Late Autumn Photos 2019

Here are some random photos from the last week or so. I had to run all over campus to get signatures on a document, and when I was going past the art building, I found these paintings on the outside:

I was downtown and saw this Christmas tree decorated in a way to remind people to conserve energy:

Here are two photos from the Castle Creek Conservancy. (I took a picture of the pond with all the birds on it too, but it doesn't really look like anything.) This shot shows the bridges that go over the creek, which is not called Castle Creek but Six Mile Creek. (Yeah, I don't get it either.)

This shot is looking toward St. John the Baptist, where I sometimes go for confession.

There wasn't a parking lot for the church where the Baroque music concert was on Sunday, so I had to park back in the neighborhood around it, and I saw this cool house.

Then I went to the co-op and saw this sunset from the parking lot.

I hope you enjoyed these late autumn photos. Sometime I will try to get a better photo of the pond with birds on it, and hopefully we will someday hike to the end of the trail in the Castle Creek Conservancy, where there is another little pond. So look for photos of that in the future.

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Milwaukee International Festival

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday after work Travalon and I were so tired that we stayed in the house and ordered a pizza – we were too tired to cook! Saturday we got up, and I made coffee that tasted amazing to both of us, but I have no idea why it would be so much better than our usual weekday coffee: same grounds, same water, same coffee maker, same cream. Maybe it was just because we could sip it at a relaxed pace while lounging in our reclining chairs? Then we went for a short hike at Castle Creek Conservancy, a surprisingly large wilderness area in Waunakee. The name is a puzzle, because the creek that flows through it is Six Mile Creek, not Castle Creek.

Then we drove separately to Milwaukee, because I was going to meet Tiffy to go to the International Festival, and when Travalon heard that’s what we were doing, he begged to come along because they have chicken paprikash there. (Looks like it is well past time for me to learn how to make this dish!) There were all kinds of food stands there, including the Slovak one making the chicken paprikash, and a Serbian one with desserts that are the same as Croatian desserts. I ate way too much! Then we watched dancing from all over the world, and the Ukrainian dancing is very athletic, but the Lithuanian dancing made me laugh because the music sounded like a chicken was singing along in parts. Not sure what kind of instrument that was… Travalon had a Steak Night with the guys, so he took off, and when Tiffy and I had watched enough dancing, we walked back to the car and passed Christmas lights we hadn’t seen during the day. It was a display you drive through, and they don’t advertise the price, so we didn’t find out how incredibly overpriced it was until we were in line and it was hard to turn back. The big “sell” was that there was music that went along with the display, but the radio station barely came in, so we just turned it off and sang Christmas carols ourselves. Then Tiffy suggested we go to the Hawaiian restaurant in Wauwatosa for dinner, where we had raw tuna and guava cake. It’s a little shop too, so I bought Kona coffee, macadamia nuts, and another Hawaiian shirt. What a fun day!

Yesterday Rich, Travalon, and I went to Crema Café for brunch, but they did not make as impressive a cup of hot cocoa for Rich as they had that time we went for Pa Hat’s birthday. It had been a beautiful day, but of course it cooled off by the time Travalon and I got to Cherokee Marsh for a hike, and then it started to rain on us. I went to a Baroque music concert, and Travalon went to see the new movie about the Battle of Midway. We watched the Packers game, but every time the Packers got some momentum, the refs called a ticky-tacky foul on them. Seriously, every first down was getting called back, and every time they stopped the 49ers on third down, there was some questionable call so the Niners got a fresh set of downs. The Pack did hurt themselves with a huge turnover early and the offense getting nothing started for the first half, although the defense did a pretty decent job for most of the game until they were just too worn out to stop anything. Once the score was really lopsided, the advertisers must have told the refs to lay off, because then it was like a switch flipped, and they stopped calling them on the Pack and even called a couple on the Niners. I am trying not to be cynical about it, but everyone noticed – the Lions fans on social media were all, “How does it feel?” Sometimes it does seem like they decide which teams are going to win, which was unnecessary last night because the Packers wouldn’t have won anyway, but really? Did they have to make it that hard for them?

