Dancing Blue Cranes

 

Here is the promised movie of the blue cranes at the International Crane Foundation dancing:

They were really dancing before Travalon shot this footage, but they're still shimmying a bit for the camera. I just love their beautiful blue-gray color and weird-shaped heads. These cranes are native to South Africa, so we won't see any in our neighborhood anytime soon. At least we can see them at the Crane Foundation! If you haven't been to it, you should check it out. The birds are really impressive.

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Some Answers

 

I have some answers for questions recently posed here on Famous Hat the Blog. First of all, Williamson Street is named after some guy Hugh Williamson who signed the Constitution. I didn't even know that was a thing; I've heard of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, but not the signers of the Constitution. Willy Street is one of the original streets in town, and Travalon thought it was named after Ivan "Ivy" Williamson, who was a Badger football coach in the 50's, and then the athletic director until 1969, so I figured it must have had a name before that and then they renamed it after him. It took a lot of research, but I finally found that the street was always called Williamson, after this Hugh Williamson. I had never heard of him before this.

The second answer I have is about the brown cormorants. They are not another species; they are just immature cormorants. There were three of them hanging out on what used to be One Tree Island, so maybe they are nest mates. Or maybe young cormorants hang out in groups, since a lot of other birds do. When I told a guy at the Crane Foundation about how the whooping crane at Theresa Marsh was hanging out with a bunch of sandhill cranes, he said cranes that are too young to breed tend to hang out in groups like that. He said they aren't old enough to breed until they are five. I'm amazed there are any cranes, if that is the case, since they have such high mortality rates in their first year of life, but there just seem to be more and more of them in our neighborhood. I keep waiting for the day we see an actual whooping crane or two strolling along in our 'hood. That would be something to see! The guy at the Crane Foundation said there are only about eighty wild whooping cranes in our state, so it's kind of amazing that we have seen so many.

I am tired of people saying "The Board says..." when it's not what I say. Maybe the problem is that I am on too many boards, but just yesterday the president of the Union sent an email to the members saying the Board would like to see everyone at a pro-abortion rally at the Capitol Square on Saturday. You would think before signing on to something that is so controversial, he would have asked us all if we were okay with our names being put on it. Then today we had our annual condo association meeting, and Monday evening the board met, and we agreed owners could bring motions that owners could vote on, but 67% of owners would have to vote for it to pass. Of course tonight the person we figured was going to bring something up did, and I thought we were going to vote on it, but the president said, "The board discussed this, and we're not going to have a vote on it." Say what?? That's her rule, not "the Board's." I didn't agree to that. I mean, it sounds kind of dictatorish and stuff. I guess I just hate having other people put words in my mouth. I need the room to put my own foot in there.

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Birdwatching Boat Ride

 

Today I took the morning off of work, since the weather report said it was going to be beautiful, and Travalon and I took a boat ride into Six Mile Creek. Just before we got to the creek, we saw an egret standing in the water. I wonder if it was the same one we saw this past spring near our dock for one day? We were pretty far from the egret, and of course we don't bring the good camera on the boat in case it would get wet, so no pictures. The egret completely ignored us.

Then we went into the creek, where we of course saw mallards, Canada geese, and gulls. We also saw a couple of blue herons flying away from us, and a pair of sandhill cranes standing in the water, and another egret also standing in the water that flew away as we approached. We went so far up the creek that we could see the bridge for Highway M, but it got so shallow that we stopped the motor and rowed back almost to the mouth of the creek. We saw the pair of sandhill cranes again, but oddly this time they flew away as we neared, when we should have been much quieter rowing than motoring along. Then we saw another pair of sandhill cranes, but they also flew away as we approached. I saw the egret sitting in a tree, and then after we passed, it flew back toward the water. 

Once we were back in the channel out to the lake, we saw a bunch of ducks on the dead tree in the middle of the water. They tell me this used to be a substantial island that people camped on, but it keeps eroding, and when we first moved in it was a tiny island with a single tree on it. We dubbed it One Tree Island, but the island part washed out from under the tree, which died and collapsed. Now ducks like to hang out on its bare branches, but we also saw cormorants. They were brown, not black like I'm used to, so I'm wondering if this is autumn plumage for them. Unless they are a different type of cormorant...? That seems less likely. Anyway, it was a beautiful day with perfect sunshine and temps, and the birdwatching was excellent. I'm so glad I used four hours of vacation time!

