Night Mares Are Champions!

 

Yesterday I worked from home and went on a walk in my neighborhood. Here is a lovely pink hydrangea.

When I used to walk with a neighbor, we would illicitly walk on the riverwalk belonging to another condo association all the time. We never thought much about it, since they come into our private areas too, like I have seen them on our dock, watching the sunset. I don't walk on that riverwalk much anymore, but yesterday I did and thoroughly enjoyed how beautiful it is. The strange thing is that some woman saw me, and even though about five hundred people live in that condo complex, somehow she suspected I didn't belong, and she followed me (unbeknownst to me) to see where I lived, and then she yelled at me. While I was wrong and admit it - yes, I was trespassing - the episode really weirded me out. What gave me away? She was about my age but had dyed purple hair, which is not what you'd expect from someone so slavishly devoted to rules. Ugh - hope I don't ever encounter her again!

Today I worked on campus, and I went up to a colleague's office in our building to see if we could figure out how to do payroll adjustments. Her window is much higher up and facing west, so when I heard the train outside, I went to see if we could see it from that vantage point. It was like a little model train from up there, but I could clearly see it. Then she joined Seabird and me for a walk on the Lakeshore Path, where we mostly talked shop. I spent the rest of the day doing payroll adjustments, now that we had figured it out. We had to get a third person online to walk us through the first one - how efficient is a system if everything has to be learned by committee? 

This evening there was a lantern ceremony in commemoration of the bombing of Hiroshima (we attended the one four years ago), but Travalon said he'd rather go to the women's softball North League Championship game featuring our own Night Mares. At first they were ahead of the Minot Honeybees, but that team is very tough and pulled ahead by one. The Night Mares tied it up, then at the top of the seventh inning, the Bees got a run in. (They had two home runs during the game.) I was very hot after eating too much of a giant soft pretzel, and I went for walk to cool off, away from the body heat of the crowd, and then of course in the bottom of the seventh a Night Mare hit a home run just before I got back, so I heard it but didn't see it. So they were tied up, and then a runner stole second base, and then she stole third base, and then a batter hit a line drive right through center field, giving her time to run home - game over!! The Night Mares are the North Woods League Champions! I was so excited that I cried a little. Interestingly, two of the Night Mares have the same last name and go to school here, so I wonder if they are sisters? Also, their pitcher is amazing, although she did flag a bit toward the end and walked some players. Anyway, it was a tough win and a very exciting game, so I'm glad we went to it. Still, next year I'd like to go back to the lantern ceremony.

Famous Hat