First Day

Beautiful day today with lots of activity. The morning was filled with a number of phone calls and a couple of visits. The guy who built this house had asked to show it yesterday to a couple from Minnesota who plan to move to the area. He may build for them and wanted them to see some of his work. It gave us a good excuse to do a good house cleaning -- even the closets -- so it worked out fine that some other folks who had never been here chose today to drop by. We had already done a basic straightening up for a meeting Tom had here Thursday night, so it meant there was time to do some of the extras like patio doors, scrub the kitchen sink and such.

A friend of Tom's came by after church and I visited with them for a short while before going to the library in Reedsburg. On Main Street I passed the 90th Meridian Marker -- Reedsburg is on the 90th Meridian, exactly one fourth the world around from the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England (0° longitude). This means that the clocks here are in perfect sync with the sun for Central Time. According to the marker, the exact spot is 325 feet to the east, but I guess that is in someone's yard and they wanted people passing through to know.

The Second Annual (that's right -- two, count them, two!) Stewards of the Dells of the Wisconsin River Festival was at Bowman Park in the afternoon. A warm but dry 80° brought out a small crowd to hear some music, look at the kid's art and photography exhibit, bid on some interesting auction items (including, Vince, four tickets to the Notre Dame - Navy game) and eat the rafter's dinner. The rafter's dinner was basically a barbecue sandwich (beef or pork), cowboy baked beans and cornbread -- with sugar, naturally, these people not knowing any better.

Tom had designed the certificates for the art/photography contest winners and also was taking pictures of the event. He bid on a couple of items, but didn't get either of them. At least he bid the price up so the Stewards got more on the deal. The crowd, as I say, was small but enthusiastic and the Stewards were pleased. Last year the weather for the First Annual Etc. was terrible, so they expect to have raised at least twice as much with this year's effort.

Rich and Peggy, our neighbors from across the road, dropped in towards the end to listen to the music and to buy some raffle tickets. Neither they nor I won any of the door prizes, but Tom got a gift certificate to Pedro's Mexican Restaurante -- one of two touristy Mexican restaurants in the Dells, neither one being anything that a Texan would consider Mexican food. Peggy likes it because they have a gazillion kinds of margaritas. Of course, Tom doesn't drink any more than I do, but, hey! It's a free meal. Peggy was hoping someone would win one of the fish fry prizes, but despite the large number of them being offered, we didn't luck out. (Or, it being fried fish, maybe we did luck out.) Friday night fish fry is a big Wisconsin tradition. In some parts of the state, it's a fish boil instead. I can't imagine anything less appetizing!