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Pewit's Nest and Crane Foundation

 

Yesterday I wasn't feeling that well during Mass, and at brunch Rich commented that I didn't look well. We didn't have Irish class because at the same time there was a program about old Irish tales which I forgot to sign up for in time, so I told Travalon we had lots of time to wander. We decided to go to Lake Wisconsin, and first we stopped at the dam in Sauk.

We stopped by the monastery outside of Sauk to leave a donation, and I wasn't going to take yet another rosary, but they had made a bunch of new ones so I looked through them and found a beautiful coral one. It looked like it might glow under blacklight - and it does! Photos soon... We also went to the park in Merrimac from which you can see most of Lake Wisconsin.

Then I suggested that we go to Pewit's Nest. My classmate from my previous Irish class had mentioned hiking there, and we had passed it once in our wanderings. We quickly found it, just west of Baraboo on Highway W, and found it was a beautiful grotto with a waterfall.

We also hiked up to look at it from above.

After that walk I felt much better, so we went to the International Crane Foundation, since we are members and can go whenever we want for no charge. The sarus cranes suddenly began calling and dancing, but we didn't get a video of it - it happened too suddenly. Here is a photo of them.

The blue cranes danced for us too. Travalon got a video of that, which I will post at some point.

I really love the black crowned crane.

Here is one of the demoiselle cranes.

At first we didn't see the wattled cranes, but then they came out of their house to see us.

I think these are Eurasian cranes. I can't find the map right now.

The red-crowned crane is so photogenic.

It looks like the crane is listening to us! We felt sorry for it because it was all alone, so we were talking to it.

This brolga (an Australian crane) was not out when we went in July, but yesterday it poked its head out to look at us.

This is the black-necked crane, an Asian crane.

And this is one of the whooping cranes. They are so beautiful and snowy white.

Then we came home and watched the Packers game. At first both the offense and defense were looking good, and they were up 17-0 at halftime. Of course the offense did that thing where they stall in the third quarter, and then the defense couldn't stop the Forty Niners, so they kept getting touchdowns. They were up by a point with 37 seconds left, and the Packers had no time outs left, but Rodgers threw to Adams and got the ball far enough down the field for Crosby to work his magic and kick a field goal as time ran out. Packers by two points!! People were calling it a "walk-off win," and I'm very familiar with walk-off homers in baseball, but I'd never heard of a walk-off win in football before. But that's what it was!

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Another Tie Game for the Forward

 

Today Travalon and I had a quiet day for the most part: we watched cartoons, we walked around the neighborhood, we watched that terrible Badgers game, and we took a hike at Jackson's Landing. We did walk to the Nau-Ti-Gal for lunch and watch part of the game there. Three turnovers! Oh man, did they look terrible against Notre Dame! But it was a big day for the other side, because their Coach Kelly has now won more games than Knute Rockne.

We had a far more exciting evening: we went to a Forward Football Club game! Now a "football club" is what most people in this country call a "soccer team," so this was actual football, played with a round ball and the feet, not what the Badgers had been playing, which a meme on social media says should really be called "arm egg." As always, the Flock were there, singing and playing the drums through the whole game. Toward the end of the first half, the Forward scored!! They set off pink smoke by the Flock, and Travalon took a photo.

Here is a photo of the players. The Forward are in the blue jerseys.

I got a new scarf at the game! I love the West African pattern on it.

That was at the half. Then right toward the end of the game, the other team scored, so it ended up as a 1-1 tie. At least that was more interesting than the 0-0 tie we went to earlier this summer... After the game, we went to the big team store (I had gotten the scarf at the little team store at the far end of the field), and at first there wasn't much I liked except a scarf... but I realized it was the same one! This guy saw me looking at it and then realizing I was already wearing the same scarf, and he was pretty amused. But then I did find a tie-dyed T-shirt and a pair of earrings, and Travalon got a hat and a T-shirt.

This has absolutely nothing to do with football/soccer, but last weekend Tiffy went to the beach in Racine, and last night when we talked, she sent me a photo.

