First Big Snowstorm of the Winter of 2024-25

 

Here are a couple of things I forgot to mention about the weekend. The first is that, while we didn't see the Holiday Trolley on State Street, we did at one point see dozens of bikers dressed as Santa pass by. The second thing was that a year-old baby girl was baptized at the Mass on the far east side, and then the priest took her and paraded her around the sanctuary to thunderous applause. It was such a joyful moment, and the baby loved it.

Today I was supposed to be on campus, but I was far too sick to go in. The weather was horrible - tons and tons of snow. Travalon had to work late, and then it took him an hour to get home because of the terrible roads. I never ventured outside today, but Ma Hat did send a photo of the fresh snow where she lives, one state over.

I'll admit that the stuff is pretty to look at, and it's really important for insulating plants and animals (maybe too late this year? It's been so cold without snow), but I hate driving in it.

Because I have dealt with narcissists and their gaslighting before, I am very averse to being gaslighted. Someone in the far-right Catholic camp has been emailing me, trying to convince me that I am wrong about the insurrection, and that's gaslighting - I saw it with my own eyes live on TV. This person actually sent me a link to some report and said the problem is that I get my information from unreliable sources and they are getting theirs from reliable sources. But guess what their "reliable source" was? A congressman who took a bunch of the insurrectionists into the Capitol for a private tour the day before the insurrection, so who would have more to gain from saying nothing happened than the guy who seemed to have helped them plan it?? That's like the fox saying, "I'm not the one stealing your eggs, you silly hens - it's that goose that you thought was protecting you," even after the hens SAW the fox stealing the eggs. What's weird to me is that so many of the hens believe the fox, which in this case is the Dunning-Kruger coalition of hereditary billionaires who think they know how to run the government and are busy telling us any reason (like a violent insurrection) that we give for not trusting them is wrong. "Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" The thing about gaslighters is they know you'll get frustrated with them saying your lived reality is wrong, you have to believe their version of events, and then when you do get frustrated, they say, "See, you're emotional and not thinking clearly. I'm the one working from cold, hard facts," so the only defense is not to respond to them. After this person insulted my intelligence and my news sources and I didn't respond, they emailed two more times. Apparently they don't know how to f--k off, but if they keep pestering me, I will relish telling them to do so in giant, neon letters. Go gaslight someone else, you damn freak.

Famous Hat

Welcome to FART 5

 

Yesterday it was only my one coworker and myself on campus, and he gave me Christmas gifts: hand soap in a pretty container and a bottle that looks like champagne, only it's full of chocolate truffles. I tore off the top, thinking it opened like a real champagne bottle, but the plastic underneath was smooth... and then I realized the bottom unscrewed. Whoops! 

I was on campus on a Tuesday for a meeting. It's a committee I used to be on, but I rotated off just before they started talking about the ARTs. As I may have mentioned, they are going to move some of us administrative staff into groups that they were calling pods... but then we started calling ourselves Pod People. So they changed the name to SLACs (I cannot remember what that stood for)... so then we started calling ourselves Slackers. Now they are Administrative Regional Teams, or ARTs, and there are three kinds: grant administration ARTs (GAARTs?), Payroll ARTs (PARTS, I suppose), and I am in a financial ART, or... FART. (Though one faculty member did say it could be a Fine ART.) Nobody on the committee in the college is affected by this, and the Chair of the University Staff committee said we really need shared governance representation, so I said I'd go. The meeting yesterday was apparently part Christmas party, because there were all sorts of treats there, and yes, I might have indulged. There were also fancy flavored waters, so I had one of those too... and then toward the end of the meeting, I really had to recycle that fancy flavored water. The meeting room had a back door, so I snuck out of that... and two guys were painting the other side. Who paints the doors of a meeting room while there's a meeting going on?? We surprised each other, and then when I emerged from the bathroom, one of the painters said I couldn't go back in using that door, so I had to use the front door and scootch around everyone till I got back to my seat toward the back of the room. Embarrassing! Then I went for a vigorous walk with my colleague that maybe burned off a fraction of those treats.

I had been feeling in fine fettle all day, but all of a sudden around two I began to feel crappy. I stuck it out but called in sick to Adoration. I did drag myself to the co-op to buy fancy truffles for my coworkers. Last night was not my best night of sleep, since I could barely breathe, but I was already up when my alarm went off this morning, so I got up and went to work... and then realized I had no voice. My boss gave me homemade treats, and the other coworker knows me well - look at the tote bag she gave me!

