A Mile of Smiles and Sirens

3000 miles and several hundred armfuls of stuff later, I am born again as a Wisconsinite. It’s a little disturbing that I came down with a little cold my first day here, but hopefully that’s just a coincidence and not an ominous sign of things to come. I moved just in time to experience most of fall and all of winter. The good part of that is the colorful turning of the leaves, which was a dour two-day brown-filled event when I lived in Texas. The bad part of that so far is the waking up and having to put on a sweatshirt. I’m sure there are other bad parts to come.

Thiensville, the so-called “mile of service and smiles” (formerly just smiles, but then I guess they decided they wanted people to stop at their businesses and not just drive on to Cedarburg, where the quaint shops are more famous) is where I’m living initially. There are pluses to this as well — it’s beautiful, there’s a path nearby that goes all the way to Sheboygan, and there’s a siren every day that let’s you know it’s noon. Also, the people are very nice here. This is as opposed to Milwaukee proper, which, well, can have smiling issues sometimes. It’s still 100 times better than Dallas, though.

I’m enjoying ESPN360 for the first time in a long time, which is awesome. I forgot how fun it was to not have Time Warner “we don’t make deals with anybody” cable. The house I’m staying at doesn’t have cable, and yet I’m still watching Wisconsin and Minnesota fight to a draw in their battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe. It’s the longest-running major college football rivalry, did you know that? And somehow Minnesota and Wisconsin usually end up playing the same weekend the Packers and Vikings lock horns, so it’s like this big two-day interstate fight. Today is the day we find out if Wisconsin is for real or for fake. I’m guessing fake, but sometimes I can be needlessly negative.

Anyway, I’m here. Hit me up. Of if you’re in Thiensville, just go from house to house, because there’s not that many of them and I’m probably in one. Everyone’s smiling, so it won’t be that bad. Well, except for the people at the Wisconsin Synod Seminary down the street. They’re presumably frowning.