Things That Make Me Smile

With the start of road construction season and the rainy, dreary days of spring (40 and raining has to be the worst weather), I like to take time to think about things that make smile.  Sitting at the bar on an April afternoon, I compiled an incomplete list of those people, scenarios and craziness that pry a smile from my lips.  Here it goes:

Driving with the windows down.  I never understood people who seclude themselves in the stale air of their vehicle when they could feel the breeze blowing through their hair on the drive home (if the wind messes up your hair – get a new hairdo).

A pretty bartender*.  For some reason they make the beer taste better and flow easier.  I’ve followed a bartender to a different bar when she got a new job, I’ve gone to a bar when I was feeling crappy knowing one of my favorites was working and she’d coax a smile out of me, and I’ve bought a pretty bartender a drink after her shift is done to name a few things.   Bottom line, pretty bartenders make my life more enjoyable. 

*Not all pretty bartenders are worth a smile

Andura is one of my favorites - I go bartender's choice with the beer when she's working

Other people smiling.  Sometimes you don’t realize how powerful a smile can be.  A smile from a stranger, or even better, a friend, can turn a crummy day around.  I even once wrote a poem titled “The Smile On Your Face.”  What’s the point of passing along your grumpy mood?

Sharon has a great smile even while working

A warm shower.  Nothing beats a shower where I can gradually increase the temp so by the end, it’s bordering on scalding.  This is in my top 5 favorite things in the world.

Live bluegrass and Allie Kral.  Music is best experienced live when you can witness how hard they are playing and the crowd helps fuel the bluegrass inferno.  One of my favorite bands to see live is Cornmeal and their supremely awesome (and sexy) fiddler, Allie (especially in Madison where the crowd just knows how to throw down).  Another go to concert is Pert Near Sandstone - especially when Allie joins the stage along with special guest Ryan Young of Trampled by Turtles.  That’s three fiddlers, nay, great fiddlers on one stage (did I mention they have a clogger?).  Starting from the 2-minute mark, my happiness crescendos at about the 2:52 mark when I completely lose it, only to stay lost for the rest of the song (I was lucky enough to witness this in person).

Showing someone a favorite place of mine.  When they experience the beauty and serenity that you’ve experienced, it is like revealing a secret – you’ve let them into your personal sanctum.

Completing a crossword puzzle.  Crossword puzzles are one thing that will never be more enjoyable electronically.  Folding a paper in just the right way to highlight the puzzle and clues and then filling in the puzzle is immensely gratifying.  When using a pen, trying to lightly write in an answer without ruining the square is a skill to be excited about.

Grilling in a snowstorm.  When everyone is huddled inside, curled up in a blanket watching some crap on the TV, I like being outside and showing people that a little snow and wind only enhances the grill flavor.  It’s a challenge and I accept.

Finishing a good book.  Following the arc of a well-written story, whether it is nonfiction or a memoir (I’m a nonfiction snob).  So much of our lives are exuded in short bits and bursts that we never take the time to learn or fully delve into a topic or person.  TV, TMZ and Twitter have supplanted Thoreau and Tennyson. 

Gibraltar Rock is a great place to sit in silence, gaze at the beauty of WI or finish a good book

Sitting in silence in the woods as nature happens around me.  Silence is a lost art (I have trouble with this from time to time – long pauses in my speech due to stuttering notwithstanding), but a little quiet can reveal a world hidden to the chattering masses.  Watching chickadees flit from branch to branch – edging ever closer while I sit motionless is a treat in the dead of winter (If you sit quiet and still enough, they may even land on your hat or hand). 

Campfires.  The simple act of sitting around and staring at a campfire can bring you back to a more primal state of mind, enlightening and elucidating an evening.  One of the few skills I’m proud of is my ability to start and keep a fire going.  Playing with fire can be calming as you focus on how log placement can keep a blaze a-going or rekindle the warmth felt earlier.   Sigurd Olson sums it up best - “Something happens to a man when he sits before a fire.  Strange stirrings take place within him, and a light comes into his eyes which was not there before.  An open flame suddenly changes his environment to one of adventure and romance.”

Not sure if this is what Sig was talking about, but it was fun

The Ice Age National Scenic Trail.  Not sure if you know this, but I’m a huge fan of this 1200 mile hiking path.

Meeting random people in a random townie bar.  Our lives are too short to lock into being friends with the people you went to college or work with.  There are so many people out there who share your interests that it’s almost a sin that you don’t go out and try to meet them.  Some of the most fulfilling relationships are the random (said by a bum), the unexpected ones.  It’s a tired cliché, but you can’t judge a book or person by its cover.

