Meetings and a Rainbow

 

I was dreading today, and it didn't disappoint. I had four meetings: one trying to convince a person about to lose their job to change their evil ways, but they don't see the problem with their behavior; one where my boss took credit for a project I did; and one where some residents wanted to meet with the condo board, and they had all this extra work they wanted me to do. The one that wasn't horrible was a food waste subgroup I am on, where we talked about possibly using the little food delivery robots to bring food waste to the recycle center - that's kind of a cool idea! I love the little food delivery robots... although they are a bit pokey, and the one time I ordered from them, my pasta was lukewarm by the time it arrived. Not an issue with food waste just going to a composter! It was a stroke of genius for the university to order those robots four months before the pandemic shut everything down, and then they were a lifesaver, bringing food to students quarantined in their dorms. Someone had some real foresight there!

There was one lovely touch late this afternoon, not long before I got done with work, when I gazed out the window facing over the lake and was pleasantly surprised to see a rainbow.

I was going to post photos of my new acquisitions under blacklight, and the hat doesn't disappoint.

However, the blacklight poster I got, while it glows perfectly well, was mislabeled so it is the exact same mushroom poster that I already have. Would anyone like a blacklight mushroom poster for Christmas? And the tapestry, while beautiful, does not glow under blacklight, so both things I got at the hippie store were a bust. Who knew a $3 hat from Goodwill would win the prize for Best Blacklight Acquisition on Small Business Saturday?

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Small Business Saturday 2021

 

Yesterday was Travalon's favorite day of the year: Small Business Saturday! We met Jilly Moose and OK Cap for coffee downtown, then the four of us went up and down State Street. I bought a poster and a tapestry that should glow under blacklight - photos soon! I was also looking for "sports" things for a Secret Santa activity I'm doing, but they had to be things small enough to fit into the smallest size of flat rate shipping box. Also, what does "sports" mean? Most people who are into sports like a particular team, so it would have been more helpful to say "Blackhawks" or "Seahawks" or whatever team they are into. Travalon and I went to the big antiques mall in town, but we didn't find anything there, so we checked the dollar store, but we didn't find anything there. We did find a funny LeBron James ornament and a random packet of NFL stuff at Walgreens, so that is what my person is getting. My one word was "blacklight," so I'm curious to see what my Secret Santa will send me... Oh yeah, we also stopped by Goodwill in case they had any random, very small sports stuff, which they did not, but I bought a hat that will glow under blacklight. I promise to post photos of all this very soon...

In the evening Travalon and I joined Kathbert at Rich's house for Thanksgiving leftovers, then I went to a Baroque music concert, and most of the pieces were in D Minor, so I liked that. I guess it was because that is considered the "requiem key," and this concert was dedicated to the victims of the Waukesha Christmas parade tragedy. After Travalon picked me up, we drove through the Christmas lights display at Olin-Turville Park. Some of the old favorites seem to be missing, like the little girl who goes down the stairs and wakes up Santa, and the carolers who come to the door, but on the other hand there seemed to be more light displays than ever. Maybe those older ones just wore out?

Today Travalon and I went for a hike on the Ice Age Trail at Lapham Peak. We were trying to get to the observation tower, but we hiked quite a ways up the hill and never got to the tower, so eventually we just turned around and went back. It would be beautiful in the summer or fall, but right now everything is dead, so there isn't much to see. There are some fun boardwalks. Then we went home and watched the Packers game. The Rams were worthy opponents, but Rasul Douglas kept hassling them on the defense, and he got a pick six and almost got another one. He ended up being the player of the game. As my regular readers may remember, the Packers picked him up because all their cornerbacks were injured, and he is making a case for himself to be in the starting lineup even when everyone is back. Anyway, it was a satisfying win because it was an exciting game, although the Packers were ahead the whole time. Still, at times it was so close that their victory was by no means assured. Too bad the Badgers weren't as successful - they lost the Paul Bunyan axe to the Golden Gophers yesterday.

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Hiking in Mazomanie

 

Yesterday was very cold and windy. Travalon and I went on a hike by the Yahara River, but the wind was so fierce that we could barely stand it. We went home to thaw and have some hot cocoa, and then we braved Jackson's Landing, which is more woodsy and sheltered so not nearly as bad. After that we went to Rich's house for the usual Thanksgiving crowd of about a dozen random people, and we had the turkey Travalon and I brought, lots of interesting sides, and several desserts from the person who always brings them... although no pumpkin pie. I had been thinking of making one, but I knew there would already be way too many desserts. There was a new guy there who was fascinating; he had studied years ago in the department where I now work, so we knew a number of people in common. We had a lot to talk about.

