I've had several distractions in the past several weeks. I won't weary your minds with all the events but, for the most part, things have come back to normal whatever that word means.

In my travels around the East End I've made a few observations. The first one is that all the work that was supposed to be started on 60th Street beginning on Lincoln Ave. hasn't begun outside of some infracture work. Instead of the roadwork starting, the residents on either side of 60th St. got a patch job. I can't imagine how this patch job will hold up through the winter. Upon asking my alderman and the state representative who actually came to my house on a campaign mission, I was told by both of them that the money to pay for the work wasn't available. My questions are: Was it there when the city of West Allis had the big meeting at city hall with the engineers? Was it never there? If it was there what happened to it? Was it diverted to some other project that was deemed more important? Perhaps the city should let the citizens of the East End know what's going on.

Speaking of road work, it's about time that the work being done on National Ave by the Farmer's Market is finally finished. I understand that new infrastructure work was necessary what with all the new building happening in that area. I do have questions on why a bike lane for 1 block. That doesn't seem to make any sense to me unless its been mandated by the state. It's a very nice new road.

Another observation: the little corner drive-in on 60th and Burnham is under new management. I haven't tried their food yet, but, probably will give it a go. The bad part is if you're not coming from the north its a bit inconvenient and dangerous to turn into their parking lot. Getting out is ok as the exit is on Burnham. One just has to be aware of cars turning onto Burnham from 60th St.

Lastly, I had a job interview inside the Summit Place on 67th and Washington. Turning onto Washington from 70th St. I was amazed and astounded at all the businesses down that road. Once inside the Summit Place building I felt like I had just entered a small mall. There was an escalator, a restaurant (Rupena's), an eye Dr., a florist and a host of other businesses on three floors. The front reception area is like an atrium, a great place to people watch and a very open concept. Quite a building to have one's business located. By the way, I didn't get the job.

Now here's something cool for any West Allis resident. I happened to be at the Walgreen's on 84th St. since the new one on 60th isn't open yet. While on my way out I spotted a soft cover book all about the history and founding of West Allis. Well, of course, being a history buff, I had to buy one. They are $19.95 each with lots of pictures and great information on the beginnings of the city, the founding fathers and how the area evolved. It's well worth the $20 price.

This coming weekend is another Waupaca weekend. Hip Hip Hooray!

On this very grey, gloomy and rainy day my thoughts turn to cleansing. It always happens in early spring that we get at least two or three days of heavy cold rain. I bet if we checked the weather records my theory would prove true. My theory being that the earth needs this cleansing of winter. Yes, winter and all the salt and leftover debris that winter always leaves behind and covers up with the snows. Just remember how your yard looked when the snow finally melted a couple of weeks ago. Lots of winter gunk all over. Now that we've had some rain, its disappearing. So, these rains give everything a good cleansing. Maybe that's part of the concept of spring cleaning.

Now that the cleansing is happening, we can plan our gardens, yards and flower beds. Bring out those seed catalogs and start dreaming. Soon the Farmers' Market will be open and plants, eggs and the early spring vegetables will be available again. Even now that its still cold outside, I can see the grass greening up, my lilac bush is just beginning to bud out and the tulips and daffodils are well up out of the ground. For most of us homeowners when young mens thoughts turn to love ours turn to getting the yard raked and to cleaning out the flower beds that we somehow never got to last fall.

Since my back yard is mostly "variegated greenery", meaning grass, clover, quack grass, dandelions and assorted other small greenery, I don't worry too much about fertilizing nor weeding. I'd have to bulldoze the whole yard and start over if I wanted to conquer the lawn. I've found out that dandelion leaves are loaded with vitamin C so this year I'm going to collect the young leaves and use them in salads and mix them with some other "greens" and cook up a pot for me. There's some other so-called weeds growing in my yard that I've found out recently are edible so this is the year to make use of them I think. I've got nothing to lose and since I don't use chemicals in my yard they are safe to eat. In that same vein, I plan on growing  calendulas and nastursiums which are both edible.  I was able to harvest my herbs last fall and they've been a wonderful addition to my cooking efforts over the winter. I've even found a way to be able to preserve chives so that they are still flavorful and keep their lovely vibrant green.

Anyway, enough of my garden and yard musings on this grey and rainy April day. They do divert the rainy day blues and they also create a lovely vision of the weeks to come. I hear its going to be near 60 the middle of next week,  The rake will be out without a doubt.