Disco Halloween Party

 

Today I worked from home, and Travalon decided to dress as a "political activist" for Halloween.

At lunchtime we walked on Governor's Island, where we saw about a thousand coots on the lake.

In the evening we went to the East Side Club for a benefit for Palestine, featuring the disco cover band V05. Travalon dressed as a Sinclair service station attendant.

I dressed as a traffic cone - at least, that's what Travalon said I look like when I wear this outfit to go out walking after dark.

I don't know if anyone figured it out, but one person thought I was a candy corn, so that's sort of the right idea. Someone else thought I was a crossing guard.

On the way there, we tried to stop by a house with impressive Halloween decorations, but there were a thousand trick-or-treaters around, including in the middle of the road, so we drove by it quickly and didn't stop to take a photo. 

The party was a lot of fun, and they turned the World Series game on, so Travalon didn't have to miss that. We did dance a bit, especially when they played "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire - I danced so hard that my FitBit said I got a workout on an elliptical. (It also said I had a half-hour workout of biking during my last Brazilian drumming lesson.) Here's a photo of the party.

They had a device that made a really fun video of us.

Some very cool costumes, including couples costumes: a cow and the moon, a deer and a road, a trapeze artist and a weight lifter. One guy was a bottle of beer just labeled "beer." Another guy had a high vis vest on, just like me, but I don't think he was supposed to be a traffic cone. Some people had obviously commercial ones, like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but one woman had all this tulle wrapped around her head like a cloud, and then it lit up now and then like it was a storm cloud full of lightning. Apparently her costume was "woman with her head in the clouds." My favorite might have been two women who wore white dresses and then had adorable mushroom hats, red with white polka dots, and for some reason they also had red fake eyelashes. I was a mushroom for Halloween way back in first or second grade, and I wish I had a photo to show you - it was like the best costume ever! I got to lead the parade! There probably is photographic evidence of this somewhere, but who knows where?

Unfortunately the Bluejays, who had been so dominant the last couple of games, were unable to put the Dodgers away, so there will be a Game Seven tomorrow night that we can't watch. (We made plans long before knowing this would happen.) After the game finished, we left the party, which was going on for another hour, and we stopped by the Halloween house on the way home. Sadly, the lights were all off, and the inflatable decorations were all deflated all over the lawn. It was quite spectacular, almost overwhelming, but I have no picture for my readers. Maybe next year.

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Ukulele Costume Party or Quebecois Jam?

 

Today I worked on campus, and in the afternoon Hardingfele and I took a walk. Here are some more photos of fall foliage on campus.

We also saw this crazy vehicle:

When I sent Tiffy a photo of the most spectacular maples on campus, she sent me a photo of the maple outside of her condo.

And Jilly Moose sent me photos of a ghost she made. She didn't say how or why she made it.

Tonight there was a ukulele strum where you were supposed to wear a Halloween costume, and there was a prize for the best one. It started at six, so I would have had to think of a costume before work, wear it to work, and maybe sneak out of work early to get there. This morning I was too exhausted to think of a costume, and Travalon said he'd rather go to the Quebecois jam at the liberal brewery. In the afternoon Famie my Irish teacher texted the red-headed flute player and me to ask if we were going to the Quebecois jam, so that pretty much decided it for me right there. I don't really know anyone at the ukulele strums, and they have not shown much interest in me the times I have gone, since they all know each other from their weekly strums during the middle of the workday. So would they know or care if I didn't come? No.

Travalon and I went to the liberal brewery, and Famie, a student of hers who often comes to Alt Brew Irish sessions, and the red-headed flute player were sitting at a table, all without instruments. I had brought my fiddle, and we all talked while Travalon and I had pizza and the others said they thought the brewery didn't have food. The others kept encouraging me to join the session, so finally I did. Boy, if I thought playing by ear at top speed was difficult, it's twice as hard to sightread at top speed! And it doesn't help that the dots on the page don't totally match what the others, who know the tunes in a slightly different variation, are playing. In fact, during one tune they switched to another one after a couple of reps, and I didn't have the music to look at for the second tune, but I actually found it easier to learn it without the music. Maybe I just am a creature who learns better by ear than by sight-reading. Plus the written music has misleading things like in one tune where the A part clearly had the key signature of A major, but the B part had the key signature of D major because it was actually A Mixolydian and there just weren't any G naturals to worry about in the A part. That might have mattered more if I were playing chords on the mandolin and thought I should be playing D major chords instead of A major and then G major, although I'd hear that was wrong. For some reason the fact that I can do all these things seemed to blow the others' mind. I am far from the greatest musician who ever lived, or was even playing at this jam, but I do have a combination of knowledge and instinct about music that seems to freak people out a bit. Maybe I should have been more serious in my younger days about becoming a better musician - who knows how far I could have gone?

