BY MIKE MOORE
Journal Times | Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 12:00 am
The pump could've read 4 cents a gallon and I wasn't going anywhere. Not with a high-octane to-do list waiting at home during last week's vacation.
But now that gas prices have hit levels only a European driving on the wrong side of the road could love, they're crimping some travelers' style. That "vacation in your own backyard" trend we media types love to predict whenever gas or airfare goes up? It's a topic on the neighborhood blogs.
"With only one kid left at home out of five," the blogger write2thepoint posted to the Burlington blog, "I am trying to think of some fun things to do that don't involve a lot of cash."
Anyone can tackle my household projects list for free. No? Fine, other bloggers offered more relaxing suggestions.
"Ride your bikes on the Root River Trail in Racine … It's fairly easy but gives you a good variety of nature/urban riding," Lulu wrote, adding that greeting people on the trail is an extra bonus because "it seems to freak them out."
Some take the trip to their own backyard literally, like HSmom.
"Try a new craft or other hobby idea together," she wrote. "When my kids were that age, we had fun building and blasting off kit rockets, taking old chairs we found at rummage sales and painting them in new funky colors and patterns, planting vegetable or flower gardens with interesting and unusual plants (how about blue potatoes, purple carrots or extra giant sunflowers)."
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Sturtevant traffic
The reader known as LEROYBEANS wrote that he got teed off over a biker who was "doing wheelies down 90th Street" and endangering his kids, so he confronted the guy with a baseball bat. The tactic worked, leading him to suggest to Sturtevant officials that "since you guys seem a little preoccupied with all that you have going on, maybe this is how we should handle things."
That's right, pal, make the citation payable to Louisville Slugger. No, I can't imagine the police advising that, but the post did spark a discussion about speeding and police response.
"Times have sure changed," wrote Huck Finn, who remembered taking the wheel for the first time in the village in about 1970. He takes it slow down the Sturtevant corridor these days but joked that, if speeding was overlooked, he's sorry he "sold that '62 Chevy long ago."
The episode got resolved on all fronts. The motorcycle rider apologized to Mr. Beans, who commented happily that "as I saw the blue car boogie down 90th I saw the squad poised and leap into action."
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Sump pump$
Older homes are saturated with character. The danger is, when floods like last weekend's come, they can be saturated with water.
Ours wasn't - this time. I posted a question to the Racine group, asking if adding a sump pump to an existing home is a cost-effective option.
One person said extending downspouts and caulking was enough. Another raved about a sealant. But others have seen the pricey pumps pay off.
Attached Mommy to 4 Kiddos wrote that one pump was no match for the leaks in her newer home, which come "even in the coldest of winter.
"I am so tired of water," she wrote, and all of southeastern Wisconsin nods in agreement.
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Reach online community editor Mike Moore at (262) 631-1724 or
mike.moore@lee.net