Party for Mr. Icon

 

Yesterday at Adoration, I was sitting in my pew and writing in my prayer journal (which is labeled "My Incoherent Ramblings") when someone sat right behind me and then knelt and leaned over me. This would have been annoying enough if the place were full, but there were plenty of other pews to choose from, and in fact plenty of room in his pew to move over and not be RIGHT BEHIND ME like some kind of horror movie villain. I was so annoyed that I left off writing about anything spiritual and just started writing about how there was this FREAK leaning right over me when there were PLENTY OF OTHER SPACES he could go to, and he must have been reading over my shoulder because then he sat back in his pew. Maybe that was petty of me, but when I mentioned it at Night Prayer, and how it was far from the first time such a thing had happened, the Dairyman's Daughter said it happens to her all the time too. Right during COVID, when they would only allow eight people in the church at a time, she signed up to go to a Mass and sat in the empty church, and then another woman came in and sat RIGHT BEHIND HER. During a pandemic!!! Rich said that never happens to him, people always sit as far away as possible from him. What's his secret? No deodorant?

Tonight after work I drove to the Middleton Sport Bowl for a party for Mr. Icon, who is only in town for a few more days before he returns to the wilds of Alaska, specifically Kodiak Island. I thought there would be a ton of people there, but it just seemed to be the regulars from the Chesterton Club, plus myself and Travalon, who joined us as soon as he got off of work. I used to go to the Chesterton Club years ago and hadn't realized they had started meeting up again, but nowadays I can't see sitting down and reading a whole book by Chesterton like back when I used to live to read. Also, people who are into Chesterton tend to be of a political persuasion that is not my own tendency. While we didn't really talk about Chesterton tonight, the conversation was extremely intellectual. I used to love that too, but now I feel like you can learn more about God from listening to the birds sing than you can from debating Aristotelian concepts of reality. Why debate reality when you can just experience it? It's like beauty in the liturgy: I used to think it was the most important thing, but over the years I have decided charity is more important, and so many people who care about proper liturgy are so uncharitable that it has turned me off to proper liturgy a bit. I still love beautiful music, but it's not the only thing or even the main thing for me anymore.

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More Photos from Our Sabula Trip

 

Today I had to work on campus because of a meeting, and next week I might have to be there a lot for interviews, if the Chair of our committee can't make it. (I'm the Vice Chair.) My coworker looked as groggy as I felt this morning when we ran into each other at the coffee machine. There isn't too much to say about my workday, so I'll mention some things I forgot to say earlier.

This is crazy, but when I posted the photo of what I think is a female ring-necked pheasant that was standing in the middle of the road at Horicon Marsh, a guy responded to my post with his own photo, saying, "I think we saw the same bird!" He was the guy going the other direction who was totally blocked by the bird! How crazy is that? I am kind of bummed that we can't post Travalon's beautiful photos of the indigo bunting on the bird site, because it's specifically for Wisconsin birds, and we saw the bunting in Iowa.

On the way to Sabula, we took that Highway H that Cecil Markovitch accidentally took back when we went to a spaghetti dinner in Ridgeway. It was beautiful then, so we had wanted to see it when the foliage was back, and it didn't disappoint. It looked like an enchanted fairy tale road, with the green hills and a lovely little white church that turned out to be Catholic. However, the Dairyman's Daughter said that church is only used once a year now. I hope that isn't the fate of our church!

Here are more photos from our trip. This is a Station of the Cross at St. Donatus.

Here are some photos from my cellphone. First, the inside of St. Donatus. 

These photos are from the Dubuque Arboretum. I've never seen a purple-leaved redbud before.

Here are more photos from Travalon's good camera. These are the pelicans and a heron during the sunset on Saturday evening.

And also, a very long train.

These are some photos from Eagle Point Park in Clinton.

Here are some shots from Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savannah.

We saw this interesting woodcarving in Savannah, right near the church.

And some more shots of Havencrest Castle.

Here are more photos of the koi pond in the Dubuque Arboretum.

And some pretty white flowers they had there.

Now for more photos from my cellphone. Here are my two crystals from Galena under blacklight.

This is Baby Simba from The Lion King.

