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Maple & Main

Curt is Chicago native – but don’t hold that against him. After stops in Madison and California, he and his wife moved to Waukesha in 2004 to open their own downtown business.

February 2008 - Posts

Black Out

By Curt Otto
Thursday, Feb 21 2008, 10:24 AM

Last night, many Waukesha residents were left in the dark after a substation failure caused a blackout for nearly 6400 people- including the entire downtown Waukesha business district.

While WE Energies has released a formal statement sighting the cause of the blackout as a “bulk substation outage”, it still leaves an element of mystery to the whole event.

What exactly is a “bulk substation outage”?

I smell a cover up…

Recent reports may or may not state something far more involved.

It seems that last night’s missile launch may have had something to do with it.

A Navy spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity, has just released a statement regarding a different reason for the outage.

“It gets confusing sometimes” the naval officer said, “all those launch buttons are so close to each other. It was late, I was tired, my girlfriend kept texting me, and I made a simple mistake. The ‘space station’ button is right next to the ‘sub station’ button on the missile launch panel. Could’a happened to anybody.”

So around 8:50PM last night, the missile intended for the distressed spy satellite circling our earth’s atmosphere was misfired and directed toward a Waukesha sub station.

It was a direct hit, and the result was a 2-hour long power outage.

While crews are still working to put the pieces back together, power is being directed from the power grid to supplement the customers in Waukesha and Pewaukee, who could have frozen to death in their homes last night.

Someone who could have been a spokesperson for WE Energies may have stated that power is being taken from a small town just west of Barstow, California.

“They won't miss having power out there- half of those folks don't have indoor plumbling” he said.

The Mayor of that small town was not available for comment.

The Navy, however, was relieved when the second missile they fired hit the intended target and destroyed the spy satellite.

“We just hope it was the right spy satellite”, says the Navy. “So far the phone hasn’t rang, so we must be in the clear.”

More on that later.

I have included some photos of the blackout for your review. The first one was taken from our front door looking east down Main Street.

The second was taken looking west down Main.

Hope you enjoy them.

 

Looking East Looking West


 

Uncle Ron's House

By Curt Otto
Tuesday, Feb 12 2008, 09:22 AM

The fire that raged through downtown Waukesha’s infamous bed and breakfast, the Wisconsin House, has ignited many a question regarding its future in our fair city.

And as we all try to sort through the ashes of information surrounding the incident, it seems as if more questions arise than answers.

New facts have come available in recent days regarding the events of that fateful evening and it is this one in particular that has grabbed my attention…

Before he started the fire, (the suspect) spent two hours drinking 12 beers and a shot at a local bar.”

Two hours. Twelve beers. One shot. Local bar.

Nice job.

Let’s be sure to renew that liquor license this summer.

On a lighter note, rumor has it that Wisconsin House owner Ron Becker is planning on making a few upgrades to the property during its rehab.

I was able to get my hands on this rough draft of an idea- seems he may go for a design more befitting of the historic neighborhood.

I know I’m excited.


 

Happening Right Now...

By Curt Otto
Tuesday, Feb 5 2008, 01:54 AM

 

At 1:15 AM this morning, I was awaken by the sound of sirens descending on our downtown.

As I rushed to the window to see what was happening, a squad pulled up in front of our building and blocked off the street.

I leaned out the window to get a better look up the east end of Main Street and that’s when I heard the sound of breaking glass- to the west.

As I turned my gaze toward the far west end of Main my eyes began to focus and I couldn’t believe what I saw-

-the Wisconsin House on the 400 block of West Main was spewing heavy black smoke from the top floor.

I clambered onto our roof for a better perspective and as I looked on, the smoke began to increase.

By 1:25AM, the building looked like it was in serious trouble.

Fire trucks and ambulances littered the street, and by 1:45AM, it seemed as though things were under control.

For those of you not familiar with the Wisconsin House, it is the old, four-story, brick rooming house that sits at the end of West Main Street across from Veterans Memorial Park.

I am sure the papers will have an update on the cause of the blaze sometime today, as I saw Darryl Enriquez pass by my building only a moment ago.

More later…


 
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