It practically looks like the tropics! I love the blue-green water, white sand, and sailboat in the distance. Speaking of sailboats, I never did get to go sailing this summer. The season isn't quite over, but it's looking less and less likely. My favorite is when someone takes me out who knows how to sail but lets me do some of the work with much instruction. I sail like I drove a train at the Illinois Railway Museum - just fine as long as someone is telling me exactly what to do.

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More Stuff Under Blacklight

 

I am starting to get really fed up with these memes that anti-vaxxers are posting on social media. It's fascinating that they have the freedom to refuse the vaccine, but they don't think we have the freedom to be mad at them for it. Freedom for me and not thee much, anti-vaxxers? Particularly disingenuous are the chastisements of all the people who think anti-vaxxers deserve what they get - how rich to hear that people shouldn't wish others dead from the same people who had no problem with the pandemic when it was mostly killing minorities and people in more densely populated cities. Can we just admit once and for all that both sides suck and wish the other side would die off? And yes, I do in fact hold the right-wingers to a higher standard on this, since they are the ones always blathering about being such good Christians, and as Christians we are called to forgive our enemies, so they have less excuse for wishing their enemies dead than the leftist atheists they hate. Another meme they post: "Why is the government giving out free vaccines but not free chemotherapy?" Tell me you're illogical without saying you're illogical: these are the same people opposed to socialized medicine, which would in fact give people chemotherapy without charging them. And then they wonder why the rest of us are angry at them!

My neighbor joined the secret society I'm in, since she saw how much I enjoy it, and she was at a summit where they got Wonder Marty ornaments to paint. I apologize for not taking a picture of Wooden Wonder Marty pre-paint job, but she said I should give him a tie-dyed stomach, so I did.

And since these were my blacklight paints, he glows under blacklight!

Today I worked from home, and it was autumnal out, so I wore my Galena hoodie. It also glows under blacklight. Apologies for the lousy photo - I may try it again with the light at a better angle.

And yet another rosary that I got at the Willy Street Fair partially glows under blacklight.

And guess what else kind of glows under blacklight? Jer-Bear!

It seems fitting that something named after Jerry Garcia would glow under blacklight. Travalon bought some psychedelic art prints at the Willy Street Fair, and I should at least take photos of them in sunlight, but maybe they glow under blacklight too. That's a post for another time.

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Willy Street Fair Parade Video

 

Today Travalon got home a little early, so we went for a walk in the woods across from the bluff in the last of the daylight. We could see glistening orange through the trees where the sun was setting - it was very beautiful but probably wouldn't have looked like much in a photo.

Here, at last, is the promised video of the Willy Street Fair parade, with footage shot by Travalon on his iPhone. Watch for the Bubblemobile, Brazilian percussion, drag queens on stilts, unicycles, dancing butterflies, the Forward marching band, and a dancing river.

I have never felt more like I belonged in a place. I wore the outfit featured on here previously of my brightest tie-dyed shirt, Buddhist prayer beads, a chakra necklace, and of course the sequel to Famous Hat. You can see in the video where one of our grads students, who plays in the Forward marching band, greets me. Willy Street is a special place, unless you are from out of town and call it Williamson Street. (Honestly, I have no idea who Williamson is. Most of the streets in Madison are named after presidents or former chancellors of the university.) I felt the same sense of belonging during a Very Important Meeting with a bunch of deans and faculty members, even though I was the least important person in the room. Maybe it's part of being something larger than yourself, like the university and the crazy culture that is Madtown. I can't imagine living anywhere else... when the weather is nice. (Ask me again in January...) 

Dear readers, I have to tell you that I am such a dork that I cried during the parade, right when the Brazilian drums passed by. They were tears of ecstasy. I was already primed for an ecstatic experience because just before we got there, on the community radio station's early music station they had played a piece by Scheidt that always sends me into ecstasy. We sang it in my OTHER choir with Easter words, "Surrexit Christus Hodie," but this version had Christmas words, "Puer Natus in Bethlehem." I say any time of year is a good time for Scheidt (other than Lent, since the piece prominently features the word "Alleluia"). Why not during the Willy Street Fair? If I only knew how to say that in Latin... Rich? Help?

