It Just Keeps Getting Worse

The plot thickens, because when I emailed our parish priest about the strangeness for those of us receiving on the hand at Mass, he said people are furious this option even exists. Apparently we should all have so much faith that God will save us from the virus that we shouldn't bother taking precautions. This is what a Catholic blogger I deeply respect means when he says for these people it is the "Me-charist," not the Eucharist. "My right to receive in a way that shows I am The Best Catholic Ever trumps your right to be safe!" It's all performative piety with these people. Then today one of them actually excommunicated me on my own social media page. Talk about aggression! People can post whatever they want on their own pages, or they can comment on what I post, but posting something about how I am no longer a member of the Catholic Church on my own page? That's beyond the pale. I was sorely tempted to unfriend this person but refrained and did send a private message saying I would unfriend them if they did it again. So yes, people are trying to drive me out of the Church, but I have no interest in leaving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. However, I am very interested in leaving my parish. I have been a member there for decades, but if my fellow parishioners feel they can take it upon themselves to declare that I am no longer a member of the Church (by what authority? who knows?) in such a public venue, then I think it's best that I find another parish home.

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Now I'm Really Fed Up

Today  Travalon and I didn't want to go to Mass at our parish, but we weren't sure if they would let us in at the local parish - like, maybe you have to sign up ahead of time. After this morning we will definitely be looking into their rules, because at our parish half the people don't wear masks, and then the priest said, "For those who are excessively concerned about COVID, you can receive in the hand from the deacon, before anyone receives on the tongue." But then the deacon went and gave communion to the three altar servers ON THE TONGUE first, so it was kind of a moot point. Between the priest's snide comment and the deacon's bizarre actions, I know where they consider those of us who are concerned about the virus. But our parish is starting to be taken over by the Christian Taliban anyway, the one that already is in effect at the local Tradistan parish, where their priest wrote on social media, "It's not Left vs. Right, it's Children of Darkness vs. Children of Light." They claim this is about abortion, but I saw an argument on social media between two white men who have been active in anti-abortion causes (I refuse to call it pro-life when they don't care once a human is born), and the one who insists we all have to vote for a particular party said he didn't care that numbers drop under the other party (because decreasing demand is more effective than decreasing supply), he's not about the numbers. Well, the "numbers" are the real human lives, so then what the hell DO you care about?? They are about imposing their vision of "Christianity" which has nothing to do with what Christ taught and everything to do with oppressing others. I want to live somewhere where I can practice my religion freely, not somewhere where I have to practice it. When you dismiss those who don't agree with you as demonic, you are not arguing in good faith. And of course they say calling someone a racist is arguing in bad faith, but I have a simple way to get people to stop calling you a racist: stop being a racist. It's that easy.

Travalon and I fled and took a wonderful boat ride, where we saw sailboats with spinnakers up, then we took a walk at Picnic Point. Then, because it was a gorgeous day, we went to the community garden where I have a plot and spread mulch in the children's garden. We have to do three hours of community work for the garden, so one hour down. It's not so bad when you break it up like that.

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Wonderful Day at Lake Wisconsin

Today Travalon and I drove to Lake Wisconsin and had lunch outside at the Thirsty Moose. This was our view during lunch. Who wouldn't be happy looking at this?

As we drove over the causeway, we could see egrets on the marshy side.

And this is the beautiful view in the other direction, toward the lake.

Then we drove to Columbia Lake and walked on the path around it. Usually we see lots of birds there, but today we only saw gulls, swallows, and turkey vultures, until the very end - there were a couple of cormorants on the lake, but they were so far away that the pictures aren't really in focus.

Here we are, posing in front of the Alliant Energy power plant. Notice that I am wearing my Thirsty Moose shirt - the girl working there sure did! Travalon is wearing his Wisconsin River shirt.

We saw a bright yellow train engine.

And a pushme-pullyou train engine!

                              

This is the wetland area between the lake and the Wisconsin River.

Then we drove back along the south side of Lake Wisconsin. We stopped at the spot from which you can see the two little islands.

We stopped at the wayside near the ferry, with a great view of the railroad bridge.

We took the ferry over to the north side of the lake and drove by Owl's Head Bluff. There was a path up the bluff, but it appeared to be on private land.

We went to the park in Merrimac from which you can see almost the whole lake.

Finally, we backtracked a little to see the island in Sunset Bay, just before sunset.

What a beautiful day! And there was a delightful breeze, but it made the water rough. For once I was content not to be on a boat on the lake.

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Poolside Fish Fry

Last night there was quite a storm here! The power kept going out, and the wind was howling around the house. There was so much lightning! This morning my neighbor and I inspected the damage, and there was a tree down behind another neighbor's house. We also met some brand-new neighbors who were just moving in, and we saw more neighbors - the cranes! My walking buddy made a video of them hollering about who knows what, and I tried to attach it, but Blogspot refuses to make it work.

