Story about the Circus Train at Moldy Jam

 

Today I worked on campus, but I did not walk with Hardingfele. Remember how she dropped a laptop on her foot at home and broke her toe? She did that at work too, and broke the same toe on her other foot. So I walked by myself and apparently went so slowly that my FitBit didn't register it as a workout. Then the student hourly asked if I had any hand lotion, and I had an ancient tube of it, so she tried it and immediately went to wash it off. "You have to throw that away!" she said. She told me it was the third grossest thing she touched at this job, after the corroded batteries and the box of rotten blueberries that she found in the supply cabinet.

In the evening I went to Moldy Jam, and today was really fantastic - I knew almost all the tunes! Maybe it's because I've been coming for so long? Even the ones I didn't know seemed easy to pick up, or to play chords on. Another kind of newer person said it was also a good evening for tunes. I did make a faux pas by requesting a tune I don't really know called "Gravel Walk," hoping the others knew it, but they didn't, and one of the leaders said I really shouldn't request a tune I can't lead. It's one I want to learn. Afterwards people were just hanging around, like it was such a great session that nobody wanted to leave, and I started talking to two other ladies about trains. One said that one night when she lived downtown years ago, she heard a steam engine's whistle, so she ran out to see the train because it wasn't an ordinary train. And it was the circus train going up to Baraboo! She said the cars were so colorful and beautiful. I would love to see something like that!

Speaking of trains, there was a video on social media of one here in town with some beautiful graffiti, but it's all stuff I've already posted. Instead, enjoy this tiny engine Travalon got in the mail today.

So cute! Now we have a whole shelf of a bookshelf full of little train engines and cars. I also finally took a photo of the cup we got in Delafield on Saturday. It's kind of a rubbery material.

It is very different than the cup we got last year. I suppose every year they will make them very different so that people will keep buying them. Some of the money goes to the Ice Age Trail Alliance. We can get five "bonus" miles for taking a photo of an Ice Age Trail license plate out in the wild (i.e., not at a trailhead parking lot), so I'm tempted to take a photo of my own license plate. It's not cheating, is it?

Famous Hat