Fall Photos (and a Drunk Bird?)

 

So Pete the Sailor Man's birthday party was huge, at least two dozen people on a Zoom call. He was eating chocolate peanut butter ice cream and talking about sailing with a spinnaker. Now I was a little jealous of the ice cream, but I can just go to the store and buy some. I was very jealous of the sailing, because I have always wanted to sail on a boat with the spinnaker up, but I have no idea how to make that happen. The biggest surprise to me is how much of the sailing talk I understood, as they threw around terms like tiller, boom, and halyard. Guess I'm a real sailor wanna-be.

Yesterday Travalon and I took a walk in our neighborhood, and we saw this little cedar waxwing that couldn't fly. Travalon wondered if it was sick, but I noted that it was happily eating crabapples on the ground, so it had a healthy appetite. I wondered if it was a fledgling or injured.

When I mentioned it to my neighbor, she had another thought: the bird was drunk! The crabapples on the ground were fermenting, and the little bird was happily eating them to enjoy a buzz and then couldn't remember how to fly. Makes sense.

Here are some pictures of fall foliage and flowers in our neighborhood that Travalon took with his new phone.

Here Travalon and I are on our dock. People keep talking about gaining the COVID-19, but I have lost 12 pounds since the pandemic started. Not sure if you can tell...

Travalon has lost 35 pounds since the pandemic started! Doesn't he look great?

Here is our little boat, the Megan Jaye.

And here is our canoe, hanging out on the kayak rack.

This evening Travalon and I played tennis, and once again people were watching us. We only had one ball with any bounce left to it, and then it got kind of wet because it was drizzling out, so it didn't bounce anymore. So of course these people were watching us as we played with a bounceless ball - they must have been so impressed with our (lack of) skill. Then I went for a walk with my neighbor, and I saw this sunset.

We saw a child's life jacket floating just off our dock, but the net on the dock was just two inches too short for us to reach it. I mentioned it to Travalon when I got home, and he said he will try to get it tomorrow, since he has longer arms than either of us and might be able to reach two inches further.

My neighbor went to Olbrich this afternoon, and she sent me this video she took of the fountain in front of the Thai pavilion.

Hopefully the little cedar waxwing sobered up enough to fly into a tree before nightfall, when all the creatures that would eat it start prowling. We definitely have raccoons and coyotes in the neighborhood!

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Rainy Day in Waterloo and Watertown

 

Sorry for the silence yesterday. Travalon and I overslept, waking up just before Mass began, so we had a quiet morning and then hit the road. Our rainy day contingency plan was to go to an antiques store in Waterloo, where I found several rosaries, including a large, hand-carved wooden one from France, and then we went to Watertown. The main antiques store in town was closed, even though the internet said it would be open on a Sunday, so we went to a couple of other ones. Travalon noted there were perfect stocking stuffers at the first one.

Then we went to a small family-owned one, and he found this literal Teddy bear. Doesn't he look just like Teddy Roosevelt?

We went to a bookstore in Watertown that has a second-story inside balcony overlooking the street, and we had grilled cheese sandwiches, lattes, and pastries. Then we took a rainy walk on Tivoli Island.

This is the foundation of a building that used to be on Tivoli Island. I believe it was a dance hall. That was way back around the turn of the last century.

We stopped at the antiques store in Lake Mills too - no rosaries, but I did find this chiwara statue. It's a West African antelope god who taught the people how to cultivate crops. I have always thought the chiwara was so beautiful, and then I read somewhere that it is associated with Capricorn somehow, so there you go - it's my sign.

We got back to town just in time for Mass, and our parish priest had said a couple of weeks ago that the 5 pm was lightly attended, but there were just as many people there as at 9 am. (At least almost all of them wore masks!) And the priest did note it was the most people he had seen there since COVID started. Thwarted! I was hoping to attend a lightly populated Mass. When we got home, the weather had finally cleared up, so we went for another walk, and there was a gorgeous sunset.

Then we watched the Packers beat the Saints in real time. The first two games (which they also won) we mostly heard on the radio, and we did tape them, but we haven't watched them yet.

Last week Travalon went for a walk around Tiedeman Pond while I was working. Remember those beautiful lotus blossoms? Now everything is dying back.

