Many places I knew are no longer there. There was a tornado (I'll take my folks word over the official non-reports of a " probable tornado" - they saw the thing ( Read more... )

jmaynard and I left for Merrill, WI Saturday afternoon and arrived in the evening. I must've been tired as I didn't notice just how dark everything was in the area. There were many areas without electricity and my folks were in a smaller one of those areas. Good use was made of a generator and so things were kept running. A gas oven meant cooking and ( Read more... )

The original plan was that I'd drive to Merrill on Friday, pick up jmaynard at Central Wisconsin Airport a bit after noon on Saturday, and we'd stay for at least part of a big gathering on Sunday before heading back to Minnesota. Plans tend to change, and that one did.

( What actually happened. )

Streetlight.

What did you just picture? A bright somewhat orange light? A bright pure yellow light? A stark blue light that seems to be at once too bright and too dim?

The first thing I picture is generally that last choice, the bluish mercury vapor light that was the only streetlight I saw around when I was quite young. They cast light, and ( Read more... )

In the mid-late Summer, when it got rather hot on sunny days, there were a few days of the Lincoln County Fair in Merrill. As a kid this was great. There was activity. There were rides. There was food not seen at other times or places. What had been a large lot with a scattering of buildings became a big interesting place.

There were also the ( Read more... )

Some time back, jmaynard and I returned home from supper or some such and saw a rabbit on the lawn. This was unusual for Jay, but not for me. I had been used to seeing rabbits when I lived in the country in Wisconsin, and Fairmont is a small enough town that seeing rabbits is not unusual. A bit less common than squirrels, but hardly rare. Seeing deer in ( Read more... )