Last night, we had dinner with Tracy Heron, the mayor of my 5,000+ town. If Governor Palin is anything like him - she’s more than qualified.

Perhaps Mayor Heron should run for governor.

At 4:30 this morning, I saw an extremely bright lightning flash that was followed by one of the loudest claps of thunder that I have ever heard. About five minutes later I heard sirens that seemed to turn off right by my house.

My neighbor’s house, about forty yards away, was struck by lightning. The ladder truck was up and I couldn’t see how much damage was done, but they had the full arsenal of fire trucks from the Mayville Fire Department on the scene.

I hope that everyone is okay and that the damage is not too severe.

Green energy is surely going to lower the value of my home. Recently I started seeing wind turbines sprouting up around the horizon by my home. Now there are dozens of them scattered about the area. I’m not worried about the geese near the Horicon Marsh getting decapitated, I am worried about the price of my home going down.

Damn you, Al Gore!

Photo credit: Forward Energy, LLC.

My neighbors, Phil and Lisa, are from Illinois. They closed on their home here in Maytown on the same day that I did. So, we are both subject to the wrath of the outcast here in our cliquey little town. It’s all good - we’ve got each other.

One night, while searching for some takeout food, Phil and I stopped into this little restaurant that is about a block and a half from my house. Even though I’ve been here for two-and-a-half years, I had never been there before. When we walked in the door, everybody in the place turned and looked at us like we had just walked, uninvited, into somebody’s home. Upon learning that they only serve fish on Fridays, we left.

Last Friday night, Phil, Lisa, and I decided that it would be nice to go out and try their fish. When we got there the place was packed. They told us it would be an hour. We said we’d wait.

I’m glad we did wait, because we had the oddest service experience I think I’ve ever seen:

1. A half hour to forty minutes after we started waiting, a woman came around and said, “Michael Martin - party of four.” I stood up. She quipped, “no, no, no, it’s not your turn yet, I’m just giving you your menus.” Uhm… okay.
2. About ten minutes later, a waitress came by and asked us what we wanted to eat. We gave her our order.
3. Some time later, the waitress came by and said, “your food is ready and waiting for you at table ten.” Yeah, that’s right, we had to go, unescorted, and find table number ten because our food was already waiting there on it.
4. After we finished eating, the waitress cleared off all of our plates and brought us the tab. I gave Phil cash and he was going to pay with his debit card.
5. Phil went up to the front to pay. The woman said, “how much would you like to leave as a tip.” Phil replied, “five dollars.” “How much?,” she questioned. RUDE! Phil should have replied, “you know what - NOTHING.”

The food was okay, but it was nothing to write home about. I won’t be stopping there again - unless I’m in need of some comic relief.

I know that the Bible says that I should not covet my neighbor’s wife… but Lisa just snowblowed my driveway. Haha! Thanks, Lisa. Oh, and Phil, you can keep her… I hear she snores. j/k.

If it weren’t for Phil and Lisa, I’d have gone insane in this craptastic town.