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Packers Beat the Lions

 

I don't have a lot of time to blog tonight because Boethius my computer spent half the evening updating, and then (as usual) he is running slower than ever after this last update. I think those evil folks at Apple are purposely slowing him down more with each update so that eventually I will cave and get a newer computer. Last night I didn't blog because we were busy watching the Packers beat the Lions (sorry, Prairie Man!), though at the start of the game it was by no means a foregone conclusion, when the Lions roared down the field (as the announcers punned) and got a touchdown on their opening drive. True Confession: we were unable to watch last week's game in real time, so we taped it, but then we learned that the Packers lost to the Saints 31-3, so there was no point in watching that!

Here are some photos from our recent adventures. Travalon took this photo of me with the lotus seed head I had just picked, and the sunset in the background.

This is the little rosary bracelet I got at the Willy Street Fair. I thought it might light up under blacklight, and indeed it does!

I had gotten the cheap, bright pink rosary at Holy Hill thinking it might glow under blacklight, but it does not. However, one rosary I got there does - the little kid one with smiley hearts!

Even the hearts light up! So my collection of blacklight rosaries continues to grow!

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Jilly Moose's Birthday and Willy Street Fair

 

Yesterday was Jilly Moose's birthday, so in the morning Travalon and I met her for coffee at Crema Cafe, then the three of us drove to Holy Hill. Tiffy had said she might meet us, but she decided not to, which was a good thing because it was bananas there - they were having a craft fair, so we had to park very far away and, worse, downhill. We thought about checking out the craft fair, but you had to pay to get in, so we just went up to the shrine. Here are some photos Travalon took.

This is a little model of the first church on Holy Hill.

This is a model of the current church.

This cross is the first religious relic on Holy Hill. It was made out of wood by some German immigrants, and it has words in German carved on it.

It was a beautiful day, so we could easily see the skyscrapers of downtown Milwaukee from the upper lever of the shrine. Then we went to the gift shop, and of course I bought rosaries. 

From left to right: a little kid's rosary that I thought was adorable, a lavender rosary I thought was so pretty, a bright pink rosary that cost almost nothing and that I hoped would glow under blacklight (nope), and a Chotki, which is an Eastern Rite chaplet on which you pray the "Jesus Prayer" one hundred times. I'm not sure why I was inspired to buy one at Holy Hill when I didn't buy one at the actual Eastern Rite monastery we went to some years ago, but this one did come with instructions. I had no idea it was kind of like yoga, but it's sort of a breathing exercise, because you're supposed to breathe in during "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God," and then you're supposed to breathe out on "Have mercy on me, a sinner." It's really hard to do this one hundred times! I did it last night. 

Here is a close-up of the little kid's rosary so you can see the smiling hearts that are the Our Father beads. So cute!

On the way home from Holy Hill, we took a walk in Oconomowoc between two of the lakes, and we also checked out that weird thing in Ixonia that looks like a fierce robot. In the evening Jilly Moose had a bonfire at her house, and a lot of Night Prayer people showed up. The ones who couldn't joined us remotely for Night Prayer. That was a lot of fun.

Today right after Mass, Travalon and I went home and changed into tie-dye to go to the Willy Street Fair. The parade was supposed to start at eleven, and we got there at quarter after and there was no sign of it, so we assumed we had missed it. However, we immediately found the West African food cart that has baobab shakes, so we got real food there too, for lunch. Just after we finished, there was a commotion, and it was the parade! Here is a video of the start of it.

We also shopped, and I was shocked to find rosaries at the Willy Street Fair. Honestly, I think this vendor might have been the same as the shop at the mall that sells alpaca wool products. The rosary on the right has square beads!

Here are some more videos of the parade. Travalon took more, and I will try to assemble his into a short movie and post it soon.

After the festival, we took a hike on Governor's Island, and then after my Irish class, we took a short boat ride. I took some photos of the moonrise and Travalon in the boat, but this photo of the remnants of the sunset was the only one that really turned out. 

We found one perfectly ripe seed head in the lotus patch in the river, so I picked it, and we each ate a seed. The little baby plant was perfectly formed in my seed, so that made me sad briefly, but the stuff inside the seed was so tasty, and anyway we already have enough lotus plants all over. We did pass one lone lotus, and Travalon said it was a lonesome lotus. I said that sounded like a song, so I made one up:

            Lonesome lotus, all by itself.

