Hey, hey, Ho, ho--this snow has got to go!!

Continuing with a protest theme we are trapped in by the snow and we are mad as hell. Actually not so much, as it is giving us time to do the normal snow day routine of getting caught up on the domestic duties and make some banana bread. The "domestics" have fallen behind because we headed out last weekend to the Dells, an extended family retreat that has been in hiatus for a year and honestly had a pretty weak return. Mark and Kate were otherwise committed and Bob and Nancy just kept checking the road conditions on I-90 like they had OCD. Bob did find some time to read a little Shel Silverstein to the youngest two, easily entertaining both ends of the age spectrum. The kids had a riot and are not only old enough to not fight with each other all the time, but even old enough to head to the arcade alone, well the oldest ones anyways. Without the biggest kid present, Mark, us other three didn't even stay up too late and Brad was forced to complain Sunday morning about how well he felt from all the extra sleep and lack of a hangover. Becky and I agreed with him and we figure we will have to do it up right next time. Evan moved up the pecking order without Munky Arky present and became the brunt of several jokes including an atomic wedgie when everyone in the condo spent 20 minutes looking for his ipod only to have his mother remind him that it was in his pocket, of the pants he was wearing.

Been a slow week other than that, Sophia is on spring break and all of her weekly activities are postponed and Merrick's skating concluded last week with the acceptance of his level-two badge and a red-plate meal. During Sophia's break from gymnastics she was told that she passed to the next level which is pre-team. so she is head towards competitive gymnastics and loving it. The previous Sunday, the day after we returned from Madison, the whole family headed to the YMCA for a little pool action. The pool pH was too high and after waiting on the deck for about 20 minutes Sophia started to chant and was immediately followed by Merrick, "We want our Pool time, we want our pool time." As they seem to understand that protesting is how it is done, I was happy Sophia didn't cry out "This is an injustice, I will not stand for this, I will be making a sign!" when I asked her to clean her room--although it did appear that she engaged in a work slow down as a job action. The kids at the Dells routinely broke into protest chants with Ollie having a panache for "kill the bill" and Merrick selecting the call and report of "Tell me what Democracy looks like, This is what Democracy looks like"

With 10 inches of fresh snow on the ground and another 4 inches expected by this evening, I suspect we will head out for a little snow boarding, after the shoveling. With the expectation of spring the patio had already become littered with toys. Fortunately I remembered where the jump rope was hidden under the snow so as not to hit it with the snow blower, unfortunately I didn't remember that there was also two hockey sticks, a hula-hoop and the final coup de gras a baseball bat. It is almost April, the snow will melt soon anyways. The official report was 17.8 inches of snow.

Less hiking, More Marching!!!

Friday night was about indoor campouts, popcorn and movies, as the kids drifted off to sleep on the livingroom floor in their sleeping bags, Lisa and I were making plans for a trip to Madison on the next morning. With a snow and rain mixture coming down we packed a knapsack with peanut butter sandwiches, bottles of waters and a ration of girl scout cookies and started the drive south, to help drive home our political message. We waited in orderly lines to take a shuttle bus down to the Capital building. The kids have been helping out with the local protests around town, but it was time for the big show. A show that did not disappoint. Merrick spent most of his time on my back and I packed a section of rope and quickly fashioned a tether to keep Sophia tied to us. I meet up with one friend down there and bumped into two others, but the meet up still took two adults with cell phones 20 minutes to find each other, a kid would have been lost for a long time. The crowd was immense in size and generosity. Estimates around the capital were near 150,000 people and that didn't include the spoke streets leading to the capital circle that were equally filled with humanity. One lady gave Merrick a granola bar and then in the spirit of fairness gave one too Sophia. An hour or so later and another lady kindly handed me a kleenex, because she said Merrick had a runny nose. These throngs were the masses of generosity and kindness that easily parted to allow people to move in and out of the pulsating mass of frustration, with excuse me's and thank yous. I suspect it was the first time any of these people had been considered thugs, they were librarians, nurses and farmers they were firefighters, professors and teachers. We decided we needed to go down for a variety of reasons including to make sure that the kids knew what a jilted democracy looks like and to give them context for a government that is meant to be by the people and for the people. This an experience and a lesson that should give them a very organic sense of other grassroots movements and uprisings that does not come across on the printed page in which it is impossible to capture the bumping, gyrating, noise and foot stomping emotional chants that spring up with little leadership and create a mass of individuals with a single voice. Coincidentally it was also day light savings time in Wisconsin, so we set our clocks back 100 years.