Today was cold, but not windy like yesterday. Travalon looked up places we could safely hike during deer hunting season (since the Ice Age Trail tends to go through land where hunting is allowed), and he found a county park in Mazomanie that sounded promising. When we first got to Mazomanie, we saw some bridges that looked interesting, so we found our way to the trailhead of the Wolf Run Trail. It went along Black Earth Creek. Travalon took some photos.

We could see another trail on the other side of the creek, so we found that trailhead and followed it to Lake Marion. There were intriguing rock formations along the trail.

We both thought Travalon had taken a photo of Lake Marion, which is a very small lake, or maybe a big pond, but if so, it didn't upload to my computer. We'll just have to go back.

Then we went to our original destination, a county park called Morton Forest after the family that donated the land. There were cool rock formations there as well, as we climbed a bluff.

At the top of the bluff, there were a couple of stunning overlooks.

The cloud on the lower right looks as if God is giving the view a thumb's up!

Here I am, with the sweeping vista behind me.

We drove along a road that gave us an incredible view of Blue Mound, so we drove to Blue Mound State Park on the top of the mound. The views were amazing, but we were so hiked out that we didn't bother getting out of the car to take a photo. Then we drove back to Madison to get coffee beans at EVP, since there was a branch of it right on our way. First we split a delicious margarita pizza at Luigi's, then we went to the Chocolate Shoppe for ice cream. We channeled our inner children and got the special cones with sprinkles on them! I had Snap-o-Lantern ice cream, which is pumpkin with ginger snaps in it, and Travalon had Malt Amore.

Then we went to EVP, and I was overjoyed because they had Brazilian beans. Those are the best! As longtime readers of this blog may remember, when I had a previous job right by a branch of EVP, I used to get Brazilian beans from them all the time. Sometimes they wouldn't have them, and I'd have to settle for Ethiopian or Nicaraguan or something else, but there's just something special about EVP Brazilian beans. It's still the best coffee I've ever had, except for the stuff from the Johnny Cash museum. I will never understand why that is the best coffee ever, but until I get back to Nashville, I'll settle for Brazilian beans from EVP.

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RIP Tiffy's Dad

 

Yesterday at my morning break I was in a perfect spot to see the train tracks on campus when I heard the whistle. I could have made a video, and it was a short train with one engine and three cars, but it was a bit cold to take my hands out of my gloves. Besides, train videos were what was clogging up my phone in the first place. I just watched it in real time and enjoyed it, feeling grateful to have been in the right place at the right time. It was a cool view, looking down the hill, but probably better in real life than in a video.

Just after my break I got a text from Tiffy: her dad had died of COVID. He was vaccinated but hadn't gotten the booster shot. He had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, so it wasn't a shock at that point, but it's still very sad. Her mom got sick too, but just lying around the house sick, not going to the hospital sick. It hits everyone differently. I always felt like an honorary member of their family, so it's like losing a beloved uncle. He was always so funny, always joking around.

The reason I didn't blog yesterday is because just as I was sitting down to blog, I realized my bus pass was missing. My best guess was that it fell out in the church library as I was biding time before my adoration hour, so I asked someone who lives right by the church and has a key to the library if it were there. Indeed it was, so Travalon kindly drove me back downtown to rescue my poor bus pass. I needed it today, to get to and from work - Travalon could have dropped me off, but then I would have been stuck at work until he could come get me more than an hour after I was done.

Today at four my coworker went home, and as far as I could tell, I was the only person left on campus. Then at 4:30 I heard a faint bell sound coming from outside. I stood by the window, and sure enough, someone was playing the carillon! Why would someone play it at 4:30 on the day before Thanksgiving, when nobody was around to hear it (except me)? They don't need to practice on the actual carillon keyboard, because I have taken a tour of the carillon, and they have a practice keyboard in there so you can practice without everyone hearing your mistakes. When I told Travalon about this, we started thinking about how every college campus we could think of has a carillon, so I googled it and came across a list on Wikipedia of every carillon in the world. Not only do they have our beloved campus one (which I can see out my office window), with a picture and everything, but they also have the carillon in the cemetery in Monona. Wow! Maybe it really is a comprehensive list!

