My Week that Was - October 25

Looking toward the capitol from Olbrich Park. 10/18/25 dwm

The forecast before last Saturday changed dramatically between Wednesday and Saturday. Originally, Saturday was going to be rainy with few, if any, windows where a ride could happen.

But Saturday morning, when I got to the gym around 6, I learned the rain had passed and it was going to dry out.

The pavement was wet and clouds still heavy when I got home, so we went to the Prairie Cafe for breakfast. After returning home, I changed into bike gear, pumped the tires and headed out.

Ride 30 took me past Camp Randall where tailgating fans were already firing up the grills more than four hours before the game. From there I followed the trail clockwise around Lake Monona on the Lake Loop.

View from Law Park at Lake Monona. 10/18/25

 A long stretch follows Monona's north shore where parks provide lake access. I stopped for pictures just north of the Monona Terrace Convention Center (photo left), then stopped where some of Olbrich Park runs south from it's northeast corner (above photo).

 It was a beautiful day. It was around 70 for most of the ride which brought out dozens of cyclists along many of the same routes. 

 This time of year you don't know when the last ride will be or if you already had it, so I added miles with a side trip to McFarland and a loop around it's center. I rolled up the driveway with 51 miles on the bike computer and a short ride short of 1,600 for the year.  

The Packers won their first road game Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona in a tight contest with the Cardinals. A key play came at the end of the first half, when Packer kicker Lucas Havrisik set a team record with a 61-yard field goal at time-expired and pulled Green Bay with seven points.

The Packers tied the score in the third quarter then fell behind. Late in the fourth quarter Jordan Love had the offense deep in Arizona territory, when they came up short on third down. Head coach Matt LaFleur sent out the field goal unit to tie the game, then called time-out. He changed his mind and decided to go for it with less than 4-minutes left. Love found Tucker Kraft for a first down, and running back Josh Jacobs put the Packers ahead with less than a minute to play. 

The Packers kicked off and the Cardinals started moving downfield, needing a touchdown to win the game. On fourth down while deep in the Packer's end of the field, Jacoby Brissett threw a ball into the end zone, but it ended up out of bounds. Green Bay won, 27 - 23. 

The defense played a strong game, while Micah Parsons, who was acquired in August in a preseason trade with the Cowboys, had three of the six sacks recorded by Green Bay's defense. 

Wednesday I went to a conference called Flip the Script on Aging. It discussed ageism. A statistic I heard was that in a few years, there will be more people in the United States 65 or older than there are people under 18. One stat stood out, as life expectancy in America is growing, 10 year olds today have a 50/50 chance of living to 104! I imagine the parents hope he or she is out of the house by then.

The Milwaukee Brewer season ended last week when they were swept by the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. This past Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks played the first-game of their 82-game season. The team has remodeled much of the roster around Giannis Antetokounmpo; the biggest acquisition is Myles Turner, who joins the Bucks after 10 seasons with the Indiana Pacers. 

Since winning their second championship in 2021, the Bucks haven't been competitive in the play-offs, this younger version of those teams is expected to make noise in the NBA. It's a long season, but winning the first two is a good start. 

The last weekend of the month is coming up, if the weather cooperates it could be the last ride this year. As always, thanks for taking time to stop by during your week, have an awesome week!