It was rather warm today but kind of damp and misty. Chelsea and I were able to have a very nice walk this morning.

I went to the meeting at the Senior Center in Plymouth. I think we all know that once the deal is set, the State of Wisconsin and the Railroad Consortium will outvote and outweigh any input or reasoning that we give, but still believe that if a person DOESN'T give input and/or show up you have noone but yourself to blame. There was a nice crowd and not just from the Tall Grass condos and we have been doing most of the noisemaking.

Senator Leibham, the mayor, representatives from the railroad, Reprsentative Kestell and several alderman were there. They all told their takes on the deal but did not convince anyone that this is a good thing. The initial story is that there will be maybe two or three runs a week of maybe 10 cars going through the right of way at about 10 miles per hour. By the time they had finished the number had jumped to possibly 6 DAYS of runs going up to 40 miles an hour. This is past a park which runs in front of a school. Street traffic is limited to 25 MPH and 15MPH when children are present. I knew that railroads have a lot of power (still) but was a bit shocked by the fact that local laws mean nothing. It is noted that the entire 11 miles of track will have to be removed and redone. There are several intersections that have been paved over and will need signaling. The most significant is where the track will have to go over Hwy 57. The most significant to US is the one just outside of our Tallgrass Lane between us and Plymouth.

Phil Kalkthaler, an attorney and old friend who lives down the street, is concerned because he is just a street width from the track. If there is a derailment he could end up with a car in his bedroom. We are almost as close but DO have trees that would slow things down a bit. However, there was no satisfactory answer as to safety issues or what would be done to protect the homes along the route as far as noise and vibration etc. It was much what I expected. I sat with our neighbors, Harold and Dick.

This morning was a happy time though. When I took Chelsea out for a second chance to relieve herself, I finally heard and saw a red winged blackbird and he was singing his little heart out. Hope he comes EVERY day.

Jim and Michelle came for an hour or so and did some of the repairs on the computer. Dick now has Windows and I have been changed to Thunderbird from The Bat. However, I cannot SEND anything from Thunderbird so am still using Bat, Thunderbird and Google kind of where it works.

Oh. Well. Nobody said life would be easy.

Tomorrow, I have only to go to church. The rest of the day I can stay home.

I made the corned beef and cabbage for supper. Also some parsnip cakes. It was really good and Dick even ate a decent supper.

DOG DIARY

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!



Til tomorrow.

Love you

Mary