Here are the promised photos of Patrick Marsh from Sunday.

Mostly all we saw were gulls, but we did see these three ducks, which I believe are canvasbacks.

We walked on some new paths and found this monument that was just put up this year.

We can't remember exactly what it was, but it had something to do with an elementary school doing a conservation project.

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Mombert's Burial, Bucks Game, and Continuing Phone Saga

 

This is going to be a very long post because I haven't had a chance to blog for the last few days. Some of the photos will have to wait until tomorrow. Friday Travalon went to the state high school football Division 3 championship game, because Pewaukee was playing for their first ever title. And they won! In the evening I joined my Irish classmates at Cooper's Tavern, and we got to sit in the snug! It's so cute - it's a secret little room with a table for six, and there's a window the waitstaff can slide open to take your order and then hand you food and drinks. The party broke up pretty early, so I had plenty of time to get home for my weekly chat with Tiffy.

Saturday we drove to Fort Atkinson for Mombert's burial ceremony, then we had lunch at a local restaurant, and then several of us went for a hike on the Dorothy Carnes trails. Travalon hadn't brought his good camera, but he took some photos with his phone.

Then Travalon and I drove to Milwaukee for the Bucks game. We parked by the Cathedral, since there is free parking there in the evening and it's not too long of a walk, and the park in front of the Cathedral had a Christmas lights display.

We stopped at Brick's Pizza, where they had this hilarious sign:

This mural is outside of the Fiserv Forum. The Bucks pictured are Jrue Holiday, Pat Connaughton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Brook Lopez, and Khris Middleton. For some reason Bobby Portis didn't make the cut, but he had an amazing game and scored 27 points.

Giannis had a double-double with 34 points and like 20 rebounds, but as Travalon said, "It's just another day at the office for him." (He got that from some color commentator.) At first the Bucks were twenty points ahead, but then they put the bench in, and Orlando was catching up, so at the end they put the starters back in and won by ten or so. I can't remember the final score. We had perfect seats, right at the top of the lower section so nobody was behind us. Unfortunately my new new iPhone had started doing what my old new iPhone had done, so I couldn't take pictures myself. 

Along the riverwalk there were more Christmas lights.

Yesterday there were donuts after Mass, and there was actually one of the type I will bother to eat, with chocolate frosting on top and custard inside - I think it's called a Bismarck. After that I wasn't hungry for brunch, so we went hiking at Patrick Marsh. Not too much going on there but a bunch of gulls. Travalon took some photos with his good camera, which I will upload tomorrow. We were taping the Packer game, but we listened to it in the radio, and it sounds like the refs were trying to get them to lose - every time something went their way, they got a penalty called on them. We went to the Apple store, where the tech erased everything off my new iPhone, then he uploaded my iPhone 6 to the iCloud, and then he restarted my new phone with a lot more room on it, so it didn't have that same issue. Now it seems to be working, but I never got the texts that might have come in the interim, so if I haven't responded to you, I'm (probably) not ignoring you. The tech did comment that I had a lot of photos on my old phone, but that is the main thing I use my phone for: a camera. 

In the evening Travalon and I went to the Overture Center to watch Fiddler on the Roof. You have to show proof of vaccination, and I put my vaccination card somewhere so safe that even I can't find it, but then I remembered taking a photo to upload at work. They were fine with the photo (which doesn't include my booster shot on All Saints' Day), so we got in, no problem. The play was excellent, and Travalon has been singing songs from it ever since, which is adorable. I love the music too, and the witty one-liners, and the dancing in this production was stunning. I highly recommend this musical. The story is kind of about a milkman whose daughters want to marry men he doesn't approve of, but it's also about how the Jews were driven out of Russia. It seems harsh, but afterwards Travalon and I were discussing it, and we realized the tailors forced to leave their little Russian villages came over here and then did very well for themselves. They fared a lot better than the Jews in Germany in the 1930's and 40's!

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Good Phone News!

