My Week that Was - December 28

Four inches fell in the first snow. 12/21/24 dwm

 Saturday morning was busier than usual, so we prepared with a hearty breakfast at Monty's Blue Plate Diner, one of our favorite spots in Madison. It's on Atwood Avenue, roughly a mile north and west of Olbrich Garden.

 It has a great vibe, located in an interesting part of Madison with a dynamic neighborhood. Across the street the Barrymore theater stands, the performer Saturday night was Judy Collins. 

 We recognized her name, she's been a singer for 6 decades, but we didn't know she was still performing or touring. I looked her up, Collins is 85, good for her!

At home, I finally ordered photos to frame and put up in my office. I've been procrastinating, the frames have been leaning against a file cabinet for more than a year. I also finished signing birthday cards that I'll mail during the year's first quarter.

Monday was a day off. The weather people predicted freezing rain and drizzle all day.. It didn't happen, Instead of ice, we had a few minutes of snow and sleet but that was it. I had several errands to run, starting with dropping off a suit for some alterations; picked up a case of protein shakes; paid the property taxes at city hall; picked up more than a year's worth of large kitchen garbage can liners; and bought two pair of pants.

The suit needs to be altered for an open house next month celebrating our anniversary. It's not the suit I wore at the wedding, but it's only the second one I've had since. A good reason for that is that while I've had jobs that usually meant wearing dress shirts and a tie, but not a suit. Over the last few years ties have almost disappeared, even on TV newscasts it is increasingly common to see an unbuttoned collared dress shirt with a suit or sport jacket.

Christmas Eve we drove to Janesville for the 4 pm service at St. Paul Lutheran Church. It was packed. It's been a long time since we've had that experience.

Movie poster. 12/25/24 dwm

We still had snow on Christmas but it wasn't going to last. Warm air was forecast to push temperatures into the upper 30s and low 40s by the weekend. We started Christmas by going to church at 9, then we got things organized for dinner when our youngest son and his wife were coming to dinner. We exchanged gifts after dinner then afterwards went to see Mufasa at Point Cinema. 

It tells the story of Simba's father (in the original Lion King movie) to Simba's offspring. The movie 's OK but it doesn't live up to the original animated version of the film. For me the cartoon-like animals felt more real than seeing the authentic and believable looking creatures when they broke into song.

The weeks around Christmas and New Year can feel pretty strange at work, with quite a few people taking time off to travel or spend time with family. 

There were quite a few of us who experienced Monday on Thursday, then return the next day with a Friday on Friday. Whew, that's a week!

Progress comes slow some times, and that was the case Friday. The good news was learning who can help us get our giving page online. With a little luck, it should be available by the end of next week.

By Friday, the snow we got last week was washed away by warm temperatures and rain, so the ground looks pretty blah around here.

If you have something on your to-do list for 2024, there are only a few days left, so get out there!