My Week that Was - February 11

Sunset at Prairie Ridge. 2/6/23 dwm

  The weekend was nice and quiet.  I finished signing Valentine cards and watched several college basketball games.

 

 My car started acting up.  At random times, for no apparent reason, four lights on the dash light up at once.  If I turn on the right turn signal, they go off!  

 I used to want to drive a Gremlin, now it seems I have a car with gremlins.

 Sunday I wrote about the problem of people running red lights.  Monday on my way to lunch, I had to stop when I had the right-of-way.  I was driving next to the center lane on an undivided street with four lanes.  A truck was turning into a parking lot from the right lane.  

 

 I was a bit behind the truck, so I noticed a car coming out of the lot when the truck obscured my view.  I took my foot off the gas and as the truck turned right, that car made a left-hand turn right in front of me.  Thankfully I was fully stopped before the driver noticed me.

It's a busy street and a busy parking lot, turning left when you can't see is a bad idea.  A better one would have been to turn right, take a left at a four-way stop, then use light-controlled traffic to get where you want to go.

My new laptop arrived Wednesday.  The one I had was running hot, so hot that our information technology people were certain it was a matter of when, not if, it broke down.  The i.t. guy moved stuff over from the old to the new and helped get things ready to go.  However, when it came to logging into our online database, the new one wouldn't open the application.

It took our tech guy and one from the software provider to solve the problem so I could get back to work.  The software holds our entire database, so if there isn't a computer connection, there is very little to do.

 

A Sycamore in snow. 2/9/23 dwm

We had another "major" snowstorm this week.  Back when I was a kid they would have called it Thursday.  It conveniently arrived after the morning commute, dropped around six inches of heavy, wet snow and stopped in the early afternoon.  By the time I was driving home, the major streets were clear.

A tall sycamore stands on campus between two buildings.  You don't find many in Wisconsin, their area is eastern North America in lowland areas.  The area where it stands is lowland and frequently wet, that's the kind of land it likes.

It's rarity and particular beauty makes it special.  It survived construction on either side roughly 20 and 50 years ago.  A short distance from the sycamore is a forest of oak, pine, and maple; there is nothing like an American Sycamore in those woods. 

The cold overnight froze the wet snow into bricks.  Friday was sunny and cold which didn't help the folks who couldn't clear the wet snow Thursday.  Those who did rejoiced as the sun melted and dried the pavement.

Most of the next week will be dry and (relatively) warm.  I hope your week is excellent!