Last night, while I was on Night Prayer, I asked Travalon to "throw me the scorpion," and Rich said, "That's a sentence you don't hear every day!" It was because we were comparing stuffed animals, and the closest one to me was Esteban the Scorpion who glows under blacklight.
So this story illustrates one of the perks of being back on campus: this morning our student hourly walked by carrying two boxes of doughnuts, and I was surprised, since she doesn't work on Wednesdays. I said, "Doughnuts?" and she said, "The German Club is selling them for a fundraiser." I said too bad I didn't have any cash, and she said, "We take Venmo," and I said, "I'm old. I have no idea how to Venmo." She put them in my coworker's office while he was gone, since that's where she works, and then he came back and asked another coworker and me if we knew why there were doughnuts in his office. My other coworker didn't know, but I told them the story, and they both offered to spot me a couple of bucks to get a doughnut. Later I had to take some stuff down to the mailroom on the first floor, and my coworker who had not hosted the doughnuts in his office came with me so we could buy doughnuts. We found the students selling them, but a faculty member was standing there, and she said, "I'm running a tab. These are on me." So, free doughnut! I picked one that looked promising; it had chocolate frosting and looked like it might have custard inside, since those are my favorite. I think they're called Bismarcks. Back upstairs we ran into a grad student who had one covered in powdered sugar, and he said he hoped his had raspberry jam inside, so I said I hoped mine had custard inside. Later we checked back with each other, and we had both gotten exactly what we wanted, so he said, "Today was a good day." And that is the kind of thing that just can't happen while working from home, but I will still enjoy sitting in my easy chair while wearing a hoodie for the next two days. I like this hybrid schedule - it's the best of both worlds.
Meanwhile, Travalon went out to the dock and got some more photos of buffleheads.
Yesterday morning I drove over a curb, but Noelle the Honda doesn't seem any worse for wear, and the rest of the day went fine. This morning I stepped on Boethius my computer and heard an ominous crack, but he seems to be working just fine as well - I am writing this blog post on him right now - and the rest of the day went fine. I don't have much to say, so I'll tell you about a theory that came up during Night Prayer.
One fine summer day many years ago, Tiffy and I were hanging out on the Union Terrace, and as I gazed at the lake, I wondered what had become of the Lake Mendota Monster. This was a thing back in the 1920's, when there were numerous reports of it knocking over boats - in fact, one year they didn't have crew team because it kept knocking them over. The theory was that it was a sturgeon, and after a few years there were no more reports about it. Of course, at this point it would be a century old, but it's a monster, so why not? I said I wonder if it ate people, and Tiffy thought maybe it was cold-blooded and only needed to eat once in a while, so that's when we came up with our theory: the Lake Mendota Monster only needs to eat twice a year, so it invented two big parties about six months apart, the Mifflin Street Block Party in early May and the Halloween Party in late October. These parties are infamous, and people come from all over to go to them, so it's perfect cover for the monster. It's very careful to only eat, say, stoners who hitchhiked here from Boulder, Colorado. Nobody here in Madison would realize they disappeared, and their roommates in Boulder would be like, "Dude, I don't know where he went. He said something about a party in Madison, Wisconsin." It's the perfect cover, and the monster has gotten away with it for years.
Famous Hat
This afternoon I left work early to go to a protest for economic justice. My colleague said that was so nice of me to use my vacation time to protest for other people, she uses her vacation time for herself, but I would like to think that I have left the world a slightly better place than when I entered it. I was meeting someone from the union, but in the big crowd gathered around the main entrance to the Capitol, I didn't see him. Finally I called him, and he had gone to the wrong place. People kept asking if I wanted a sign, and it took all my self-control not to say, "I already have a sign - Capricorn!" since sometimes leftists take themselves so seriously. I just said I was going to have a union sign, and then my union buddy arrived with a sign for me. We marched around the Capitol Square, singing a lot of call-and-response stuff, then we went to Light Bright's church, which is two blocks away from my own church. We gathered in there, and they started singing that spiritual that goes, "Woke up this morning with my mind, and it was stayed on Jesus!" only their mind was stayed on freedom. Not gonna lie, that did freak me out a little, because what exactly are they worshipping? But just then Travalon texted that he was on his way, so I went over to my own church, and he picked me up. Since I kept smelling Ian's Pizza across the street from where we gathered, I was totally jonesin' for it, so we went to the Ian's Pizza at Garver Mill. I had a four-cheese slice, and a slice with what looked like kale on it (it tasted way better than that description might lead you to believe), plus we had lemon lavender ice cream. Protesting makes you gain weight, I guess. But the protest did show up as a workout on my FitBit.