She also gave me soap and chocolate peppermint bark, and the chair gave me chocolate truffles too. (Plus I did buy some for myself when buying them for my coworkers.) The young coworker who is not too far out of college was working remotely for some reason, so we all left her stuff on her desk - who knows when she come in and get it? At least chocolate takes a while to go bad. Here is the soap dispenser my one coworker gave me.

And this is the woven paper basket I made at one of the parties last week at work.

I was looking forward to a quiet day of updating a spreadsheet for a couple of faculty members... and then my reminder went off to tell me we were having the inaugural meeting of FART 5, the Humanities FART. I was wearing a hoodie, thinking I wouldn't see anyone but coworkers today, and of course I had no voice when I had to introduce myself. At least one person I know who should be in FART 5 wasn't at the meeting, and she's furious about the FARTs so I don't know if she just skipped it in protest or if she's already on vacation. (My colleague messaged me to ask where this other woman was, and I said I didn't know.) In this meeting they kept talking about the ARTs, and it's a good thing I'm hoarse or I might have said, "Don't you mean the FARTs?" At least the meeting was remote, so I didn't have to leave my office, and that meant no Christmas treats - is that a good or a bad thing? I've had more than enough sugar in the last two weeks.

Famous Hat

A Poem for ABC

 

It was a quiet but productive day of working from home for me. I thought maybe Travalon was going to come home with a new script for Get Kraken with Jerry, but he's said nothing about it, so it's my turn to be creative. This is a poem I wrote for ABC regarding their recent settlement of a lawsuit:

Don't ever commit a crime;
Obey your conscience every time;
In every circumstance, it's sound to
Advance the peace you want around you.

If it doesn't make sense, just read the first word of each line.

I don't have any photos, but Ma Hat did send some Advent photos: her wreath, the felt Advent calendar she made herself (and we had back when I was a kid), and some photos of the Pope's Mass in Corsica, where they were wearing pink vestments for Gaudete Sunday.

As you can see, these are from EWTN, the station that is the summation of everything that's wrong in American Catholicism today. I never watch it, but Ma Hat apparently does. However, since she's not Catholic, maybe it's not corrupting her...? It's just part of the wider complex of very rich people who get all us little people to argue over nonissues like "wokeism" while they are making sure all the money flows to the top. Then people wonder why life is so hard, and nobody is having children (because they can't afford them due to the money flowing upwards, duh) and everyone is overweight (because corporations put addictive substances in our food to sell more, duh) and there are school shootings all the time (because corporations want to sell unlimited amounts of firearms with no restrictions, duh). There was one here today in Madtown... at a Christian school. I would not call this shocking; I would call it inevitable. The people who claim the loudest to be Christian are the ones most in thrall to the horrible system set up by the oligarchs, and so they are the first to fall victim to it. Don't obey in advance.

Famous Hat

Zoo Lights 2024

 

This morning Travalon and I went to Mass at the far east side church again, then we met Tiffy downtown, and we went to a coffee shop for a light lunch. We walked back up to the Capitol and this time looked at the State Christmas Tree from various levels. Here is the second level up, at least in the Capitol, where they use the European system of ground floor, first floor, second floor, etc.

And this is from the first (NOT the ground) floor level.

And here is the nativity scene on that level.

There was also a Freedom From Religion display, but it was somehow simultaneously bizarre and boring, so I didn't bother taking a photo of it. It's probably better to describe it and let your imagination take over: picture Benjamin Franklin hugging the Statue of Liberty while George Washington kneels reverently before the Constitution. Maybe the problem is that it wasn't well-executed, and if a talented artist had done it, I might have been intrigued enough to take a photo. It honestly looked like the art project of a not-too-talented middle-school kid who was asked to portray reverence for the State.

After we bid adieu to Tiffy, we went to Little Luxuries to see about an advertised Cookie Walk. It turns out you had to sign up in advance, but we did see a cuddly campfire, and Travalon immediately thought of two terrible puns involving Premier league teams, so we got it to make a video of Get Kraken with Jerry. So look for that soon.

In the evening before my band practice, which is right across from the zoo, we went to Zoo Lights. We took some photos.

Then I walked to band practice, and I passed a house with a dinosaur kind of like the Sinclair one.

