March 16, 2011

Some perspective on Madison...

DSC00748

... from the Capitol City bike trail, which we rode today for the first time since last fall. The temperature was in the 50s, and by the time we got to this point, it was nice to feel the cool breeze that came across the ice on Lake Monona.

38 comments:

Meade said...

In case anyone wonders: That's the Wisconsin State Capitol building way, way, way off in the distance.

chickelit said...

The trail ahead still veers right I see.

Good.

vbspurs said...

I'm just getting up after being out most of Tuesday. I saw Ann live on Fox News before I went out, and am happy to see the thread with Megyn Kelly garnered over 200 replies. I hate when something important happens, and I can't live comment immediately.

Issob Morocco said...

Is that spring I see creeping in from the left?

Unknown said...

So nice to see the weather is good up your way (mostly because we get it a day or two later). Glad you two had a chance to get out and have some fun.

I'm sure the last month has been exhilarating for you, but also claustrophobic in its own way.

The Blonde has to go up to Cleveland today and has been dreading it (she gets terrible headaches in rainy or overcast weather). Now it's going to be a bit better.

PS Know what you mean, vb. Agree with your last comment about Ann in the thread with the video. I think she was a tad nervous at first, but she got her sea legs and ended up well.

Joaquin said...

Is that lake still frozen? BRRRRRR!I have a tee-time at 9:30 this morning, which is why I love living in the Tarheel state.

vbspurs said...

It's only to be imagined, Edu, how any of us would've reacted on being interviewed on national TV. Shaking like a wet chihuahua, comes to mind.

Cheers,
Victoria

KCFleming said...

My favorite part of just-spring is stepping on the tiny ice overhangs on the sidewalk edges, made by melting and refreezing.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.
In some ways I'm still 8 years old.

KCFleming said...

I was fixing part of a ceiling by the front door this week, and when I pulled off some broken plaster and cut away a piece of lath, a walnut and some dried leaves fell out.

Squirrel!
(And not in the subject-changing way. Actually, maybe so.)

Ack.

Shanna said...

Hard to believe you've still got that much ice on the lake!!

I was mad it was only in the 60's at lunch yesterday. brrrr...

AllenS said...

Spring --

A time of the year where I have to take a walk down the driveway with my hoe, and cut some channels through the tire groves in the mud so the melting snow will drain off.

I have to do this every time someone, including me, uses the driveway.

vbspurs said...

Is it too early to toast Althouse commenters with a pint of Guiness?

Happy St. Paddy's, peeps. :)

KCFleming said...

Top o' th' mornin' and a tip o' the pint to you, too, Victoria.

May you live to be a hundred years
With one extra year to repent.

AllenS said...

Wow, St. Pat's Day! Is anyone going to wait until noon to start drinking?

Shanna said...

Slainte!

Is it too early to toast Althouse commenters with a pint of Guiness?

Only if you have to work.

KCFleming said...

Pionta Guinness, le do thoil!

Drew said...

The trail ahead still veers right I see.

Good.


chickelit wins the thread.

MadisonMan said...

In the early Fall, I always like riding past there because it's warmer because of the Lake.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Yesterday I noticed a male American Goldfinch undergoing his spring molt. First of the season.

Winter is over!

KCFleming said...

Last time I underwent spring molt, the neighbors called the cops.

MadisonMan said...

chickelit, curiously, when you leave the Capitol, the trail veers left.

Paddy O said...

"Is anyone going to wait until noon to start drinking?"

I'm proud of waiting until sunrise.

Coffee has a little extra cheer on a such a day as this.

Unknown said...

vbspurs said...

Is it too early to toast Althouse commenters with a pint of Guiness?

Happy St. Paddy's, peeps. :)


As probably one of the few Micks whose pedigree goes back to the original flood of Irish (mother's side), I can safely say any time after midnight isn't too early.

And, yes, by all means, Happy St Pat's.

PS The first St Patrick's Day parade was held in this country in 1762 and, in 1776, General Washington ordered a gill of Irish whiskey for every Irish soldier in his command.

Paddy O said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

(how much exactly is a gill?)

Toad Trend said...

@AllenS

"Wow, St. Pat's Day! Is anyone going to wait until noon to start drinking?"

Heck no. Just cracked my first Guiness. Top 'o the mornin' to ya.

Corre∫pondence Committee said...

Kapanke target of threats, vandalism

Sen. Dan Kapanke has canceled upcoming district meetings after being the target of threats and vandalism. Rose Smyrski, Kapanke's chief of staff, said the senator's car window was smashed in Madison, and his wife found nails scattered in the driveway of their French Island home.

He also received death threats.

Meade said...

Yeah - the threats and attempted intimidation seem to be going around like the flu.

Merny11 said...

Holy shitska - I just read that horrible tirade you linked too. I thought these people were nuts. Now i see they are not only nuts, they are evil. Wow. That venomous, hate letter has left me speechless.

Issob Morocco said...

Ann, Meade,

The screed on scribd, is most shocking. "...Tory Brotherhood...", makes me shudder. I fear you shall do time in the stocks on the common for your actions.

Issob Morocco said...

I do like the "...iron stones..." comment though.

You are always welcome to come down to Illinois to eat and drink. Trip advisor has great comments from the Phantom 14 Dimmycratic WI senators as to the best dining and watering holes in Northern Illinois.

Carol_Herman said...

Oh, my gosh! What a beautiful picture!

William said...

@Meade, oh my…

I saw this earlier and was going to post something whimsical about how much I love Madison (I do) and how that lovely photo captures the beauty of my city. I thought about the photo in a metaphorical sense too… how as winter turns to spring so too shall the unrest turn to healing.

Like former New Orleans Mayor Nagin said in the wake of Katrina that the city needs some jazz wafting in the air, so too I have hopes that the Madison groove would waft again in the air.

After reading that screed, I wonder when, if ever, that will be possible.

Where does all the overheated, hyperbolic, and violent strewn rhetoric comes from? No one died. No one was physically hurt. No one lost their jobs. The only thing that happened was that one set of hope turned to change.

I am angered by the violence done to our Constitution, culture, and economy by the 80 years of dominance by progressives (or more accurately, regressives). Conservatives and libertarians worked for change politically, not by threat and intimidation.

Hopefully the sentiments reflected in that screed and the public tantrums over the last month are the healing in process – an exorcism of sorts.

To screeder… I am Madison too.

Toad Trend said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Toad Trend said...

@Meade

Is that some kind of sick joke?

That's a WTF if I've ever seen one...

chickelit said...

MadisonMan said...
chickelit, curiously, when you leave the Capitol, the trail veers left.

B.S. That's only if you're going counter clockwise around Lake Monona. The counter culture, counter clockwise days in Madison are numbered and I say good riddance.

You sound as if Madison were somehow intrisically leftwing. That's B.S. too, as any review of history would show.

AllenS said...

A little Irish humor for today --

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, 'Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!'

Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Paddy looked up again and said, 'Never mind, I found one.'

MadisonMan said...

B.S. That's only if you're going counter clockwise around Lake Monona.

If you're going to the Cap City trail, going through Monona is kinda the long way to get there.

Especially if they're still doing construction on Monona Drive.

chickelit said...

If you're going to the Cap City trail, going through Monona is kinda the long way to get there.

25 years ago I used to ride around Monona (clockwise) and there was already quite a bit of trail all the way around. I just assumed that a complete circle had been completed. I always avoided rides which retraced paths in opposite directions. That's just me I guess.