Limerick for Our New Work System

 

This morning my throat felt a bit scratchy and I was coughing a lot, but I went to work on campus because we were going to have our biweekly meeting on the Union Terrace. Only... it rained all day. I did go to a co-working meeting with some other FART 5 members, but the thing I was going to work on got sidelined because a whole bunch of summer positions didn't transfer over correctly from the old to the new system, so I had to update them quickly before the payroll calc tomorrow. I was so confused that my new boss came down and helped me. Then I tried to create a new customer in the system so I could pay a group in Germany, but the system said I could only have one primary address. I was confused, since I had only entered one address. Thinking it had accidentally duplicated somewhere, I deleted it... and then the system told me it required an address. What?!? 

By the time we were supposed to have our meeting, my former boss decided we would go to Union South, which is closer... but their big bar area was closed. So we went across the street to a bar called the Library, which was around even when I was in college. Our current chair as of the start of this month couldn't make it, but our former chair came, and when my former boss poured me a glass of Spotted Cow, she said she'd like to see me cut loose. I said, "Nobody wants to see that, since my basic mode is Poet." She wanted me to make up a poem, so I came up with a limerick about the new system:

        There once was a system that sucked,
        Into which some odd things had been tucked.
        We didn't understand it
        And asked who had planned it,
        Because now we're all royally... screwed.

This was a big hit with my coworkers, and my former boss said wasn't there a song where you expected the end of each line to be a bad word and it wasn't? So I started singing, "Miss Suzy had a steamboat," etc., and another coworker said she remembered that from the depths of her childhood, so we started talking about the folklore of children's songs. Eventually Travalon joined us, and he enjoyed some beer and chatting with my guy coworker. 

After we got home, I abruptly lost my voice. I was supposed to lead Night Prayer tonight, but even with no voice that would have been difficult, since I was blowing my nose constantly. Did I catch a Minnesota virus? Anna Banana II thinks it could be caused by the smoke from the Canadian wildfires. There was an air quality warning today, which I hadn't been aware of, and Seabird and I did take a brief walk at lunch, but it was pretty rainy so we cut it short. Anna Banana II kindly prayed the whole rosary aloud tonight, because I could not contribute, and I had to use the chat function in Zoom to communicate. Toward the end of the rosary, a very big great horned owl flew into a tree outside our window and stared at me. Travalon saw it too. It was huge!

Here's hoping tomorrow I feel well enough to go to a funeral. Nothing tragic, she was in her 90's, but she was a pillar of our old parish.

Famous Hat

Over the Stone

 

I forgot to mention that on Sunday at Pax Christi Church, the singers were unbelievably good. You would think you were listening to a professional group, not a random church choir. Apparently they expected all the congregation to be musically literate as well, because the music for everything we sang was projected onto screens at the front of the church. I didn't care for most of the music, except the psalm setting, which was minor key and had an ethereal descant.

Yesterday was extremely hot. I worked on campus, and since everyone I walk with at lunch was working remotely that day. I just walked in the shade on the third floor and prayed a rosary, until I got too hot and walked around inside. Neither view was very interesting. After work Travalon and I went swimming, and a boy of around seventeen swam under the water toward me. He had the whole width of the pool, but as I moved over, he kept coming toward me, until I was backed up against the edge of the pool. Then he started to come up between my legs, so I did what any normal woman would do - I kicked him, and when he emerged to the side of me, I said, "Jerk!" Now I hold no illusions of being sexy, but this was more of a power thing - despite my being his elder, he wanted to show that he was more important than I am because of his gender. It's an ugly trend I've noticed among young guys, especially in religious circles. This kid obviously didn't expect me to fight back; he meekly said, "Sorry," and left the pool, chastened. I will never back down and allow a man to feel superior to me just because he happened to be born male. That's ridiculous.

Today I worked from home. It was also a very warm day, so during my lunch break I went over to the nearby woods across from the bluff and took a vigorous walk, according to my FitBit. This may have been because I was attempting to avoid the mosquitos. The shade was wonderful, but it always seems to come with bugs, so pick your poison. After work Travalon drove me to Adoration, and as we were heading there, we saw a train on the bridge over Troy Drive. We kept trying to find places to pull over and watch it, but the roads are narrow there, and every place we found, someone came up behind us and we had to move. It was a very short train anyway, and we didn't get a video of it. But Travalon was very happy because he had never seen a train on that bridge.

