Only 54 more days until Christmas!

After a wintry week last week, this week seemed to be more fall like with cool breezes, warmer days (highs in the 60’s for quite a few days), and cool nights (in the 30’s). It’s like we’re easing our way down to winter. It’s just hard to believe that 2 months ago, 60 degrees sounded cool and now it’s something we look forward to as a high for the day. In another couple of months, 60 degrees will seem absolutely tropic!

I’ve got a few more winter preparation things to take care of. The window plastic will be finished today. The bicycle will be put in storage. I had saved some of my marigolds in a pot that were still blooming nicely and I didn’t have the heart yet to pitch out. Now I think I’ll save the seeds from them for next season and get that put away. I had thoughts of sanding and staining my picnic table but I’ve second guessed that one enough so that it’s a job that will wait until spring.

Gas price has reached $2.39/gallon. Awesome!

This past week has been a tough one for me. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was traveling to and from and attending a meeting in Stevens Point. Thursday, I spent traveling to Madison in the morning and early afternoon, then to South Wayne for a family wake. Anyway, Friday I was a program presenter in Wisconsin Dells so there was another drive. On Saturday, I went to Milwaukee. Today (Sunday) is going to be home time. I need it just to get through the things that I need to do.

Milwaukee was quite nice. We had lunch at a very nice German restaurant called Mader’s in the downtown “cultural district”. There was even valet parking! The food was quite nice and we saw some very interesting décor (lots of wood, medieval type decorations including several very real suits of armor – most with values listed at $60,000 plus). We walked for a short time along the river front and enjoyed the nice weather. Then it was a short stop at a store that sold only spices. I’ve never seen anything like that – all spices from all over the world. It smelled great!

After that, we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum. They have a special exhibit there with artifacts and information on the Titanic. It’s there through April of next year. The exhibit has parts from the ship and personal effects and does a very good job of telling the story. Before we went in, they gave us ID cards that told the story of a person traveling on the Titanic and we didn’t know until the end if our person survived or didn’t. The odds were definitely against us (fortunately we “survived”). It was interesting to see the exhibit progress through shipbuilding, boarding, life quality, accommodations, the warnings, hitting the iceberg (they even had a huge iceberg there that could be touched and was meant to simulate the conditions that night and let everyone know how truly cold it was), and the aftermath. Music, lighting, displays, temperature settings, and other things were used to help simulate what was happening. It was very interesting how they used the space they had to create a mood for the exhibit.

From there, we went to the mall (a definite change of pace) for a quick walk – Mayfair mall was a bit of a disappointment because of the long day, extreme commercialization, and changes to the mall businesses that weren’t on the map (we looked for a couple of places listed and they simply weren’t there!). After that it was a quick stop at a place called The Cheesecake Factory to pick up a to go cheesecake that we split up. The cheesecake is very good – chocolate mousse (quite pricey too).

Needless to say, today I don’t want to drive and have way too much to try and get done.

Only 54 more days until Christmas. Oh My!!!

This week will be quite busy again I’m afraid. I’m behind from where I could be at work because of all the days out of the office. I also have a trainee that needs my attention and training so he can get through his first tests. He’s doing quite well and should be a good addition to the business when he’s fully trained.

Well, I’d better get going – so much to do and so little time!

Best wishes and take care!