Yesterday I worked on campus, and Seabird and I took a short walk on our morning break, but she had no interest in walking at lunch, so I walked by myself. I kept hearing a train coming, and then the crossing arms would come down, but then they would go back up again, and the train never passed - just like on Monday night! What's going on with that?? Our boss always has a riddle to start our department meetings, and yesterday's was: "What language does a bridge speak?" I couldn't think of anything except "Pont-ificate," which makes no sense, but two of my coworkers figured it out: "Span-ish!"
Right after work I caught the 202 shuttle down to the Labor Temple, and the Former Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player was on it too, so we sat together and talked about a genetic service just for Holocaust survivors, among other things. She said something very sad, that people are looking for a lost uncle who may have survived, but they never find anyone like that, just a lot of distant cousins because all Jewish people are related. Often their entire immediate family was completely wiped out. Then I was supposed to be doing paperwork with the president and vice president of our former local to aid with the merger with the other local, but a guy from the South Central Federation of Labor ("Scuffle") came in and started talking to us, and I could not stay awake. When Travalon arrived, we gave a ride to the vice president, who lives right off Monroe Street, and then we checked out all the inflatable Santas on that street. In one block, practically every house has one in the front yard, or on the roof.
Travalon and I went to the Badger basketball game and watched them handily defeat Northwestern. A guy named Blackwell is the new Tonje, the great player from last year - he got 1000 lifetime points during this game (it was fun to watch his points add up until he got there), and he got a double-double. Travalon says he came to visit the kids where he works, and they were very excited, but when they found out he is 6'7", they just kept saying, "Six Seven!" The game seemed very loud, and I had forgotten to grab earplugs (we keep a stash in Travalon's glove compartment), but Travalon got a free pair at the Welcome Desk, so I wore them throughout the game. Why is everything so loud these days? Am I a cranky old person for complaining about this?
DuoLingo gave me my annual summary:
It feels good to be a legend at something, even if it's just yelling at a language app: "No! That's exactly what I said! Why is it wrong?!?"
Today was very, very cold. My jeans had been falling down during my walk yesterday, so today I wore slightly tighter jeans... and then they were falling down too. This makes sense, if I really have lost almost twenty pounds, but what a pain. I didn't want to walk outside anyway, so Hardingfele and I walked around in her building. When I got back to my office, my phone was missing - had it fallen out of my pocket one of the times I had to hitch my pants back up? But wouldn't I have heard it?? I checked my (short) path outside and then went back to Hardingfele's office to say we'd have to retrace our path around her building... but she had found my phone just sitting on her desk. Had I taken it out of my pocket and set it down? I don't remember doing that at all. The bad news is that I did this before our walk in our building, so I didn't get credit for those steps on my phone. Hardingfele was mystified: "Why do you care? Don't you have a
FitBit?" Yes, but I like to compare them to see how many intentional steps I got versus steps around the house getting ready for work, "steps" when I wave my arms during a boring online meeting where nobody can see or hear me, etc. But the good news is that my phone is not lost. Phew!
Hardingele has a plant that looked vaguely familiar, so I asked what it was, and she said, "A
peace lily, of course." I said, "That's no peace lily," so we asked both my plant app and my phone what it was, and they both said a type of ginger. (Not the same type.) I thought, oh yeah, that's where I've seen that kind of plant before - at
Olbrich Garden! Hardingfele was shocked that it wasn't a peace lily. It's a rescue plant, so it's not like she could ask anyone what it was, since she found it abandoned in her building. Here's a not very good picture of it.
I mostly walked around on my floor at work, and back where hardly anyone sees it there's a chalkboard, so I drew this picture on it:
The Martian is saying, "It's colder than my home planet!" I remember years ago, it was around this time of year, and on a talk about
Ice Cube down at the
South Pole we actually got to talk to the people down there, and it was colder here than down there. (It was their "summer" at the time, but still.) Then that summer, a fellow where I worked came back from visiting family in
India, and he said, "Wow, it's hotter here than in India!" I thought, "That's a hell of a tourist slogan!"
Come to Wisconsin - hotter than India, colder than the South Pole!
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