Springy Saturday

Today was a beautiful spring day -- sunny, breezy and in the mid-60s. Tom decided to replace the rope light he had around the deck with solar powered lights, so we went over to Home Depot and picked up a bunch. I assembled them (i.e, put batteries in them -- I know, I know, you thought they were solar powered) while he drilled holes and screwed them in place. It was so nice that I sat on the deck and had lunch, leftover jambalaya. I had found some spicy smoked andouille sausage the other day and it turned out very well. Like most spicy foods, it was even better a couple of days later.

It was nice to sit out in the warm sun, because it looks like starting tomorrow afternoon we have a pretty wet week ahead of us. At least now it is sure to be rain and that will help get rid of the remaining patches of snow on the ground. I just measured the snow pile in the shady patch in the flower bed by the front door, and it is still 16 inches deep. Of course, that is where snow was constantly being shoveled off the sidewalk and it doesn't get much sunlight yet. It should disappear fairly soon. At least, hope springs eternal.

Tom is still pining away for his little Ruckus, but between shopping and puttering around, it was too late today to go down to Richland Center and do anything about it. (The place closes at 3:00 and he wants to drive it around and try on helmets and get all the information on insurance and so on and so on.) Since we are about to have a week of crummy weather, it looks like he will have to wait at least that long before he tries again.

Since we couldn't do that, we went over to the Riverside & Great Northern to see how they were doing on the first day of operations. They were surprisingly busy and we wound up taking a ride ourselves with a nice family from Whitewater. I got volunteered to help with another project of theirs and volunteered myself to help with a membership thing Tom is taking on. At some point I think I get an engineer's cap for all this.

Then we went into the Dells to see what was going on and stopped for dinner at a place that just opened this past year. Overpriced and underimpressive was our take on it, but the waitress was very friendly and grandmotherly. Still, I don't think we'll be going back. I did notice on the way out that they have a Texas flag on their billboard, even though it is a locally created and owned place. They do have a few southwestern things on the menu and a cowboy theme of sorts, so maybe that's what the Lone Star is supposed to represent.