Takin' the Blog for a Walk

The Cutler Park stage is really great. The bands are drawing huge crowds yet there's still room to move without feeling crowded. It's unreal how dark the park gets on moonless nights - and it doesn't help that everyone is wearing black.

I don't recall the last time downtown streets were closed for a flood of people instead of a flood of river. It's Friday Night Live all weekend long, free music and lots of people strolling. Stores open late and doing good business.

Lots of sightseeing. Every bike is personalized in some way. I haven't seen any other countrys besides Canada represented. I saw a group from Japan five years ago at Rider's Ranch. This year there is no Rider's Ranch at the Expo.

It's amazing how loud a custom chopped bike can be. Fortunately my own neighborhood has been quiet. Even my younger bike-riding neighbors haven't been partying at all hours.

The best bargain around for $2.00 is a 15 ounce bag of Pinas Chris Mix found in a tent at Riverfront Plaza. The second best $2.00 is spent on a snowcone. The snowcone syrup wasn't very sweet, but it was a fundraiser for a good cause, Salvation Army, it was a warm day, and a stranger thanked me for buying it when she saw me with it later.

There's a Harley-Davidson exhibit at the Waukesha County Museum? I waited until this weekend to see the Lennon exhibit because I also wanted to see the bike exhibit. There were a few photos of bikes and Harley family members, even a bike or two, but the main exhibit was the Lennon display. It's too bad the Lennon exhibit alone wouldn't have been enough to attract viewers. It's also too bad that almost no mention was made of a fundraiser for the Les Paul exhibit. But at least something was done and I hope it helps.

Parking hasn't been a nighmare. I parked by the State Bank, the Waukesha Antique Mall and Corrina Blvd., none of which is very far from the action.

And they're saying we need rain. Just not this weekend, please!

There's a Harley front heading toward us at 65 miles an hour. It's nothing to fear. They will storm our streets and, if we're lucky, will flood our shops and restaurants. Riders from around the world converge to celebrate 105 years of an American institution. (For once we won't have leave town to enjoy their company.) Make them feel welcome and they may return again some day.    

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I've known Tom for 20+ years. He was in our wedding party 18 years ago and hosted a bachelor party at his house. He's one of the few mechanics who didn't loose their job during last year's restructuring. Because so few mechanics are left, he's been busier than ever, but never too busy for me. He offered to come to Waukesha in April to help me pry my canoe off the bridge support in the Fox River. Recently, he saved me a couple hundred dollars replacing a bearing assembly on our Lumina. He's always been quick with free advice for my many needs. We get along and I consider him a good friend.

I envy Tom. He can build a trailer from the ground up. He has a couple horses and cars that run. He recently purchased a Harley Fatboy Softail motorcycle and took classes for a week to get his license before the 105th.

Tom took vacation days the rest of this week to really experience the thrill of Harley. I gave him a copy of the Weekend in Waukesha schedule and we talked about the things he was looking forward to this week. He told me he has a digital picture frame that holds 250 pictures and he was going to fill it up this week using his camera.

And then Tom hurt his hand today. Bad. His right hand. On a table saw. It's bad enough that Tom makes his living with his hands and will probably miss many weeks of work. But his throttle hand? He's going to miss most of what he's been looking forward to this week. Maybe if he's lucky, people will feel sorry for him and buy him a drink. I know I would.

The 2008 Olympic flame has run out of gas. The games have been like a broken record ... world and olympic records broken over and over. There was much to see and enjoy these last 16 days, but I could fill this spot with all I would've liked to see but didn't. Didn't because of my own schedule, but also because coverage of the less popular sports was, again, often hard to find. Five channels with at least some Olympic coverage and often there was either nothing or some lengthy event like a two hour marathon or nine inning baseball game. My attention span isn't that long.   

Even so, I enjoyed these games more than others. I enjoyed the selection NBC chose for me to watch and the Chinese did a fantastic job in hosting the Olympics. It's been said that possibly close to a million volunteers helped with the games and I believe it. Everywhere I looked I saw volunteers doing something or guarding something.

The air pollution didn't seem to be as big a factor in the outdoor events. Maybe some of the Beijing factories were closed for two weeks? Maybe everyone with cars were told to park them? I've heard stories about trouble makers being kept out of Beijing during the games, but what about the others? Over a billion people in China and you'd think there would have been more spectators lining the streets and canals for the races. I couldn't help but feel we were presented with a certain image, and after learning some of the fireworks from the opening ceremony were digitally inserted I couldn't watch the closing ceremony the same way. 

