A Wisconsin weekend diary: Life above and below the surface
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| Waaaaaay off in the distance, you can see a few ice shanties and the folks who use them. |
Despite the beer spilling, the spider killing, the power outage, the little fella puking, and the waking up far too early on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, it’s been a pretty relaxing time.
With only an inch of powdery snow resting on the ice, my Reason For Living (RFL) and I walked across the lake Saturday afternoon. We got snowshoes for ourselves as Christmas presents, but conditions haven’t been great for them yet, and they still aren’t.
We got to the lake around 1:30, encouraged to see people on the ice. The early stages of this winter were so cold that only a few folks tried their luck out there, and they didn’t stay long.
But on this day, more than 15 vehicles were out there, most of them at a birthday celebration in the southeast corner of the lake. Music was loud, and we can assume beverages were swilled, but we can also assume fish were harvested.
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| Sunday's lake traffic was a bit under Saturday's. |
Because this is Wisconsin, and when you’re young and able to do so, you head to the ice, drill some holes and spend a 40-degree day with your friends.
Footballs were tossed, snowmobiles were driven, and, from what we could tell, people were on their best behavior.
A few dozen yards away, we stopped to chat for a bit with Dennis, a cottage neighbor down the road, and Rick, adult son of another neighbor, and were lucky enough to see them pull out a couple small perch. Not quite big enough for a fish stick in a grade school cafeteria, but they had a good-sized bluegill from earlier to boost their confidence, I guess.
The small ones went back in the lake.
Dennis offered us beer or a piece of apple pie (the drink, not the baked kind). A couple times.
Because this is Wisconsin, and you come prepared for a long day, and prepared for company.
On the ice.
We politely declined. Both times.
I’d already been outside for a while, blowing snow from the driveway for 20 or 30 minutes. On Jan. 20, it was warm enough to not need a coat, and I didn’t wear one on the lake, either.
Yes, I had two shirts and a sweatshirt, a stocking hat and a great pair of Kinco gloves ($20 at the Oconto Falls True Value hardware store). But ... a coat? Nah.
Because this is Wisconsin, where temperature is just a suggestion. A month ago, it suggested people stay off the lake. Yesterday, it suggested blowing snow in a sweatshirt.
Oh, almost forgot. The rest of the story.
Friday night started in a popular Appleton bistro, where RFL and I shared a couple drinks at the bar. Our bartender inadvertently knocked one (Honey Blonde Ale from Central Waters Brewing Co., if you must know) over, spilling into my lap, soiling the khakis and the sweater.
No biggie. It’ll dry.
The bartender was way more remorseful than anyone I’ve seen in Washington, DC, this weekend. And he paid for the spilled beer and the replacement beer. He got a good tip.
Because this is Wisconsin, where beer spillage is an ongoing part of the human condition.
Oh, the spider killing. Almost forgot.
We stopped in a local sub-sandwich shop before we came to the shack. Upon arrival, we found the teenage girls (just a guess) manning the place freaking the hell out over a “spider” that was apparently holding them hostage, even from the bottom of a pail in the far back corner behind the counter.
RFL said she’d be freaked out, too, and she looked at me. I looked at her, and in that brief-but-intense moment, it was clear that someone ... HAD. TO. TAKE. ACTION.
I volunteered to eliminate the “spider” — I don’t think it was one, but it was a relatively large insect, and it probably hadn’t heard about health regulations and what-not — and armed with ONLY A PAPER TOWEL, eradicated the threat.
I got a free brownie for jumping in, to save mankind.
Because this is Wisconsin, and ... well, free brownies.
This was before the power went out over most of Oconto County, thanks to a transmission line failure (according to Oconto Electric Cooperative). Sadly, power outages are not uncommon in this neck o’ the woods, but usually, the cause is weather-related.
So, for an hour, there wasn’t much to do inside the shack. No TV, no internet, no radio, no way to charge devices, no way to use a kitchen device, no lights in the lower level or anywhere else.
Perfect napping conditions. For some of us (cough, cough, RFL), “perfect napping conditions” means “a day ending in ‘y’” and “an hour with 60 minutes.”
A lack of other external stimuli only improves napping potential. Which it did.
Because this is Wisconsin, and we can make the best of almost any life-altering situation.
Oh, the little fella. Almost forgot.
I wasn’t there for this, but RFL was. Youngest grandson John, 5, hurled on himself earlier Saturday morning, after trying to play basketball at the Y.
The “stomach bug,” or whatever it is, has been “going around lately,” you know. And it hit John pretty hard.
Poor kid. Hope he doesn’t pass that “bug” to his brothers or his parents, or his grandma, or me, or anyone else.
Oh, waking up early. Almost forgot.
Yeah, around 4 a.m. for the past three days. Yuck. Then an attempt to get another hour of sleep, which has been not totally successful.
So it goes.
Which had me up well before 6 a.m. today, coffee perked, toast buttered, cereal milked, keyboard in lap.
Because this is Wisconsin, and I’m looking at a lake dotted with ice shanties, knowing that there’s life below that cold surface.
And a lot of it above.