Last week some people came to Travalon's work from the university, and they brought Ozobot, which is a tiny little robot used to teach kids elementary programming. The robot can follow a line, blinking blue, and then if you make part of the line red or green, it will light up that color, and if you do other things, it will turn around. Travalon shot some footage of it, and it's totes adorbs.
I kind of want an ozobot, but they aren't cheap, and I don't need one. Aren't they cute, though?
Famous Hat
Today after Mass and brunch, I was really craving chocolate, and it's Sunday so we could have it. We went to CocoVaa and they were open, so we tried several different things, and they were all delicious. Then we drove to Okee and saw lots of birds, but no loons. We had stopped at a gas station on the way up, where I found a ridiculous, bright blue monster hat that you could make the ears go up and down, so I was wearing that, and a bald eagle kept following us. Did it think the hat was something tasty? At one point it was sitting in a tree right above us, but when Travalon went to get his camera, it flew away. Here are some photos of pelicans, red-breasted mergansers, and other eagles.
Last night Jilly Moose, OK Cap, and I drove through the snow to the Tip Top Tavern, where they had the fish fry while I had a turkey sandwich, since it was a solemnity. Then we walked across the street to the North Street Cabaret to see a band playing Cuban music. The crowd was sadly small but very enthusiastic, and I danced most of the night. Travalon came after watching the St. Peter's Peacocks win, becoming the first 15 seed to get into the Elite Eight, and then he and I danced. The band played lots of great songs I hadn't heard before and a few I knew well, like "Las Caras Lindas," so I sang along enthusiastically. Their last song of the night was "El Cuarto de Tula," which is, as my regular readers may remember, my very favorite Cuban song of all. When we were in Cuba and they performed it at the show we attended, I wept tears of joy. I was pretty happy last night too, and by the end there were a lot more people in the crowd, so to finish the song, the singer gestured for us all to sing, "Apago la vela" at the tops of our lungs. The song is about a candle falling in Tula's bedroom and starting a fire, but I assume it's a metaphor...
Sorry for not blogging yesterday - I was all caught up in my latest project. The most eventful thing that happened was when I went for a walk at lunch and one of the cranes that hangs out by the observatory was flying in a circle overhead, bugling frantically. I thought it was looking for its mate, and whatever was going on was clearly no bueno, since it was very upset. Then I realized another crane was calling back to it from across the street, so I crossed the street and saw the second crane just standing on the lawn. Two college students who were obviously not together were watching it curiously, so I began to as well, wondering if it was unable to fly. Suddenly it did fly off, and then both cranes stopped calling. One of the college students had just placed a phone call, so I wondered if she was calling for help. Did the one crane get hit by a car? Did a frat boy injure it? Did I scare it when I arrived on the scene? But it didn't fly away the moment I arrived, just after a little bit. It was almost as if my concern for the crane magically healed it, but how likely is that? I was tempted to ask the college students if they knew what had happened, but the one was on the phone, and the other one didn't seem that approachable. It was such a strange situation, and it just reinforced my belief that sooner or later, cranes and college students are a volatile mix. Cranes may seem like mystical beings, but they are probably no different than herons and pelicans - the other night I got sucked into watching videos of a heron eating a duckling and a pelican swallowing a pigeon. Lest you think all this violence is due to their dinosaur genes, there was a video of a young buck grabbing a fledgling bird in its mouth and eating it. The woman making the video gasped, "Oh my God, the deer just ate the bird!" and her husband laughed. But I tell you who wouldn't be laughing if there were a pelican big enough to swallow a human - me! Yikes! What a way to go!
Totally not apropos to the previous paragraph, here are some photos. First is a miniature version of the Jack Daniels bass that Michael Anthony from Van Halen plays. Travalon ordered this online.
I took these photos some time ago but kept forgetting to post them until now. And here is a picture of Mr. Fat in Travalon's man cave, sitting in the recliner with a smaller teddy bear. Travalon says he is so much happier in the Man Cave, with sunlight and buddies, than in that cramped, dusty storage room.
I probably won't blog tomorrow, but watch for a blog post about Jilly Moose, OK Cap, and me having an adventure.
Famous Hat
There is a thing on the internet where they will call a bird a "birb," but not just any bird can be a birb - it has to be totes adorbs. So the other day my boss messaged saying she was going on a walk, brb, which of course means "be right back," and my coworker responded with a gif of a dancing cockatoo labeled "birb." Because what could be more totally adorable? As opposed to a turkey vulture, say - not a birb.