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Locked out of Work

Yesterday when I got off the bus with my bus buddy, we saw my coworker standing outside the building. He said, “It’s locked – I can’t get in!” My bus buddy was able to unlock the door with her key card, but she works up on the special floors, so we wondered if she had a more powerful key card. Just then I saw the 11 bus pull up, and I said, “There’s my colleague – hold the door for her!” Sure enough, she got off of the bus and came over, wondering why we were holding the door open. We explained that the doors were locked, so she said, “I’ll try my key card,” and sure enough, hers worked, so it was something with my coworker’s card. We wondered how the students were going to get in, since they don’t have key cards, and there was an alarm going off somewhere… and just then one of the robots rolled up.

“Someone must have ordered breakfast,” I said, and my coworker held the door open for the robot, but they won’t come into the buildings. It just looked at us (not really, but it seemed like it did), and then it changed direction and rolled off again.

“You have a class this morning!” said my colleague, shaking me out of my puzzlement. I dashed off and headed to my class, and later my coworker told me that something malfunctioned, and our building and the one next to it were affected. He tried to put a rock into the door to block it open for the students, but you know how they are – one went through and then kicked the rock away, so then the others couldn’t get in. That’s America’s Future right there, as Mr. Icon would always say.

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Robot Delivery Video

Here, at long last, is the video of the robot delivering our lunch. It's kind of ridiculous: we all laugh when the robot greets us, and then they are handing me my food while I'm trying to film. But you can see how cute the robot is. The video was just a little too long to load directly onto my blog, so I had to put it on YouTube first, but I cut it off thinking it would be short enough to put on the blog, so it ends kind of abruptly. The magic length seems to be just under one minute.

So today I was reading an article about how Millennials are really into astrology, and it had a link to this webpage. The headlines alone made me laugh. Some of them really seemed to match my friends and me! If you need a good laugh, read your sign. Or that of your significant other, or best friend, or worst enemy. They don't all seem accurate - Kathbert's didn't sound anything like her - but Rich's is scary accurate. Haven't we always said he's an alien?

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Photos from Eau Claire

Here are some photos and videos from our trip to Eau Claire. First is a photo from our short jaunt to Waunakee on Saturday morning. This is the Waunakee Village Center Pond, which has aeration in it so that circles of it aren't frozen. You can see that in this photo, plus St. John the Baptist church in the background, where I often go to confession.

As we were driving into Black River Falls, there was a beautiful sunset. This picture doesn't really do it justice. We stopped there for delicious mochas.

This is the beautiful purple glow we saw in the sky. When we got around the hill, we discovered it was not a lingering effect from the sunset, or incredibly vivid northern lights, but just a very lit-up warehouse with purple windows.

Here are some of the beautiful lights on the Eau Claire Riverwalk.

And here are some videos of the lit-up railroad bridge and the funny arch lit up purple and orange. I am posting my video of that because the photo of it turned out strangely.

Here are some videos of things we encountered downtown. First are a couple of Christmas lanterns in a store. I know it's early for Christmas stuff, but with this weather it feels appropriate.

Here are a couple of videos of Travalon and me playing chimes downtown. They are both equally awful, so I am posting both. In the first one Travalon is hamming it up, and you can see the sculpture of the conductor, but I am yelling at Travalon to "play the ones on the side!" In the second one I am too business-minded about playing, and then I make a very strange face, and then Travalon does not stop the video after he thinks he has stopped recording. Enjoy!

The next morning, Richard Bonomo got his hot cocoa "extra large, extra strong, with maximum fat," just like he always requests it. This was back in Madison, but he was so proud of the job that they did at the Come Back Inn that he sent me a photo of it.

I forgot to take a picture of the nature area with the incredible bluffs, but here is a small bluff behind Books a Million! for your viewing pleasure.

And at last, here is the video of the performance of "The Mystical Rose." Doesn't the schola do a beautiful job? And isn't the composition gorgeous?

Here are the lyrics, by me:

The most beautiful flower in His garden
Is the rose He planted to be His own,
And the only blossom to reach perfection
Was she alone.
He tended her carefully with His own hands,
And when her petals had unfurled,
We saw she held within herself
The Creator of the world.
And so a flower became His throne,
And so a blossom contained the spheres,
For the Planter had sprung from the rose He had planted
To water us with His tears.

And here is a random bonus audio track: a little over a year ago, I took a Latin percussion class, and we made this recording. I am the one playing the claves. Bonus points if you realized I am not playing the right rhythm, since the claves are supposed to play 12 against the drums' 8, which was way beyond my capabilities so I just gave up and played a syncopated rhythm. Oh well, I suck. Maybe someday I will master the clave rhythm.

