A Pink Eye and a Lonely Coot

Yesterday Travalon and I slept late after the party the night before, so we went to the later Mass closer to our house. Then we hit the road right away and stopped at Lapham Peak, where we were finally able to go all the way to the top. It was quite cold up there! We met Tiffy in Milwaukee and went to Conejito's for lunch. It's an inexpensive Mexican restaurant, and there are some cool things in the neighborhood, like this mural.

And this colorful water tower on top of a building. If you look closely, there's a picture on the building of the water tower.

Travalon dropped Tiffy and me off at the St. Joseph's Chapel. Isn't it beautiful? My OTHER choir once sang here, and the acoustics are marvelous.

Travalon went to the National Bobblehead Museum, while Tiffy and I were at a concert of Medieval liturgical music, mostly chant, interspersed with Medieval Christmas carols. At one point I was kind of asleep, and Tiffy thought I was just meditating, but then she realized I was asleep, and she laughed at me. When she told Travalon, he said, "You were channeling me!" because he sleeps through every show.

On the way home, Travalon and I stopped at a Country Christmas, a light show you drive through.

This one is new, after the Waukesha Holiday Parade tragedy last year.

I felt fine all day, but we got back to Madison early enough to run to the grocery store, and while we were there my eye started to hurt. The cashier looked at me funny, and when I got home, I saw my eye was all red. I thought it was an allergic reaction, so I took an antihistamine and went to bed, but this morning it wasn't any better. Travalon took me to Urgent Care, so he missed most of the Croatia/Japan game in the World Cup. I had to wait two hours to see a doctor who examined me for one minute and said I needed to see an eye doctor. They could fit me in early this afternoon, so we came home, then Travalon had to go to work, so he missed the shootout where Croatia beat Japan.

I went for a walk after the game, and I saw a larger black bird walking toward me. Was it a crow? Then I realized it was a coot. What?? They don't usually walk around on land! Here's a photo so you can see his funny big chicken feet.

I tried to guide him toward the water, but he was running very fast all over the place. He tried to fly, and then I could see his left wing was shortened. He managed to sneak under the tennis court fence, but then he couldn't figure out how to get back out. I could have caught him, but I needed to get to my eye appointment, so I opened the door and chased him out. He headed toward the water... and then I realized it was frozen near us. The last I saw of him, he was across the way under a dock, where he had found a tiny patch of open water. 

I went to my eye appointment, and the doctor said I have viral pinkeye and that it's very contagious. He prescribed steroid eye drops to help with the pain, so I stopped to pick them up on my way home, but they said there was a complication with health insurance and it would be half an hour. I went home and saw the coot still across the river, under the dock, then I went inside and the pharmacy had already called to say my prescription was ready, so then I had to run back over there. Finally I called the wildlife rescue people, but by then it was getting dark, so they said keep an eye on the coot. I'll be working from home tomorrow, so I can check on him then. I feel bad for him, cold and alone when all his friends have migrated. Hopefully his little patch of water doesn't freeze up with him stuck inside! I should have caught him in the tennis court and canceled my eye appointment. 

Oh yeah, and the Packers won. They were losing to the Bears the whole time we were listening to the game in the car, but they had a huge fourth quarter while we were at the concert, so we came out to the surprising and welcome news that they had won by nine points.

Famous Hat