Takin' the Blog for a Walk

The Brewers won, Irishfest was fun and Oliver Stone got er done.

Was one of 30,000, which included three busloads from my church, who saw the Brew Crew win in the bottom of the ninth after five scoreless innings. Too bad I didn't recognize any of the players.

Saw World Trade Center movie Saturday at Westown. Director Oliver Stone took great pains to make sure his 9/11 movie was as accurate and realistic as possible but apparently didn't care enough to edit out the boom microphones visible at the top of the screen in several scenes. It's another emotional Sept. 11th film done fairly well but I didn't hear the sniffling like I did at the end of Flight 93.

The only admission fee to Irishfest Sunday was a few outdated cans of soup for Second Harvest. The Catholic Mass was great, as usual, and since Archbishop Dolan just returned from 10 days in Ireland he had some great stories to tell.

A favorite story involved finding mass rocks in the countryside. When Catholicism was outlawed under British rule, priests would say mass on hills using rocks for the altar and the hill for a lookout. The hymn "Faith of our Fathers" is related to the chances the priests took. Even though there was a huge bounty on the priests' heads, the faithful wouldn't turn them in. "In spite of dungeon, fire and sword... we will be true to thee till death."

I don't know how many people the Marcus Amphitheater holds, but there had to have been more than 5,000 there for the beautiful service on a beautiful day.

Stayed at Irishfest long enough to hear a little of the music and watch the superb Trinity II Irish Dancers. And couldn't leave without witnessing one tug-of-war contest.

If you were up and had your radio tuned to WHAD this morning at 6:30 you would have heard me talking about my July 25th blog entry, The list of things I must do before I die just got shorter. It's one I'm especially proud of. The host, Joy Cardin, just skydove so today's topic was about doing things you've always wanted to do or doing rather dangerous things.

If you'd like to hear the program I've included it here. It is program 8/17a. I spoke just before the news at the midway point starting at 18-1/2 min..

A gentleman from Fair Wisconsin stopped to talk and hand me a flier yesterday while I sat enjoying the paper outdoors. His visit reminded me that I still hadn't handed out any of the Brad Schimel for District Attorney fliers which I'd promised I would.

I began campaigning for Brad on McCall Street just south of the Post Office and was extremely impressed with the historic homes, wonderful gardens and friendly neighbors. Ness Flores, now a reserve judge, even invited me in to see his beautifully restored historic home. At 3:00 I was told by a fellow voter that she was heading out to hear the governor talk at Sprizzo's.

I was really enjoying what I was doing, got a good start after putting off the fliers for weeks and still had a stack of them left, but I'd never met the governor and he was just a short bike ride away. I finished McCall Street and left for Sprizzo's figuring I probably missed him. However, he was just making his way to the front of the cafe where I was, he gave me a warm handshake then gave his speech about 10 feet away.

Governor Doyle talked about his dedication of a new segment of the Hank Aaron State Trail earlier in the day, meeting Aaron and land stewardship. He talked about someday maybe a bike trail will stretch from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi and he talked about stem cells. He spoke of Wisconsin's lead in stem cell technology and how the research could've helped his own mother. The governor talked about a lot more things but I did not hear him say one word about Waukesha's water situation.

Between Meeting Governor Doyle, the Waukesha Engine 100th Anniversary open house, the car show at Frame Park and the Waukesha County workers' picnic at Naga-Waukee Park, I managed, along with my son, to travel between Hartford five times this weekend, a 60 mile round trip.

The 8th Annual Hartford Balloon Rally was this weekend at the airport and we had a really good time.

Hartford is a straight shot up Hwy. 83 so the drive was no problem but we were not at all familiar with the City of Hartford. We had a great Friday fish fry and Sunday brunch at Wisconsin's largest restaurant, The Mineshaft. We experienced Gallery Night on a barricaded Main Street where food, music and art were served. We saw the air show and fireworks at the airport sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and we chased our balloon across the countryside several times.

I was impressed enough by Hartford, a city of 12,700, that I could easily be talked into going back.

Ballooning, like handing out fliers, is a great way to visit unfamiliar areas and make them familiar. Between Friday night and Sunday my son and I probably spent 20 hours hanging out with each other. We didn't just go somewhere but we did something together.

