ANOTHER DAY - ANOTHER TEST

Here I am in the sixth month of my forced vacation and a week after a family get-together in the north woods of Wisconsin and I receive a notice from the City of Madison. This city has been a constant prospective employer for me. I believe I've applied for no less than six positions there. I've applied this time out of my chosen historic field - engineering - as a Parking Enforcement Officer. That's right, I meter maid, so what are ya gonna make of it? Anyway, the notice was for a scheduled test to which I was commanded to take without any chance of a reschedule. Oh, by the way, there are 351 applicants for three (3) positions!

I was able to talk to an acquaintance who holds a position of this type already as to what to expect from the test. He said it was a lot of double and triple ways of asking the same questions. I found he was correct, luckily.

The test was one one of the easiest I've ever taken. It began with a photocopied yellow pages map of the downtown area and over twenty questions mostly as to routes to be taken from one destination to another. I don't see why that was so difficult. The hardest part was locating the specific streets from the list and the coordinates from the map. Remember, I do have a college degree in geography. I wasn't sure as to what the intent was, to find the quickest or the safest or the most cost effective route. I chose what I perceived as the quickest. It moved on to a huge section if situational ethics. Then came sections on observation and proof reading and reading comprehension. This section was really stupid because the answers were in the document and could be referred to at will with a quick scan.

The entire test took me seventy-five minutes and I took my time. This is the third civil service exam I've taken and the second in Madison. I'll probably get a 75% and be listed #300 after all this bragging. We'll see in two weeks.

SUMMER VACATION - 2010

We've just returned from a terrific summer family vacation in the north woods of Wisconsin, specifically Mercer. I highly recommend the area if you're interested in that type of vacation. We owe it all to my lovely partner, Sherri, who diligently planned the entire operation beginning in fall of last year. She did the internet searches. She kept all the participants in the loop. She saved our money, even with my layoff, to pay for the largest chunk. She planned the dates, even as to who should sleep where (just to keep the peace). Even with all this planning, the vacation was a relaxing dream, especially for those who actually need a vacation.

Our home for a week On Martha Lake

Our pier looking NNW to Martha Lake

We all got to do things we wanted with or without others:

A solitary canoe ride

Lake of the Clouds in Michigan with two of my favorite girls

Most of the days ended just like this:

(No caption needed)

The group varied from our three-year-old granddaughter to a ten-year-old boy, the son of the lady friend of my brother-in-law in attendance to his seventeen-year-old hunting and fishing daughter to the city slickers of my younger daughter and her husband to the professor and...my older daughter (parents of granddaughter) to my eighty-one-year-old mother-in-law (wow, there were a lot of hyphens in that phrase). Yet all were surprisingly easily entertained (the Wii helped) and able to relax (adult beverages helped) and go with the flow - or lack thereof. We even sat around roaring fires and s'mores at dusk and even managed a few songs on the last night!

Thanks again, Sherri, for another splendid family vacation.

IT'S CAPPED - FOR NOW

As of 3:25pm EDT* the oil leak 5,000 feet below the water surface of the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana's coast has ceased. At least for now, according to the experts of BP. That's right, I, and even some in the MSM (Mainstream Media), give the credit to he evildoers, British Petroleum, and NOT the BHO regime. Daddy did NOT plug the leak today. BP did! After all it was under BP's watch that the leak-causing explosion took place in the first place. We must wait and see as more needs to be done to permanently stop the oil flowing, but this is a cautiously optimistic occurrence. I'm ecstatic that I don't have to thank the President for saving us!

* per The Associated Press - Photo per Drudge Report

CENSUS VISIT

Today, during sweltering heat (before the cool front breezed through), a stimulus job worker (Census Bureau temp) came to the door. She had a form showing my address, but the remainder blank and stated that the Bureau had not received anything from out household (see earlier post regarding the Census). She asked if anyone - or we - lived here on April 15. I failed to ask her why that particular date was the one the Bureau used for the form, but I digress.

She gave me some schtick about her not being able to legitimize the form unless I answered the questions. I told her there were three people living in the home and that's all the Bureau needed. She said she understood, but needed more info. I reluctantly gave her my name and phone number and expected a call from a supervisor. She spent a little too much time on my porch and left dejected. I remained indignant to the end that the only information the bureau needed was the amount of people at the residence. I asked her if she had enough information, but she actually said "no" and showed me the uncompleted five-page form. During this entire tete-a-tete she said "that is your prerogative as a citizen, but I'm here to get the information". I politely refused to complete the form and told her that I would fill out the entire form when the President brought it to me.

AN UNEMPLOYED DAY

What does one do when one is unemployed and his wife has a weekday off? Take a bike ride on a recreation trail. Military Ridge State Recreation Trail is a 30+ mile (48.3 km - this is important later) trail in south central Wisconsin from southeast of Madison to the west - Verona to Dodgeville. It follows a former railroad bed as do most recreation trails in this state, so the grade is very manageable and the scenery varied from bucolic to urban.

Anyway, this particular trip began with a pause as just as I prepared to load the bike rack and its occupants onto the 12-year-old Ford Wagon, a cloudburst erupted. I was not about to get soaked for the sake of loading bikes. So we waited. After attaching the rack and bikes, I removed the seats (to prevent our seats from getting wet, just in case) and we left for Verona. We are map people, especially with me being a geography major, so we headed for the nearest trail head to help save money on the gas. No GPS for us!



We arrived in due course without difficulty and proceeded with a picnic lunch
under a threatening sky and on top of a picnic table to attempt to fool the bugs. This actually worked! We proceeded on the dampened gravel trail westward hoping to avoid being rained on. There isn't much more unpleasant than riding a bike in rain-soaked clothing. We were going to be wet enough from the inside with the humidity as high as it was this day.


As we progressed down the trail we experienced thunder, dark thick clouds and even a brief shower where we shielded ourselves under the canopy of trees covering stretches of the trail. While we avoided getting soaked, the trail itself, of course, did not as evidenced by this photo:




We dried and we were able to eventually brush off a good portion of the mud. And as we continued to our goal destination of Blue Mounds, the skies cleared, at least in this general area and the trail was drier as well. The humidity was still high, but the temperature dropped slightly and a breeze was evident, so the ride was far more pleasant. As we proceeded, the trail was marked every mile - we began at mile three - and my riding and life partner kept track on her odometer, though it is stuck on kilometers, so we are able to do some quick mental math by rounding. It turns out that one mile equals 1.609 kilometers, so we use 1.5 for easier mental conversion.

We arrived in Blue mounds, mile twenty-one (about 30 km) and took a rest. Here at a city park we observed some guys playing horseshoes and I thought that I should start an unemployed guys' horseshoe tournament in Watertown. Sherri told me that that might be too restrictive and that I would most likely have to include working men who worked other shifts. I shrugged, but agreed. We began our return trek to Verona's east side.

We stopped in Mt. Horeb to buy snacks and planned to buy a second soda where we bought one from the same machine at the same park shelter no more than two hours previously. It was at the very park where Sherri took what was almost a shower in what she calls a wonderful restroom. The park facilities hard marvelous accoutrements and we recommend them should you ever take this same trail. This is in Waltz Park on Mt. Horeb's east end. Anyway, as we arrived to Waltz Park, I inserted my dollar bill and the machine took it, but did not allow me to retrieve my Diet Dr. Pepper as it had before. Being tired and sweaty, I was slightly perturbed, but we ate most of our salty treats anyway. We continued to Verona without incident, but with several rests as 34.5 km is about our limit.

All-in-all it was a good day and another bicycling tail to tell, but, boy are my legs sore (as well as my posterior).