Tuesday July 20th, 2010
Greetings and welcome!
I have been having trouble making my deadline lately, so today I am starting the day with my update before anything else. I try to post Tuesday and Thursday at 1pm. Lately I have been as much as a day and a half late, and that is not acceptable.
This coming weekend is arguably the biggest event weekend of the summer around here. It is Hog Wrestling weekend at the Caldron Falls Bar. Hog wrestling weekend is always big. This is nothing but a wild guess, but I’d guess at about 5,000-8,000 people that come to see the spectacle annually.
The premise is simple. Start with a pig in a ring full of mud, and add people that try to catch it and set it on a barrel in less time than the other teams. The hogs are clearly at the advantage with the mud and all, and it ends up pretty wild.
The event is huge, with live music, vendors, food & drink, and tons and tons of people. It is a really wild time and really fun, but is not family rated.
Along with the masses of people this weekend there is always a very significant law enforcement presence to keep the order. It is not just arond high Falls Flowage, but the whole area.
As always I am going to urge you to use designated drivers, shuttle buses, or to stay put once you start with the happy hour. If you are driving within 30 miles of the place and have even a minor infraction you will probably get pulled over. Use some common sense while having a good time and it isn’t a problem. It is always a very fun weekend with all of the people around, but don’t go getting an OWI about it.
Beyond the Hog Wrestling we have the Doty Firefighter’s Picnic Saturday 7-24 Doty Town Hall ( T & Star Lake Rd 1 mile north of 64). If my memory serves me it is just north of 64 and just west of 32.
The hot topic recently has been the rain. We are a good bit above normal for the last 6 weeks. In July alone Rhinelander saw a little over 4″ (4.11″), about double normal. Crivitz came in a little higher at 4.84″.
Green Bay since June 1 has tallied 12.76″, 7.34″ above normal. I am going to guess that we are a little ahead of that, I recall June bringing us over 9″ of rain according to the NWS. The TV just showed Rhinelander with 15.5″ of precip since January 1, and Green Bay with, get this, 21+ inches.
We needed it, it was a D-3 heading into D-4 drought, and it was a 6 year spell. Swamps that never got dry were sedge meadows. I have willows growing where the pond used to be 3-4′ deep. Personally I don’t think that we are all of the way back yet, though 12 or 14″ of rain in 6 weeks is a fine start.
Looking ahead, I am seeing flashbacks of the Silver Cliff Split.. That is where it rains everywhere but here and Forest County. Yesterday’s rain pounded north, south, east and formed right over us, sparing us and Forest Co the heavy rains that other nearby areas saw. We did get some, just not the inch or two that came with some of the bigger cells.
Looking at the NAM and GFS there will be rain in the area this week, but a lot of it somewhere else. As the various waves come, they have it shown north or south, around us, but not here. I am not sure if the models learned from the last 6 years and it’s a habit, if the Silver Cliff Split is back, maybe I’m just paranoid about it returning, or (D) All of the above…
Anyway there is rain possible almost daily this week, except Wednesday night, which might be partly cloudy. The weekend looks great with partly cloudy skies and highs around 80 and maybe just a touch above.
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Something that has come up lately is the area code thing. They are running out of 715 phone numbers so they are doing an area code overlay. Now when you dial for example, Rapids Resort, you need to dial 715-757-3358, and with a 1 first only if you are out of the area code.
Here is the interesting part… Those unfortunate enough to still be on dial-up will need to change their access number so that it dials the 715 number first. We have had a few calls about that from our computer service customers.
I received my wide angle 18-55mm camera lens this week, and usually there is a tradition of breaking them in on a sunset or wildlife tour. We might have a slow loading page in a few days with some new pictures.
–OT__
E-cigs.. I have been pretty excited about my e-cigs the past few weeks. The number one reason? They have my smoking in half and declining fast. This isn’t about going through the hell of quitting for the 100th time, it is about looking up and going wow, I haven’t had a cig in 4 hours. That doesn’t happen! Yes, now it does.
The cigarettes are killin me slow, and to get off of ’em I’d give a toe up. This is the only thing that works so far. It is better, cheaper, and healthier, so I’m pretty excited about ’em. I even bought a treadmill and use it regularly.
Go read the comments on the petition here or here. If that is not compelling, check the obits for your name.
So I got this wild hair that since I spent a lot of time and money researching what works the best, and that they save lives, I am going to make these e-cigs and the juice for them available up here. I am still sorting through just how that is going to happen.
In the meantime be aware that I can get them. As far as juice, I have 9 flavors in stock and when my flavorings come later this week, there will be something like another 15 in development. At some point I plan on a tasting where people can check them out. I switch between two, and today’s flavors are apple pie with a touch of caramel, and orange cream. It sure beats Winston.
This is way way off topic, and I have a lot to share, so I am going to set up a different page for it. Look for it where the Ubuntu Linux page was.
Well, I had better scamper on. I skipped cutting grass last week and now it is halfway to my knees. The raspberries are starting to come in, and I’d like to see what is up with those too. If I work real hard today I can do that and a sunset too. First the work, or it will never get done.
Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!
RJB