Today’s idyllic weather can’t but inspire a contrast to last Thursday, when the wind warred with the lake, blowing heavy flower pots off of porches, causing power outages and tossing skinny kids to the land of Oz, all leading to a New Orleans style squall that beat the cracked lead paint off slumlord housing throughout the city.

I ducked briefly into The Riverwester bar on Bremen Street last Thursday to escape nature’s whupping, finding kindly irrascible sorts good enough to put up with my presence and pop the tops on a coupla cheap Pabsts, even though I am not a regular regular in the place.

At one point in the evening, Mayor Tom Barrett appeared on an emergency broadcast to offer assurances that, yes, the city had the weather situation well in hand. We would all live to see another day.

“What the hell’s the mayor doing on TV talking about the weather?” somebody groused from the end of the bar.

“Cuz it’ll blow over!” shouted one Steven Homfeldt, sitting to my left with his wife, enjoying a stormy brew or two.

And, much like many of the cities problems that won’t blow over …

“There’s not a damn thing he can do about it,” Homfeldt roared.

So did everybody else at The Riverwester bar on Bremen Street.