Takin' the Blog for a Walk

Dug the cross country skis out to get a better look at the hoarfrost, or whatever it is, that covered every needle and twig today. Had such a good time at Retzer yesterday that I decided to do it again. I covered the same territory and trails as yesterday but had even more fun on skis.

As much fun as it was silently gliding through new snow, the best reward came when I was able to help someone who was lost. It was about 20 minutes till sundown and I was close to the woods after completing the outer hiking loop when I met him. A small boy of maybe 8 or 9 was heading south, alone, away from the woods. I looked around, knew he wasn't walking toward anyone because I just came from that direction. I didn't know if he couldn't talk because he was bundled up so tightly, or because he knew he wasn't supposed to talk to strangers. At any rate, he kept walking and wouldn't answer my questions, though I did hear him whimpering just a little. However, he was smart enough to change direction when I told him to not keep walking in that direction.

OK, the kid's lost. Don't panic. Stay with him until he's found but don't frighten him any more than he already is. Start walking toward the Center. Stop. Listen. "Did you hear that?" Someone is yelling from the woods below us. Whistle. Is that them? Will they know it's us? Stay with the kid. Let them come to us. Yes, it's them. Hallelujah!

Being a parent myself who's lost track of children in stores, I was glad I immediately recognized the situation. Retzer close to dark in winter is no store. The good feeling I got from helping in a time of panic stayed with me the rest of the day. Please be careful.

This entry is a mixture of this and that. Kind of like the weather. 

Mother Nature reads my blog?

Speaking of weather; A few short hours ago I wrote about the snow-covered scenery around here. Delicate beauty like that is so short-lived - as soon as a good wind blows or temperatures warm... But by the third day, today, not only was the snow still clinging to the branches, but the neighborhood was even more frosty thanks to cold, moist air and tiny flakes of snow. 

Christmas story

It looks like Journal Sentinel editorial columnist, Patrick McIlheran, and I were both at Brookfield Square the Saturday before Christmas. In today's column he had an interesting take on the parking situation. My experience was much more pleasant. I dreaded going to the mall two days before the holiday for just one gift card, but Pick 'N Save didn't appear to carry the one I wanted. Dozens of cars queued in two lanes at the first entrance to the mall so I continued to the second and got right in. I didn't expect to park close, wouldn't have been surprised if I didn't find a spot at all, so was pretty happy when I found a spot fairly quickly. On the long walk from one end of the mall to the other, I encountered friendly people - Santa was still there taking orders, and I kidded around with someone that could have passed for Santa, if only dressed differently. 

Bath & Body Works was pretty crowded when I got there but appeared to be well staffed. The checkout line was long and I thought I'd be there awhile. Thanks to four or so cashiers I was out in five or ten minutes with my gift card in a cute little gift bag along with a free sample. Things went so well at the mall, in fact, that when I crossed paths with a gal on her way in I tried to cheer her up. She parked as far away as I did and was tired of it - she works at the mall. In the five seconds we had in passing I told her of my positive experience and hoped things would soon get better for her.  

Fast forward to that afternoon when the area around my wallet still stung from a grocery trip to Pick 'N Save. My good mood from the morning didn't last as I placed the bags in the trunk. Someone arriving in the car next to ours said "Merry Christmas!" and, without looking up, I said "bah humbug". Wouldn't you know it was Santa and one of his elves! How embarrasing. You know what else? Pick 'N Save does carry Bath & Body Works gift cards, I just didn't look hard enough.

my resolution

I try not to make promises I'd have a hard time keeping, but I will resolve to never wear an Urlacher jersey or Bears jacket on another Packers / Bears game day. I only wore them to church last Sunday to honor the new bishop, who's from Chicago, but now see the act may have jinxed the Packers.

speaking of football

The New England Patriots played the NY Giants last night. It was a close, well-fought game, one I stumbled upon only because it was on three different networks. Of course the Patriots won, setting the record for all sixteen wins in a regular season. Whichever team plays New England in the Super Bowl will have their work cut out for them.

