The Bardeen Penthouse and the Replacement Rosary

Generally in November I feel like I've stepped into another timeline, which makes sense since it's the month that traditionally has been considered to have the thinnest veil between us and the Other Side. This particular November seems even more extreme. Today I waited five minutes for an elevator, and just as I was about to give up and take the stairs, two of the three arrived at the same moment. Then I was going to have some more coffee, but oddly the pot of coffee was used up, which isn't a common occurrence on Thursdays, when less people seem to be around. I asked the grad student who drinks the most coffee if they wanted more, but they demurred, so I asked our former chair if she could make me a cup with her swanky single-serving coffee machine... and then a different grad student made a whole, fresh pot. 

When I took my morning walk, someone called me, and then I got back to my office and took off my coat. Suddenly I realized my phone wasn't sitting on my desk, so I checked my coat pocket for it... while I was still talking on it. 

At lunchtime Hardingfele said it was too cold outside, so we walked in her building. I was curious about a little room you can see sticking out from the top floor, and she said, "Oh, that? I know how to get there!" So she took me to a scary staircase because there's no elevator to the top floor, and I was reluctant to do it, but she swore we could get into the little room. (Narrator in Morgan Freeman's voice: "But that proved to be untrue.") It was, of course, locked, but we could see inside the window of the locked door, and it was just a bunch of mechanical stuff, so I can see why they wouldn't want randos like us wandering around in there. It was called the "Bardeen Penthouse," which sounds swanky, but trust me, it's about as far from swanky as you can get. I didn't want to go back down that staircase, but Hardingfele led me to another staircase that she said was less scary. (Narrator: "But that proved to be untrue.") It was, as far as I could tell, identical to the one we had come up. Hardingfele said I should blog about this, and so I am.

Remember my lost rosary? It was so beautiful, with its blue and burgundy knots.

I don't know where it is now, or if it even still exists, but it's becoming internet famous. Not viral yet, but one post has been viewed by fifteen hundred people, and today a faculty member said she saw the post. I did order a couple of replacement rosaries, and one arrived today. It came with a bewildering assortment of bags, pamphlets, business cards, and a tiny plastic Jesus.

This one will not be as easy to use, because the knots are too close together, and if you look at it closely, it has a crazy configuration - instead of the big knot at the bottom being the Our Father knot, it's on the righthand side, just slightly larger than and offset from the other knots. Sigh.

Meanwhile, today Travalon went to the Portage rail yard and took more photos of train graffiti. Oh yeah, first he took some in our rail yard.

Here are some photos from the Portage rail yard.

And this photo is from a park in Portage.

I had my monthly Union meeting after work, then Travalon came home late because they took the kids on a field trip to a place where you can break stuff for fun. As we were telling each other about our days, he said something about "music for a while," and it suddenly brought back a thirty-year-old memory, of when I first joined the church choir and our choir director gave me some private lessons in which he made me learn "Music for a While" by Purcell. I began to remember more and more of the song, then I found it on YouTube and sang along with the mezzo-soprano. Wow, was that ever a blast from the past!

And just think, if November has been weird so far, tomorrow is Friday the Thirteenth!

Famous Hat