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Road Trip to Eau Claire

Sorry for not blogging on Friday. I went for a walk along the Lakeshore Path with my buddy from Congress, and we saw interesting things like one of the delivery robots coming down the path toward us, a coot playing with some ducks, and a loon with winter coloring. There was also a man taking pictures of the loon with a really good camera. Later I went to a meeting by going down the Lakeshore Path, and I ran into another robot. Who knew they could go on the earthen path as well as pavement? Some of the ladies I ordered with did order from the robot for lunch that day, but they didn't tell me so I only knew about it when I exited the building and found them gathered around the robot. In the evening Travalon and I went to Mariner's and sat at the bar since they were busy. The bartenders there are so friendly, and the owner always says hi to us. They had the hockey channel on, and during the games the closed captioning was in English, but during the ads it was either nonsense or some language I am not familiar with. It looked vaguely Slavic but mostly like nonsense.

Saturday morning Travalon and I had a lot of fun following a course I had plotted out in Waunakee that took us to a little pond full of all sorts of waterfowl, even sand hill cranes, then we passed a place that looked fun to hike, but we didn't have time. We got coffee at MNM and then took a walk around the Waunakee Village Center Pond. We had to get my tire repaired, so while we were waiting, we walked over to Klein's and I bought three tiny plants, then we went to the battery place, and they replaced the battery in my Snark tuner. Now I can finally get the sitar in tune! After that Travalon and I hit the road and drove to Eau Claire, where he was overjoyed to find a Books a Million (BAM!) right across from our hotel. It's a chain we don't have here in Madison, and it is a lot like Borders was. We went downtown and ate at the Acoustic Cafe, where a bluegrass band was playing. Travalon says that place was around when he was in college. Then we took a walk along the riverfront; it was dark out, but a fairly mild evening, and there are all sorts of beautiful lights. I will post pictures and videos soon. We saw the movie Judy, which Travalon had really wanted to see, but it left Madison before we got a chance. It was so sad! Then we swam in our wonderful hotel pool. 

Yesterday we had a quick breakfast at our hotel, then we ran over to BAM! for Cuppa Joe coffee and the purchase of a number of books. Not gonna lie, I was bummed that we couldn't go to Mass at Sacred Heart in the winter - they only have weekend Masses at their other church. We went to 11 am Mass at an unpromising modern church, but the priest had an impressive beard like a saint on an icon, and the hymnal was the St. Michael one, so we chanted the ordinary and sang Ralph Vaughan Williams hymns. It was a little weird that they didn't do the Sign of the Peace, and then afterwards there was a guest speaker who dragged on and on, and THEN parish elections, so we finally snuck out before Mass was "officially" over. The people in the narthex didn't seem offended - they gave us cake. Then we took a walk at a beautiful nature area that I forgot to take a picture of, but it was under a bluff. The concert (the reason we went up in the first place) was at a different Catholic church, St. Olaf, and to my delight Luxuli and Jilly Moose drove up to see it too. The theme of the concert was depictions of Mary as a rose, and there were a lot of Medieval cantigas and plenty of Renaissance polyphony. The piece based on my poem was the only modern one. It was well-received by the audience, and the leader of the schola announced my presence there, so people cheered for me too. Travalon said I was giddy the rest of the evening. Lest you think I am some amazing mystic and deeply spiritual poet, we then went to Truckers, a hippie shop that Travalon remembered from when he was in college, and I bought a hippie hat that makes me look like a mushroom and cactus socks that say: "Don't be a prick." Then we headed back, past the beautiful purple glow in the sky that we had thought on the way up was some amazing natural phenomenon... and then we passed a hill, and it was just a giant warehouse with lit-up magenta windows. We passed but forgot to note the church that had been lit up like a gingerbread house just outside of Eau Claire. We passed all the wondrous rock formations by Camp Douglas in the dark this time, so we couldn't see them. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Mauston with some letters burned out, so that instead of being called "Cinco de Mayo," it seemed to be called "Cinco Demyo." And today I returned to the workaday world, but if I think people should somehow treat me specially for being a poet, I just think of Mary, who was the Mother of God but nobody cut her any slack when she had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem while nine months pregnant and then give birth in a barn.