Say what you will about all the shoveling, slippery roads and walks, but you have to admit yesterday's snow was beautiful. There was no controversy over closing schools. The main roads weren't too bad, the snow not too heavy. It wasn't too cold and wasn't blowing. It was perfect snowman weather and quite a few have been added to the neighborhood population.

With little wind, large flakes and temps in the low 30s, the snow attached itself to virtually every available surface, no matter how small. 

After taking the blog for a walk around the neighborhood this morning, I took the opportunity to visit Retzer Nature Center with my camera. The trails, including my favorite in Brown's Fen, were still covered in loose, deep snow and I wished I'd spent the $5.50 to rent snowshoes. Or at least wore decent snow boots, all I had were shortie boots. I got wet but not cold.

Today, Saturday, was a good day to be at Retzer. The landscape, beautiful. No hurries or worries. Listening instead of tuning out. Seeing instead of looking away. A good way to recharge after the two month commercial known as Christmas.  

I've often felt that one of the best ways to get to know someone comes when it's too late. In the past I've mentioned savoring every word when it's a writer's final column, or a TV or radio personality's last show. Just when I think I know someone well enough, they surprise me by retiring or moving on, and it's only then that we discover fully the interesting person they really are. 

No where is this more true than in the passing of Marty Frank last week. Up until he died Tuesday, the most I knew of him was that he was the first president of Waukesha State Bank to not be a member of the Taylor family. Through a three column, 52" long death notice - with a full 8" devoted to service organizations he belonged to or presided over - and a front page Freeman story Saturday, I learned that this was the gentleman I should aspire to be; a kind, dedicated, devoted friend and family man. 

Through Saturday's story and a Wednesday Journal Sentinel obituary we learned he loved, understood and sympathized with people. He was calm, respectful and had remarkable patience. According to his close friend, Don Taylor, Mr. Frank was the best person he knew of for getting along with others. Mr. Taylor also said that he was the luckiest person in the world for having known Marty Frank.

At this point I wish I would have know Mr. Frank better -- the only time I talked to him was to complain about a fee I didn't think was fair charged on my checking statement. Mr. Frank, as well as the Taylors, didn't have a fancy office as you'd expect, but kept their desk out in the open close to the main lobby of the bank. No walls or doors kept customers from meeting the down to earth people in charge of their money, and I appreciate that. Mr. Frank made sure my account was credited.

Rest in peace, Marty Frank, and thank you.

I suspect churches are at their most crowded this time of year, Christmas only a couple days off. If you plan on going to the 10:45 mass at St. William, 440 N. Moreland Blvd., this Sunday morning the 23rd, make sure to leave plenty early if you want to find a seat. Milwaukee Archdiocese's newest auxiliary bishop, Bishop-elect William P. Callahan, was ordained yesterday and will celebrate his first mass as bishop at St. William. As the new bishop's name is William and ours is the only parish in the Archdiocese named St. William, Father Leonard invited him and he accepted.

I'm not kidding. If you want to find parking or a seat don't leave home a couple minutes before mass like I usually do. And that goes for Christmas also.

Christmas schedule at St. William:  Monday 12/24  -  3:00 Children's Choir concert. 3:30 and 5:30 Christmas Vigil masses. 9:30 p.m. Adult Choir concert and 10:00 p.m. Midnight Mass.          Christmas day  -  9:00 and 10:45 a.m. masses.

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First of all, I'd like to say thank you for reading my blog and for the feedback. I really appreciate having this excuse to get out and be more involved in the community I love. This is good writing practice, you give me that opportunity, and I thank you.

You've just been palanca'd!

I spent the weekend with dozens of seventeen year old confirmation candidates and other group leaders at a beautiful camp a couple miles from Monches. Camp Whitcomb/Mason is a huge Boys and Girls Club camp on Lake Keesus and is nearly 100 years old. Fortunately, I'm becoming more and more familiar with the camp -- I've been there several times with school -- fortunate because it has so much to offer and because of it's serene location. I love it.

