For Ted

A young engaged couple were on their way to church to get married when they were in a terrible automobile accident and were both killed.

They appeared at the Pearly Gates, hand in hand, and St. Peter started to let them in. But first they had a question.

"Can we get married in heaven?"

St. Peter scratched his beard for a moment and said, "I don't know. No one has ever asked to get married in heaven before. Let me go in and check. Meanwhile, just sit here."

The couple sat down on a nearby love seat and Peter went off to find out what he could.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

A day passed, then a week, then a month, then two months.

Finally, after three months, Peter came back with a big smile on his face.

"Well, I've made the arrangements. You can get married in heaven."

The couple started to walk through the Pearly Gates when they hesitated again.

"What if it doesn't work out? Will we be able to get divorced in heaven?" they asked.

St. Peter threw down his quill pen and turn a bright red, clenching his teeth.

"What's wrong?" the young couple asked in alarm.

"Look," Peter told them angrily, "it took me three months to find a minister up here. Do you hav any idea how long it will take to find a lawyer?"

Wo-Zha-Wa

Gesundheit!

No, that's not a Wisconsin sneeze. It is a festive celebration of autumn, Wo-Zha-Wa Days. Wo-zha-wa is a Ho-Chunk phrase meaning, basically, "Let's have some fun!" There are elements of Mardi Gras silliness about it, I guess, as indicated by the cheeseheads on the marching band in the photo, but it is a very family-oriented thing and nothing for anyone to worry about.

Traditionally it has come to mark the end of the season in the Dells, a couple of weeks after Labor Day. There is an arts and crafts fair, antique flea market, live entertainment, a 100-unit parade, a street carnival with refreshment concessions and the Wo-Zha-Wa Run. Most of the activities are free, since it is mostly a local community celebration (although the businesses are hoping to wrest a few more shekels from the participants.)

Many of the shops along the main strip will close for good after this, and Wo-Zha-Wa is also a way to try to get rid of the last bits of inventory if possible before putting up the shades for the winter.

There is another Fall Festival in October, so I guess the tourist-hunting never quite dies in Wisconsin Dells. The R&GN has special pumpkin trains in October. All the kids who ride get a free pumpkin, and it is apparently the biggest month of the year for the gift shop business.

(I probably told you all this last year. Well, as I told someone recently, I no longer have senior moments. Now I have junior moments. Senior is pretty much all the time.)

Summer's end

I haven't seen the hummingbirds out front much this summer, although I have occasionally noted one among the wildflowers in back. The last few days, though, the front yard birds (or the backyard birds now in the front yard) have reappeared and are fighting over the feeder just like last year. It may be that the wildflowers are starting to dry up, which they seem to be, and that the birds have to go to the feeders now for their sugar fix. Whatever the reason, they're back and buzzing.

I am also noticing turkeys along Berry Road again. I know they have been out there, somewhere, but now I see some almost daily. A deer ran across the road as I was on my way to Reedsburg, fortunately a block away and easy to avoid. Again, maybe it is the seasonal change and the time of day. Or maybe it is the warmer weather.

The last few days have been quite warm, hovering around and even over 90. This is the warmest it has been all season. Kind of ironic, now that the tourists season is over and the waterparks -- which need hot sunny days to draw crowds -- are shutting down.

When I drove by the motels and resorts on my way to the railroad this morning, the lots were vastly empty. Quite a sudden change from the summer crowds. As long as the weather is decent, I imagine the weekends will still draw people, but school is back in session and the family vacations are over for now.

Thursday I start my library work again. It will be nice to get back in there. My summer schedule not only didn't allow me any time to volunteer, I hardly had time to go and get a book most weeks.

Tom worked as conductor today, and it was my turn to cook. I made white chili (chicken with white beans, for you Texans who would probably never allow such a thing to pass your lips.) It's not too bad, really. Add a few nachos and a bit of guacamole on the side, and you're all set.

I've seen the white chili recipe using rattlesnake meat instead of chicken, but I think that's just silly. And our local WalMart doesn't even carry Chinese mustard, much less rattlesnake meat.

Goal!

When I started working at the railway, one of the things we had for sale was this battery-operated Thomas the Tank Engine that kids ages 1 to 3 could ride. It comes complete with track, although you don't have to run it on the tracks.

Apparently it had been ordered for the store some years ago by someone that the present membership doesn't have much use for and no one had ever been interested in buying it. The original price was $299.95, but we had marked it down to $249.95 without any nibbles. I was given permission to take less if someone would buy it, and I half-jokingly said that my goal was to sell it before summer ended.

I would talk to customers about it and got to be pretty funny trying to get dads interested. A surprising number of fathers and grandfathers were interested, but their wives tended to look at it and think, "Where on earth am I supposed to put that thing in my house?" So no sales.

The last few days I had high hopes of getting rid of it, and three or four people were quite serious. But I finally gave up. Labor Day is the last day of the summer season, and it was going to end with this thing still taking up space in the back of the shop.

Then at a quarter to five, a guy came in and I convinced him he wanted to buy it for $200.00, basically what I myself would have had to pay for it using Tom's heftier Life Member discount. The dude bought it, we made fifty bucks on it and got it out from under our feet.

Ironically, the last sale I made for the summer was the battery-operated Thomas the Tank Engine. The head of operations even called me to congratulate me. You would have thought I had sold a Hummer.

Ta-da!

Now just so long as I'm not there if he brings it back ...
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PS -- Two hummingbirds fighting in the front yard this afternoon.
Two adult turkeys and five poults down by the Berry Road and Brichwood intersection this morning.