Here I am with the Chickicorn, my bracelet from the Dubuque Arboretum, and my T-shirt from Clarkco State Park in Mississippi, all glowing under blacklight. We decided to call the chickacorn Sherbetta because she is kind of sherbet-colored, and I wanted something to capture the child's birthday party vibe of a unicorn chicken in neon colors. Travalon thought of sherbet, and that was perfect.

And these are the two Beanie Baby bears I got in Cuba City. The one on the right is Peace Bear, kind of faded, and the one on the left has a design drawn by a five-year-old girl who died of AIDS when she had just turned seven.

I wanted to post a video of the koi in a feeding frenzy, but it's taking too long to process. Maybe I'll make a YouTube video with all the videos we took on this trip, so watch for that possibly happening.

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Another Castle and a Chickicorn

 

Today we had another relaxed morning on the boat before packing up and heading to Dubuque. On the way we stopped at St. Donatus, where we have always admired the church on the hillside and the chapel even further up the hill. Today the church was open, and we asked a garrulous old farmer about the chapel, but he said the hill is very steep and the chapel is never open, so we didn't bother to go up it. Here are some photos. First, the church. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

So is this building next to it, which was not open.

Here is the inside of the church.

This Lutheran church is on another hill across the highway.

And here is the chapel, way up at the top of the hill.

We stopped at the Mines of Spain to see yet another castle tower, the one over the grave of Julien Dubuque. A guy from Illinois offered to take our photo in front of it.

There is a very beautiful view of downtown Dubuque from the monument.

We went to the Arboretum in Dubuque, which we had never seen before. We fed koi and explored the Japanese and English gardens, the cacti, the hostas, the irises, and the peonies.

Can you spot a Famous Hat in the background?

There was even a veterans' memorial there, so we checked it out in honor of the day.

And we saw a magnolia still blooming! Usually they bloom long before the crabapples.

Then we went back to Galena for two things: 1) someone had told me what shop might have rosaries, but they were already closed yesterday by the time we got there; and 2) we had seen a very strange stuffed animal at the sock shop that we couldn't stop thinking about. I went to the store that might have had rosaries, but they had none, while Travalon went to the sock shop. He sent me a picture of the two "chickicorns"and asked me, "Which one?"

I said, "The orange one!" Now I have seen horns on all sorts of stuffed animals, llamacorns and owlcorns and kittycorns, but a chickicorn is the strangest of all. Plus it has to glow under blacklight.

We got this beautiful, tie-dyed looking spatula in another shop in Galena, the shop Anna Banana II loves most of all.

Then we drove to Cuba City and stopped at another antiques shop that we hadn't been to before. (There are at least four of them there.) Travalon got the button and the Red Owl container, and a book. I got the St. Patrick's Day toque because it's always cold in mid-March, so why are all my green hats for warm weather?

I also got three rosaries.

Here I am wearing my shamrock toque, holding the Chickicorn, and also wearing the bracelet we got for $2 at the Dubuque Arboretum because it matches my shirt.

Travalon got the Tom Clock in Cuba City on Saturday, the John Lennon Funkopop in Galena today, and the plastic cat at the second antiques shop in Cuba City that we visited on Saturday.

I got these Archie Comics socks in Galena yesterday, but not at the sock shop.

You can get socks for any occasion at the sock shop, and for most sports teams, but when I mentioned to the proprietress that there were no sign of the zodiac socks, she seemed downright disgusted at the idea.

I got these crystals in Galena yesterday. They may not look like much, but I will take a photo of them under blacklight, and then you'll see how cool they are.

I got this moss agate crystal in Cuba City on Saturday.

Here are some of my favorite photos that Travalon took with his good camera. The pelicans in Sabula looked like they were wearing black toques themselves.

The sunset on Saturday night.

This is the marina where our houseboat was.

We saw this egret from the lookout point at Eagle Point Park.

And here is the castle tower in Eagle Point Park.

I am posting not one but two photos of the indigo bunting because he is so stunning.

Here we are at the lookout at Mississippi Palisades State Park.

This is St. John the Baptist in Savannah, where we went to Mass on Saturday.

And this is the Havencrest Castle in Savannah, very close to the church. I wonder if a lot of people have a wedding Mass and then their reception at the castle?

Here is yesterday's sunset, which was more pink.

And this is the half moon from last night.

I will try to post more photos in the days to come.

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