I think I forgot to tell this story from band practice a couple of weeks ago: I began singing one of the Christmas carols without looking at the music, and then I glanced at the music and said, "Oh, I am in the wrong key!" Hardingfele, who had been noodling along, said, "You were singing it in G," and I said, "That makes sense - it's my factory default." A lot of the carols we are singing for our gig on Friday are in G. This reminds me that last weekend in Milwaukee, one of the pieces was a Mystery Sonata by Biber, which has the violin tuned to a B minor chord, but the notes you are looking at on the page are what you would play if the violin had the standard tuning of G-D-A-E. This would drive me crazy, to look at one note and play a different one. Years ago in the OTHER choir the director would once in a while change the key of the piece without saying anything, and I had the hardest time singing an F while looking at a G, or whatever. I went to him and said I'm not good enough to be in the choir, I can't transpose in my head as fast as everyone else, and he said, "No, they don't even notice." (After that, if I realized he had changed the key of a piece, I'd look around and see Kathbert and another woman looking around in confusion too, and we'd all look at each other and nod: "Yup, he did it again!") The Mystery Sonatas by Biber are based on the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary (we didn't have 20 until 2000), and each has a different tuning, so performers tend to just have violins set to each weird tuning so they don't have to retune for each piece. This just goes to show that some composers were as dead-set on being a pain in the ass in the 17th Century as they are today, although at least the Mystery Sonatas do sound lovely. A lot of the pain-in-the-ass music composed by contemporary people doesn't even sound like music.

A weird thing from the Shamrock Club Christmas party that I didn't notice until looking at photos: my name tag had my correct first and both last names, but Travalon's had his correct first name... and then his last name was my email address. What??? How did they make that mistake?? Fortunately we found the name tag in the car, so it is preserved on Mariah Fifty-Three (?) for posterity.

Famous Hat

Where's that Confounded Trolley?

 

This morning Travalon and I met Jilly Moose for coffee, then he left to go to a bookstore that will be closing soon while Jilly Moose and I waited for Tiffy in the lobby of her sister's building. Here are a couple of photos that Jilly Moose took of the lobby.

When Tiffy arrived, we walked to a Chinese restaurant on State Street for lunch, and they tried to seat us at Booth 4 because we are "gringos," but I know that 4 is bad luck in Chinese culture, so I said, "Not that booth," and they sat us by the windows. After lunch we walked to the Capitol to see the State Christmas Tree.

We ran into Hardingfele, who had her violin with her because she had just played a concert there. Then we went to some shops on State Street, and who should we run into but Travalon. He drove Tiffy and me down Monroe Street to see all the giant inflatable Santas, and then he dropped us off at First Congo for the Madison Bach Musicians' Christmas concert. I particularly loved the Buxtehude and Hammerschmidt, but everyone else liked the Praetorius setting of "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," including Mr. N'Awlins and Kathbert. Cecil Markovitch was there too, but he was talking to someone else, so we just waved at each other. We also saw the Professor Formerly Known as Banjo Player and her organist husband. It was a fabulous concert, and people applauded for five minutes afterwards. Here is a photo of the inside of the church with just the Christmas lights on.

It was sleeting when Travalon came to pick us up, so we didn't want to go far. We drove as far as Leopold's and went to the Italian restaurant that is attached to it. There was a wait, so we had a drink at the bar, and the other two had fancy cocktails with limoncello but I had a pistachio cream ale because I knew I'd be loopy if I drank anything stronger before eating anything. We had risotto balls for appetizers, then I had gnocchi, and Tiffy and I split spumoni for dessert. It was all so good! By then the weather had cleared up, so Travalon kindly drove us through the Fantasy of Lights. What a wonderful December Saturday! The only low note was that there was no sign of the Holiday Trolley that usually goes up and down State Street every Saturday in December. I remember fondly once singing with a choir on it. Today a choir strolled by the Chinese restaurant, so I ran out and joined them on "Hark the Herald." I love carolers!

The people at the next table in the restaurant were talking about some Led Zeppelin movie that Tiffy and Travalon have both seen, where there is a fantasy sequence for each band member. (I paraphrased the blog post title from Zeppelin.) Once we were in the car, I asked the others what their fantasy sequence would be. Travalon said he would be walking across the Arctic ice with a family of polar bears. Tiffy said she would be floating in the water with the sun reflecting off of it strongly, and I said, "Like floating on your back, or on something inflatable?" and she said definitely something inflatable, so I asked, "Like what? An inflatable margarita?" and she said sure. My fantasy sequence would be me painting my cartoon martian Atticus Sappington III in blacklight paint, and then I would become Atticus Sappington III and fly to Saturn and ride on the rings. Whee! Too bad I don't know how to do animation because I would totally make this movie if I could.