One of the first things we did at camp was to create a palanca bag, or planka bag as they pronounced it. We had earlier picked adjectives for our names to use in an icebreaking memory game. The game grew increasingly more difficult as it progressed around the circle and I was glad I was just the third one. Toward the end of the circle the kids had to remember 30 or so difficult names and adjectives such as Loud Linda, Lethargic Leo, Touchable Tom, Witty Wes, etc. Because camp is located just a few paces from where I did so much hot air balloon crewing this summer, I chose b'loony Brien for my adjective.

Everyone decorated a paper bag with their adjectives, names, interests and whatever else identifies and defines them. Some of the bags were true works of art, many were cute or funny. Sports and religion were on quite a few. Many bags accurately reflected the adjective and many adjectives acurately reflected the people. Once the bags were made, hundreds of paper slips were provided for us to use in little messages. We were encouraged to say nice things in notes and place them in the bags.

Got Palanca?  The concept was new to me but I caught on soon enough. I learned that the more I showed appreciation for others the more I myself appreciated. Telling others how helpful or kind they are is addictive and it didn't take me long to start palanca'ing strangers. Because we spent the whole weekend together there weren't too many strangers left by Sunday.

Where the best part of the palanca bags may have been reading the notes we received, the best part of the weekend for the kids had to have been the love letters the parents and family secretly sent them. Whether one letter or many, the result was the same: kids, some in tears, learned how much they were really loved, appreciated and supported.

The best part of the weekend for me? Guess.

One of my favorite stores is one that everyone in Waukesha should be aware of. Plowshare Gifts, at the corner of Grand Ave. and Main in Downtown Waukesha, is a fair trade gift shop. Everything in the store is made by craftsmen in developing countries. People normally paid pennies for their labor are guaranteed a living wage and access to health care and education through the fair trade program.

The store, with a wide range of gifts, clothes, jewelry, coffee, musical instruments, etc. is the only one like it in Waukesha County. It's a neat educational experience to see and feel the crafts made around the world. It's truly amazing what some people can do with soapstone, or recycled plastic, steel and aluminum, or clay, brass, native woods... This week I bought two small, hinged, inlayed wooden boxes from India. Just to UPS a box across town would be a minimum of $4.00. I only paid three dollars for each box (there's two more left). For the price of one beer at Miller Park, I left with two beautiful, handcrafted items made by someone in India who I know was paid a living wage. I don't know how it's possible, it just is. 

The store is non-profit and volunteers help staff it, keeping prices low. There's so much to see and bargains to be had, but my favorite are the Tibetan singing bowls, something you won't find at Walmart.

A couple years ago my son's class sold fair trade chocolate from the store to raise money to spend at the store for an item to donate to an auction for the school. The price of the candy bar was a bit more than a Hersheys, but the kids learned so much more about the world from selling it. It was the best fundraiser, one that helped everyone down the line -- from the cacao producers, to the craftspeople, Plowshare Gifts, all the way back to the school in profit from the auction.

If you can't find an inexpensive, useful or beautiful gift for the "hard to buy for" at Plowshare, let me know. My friend, Ken with Wind Dancer, is running ads for balloon flight gift certificates. The more often they go up the better my chance of helping out, and I love crewing! You can e-mail Ken if interested at wiwinddancer@cs.com.

My parish, St. Williams, 440 N. Moreland, will be the place to be this Saturday, and I won't be there.

In the morning will be the largest toy distribution I've ever seen. For the fourth or fifth year St. William is hosting the Waukesha County Christmas Clearing Council. The gym starts filling Thursday, and by Saturday there are thousands of toys waiting for needy families to come and shop. By 5:00 p.m. Saturday it will all be cleaned up and gone. It's a good thing that's incredible to see and help with.