 

Today I worked on a big project at work that was due first thing tomorrow, and I got done with an hour to spare! Then right after work I went to the phone store again, and this time they were all ready for me. They had the new iPhone 12, but the old one was so bad that they couldn't even open it to transfer the data. No problem, because they could just get the data from my trusty old iPhone 6. The only thing was that it took so long for the data to transfer that the poor girls who worked there had to stay almost an hour late. They were so young, but we started talking about music, and it always surprises me how people young enough to be my children like music from my youth. Then again, I like music from the 1920's. Anyway, the data transfer finished, but the new iPhone 12 was still thinking, and I didn't want to keep the two girls at work any longer, so I just took the phone home. And guess what? It works perfectly! So that other one must have been defective from the start, because all my apps work, and the step tracking is working, and even the camera is working. Nothing ever really worked on that first one. So it wasn't anything I did - it really was a defective phone.

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More Phone Misadventures

 

Today I took the morning off of work so we could go back to the place where we bought my new, non-working phone. They looked at it and agreed that it didn't work, but they said I'd have to go to the bigger store that wasn't even open on Sunday during its regularly scheduled hours, because a technician would have to fix it. The other store didn't open until 11, so we had to hang out until they did open, and then they said they don't fix phones, I would just get a swap because it was within 14 days of purchase. I said that was what I asked to do at the first store, but they wouldn't do it. Anyway, it turns out they didn't have any iPhone 12s, and neither did the big store, so we had to go to the one in the mall. He had an iPhone 12, but he said he didn't know how to do exchanges for Sprint customers because they are T-Mobile. Now we were under the impression that Sprint had been bought out, so we were very puzzled. Eventually he said he would send the phone to the original store where we bought it, and tomorrow the guy who knows how to do Sprint exchanges could help us, since he was on vacation today. I was not happy, since I was using vacation time myself, and it's not entirely clear to me that this is going to work out. I missed a Baroque music concert over lunchtime, and I have a big project due first thing Friday, so it was a terrible time to take off. However, I can't call out from my old phone because it asks for a credit card number to make a phone call. I'm not entirely clear about texts; I have been able to get some on my old phone from Richard Bonomo. So right now I have no working phone but a very expensive piece of useless equipment. Will this ever get resolved??

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Rosary Return

 

Years ago, when Rockstar Taylor (who would probably hate that name now) was fascinated by my Catholicism, she asked if she could have a rosary. I gave her one I had gotten free in the mail, with pink, heart-shaped beads, since it seemed appropriate for a little girl. I also gave her a pamphlet written for children that explained how to pray the Rosary. Now that she is off at college, and Hardingfele is a lapsed Unitarian who would never use a rosary herself, I asked if I could have it back. At first Hardingfele assumed she had thrown it away in a purge, and I got kind of angry.

"It's a religious object, not costume jewelry!" I told her. She apologized... and then a few days ago, she emailed me a photo, asking if it was the rosary. It was! It was broken, but today at work she gave it to me, and I took it to Adoration and prayed with it in its broken state. The starting beads broke off below the Glory Be bead, and one starting Hail Mary bead is gone, but once at home with the correct tools (tweezers), I was able to fix it. Here is a photo:

The returned rosary is the one in the middle. On the left are the Moslem (?) prayer beads I got at the antiques shop on Sunday, and on the right is a blue-and-white striped glass rosary I got there.

My new phone continues to confound me. At first when I would open apps on it, they would just close, but I was getting texts and calls. Then the texts just went to my old phone... and now they aren't going to any phone. So if I haven't responded to your text, it's nothing personal. Now my new phone is so bad that when I unlock it, the screen goes blank and flashes. And when it does open, it won't let me take a photo because it says the memory is full. But I pay for iCloud storage (it's not expensive, 99 cents a month) so that makes NO sense. So really this terribly expensive new phone is no more useful than a brick off the street because neither one would take a photo, track my steps, or send and receive texts. We're going back to the place tomorrow to figure out what's going on. This is ridiculous.

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New Phone Adventures

 

Today at brunch Rich and I were outnumbered by the Sagittarii. Travalon thought it was hilarious that one guy ordered his chicken parmesan sandwich with the chicken not breaded, and he wanted some vegetables on it... but then he ordered a side of cheese curds. Like, is he a healthy eater or not?? 