Mandatory Monthly DuoLingo Bragging Ahead:

When I texted my videos of the Holiday Train to my former neighbor, she sent me this screenshot:

She said, "This would be a good Christmas card." Hmm, maybe she's onto something...

Famous Hat

Irish Music and Christmas Decorations

 

Today I worked from home and did walk outside, despite the frigid temperatures. When Travalon came home, we went to Alt Brew and listened to the Currach Tetrad just like last month. This time the only person I recognized there (besides people in the band) was the woman I know from the Slow Irish Session, but I did talk to a man whose wife just got Irish citizenship. I asked how she did that, and her grandfather was born in Ireland. Bummer - I'm one generation too far removed. They had a dancing lesson again, but this time I didn't get up for it. The college Irish dancers performed, and they were really good. I wish I knew how to dance like that, but nobody would want to see that - it looks way better on cute girls barely old enough to legally drink. But it seems like it would be a great exercise program. The school-aged son of the concertina player also performed for us on the fiddle, and he was really good too. Apparently his older brother (who didn't perform) won some contest in Ireland.

Afterwards, Travalon and I drove around a subdivision in Waunakee, looking at Christmas lights. Here are some photos; Travalon took some of these, and I took some.

Did you notice that two of these are of the same house? Just checking to see if you are paying attention.

Here is Mr. Swanky on a colorful quilt.

I keep hearing a mysterious sound outside. At first I thought it was a train horn, but it's too low-pitched for that. It kind of sounds off in the pattern of a train horn, like silence for a while, then it goes off two times in a row. If I learn any more about what it is, I'll let you know in my next post.

Famous Hat

Shuttle Drama

 

This morning was very, very, very cold. I sat in my car waiting for the shuttle, but it didn't come. Finally i got out of the car and walked to the bus shelter, thinking the shuttle wasn't coming because the driver didn't see anyone waiting, so maybe he thought we were all working from home on such a cold morning. I saw the shuttle just parked down the way, which seemed odd because we were supposed to leave at eight, and it was eight. I began walking toward it, and then it started slowly driving toward me... and meanwhile a second shuttle came blasting down the road toward us. Other people had seen me get out of my car, and they must have thought I knew something, because then they joined me at the shelter. We watched the second shuttle pull abreast of the first one and stop, then the drivers had some sort of confab, and one of the other people waiting with me said, "Uh oh, some shuttle drama this morning?" Finally the second shuttle pulled up to us, and the driver said the first shuttle had a mechanical failure. "And on such a cold morning!" I said, and he said, "That's the reason why it happened." At that point I had been outside for five minutes, but it was zero degrees F, and -13 F with the windchill, so I was a little cold. I messaged my coworkers to say I might be late, and one said, "C'mon, get everyone out and push!" and another one said, "My old beater that sits in the driveway didn't want to start on this cold morning." I said, "I feel ya, car - I didn't want to start on this cold morning either!"

As usual, I drank my coffee in my adult sippy cup on the ride into work, and I even got there with two minutes to spare. Then I poured myself another cup of coffee to warm up... and just after I'd finished it, the chair asked if I wanted some of her special, strong coffee to warm up. After that my FitBit said I'd had 52 active minutes, which it bases on my heart rate, which must have been racing after all that caffeine. Who needs exercise when you can just overcaffeinate yourself?

It was so cold out that I didn't want to walk outside, and the meeting room upstairs that overlooks the lake was free until three so I walked there for my morning break and for lunch. However, toward the end of my lunch break, people kept peeking into the room and asking to borrow chairs, so I headed back downstairs. There was this cute drawing on the chalkboard in there.

There was also a mysterious message that the stage would be dark so bring a light, which I assume was aimed at the balalaika orchestra that practices in that room.

