I had a fairly busy weekend. Saturday I went back home to Sauk City to pick up a package and hang out with my parents. Of course I didn’t tell them I planned to do this. My Dad closed his shop early and they weren’t at home, so I had to find something else to do. Since I made the trip up to Sauk, I figured I might as well go to Devil’s Lake. I hiked up Potholes Trail and down the East Bluff trail to the North Shore. After getting there I decided to hike the West Bluff as well. I was wearing sandals and by the time I got to the West Shore I thought it would be a poor choice to stress my feet more than I already had. Unfortunately, I was pretty much on the direct opposite side of the lake from where I parked the car. So I walked the lower rock trail on the West Bluff. By the time I made it to the South Shore road, my feet were killing me. I limped my way back to the parking lot at the South Beach and headed back to Sauk. When I got to Sauk I figured I could try my parents again. Dad’s shop was still empty, but I managed to catch them just as they returned to the house after being in Baraboo. We ate dinner and they conned me into going up with them to drop off pictures for Doc Evermore. He’d recently had a stroke and is recovering. He would love a piece of cake or to be able to get back to welding. I know this because he told me quite a few times. Doc’s son was moving things around the lot with heavy equipment, so I stayed out of his way and walked around the Art Park. I took pictures as I went, but I’m not happy with how the light turned out. The clouds added to the brightness and I didn’t take that into account. I also had a problem being steady handed and many pictures turned out blurred. I talked to Doc for awhile about various things, which was really interesting because he likes to talk to everyone that comes to see the Art Park. There was a local Madison band there and I can’t remember their name, but there were two brothers and a sister. The brother’s high school art teacher happened to be at the Art Park at the same time. Doc was already talking to her when they came back to talk to him after playing with the Dragon. She immediately knew they were students of hers and they eventually remembered her name. You never know who you’re going to run into. Doc’s Art Park is an amazing place. I promise to get some good pictures of Doc’s Art Park on the site as soon as possible.
I eventually made my way back to Madison to attend a burn stuff in the backyard and drink beer event at Dude and Pete’s house. There were quite a few people there and I really only knew a handful, but it was fun. I wimped out when it came time to go barhopping. My hike at Devil’s Lake took a lot out of me. So I retreated and that night was over.
Sunday was a quiet day. I needed to recover and ended up sleeping through the middle of the day. I eventually got up and went back to Dude’s house to cook lasagna. I don’t know why, but I woke up in the morning with an urge to cook lasagna. I wouldn’t be able to cook that at my camper, so I had to borrow a kitchen. So I cooked that and we ate, and then went to see Alien Vs. Predator. If you haven’t seen it yet, then skip to the next paragraph. So they send in three Predator’s to hunt the Aliens in an ancient arena on Earth. Two die quickly. Did they send in a pair of bench jockeys or what? Was the first string busy doing something else? I’m a little disappointed that they made those two so weakly. The third was much more agile though and lived up to the Predator memories I have from the original movie. The ending was a nice setup for another AVP movie as well.
So now we come to Monday. I went to Jefferson to watch the Packer game at a new sports bar that is owned by friends of my friend Kate. The place is called Score’s and is a really nice place. If you’re around Jefferson or passing by you should stop in. They have great ribs and corn fritters. Tell the bartender that I sent you and they’ll probably ask who I am. Just tell them I’m the guy that was drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon all night out of the coolest goblet known to man. So anyways, the Packer game. I’m still actually waiting for the Packers to show up. I know some guy’s in Packer uniforms where there, but that wasn’t The Pack. By halftime I couldn’t watch anymore and we played darts. I desperately need a dart board. I can throw maybe one good game, but then I’m spent. It’s embarrassing. I killed on the first game of Cricket with more than 200 points over everyone else, but it was downhill from there. First I couldn’t hit the 20’s. Then I couldn’t hit the 16’s. If it wasn’t for everyone else shooting poorly I never would have closed out the numbers and be left with only the Bulls. I didn’t win of course. My inability to close numbers they were scoring on allowed them to gain a convincing point lead and I had no way to win. So I wasn’t playing darts anymore after that. We mingled with the other patrons and we had some interesting conversations about Hanoi Jane, health care and various other things, but it was late and we needed to get home. Hanging out at a bar far from home is usually not a great idea when you have to be at work at 6:30 in the morning. I made it to work with time to spare, but I wasn’t feeling exactly chipper. Better than I probably should have felt though. So go to Score’s, eat the ribs and tip your bartender, even if the bartender is your friend. They’re working, not hanging out with you. And yes the girls working there do look 16, but I was proven wrong about that.
I couldn’t sleep, so I turned on the TV. Sadly I have only the local broadcast stations. While flipping through the channels I noticed something on PBS about chickens and roosters called The Natural History of the Chicken. We live in a crazy world. There are some truly psychotic people that own these birds. I almost vomited I laughed so hard. There was this lady that had a chicken that died and she brought back to life. She was describing what the chicken told her about its near-death experience. She kept the chicken in the house for a few weeks and then returned it to the pen with the other chickens. This lady goes onto talk about what this chicken and the others discussed. It was hilarious. This is just one of the people on this program. I recommend that everyone watches this program. It’s not so much informative about chickens as it’s a haunting and candid look at the people who love chickens and the people who live around these odd individuals. I’ll never feel the same while driving in the country ever again.