Week #39: Going back to the Old World

This week I chaperoned my daughter and members of her class to Old World Wisconsin. This happened to be on my list this year, which was a good thing because her class was short on chaperones.

Old World Wisconsin's historic farm and village buildings comprise the world's largest museum dedicated to the history of rural life. It is heady stuff indeed. The children had a great time playing 1800's kid games. They rolled wooden circles with sticks, threw "little ribbon things" with two sticks across the field to partners, etc. Old school fun was to be had all around. We also learned how to make cloth from flax straw (kind of like wheat). Very laborious process. People back then had only two outfits, one they wore six days a week for work and one only for Sunday for church etc. (hence the saying "Wearing my Sunday Best"). They washed their clothes and took a bath only once a week on Saturdays. There would be only one bath tub per home with one tubfull of water: Dad first, then Mom, then in order of birth ... sounds a little nasty to me. I learned about the work of oxen, farming, baking, weaving, and cooking. I think that we've got it pretty good right now!

Pictures: Old school games, 1890's catalogs of Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, my daughter on stilts (she mastered it quite quickly), oxen workin' hard for a livin'.

The videos are: working the game Jacob's ladder and walking on stilts. (which was one thing I wanted to do this year... little did I know that my daughter would beat me to the punch!)

Check out Old World Wisconsin at :

http://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/

P.S. I have to figure out how to get my video's straight up instead of sideways!!

Week #39: Going back to the Old World: Additional Photos

Pictures: Old time garden, making garments the hard way, don't give me no Flax (flax drying from the top of the barn), my daughter using the upside down nails to heckler the flax (which is the origination of the term "to heckle" someone (break them up or apart) fascinating, I am sure, last picture is after a long day at Old World Wisconsin.

Week #38: BAM!! POW!! CRUNCH!! ... That's right, you're looking at BATMAN!!!

I have a new found respect for my fellow superheros out there. It is difficult work! From waking up, showering, getting coffee, fighting major crimes, grabbing a quick lunch, meeting with the Mayor and Commissioner Gordon, making sure the NFL Packer game goes smoothly and finally finding time for a little shut eye makes for an exhausting day.

However, crime never sleeps and neither do I. When I am a little tired, I need some coffee to get me going. I think that the Starbucks barista might have been startled when Robin said "Holy Hot Coffee Batman!". She seemed a little shaken by my entrance (what the heck, can't Batman get a little coffee?). After she calmed down a bit, I believe she felt a little bit safer with me around.

Later in the day, I had to meet with the commissioner and Mayor Barrett. I assured him that he will be safe from now on. I felt bad that I was a little late protecting him from his beat down last month. All in all, it was an eye opening experience and I feel that I gave back to this great city!

Seriously though, the surprised expressions on everybody's faces were priceless. I was in the Starbucks parking lot putting on my outfit a 50ish lady in the next car said on her phone "Oh my God! I have to go there is this crazy dude in a Batman costume!" A friend of mine in Ohio randomly called me right before I got my coffee and asked what I was "up to", I explained and he said "What is wrong with you?" Nothing, of course just fighting some crime. People were taking pictures left and right with their picture phones. The barista was so flustered she couldn't figure out how much change I was due (listen closely to her on the second video "I know I know It's just I am so distracted).

Pictures are "A day in the life of" ... waking up, getting my morning Joe,
checking out a disturbance at the museum

Week #38: Continuing to keep the City Safe!

Pictures of my long day include: patrolling the city, checking out City Hall after my meeting with Gordon, trying to fight off a crazed fan at the Packer game, and finally getting some much needed shut-eye.

Video is grabbing a quick lunch downtown and going after yet another bad guy. In the 1st video ( 14 seconds in) you will see a Father and son walking by. While I was casually eating my hot dog, he yelled out "Hey are you the Real Batman?" I tuned around and told him and his son, yes of course I am and more importantly you two stay safe! Then I got back in the batmobile and was on my way. All in a days work.

Week #37: Bang!!! This is what it sounds like When Doves Cry!

If Doves are the birds of peace, then I say "Peace Out!!" My brother called me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I had ever hunted doves. The answer was no. I didn't even know that you could do such things. So, in an attempt to get some of my manhood back from the event last week, I said "Sure, why not". Bring on the doves!

On Wednesday, I picked up my brother and noticed that he had more camouflage on than I did. Plus, he had a chair and a gun. Small details that I did not think of. However, I did bring the ultimate camouflage shirt, The Squirrel! How can you not blend into the woods when you are an actual squirrel. The doves won't stand a chance!

