My Week that Was - May 25

The freshly stained back deck. 5/19/24 dwm

My home work from last week was finished Sunday afternoon. I gave the deck floor two coats. Including the scraping and painting, I worked on the deck at least 6 to 8; most important, my wife likes how it looks.

 

Saturday evening I had a strange experience while watching the Milwaukee Brewer game; our TV shut itself off then re-started four times in an hour.

 

It got more aggravating every time it happened because it would take several minutes to turn back on and then I had to select the right input to put the game back on. It happened eight times. 

We bought the TV five years ago; in today's world that's a long-time for a television. I got a replacement the next morning.

The new TV is a Samsung. I bought it as an "open box" from Best Buy, which in this case, meant a nice discount. It didn't have a remote in the box, thankfully the store had a matching remote to go with it. At home I replaced the old TV with the new one. I wasn't as successful with connecting the sound bar and a replacement Fire stick after several attempts. I'll let the kids lend a hand to get them working properly. (The Fire Stick was working by the end of the week thanks to the offspring.)

Monday and Tuesday are what are local TV weather people call Alert Days. It means we might have a storm and 100% chance of several days hyping the weather and its consequences. It rained hard for a while Monday morning but wasn't severe. 

One of our oaks. 5/22/24 dwm

 Tuesday evening's storm lived up to the billing. There were tornado warnings across the state and constant severe thunderstorm warnings for much of the state.

 

 There were strong winds that did most of the damage, knocking over trees in saturated ground and ripping branches and limbs off of trees like a chainsaw.

 

 Most dramatic was what I saw arriving at work Wednesday morning, a toppled tree that didn't have enough room to fall which seems to have helped the tree make a soft landing against an apartment building. Thankfully no windows were broken.

 

 The nature preserve was a mess a day later with branches littering the trails and the rest of the nine acres of forest. Walking trails are closed until they can be cleared.

 

 The tree service came out Thursday to remove some of the fallen trees. There's been a lot of damage throughout the preserve, it will take time before the walking paths can re-open.

Thursday was our traditional Brat Fest lunch. Metcalfe's, a local grocery store, hosts a three day music festival featuring bratwurst at the county fairgrounds. Local charities bring volunteers to raise money for their own cause. Several years ago, Metcalfe's decided to include area senior centers and communities by delivering brats for them to share with residents. At Oakwood, mid and top-level leaders join dining staff serving the brats. 

Friday continued a pattern started in January, as I used paid-time-off to make the Memorial Day weekend 4 days instead of 3. It was going to be get-away day but we decided the night before to stick around for an extra day. 

Heavy rain was in the forecast, and while it was unlikely to match Tuesday's storm in terms of severity, wiser heads prevailed and we decided to wait it out for better weather. 

Here's hoping you and yours have a great weekend, be sure to pause on Monday and recognize our men and women who've made the ultimate sacrifice. Enjoy the weekend!