At the end of the work day, I went to a party to celebrate the graduates of the program. I made a woven paper heart basket but forgot to take a photo, and it's in my office so I can't take one now. I also had some glogg and some treats. It did make me a little wistful, because right now I feel like a part of the department, but once I'm in FART 5, I'll just be an anonymous financial person with no connection to academia, like I could just be working at a bank. If I'd wanted to work at a bank, I'd be working at a bank. It's so frustrating. Then I had to leave for our Union meeting, where we discussed the FARTs and other movements to go to "shared systems," or whatever they're calling it, which some people think is a prelude to contracting these services out. I can just imagine getting laid off two years before I could officially retire. Maybe I'll move to Panama and pick bananas or something. At least it's warm there.

Famous Hat

Parties on Campus

 

This morning our boss canceled the administrative staff meeting we always have at ten on Wednesdays, so I was watching the snow fall up with my coworker.

Suddenly our boss came around to collect everyone, because he had actually canceled next week's meeting, but none of us had noted the date. Good thing he found me before I had left for my break! Since I didn't get a morning break, I took a long lunch to go to the Just Bach concert at the Lutheran church where I used to sing. The first piece was attributed to Buxtehude, but the bass said it probably wasn't by him, even though it totally sounded like him. Also, the tenor was sick, so they had to do some reconfiguring last minute. Two men were talking during the first piece, and then they just got up and left. Offended by the lack of tenor or by the possibly fake Buxtehude? The world may never know.

Days like this make me happy to be back on campus part-time. I went to an open house for the small department I help out, and that was a lot of fun. They had a cake decorated with an image of a faculty member's new book, and it was very strawberry-flavored. I also had some healthier snacks. Then I had to hurry back for our department-wide meeting. 

Right after work I walked to the Union (despite the frigid temperatures) and found Travalon and my Staff Congress peeps at the Chancellor's Holiday party. On the way there I ran into my former boss, who was also going to it. There was free wine and beer (I had a Spotted Cow), lots of fun hors d'oeuvres, and peppermint ice cream for dessert. The Chancellor came over and told us she was going to Colombia for the winter break, which made us all jealous - none of us are going anywhere warm and exotic. I also saw the IT guy I had dropped my computer off with just before heading over, and I asked what his connection was, and he said, "I'm a Plus One." Then I realized that I also knew his wife, but they have different last names, so I hadn't realized they were married. Then again, a guy I know from the Union and a woman I know from a committee are married, and I never made the connection because they have such a common last name, even though he would mention his wife by my committee mate's name, until he finally said, "You know her! You're on that committee together!" Anyway, today was a fun day around the meetings, with the concert and not one but two holiday parties. I imagine tomorrow, which will be even colder, will also be a lot quieter. Maybe I'll have time to get some work done...

Famous Hat

More About My Knee Woes

 

Today I worked from home, and midday I went to my appointment at Sports Medicine. They took a bunch of x-rays of my knees, then a doctor met with me for like five minutes to tell me what happened is that I have some mild arthritis in my knees, so when I injured the right one, it flared up. Okay, so it is just about me being old... and fat, because she said she was going to refer me to Physical Therapy and to the Weight Management Program. Then I met briefly with a physical therapist who gave me four exercises to do. I have to do each one ten times on each side, and then do the whole sequence two more times. I did it tonight, and it was a pain, but now I feel kind of warm and wonderful.

At Adoration tonight, I heard a raucous party upstairs. Tomorrow should be the big party for Our Lady of Guadalupe, so maybe it was just a practice session. There were also people in the church hall, and one told me I was welcome to come tomorrow. It's tempting - I'm so happy that people are making a joyful noise unto the Lord at my old church again.

Here are some photos from this weekend that Travalon took with his good camera. First, the Show Dome in Milwaukee.

Here are photos from the Desert Dome.

We don't know what this globe on the ceiling was, but it was cool!

There were a couple of doves in there.

And here are photos from the Tropical Dome.

And here are photos from the Christmas display by the Cathedral.

On Sunday we went to the dog park near our house so we could see the birds on the water. Here are some mallards.

It was really fun going to the dog park, because all the dogs wanted to say hi, and none of the people seemed to notice that we didn't have a dog ourselves. Is it weird to go to a dog park without a dog?

Here is the best photo Travalon took of the swans at Cherokee Marsh.

And here are a couple of photos of the sunset at the marsh.

And here are some photos Travalon took of houses we saw on Sunday night.

And of course it's time for some more DuoLingo bragging.

Between having to do my knee exercises and my DuoLingo lessons, I'll never get to bed on time!

Famous Hat