Tonight I went swimming with two Sagittarii at the Cherokee Country Club pool. The neighbor I always walk with can go there with her health club membership, and she brought Travalon and me as guests for $10 each. We swam for over an hour, then you can order food right there, so we had a fish fry by the side of the pool, including a highly suspect old fashioned in a can. They were selling ice cream sandwiches three for the price of one, so our neighbor bought one and gave the other two to Travalon and me. That made us feel like little kids! In a good way. The weather was getting worse, so I came home and talked to Tiffy. She hasn't been to town since the pandemic hit, but she is debating about coming next weekend so we can celebrate her birthday. It feels like ages since I have seen her!

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Fluffy Rainbow Unicorn Clouds

Tonight Travalon and I went swimming again at Governor Nelson, and we saw the same catamaran sailing toward us. I thought it would sail right by us to the marina, but it turned and stopped at the boat launch. The guy never put the sail down, so I'm guessing he ran to the bathroom quickly, but I didn't notice because I was too busy admiring the sail. (We could see the top half of it from where we were.) Then the catamaran sailed away again, toward Governor's Island. We also saw what we think was a young bald eagle flying overhead, and it dove down to the water. It didn't look like it caught anything, and then it too flew toward Governor's Island. At that point I had to get going because I had a weight loss meeting tonight, but this one was kind of fun because we played a review game. I came in second place.

Last night at Night Prayer one participant prayed that sports would come back, presumably because some of them were on strike to protest the police shooting that unarmed guy in Kenosha. I said we should be praying for the poor guy, who will live but probably be paralyzed, and he said well, he had a warrant on him, and he had a knife in his car. Today I emailed Richard Bonomo and said I can't deal with this attitude anymore, and then Rich in his infinite wisdom decided to throw gasoline on the flames and tell me I was angry at the wrong people, I should be angry at pro-choice Catholics. I don't know a whole lot of pro-choice Catholics to be angry at, although it is true that some of the people in our choir were pretty liberal. And maybe that's why I was fine for years at my church: like the song says, I had "clowns on the left of me, jokers on my right" because there was a balance between the ridiculously liberal people and the hardcore conservatives. But now during the pandemic, only the hard right people are going to church, so I no longer feel safely in between all the nonsense but pushed off to the side. Anyway, I think any Catholics who go to our church and are pro-choice hear that they are sinning, but I hear nothing about how racists and greedy bastards are sinning. That's the thing - they don't even think they are wrong! And yet Rich thinks my anger is misplaced? I guess it was misplaced in not being directed so much at him. He is definitely part of the problem, not the solution. Way to be a stereotypical old white man, Rich. As the normal people I follow on Facebook joke, "Apparently being pro-life (which actually only means anti-abortion) taketh away all other sins." If I hear one more person say it's not a problem that black people are being killed by the police "because abortion," I will never go back to my church again.

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Holy Souls Chaplet

I have many types of plants, but they seem to fall into three main categories: those I pay money for that die right away; those I get free that live forever; and the hardest one to understand, the plant I buy that seems happy for years and then suddenly gets sick, and no matter what I do, it doesn't get better. For example, I have a cactus I bought at the farmers' market some time ago, and it was so happy that it grew a couple of little arms. But just now I looked at it, and parts of it are turning white, which doesn't seem like a good sign. Why?? I haven't changed its growing conditions, and it was so happy for so long!

Today I discovered there is a chaplet called the Holy Souls Chaplet, or something along those lines, and it's just a decade of a rosary, but instead of Hail Marys you pray: Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. Then I thought, Hey! That's what I can do with my made-up fifteen bead chaplet! It's a short prayer, so why not do it fifteen times instead of ten? And then at the end I prayed: May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Of course, since it has the starting beads of a regular rosary, I began with the Apostles' Creed, an Our Father, three Hail Marys, and a Glory Be. So - just what I need - another chaplet to add to my repertoire. 

This evening Travalon and I went swimming at Governor Nelson, and we saw a catamaran sail by. I'm not sure why, but they always have brightly-colored sails, while other sailboats just have white sails except for their spinnakers. I've always said my favorite boat is a sailboat, and my favorite sailboat is a catamaran. They can really zip along!... as Richard Bonomo and I found out that time we got stuck in the weeds on the far side of Lake Wingra. In front of all my coworkers. But it was fun getting over there!

Here are some recent photos. First is the rosary someone put some weird pendants on and the pretty glass bracelet I got at the antiques shop in Minocqua on Highway 47, as well as the lovely rosary necklace I got at the shop in downtown Minocqua.  

