The View from Blue Mound

 

I am on a committee at work that, among other things, chooses the awards among the nominees in our college. Usually I get a link to a folder containing all the nominees in the various categories, but last week I was being bombarded with links to each individual nomination... and then when I clicked on them, they didn't work. I was annoyed and started having a pity party of one, thinking, "Nobody ever nominates ME for this award!" but what I should have realized was that of course the reason things were so bizarre this year is because I WAS nominated, but they didn't want me to see my nomination, and then they realized they didn't want me ranking anyone else in my category either. This morning we had the meeting to decide the winners, and I had to recuse myself when they talked about my category. I don't expect to win, since the committee rarely awards people who are on the committee, probably figuring it looks really bad, but it was an honor just to be nominated.

I also had a Staff Congress meeting this afternoon. Years ago when I was first elected, I didn't know anyone there and was a bit jealous of the people who knew each other and sat together. Now I get there and everyone's like, "Famous! Sit here! I'll hold your cookie while you get settled." They had cookies and warm apple cider for us today. I probably shouldn't have had that snickerdoodle, but I just found out my numbers are good, I don't have diabetes, and the doctor said keep doing whatever I'm doing. Which I figure means one snickerdoodle now and then can't hurt.

In the evening I went to an ecumenical Thanksgiving service at a nondenominational church. The parking lot was enormous, and I walked half a mile to get to the church. Inside, it was bigger than some concert halls I've been to, and I had to sit up in the balcony because the main floor was already full. So now that I've given you an idea about the size of this church, guess how many stalls were in the women's bathroom? Two! Apparently Protestants don't have to pee. To be fair, there were two more toilets in the basement, but if you're sitting in the balcony, would you really want to run down that many flights of stairs? People cheered after each church's musical performance, so it felt more like a talent show than a religious service, and I felt the sermon was a bit on the "convert so Jesus will give you everything you want" side. It annoyed me a bit, and later I found out the Orthodox walked out because they were so offended by it. Perhaps I'm Orthodox?

I forgot to mention that Saturday Travalon and I went to the co-op for some groceries, and a guy there recognized his Wolverhampton hat! He was so stoked!! (Today a kid thought it meant he was a wolf catcher.) The guy was an Everton fan - he likes the Toffees! Then I ran into someone I knew years ago when I used to play with the early music group. Who knew we'd have so much social interaction at the grocery store?

As promised, here are some of the photos Travalon took from the Tower at Blue Mound State Park. We didn't go up the West Tower because a) we were tired after our hike, and b) if we could barely see the State Capitol 23 miles away, then how would we see Dubuque, which is about 65 miles from there?

Here's a photo from the lower level of the tower.

These are rock formations along the Indian Marker Tree Trail.

And here are views of the Driftless Area from Blue Mound.

I did find this view of the Madison State Capitol Building from Blue Mound, just to prove you can see it from up there. Maybe on Friday we will try tackling the West Tower. Travalon thought we might be able to see the House on the Rock from up there. I just like looking at the hills you can see towards Madison, because those must be the same hills we were on while hiking the Ice Age Trail, when we could see Blue Mound. Sometime I want to go to a tall building in Milwaukee to see if Holy Hill is visible from there, since downtown Milwaukee is visible from Holy Hill. If we do that, we'll take photos for sure.

Famous Hat