My Week That Was - Nov 28

We had our first
sticking snow Tuesday.
11/24/20 dwm photo

  The week started with a bit a thud as the Wisconsin Badger football team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten in a whipping at the hands of the rival Wildcats of Northwestern.  

  I can't say I expected to win the national championship, but I did expect the team to play better than they did last Saturday.  There are three games to play in this Covid season - today hosting Minnesota, next week Indiana comes to town, and then finishing in Iowa.  If they win all those games or at least two, there may be a bowl game if that's considered worth the risk.  (The Minnesota game was cancelled on Wednesday because of too many cases of Covid on the Gopher's team.)

  The Packer game was a different agony.  The team played the way you hope in the first half; then the Colts took over before taking a lead late in the game.  

A remarkable defensive stand got the ball back to Aaron Rodgers with 90 seconds to play and he got the team to the Colts 14 yard line.  A third down pass fell incomplete, so they kicked the field goal to send it into overtime.

In OT, Green Bay got the ball, but a fumble on the second play handed it back to the Colts who won by 3.  Ouch.  There are six games left, I expect them to be ready for the Bears Sunday night.  It's a big game.  The Bears are two games behind Green Bay in the NFC North - a Packer win puts them three behind while a Chicago victory drops the margin to one and gives them hope.

Let's go Packers!

Short work weeks like this one are usually fun. Oakwood is in the midst of "Hanging the Greens" around campus in anticipation of Christmas.  Usually volunteers descend by the dozens to hang garland and wreaths and decorate three dozen trees.

Thanks to Covid-19, those volunteers can't help.  Our volunteer coordinator asked staff to help when they can.  Tuesday I had an hour free, so consulted the list of jobs to be done and headed upstairs and down the hall to Heritage Oaks.  I was hoping to do some low-level decorating, but I couldn't figure out what I should do.  

After walking further down the hall I found a nearly naked tree clad only in flimsy strings of white lights.  

Inside a couple of tubs marked "lobby tree decorations" were boxes and boxes of ornaments; spools of garland; stacks of stars and snowflakes; and a container of extra ornament hangers.

The after shot of
"my" tree. 11/25/20
dwm photo

This tree stands inside the main entrance to campus, so I started to work, thinking someone would shoo-me off to a quiet corridor.  After an hour I figured I'd done all the damage I could to one tree.

When those volunteers return next Christmas (I hope) I'm going to double my appreciation for their gifts of service.  I hope to learn what they do with the six other ornament boxes I didn't touch.

It's been awhile since the last time I gave blood.  It was delayed when I took a COVID test after a possible exposure.  I didn't want to donate blood if I was infected, so I waited for all the clear then scheduled a new appointment.

In the clear and passing weekly tests at work, I hopped back on the cot Wednesday afternoon.  It was the third time since the pandemic arrived in Wisconsin - I'm blessed to be healthy and able to give, this was my 115th time.

It's an elite field for this year's
Turkey Trot.  11/26/20 (rkm)

  Thanksgiving morning it was time to join thousands of other runners for a Turkey Trot.  We did one while in Indianapolis that had close to 20,000 participants, this year's virtual race was more exclusive.

  I read this year that more people run and walk in events on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year.  The first one was in 1896.  What for years was highly competitive and exclusively male is now a family run/walk event that typically raises funds to help people in the community.  

There are two big trots on Thanksgiving in Madison.  I've run the 6K Berbee Derby a number of times which raises money to put technology in schools.  This was my first year running in Festival Foods' Turkey Trot.  It's funny that the runs are kind of like work in the midst of the pandemic since we do it from home.

Our front entry is
waiting for snow.
11/27/20 dwm photo

Yesterday was Black Friday, but we sat it out.  Frankly the idea of wading into a mass of humanity in a store or mall is a bit frightening.  

Instead, we spent the morning getting the outside of the house ready for Christmas.  

There is a string of lights around the deck while out front we set a small tree and ran lights above the door and on a small bush.

Like all Christmas decorations, they look better when surrounded with a blanket of snow.

That was my week.  I hope your first week of December is a good one.