Tonight I had a video meeting with my new financial advisor (the old one got promoted), and he looked about twenty. Usually I look okay on Zoom meetings, but he uses WebEx, and boy did I look haggard! So the question is: which one is more accurate? Then Travalon and I took a boat ride out to the marsh and collected five lotus seed pods, but all the seeds were rotten. We did see a blue heron that let us get surprisingly close to it.

We went back to the river and got one perfect seed pod in a patch of lotuses closer to our house. We saw a beautiful sunset.

Then we went out into the lake and got another view of the sunset.

We also saw the moon coming up.

We saw lots of ducks and three mysterious birds like cormorants, swimming with just their heads above the water, except that they were tiny. They were smaller than coots! When we got closer, they dove beneath the water. Then we came home, and I took the lotus seeds out of the seed pod. Sorry that this photo is so blurry. They were a little browner than the ones I got last week, and they didn't taste quite as good. I guess lotus seeds are best gotten right around the autumnal equinox.

Gotta go - we're doing some sort of Zoom birthday party for Pete the Sailor Man.

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Hike in the Woods and Dinner Outside

 

Today was so much fun. Travalon and I drove out to American Players Theater, where we joined Richard Bonomo, the Single B-Boy, and the Dairyman's Daughter for a program called "If These Trees Could Talk." They haven't been able to do any plays this season due to COVID, but this was something where we each got a little MP3 player (we had to bring our own headphones), then we listened to the APT actors recite poetry as we hiked through the woods. Travalon and I brought our good cameras.

Travalon didn't really like the poetry, so when we went up to the empty theater and listened to the second half of the program, he turned his machine off. Which is too bad, because they had great stories about mosquitos, ghosts, an actress's earring melting to the stage, and a luna moth that hovered above a scene with fairies from a Shakespeare play. People thought it was a puppet because it fit the scene so well! Kind of different than my one experience with a luna moth, down in Montgomery, Alabama, where I lost a fight with it about whether I could move it from the sidewalk to the grass. Here is a picture of the stage.

Travalon (who hates snakes) spotted this baby milk snake slithering along the stage. It went into a crack. No worries, they are not venomous.

Then Rich suggested we go somewhere for dinner. I thought 5:00 was way too early to start thinking about dinner, but we went to a supper club in Spring Green called Arthur's, and they were so busy that we didn't get our dinner until after 7:00, which was fine with me. We were sitting outside, having delicious food and great conversation, and then some of us got chocolate cake or ice cream drinks, so by the time we got done, it was almost time for Night Prayer. Since Rich, the Dairyman's Daughter, and I are the three main organizers, and none of us could get home in time to organize it, Rich just sent an email from his phone saying there would be no Night Prayer tonight. We can explain later that we were too busy partying!

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Renewing Our Vows

 

Yesterday we had a farewell party for another couple who are moving out of our neighborhood, and once again I ate like a pig, and then ironically I had another weight loss meeting. (This happened after the last neighborhood farewell party too.) It was lovely because the hosts have a patio, and there was a light drizzle but they have a canopy that they can put up over the patio, so we sat under it and the rain pattered on top of it. The neighbor I always walk with completely forgot about the party, but later in the evening she and I went out for a walk, and she took this gorgeous picture of our neighborhood. I'm jealous - my phone doesn't take very good nighttime shots.

Then today when we went for a walk, she brought a water balloon, and we played catch with it as we walked along until she threw it way over my head (on purpose, methinks) so I couldn't possibly catch it, and splat it went on the road. Here is a not terribly exciting photo of that.

Meanwhile, Travalon was hiking at his favorite spot, Holy Wisdom Monastery. He tells me there is another, smaller pond there, and he sent photographic proof.

Last night I realized I had not taken a picture of the rosaries I got at the antiques store in Stevens Point before I had started praying them, so here is that photo. Not pictured: a rosary exactly like the one I got at the flea market in Mineral Point, not left out because I already had a photo of an identical one, but simply because I somehow missed it.

