Tenney Lock is nothing like I see in the canal videos from England, but they are very much newer, fewer (being only one) and fully automated.  I told him about watching those videos and he was fully informed on the history of canals and lock usage, from the early Chinese and Greeks to the newer but still very old English and German canals.  The railway made those canal systems obsolete for commercial use.  These days they seem to be much more for pleasure, and I can see the appeal.  I told the friendly, even jovial lockmaster that this must be a great job to have.  He came in close, grabbed me by the arm and told me he couldn't imagine a better retirement job, and I could sense his glee!

Above is the second video I took, it was of several older females out on kayaks going through the locks.  I skipped a portion for timeliness, but there is a longer, almost 5 minute video after the break of the first group through the lock today, start to finish.  Plus all pictures full size from above and more from the breakwater out on the lake past the locks.

All that, after the break!

Birthday Party

I have a lovely wife who went through a lot of trouble to put on a wonderful birthday party for me last weekend and great friends who showed up to help us celebrate.  There was beer brats, cake, a nacho bar and some really good wings.  Also tiki torches, a Jack Daniels Whiskey bar and a fire pit in back.  The food was awesome but the company was even better.  Thank you to all who were there with us to celebrate my milestone birthday!

A few more pictures after the break.  Forgive the quality of some, I had other priorities that night.

56

Here's one of my favorite short stories to tell.  It's been a few years now, so don't ask for the site because I don't remember, but I took an online questionnaire that was supposed to tell me how long I had to live.  What the hell, I thought.

I sat and went through this whole quiz, well more than a dozen or so questions, and detailed.  I got done and it said 56.  What, I thought?  Certainly I'm healthier than this.  I called my wife in and showed her.  It's just spitting out a random number, she said.  So I had her do it.  It came out with 93 or 94, I don't remember exactly.

How can this be?  Do it again, she said, so I did.  I went through each question all over again and answered honestly and completely.  56.  Again.

So that's it.  I have 6 more years to live.  It's on the internet so it must be true, right?

50

September This-And-Thats

I haven't done this too much recently.  I guess it's best not to think about it too much and just start typing and see where I end up.  You know, kind of like the usual.

• I've been sick with a dreaded summer man-cold, and a nasty one at that.  When I woke up last Wednesday I knew it was inevitable.  I stayed home sick the following two days, and have been recovering the rest of this holiday weekend.  My wife even felt sorry for me, that's how bad I felt at times.  But I should feel mostly better in time for going back to work tomorrow.  Yay.
• Even though I was under the weather I enjoyed the sun and fresh air out on Terry's boat yesterday, but I did not use sunscreen except on my knees and wound up a little bit sunburned elsewhere.  I guess between the hazy sun, laziness, and wanting a little more color made me throw caution to the wind.  I did switch sides on the boat so at least I'm even!
• My wife is planning a pretty big party for next weekend.  She likes having people over but this is looking to be quite a big deal.  The week will be spent cleaning and preparing for the weekend.  I've been told to butt out and not worry about anything, which is very hard to do.  Friday night and Saturday will be my biggest contributions, cleaning the garage and preparing the yard.
• I've been putting together a playlist for the above event.  Other than adding a couple albums to my phone, I just chose music from my phone.  But I do have a lot of music on my phone.  Being selective, I thought, I narrowed it down to well over 300 songs.  Way too many, so I took it down to 200 songs.  Still way too many.  Finally I got it down to 150 songs, less than half of what I started with when I already thought I was being picky.  That's it, I've spent too much time on it already for just background music.
• I've not had the bike out recently due to this cold, but I had been trying to use it on the weekends.  Just over a week ago I rode a distance to my pharmacy and back.  (Not the closest pharmacy to home but it is on the way to work.)  I was hoping for more but the skies were promising rain.  I have some time off coming up so I'm sure to get a few rides in soon.  And the seasons may allow for riding for some time yet, although probably not in shorts for much longer.
• I haven't yet flattened the feet or added a brace to the sawbuck of a few posts ago.  I have a board that is perfect for the brace but I'm using it for something else at the moment.  I'll have that other project done in short order once I'm on vacation then can finish the sawbuck.  I've also thrown a hand saw in my car for scavenging more firewood.  Does anyone care about this?  Probably not, but it is already written so it stays.

I can't think of anything else right now.  I haven't posted anything about Hamish and Basil in a while.  Mentioning it here increases the chances of that happening.  Otherwise, stay tuned, I'm bound to do something interesting eventually.

Labor Day Weekend 2017

I didn't seem to write much last month, so let's get it started already for September!  I plan on writing some tomorrow, but for today enjoy pictures of our afternoon boat trip.  Thanks, Terry!  Just a short trip today, and we seemed to beat most of the holiday traffic on the way out, but the boats were just streaming out onto the lake when we came back in.  More after the break!

Sawbuck

I got up today with plans in mind, things I needed to get done before relaxing for a while and then watching the Packer's preseason game tonight.  I made a plan last night, and plans somewhat, and there's always tomorrow to get a bit more done before going back to hell work on Monday.

I wanted to get the few branches I scavenged last year cut for firewood.  Last year I got a good deal on an electric chainsaw and used an old wooden folding chair to raise the wood while I cut it, and my foot to keep it stable.  That chair broke last year so I needed a new way to hold the branches for me to cut them safely - and safer than I was.  Just a short search on the internet gave me lots of ideas.  I saw one idea that I could run with so late last night I went out to the garage and drew up a rough idea.  I wanted to make it smaller than the ones I'd seen because it won't be used often and I have to store it in an already filled garage, but it also had to be big enough to be stable and safe.  This morning I headed to the lumber store for a few cheap 2x4's and got to work.  I didn't take many pictures during the process, but I got these few.

For the size logs I plan to cut I think this will work nicely.  I have a lot of smaller stuff pictured here, most collected with a hand saw in mind.  But I would think it would be safe for up to a 6 inch branch or trunk, properly trimmed, sectioned, dried and placed.  I'm not in need of much, after all.  And tomorrow I will put a flat edge on the bottom of the legs and a side brace, probably a 1x2, on the bottom of the far side.

I really do think that I want to put in a permanent fire pit next year.  The one we have is a very old one we got as a gift, but not leaving it out in the elements has let it last these many years with maybe half a dozen uses in a good year.  The ones I see advertised are 36 inches in diameter and I would like to find one that is closer to 24 or even 30.  I'm not trying to spit roast anything here, and the space to put it in isn't that large.  In fact, technically, it isn't legal for us to have a fire pit because we don't have a space the required length from any structure.  I think it's like 30 feet, if I remember right, and our lot is only 40 feet wide.  It's one of those city ordinances that is really only enforced if needed, thankfully.

I see a permanent fire pit in the back yard as getting used much more often because of the convenience, if nothing else.  It would also be a good place to drop the random sticks and dry yard waste I pick up rather than leaving a stick pile out for the city to pick up eventually.  I like the fact that we don't put any leaves out to be picked up in the fall - we mulch them into the lawn or collect them and mulch them into the flowerbeds.  We also compost our organic kitchen and yard waste (in my super cool compost bin I built) and use it in the garden.   We even put out our garbage only every other week, when they pick up recyclables too, while most use smaller bins and put it out every week.  Sure it's too little and too late to save this world, but I like to think we're doing more to help than most.