My Week that Was - May 9

Live at the Barrymore. 5/2/2026 dwm

 The week started with an active Saturday. I took a long ride up and around Lake Mendota to see a rest stop for cyclists (photo below right) that I've ridden past for years. 

 I used the break to eat cracker sandwiches with cheese and drink a bottle of chocolate milk, then resumed the ride. You can read more about it here.  

 

 That evening, my wife and I met three work friends at Wilson's Sports Bar for a bite to eat before going to a show at the Barrymore Theater. It was fun getting together with our spouses and visiting before walking to the theater a block away to see a friend and colleague who plays the drums for the Madison Mystery Tour.

 

Hammocks at the ready. 5/2/2026 dwm

The mission of Madison Mystery Tour is to study and perform every song in the Beatles catalogue. We enjoyed and rocked out to 36 songs - some hits and some that were on the B-side of 45-rpm (rotations per minute) records.

 

On my way home Monday, I was at the stoplight controlling South Seminole Highway and McKee Road when I noticed a family of geese crossing the busy 4-lane city streets. 

 

The parents were front and back of the parade while six yellow goslings between mom and dad before reaching the safety of a big lawn on the corner.

 

Wild geese on a chase. 5/4/2026 dwm

 My phone was within reach while waiting for the light to change and I was able to get two shots (photo left).

 The Foundation had a special event Wednesday evening, but a virus was going thru campus that became enough of a concern to cancel our event and other communal activities until things improve. 

 The cancellation came five hours before it was scheduled to begin. We called guests coming from the community to ask them to consider joining us Thursday for a second event. Then we called residents to let them know about the cancellation, and ask if they would like us to deliver the already made desserts to them instead.

We didn't want to throw out any of the specially made desserts, so we offered the residents to have a selection of sweets delivered to their apartment as a thank you gift. Everyone I talked with was disappointed the event about the event but thrilled to get the treats. Several colleagues joined our Foundation team to make deliveries to nearly 90 donors. It's the first time we've had to cancel an event, the last one was cancelled by Covid when it shutdown campus life five days before our scheduled celebration.

Thankfully, the east campus was fine, so we happily welcomed a large gathering of generous donors to say thank you and let them know what their gifts mean to everyday life at Oakwood.

 

Friday was a day off so we could complete the paperwork for our estate plans. It was way overdue considering the boys were quite little when we did the first one; three decades have sped past in the interim.

 

No one likes spending time on such things, but it is time well-spent. The sooner the better, because we don't know when we'll need to have several important questions, for example: what do we do now? how will we handle this?  

 

If you haven't looked over your plans since the kids were in middle school, it might be a good idea to pull them out of the drawer and see what needs to happen next!

 

Thanks for reading - have a great week!