The Vikings losing – I really hate Minnesota sports teams.  I don’t think anything else has to be said.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Wilderness.  The B-W may be the most visited Wilderness in the U.S. but it’s my favorite place.  The ability to fill a pack with your wares and with a day or two of paddling or snowshoeing, be in the middle of nowhere with no one to be seen is a joy all should experience at least once in their lives. 

Slota looks happy sitting in a quinzee with temps outside somewhere south of comfortable

The beauty of Wisconsin.  I’ve written about this and don’t think I need to elaborate.

The movie “October Sky”.  Call me sappy, but this movie always leads to a huge smile on my face at the end.  If it’s on TV, the remote stops and I watch to the end.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades new album – “This Old Town”.  This bluegrass band from Stevens Point has lit up the Midwest music scene since their inception a few years back.  It’s a lot of fun watching bands grow as songwriters and musicians, always improving their product and expanding their crowds and Horseshoes has done that.  Their set at Boats and Bluegrass in 2012 was memorable as they were crammed into the side tent with a crowd shouting and chanting for more music.  I think it would be safe to say that they could have played for the rest of the night and crowd would have stayed delirious.  Their new album (recorded thanks to a Kickstarter campaign) shows the breadth of ass kicking they bring to the table.  Collin Mettelka’s songwriting and subliminal fiddle pair well with the hard-driving guitar and vocals of Adam, while Russ’s clawhammer banjo and vocals remind me of Levon Helm (Whenever I see them play and Russ really gets into a song, it reminds me of Levon Helm of the The Band in the Last Waltz, singing his heart out) and with Sam holding down the bottom of the scale with his upright bass.  On top of all that, Davey on harmonica and squeezebox brings instruments (and fishing expertise) not readily heard on an old-timey bluegrass album.  This album makes me smile.

A smile can come from any number of sources and when you least expect it.  My list is woefully incomplete, but even this makes me smile knowing that my happiness is not limited to a 2 page inventory.  When the world has got you down, take time to think about all the great things in your life.  A smile is more powerful than you know.

Wisconsin Winter Waterfall Waltz - Trailer

Here's the much anticipated trailer for the Wisconsin Winter Waterfall Waltz.  Barry and I set out to document the awesomeness of the waterfalls that had fallen under the spell of winter.  It was a blast, but the spell was strong - not everything went as planned...

Link to YouTube

In Defense of Winter

Mother Nature has been stubborn this year, or maybe it’s payback for the last few winters (or lack thereof).  The yearly march toward tulips and warblers has been slowed by the seemingly never-ending grasp of ice and snow, making people pine for last years warm and early spring.  Such is life in Wisconsin.  Spring will eventually arrive with a sweet-smelling southern breeze that carries with it the perfume of hundreds of wildflowers and erase any lingering arctic chill. The robins that have migrated to find Wisconsin still in winter will soon find puddles to play in, potential lovers to serenade and unsuspecting worms to fill their bellies with.  Winter isn’t all gloom and iced windshields and spring isn’t all flowers and beauty though.

While spring signals the rebirth of the forest and its animal inhabitants, it is also the season of mud.  Trails turn from a wondrous frozen ski or snowshoe path to a filthy, muddy slop more fit for a pig than a hiker.  Sure, you can drive with your window cracked open, but the pure beauty of a snowy landscape has been replaced with the wastewater grey of melting snow banks, revealing garbage accumulated over the last few months (in the city at least).  Lawns reveal themselves, giving homeowners a nudge and wink that they’ll shortly need attention.

The beauty of spring

Winter, on the other hand, provides the base for life in Wisconsin.  The snows replenish the lakes and rivers.  The cold gives the trees a chance to rest from the furious growth of summer.  And people get a break from yard work, mosquitos, black flies and ticks (are people really that excited to feel the sting of a mosquito or dig a tick out of their leg?).  Wisconsin wouldn’t be Wisconsin without the winters (do we really want to be more like Illinois?). 

The majesty of winter

A good, cold, snowy winter is also an important part of Wisconsin tourism, bringing snowmobilers and ice fishermen to the Northwoods and elsewhere.  The ski hills are definitely not complaining about the shortcomings of spring. Winter saw Wisconsin host the World Ice Fishing Championships in Wausau, the largest cross country ski race in North America with the American Birkebeiner, the North American Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Championships in Eau Claire, the U.S. Cheese Championships at Lambeau, and another successful spearing season in the best most productive Sturgeon fishery in the world on the Lake Winnebago chain.  And people are eager for winter to end?  It’s easy to whine about lasting cold and snow, but the impact winter imparts on the state is immense.

I am a fan of winter and its passing always brings me a little sadness.  I am not against spring, but it’s worth considering the ugly parts while you cheer the warmth of the sun on a bright March day that begins the melting of 3 months of snow.  I take comfort knowing the snows will fall again in the autumn and return Wisconsin to a more elegant state.  Then again, beach season isn’t too bad; maybe the coming of spring isn’t so terrible.