While I was at Adoration, Travalon walked down to the Union Terrace and saw this coot very close up.

You can see that it's a cousin of the gallinule. He came back and drove me to St. Andrew's, the little Episcopal church on Regent Street that often hosts early music concerts. Tonight a local recorder ensemble played mostly folk music; I was invited by one of the recorder players, a former choir buddy who now sings in the choir at that church. Pete the Sailor Man came too, and afterwards we all went downstairs for ice cream sundaes: Pete, the choir buddy, her husband, and eventually my husband too. This was all free. The concert was enjoyable, and while they are definitely an amateur group, the pleasant sound of the recorder forgives a lot of sins. My favorite was a Welsh tune called "Tros Y Garreg," which Google Translate says means "Over the Stone," but I also enjoyed a tango called "La Paloma," which I don't need Google Translate to tell me means "the dove" in Spanish. One of the recorder players put down her recorder and played the maracas for that one. A lot of people think of the recorder as a simple instrument used to teach children music, but I am in awe of really good recorder players, who will say things to each other like, "Play this piece on a soprano but use alto fingering," and they seem to be able to read every clef. At one point I could kind of play the alto recorder, but that was years ago. I also used to be able to drive stick shift, but if I were called on to do either thing today, you probably wouldn't enjoy the results. 

Famous Hat

Following the Rivers Home

 

I am sure my regular readers will be stunned to know Travalon and I didn't get going this morning in time to make the 9 am Mass at Pax Christi. We used our extra time to listen to 70's and 80's ad jingles and get coffee before the 10:45 Mass, then we went by the townhouse where I spent my preteen and teen years. It looks spiffied up from what I remember.

We hit the road and stopped at Travalon's favorite spot on these trips: the Sinclair Travel Plaza in St. Charles, Minnesota.

Surprisingly little Sinclair Dinosaur stuff for sale this time, which puzzles me, because who goes to the Sinclair Travel Plaza to buy scented candles and whimsical wooden signs? The restaurant there has been closed for some time, apparently, so we went to Del's Diner in cute downtown St. Charles. Travalon had a strawberry malt, and the waitress brought him the extra, as they often do. At one point he knocked over the metal container with a loud clatter, and another waitress said, "I didn't do it!" so I said, "They say Sagittarius are clumsy, and I present Exhibit A." For some reason she seemed to take umbrage at that, but not because she had any problem with astrology. She said, "I'm not a Sagittarius, and I'm clumsy. I always say 'Grace ain't my name, and coordination ain't my game," but she never said what sign she was, or how being clumsy would be an asset in a profession where you carry around breakable plates and glasses.

We drove along the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River south of La Crosse, and there were lots of turnoffs to check out the beautiful views.

In a park we stopped at for a biological break, we saw this adorable firetruck:

There were a lot of cool bluffs.

Then we turned east and followed the Wisconsin River. We stopped in Muscoda to walk along the river.

There was a kingbird singing in a dead tree.

Closer to home, we stopped at Festge Park, and Travalon took photos from the overlook.

Here you can see Blue Mound in the distance:

And here I am, holding my phone out so Merlin could identify the birdsong we were hearing.

It was an indigo bunting. We never saw it, but we went to the marsh on Highway 14, and Travalon took photos of cormorants in the trees.

And a killdeer in the parking lot where we had stopped.

We tried to find a better vantage point and saw this red-tailed hawk.

Did you know the screams of this bird are what they use in videos and TV shows for the sound of bald eagles? Real eagles don't make such an aggressive sound. We wound our way through a subdivision trying to find a better vantage point for this marsh, and eventually we ended up in a very swanky subdivision, but we never did find a better spot to see the marsh from. There's an excellent view from Highway 14, but obviously you can't stop to take photos in the middle of a major highway. We may take up this mystery at a later date - stay tuned!

Famous Hat

Hometown Visit: Swimming Snafus

 

(Thanks to Travalon for help with this blog post title.)

