From students protesting to everybody marching around the square in Baraboo! I joined in with my friend Susan. She works at the schools and I work at DPI. It was amazing to see so many people gathered, talking, all being polite and peaceful. I did like the one chant though - "we are badgers, Walker is a weasel". That was about the only slightly off color thing. Very well attended!

Baraboo Students March on the Downtown Square

Marching in Madison, marching in Baraboo.....no Gov. Walker we don't like dictators. That's why our ancestors came to America after all!

Another weird day in my life

I'm in Madison staying at the hotel we are having a conference at for work. I started out from home at 6:30 and didn't get to the hotel until 8:15 this morning. Construction, rain, commuters, trucks, closed roads....it was like a war zone. The conference speaker is excellent. The food here is not. When you are on state rate, you don't get much of a choice. For some reason I decided it would be fun to go to the mall after the conference today. So I went and looked at clearance stuff, bought a pair of sandals, looked at mother of the bride dresses. I have a year to go so I have plenty of time to look. Man, there are some butt ugly dresses out there! I am not going to be the "elderly" looking mother of the bride -- no sequins and jacket dresses for me, no way! But I do need to keep the girls covered and contained and I need something that won't make me look like a potato sack with lumps and bumps. I will need all year to find this creation, I just know it. So I bought a pair of sandals. I was trying them on and looked up and realized that there was a transgender person with better legs than mine, and a regular looking guy fingering some high heels. This kind of thing always happens to me when I am out and about by myself.
So then, I go get something to eat and it is very noisy all of a sudden. They have announcements going all the time, stay in the mall, away from the windows, get away from the sky lights....I felt like it was an indoor war zone. It was pouring rain, lightning, thunder, it was awful. And where exactly does one go when there is a tornado warning and you are at the mall? No one seems to know. I waited as long as I could but it was deafening and I was way over my toleration point so I ran for the car. Had to get gas of course. Then it took 40 min to get back downtown. Unreal. I have to get back home and be glad I don't live in Madison. What has happened to this place? People are judgmental and rude, it is crowded and loud, and quite frankly, it doesn't smell so good.
It is also my granddaughter's birthday, number 8, and she is a wonderful blessing. I tried to get her on the phone, but they aren't home. She spent the night with me the other day so we could have our quiet time together. I like those days. It is special. I'm in bed already, watching tv, listening to another storm roll through. Where do you go when there is a tornado warning and you are on the 5th floor of a hotel? No one seems to know.

A view from the bluff trail on Sunday. Eye to eye with the turkey vultures!

Mother's Day Weekend

On Saturday, I took my daughter, her daughter, and her two "stepchildren" (although I don't like that term, I don't know what else to call it. They are her boyfriend's 2 sons) and we all got in the "Party Bus" and went to Cuba City to see my mother and stepfather. Everyone had a great time! Today, I hiked the bluffs at Devil's Lake and met my husband on the north shore and did some fishing. My knees are very sorry. Halfway up I decided I was old, at the top I decided I was old and FAT. It had been about 13 years since I had done that walk. It was a good weekend.

Historical mistakes

I watched a documentary last night on the My-Lai massacre. This morning, I was struck by the similarities of the results of legal action in that case with the results of the Columbia County OWI case of Rep. Jeff Wood, as was reported on the radio today, albeit on a much, much smaller and less horrific scale.

Please note that this is not a commentary on the massacre or the legal proceedings which followed it. This is also not to reflect my feelings about the massacre -- personally, I was horrified as I watched the program. I was too young to know anything about the incident when it occurred. I cried through the program and didn't sleep last night. My heart goes out to those who were part of that horror.

I merely want to comment on the irony of the repeated historical mistake as I see it. And maybe be a fortune teller while I'm at it.

The first person put on trial after news of the massacre had prompted an investigation (about two years later) was Lt. Calley. He was convicted of four charges of premeditated murder and sentenced to life. This created a great backlash of public opinion and eventually, the case was picked up for review by The Greatest Crook of The Time, Tricky Dick. In the end, Calley served four months in Leavenworth and was released to house arrest. The other defendants then were either acquitted or charges were quietly dropped. Case closed.

Today, Rep. Jeff Wood began serving a sentence of 45 days in one of his cases of OWI or driving under the influence (there are actually five I believe, past and present). Instead of stepping down and recognizing he has a disease which needs to be treated, Wood has consistently defended his position to remain in the Legislature (and the paycheck that goes with it) and refused to gracefully exit stage right. His fellow legislators made a lot of noise about expelling him.

But the Grand Political Machine picked up once again and Wood accepted a deal for 45 days in jail on Huber while his colleagues then voted to merely censure him instead of expelling him. the hot air in the chambers that day must have been enough to float the capitol building right out of the ground. Because that's all that was being made that day -- hot air.

If history repeats itself, this means that everyone else within the "Machine" is now safe as well. Our politicans are free to careen from one side of the road to the other in their overpriced, oversized SUVs and luxury vehicles without fear of retribution. God help the rest of us as we try to stay out of their way. And don't forget, they will still be pulling in their paychecks from all of us ordinary folks while they briefly sit in jail waiting for their compadres in the Machine to bail them out.

And Tricky Dick wasn't even here to supervise. Good job.

And I was too young to understand what President Nixon was up to at the time. Lesson learned.

Today's field trip: to find the heron nests at Devils Lake. I found them by their noise - lots of clicking, hooting, howling, and grumbling. Then I found the poo - white splatters on the ground. Then I looked up and there they all were. I also found some egg shells on the ground - maybe from last year's nests? I think they use the same nests again with some cleaning and additions. I don't think they had babies yet but it looked like they were all taking turns sitting in the nests. I laid on the ground underneath the nests and just watched them for about 30 minutes. I am SO glad I didn't get pooped on! The top picture is remnants of an old nest at the base of a tree.