I get these random trivia questions in my email all the time, and one today asked when "non-avian" dinosaurs went extinct: the Cretaceous, the Jurassic, or the Triassic? I knew it was the Cretaceous, but I did note their turn of phrase, because avian dinosaurs are still with us, whether they are birbs or the slightly menacing sandhill cranes I saw on campus today. It was drizzling, so the students were all hiding inside, and with them missing a pair of cranes felt bold enough to stand near the sidewalk. One started coming toward me as I walked on the sidewalk, and I didn't particularly want to interact with it, so I walked a little faster (which is probably, like, a relaxed pace for the average person). I looked behind me to see if it was following me, but it was now standing on the sidewalk and looking back toward the direction I had come from, as if making sure that nobody else was coming. On a later walk I saw the crane standing in front of the door of the building next to ours, looking like an avian bouncer. "No ID? No entry!" They are totally modern dinosaurs. Are they birbs? Mm, kind of?
Travalon went down to the dock this morning and took some photos of birbs. First are Mr. and Mrs. Ring-Necked Duck.
Today was a fairly uneventful day at work. I did wake up from a dream I couldn't quite remember, but which made me very concerned for someone until this person responded to my text so I knew they were still alive. I also got an email about maple syrup festivals in the area, and one was the one at the Mackenzie Center that my band played at for two decades, until they suddenly didn't want us in 2020. Of course, the whole festival was canceled that year due to the pandemic, and I have no idea if they had it last year, but I went to the link for this year, and among the attractions it listed was "live music." So apparently they are having some band, just not our band. I forwarded the link to Hardingfele, and she said we should crash it. Of course, you can't really "crash" a public event - they'll just let you in. I said I was tempted to call the venue (it said to call with any questions) and ask about the live music. She said, "Do it." But do I really want to know who they have replaced us with?
Speaking of Hardingfele, our bandmate who just retired posted on social media that she was invited to jam with two professional musicians, and she was going on about how she can't jam, she has to play from music. Hardingfele said invite the whole band to jam, and the other woman said, "Famous is the only one who could keep up with them." And I know why that is: Suzuki violin lessons. All the other members of my band learned music from reading notes, but the Suzuki method insists that you learn by ear first, and it was many years before I realized what an advantage that was for me. I used to dread those group lessons, where I was only one of two five-year-olds; all the other kids were three, and I thought, "It's too late. I should have started this years ago." We had to bow and kneel, and once I knelt right on my violin. How humiliating! I was only in Book One, but I had the records and books through Book Five, so in Book Four I discovered the Vivaldi Violin Concerto in A Minor and would listen to it over and over, following along in the book. It was pretty obvious that where the pitch went up, so did the notes, and so I kind of got in trouble when I went into my next lesson playing Vivaldi and having accidentally taught myself to read music before they had deemed me ready. Still, I learned by ear first, and so I can jam and harmonize and figure out chords. Everyone should learn music by the Suzuki method.
Also, I would be remiss if I did not wish Johann Sebastian Bach a most happy birthday today.
Famous Hat
Today there were donuts after Mass, and I did indulge in one with orange, white, and green sprinkles and also green shamrock sprinkles, clearly for the recent feast day of St. Patrick, and also fulfilling two of my colors per Rich's system. One of the regulars was not there at brunch, but Jilly Moose and the woman who plays Baroque flute were there. Things ran much later than usual, and then I had to pick up a bouquet of flowers at Trader Joe's to put on Mr. Why's grave (yes, we were late again this year), and they don't have an express line so I was stuck behind a bunch of people who were seemingly doing their shopping for the month. Finally Travalon and I joined Rich, Kathbert, and Pete the Sailor Man at Mr. Why's grave for our annual ritual of placing flowers on it, taking a picture, and sending it to his mother in Singapore. Then Jilly Moose, Travalon, and I went to Patrick Marsh. It was still mostly frozen over, and there weren't any ducks there (last year there were all sorts of species of ducks around this time), but we did see several great blue herons, so that was exciting.
The weather was gorgeous today, so I was a bit resentful about having to sit inside for Irish class. I did sit out on our porch. In the class we talked about signs of the zodiac, and to my surprise, a classmate has a husband who is an Aquarius and also right in the middle in all four categories on the Myers-Briggs test, just like Rich. There are TWO of them?? Then I had to rush to band practice while Travalon watched the Badgers lose, so that's the end of the tournament for them. At practice I was thinking that I enjoy playing mandolin because nobody ever taught me how, so I can do whatever I want. The down side: I have no idea how to make an E-major chord that isn't totally awkward. This might have been addressed in mandolin lessons? I'm sure my technique is horrible, but I have no idea, not like when I play the violin and know exactly how horrible my technique is.
Here are some recent photos. First is another selfie I took for St. Patrick's Day. Tiffy says you should never take a selfie from below, but that was the only way to get my medal in the photo.
More random than a rabbit on a B-17!