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Autumn at Stricker Pond and on Campus

 

Today before work Travalon took a walk around Stricker Pond, and he sent me some photos:

He also sent me a photo of a pair of sandhill cranes at Governor Nelson State Park.

And this is his version of the same view on Governor's Island that I posted yesterday.

Meanwhile, I worked on campus and took two walks with Seabird, during our morning break and again on our lunch break. I took more photos of the trees there, and these pink daisies in the Allen Centennial Garden.

Here is the oak outside our department library window again.

And the maples.

After work I caught the bus to the music club for the Wednesday singalong. I always forget how crowded public buses are after being spoiled with the private buses for our park and ride. We did plenty of songs I didn't know at the singalong, but we also did "Dire Wolf" by the Grateful Dead and "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel and others I cannot think of now. The people there are so friendly! Travalon came and picked me up, and then I wasn't feeling very well and took a nap when we got home. I never ate a real dinner, just some berries, but now I'm feeling better and might try having some real food. To top it all off, I got a spasm in my side... the other side, not the one where I pulled a muscle so hard from vomiting that there's an actual bruise, and it hurts to cough and sneeze. I am not sure why people want to be on these weight loss drugs so badly; I am miserable, but I'm losing a pound a week, so the doctor thinks the side effects are worth it. Maybe if it makes me lose thirty pounds, then I'll think it was worth it. So far I've lost ten, and nobody notices... not even me. 

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Fall Colors on Campus 2025

 

Yesterday I worked from home, and Travalon and I walked on Governor's Island at lunchtime. Here's a photo from that walk.

In the afternoon I took a walk around the neighborhood and took some more photos of fall colors.

Supposedly you could see Comet Lemmon at 7:30 last night, so I went back to Bong Road, and my comet app told me exactly where to look. I couldn't see anything through the binoculars, even though they helped me see other stars more clearly. When I took photos with my phone, there were some bright spots, but nothing was obviously a comet, and I couldn't see the bright spots through the binoculars. Very strange. I did enjoy being out in the cold night air in the dark, looking up at the stars. Then I came home and saw people's photos on social media, not just the ones with good cameras but even iPhones like mine, and you could see the comet among the stars. In fact, from the pattern of stars I could see that I was taking pictures of exactly the right spot... but which bright spot in my photo is the comet? I can't see a tail. If I'd been thinking, once everyone at the star party had looked through the telescope at the comet and had lost interest, I could have tried to take a photo through the telescope eyepiece. 

Then I took a photo of my little yellow-orange Beanie Baby bear glowing under blacklight.

Today I worked on campus and walked with Hardingfele at lunch. Here are some photos of fall foliage on campus, where there are some truly spectacular maples right now.

Our new system made me seem crazy today, because I submitted a credit card reconciliation for the hotel for a guest speaker, and the approver sent it back to me and said include the ticket number, since all financial requests from faculty are supposed to go through our new ticketing system. This request was made months before there was a ticketing system, so I added a comment that there was no ticket and resubmitted the reconciliation. The approver sent it back AGAIN and seemed to have added a second comment to include the ticket number. I resubmitted it AGAIN and said see my previous comment, then I direct messaged the approver and said why do you keep asking for a ticket when there isn't one?!? The approver said they had actually asked for more detail, and when I went back into the reconciliation, then I found their second comment asking for more detail in another spot. They sent an email saying it would be better to have a collegial tone with each other, so I apologized for my tone but explained that what I saw seemed to be a repeat of their first comment. Great - I'm already hot-headed enough, I don't need the new system making me yell at people for things they didn't even do. So I'm over here thinking, "F--k you, buddy!" and the approver is over there thinking, "What the f--k is her problem??" This is how the machines will take over the world - by turning us all against each other. 

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