Swimming with the Wildlife

This evening Travalon and I went swimming, and on the way we passed the little pond by the Westport Town Hall. To my surprise, there was a bird that looked just like a loon on it - I can't think what else it would be, but that makes no sense. They are not migrating through at this time of year, and no loon would hang out on a little pond - they like deep lakes. I said to Travalon that we should take a look at it, but he said after swimming. We went to Governor Nelson and swam in Lake Mendota, and two ducks were swimming toward me, but when I said, "Hi, ducks!" they quickly veered away from me. Later a muskrat was swimming right toward Travalon, so I waded alongside it and said, "Hi, muskrat! Where are you going? How are you doing?" The muskrat tried to swim faster to get away from me, but it couldn't swim any faster than I could wade, so I walked alongside it, and the water was about up to my shoulders so that we were eye to eye. Finally it got tired of me walking alongside it and talking to it, so it dove beneath the water, and it must be able to stay under for a very long time, because we didn't see it come back up. Then we headed home and checked out the pond; no sign of the mysterious bird (I had thought maybe it was a fake loon), but we did see a bunch of geese and two pairs of cranes.

Here are some photos of our recent acquisitions from antiques shops. These are three of the rosaries I bought in the antiques shop on Odana Road - I am only just getting to those now.

These are a French rosary made out of ebony, an interesting rosary with no starting beads and a Four-Way Cross instead of a crucifix and a centerpiece that says "Altar Boy," and a rosary with silver-plated glass beads that reflect light beautifully.

Here are the beautiful rosaries I bought in Waukesha yesterday. The one on the arm of the chair is the expensive one. Did I pay too much? Maybe, but if I hadn't gotten it, I would have regretted it.

This is the Fred Flinstone man cave sign that Travalon got in Janesville.

And this is the Hamm's Beer sign he got in South Beloit.

I couldn't find any rosaries in either place, but I did get the blue parrot (from the movie Rio) in South Beloit and the January Birthday Beanie Baby Bear in Janesville.

This red dog was something we got at an antiques store outside of Algoma, on our trip back from Door County. The mouth needs some repair, as you can see.

On its paw is a Chinese character, so I asked my colleague from Shanghai what it says, and she said, "Love." Which makes sense, because on its other paw it says "love" in English.

Travalon went to a sidewalk sale they were having at the Duck Pond and got some Mallards bobble heads. This one is called "The Evolution of Maynard," who is the Mallards mascot.

This one is Colt the Bat Dog, a real dog who fetches the bat after the batter has tossed it aside.

So these are some of our newest treasures. Stay tuned to see what we might find next!

Famous Hat

Sailing on Lake Michigan

Today I took the day off of work, and Travalon and I drove to Milwaukee for the two-hour sailing trip I had won in the Early Music Now silent auction. We had a very personable captain, and she said I could do the jib sail if I wanted, or we could have a relaxed ride with a better view of the skyline if we didn't put it up, so we chose that option. She did let us each take the tiller for a bit. She said I was doing such a good job that she let me steer us all the way back to the dock, only taking it at the very end for the trickiest part. She said, "You two do know your way around boats!" and I suppose she does see all sorts of people come for a sailing trip, so the fact that we tool around in our little fishing boat all summer, and I took sailing classes for a semester decades ago, gives us an advantage over many of her passengers. It was a perfect day out on the lake. Once we got back to shore, we walked to the kite store and bought a kite. We got one there a few years ago, and we enjoyed it a lot until it met an untimely end in the back of Travalon's car.

Then we drove to Waukesha to visit an antiques store that had been closed when we went antiquing there before. This one had a number of very beautiful rosaries; I felt one was overpriced, but they gave me a discount, and after all a thing is worth whatever you are willing to pay for it. It is a stunning rosary. One of the women working there even found two more for me that I had overlooked, and one was so beautiful, with opalescent heart-shaped beads. I didn't buy most of the rosaries there, so anyone looking for antique rosaries, there are still plenty at the Waukesha Antiques Mall. 

On the way home we took a hike on the trails by Rock Lake, then when we got home I took another walk with our neighbor, who had gone on a trip and had such a weird time that she had to tell me all about it.

Here are some photos from our sailing trip.

As we drove home, we saw little rainbows on either side of the sun.

Then after I got home, my neighbor texted me to say there was a gorgeous sunset.

So it was a wonderful day all around!

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Swans at the Little Turtle Flowage

I have finally edited the footage Travalon took of the swans at the Little Turtle Flowage north of Mercer. I thought swans were too dignified to be set to some silly tropical song, so I set the footage to "My Ever-Changing Moods" by Style Council, for my money one of the most beautiful songs from the 80's. Then again, I am a huge fan of sophisto-pop. Travalon was lukewarm about the song, so then I suggested another 80's sophisto-pop classic, "Diggin' Your Scene" by the Blow Monkeys, but he wasn't too keen on that either. I don't think it's his genre of music, although it is his era. Then he suggested "The Goodbye Look" by Donald Fagen, a song with tropical beats and yet sophisticated enough to accompany swans, and that was perfect... except that there isn't enough footage to get us to the chorus. Also, there is a copyright claim, so I couldn't use it. Finally I thought of a perfect song: tropical, yet slow and stately, so fitting for a swan. Here they are to "El Carretero" by the Buena Vista Social Club.