The Jubilate Chorale will be performing a beautiful Christmas concert at St. William also this Saturday the 15th. The concert will feature the world premiere of new work as well as familiar carols in new arrangements. It sounds too good to be true. The more I read and hear about it, the more I want to be there. My only hope is to catch it in Oconomowoc on Sunday as I'll be out of town Saturday. The concert is at 7:30 p.m. and is $12.00.  This is the one! If you have time for just one concert this holiday season make it this one. Click on the above links to hear the chorale or to read Laurel Walker's 12/9 column.

I hope that if I don't see you at this concert it's because I'm out of town, and not because you didn't go. I need someone to tell me about it when I get back.

I really love observing the decorations and displays this time of year. There's some very interesting surprises. There are so many hidden treasures. Neighborhoods contain some of the best out there, I know, but I can't possibly see them all. 

I'd love to post photos of displays you think are nice. Your own or your neighbor's. One string of lights or a yardfull. Religious or . . .

I need your help. Could you either send me photos or tell me where to go to find nice displays in Waukesha? Email me at howlinblog@yahoo.com and I'll try to add some nice photos to the blog.     Thanks a lot     Brien

I love peanuts. I can't wait until there's a dark chocolate Mega Peanut M&M...frozen. My favorite peanut butter is Skippy's Roasted Honey Nut Super Crunch. Something new caught my eye the other day because it was on sale. A natural peanut butter without the need to stir made by a name brand company. I bought two jars of Extra Crunchy Skippy Natural Super Chunk because it sounded like near perfect peanut butter.

Skippy Natural indeed does not separate, but it is a little firmer than regular so stirring does help a little bit. My first PB & J with the new product went well enough, at least for the first bite - the flavor is indistinguishable from their other products I've grown to love. By the second bite, still hungry and eating too fast, I was stopped by something that was more pea gravel than peanut. How that little stone got in there I'll never know. Why would the peanuts themselves be processed any differently? I don't recall ever finding a stone in Skippy in all the decades I've been enjoying it.

Maybe that's what natural really means. When we eat highly processed and refined foods we're almost guaranteed the same flavor every time with no surprises. And if we choose to try something new we should be prepared for anything. I'm kind of glad it happened and it hasn't deterred me from enjoying the rest of the jar. No harm done, no teeth broken.  

It was much easier to criticize the job others did in cleaning up after last week's heavy ice and snow storm than it was to clean it up. I usually keep my mouth shut and if you could see my walk and driveway you'd know why. Most everyone with snowblowers out last weekend were struggling with clogs. Many shovellers, including me, were seen bent by the weight of the normally fluffy snow.

My walk to work in Milwaukee accross the 6th St. Viaduct was slowed by the skating rink it became after someone plowed the snow off but left the ice. Without salting. It didn't help a couple days later when more snow fell hiding the ice underneath. I decided to take my chance in the street with the traffic. (It was plowed again but still not salted.) It doesn't help that 14 street lights are out in it's one mile length but at least there's a handrail.

Several years ago, when Sentry was still where Pick 'N Save is on Moreland, a couple helped out a stranger by pushing his van through fresh, deep snow so he could continue his newspaper delivery route. The stranger couldn't say proper thanks because he had to keep going to maintain momentum, but he never forgot the helpful couple. Because he still felt a need to thank them he would "pay it forward" and make every effort to help other people stuck in the snow.

Instead of criticizing the job others are doing with the icy mess, maybe this is an opportunity to help others while meeting our neighbors. There could be many reasons some sidewalks are still bad a week later - I wouldn't have recommended elderly people try to shovel the sloppy mess. If we know of someone who could use a little help maybe we could "pay it forward" and help instead of criticize. Santa's watching!

I'm sad because I missed Christmas at Carroll this year. It was last weekend. I'd been looking forward to it all year ever since last December's concert. It was the best concert I'd ever been to and I wanted to do it again. I know I can't do everything and there's always next year, but darn!!