Yesterday I worked from home and was somewhat productive, then right after work Travalon and I hit the road. We made a stop at a Mexican restaurant in Mauston that somehow took two hours, but my seafood enchiladas were so good. However, during the long wait I'd eaten so many chips and salsa that I could only eat half my real dinner, and it sat in the car for two more hours before we got to my hometown. Travalon found this surprising flag in the men's bathroom of the (important!) Mexican restaurant.

What?? Why is this in a MEXICAN restaurant? It says "I love Puerto Rico." Huh??

The moment we got to our hotel room, I stuck my seafood in the fridge, then we swam in the wonderful pool that was shockingly full of children at that late hour, and then I went right to bed without blogging.

Today I had my leftovers for breakfast, and they haven't killed me yet. Travalon found a nonprofit coffeehouse called St. James online, so we went there for coffee and got free treats because it was their 13th birthday. Better yet, they are associated with the Catholic church across the street, so the very friendly people gathered there were happy to tell us Mass times. Since the church is six minutes from our hotel, this is what we will be doing tomorrow morning.

Ma and Pa Hat are moving to another apartment, but I'm confused about a lot of things. I thought it was assisted living, but no, it's just another apartment. Ma Hat had sent a photo of a bunch of books the people helping her refused to pack, so we thought we'd spend the day packing them, but when we got to their place, she said the movers had already packed them. She said they came and did it yesterday, and she thought about calling us and telling us not to come, which means I could have been in the Atwood Fest parade with the Brazilian drumming group. Then Ma Hat remembered she had stuff in a basement storage unit, so Travalon and I emptied that and brought the contents upstairs. We are both getting older ourselves and have sore knees, so this was a less welcome job than packing books that don't involve stairs. We took a break to take a walk along the Zumbro River, and Travalon took some photos.

We saw people tubing on the river, which looked really fun, but we have no idea where you rent tubes in town. I told Travalon how, as a kid, I used to follow the creek in our backyard to the Zumbro River, and along the side someone had a compost heap, but I had no idea what a compost heap was, so I thought they had killed someone and buried them in their yard, and that's what the bad smell was. Guess I was kind of Gothic as a kid.

After that we went with Ma and Pa Hat to a Mideastern restaurant that had good reviews online, but a sign on the door said it was closed, so we had a very late lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, and Ma and Pa Hat treated us. Here is the colorful board they had advertising their various menu items.

When we got back, I sat on this chair that used to belong to my great-grandmother.

It turns out both Travalon and I were staring at this box while waiting for further instructions from Ma Hat:

She said we could pack glasses and mugs that were still in the kitchen, so we wrapped them until running out of newspaper. There is a pool at Ma and Pa Hat's current apartment complex, and by then it was in the shade, so Travalon and I decided to run back to the hotel and get our swim stuff, since we hadn't thought to bring it with us. When we got back, Ma Hat said oops, she forgot to tell us that you have to pay extra to use the pool, and she and Pa Hat hadn't paid this year, so we couldn't get in. That seemed so strange to us - whoever heard of an apartment complex with a pool charging extra for access? - but we just shrugged and went to a nearby park with a beach on a pond. Only, when we got there, a guy kept reminding us that the place was getting locked up in half an hour, so if we didn't leave promptly, we'd be locked in. We swam a few minutes at the beach, then we went back to our wonderful hotel pool, which had less kids than last night despite the much earlier hour. When the kids all invaded the pool, we moved to the hot tub and watched the sunset from there. I have watched many sunsets in my life, but I believe this is the first one I've seen from a hot tub.

There is a 24-hour Mexican restaurant just down the street from our hotel, so we went there for a light dinner after showering. Looks like I'll be having half a bean burrito for breakfast after eating too much street corn. The young girl taking our order sometimes seemed confused, so then I would speak in Spanish and she would understand, like with the burrito she kept saying, "Bean or beef?" and I'd say, "Bean," but she didn't get it, so I said, "Frijoles." And Travalon wanted a half order of rice, but she kept saying, "One order of rice?" so I said, "La mitad." Anyway, we got what we had ordered. Travalon looked online to see if there was any information about having to pay extra for the pool at Ma and Pa Hat's complex, and he found a wondrous review of the place that said, among other things, "There are murders here! A grandpa had his eyeballs yanked right out of his head! And the laundry facilities are out-of-date!" That made me laugh so hard - talk about anticlimactic! Not that torture is funny, but following it with such a feeble complaint just made me lose it. Another great line: "People are always trying to burn the place down, either by burning their food or actually trying to burn it down." This person also said there are actual new-Nazis living there, which I believe, judging by some of the tattoos I saw on people there.

