My Week that Was - April 18

American White Pelicans. 4/11/2026 dwm

After breakfast at Prairie Cafe and some jobs around home, I headed out on the first ride of the year. 

The big attraction was more than 75 birds spread across three bodies of water on Madison's south side.

The American White Pelican, according to the South Wisconsin Bird Alliance, lost much of its population in the 1800s to hunters. It wasn't until 1990s, that the large white birds with black wing tips began to return to lakes and rivers around the state.

Sunday afternoon I finally added the lighthouses I saw on Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago to the Great Lakes Lighthouse video tour. It will go live April 19.

Tuesday afternoon, we saw a series of thunderstorms sweep into Wisconsin from the southwest heading northeast. We live southwest of Madison. The first big storm went around us to the north. A second storm, much larger than the first looked like it was going to go right through our area with heavy rain, hail, and the possibility of tornadoes. We got rain, but missed the real heavy stuff.

Spring flowers. 4/13/2026 dwm

  We've had a lot of rain the past week which is causing some flooding. On Oakwood's west campus, we have a vernal pond (it's fed by rain and melting snow) that is higher than I've seen. 

  Wednesday morning I took my new laptop back to Madison Computer Works to ask about the process of running a back-up. It turned out I was doing it right, I just needed to wait longer.

 After getting home, I tried running it again and it took a few hours to run. It should be faster in the future as there won't be much new content every week.

 The Brewers finally stopped their longest losing streak in three seasons at 6 games. Losing six in a row left them with 8 wins and 8 losses; thankfully, they won two in a row heading into Friday night's game in Miami.

In Friday's Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel, there was a story on a flower called Siberian Squill. The pictures in the story look a bit like the delicate blue flower I shot earlier this week (above left). The ones in my photo have a white center, which I don't see in their photos. 

It seems the Siberian Squill isn't officially called an invasive species, but it is stubborn and spreads easily. So, if you have some of these kind of flowers, consider this a quiet warning bell.

Friday morning was nice and with the day off, I was able to get on the bike. The target was a new trail called Autumn Ridge and the latest pedestrian and bicycle bridge over a busy highway. You can read more about the ride Tuesday.

In the afternoon, we met with a local attorney to update our estate plans. The first and last time we did, the boys were not even 10 years old, so it seemed like a good time to do adult things!

I hope you did some adulting on your schedule this week, just not too much! Thanks for reading.