We picked up brother number two at his house and I borrowed one of his guns. We were now on our way. The area where we hunted was beautiful. Pretty lakes, swamps, trees, etc. The hunt itself was longer than I expected. Since doves fly mostly at dusk, the Squirrel and I had to hide in the brush and bushes the entire time. The ground and my bum were extremely wet. Even though I was wearing extra-strength DEET, the Pterodactyl sized mosquitoes were everywhere. It was a fun and low key hunt. Those doves fly fast! In the end, our group was able to get one and I got a nice dove decoy (see video below).

Pictures are a dove on a wire (the closest dove we saw), getting ready for the hunt, gun and decoys at sunset, me sitting in the swamp at dusk, and my "decoy dove" kill!

Week #37: Part II Bonus Entry ... Shocking!!

I wish I could have banked this one for next week, but I was not expecting it. My brother mentioned many times during our hunt that we should get a beer afterwards at a local bar. The place is called Bonnie and Clyde's with an "old time" gangster theme. He mentioned you can get your picture taken in an electric chair. I figured I have never done this before... so why not? A harmless photo-op, right?




After we had a couple pitchers of beer, two bar employees strapped me into a chair with huge belt loops around my neck, stomach, wrists, thighs, and ankles. Then they locked the jail-style door. I am going nowhere. I can barely move. I asked my brother to take a silly picture of me, which he did. O.K. let's go now... yet he still hovers with the camera. A second later they electrocute me! I got a full-body shock that I was not expecting. I screamed the entire time! It lasted about 20 to 30 seconds. My other brother said that on a volume scale of 1 to 10, I was at least a 15. The pain starts in your arms then shoots up your body and into your head. It was horrible! Then a little while later, they zapped me again, bunch of jerks! I quickly pull a "Houdini" and manage to get my straps off. While this is going on, I remember I have shot gun shells in my pants which are also soaking wet from sitting in the swamp all afternoon. Not very safe.




My other brother (who was unaware of this scam) yelled "Get him out of there, he has a heart condition! (which I don't). This tells you the difference between my two brothers, one electrocutes me and other quickly makes up a story to get me out. It was a shocking experience to say the least!




The two bottom pictures: One is of me posing for my picture in the electric chair and the other is my unexpected electrocution. See if you can tell which is which.

Week #36: Getting N Sync!!

This week was synchronized swimming time. What else would a 39 year old Dad be doing on a Monday?? I know that my "Man Card" could be revoked after his week, but trust me when I say, I will earn it back. Truth be told, this was never on my "to-do" list this year. My sister-in-law's sister brought up the idea a few weeks ago and I wavered back and forth before saying "Why not?" Sync on! I made an uncomfortable random phone call to Andrea, who I asked to be my synchronized swimming teacher. She graduated from college last year and is headed out to NYC this Friday to look for work. My window was short. It was not the easiest phone call to make. It kind of went like this ... "Ahhh excuse me, my name is ####, I am a friend of Mary Lou's ... would you mind teaching me to synchronize swim sometime this week?" I may want to become the next Bill May (just kidding/inside sync. swimmer joke). She was really nice though! "No problem!!" For her to take time out of her last week in Milwaukee to teach this old dude some new moves was really appreciated!






Our rehearsal took about an hour. The weather was in the low 60's and the pool water was in the mid 70's. Not ideal, but for two professionals like us, it was nothing!



I always assumed that sync swimming was difficult ... but are you kidding me? Apparently, I don't have a good "core". Doing all the moves without touching the bottom of the pool was pretty much impossible for me. I tried nose plugs to keep some water out of my nose, but my ears kept popping when I swallowed air or water. Had to ditch the nose plug. Speaking of swallowing pool water, when all was said and done ... I may have ended up swallowing 1/3 of the entire pools water while trying not to drown.

I would like to thank Mary Lou and Katie for setting this up for me. I owe the biggest thanks to Andrea for teaching me my moves. I was already in the pool today teaching my daughter "The Oyster". Maybe I won't be the only synchronized swimmer in our family! I look forward to watching the next Summer Olympics with a great deal of respect for the ladies in the pool.

Pictures above are the pre-swim, pre-swim with nose plug on and the victorious post-swim "thumbs up".

Our sync moves include ... Left Arm, Right Arm, Tub Turn Kick, Oyster, Boost, Ballet Leg, Pose. (I couldn't master the inverted spin move, so we had to leave it out)

The routine is much more difficult than it looks, I had a great teacher.

Thank you Andrea and best of luck to you in New York. Your future employer will be lucky to have you!