This is the firefighter Texaco teddy bear Travalon got at the same antiques shop where I got the messed-up rosary and the bracelet that is my favorite color - right where blue meets green!

When Travalon went to Oconomowoc yesterday to visit his mom, he found this stuffed Boo Boo Bear at the antiques shop there. (He said he couldn't find any rosaries.) To his surprise, when he got home, this Yogi Bear shirt was waiting for him! He ordered it back in March and already got his money back because it had never come, so we assumed it never would. But it did! And now it's free!

There was a beautiful sunset last night as I returned home from my adoration hour.

Tonight when we went swimming, we saw this sandcastle some kids had made.

Here is a picture of the beach at Governor Nelson State Park.

I tried to take a picture of the view of downtown, but it didn't really turn out. We have to remember to bring a good camera with us sometime and take a picture with that to really do it justice.

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Scary Eye

Last night Travalon and I went swimming at Governor Nelson, since it was so hot. I was hoping to see some sailboats, but there wasn't really any wind to speak of. Then I did see one slowly motoring along that hadn't put its sail up. It got to Governor's Island and then gave up and headed back in toward all the marinas around where we live, never actually putting up its sail. To my surprise, a second sailboat followed after it, also without its sail up. They looked like twins, both smaller white sailboats going the same speed and direction. I wondered if the second one was following the first one, or if they just saw the first one give up and decided they would too.

Later in the evening my eye swelled up. This happens now and then, and sometimes I know what causes it (usually dust), but last night it hit without warning. It was also the worst I'd ever seen it. My eye really hurt, and the white part was red and so swollen that it was bulging out of the socket, and there was all this liquid running out of it. Is there something on our screened-in porch that I am allergic to? Right now we have the air conditioning on because it's so hot out, so is there dust getting kicked up by the vents? I did an internet search that suggested an antihistamine and some ice would help, and indeed they did, but I didn't think to take a picture of my swollen eye or contact my doctor. It would have been quite a picture! Tomorrow I will try to remember to shoot the doctor an email about this - if it keeps happening, is it a sign that something worse (say, anaphylactic shock) is on the horizon?

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Pondering Evil

 

At the antiques shop in downtown Minocqua, I saw a necklace that seemed like a chaplet, with a cross and then four groups of seven beads. I didn't get it, but later it occurred to me that it was probably an Anglican chaplet, and an internet search confirmed that they do use this configuration. Today my "Sacred Heart" chaplet arrived from Marytown, and it has a Sacred Heart center medal, but it's just a regular rosary as far as the configuration of beads. This wasn't what I saw before, so either they grabbed the wrong thing, or I saw it at a different gift shop.

Continuing my thoughts from yesterday about super-rich people buying struggling businesses and then closing them because it is somehow profitable for them: I am not sure how this is legal, since it certainly isn't ethical, but lately greed doesn't seem to be considered a sin. They did it to Sears, which is a venerable company, and it's like they don't care how many people lose their livelihoods... and then they are the same people who would not want their taxes to go up to support the social safety net, because "people should just get jobs." I can see why a lot of working-class people are deeply suspicious of East Coast politicians, because they are in the pockets of these rich people who do such things, but then I wondered why so many working-class people think our current president is on their side. He is one of the destroyers, claiming bankruptcy for his businesses while coming out ahead personally. He has ruined many small businesses that were contracting with him when he refused to pay them. Then it occurred to me: he was able to play off the evil part of the working class people. They don't care how badly they are treated as long as they are promised that brown people will be treated worse. If they weren't so racist, all the working-class people of every color could band together and vote out the evil rich people who are currently in charge. But that will never happen. It was a sobering glimpse of the ugliness God must see when He looks into the human heart. People will destroy themselves to hold onto their own sin. They would rather be racist and taken advantage of by the powerful than live in a truly equal society. It was a depressing revelation.  

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Day of Detours

 

In case you were curious, here are the photos from yesterday that I couldn't post. First: our view at lunch yesterday.

On the reservation they have these flambeau (torch) decorations on all the streetlights.

This is a unicorn-pegasus inflatable thing we saw on our pontoon boat ride. Isn't it cute?

Here is one of the two teenage loons we saw.

And here is the teenage eagle in the nest.

Today we did get into Mass, then we went for a walk on the Bearskin Trail from the point where it starts in a park in Minocqua. The weather was beautiful, but as we started back, we heard thunder in the distance. By the time we got to the Thirsty Whale, they weren't letting people sit outside on the patio because of the thunderstorm, but we got a seat right by the open door to the patio. Here is our view.

