My mind inevitably goes blank when someone asks me what I did yesterday (or over the weekend, or on Tuesday — wait, isn’t today Tuesday?!). Lately, though, that response has been close to the truth of what I’ve been doing: nothing. At least, nothing that strikes me as worth talking about.
For reasons I won’t go into, I don’t have my own Internet connection. This is usually not a problem, but it has created some awkward situations during this time of a cautious reopening of public spaces. Such was the case the other day when I was invited to attend a short webinar.
After workshopping the tour last fall, the Taliesin Preservation debuted it’s Driftless Landscape Tour June 12 with an hour long tour of the landscape and agricultural areas of the Taliesin estate.
I just made a short visit to a place three degrees of latitude farther north. That’s not much for seasoned travelers, but it served to remind me that my home is only halfway to the equator. The farther north you go, the more the spring is compressed into a few fleeting days. (We had our share of frosty weather last month, but at least we don’t have a Great Lake messing with our temperature.)
I had a busy April, but most of that was one-on-one activities with friends (or events with a defined endpoint where I couldn’t linger). Recently, though, I had the pleasure of going to a real live Event. It came complete with kids running across the lawn, adults from outside my “bubble”, delightful vintage items for sale, and lunch served by a local business. It was my new community in miniature, and the energy was infectious.
It feels like I just made the switch to a 2021 calendar, and suddenly I’m turning the page from April to May.
“Fearsome” isn’t a word that people would use to describe me. But it fit the other day when a squirrel, attempting to perch outside my window, became paralyzed with fear by a glimpse of my giant’s face. Not long after, a mourning dove suffered a similar fate. Although I live on the second floor and at the same level as these denizens, I doubt they’ll ever accept me into their community.
When I moved here from Sauk City, I left behind a small volunteer project. A few months into last year’s lockdown, I decided to become the unofficial steward of a Little Free Library two blocks from my apartment.
The riverwalk in Sauk City became crowded earlier this month when the temperature soared, relatively speaking, into the 50s. Although I prefer to walk alone, I found I couldn’t blame my fellow hikers and cyclists. For those of us who didn’t book a spring break trip, these sunny days were a welcome reprieve from the gray depths of winter.
This week marks one year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic. This edition of Valley Sentinel is dedicated to reflecting on the events of the past year. The edition includes stories on the effects of the virus, a look at the milestones we as a nation, state and tri-county area have marked and up-to-date information on COVID-19 cases, deaths and vaccinations. Below are submitted experiences from members of the community and Valley Sentinel readers.