Of the many controversies with these games, one of the biggest has to be the supposed ages of the Chinese girl's gymnastics team members. Basically, they were supposed to be 16 by this year and several looked a couple years shy of that. A bigger controversy should have been the Chinese gymnastic training itself, where, often, three year old girls are removed from their families to begin training and, we are told, aren't allowed to quit and go back home if they don't like it.

Ran low on gas this morning. Was up to hot air balloon crew at 4:45 and met the others by 5:45. Two balloons launched from Monches, on the northern border of Waukesha County, and floated south at a rather swift 20 or so mph. Even though we had four crew members, the breeze dictated a large landing spot next to a road - not that easy between TT and DT south of Hwy. 18. Finally had to bring it down south of Sunset on Wren Way, in chest high soaking wet grass, before the propane totally ran out - approximately 25 miles from where we began.

Driving all the way back to Monches for a champaign toast - the woman had given this balloon ride to her husband for a first wedding anniversary gift. Didn't get back home until about 9:45, five hours after I woke up. 

After a parish picnic at Minooka Park at noon I was the one running out of gas. I did finally get my first glimpse of the dog area in the park though and I was very impressed. I saw very many happy people on benches in the shade, throwing things for their pets and generally having a good time. I also saw very many happy dogs. I left with a very positive feeling of the place. 

Quite the local news day. Happy Days cast was in Milwaukee for an unveiling, parade and ball game. Governor Doyle in Milwaukee for a ribbon cutting for the opening of the Marquette interchange. Hours of Common Council discussion on the Northwoods League plans. It's after midnight now with no end to the discussion in sight. The public comment before the council meeting alone went to 9:45.

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Bronze Fonz. New statue for a 70's show set in the 1950s.

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A restored steam train has been hanging around the Intermodal Station for several days. The backdrop of the blue beams from the new Marquette Interchange make an interesting juxtaposition with the old black steam engine.

The first time I took my youngest to his friend's in the City of Pewaukee, we had to call for directions. My son's written directions omitted a crucial turn and we ended up in Brookfield. She talked us through each of 8 or so turns and we finally found her house, though it did make me a little late for my next ballooning adventure. 

Because the route I was given to find my way out of the maze was so much simpler, we've been using it ever since. It will take a few more trips before we leave the cell home, but at least we don't have to pack a light snack and top off the tank before visiting any more. 

As everyone is aware, some developers use themes in their street names. Trees, presidents, cities, flowers, states... you name it. And the always popular Third St., Fourth, etc. It obviously helps with directions when north-south streets are one related theme and east-west another.

There's an interesting neighborhood in Pewaukee I first encountered years ago. There's a Camelot Dr., King Arthur's Court, Merlin Way and Valiant Dr. Also Galahad Lane and Lancelot Drive. My son's friend's subdivision is across Springdale Road from that one; Sprindale Estates.

Every road name in Springdale Estates ends in wood. There's Aspenwood, Alderwood, Briarwood, Beechwood, Burnwood, Burningwood, Birchwood, Cherrywood, Cedarwood, Emberwood, Elmwood, Fernwood, Foxwood, Graywood, Glenwood, Hickorywood, Indianwood, Lindenwood, Maplewood, Meadowood, Oakwood, Pinewood, Peachwood, Redwood, Ridgewood, Rosewood, Shadywood, Stonewood, Springwood, Timberwood and, finally, Willowood. 

After multiple times getting lost in the "woods," I recently learned Springdale Estates is the largest subdivision in Wisconsin. At one mile by 3/4 mile, it didn't surprise me at all and made me feel less bothered by all the times we had to call for directions. 

It's the Olympics of TV watching and I've seen so much I'm starting to cramp up. After sprinting up the dial from 4 to 27 to 34 and 46, I do a triple-back salto to 27 then nearly dislocate my thumb trying to avoid a commercial. When the final results are in, I learn I could've placed if only I'd vaulted over to channel 73.

I'm watching the best Olympics ever. I have four or five channels to choose from - but only on weekends. Primetime coverage during the week is limited to Channel 4 so we have to watch commercials and all the events NBC thinks we want to see. Fortunately, some of the commercials aren't half bad (though repetition doesn't do anything for them,) and the events shown have been exciting and probably what I'd be watching if given the choice.