As we drove back to the hotel, I suddenly thought of that lame kids' joke: "Guess what? Chicken butt! Guess why? Chicken thigh!" So then I made up even stupider ones: "Guess how? Chicken cow! Guess when? Chicken hen! Guess who? Chicken coup!" So that's the terrible joke I came up with: "What do you call it when the chickens rebel against the farmer? A chicken coup!" Is that even funny? Not really. But I think it's hilarious how not funny it is.

I hear the Atwood Fest parade went fine without me, but they got rained on. So that's what I missed.

Famous Hat

Paying the Vineyard Workers

 

Today I worked from home, then in the evening I went to another training session at the Labor Temple. Our local's office is on the far side of the building from the women's bathroom but really close to the men's bathroom, so that's some bad luck for those of us of the feminine persuasion. Today we talked about the LA teachers' strike, and I have it on good authority that this was the last training session. Travalon was planning to try everything on the menu at Butter Bird if this continued all summer.

Tonight at Night Prayer I had a question for everyone: the Gospel reading today was Jesus's disciples asking why he always talked in parables, and that got me to thinking about the story of the vineyard owner who hires people throughout the day to work in his vineyard, and at the end of the day he pays them all the same wage. My question was why did he pay the workers who had worked the longest last, so that they knew they got the same amount as the workers who had only been there an hour? To me, God comes across like a real jerk for doing this, because He easily could have paid the people who worked the longest first so they didn't feel slighted, but I must be missing the point. So I asked: what is the point? It was fascinating to me how some people totally missed what I was asking and said everyone gets the same amount of grace no matter how long they've been a believer, but other people totally got what I was asking and said, "You're missing the question. She's asking why the people who worked the longest got paid last." Right - I TOTALLY get the point of all the workers getting the same amount of money, and I said so, but I don't understand why the hardest workers got paid last and had to watch everyone else get paid the same amount. Some other people threw out some suggestions, but it is a mysterious parable. It also seems like a psychology experiment, because it was really interesting to see who understood my question and who kept answering a question I had not asked. It was not the people I would have guessed, which maybe says something about my ability to understand people. The person who was loudest about answering the question I had not asked is a stubborn person who never thinks they are wrong, so that tracks, but my biggest defender surprised me. I may have totally underestimated this person.

Famous Hat

Turkish Ice Cream

 

Today I worked on campus, and my young coworker got there just after me. I spotted a cockroach, and she freaked out and wanted to spray it, but I'm more scared of bug poison than of bugs. I tried to catch it with a paper towel, but it ran under the door into the office used by the teaching assistants during the school year. Since nobody is in there now, I let her spray in there, and she sprayed her own office for good measure. Fortunately I was leaving to go to a co-working session for FART 5 in Seabird's building, so I avoided breathing in too much spray. Afterwards my colleagues who work in my building were going to take the Campus Bus up the hill with me, but then they decided to go to the food carts for lunch. I felt antisocial for not going with them, but it was very hot (there was a heat advisory), and I wanted to eat my falafel and hummus I'd brought from home in air-conditioned comfort. Then Seabird and I walked on the shadiest parts of the Lakeshore Path, and I again took the Campus Bus up the hill. I think of it as the Lazy Bus because it didn't exist when I was a student - we had to walk up the hill under our own power.

Late in the afternoon I heard someone coughing up a lung, and I went to my young coworker's office and asked if she was having a reaction to all that bug spray. She said no, she thought I was the one who was coughing, since I'd had to take an allergy pill earlier, so we realized it must have been our third coworker, the only other person around. Then Travalon picked me up and took me to my haircut appointment, and then we went to the Tibetan restaurant for dinner, where we sat at a low table with cushions and ate dumplings. It was an adventure; Travalon says he never needs to sit at that table again, but I did discover that they have outdoor seating. Here he is sitting at the low table.

