Another somewhat soggy Saturday in Sauk County (Why now?)

There were three -- let me rephrase that, we saw three turkeys in the backyard this morning.

They are such odd creatures. The way they stalk around, they do look like miniature dinosaurs. I told Tom I think God created them, looked at them, knew there was something not quite right but decided not to bother to try and fix it.

"And so he shipped them to America," Tom said.

Turkeysaurus rex!

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The summer is usually full of festivals, parades and so on around here, but this weekend I had been looking forward to a couple of things in particular: the 43rd Annual Fine Art Festival (mighty elegant name for an arts and crafts fair) on the square in Baraboo and the Ho-Chunk Neesh La pow wow.

Although the weather was overcast and it felt like rain, the meteorologists -- men and women who are paid to guess what the weather is going to do -- assured us that the rain would hold off until night. Our plan was to head to the art festival about nine and then check out the pow wow on the way back to Delton. About five to eight, the thunder started and by a quarter to nine it was raining steadily.

We went back to the computer to look at the forecasts -- now they said 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms throughout the morning, increasing to 40% in the afternoon.

Outside the 30% soaked the ground. At least we didn't have to water the lawn and flowers.

Tom kept saying, "I think this isn't going to amount to much" and "This will be over soon" and so on. I would feel more confident if I didn't recall his, "I think the worst is over" remark during a severe storm last summer shortly before lightning hit a tree in the front yard, knocked out our power and burned up my hard drive.

Now when he is optimistic about the weather, I begin to feel like all those Star Wars characters: I've got a bad feeling about this.

But this time he was right. The wind picked up and blew the rain away about 10:00.

Then the phone started ringing.

By the time he was off the phone, the sun was out and we made it to the art festival. It was small, but with some nice things. Tom was hoping to pick up another painting of a cow wearing sunglasses, but the folks with those weren't there.

When we got home, my new laptop -- on which I am completing this post -- had arrived. I took a short nap while Tom -- the computer guru -- began setting it up.



Later, while the computer was doing something, we went over to the pow wow for a short while. We saw part of the teen (and I would say boy) fancy dancing and traditional dancing competition. It was interesting, but those guys must have been dying in the heat and humidity, wearing those elaborate costumes.

The rain started up briefly when we headed home during the dinner break, but we intended to return for the adult dance competition. Unfortunately my sun- or allergy-related wooziness kicked in and I wasn't up to going back. I tried to convince Tom to return, but the decided to watch a movie on television instead.

So I am still a little light-headed as I type this, but the good news is that the computer is up and running.