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Performance of "The Mystical Rose"

I just found out some exciting news last night – the piece "The Mystical Rose," based on a poem I wrote, will be performed by a group called Schola Cantorum in Eau Claire! This is part of a program called "Rosa das Rosas: Music for Virgin Mary" that includes Gregorian chants, 10th century cantigas, and pieces by composers such as Josquin de Prez and Palestrina. The concert will be performed twice: this coming Friday at 7:30 pm at St. Raymond of Penaforte in Fall Creek, and Sunday at 2:00 at St. Olaf in Eau Claire. Travalon and I will go to the Sunday performance, and they say they will give me a little shout-out! That is kind of exciting, but I am more excited to hear the piece performed. I will try to make a good recording of it and post it here, as well as sending it to the composer. Unfortunately, he cannot make either performance. This piece (and another one he wrote based on another poem of mine) have never been published, but maybe if people are performing them, the publishers will finally take them seriously.

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More Photos of Lake Wisconsin

I have nothing to blog about today, so here are some more pictures of Lake Wisconsin. This is what the panoramic photo would have looked like, if it had worked instead of somehow creating an image of Travalon without a head and a wall of water falling out of the sky. The rest of the lake is on the other side of the railroad bridge, and those views you can see in the photos I took from the ferry.

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Robot Delivery and Lake Wisconsin

Here is a video of the delivery robot bidding us adieu. The website won't let me post the video of him greeting us because it is too long, so I will have to make it a YouTube video at some point.

One of my coworkers has a whiteboard on her door, and I had to leave my office briefly so they could fix my cracked ceiling tile, so I went and drew on it about my experience with the robot. I guess in this picture I am the very cold Martian.

Here are some pictures of Lake Wisconsin. This one shows nearly all of the lake from the park in Merrimac.

I tried to take a panoramic photo, but something went wrong, so it looks like a headless Travalon is about to be swallowed by a tsunami.

This is a picture of Lib Cross Island in the Wisconsin River.

And here are some shots I took from the Merrimac Ferry. The sun was going down, so the lighting isn't that good, but I have never seen these views with snow before.

Finally, today at lunch I stopped into the School of Human Ecology, where they had a Day of the Dead display just like last year. I know I posted this main altar last year, but it's so pretty that I am doing it again. Last year I wrote Mr. Why's name on a silk rose petal to put on the altar; this year I wrote the name of a professor I had who really influenced me and who just died about a week ago.

People had created their own little dioramas of altars, and I took a picture of a couple of particularly colorful ones.

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What Is a Ghost Town?

I hope that my readers had a good weekend. Travalon and I were kind of tired on Friday evening, so we just went to the Cherokee Country Club for fish. Saturday we slept in, then we went to a new coffee place called Finca on Rimrock Road. It has very cute Salvadoran décor and delicious South American treats on the menu. We drove out to Sauk, where we saw two eagles sitting in the tree on the island, and we took a long walk on the riverside path. We drove back to Merrimac to check out the view of Lake Wisconsin from that park again, and I took a bunch of photos. There were a surprising number of boats out – I mean, it was a relatively nice day, but kind of cold if you didn’t keep moving. Then we drove up Highway U, checking out some gorgeous views of the lake and the river, ending up at a remote spot where we could see a large island out in the river called Lib Cross. Then we took the ferry back across the river, since this may be our last chance this year – it stops a week from today. We had been listening to the Badger game in the car, and right when we passed Okee it was halftime, so we stopped into Fitz’s and watched the second half there with some very friendly regulars. No random tourists (other than the two of us) this time of year! The Badgers won! We had dinner there after the game was over and then headed home. What a wonderful day!

Yesterday after Mass, Travalon, Richard Bonomo, the other bass from our choir, another guy from our parish, and I tried to go to brunch at Rockhound. Unbeknownst to us, they had just decided to stop doing Sunday brunch that week due to staffing issues, so we ended up at Lakeside Café. It was crazy there, but we did find a big enough table downstairs, where we had interesting conversations. Travalon and the other bass are both big fans of prog rock, which is not my favorite genre, but I do like some of it, like Jethro Tull. Travalon and I went for an invigorating hike at Blue Mounds State Park, which was icy but not too cold. (For once, the weekend was nicer than Monday – it is so cold today!) We tried to find another ghost town too, but there is literally nothing left of it, so we weren’t sure which cornfield it was under. It was called Pokerville, and there are some things named after it in the area, and after the founder, a guy named Brigham. The thing is, when I think of ghost towns, I picture those places out west with empty buildings and not a soul around. There are plenty of people living in what used to be Pokerville, it’s just they are on farms and not gathered into a town, unless you count Blue Mounds, which is a little to the east. I just think I have a fundamental disagreement with what this book is calling a “ghost town,” and who’s to say which of us is right? When we got back to town, we had dinner at Amber Indian Restaurant, and then we went home to watch the Packers game we had taped. We had been careful not to find out the score, but as soon as we turned on the TV to watch the recording, it was set on the NFL channel, and a banner ran across the bottom of the screen giving the final score of the game. So we already knew the Packers won, but much to Travalon’s amusement, I still kept yelling at the players: “Move! You’ll get sacked! Tackle him! Are you even clear on your job here?” Of course Joe Buck was announcing the game, and he hates the Packers so he wasn’t even the least bit neutral, so I was badmouthing him and also Jimmy Graham “the slow white man,” who is generally a useless player, although he did have a good play yesterday. I guess to me half the fun of watching football is keeping up a running commentary, which makes it really embarrassing to watch it in public. I kept catching myself yelling at the screen at Fitz’s too – well, maybe the Badgers need my advice as much as the Packers do!