Then the day got frustrating. I had to get a new cell phone before January because my old one would stop working, so we went to a place that was supposed to open at 11, but it wasn't open, and so we went to the antiques shop next door and I bought a rosary and some vaseline glass I didn't need. Also some Moslem prayer beads (I think?), because why not? I already have some Buddhist prayer beads. They hadn't opened by 12:30, so we went to the one in the mall, but that was packed. We went to another one that wasn't actually T-Mobile but Metro by T-Mobile, so they couldn't help us. Finally we got to an open one, but their bathroom was out of order. Fortunately I could walk to Woodman's Grocery Store and use theirs, and Travalon was able to get some coffee because he hadn't had any yet. Now I have an iPhone 12... and an iPhone 6, because my old phone was locked somehow, so they couldn't delete the data off of it so I could trade it in. That's okay, because the new one doesn't have a phone jack, so now I can still listen to music with headphones. Also, the battery on my old phone is dying, so should I get a new battery put in? So far I'm mostly satisfied with the new phone, but it's bigger, and my FitBit won't sync. I have tried everything they suggested online, and nothing is working. The one thing I didn't try was deleting the app and reinstalling it, but I hate to lose my years of data that were in there. Hopefully this issue gets resolved soon...

Of course, since we wasted so much time on the phone, I hardly got any outdoor time. We did take a hike by the bluff near our house, and that made me quite late to Irish class. Travalon watched the first half of the Packers game at a bar while I was in class, and I didn't miss much offensively (one field goal), but it sounds like the defense were amazing. I did watch most of the second half, when they got two touchdowns. They never let Seattle score any points. Wow, a blowout versus Russell Wilson! Amazing!

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Coffee in Windsor and Tunnel in Lodi

 

This morning Travalon and I had a plan: we would get coffee at the coffeehouse in Windsor, then we would find the tunnel we had seen just south of Lodi. I knew about the coffeehouse because I get a Yelp newsletter, being an infrequent reviewer myself, and it was mentioned as one of the top coffeehouses in the area. Wow, we didn't know there was another business in Windsor besides the little Italian restaurant! (Which, sadly, seems to have been replaced by a meat market.) The coffeehouse was very cute, and I was excited to get a savory muffin there. Then we hit the road and found the tunnel, which is on Aqueduct Road. As you can see, the road goes through the tunnel, which goes under the railroad tracks.

Here it is from the other side, with a bluff in the background. There are a lot of these bluffs around Lodi.

It was a cold day, and when we tried to take a walk at the park in downtown Lodi, the wind was too fierce. Travalon suggested we hike on the Fern Glen Segment of the Ice Age Trail, since it is heavily wooded, so that would cut down on the wind. Not only that, but since we had to hike up a bluff, which took some effort, we actually got hot from being so bundled up. At the top of the bluff was a cleared area that looked like someone mowed it, with a road that went up to it. Here's a photo, but we didn't explore, since it was private land and we are not supposed to go off the trail.

Here I am, all bundled up against the cold.

Here are some late autumn colors that we could see from the trail.

As we drove on Highway J, we could see Gibralter Rock:

We drove to Fish Lake, which used to have a road that went around it. A few years ago it flooded, so you can't drive around it, but I figured since this was such a dry year, the flood waters must have retreated. However, the road is still closed. Then we went to East Towne Mall, where they were having some sort of comic book/geek sale, so Travalon was curious, but he didn't see anything right off the bat that interested him. He said he may go back tomorrow while I'm in Irish class. 

Then we watched the movie The Last Duel, which is the true story of the last trial by duel in Medieval France. We both really liked the movie and are puzzled that it was such a box office flop. The basic premise of the story is that there are two guys who were best friends, Jean and Jaques, but Jacques kept taking everything from Jean, like his land and his job, by sucking up to the guy in charge. I mean, that happens now too, not just in Fourteenth Century France. The twist was that Jean's wife accused Jacques of raping her, and the court was run by the guy in charge, so of course he found Jacques innocent. So then Jean invoked this "trial by duel" that hadn't been used in over a century, where the winner would be found to be telling the truth because God would be with him. If Jean lost, then his wife would be burned alive at the stake for lying. Of course I had made the mistake of reading about the actual trial and knew how it would turn out, but I still really wanted to see the movie. Fourteenth Century France was in rough shape after the Great Famine of 1315-17 and then the Black Death, so things were kind of crazy, and rape was rampant. It wasn't considered a crime against the woman but against her husband, so Jean had to bring the case instead of his wife. I am no expert in Medieval France (though possibly I know more about it than the average person on the street), so I can't speak to how authentic the setting was, but the story was riveting. It's told three times: from Jean's point of view, from Jacques' point of view, and from the wife Marguerite's point of view. Being a woman, I empathized most with her story. The sad thing is that women still do this to each other, telling other women, "It couldn't have happened like that," or, "They all do it - you just have to learn to live with it." And I know rape victims were grilled about their sex lives in court within living memory, so maybe we haven't improved as much as we think.

