Pick-Up Sticks

There's no real way to explain it, other than we just got lucky.

Three of my sisters (1 in Minnesota and 2 in northwest Wisconsin) were without power today. And all three were dealing with the aftermath of last night's wicked storms. We, on the other hand, just got by with a ton of downed branches. Just little branches. All over the backyard, especially.

So while they cleaned up their big messes -- everything from blown-over sheds and barns and trees -- we just had to pick up sticks. (It's not as fun as the old game, that's for sure.)

It was another hot day -- but maybe only 90 and definitely not a heat index of 100 like most places yesterday. After picking up the branches, I tackled a little yardwork that I have neglected the previous 4 weekends (I blame baseball). That weed-pulling business didn't last long when I had sweat dripping in my eyes. Now I know why I've neglected this project! I'll have to wait for it to cool down just slightly to resume it.

Jim worked up a sweat helping the neighbor 3 houses down who lost a big tree in last night's storm. Carter worked up a sweat, too, crushing cans from 2 different "Cans for Carter" campaigns. That took him longer than anticipated so the recycling place was not open by the time they got there. So he'll just have to keep collecting cans. I suspect after the first "cash in" he will realize it's probably not worth the effort monetarily. But we'll see.

This afternoon and evening, we were at the Marshfield Motor Speedway watching our nephew Colin race. He ended up not qualifying for the main event (the special July 4th weekend 100-lapper) so that was a bummer. It's not nearly as fun to go to the races when you have no one to cheer for!

We gave Jim's parents a ride, too. We decided not to stay for the fireworks but did see some sporadic outbursts in the sky on the way home. Glad some people have reasons to celebrate. I hope my family will soon as well.