After I got done with work this afternoon, Travalon and I played tennis, and once again some neighbors watched us. I really wish they wouldn't do that since we stink so much. We don't play by any rules, so sometimes the ball bounces two (or three...) times before we return it. Once we got done, we put the lasso rosary on and renewed our wedding vows. I know, random time, not our anniversary or anything, but I got the lasso rosary (on the right) along with the colorful rosary on the left at Holy Hill because I collect rosaries, and it's not a type I already have. Some people use them during weddings to "yoke" the couple together, but I didn't think of that six years ago. Then I prayed with the lasso rosary, and while generally I don't get any particular feeling from a new rosary, this one felt very blessed. I wonder... did we somehow bless it when we renewed our vows?

We did have some witnesses: Zephyr, Indigo, Randy, and Solstice!

I told Travalon not to worry, I won't torture him again with the lasso rosary until our anniversary. Maybe I'll even wear my wedding dress, now that I have lost enough weight to fit in it again. (In fact, it might even be too large at this point.) We always watch our wedding video, so I can sit there in my wedding dress, yoked to Travalon with the lasso rosary, as we watch it again next May. Also, if you know anyone who is getting married soon, I have a whole box of stuff in the closet they could use: white lights, a white cardboard wishing well for cards, white cardboard bells, and tons and tons of white tulle.

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It's Too Late Already

 

As I discussed yesterday, the Republicans are going to ram through a Supreme Court justice and thereby violate their own principle in 2016 that the people should choose in an election year. It gets worse, because we have this insane electoral college, and in the past electors have always voted in good faith, but they do not actually have to be selected by the people. If they are selected by the state legislators of heavily gerrymandered states (like my own) that are dominated by Republicans, then even if the people of the state vote for a Democrat for president, the legislatures could take it upon themselves to choose electors who will vote for the Republican candidate. If there is a court challenge, where does it go? To the now heavily skewed Conservative court, who would of course uphold the Republican candidate's argument. If you think this can't happen, know that they are already planning for it. This is it, folks - our democracy is dead. And if we get out in the streets and protest, the heavily-armed thugs on the Republican side will just start shooting us, and the cops won't stop them - we have already seen that. And they will be held up as heroes, like that kid who came to Kenosha just to kill people and will probably get away with it. I don't know what can be done to save us now. The dictatorship starts in November.

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Lion's Den Gorge and Holy Hill

 

Lots of people are calling Mitch McConnell a hypocrite for refusing to hold a hearing for Obama's Supreme Court Justice nominee nine months before an election, but now promising to confirm Trump's nominee mere weeks before the election. However, they are wrong. Moscow Mitch is not a hypocrite, because that is someone who does not follow his own principles. If Moscow Mitch had justice and fairness as his principles, then yes, he would be a hypocrite. He has principles, but they are monstrous: win at any cost, and destroy your opponents. So what he did is entirely consistent. I will leave it to my readers to decide which is worse, a hypocrite or a man with monstrous principles.

Here are some recent photos. These are the two rosaries I got on the Riverwalk in Sauk on Saturday. The jade one is on the left - the green doesn't really show up in the photo. The one on the right is a lovely clear glass one.

When I had band practice on Sunday, Travalon went to the zoo and got a stuffed capybara. He named it after our South American friend, Sergio.

Here are my peach and green Beanie Baby bears.

Yesterday while I was at work, Travalon went to visit his mother, and then he went for a hike at Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve near Grafton. Here are some photos. I have never been there, but he says he will take me soon.

This morning there was mist over the marsh as the sun was rising. My photo is okay; my neighbor's photo was much better, but for some reason she didn't send it to me.

Then I took the afternoon off, and we went to Holy Hill. I got a lasso rosary, which is for a wedding but I didn't think to get one before our wedding. I figured we could use it to renew our vows or something. Anyway, I collect different rosaries, and I don't have one like this, and it is beautiful. I will post a photo soon. I also got a colorful rosary, but even though it's brand new, it's in rough shape like one of my antique ones - it keeps coming apart in one spot, and it's missing a bead entirely in another one! I guess it will fit right in with my collection. Travalon really wanted a little figurine of St. Michael (Kathbert would be so proud), and he found one he really liked. Then we did the outdoor Stations of the Cross. Here are photos of the holy water grotto and the towers.

After that we hiked on the Monches section of the Ice Age Trail, beside the Oconomowoc River, but Travalon didn't take any photos of that. He did make a video of a small waterfall at Lion's Den Gorge.

Who knew the middle of the week would be so exciting for us? 

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