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Hot Jazz at the North Street Cabaret

 

Today our houseguest went home, so that's kind of sad. I thought I had plans with some of the Rosary Ladies tonight, but there was some sort of miscommunication, so instead Travalon and I went to the Kingdom for dinner. There was a free choral concert downtown at Lutheran Cathedral of the Midwest, but parking would have been horrible with a Badger basketball game going on at the same time. Travalon looked up who was playing at the North Side Cabaret, and it was a group called the Gentlemen's Anti-Temperance League, which the name alone sounded promising. We went, and they were a tight quartet playing hot jazz. The bass player was particularly animated. Here's a video:

They played a lot of original stuff, but Travalon was happy that they played some stuff he recognized from the 40's Junction station. They played "Hell," a song by the Squirrel Nut Zippers from when I was in college and swing was briefly in vogue, and they blew it out of the water. Now I'm Gen X, and these guys were all Millennials, and they looked like Millennial hipsters, yet oddly like men from the 30's too. It was kind of a cool look. Hipster cool cats. A lot of the audience were Millennial hipsters too, and I felt so old. I thought of my own band, where half the members are octogenarians, and I felt a bit wistful. We haven't even practiced in ages, I suppose because Hardingfele is busy trapping feral cats, one member's mother is dying of cancer, another one is busy with a ukulele group, another one is busy with her grandkids, and the last one is busy with a string quartet. And then I'm just... busy. I remember when I used to sit in with a band once and they would immediately recruit me into the band, but those opportunities don't seem to come by any more at my age. Anyway, if I could play in any kind of band, a hot jazz band like we saw tonight seems far more appealing than a contra dance band, but do hot jazz bands ever need mandolins? Maybe I could play the banjolele (of course, I'd have to acquire one first) in a Prohibition-era jazz band, because they always had banjoleles, and if I can play the ukulele, I can play the banjolele. It's just a ukulele with the body of a very small banjo. 

Here are some rock posters Travalon bought at the Willy Street Fair. The first is the Rolling Stones.

The second is of course Paul McCartney.

I liked this third one because it has mushrooms on it. It's the Allman Brothers Band.

I need to see if any of these glow under blacklight. I'm still shocked that the cheap rosary I got at Holy Hill doesn't, because yesterday I prayed it outside, and it glowed in the sunlight the way most things that glow under blacklight do. It sure seems like ultraviolet rays are making it light up...

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The End of Democracy?

 

This is a random photo that I forgot to post yesterday: the sunset as seen from the Killer Building.

So last week there were some elections, and the Democrats lost some of them, like Governor of Virginia. They were saying things like maybe the progressives made them lose, or maybe they didn't appeal enough to white voters, or maybe they should have focused on whatever they didn't focus on. Know what they didn't say? That the elections were fraudulent and that they really won, because that's not how Democrats roll. The party isn't perfect, but at least they respect that elections can be won or lost, and they don't automatically assume they were rigged. Whether elections are fair is another question, if districts are overly gerrymandered and a lot of people have too many roadblocks to vote, but they took it on faith, as people have done for over two centuries in this country, that the election results were valid. I have no faith - zero, zippo, nada - that the other party is ever going to behave honorably again if they lose. They say the measure of a man is how he handles defeat, and in that case the other party has no honor at all. We saw that with the 2020 Presidential election (funny how members of that party who won in places where He Who Shall Not Be Named lost didn't say their own elections were invalid), and I fear we might see that in the midterms, although the other party will probably win more than they lose because that is historically how it goes - the party who has the presidency loses in the midterms. But I really fear what will happen if they lose the 2024 Presidential election, because apparently they have decided that it is not possible for them to lose presidential elections, reality be damned. That's when I fear that we may find that our democracy has really ended in this country.

