Oconomowoc, Wisconsin/Blog Changes

Back from Oconomowoc_____

We rolled back into Celina yesterday afternoon about 4:30pm from Patricia's hometown of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin....I first visited Oconomowoc in 1975, a full year and a half before we were married....I tagged along to meet her father Bill and step-mother Bev, and attend her younger sister Sue's wedding, which Patricia was a bridesmaid. I have been back at least once{usually twice, at least back in the early days} for the past 35 years.

Oconomowoc, when I first visited, was a town of about 9000, about the size of Celina, and like Celina, surrounded by water....the big difference was the Wisconsin town was close to large Milwaukee(about 30 miles west on I-94), and instead of one large mud hole, like Grand Lake, Oconomowoc was surrounded by several deep clear lakes, including Lac LaBelle, Lake Fowler, and Silver Lake. Patricia's parents lived between Delafield and Oconomowoc on Lake Nashoda.

In the years since my first visit, I have noted changes, and most not for the better. The suburban low lifes from Milwaukee and Chicago have infiltrated the Lakes and town...while leaving their crime ridden suburbs, they have brought their own brand of strip malls and yuppie shops to the revamped downtown and outlying areas next to I-94....In the name of progress, Oconomowoc and nearby Delafield have become sometime else other than what they were, thus eroding the quite and charm of the villages.

Of course this is my own personal opinion, I hate this type of progress. I have seen what happened to my childhood home of Venice, Florida, in the name of progress...not good, and Celina would like to join the Oconomowocs and Venices, by making Grand Lake something it's not. This is what happens when real estate speculators and politicians have egos and ask the citizens to pay for those egos, with taxpayer funds.

Fish Frys on Friday___

One thing I have always loved about Wisconsin is there Friday Night Fish Frys....now we are talking all you can eat, and more of the best seafoods. When Patricia and I lived near Wausau, Wisconsin, back in the late 70s{before the kids came along} we frequented a place north of Wausau called Bullocks...all you could care to consume in seafood and side dishes for $4.95 a person...we would usually drop $15 or $20 at the bar then head for the dining room each Friday. It was a treat....we also tried other eateries around the area, but Bullocks stood out head above the rest, at least in our minds.

So on Friday, a few hours after arriving at Bill and Bev's Condo{they moved out of the country setting a few years ago}, we headed uptown to Tony's, a place we had not eaten at yet, and had our Friday Fish Fry. Starting out the weekend when I left Celina, I had dropped a full 18 pound in 2 months and my weight had settled in at 190.5 pounds on my basement scale...I knew the weekend, with the fish, beer, the early Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner, and Sunday meal, would be a challenge...I survived, weighing in this morning at 192, I gained only about a pound and a half/the bloop pressure was also in pretty good range, standing at 135/75 with a 65 resting pulse rate.

After a weekend of Football and Food, we said our goodbyes yesterday morning early, and make out way down the Interstate past Milwaukee and towards Chicago. We stopped at the Mars Cheese Outlet to check into some Cheese Curds and other specialities that my buddy Bill Clem asked for. I am hooking up with Bill this Thursday in Waldo, and he asked for some "real" curds....having lived in Wisconsin a couple of decades ago, he knows the fake stuff from the real. We picked out a selection of cheese products and other items, and Anissa, Patricia, and I, headed down the Illinois Tollway towards home.

We arrived in Celina at 4pm, and before we stopped home, we headed out to the Celina Pet Center to pick up Reagan, she had been lodged at the Kennel for the weekend{with the boys no longer living at home, not much option there}...she had a trim, nobody seems to know how to trim Airedales correctly, so I should call it a butcher job, but at least she is ready for the winter without the excess baggage of hair. We headed home and were promptly ignored by a seemingly pissed off cat, who fended for herself for the 4 days....such is the life of the cat, able to survive on their own, if you leave a clean litter box in the basement and plenty of food and water.

Blogger Bummer___

Seems Blogger has changed the way it let's you write and publish these daily posts, and I can say, it sucks....not sure how it's going to look when I hit the publish button, but I'm not at all please with this. I seldom like big change anyway, but guess I'll learn to live with this, if I have to....the editing seems to have gone back to the 1998 version.

I was planning on making changes and the layout of the blog and content anyway...and you regular visitors may see them as the week progresses...if I can figure out what the Hell is going on.

back later>>>>

With the current set up I can't figure out how to drop photos where I want them...so I'll add a photo of the Oconomowoc City Hall and the sign at Lac LaBelle for now, until I can figure out just what the Hell is going on.... :(