We stopped at the Turkish restaurant to try their new Turkish ice cream.

Read all about it!

Today was Vanilla Ice Cream Cone Day (as well as Hot Enough For Ya Day), so I got the plain ice cream, while Travalon got the Oreo-flavored one. The guy serving it really put on a show, because he was using a long-handled spatula and the ice cream is very sticky, so he'd hold the cone out to Travalon on the end of the spatula and then snatch it away. He did the same thing to me. It was hilarious! The ice cream was very tasty, and as you can read on that sign, we felt virtuous eating it because it's so much healthier than regular ice cream... or so they say. I was a little disappointed that the only four flavors were plain (the guy kept saying it wasn't vanilla), chocolate, strawberry, and Oreo - nothing exotic like saffron or pistachio rose. For that, we'd have to get gelato.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I went to the dentist. She said I have very healthy, strong teeth. Too bad they're not more attractive, but it does seem like the people with the perfect, pearly teeth have more problems. I've only had two cavities and they were both in way-back molars they took out anyway. One was a wisdom tooth. Why we have teeth we don't need is beyond me. Seems like a design flaw.

Famous Hat

Banana Cream Pie Flower

 

Today was not a particularly noteworthy day for the most part; I worked from home, went to adoration, joined a meeting for the secret club I'm in, and led Night Prayer. I also watered my plants, and Jolly Bob is getting too tall for the southern exposure window in the loft, so I moved it to under the skylight, where it has a few more feet it can reach up, and then I moved a Norfolk Island pine in front of the southern exposure window. The pine has been struggling, but Jolly Bob was very happy, so hopefully this move wasn't a mistake. If it gets any taller, it will have to come downstairs and join Greg in front of the tall windows in the living room, but then it would catch the bugs from Greg. So far Jolly Bob has not been infected with the bugs, hanging out in the loft.

I did discover this sansevieria that I got from one of the funeral baskets is blooming.

This is the one plant from the funeral baskets that is really thriving. I've heard these things are impossible to kill, but I didn't know they were easy to get to bloom. The flowers smell like banana cream pie. I'm always excited when one of my plants blooms, especially when they smell good.

Famous Hat

Steel Drums at the Rainbow Shelter

 

Today I worked on campus, and we had another meeting, this time about the ticketing system. I was surprised how few people showed up, but one guy who rarely comes to other meetings was there. Afterwards he wanted to talk to me about some funds at the Foundation that I have long thought should be combined into one, but our previous chair said we couldn't do that. This guy said we really should combine them because as one fund we would get so much more interest, and now that we have a new chair for the next three years, maybe we can get somewhere with this. I also submitted an expense report for a credit card charge, and the woman above me returned it because she said I hadn't attached the receipt. I was confused because I could clearly see the receipt, so she showed me what she was seeing, and it was so non-intuitive on her view - the receipt was there, but it wasn't clear what it was, just a weird little symbol, not an obvious PDF with a name. This new system is so weird.

After work Travalon and I went to Warner Park to hear the local steel drum band. They have these concerts on Monday evenings in the summer, but in all these years we have never been to one. However, I'm a big fan of the steel drum band, and when I saw they were playing at this concert, I said, "We have to go!" Also, one of my Brazilian drumming teachers is in the band, but I didn't see him tonight - maybe still recovering from playing Brazilian and bluegrass music last week. The steel drum band does have a lot of members, so it's entirely possible that he was there and I just didn't see him. We were way back in the crowd. We had a very light dinner beforehand, but there were food carts there, so we could have just eaten there. We did get Thai tea (Travalon's was green tea and mine was the classic orange one) and crab rangoons to top things off. It was a perfect night, not too hot and with a breeze as we sat in the shade of the Rainbow Shelter listening to the steel drums. I love summer! At least when it's not too hot. The next few days are supposed to be scorchers...