Wisconsin Winter Waterfall Waltz - Pictures

A dream of mine was realized a few weekends back as my friend Barry and I went on the Wisconsin Winter Waterfall Waltz.  Everyone loves a waterfall in the spring and summer, but what about the winter?  Waterfalls can get lonely so the two of us set out to document the frozen cascades and raise awareness that awesomeness doesn't stop when the snow starts falling.  I'm working on a video and blog post about the Waltz so stay tuned for those, but I'll whet your appetite with the photographic evidence first.

My photos

Barry's photos (there are some spectacular shots in here)

The Constraints of Greatness

I had lunch with a girl the other day (shocking I know) who kept rattling off these grand ideas and adventures she had planned (buying a short bus, installing bunk beds and then traveling around South America for 2 years).  I sat back and thought how unrealistic it would be for her to pull it all off, but then I realized that she had a better outlook than I did.  You can’t achieve big things without dreaming it first (terrible cliché).  Her unbridled zeal and enthusiasm for life was inspiring and something we can all learn from.

I was reminded about a scene from Dead Poets Society where one of the old codger teachers was questioning Robin Williams’s character about his teaching methods that taught kids to think for themselves.  The old codger talking about the students said, “When they realize they're not Rembrandts, Shakespeares or Mozarts, they'll hate you for it.”  Robin Williams replied, “But only in their dreams can man be truly free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be.”  That encapsulates the point.  You don’t have to be Shakespeare for your life to be important.  There is only one Shakespeare and there is only one you.  Don’t let the constraints of greatness handcuff you. 

Everyone has greatness inside of them, but may be unwilling to let it out for fear of not being perfect or disrupting their ”normal” life.  Be your own Shakespeare and dream big.  No one is the best at something right away; it takes many failures and much practice to achieve grand things.  I want to become a published writer, but I’m not going to be accepted with my first article at a big magazine right off the bat.  I have to work my way up through local and regional publications, learning along the way, what works and what doesn’t.  It’s a growing process.  This blog is part of that.  Some posts are a success while others are grasping for something that may not be there (like this one?).

I’m no Shakespeare, Rembrandt or Mozart (although I do have a taste for a little night music from time to time), but that doesn’t mean I should limit my dreams.  Perhaps it’s good for us to tilt at windmills.  Why can’t I go in on a short bus and spend 2 years in South America?  Spanish or Portuguese are not in my dossier but who cares.  They say immersion is the best way to learn.  Greatness is out there for all of us to attain.  How big will you dream?

Best Pics of 2012

Here are my favorite pics of the last year.  I didn't travel as far as I did 2011, but I still managed to have a decent year.  Not all the photos are great, but they remind of a fun moment or weekend.  Enjoy!

A Cold Welcome to 2013

Jan. 1 2013

I awoke from a deep sleep, huddled tight, knees curled up and arms crisscrossed around my torso.  Instantly I felt coolness in the dark cabin air - fire’s out.  Shit.  Sweatpants were quickly thrown on, along with a stocking cap and headlamp.  On the way to the wood stove, I glanced at the clock on the wall, 1 AM, Happy New Year.  Reaching the stove, I found feeble warmth radiating from the blackened cast iron crucible.  Opening the door, a blast of smoke hit my face, reminding me to open the flue first.  With flue opened, I tried the door again.  This time I saw the gnarled chunk of oak that was tossed in 3 hours ago smoldering.  Grabbing the fire poker, I moved the half-burnt hunk around and found a few coals to rebuild the fire with.  Bone-dry kindling was placed on the red coals.  I waited to make sure they caught before adding larger pieces of the driest, most easily burned popple. 

I stepped outside to a world of quiet slumber, lit by a majestic waning moon, casting its brilliance across the snow-covered landscape.  Smoke had begun to billow from the chimney, pushed gently to the south by the north breeze before falling close to the ground and continuing its southward motion.  It was cold.  The thermometer on the spruce tree out front read -12.  Yep.  I hurried back inside to check the fire. 

The popple was soundly ablaze so I added a few pieces of ash from the woodpile next to the stove.  I closed the stove door, sat down on the chair in front of the stove and turned off my headlamp. 

Moonlight streamed through the window, spotlighting the items that happened to find its gaze; the tics and knocks of the wood stove grew louder as it warmed to life.  A yawn escaped my mouth, reminding me to get back to bed, but I knew better than to trust a nascent fire, I had to stay up for a bit to make sure the fire kept roaring.  Many a promising fires have petered out when the flames realized the wood was wet or punky and refused to go any further.  The gaslight was lit and I sat down at the table to write.  Welcome to 2013.