There's plenty of other good things going on today and this weekend to help me forget my sadness: The Waukesha Civic Theater begins it's two weekend run of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever tonight. I heard that "Mary" sings so beautifully that it brings tears to the eyes.   A free holiday concert at UWW at 7:30, which I probably will be going to, is tonight. Also tonight is the Carroll College Jazz Ensemble. And on Sunday after the Packer game is the Carroll College Chamber Strings Ensemble, a free concert at 4:00 p.m..

12/8 update ------------- Interesting Experiment -------------------------

I just read about something fun and completely different in yesterday's Freeman. At 7:00 p.m. today, Sat. 12/8, the Carroll Players will perform a two-act comedy that they had only 24 hours to rehearse and create stage sets for. The so-called guerrilla theater production is a first for Carroll College and is meant to be fun and educational more than a great play. The five dollar ticket price is a fundraiser for the Carroll Players. The play will be in the Otteson Main Stage Theater.

hug an alderman

Had a chance to see the last portion of the 9-1/2 hour rebroadcast of the 11/20 marathon Common Council meeting on cable Ch. 25. (Ald. Bull had already left so I knew it was after 3:00 a.m.)  After all the criticism and controversy of unpreparedness, vote changes, job cuts, projects on hold ... any alderman, mayor, city employee or even camera crew that sat through the record meeting until 4:30 Wednesday morning for the good of Waukesha has my utmost respect. It was almost painful to watch as many were obviously tired, hoarse and quiet-voiced as they were forced by us, the constituency, and the state by it's late budget, to stay there as long as it took.

I felt bad for everyone who was there:  Steve Crandell and the IT guy with him who were rushed to crunch numbers after so many hours of the same. Mayor Nelson who could get only a couple hours sleep before an interview with a city administrator candidate. All the aldermen who spent countless hours in meetings and study for this budget to save us a couple dollars. I sympathize with them all, for I know it's not easy staying alert and working with numbers at 4:00 a.m. (I was only able to stay awake till 11:00 p.m. on 11/20). And give a special hug to Alderman Charlie Betker as he supposedly announced at 4:30 a.m. that he won't be seeking reelection in April. (His mic was off when he said it, but the papers reported it)

sworn to secrecy

I haven't blogged in a week because I was sworn to secrecy. OK, maybe just for a couple hours yesterday, but it sounded good anyway. My confirmation group helped at the Women's Center for a group service project and signed a paper stating that we won't repeat anything heard or seen. So I guess I can't mention that volunteers have provided the center 12,000 hours of service this year (I think that's the figure. It's a secret). All I can say is the shelter is a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there, if you know what I mean. (It's for battered women and their children.)

T-bone, not well done

I was one car back from witnessing the 6:00 p.m. accident in the intersection of Northview and Grandview on Thursday. Though I only heard it and saw it through the windshield of the car in front of me it looked like the people turning left collided with the one going straight. More than likely trying to beat the light - the Packers were playing and everyone was in a hurry. We all stayed motionless for a bit, probably in shock, until one sensible person in another car ran to check on the occupants. The car in front of me then left without so much as a goodbye. Is it a law for witnesses to stay and give their name once it's determined everyone is OK? No, but it's almost required if the accident's serious or if there's injury. Did I stay? No, I wasn't a good witness and, besides, the fire station is just a few yards from the accident scene.

On occasion, throughout the last month or so, there's been utility work at that intersection so I wondered if poor street lighting was a contributing factor to the accident. I noticed on Friday night that almost all the street lights were out from Silvernail to Northview, but the intersection was fully lit. 

speaking of Packers

I don't think the Packers lost because Favre got hurt. They seemed to play better after he left. Favre put too much faith in the long ball to double coverage in this game. Aaron Rodgers at least wasn't afraid to run the ball for first downs. He played very well but you could tell there was poor communication between him and the other players. I thought the game would be a lot closer but it definitely was fun looking forward to it all week.

and finally

The photos in my last post are not upside down. Reflections are funny that way.