It's Michael Phelps' Olympics this year. He's now tied with Mark Spitz for the most gold in a single Olympics and has already won more total gold than anyone else. He's broken 6 world records with his first 6 gold medals and only the Olympic record with the last win. Each time he swims there's excitement in the air and I've been fortunate to see many of his races live in primetime. He's so amazing he's broken two world records within an hour or two on more than one occasion, and never seems out of breath.

Phelps usually surprises by coming from behind to win it in the last few meters. The four-man freestyle relay was a nail-biter because Phelps wasn't in the anchor position and France led most of the way. Fortunately Americans were in the lead where it mattered - in the end - and they succeeded in helping Phelps in his ultimate goal of 8 gold in one Olympics.

They said last night's 100-meter butterfly would be close. It wasn't Phelps' best event and he was swimming next to the record holder in the event, Serbian Milorad Cavic, but the way Michael's been swimming there should be no worry, right? If Michael were to have a chance at 8 gold he'd have to win all eight of his events, including this one. Cavic lead the entire race and, as you've probably heard, was edged out at the end by a fingernail's distance, 1/100th of a second. Phelps took a risky half stoke while Cavic glided in on a too-long full stroke. Unbelievable.

I've never seen so many world records fall. (The green world record graphic line is so cool.) And I'm sure I've never seen a closer race than yesterday's 100m butterfly. Even though the results were contested, high speed video was slowed to a ten-thousandth of a second to confirm the win.

If I don't write more about the seeming obsession of cameras in the faces of American women gymnnasts while they're waiting to perform, instead of them focusing on something actually happening... If I don't write about volleyball so competitive that the ball hardly volleys at all... If I don't write about the winner of the men's 50 meter swim who didn't seem to take even one breath in the twenty-two seconds it took to finish the race... If I don't write about the athletes with local ties, like the Hamms and Chelsie Memmel, who I wanted to see more of but couldn't because of injury... If I don't mention 41 year old swimmer Dara Torres who wins races against those 25 years younger... It's because I'm watching the Olympics!

My favorite place to buy milk is Kwik Trip because it's close and on the way home, usually the least expensive, and they have punch cards for a dollar off when card is complete. Kwik Trip also has the least expensive bananas around so I often grab a bunch to go with the milk. It also helps that many of the employees know me and there's usually minimal waiting.

This week we wanted to pick up milk after a visit to Mom-in-law and stopped at Speedway on Summit for the convenience. Grabbed one gallon and wondered what the price would be. The shelf read "two gallons for $6.50" and in fine print "one gallon at regular price" with no indication what regular price was. After waiting in a five minute line I finally learned that "regular price" is $4.00 so I left. We didn't need milk that's as expensive as gas. Besides, there were other opportunities for milk before reaching home.

Without going out of our way, Mobil on Summit was our next stop. Not only was milk also $4.00 but they were out of 2%!

So we went a little out of our way anyway to Kwik Trip, letting the mini van idle the whole time because of charging problems (it wouldn't have started if we shut it off). Bought two gallons at $3.29 each and got the card punched.

Bottom line: Was burning mad when price wasn't posted at Speedway, didn't get burned by $4.00 milk and burned more gas than we saved on milk. At least the van made it home - barely!

Parking a bike in Downtown Milwaukee allows me to explore as the mood strikes. The mood struck this morning after I noticed an interesting sailboat on last night's news and then again in today's paper. Grabbed the camera and rode to Discovery World where something is always going on. I didn't see the boat I was looking for but a cruise ship was docking so I talked to the welcome crew from the Visitor's Bureau.

They told me that about six cruise ships a year dock there for the day. This ship, the Grande Mariner, was out for a six day, six stop tour around Lake Michigan. The boat holds 50 cabins and costs $2000.00 or so per person for the week.

Milwaukee certainly has enough going on right now to keep anyone busy for the day. Docking at Pier Wisconsin, the passengers are within a short walk of the Les Paul exhibit at Discovery World, the Milw. Art Museum, Irish Fest and a trolley stop. The free trolleys loop through downtown, nearing a hundred restaurants and shops and at least 20 points of interest. 

As I turned to leave for work I saw the boat I was there for, Earth Voyager, a sleek white beast of a catamaran that's reported to be the fastest sailboat on the Great Lakes. It's greater purpose is to raise awareness for protecting the Great Lakes, but I just liked speculating how much it all cost.

This weekend could be an instant replay of the same weekend a year ago: Balloon rally in Hartford, Arab World Fest in Milwaukee, last weekend for State Fair in West Allis, car show in Waukesha, Bluesfest in Delafield. Heck, it even rained on Saturday afternoon, same as last year! Guess you have to stick with what works.