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Celebration of Life at Olbrich Gardens

 

Today my commute to work was annoying because of such thoughtless people. One woman cut me off, and when I honked at her, she got out of her car and yelled something at me, but I didn't roll down my windows or turn off my music, so I have no idea what she said. Then on the bus the woman behind me opened the window above me, but it was still quite cold out (my car had frost on it!), so I said, "It's too cold!" and closed it, and she opened it again and said, "I have a right to fresh air!" I didn't want to escalate things, so I just froze for the rest of the trip. Why are people so self-centered?

This afternoon I went to a Celebration of Life at Olbrich Gardens (inside the building), which is apparently what non-religious people do in lieu of a funeral. I didn't know the young man who died, but I know his mother fairly well, and she seemed happy that I had come. I only really knew one other person there, so the two of us hung out. There was no minister, just relatives telling stories about the decedent, and then lots of really delicious food. Good thing I'd had an extremely light lunch! I'm used to religious funerals of matrons who lived a full, happy life and have dozens of descendants, and those are almost a joyous occasion. This was just so sad. I feel so bad for his poor mother. Keep her (and him!) in your prayers.

Here are a couple of photos of Michaela. In this one, you can see her shadow along with Uncle Travalon's.

Here she is meeting our neighbor Casey.

I tried to get a photo of her in front of this colorful bush by the side of the Nau-Ti-Gal, but she wouldn't sit still so I just took a photo of the bush.

And some more autumn foliage - the tree with the Killer Building in the background. I know I posted another photo of it, but it just looked so beautiful in the afternoon light that I had to post it again.

And here is some autumn foliage in Rochester. You can see Pa Hat walking among the colorful trees.

Today when I got home from the Celebration of Life, Michaela and I went for a walk, and we saw a train. I heard it, and we ran to see it, but we didn't get there in time to cross the road to the Nau-Ti-Gal parking lot. She didn't bark at it this time, and I realized from the vantage point of my side of the road, I could see it curving around to the west, so that was cool. Then about an hour later, she wanted to go for another walk. It was dark, and I saw that mysterious purple window across the river that always makes me unreasonably happy. We also stopped into my neighbor's house so I could say hello and goodbye to her between trips (she just got back from Europe and is headed to Florida), and Michaela was very interested in her cat's food. Maybe cat food tastes better than dog food? She's never that excited about her own food. My favorite is when she is very interested in whatever I am eating, but when I offer her some, she's all, "What?? You EAT that?? Gross!!" She turns up her nose at bananas and oatmeal with turmeric on it. She probably wonders why I don't eat something that actually tastes good - you know, like cat food.

All is right with the Camino again. This evening when I entered my mileage, it showed me entering a charming little Basque village. At least I'm guessing it's Basque, based on the streets signs. It really made me want to be there.

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Buen (Virtual) Camino

 

For some reason the last two times that Richard Bonomo has led Night Prayer, I have not received his email invitation until the middle of Night Prayer. Tonight it came at 9:12, when Night Prayer starts at 9:00. When I told him, he texted back "Arrgh$" and then "!" which I take it means the dollar sign was supposed to be an exclamation point. I suppose that makes more sense than my first thought, that this was his new pirate rapper name. But can we get this genre to happen for real? Pirate rap!!

As my regular readers know, I have always wanted to do the Camino de Santiago. The company that does various virtual challenges has a Camino challenge, and I finally took the plunge a few days back. You have to pay a small fee to join, which includes the beautiful medal when you finish and access to a social network of very supportive people ("You got this!!"), but most of all, you get street views. That's part of what makes the social network great too, because people will take screen shots of crazy things they see in the street view where they are in their virtual challenge. My favorite was a woman doing the Road to Hana who appeared to be right on top of an SUV. "Am I cheating?" she wondered. Now not all challenges have street views available, but the Mount Fuji one did, and so did the Road to Hana. I made darn sure that the Camino challenge did too, and my first day of the challenge, I was very moved to see where I would actually be on the Camino. Mountains! Wow! The next couple of days were just as amazing... and then yesterday it said: "No street view available for your current position." I was bummed, but I figured it was a temporary issue - somehow Google Maps didn't get that part of the Camino. But wouldn't you know that tonight when I entered my mileage, I got the same message? Man, what is the point of doing the virtual Camino if you don't get to see where you are?? That is what I am here for, not the medal, as cool as that might be. I want to see the Camino as if I were really there! Since my actual five miles a day are on the same routes on campus or in my neighborhood over and over again, it was fun to check in at night and see where I would be in Spain. Hopefully my street view comes back soon, or this won't feel like a real Camino, even if the mileage is real.

