Day 14 (12/31/11)
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| 30th Anniversary |
It is the last day of the year and time for reflection. I
cannot say that I am not happy to see 2011 go. It has definitely been a year of
change. The year started out benign enough. I had started running again and
things were looking good until Valentine’s Day when Scott Walker pulled the rug
out from under all public employees. I had planned a weeklong celebration of
our thirtieth wedding anniversary starting on Valentines and running until the twenty-first,
our anniversary. I still tried to do a few things but the mood just wasn’t there.
We did end up spending the weekend of our anniversary in Madison protesting
which at least made it memorable. Every time things looked as if they were
getting better they took a turn for the worse. I think the hardest part of the
whole ordeal was the loss of respect in the community real or perceived. It was
soon apparent that many people believed that we had gotten exactly what we deserved
and that we should just accept our fate. I am proud to say that we did not.
Instead there was a showing of solidarity that rocked the nation and still continues.
I had never been much of a political type person. I had always enjoyed a
certain amount of political bantering with the students but suddenly the fun
was gone. It had become too real. What had been fun and harmless was now taboo
and could even lead to disciplinary action. Soon the state was divided in half
and not even the Packers winning the Super bowl could heal it. The year was not
a complete loss and I spent a lot of time making paper. As I look forward to
2012 I have decided to not make any resolutions but I would like to spend more
time on the bike trail creating again.
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| 2nd Trip to Madison |
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| Tree Frog |
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| Tree Fog |
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| Knute |
Posts
It was the first day that all the stars aligned and Eileen
and I were able to get out and try our new snowshoes. In all honesty, we
probably wouldn’t have needed snowshoes since the snow was only a couple inches
deep but we have been dying to try them, so try them we did. We carried them as
far as the park behind or house and then strapped them on. We worked our way
across the park to the bike trail. At first the bike trail was really good,
when it was lined by trees, but as we got into the open much of the snow had
blown off the trail. It was also very windy so after we went about half mile we
decided to head on back. After we got back to the park we wandered around the
ponds for a while. I think we are going to enjoy them if we ever get any snow. 