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Robot Lunch Delivery

This morning I woke up at 4:30 am because the song “Cisco Kid” by War was playing. I was like, “What? Where is that music coming from?” and then I realized it was coming from the living room. I went out there, and Travalon’s laptop was playing the video on YouTube. Then he came out too and said, “I don’t understand – I turned it off last night!” He had been listening to funk and R&B videos, since he has been kind of into it lately, and he knows I love it. But why did one just start playing in the middle of the night like that? After that I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I just did a word game puzzle until it was time for me to start my usual morning routine. At least tomorrow we can sleep in… if Travalon’s laptop doesn’t play music for us again!

Today we ordered lunch from the robot!!! It was three ladies from another department and me. The robot showed up outside our building, and the woman who had the app on her phone had to figure out how to unlock him, but when she did, he said, “Hello, here’s your delivery!” in a normal male human voice. He didn’t sound like you would expect a robot to. They opened him up and started handing out the food, and then the woman with the app had to send him on his way, so he locked back up and said, “Thank you. Have a nice day.” I got some good footage that I will post soon. The pasta I ordered was kind of lukewarm, but the dirt pudding was delicious, and way more sugar than I am used to. Between waking up so early and ingesting so much sugar, I have no powers of concentration today.

A professor in our department was invited to a Disney party. He was a consultant on Frozen 2, so he got to go to the wrap-up party in LA, and he said the ice cubes in their drinks lit up, and the bar was made of ice. Sounds awesome! Maybe more exciting than ordering from a robot, but I showed him the video and he said it was pretty cool. That’s the fun we have back here in Wisconsin.

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Dream of Dead Whales

Last week I had a strange dream about whales. First there was a female beluga whale who lived in a tank with two other females, and she was dying of breast cancer (or whatever the equivalent is), and the scientists were dispassionately noting, "This sound is her screaming in pain. This sound is her sobbing." I was horrified that neither the scientists nor the other belugas were offering her any comfort. Then there was a woman scientist following a young, healthy male orca, and he suddenly died but nobody knew why, so a helicopter came to take away his body in order for the scientists to study what had happened to him. I woke up from this dream feeling inconsolably sad, but I had no idea what it was about.

Trust the online dream dictionary to know. It says to see a dead whale in your dreams means you are giving up on something you had once believed. I wondered, was I giving up on Catholicism? I mean, I'm about ready to, seeing how some people who call themselves Christians support a man who is the embodiment of all seven deadly sins. Then it occurred to me - of course! What I was giving up was the idea that anyone has absolute morals, and that is why I woke up feeling so sad. If people who call themselves believers said they voted for someone as the lesser of two evils, this I can understand, but it has been bewildering for me how people I considered deeply moral could be all in for someone who is clearly evil himself. They will say he may be vile, but he has done so much good... and isn't that saying the ends justify the means? Maybe this is just part of becoming an adult, realizing that everyone's morals are relative and everyone will justify evil if it benefits their side. I had particularly admired a certain person who has bought into this line of thinking, and now I realize this person is just a human like the rest of us. That is why the dream was so sad - I was losing my illusions that there is anyone above this sort of tribalistic thinking. So maybe I am that whale crying out ("wailing," if you will) in agony, not because I am physically dying but because my illusions are. I just need to remember that Jesus Christ was the only perfect man, and no matter how much someone claims to be his follower, they are still fallible and capable of doing the opposite of his teachings.