A little nervous when I heard that the only change to Bluesfest, beside performers, would be the ticket prices. Not enough people showed for the first one and, though we enjoyed it, thought it would take something major to bring it back again this year. It was $37.00 for a one day ticket last year compared to $15.00 each for advance tickets this time.

The restaurants were the same as last year, vendors same, artists same. Same park, Naga-Waukee. OK, even the same person accompanied me, Mom-in-law. But are fourteen artists in a tent gallery enough of a distraction for a 9-1/2 hour fest? Is there anything for kids to do?

Yesterday I'd heard that Friday's crowd was pretty light. I was afraid of that. I wanted to see this work for people like myself who enjoy this type of music, and for Waukesha Rotary Club's Charitable Fund, recipient of the proceeds.

We arrived around 1:00 for it's start and found everything as we left it from last year. All eyes were on the people, ears on the music. Would more people show than last year, and did the lineup suffer from the ticket price cut? The same tent with the same amount of chairs were filled with a similar number of blues fans. But then something started happening. A couple decent local acts played and people started arriving. Portable chairs were set up, picnic tables filling, artists seeing customers. It was a relaxed atmosphere where us mainly middle-aged folk could go barefoot, smoke, drink or get the blues without much restriction. I didn't see anyone get out of hand, mom-in-law excepted.

By the time the first of the three head-liners played, the tent seemed to be 3/4 full. We were really getting into the artist born in Two Rivers who later moved to New Orleans. His nieces took the stage to toss Mardi Gras beads to us and I caught one for Ma. People started cheering for me and I didn't know why. Correction, people were cheering for Bryan Lee not Brien Lee and it was because his group was really great. He signed my t-shirt the same way I often sign my name, B Lee, a neat trick considering he's blind.

As the evening wore on the tent filled almost completely and I was satisfied the one change made to the ticket price was enough. Younger fans appeared as day turned to night. Many dancers were enjoying themselves, especially to the tunes of The Bel Airs. We had an enjoyable night and will go again next year.

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To all the people who've lended me a hand, been nice to me when I was crabby, made room, seemed interested, had patience... To friends I've known for years and those I've lost touch with. To friendly neighbors, store clerks, teachers, students, clergy... To fellow ballooning crew, Vincentians, my family here and at St. William... I'm thinking of you today.

Happy Friendship Day!

There's already at least one discussion on the topic of a stadium in Frame Park for a Northwoods League team, so I won't start one here. But because it's outcome could affect most everyone who goes Downtown, it's important that those who would have an opinion after it's built speak up now, before it's approved. 

My opinion is it should be built in Frame Park as presented. I'm aware of much of the discussion and saw many valid questions raised during the Committee of the Whole. There are probably as many opinions as there are people opposed to it, and by my not living very close to it my opinion shouldn't really matter, but...

If we don't want to sit in traffic or continue to send entertainment dollars out of town to Miller Park...

If we want to see more out-of-towners in our downtown...

If we'd like to see quality affordable baseball...

I've thought about all the times I've headed east for entertainment. Variety, quality, opportunity. And I've thought about the reasons for not having a small baseball stadium at Frame Park. Litter, noise, lack of parking, traffic. We could pass every opportunity that came along and get all our entertainment from Milwaukee, or we could think of new ways to enliven our city.

Milwaukee has a shortage of street parking yet still looks to develop parking lots into more hotels. A stadium in Frame Park is within walking or biking distance of the highest concentration of people in Waukesha. Most of the attendees of the games would be families - not the worst litter offenders. It likely would be noisy, but almost all games would be over by 10:00 p.m.

The lighting will be improved to greatly reduce stray light and the footprint of the ball field would hardly encroach on the park. I'm not a huge user of Frame Park but I know it's already a mixed use park. There's already trails, natural areas, playground, recreation building, volleyball and baseball. If the park were a nature center or if any of the existing uses were removed to make room for the stadium I'd have reservations about it. The stadium would not substantially change Frame Park.

As this proposal moves through the various committees and the City Council I feel the right thing will be done in the end. If everyone opposes it we'll just continue spending too much money too far from home on baseball.

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The city would like to see your ideas on it's Strategic Planning Survey. Time is short - they'd like you to take it by this Wednesday the 6th! It's a good way to tell the city where we'd like to see it in five years and what to do when money is in short supply. What service would you be willing to sacrifice and which ones can't you live without? If nothing else it gets you thinking.