Surreal
Seems like summer's almost gone now.
The students returned to Madison last week and treated the city to a very special kind of pademonium. Apparently everybody's leases end on August 14th and none of the new leases start until the 15th. As a result there are a couple of days where it's possible to decorate one's house/apartment/cardboard box by simply driving down the street and picking up the best of the discarded furniture (nestled among piles of various trash, rubbish, and junk piled on the curbs about knee deep). Every U-Haul, Ryder truck, and pickup in 20 miles must have been rented months in advance. The whole thing was totally surreal.
But that's all over now. School at UW started last week (as it did likewise at Purdue), and the visible signs of the students are all much more subtle: more supid drivers, more competition for parking spaces, etc...
I'm not sure if I'm excited about my first Wisconsin winter in 7 (8?) years or if I'm frightened that I've become so acclimated to warmer weather that I'll hate it. Goodness knows that I think Madison is a wonderful place, I'm just hoping I still think that when I'm fighting 2 feet of snow on my way to work.
I'm going to the Madison Blues Fest tomorrow, mainly to see Buddy Guy. I guess Lyle Lovett is headlining, but I just can't get into him. There's a local funk band that I'd kinda like to catch in person, but they're playing intermissions and I'm not sure if I want to get there at 6 when Buddy Guy isn't playing until 8. Either way, expect a full report soon = )