That is the first time I have had a video blocked due to copyright violations! I guess Fagen doesn't want people using his songs in silly bird videos.

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Religious Rainbow Metaphor

I keep forgetting to mention that Travalon and I played tennis during my lunch break on Thursday, because the day was overcast so it wasn't too hot out. Then of course as soon as we started playing, the sun came out and it was really hot. Then I played again on Friday evening with the neighbor I always walk with. She said, "We're the same level of bad," which is sad if you think about it, because I have spent years playing tennis and even took lessons once (like, almost four decades ago), so it stinks that I am just as bad as someone who says she "never plays." But it does make it fun for us to play together, because we are all about just getting the ball over the net no matter how many times it has bounced, and forget all that love-fifteen-thirty-add in scoring crap.

This evening Travalon wanted to go swimming at Crystal Lake out past Lodi, but we got all the way there and they said it was only open to campers this year, not the public. Other years we have been able to pay $8 to swim there for the day. So we came back and swam at Governor Nelson State Park, which was wonderful, and you could see downtown clearly. In fact, it was a similar view to when we are out on the boat. We did see a sailboat towing a kayak - that looked fun! And lots of ducks.

I have been thinking about my dream of trying to point out rainbows to Rich, and I think it may symbolize other religions, and my trying to point out to him where they have found the truth, because in the dream I was trying to show him unusual rainbows. There are apparently twelve kinds of rainbows, and in my metaphor, the Catholic Church is a vivid rainbow with all seven colors (sacraments) present. Most people have seen a double rainbow, and other Christian churches could be said to be like that: they are a faint reflection of the Real Church, and they get things backwards. Then there are supernumerary rainbows, which are bands of pastel colors beneath the main rainbow, like religions that have a few basic truths correct. There are rainbows at sunset with only a few colors, like red and yellow, or even just red, and there are fogbows, which are white, so they are missing most of the truths of the Catholic faith but have the correct shape (arch). I don't know how the very rare twinned rainbow fits into this metaphor, unless one arch is the Orthodox Church. Anyway, in the dream I was saying to Rich, "Don't you see the red rainbow? Don't you see the white rainbow?" and he said he couldn't until I took a picture and showed him. My point being that other religions sometimes emphasize parts of the truth that get lost in the whole in Catholicism, so there is value in studying them. It helps us see our own faith with fresh wonder.

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Janesville and Beloit and a Rainbow

Today was very hot, so Travalon and I took a walk at Pheasant Branch, since it is mostly shaded on the path, and it runs along a creek. There were lots of children playing in the creek, so that was fun to see. We kind of wanted to join them, but instead we drove to Janesville and checked out a couple of antiques shops. I didn't find any rosaries, but at one I did find a January birthday Beanie Baby bear, and Travalon found plenty of stuff. For example, he loves the Flinstones, so he got a sign that says: "The original man cave!" with a picture of Fred Flinstone on it. Then we drove down to South Beloit just over the border of Illinois, because they told us there was an even bigger antiques store there, but it didn't have any rosaries. There was another one across the street - no rosaries, but I found a cute stuffed parrot, and Travalon found a great Hamms Bear sign. Then we went to a park we had passed on the way, along the banks of the Rock River, and we took a walk out onto Turtle Island. We passed some geese eating grass, so I started singing, "I wish I were a goose just eating grass," to the tune of "Arkansas Traveler," and that somehow morphed into gangsta rap songs about various waterfowl.Travalon was at least as good at this game as I was. I said, "It never rained, so I'll have to water my garden plot when we get back," but then I checked my phone's weather app, and right then it was storming in Madison. By the time we got back it was more of a gentle rain, and then as we sat on our porch, the sun came out so I ran outside to see if there was a rainbow. Indeed there was!

Here are some recent photos. First, a stargazer lily and a sunflower in our neighborhood.

Here are some shots of Devil's Lake: the Baraboo quartzite on the hillside, and two shots of the lake itself, including looking toward the crowded beach on the North Shore.

And here are some pictures of the rainbow!

I took these two shots several minutes apart. You can see all the colors in the first one, but as the sun was setting, the reds and yellows are more emphasized in the second one.

And this is a panoramic shot of the rainbow. It worked a little better than the one where a headless Travalon was about to be swallowed by a tsunami on Lake Wisconsin, but the rainbow is a little janky, and the ground is very weird.

Travalon took some good shots with his camera, using different settings.

How about a sepia-toned rainbow? It looks like it's from the nineteenth century!

And I have no idea what this effect is, but it's interesting.

So there you have it - enough rainbow pictures to tide you over until the next storm.