Two months ago I answered an ad for "ballooning crew wanted." This was our third weekend crewing and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

I've known and heard about Tim, the 17 year old son of a fellow co-worker, for as long as I've known his dad. Tim, only a year older than one of my sons, impresses me with his energy. He's always winning in swiming, baseball or cross country. He loves baseball so much that he got a vendor job at Miller Park when he was 16. I could go on.

Two months ago Tim saw a doctor for a bad sore throat. He was diagnosed with leukemia. Tim is still managing to stay somewhat active but will have to endure treatment for the next two years. He can no longer play on a team or work at Miller Park.

When I was visiting someone in the hospital two weeks ago they wanted me to clean up some blood. "Just be sure to wash your hands," they said. I had to give that little action some thought; if I touch anyone's blood I'd be inelegible to donate blood for one year. (It's happened to me before, just two years ago.) Hospitals have gloves, what's the rush?

Tim and patients like him need platelets to help clot blood and whole blood when the cell count gets too low. Tomorrow, Monday the 14th, I'll be donating at my church's regular blood drive. I've given six gallons so far and I've always been fortunate that my body's made more.

Help Tim and others with leukemia fight to live by considering a donation. Thanks.

----------------------------addendum 8/14, a note from Tim's mom;--------------------------------------------------

Hi Brien,

Thanks for reminding everyone how important giving
blood and platelets is to our communities. As you
know, Tim has had 7 units of blood and three units of
platelets in only two months. Without it, his fight
against the leukemia would be almost impossible.
Thanks again,

Valerie

I don't know where we'd be without friends but I'd bet it wouldn't be pretty.

Today is Friendship Day but you wouldn't know it by the Friendship tree sellers or the back to Friendship Day ads. You haven't been bombarded by Friendship carols since Memorial Day and Friendship candy hasn't clogged the store aisles. As a matter of fact, the last time I looked, the people that probably came up with the "holiday?", Hallmark, didn't even have any Friendship Day cards on display.

Friendship deserves celebration but it's good that it's not overblown. Overdone tends to lose it's flavor.

Friendship is forever, or at least it should be.
So tell a friend you care, and forget the Friendship tree.

Looking inside my van Friday, I noticed it's just the way I left it when I stopped delivering the Journal Sentinels, including the "Bulldogs", 8 weeks ago. Paper delivery had been part of my life the past 20 years and the van's a reminder of the good and bad times. I remember my friends, quiet nights, deadlines, weightlifting hundreds of bundles of Sundays', and getting paid - something lacking the last two months.

I must admit to not putting up a very big fight when I was asked to sub the weekend New Berlin haul this last weekend, even though our Westowne block party was Saturday. I really needed the cash.

It was good to see familiar faces and places, but there's been major changes since I left too. Probably the biggest change is the New Berlin/Brookfield station is now crowded into the Waukesha Distribution Center on Dolphin Drive. Wooden nooks for each carrier's papers now fill most of the available warehouse space, making cart movement very challenging. Another major change is, in addition to the five publications carriers handle besides the Journal Sentinel, they now distribute the Chicago Tribune.

Don't think of the Journal Sentinel delivery of the Chicago Tribune as a conflict of interest or monopoly, think of it as a wise business decision. The Journal Sentinel now has an additional pool of quality workers to choose from since the Tribune haulers lost their jobs.

I spent last night in Waukesha Memorial Hospital but thanks to HIPA can't tell you why. I can say that I'm fine and the person I was visiting is also fine. It was a busy night there Wednesday night. Heat related? The hospital had only 75 fans to hand out and ran out so I went home for one of mine at midnight. They're taking good care of us there and everything should be back to normal in a couple days.

I see that Gethsemane United Methodist Church of Pewaukee was holding an "Undee Sunday" clothing drive. Finally, someone willing to take your "holey" underwear!

Speaking of church, my church got pretty drenched in last Thursday's downpour. The basement had 18" of water, soaking the six boilers. The newly cleaned carpets in the hall and office also got wet. Of course the pastor was out of town when it happened and didn't hear about it right away. Instead of all hell breaking loose when the pastor's gone, "all heaven broke loose."