Final countdown

I'm in the final countdown before my trip to that neopagan camp this week. Right now, I'm in the process of rounding up the stuff I will need and finding the stuff I have already. (Where are you hiding, head-mounted LED light?)

I invested in a larger cooler, capable of carrying taller Propel bottles. It's even big enough to carry frozen pizzas--they don't carry the kind we like in town, so it will come in handy during out of town shopping trips.

I also invested--that's the word I use--in a new brimmed hat I saw at Kohl's. It's a nice hat, that sells for $25. But it's the end of the season, so the price was cut to $12.50. Then, my wife had a Kohl's coupon worth $10 that expires on July 4th. It was in the car. It isn't any longer. A $25 hat for $2.50. Not too bad. And I gave them a little more room for back-to-school stuff, so everybody wins.

The temperatures in that area are supposed to be in the upper 70s/low 80s, and that's mild for the Fourth of July week in southwestern Wisconsin. They say a slight chance of rain Wednesday and nice the rest of the week. I leave on Wednesday morning and return home Sunday night, so that's four nights on the road.

My friend S can't go, but she suggested that I visit her on the way over there. So I will. It's a few miles out of the way, but not too much--instead of going west, then south, I'll go south, then west.

It will be our first visit without our spouses since Ontario in December 2005. Her husband will be at work, my wife will be back home, so it will be just me, her ... and two grandchildren. Except now she tells me the 8-year-old will be elsewhere that day, leaving just the 7-week baby.

So what's going to happen? Time will tell. Maybe we'll go to lunch. Maybe we'll have a nice long talk. Maybe we will amuse ourselves some other way. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on "nice long talk." In any case, I want to be back on the road by about 1 p.m.--it's about another 3 1/2 hours to the camp.

On Saturday, I was in Marquette for a U.P. all-star high school football game. David came along and invested in a new printer for himself. Not much to report. Our end of the U.P. won 38-14.

That's all for this time. I will be working on some photos from the Milwaukee trip later tonight and plan to post them before I go. Right now, though, I'm going downstairs to watch something with my wife. Don't know what. We'll find something we like.

Meanwhile, if you see a head-mounted LED light somewhere, let me know.