Famous Hat

Devil's Lake Is Out of Control

Today started out pretty well. Travalon and I met Jilly Moose and OK Cap at True Coffee in Monona, where we not only had coffee but bought some Ethiopian and Brazilian beans as well. Poor Travalon was the only guy, and we ladies were talking about plants so much that he finally said he was bored, so then we talked about sports. Then the four of us went to Olbrich, and I bought a pair of loon earrings in the gift shop. But the frustration started for me when Travalon and I went to Baraboo and visited four different antique shops, and he found plenty of stuff, but I couldn't find anything. I am sure you are thinking, "But Famous, you really don't need any more antique rosaries, do you? It will take you until October to pray with all the ones you already bought!" And you are correct. Still, it felt like a monumental waste of time to me.

Since we were right there, we went to Devil's Lake, and that place is a bit of a free-for-all at the moment, with no park rangers on patrol. People were setting up tents on the beach, there was dog poop on the trail, and forget about social distancing. Still, it was beautiful on the trail because we were in the shade, and now and then there was a cool breeze that seemed to be coming directly from the billion-year-old Baraboo quartzite on the hillside. Also, we saw a pontoon boat on the lake that we have never seen before, so we wondered if sometime we could take a ride on it. It had a phone number on the side. I have kayaked on Devil's Lake, but I have certainly never taken a pontoon boat ride on it!

On the way back we took the Merrimac ferry, and the yahoo who was first in line held everyone up because his kids had to go get ice cream just as the ferry arrived. How does this make sense? If he was first in line, then he must have gotten there pretty early, and the ferry is not that fast, so they should have had plenty of time to get it and not hold everyone up. I've never seen anyone act so rude like that. Maybe it was my imagination, but the ferry seemed to go faster than usual, maybe because he wanted to make up time after being held up by the jerk.

In the evening things improved because our neighbor gave us shots of limoncello, and then we all went out on the dock, where some other neighbors joined us as well. It was a beautiful night; the weather had cooled off, and there was a breeze and a lovely sunset. So the day started and ended well - it just got kind of weird in the middle.

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Sad Crane News

I do have a sad update on our neighborhood cranes. The family that had two offspring seems to have lost the older one, and it's a tough loss because the young crane was nearly grown. The cranes routinely lose babies when they are fluffy little things, but by the time they are leggy teens, I assume they are going to make it. The family with one offspring now looks like a group of three adults. As I was puzzling over the missing young crane with my neighbor, saying that it was awfully big for an animal to have eaten it, she thought it was most likely hit by a car. She reminded me that this young crane was more likely to wander away from its family than its younger sibling, so maybe it got too adventurous and ran in front of a vehicle. This particular crane family doesn't go anywhere near a busy road, but lately there have been some people driving recklessly on our quiet, dead-end street. I also hear coyotes now and then, and those are big enough to catch an almost-grown crane. That would explain why we never saw a body, like you would think we would have if it was hit by a car. After all, we walk through the neighborhood multiple times per day, so a rather large bird on the side of the road would not have escaped our attention. One thing the crane almost certainly didn't die of is starvation. This particular family knows where all the bird feeders are in the neighborhood, and they steal food from them regularly, if they can be said to be "stealing" the food since they are, in fact, birds. It is pretty hilarious to watch them walk up to a hanging bird feeder meant for little songbirds and just help themselves.

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Seeing the Comet

Last night Travalon and I set out right after Night Prayer to see the comet. I had heard that it was visible right below the Big Dipper, and we could see the constellation in the northwest sky, with a smudge below it. I suggested we drive to Governor Nelson, a state park just a few miles away where the sky can appear very dark. Years ago, Tiffy and I were there gazing at the stars, and I said, "Wow, that airplane is really flying way up there! I didn't know they could go that high!" Tiffy said, with her infinite patience, "That's a satellite." So it seemed like this would be an ideal spot for comet-gazing. In the dark we missed the turnoff for the park, so we pulled into a subdivision being built across the road, which has houses but no lights yet, and I took our binoculars and pointed right at the Big Dipper. Right there in my sight was the comet, pointing downward with the long tail streaming up toward the constellation. I handed the binoculars to Travalon, but he couldn't find the comet (though he said he could see it with his bare eyes), and I couldn't locate it again through the binoculars. Forget about taking a picture of it - I couldn't even get my camera to take a decent picture of the crescent moon. But all night I had wonderful dreams about taking pictures of rainbows, and I kept trying to point them out to Rich, but he said he couldn't see them.

Rich did say I should be careful with my Tibetan prayer wheels, because who am I praying to? So I did some research and came up with an answer. The writing on the outside of the prayer wheels is "Om Mani Padmi Hum," which basically translates to "Ave, Lotus that holds the Jewel." And I think we all know who that is - Mary! It seems the Hindus and Buddhists have a devotion to her and don't even realize it. They just call her the Lotus instead of the Rose. So really, every time I spin a prayer wheel, I'm just sending a Hail Mary up to Heaven.

Here, for reference, are some shots of lotuses in bloom in our neighborhood:

And here is a better picture of the "floating" chairs on the submerged dock:

If I had brought the camera on my walk before work instead of my morning break, I could have gotten a photo of the cranes too. Both cranes and lotuses are sacred in Eastern religions, and I can understand why - they are both such amazing reflections of the Divine Mind.

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