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Drone Photography and Concert Videos

We are going to do something exciting on Friday - we are going to order lunch and have the robot deliver it! I'll tell you all about it, if it works. Meanwhile, here are some photos from our recent adventures, as well as some videos. First is the sunset we saw from the Ho-Chunk Casino - people said the forest fires out west are causing some spectacular sunsets because of all the ash in the air.

The next evening we saw this beautiful sunset from the boardwalk along Lake Waubesa.

And just for something different, here is a sunrise! This is from my office window, overlooking the campus.

This is one of the food delivery robots. Aren't they cute? I sent this photo to Rich, saying, "What on earth is this?!" and of course he knew.

This is a shot showing the colorful leaves still on the trees while there is snow on the ground. This is on campus, along the route I walk almost every day at lunch.

This is a cool rock formation at Natural Bridge State Park.

And this is Travalon in front of the natural bridge at Natural Bridge State Park.

I finally found the shots the drone took of our condo complex! Aren't they beautiful?

And here are some videos. This first one is the useless act that is Mini Kiss.

Here is ZZ Top doing "LaGrange."

This is Mama Digdown's Brass Band. I don't know the name of the song.

And this is Phat Phunction doing "You Sexy Motherf--ker" by Prince.

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Ghost Town Weekend

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Did everyone have a good Halloween? It seems like it has been a long time since we’ve been to a Halloween party. Travalon and I just went to Mass for All Saints’ Day on Thursday evening, since we didn’t have time on Friday. That night we went to see ZZ Top, who were excellent, at the Sylvee, which is not. You have to stand, which is a problem if you are short like I am, and they made everyone wait out in the cold in a long line to get through security. I thought maybe ZZ Top weren’t going to do “LaGrange,” my favorite song of theirs, but they did it for the encore. The lead singer said, “Same three guys, same three chords,” which is true – they have had no personnel changes, and all their songs are in the same key. Hey, if you find a winning formula, why mess with it?

Saturday Travalon and I were ecstatic to realize we had nothing planned, so we slept really late and then drove out to Sauk in hopes of seeing eagles. We did see one by the dam, and it was being harassed by seagulls. It was a cold day, so we weren’t too motivated to hike outside. We drove by Lake Wisconsin and found a beautiful view of the lake from the park in Merrimac, then we had some crab dip at a bar we had been curious about for a while. Travalon has gotten a new book about ghost towns in our state, so we went to find one called La Rue, and then we ended up passing by Natural Bridge State Park, so we did end up going for a hike there as the light was dying. We came back to town, and on the radio they said there was a fundraiser called “Funk Out Cancer” at the Orpheum, so we ended up going to that. It featured the funk bands Smokin’ with Superman, Mama Digdown’s Brass Band (our favorite, they do New Orleans-style street jazz), and Phat Phunction. There was a silent auction, and I bid on pizza for a year but got outbid. Travalon bid on a Mallards game and won. All the money goes to the lab of a doctor on campus who is studying colon cancer.

Yesterday after Mass, Rich, the Single B-Boy, and another bass from our choir joined Travalon and me in checking out the new brunch at Tutto Pasta, and we all approved. Then Rich and our neighbor helped us get the boat out of the water; Rich and Travalon had high boots in order to wade, so they took the boat, while the neighbor and I drove Travalon’s SUV and boat trailer to the launch. The neighbor was unbelievably good at maneuvering the trailer around in a tight space, since there were tons of boats and trucks around the launch. After that Travalon and I went to find a hill you can see from Highway 19, and there was a place to hike by it, so we took a very short hike. Then we went to the other side of the hill and took another short hike. No path goes up the hill, but that would be a steep hike anyway. We went to another “ghost town” called Keyeser, but there is a functional Lutheran church there, and a very old general store. We went into it, but they only take cash so we couldn’t buy anything. The guy behind the counter was so nice! He gave us a calendar, date book, and pen. We had taped the Packers game in order to take advantage of the relatively good weather, but I saw on social media that people were saying how terribly it was going, so we tuned in for the last quarter. That one wasn’t so bad, but by then they were so far behind that there was no salvaging the game. What happened there? Did they underestimate the Chargers the way that the Badgers underestimated the Illini? We don’t really have any interest in watching the three previous quarters we had taped to find out. Surprisingly, I wasn’t really bummed out about it, maybe because I hadn’t seen how bad the first three quarters were. Or maybe I am still flying high from the Nationals winning the World Series – not that I am a huge fan of theirs, but what a great story! What’s one football game compared to that?

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