We actually didn't take that many photos today. After lunch we walked to the antiques shop in downtown Minocqua, where Travalon got some old cassette tapes (the tape player still works in his car, but the CD player no longer does), while I found a beautiful rosary necklace. Then we went to the other antiques shop, and I got a few rosaries and chaplets. The traffic was terrible going south on Highway 51, so we took Highway 47, where we found another antiques shop. Travalon got a fireman Texaco teddy bear to go with his car mechanic Texaco teddy bear, and I found something that was clearly a rosary but had the crucifix removed and replaced with random trinkets, so I will restore it to its rightful configuration. We continued south to Highway D, then turned back east and thought we would get south of the bad traffic... but it was even worse there! There were already five cars ahead of us trying to make a left onto Highway 51, but the traffic coming down from Minocqua was bumper to bumper, so we took a detour.

"Take Fawn Lake Road," I told Travalon. This was a beautiful road that passed by a number of lakes, and hardly anyone else was on it. It met back up with Highway 47, and we passed through the town of Lake Tomahawk. Here are a couple of photos of the lake.

Then we took Highway 8 back east to meet up with Highway 51 just north of Tomahawk, because at that point Highway 51 is four lanes so it wasn't so congested. We went into Tomahawk and swam in the Wisconsin River at the beach at Sara Park, and just down the road is the start to the Hiawatha Trail, so we walked on that too. It also starts with an old railroad bridge, and from it you can see a still functioning railroad bridge. (Why did they ever have two so close together??)

Just north of Wausau there is a beautiful hill you can see from the highway, and the map says it is in Brokaw but the exit sign calls it Maine. We overshot the exit, got back on the highway going north (if anyone was tracking us, they would have thought we were insane), and got onto Highway WW, but it was all torn up. Every road going into town was torn up! We drove into town anyway, on a torn-up road, but we couldn't find the beautiful hill. Then I did some internet research to find out why they changed the name of Brokaw, and the story is very sad: there was a paper mill there that specialized in rainbow-colored  office paper, of the kind I have often used at work, but a broker from New York City bought a bunch of paper mills here in Wisconsin and closed that one. The town of Brokaw was deeply in debt, and almost everyone lost their job, so the village dissolved and was taken over by the village of Maine. I was heartbroken to think some rich people from out East figured they could add a couple more million to their personal fortunes, so they ruined an entire village. I literally cried for miles. Also, I was sad because there was an article about how COVID kills more people of color, and I feel like that's why the powers that be don't care at all. More about that tomorrow - it's stunning when God gives you a glimpse of just how evil human hearts can be.

We did see a beautiful sunset just as we approached home.

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Saturday on Northern Lakes

Today Travalon and I drove to a covered bridge on a state forest road, and we took some pictures even though it was raining pretty hard at that point. If you look closely, you can see the raindrops in these photos!

Then we drove to the south side of the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, and this sign for a self-storage company made us laugh:

We saw these people canoeing in the mist, amidst the myriad tiny islands, and it made me really want to canoe, but it's not easy to find a place to rent a canoe in the Flowage.

                             

We drove past a sign for a resort on Little Muskie Lake, so we drove in and asked the owner if she rented canoes. She seemed confused by the question but said she did have some canoes and kayaks and a paddle boat, so for $15 we could use them for the afternoon. (They are for people staying at the resort.) We took out two kayaks and paddled around the periphery of the lake, and that took about an hour. Perfect!

Then we stopped at Sandy Beach Lake and took a walk.

We drove onto the Lac du Flambeau reservation and had a late lunch at a restaurant there. So good! I had an Indian taco made with fry bread. We sat in a covered porch overlooking Lac du Flambeau the lake, and I took a picture of our view, but Blogspot in its infinite wisdom has decided I have put enough photos on this post, so it abruptly stopped letting me add any more. You will just have to imagine it until I get back home and have more bandwidth. 

Then we took a pontoon ride on Lake Minocqua, the same one we had taken before but this time in the evening. We were afraid there would be a thunderstorm right at that time, but in fact the drizzle cleared up and the weather was beautiful. Here is a picture of Beer Can Island, still crazy at that hour with people partying on the sandbar.

And we saw lots of loons! Travalon made a video of a mother with two teenagers, so I will edit and post that at some point.

This boathouse belongs to the family that owns 7-Up.

We saw a spectacular sunset, a bald eagle in a tree, and its teenager in the nest, but Blogspot won't let me post the picture of the young eagle so that will have to wait too.

It was lovely taking the cruise in the evening, because as we headed back to port all the lights were coming up. This is a restaurant called the Thirsty Whale.

Travalon and I tried to go there after the boat ride, but they were done serving food for the evening. We will try to go there tomorrow for lunch after Mass. Hopefully we can get into Mass! There is a limit to how many people can attend, and there are still an awful lot of tourists here, some of whom may be practicing Catholics.

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