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Michaela vs. the Train in the Distance

 

Today my boss let me work from home so our houseguest wouldn't be home alone. Michaela wanted to take a walk every hour, which was great because it was so gorgeous out. When I got back from walking at noon, the connection to my work computer had gone kaput. I wasn't too worried, since it sometimes does that when I'm gone over lunch, but this time it wouldn't reconnect. Turns out there was a power outage at the Killer Building, so it was an excellent day to work remotely! My coworkers could technically leave the building, but then they couldn't get back in because the locks are electronic. The elevators wouldn't have worked, and the stairwell would have been in complete darkness. And then I heard the water stopped working too, so no bathrooms! My boss and one coworker gave up after a couple of hours and headed home, and then three minutes later the power came back on. A coworker who had stuck it out turned my work computer back on, so then I was able to log in remotely. I am really beginning to think that building isn't nearly as safe as they keep assuring us it is...

I was hoping to see a train today, since I was not only home but out and about a lot, and usually on Mondays there seem to be several trains that pass by. One did pass around nine, but I was inside at the time. Nothing at the noon hour, which is when they often pass by, and nothing at three, which is another time that they often pass by. Then just before five, when I was about to log out of my work computer, one passed by. I was sitting on the porch with Michaela when I heard the whistle, and I knew there would be no way to get out in time to see it. Besides, it was nearly dark by then. Michaela heard the train too, and she barked at it until it passed by completely. So that was pretty amusing.

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Michaela vs. the Ice Age Trail

I don't know why, but when I uploaded the photos from my phone to Boethius yesterday, this photo of my little snowman holding a lollipop didn't upload. I thought there should have been more, but I forgot about him until today, when the photo did get uploaded. I never did decide on a name for the snowman, although I think we had been calling him Sven. As you can see, he lights up under the blacklight, and so does one of the four fake roses, but his lollipop does not.

Today after Mass there were six of us at brunch, and 50% of the crowd were Sagittarii: Travalon and the two other guys that sometimes join us. Jilly Moose, Rich, and I were the other ones there. Then Travalon and I went back to Sauk so I could get the unusual French rosary, and I also got an Italian Pope Paul VI crystal rosary (on the left).

Then we took the Merrimac ferry over to the south side of Lake Wisconsin. Here are some photos from the ferry.

I took this photo while Travalon was putting Michaela back into the car.

Then we got on the Gibralter Rock segment of the Ice Age Trail. At the start, you can see the ferry.

There was also a goose party going on.

Michaela was perfectly happy walking on the flat part of the Ice Age Trail along the road, but as soon as we started climbing up the bluff, she sat down and wouldn't move. She is a sweet dog, but she is definitely stubborn! So we turned around, and she trotted happily back to the car. 

We drove back to Madison and took a walk on Governor's Island, since it is very flat so we figured Michaela wouldn't object. There were still some autumn colors there.

Here's Michaela!

She did sit down and refuse to move halfway around the island, so Travalon picked her up and carried her. She seemed happy about that - she had a big smile on her adorable, furry face.

There is a mysterious boat that has been anchored in Three Foot Bay since Labor Day. I think it looks like one of the Betty Lou Cruise boats, and in fact one seems to be missing. (They dry dock them in the Nau-Ti-Gal parking lot for the winter.) Travalon couldn't get a clear shot of it, but you get the idea.

More autumn colors.

Here are some photos of the late afternoon sun lighting up Maple Bluff.

Travalon dropped me off so I could go to Irish class, and then he and Michaela went to the dog section of Governor Nelson State Park. There are still some autumn colors there too.

Here is a shot of the mysterious boat, without branches impeding it but from much further away.

And this, of course, is the State Capitol Building.

Here is my office building, the Killer Building. I don't have to go there tomorrow because my boss has a new puppy, so she is very sympathetic to pleas to work from home for the sake of a dog.

And here is the sunset.

As we were driving back from Lake Wisconsin, we saw a mysterious tunnel just south of Lodi that we had never noticed before. We didn't have time to explore it just then, due to my Irish class, but we hope to do so soon. So stay tuned... Same Hat Time, Same Hat Channel.

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