            Lonesome lotus, out on the shelf.

            Lonesome lotus, can't pollinate,

            Lonesome lotus, but it wants to mate.

            Lonesome lotus will never have seeds,

            Lonesome lotus, but it has needs.

I feel like there was an equally bad song I came up with yesterday or earlier today, but my readers are spared because now I can't remember it at all.

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Delicious Debris

 

Tonight Travalon and I went to the Mexican restaurant right near our house for Mexican Independence Day. Unlike Cinco de Mayo, which most Americans seem to think is Mexico's birthday, on Mexico's actual birthday you can easily get into the restaurant. They were celebrating with live musicians strolling around, and I wore red and green Mardi Gras beads to celebrate the occasion. We sat outside, since it was such a beautiful evening, and we had our usual shrimp chimichangas. As always, I only ate half of mine, so the waiter brought us two boxes, since Travalon seemed to be slowing down as well. However, he ate all of his. The waiter asked if we wanted anything else, and I said how about tres leches cake, since it was a birthday party so we should have cake. We split a slice, and of course I ate about two bites since I was already full. Conveniently enough, we had that second box so we could take the cake home too. Tres leches cake is very crumbly, so there were some crumbles left on the plate, and Travalon scooped them up with his fork and said, "I'll get the debris. Delicious debris!" and I said that was an excellent blog post title. Only thing is, it has nothing to do with Mexican Independence Day. What's Spanish for "c'est la vie"? 

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Pajama Ice Cream Run

 

My homework this month for the secret club I'm in was to get ice cream in our pajamas, so we decided to go tonight because the Flavor of the Day was Decadent Chocolate. Of course we got there five minutes before they closed, and they were out of it. I asked if they had the pumpkin-flavored frozen custard yet, but they said not until next Wednesday. I ended up just getting pretzel bites, while Travalon got a peanut butter and caramel concrete mixer. I had to bring our club mascot, Wonder Marty, and here's a picture of me (in my pajamas) with him.

Here is Travalon with Wonder Marty at the drive-thru window.

And here is Wonder Marty with Travalon's concrete mixer.

I know - I failed at the "ice cream" part of the pajama ice cream run, but I was more in the mood for salty than sweet anyway. I did have a bite of Travalon's concrete mixer (so good!), so does that count?

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Just Calling It Like I See It

 

What is this trend now of saying it's wrong for people to criticize you for what you are doing wrong? For example, a Supreme Court judge was speaking at a very partisan event, which would have been unthinkable a generation ago, and she bemoaned the fact that people consider the justices partisan. Right there while she was BEING partisan! Or in a state that recently enacted draconian new voting regulations specifically meant to keep people of color from voting, the leader of the state legislature asked that the other legislators refrain from using the term "racism" in their arguments against the bill. Apparently nowadays it's okay to be as evil as you can, but it's beyond the pale for anyone to call you on it. I have a simple solution for these folks: if you don't want to be called something bad, don't act like it. If you don't want to be called "partisan," don't be partisan. If you don't want to be called "racist," don't be racist. Try it and see! Even Chivington, who swore he didn't do anything wrong at the Sand Creek Massacre, had the decency to drop out of a political race when his opponents brought it up, instead of saying that was a low blow, and he is about the worst person who ever existed. How is it an insult when it's just the truth?

Weird that you can't find astrology stuff at the malls, because it's going strong on State Street. I know of at least three shops selling jewelry, soap, and other stuff for each sign, and now the bubble tea place is getting in on the action. As I walked from work to Adoration today, I saw they had a sign outside recommending a flavor of bubble tea for each zodiac sign. The one for Capricorn was lychee and raspberry, which seemed like a weird combination. Instead, I went to the Globe and got their Tibetan dumplings. Those things are addictive! I'm not sure why I love their sauce when I hate barbecue sauce, but it's a tomato and ginger and sesame sauce, so different enough that I love it instead of hating it.

As promised, here are Travalon's photos from Holy Hill:

It is a gorgeous shrine in a gorgeous setting. I hope to get there myself soon, maybe next month. We are doing the Ice Age Trail Challenge again this October, and last year tons of people posted photos of the section of the trail by Holy Hill because it's breathtaking with the leaves all colorful. We may just have to do that section for the challenge this year.

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