Famous Hat

Samba-Playing Axolotl at the Irish Session

 

Today after Mass Travalon and I sat outside enjoying an iced coffee and a "pizza scone" with sun-dried tomatoes and cheese (we split one), then we walked on Governor's Island. It was a lovely day, not too hot, but I had to spend a lot of it inside. When I got to my drumming lesson, the guy was there with the jerseys. He said he had one that might fit me, and I doubted it, but it fit perfectly! He wanted payment by Venmo, but I'm old and don't know how to do that, so I gave him $20 cash and he said he didn't have change. My teacher said he's lying, he always has lots of $5 bills, and that's his scam, but I think he was kidding. Anyway, it's from the $50 I unexpectedly got, so it's not like digging into my hard-earned money. Now I feel like an official member of the Brazilian drumming group! This jersey is called "Sunset Dreams."

The group is called the Handphibians, and I don't know the story behind that name yet, but I like to think of myself as a samba-playing axolotl. Travalon was at the East Side Club listening to a classic rock group so he didn't love having to leave to pick me up. We went back to hear them, but of course after two songs they went on break, and anyway it was time for me to get to the slow Irish session. I was exhausted after our grueling drum lesson, playing and walking for an hour and a half, and I can't even do the parade now because we'll be helping Ma and Pa Hat move. But the rumor is that we will be allowed to march in the Willy Street Fair Parade. 

My Irish teacher was not at the Irish session, but the guitarist and bass player from my band came, and so did the red-headed flute player. It was a smaller group than is sometimes there, but we had a great time. Meanwhile, Travalon was having a guys' dinner night with Cecil Markovitch, the Single B-Boy, and Richard Bonomo. He brought me Thai food to go, and then we went out to watch the sunset, me still in my Sunset Dreams jersey. Here's a photo:

Tiffy was in Boise, Idaho (which a French friend once pronounced Bwaazz Ee-DOW), and she found a Basque song on the sidewalk.

And a "Famous Potatoes" license plate. (This has to do with a George Carlin joke.)

She also saw Shoshone Falls, the "Niagara Falls of the West."

Wow, I'm jealous! That is stunningly beautiful!

And Jilly Moose created this poster.

If you have any questions about this, please address them to Jilly Moose. Thanks!

Famous Hat

Music on Blue Mound

 

Travalon and I had a very lazy morning today, then we did some adulting. First we went to Goodwill to get some knives and shorts, and we also bought some very cheap stuffies.

They were 69 cents each, but I have no idea if they charged us for one or two with the tiny bears, since they are attached at the feet. Then we had to go to the pharmacy, and then we went to Ancora Coffee to get some ground coffee, and while we were there, we enjoyed some cold brew, mint for Travalon and lavender for me. 

We drove to Kathbert's house, and she showed us her flowers. Look at her black calla lilies! Mine actually has more blooms, but they are hidden in the leaves and harder to see.

We took a walk in the Arboretum and found the eagles' nest. There was an eagle on it.

Then it flew to another branch and called out to its mate.

As we were watching it, a woman I worked with two decades ago walked by. I recognized her, but she barely remembered me. Still, she chatted with us for a bit. On the walk back to Kathbert's place, we saw this interesting sculpture.

Kathbert said a guy in her neighborhood used to make them. We bid her adieu and drove to Mount Horeb for a quick dinner before driving up Blue Mound to see the Daughter of Denni's band perform at the amphitheater. I had originally been planning to go to a Baroque concert at the music club tonight, but then I saw the notice about this concert, and Blue Mound always seems so sacred to me, so I thought what could be better than listening to music up there? Plus Travalon actually likes that music. The concert was free except for the cost of entrance to the state park, but we already have an annual state park sticker. It was such a beautiful venue.

There was a little stand selling souvenirs to benefit the park, and when I asked about the thing I am about to show you, the woman just gave it to me. I'm not sure why people give me free stuff all the time, like at the Forward game last week, but far be it from me to complain!

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a scarf or just a wall hanging, and the woman who gave it to me had no idea either. But I like it. The second half of the concert was all Beatles music, and I sat in my very comfortable lawn chair instead of the wooden benches of the amphitheater, with this thing draped over my chest, and just enjoyed the whole vibe. The Widow of Denni and a good friend of his were there in lawn chairs too. Apparently they have music every Saturday during the summer - who knew? Not a very friendly woman who said to me, as we were leaving, "Can you believe how cool this is? We're camping here, and we had no idea they had live music! We heard it and came to listen." Then as we drove back down Blue Mound, we had a stunning view of the countryside. What a wonderful evening!

Famous Hat