The Fellowship of FART 5

 

So apparently that grad student is not mad at me, because today he was all friendly, and it sounds like he just didn't see me on the bus. Makes sense, since I was bundled up so much that a few years ago a college kid hit on me when I was wearing basically the same ensemble. Hit on ME. So obviously nobody can tell what I look like under all those layers.

I meant to blog about this yesterday but got distracted: yesterday we had our second meeting of FART 5, the Humanities financial specialists, and it made me realize how much I already like a lot of the people in the group. There's my colleague, of course, who did get a promotion so she will be one of the higher-level people in the FART (she requested to be in FART 5), and the guy from Jewish Studies who has commiserated with me several times about this whole FART deal, and the Hibernian guy from, I want to say History, who sent me an amazing document to use when asking visiting speakers for the information we need to pay them. One person who has been missing from both meetings is my colleague from French and Italian, or as everyone calls it, FRIT. My colleague that I walk with was puzzled by this, and I have no answers, but she does have supervisory experience so maybe she actually got the job of being the supervisor of the FART. That would be good news for me, because she always thought my previous boss had served me badly, so she would be even more likely to fight for my promotion than my current boss. Maybe I am too much of an optimist (believe me, I've been told that many times), but it's possible this FART thing won't be so bad after all, and it kind of already existed in embryonic form because we have all been asking each other for advice for a while now.

My natural optimism is having a hard time finding anything good about the incoming administration. I see the Evil Orange Thing is already claiming credit for the peace deal that our current president worked out with the Israelis and Palestinians. His totally immature "Heads I win, tails you lose" act of taking credit for every good thing, no matter how little it had to do with him, and evading the blame for every bad thing, no matter how much it had to do with him, is so stupid and juvenile, but people believe it! I have heard people ask in all seriousness why Obama didn't do anything about the pandemic. Then again, I have heard people ask in all seriousness why Obama didn't do anything about September 11. Remember, half of all people are below average. I have seen people explain how they want to get rid of Obamacare, and when the interviewer asks why, when they are using it themselves, and then they say, "No, I'm on Trumpcare." Guess what? Trump doesn't care. He only cares about his billionaire buddies. The thing that made me laugh hardest today was when someone posted about how EOT wants to take over Hollywood so he has created a commission of three hard-right actors to help him, and a commenter said, "Ka-ching! I can already hear the price of eggs going down!" Yeah, for someone who wants to make government smaller, he sure is doing some weird things, like creating the External Revenue Service to collect tariffs, when we already have Customs to collect tariffs. All of us little people, including the MAGAts, are going to suffer because of all this incompetence, but I'm sure they'll find a way to blame it on Democrats, who control not one branch of the Federal Government at the moment. Still trying to work out where we can move to that EOT hasn't decided to invade yet...

Tuesday night I had a long call with my former neighbor, the one I used to walk with, and she said the video of the train in Seattle wasn't filmed from the Space Needle like I'd thought. She said it was from a ferry, and I said, "It seems kind of high up for a ferry," so she thought about it and said, "It was from the 11th deck of a cruise ship." Now that makes sense - some of those cruise ships are as high as tall buildings. Anyway, knowing the video was taken from a boat just makes me love it more.

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When Dreams Come True

 

Just before the winter break, I walked into the TA office without knocking because it was late in the afternoon, but a TA was in there. I said, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in here," and went ahead and watered the plant... and then I noticed he was on a Zoom call or something, so I hightailed it out of there. I wrote him a profusely apologetic email, which he never responded to, and then this morning I dreamed he was still mad at me. Seemed like a random thing to dream about... and then after walking with my colleague at lunch, I was too lazy to walk up the hill, so I took the bus, and that TA was on it and steadfastly ignored me. So weird! In the last couple of weeks I have also had dreams that Colbert had a secret tropical getaway that he invited me to, and that Travalon and I were going to live on a train, but you had to wear a life jacket for some reason, and every time I got in line to get one, they ran out before getting to me. If I was going to have a dream come true, why not living on a train or going to a secret tropical getaway? Why are unforgiving graduate student dreams the only ones that come true?

Today was my first day back at the office since the winter break started, and I was happy with my jar of glass squiggles in the sunlight.

I like how the little red guy is gazing at it adoringly while the star is gazing at him adoringly.

We do have Monday off, and one thing I will not spend it doing is watching the Evil Orange Thing's inauguration. In our political system, you have one party that plays by the rules and one that doesn't, and you can see how that turned out. I wouldn't be so offended by all these lying, cheating, treasonous Rethuglicans if they didn't also go around trumpeting how "Christian" they are. Since they are pretty much the opposite of What Would Jesus Do, they are driving normal people away from Christianity. Sometimes I get so down about it, but then I remember that Jesus himself said that many would say "Lord, Lord!" and he would say he never knew them. It's not like this is the only time in history that evil has gotten the upper hand; it's just that I'm living through this period, so of course it seems bad to me. There are still Catholics out there who care about the poor and the environment, like the Franciscans I knew as a child, so not all hope is lost. Just a lot of hope is lost. It's almost fascinating, like watching a train wreck, to see how many other countries this megalomaniac plans to take over. All these MAGAts say, "If you don't like it here, leave!" and I would, but every place we've considered is being eyed by their Tangerine Palpatine, so then what? If I leave the US because I don't like it, and then the country I go to is subsumed by the US, then are they still going to tell me to leave? And go where? Yeesh!

That clock on the wall, what time does it say it is? Time for some DuoLingo bragging!

That's about right. It's been very cold with very little snow this winter. I appreciate the lack of snow, but I realize it also serves important functions, like insulating plants and animals and providing water during the thaw. It seems like we have been in a drought for two years now. I'm sort of afraid of becoming so dry that a terrible fire could happen here like the one in Los Angeles. Which brings me back to the Party of Darkness, who aren't willing to help with disaster aid unless California becomes a red state. I don't recall any Democratic presidents and congresspeople putting rules on red states when they needed disaster aid. These really are the basest, most despicable people to walk God's green earth. Remember when the country used to pull together during a disaster? And then they wonder why in their personal lives their liberal friends and relatives are shunning them. Yeesh!

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Meet Roy Jr.

 

Today was my last quiet day of working from home wearing pajama bottoms and no bra, because tomorrow I have not one but two appointments (dentist and physical therapy, right next to each other, but did I make them back to back? No), and then of course adoration, so I will have to wear real clothes. Then Wednesday I am back on campus for the first time in weeks, but it's a cleaning day so I can wear jeans and a hoodie, so at least I can put off wearing work clothes for a little bit longer. 

It was a good thing I was home today, because there was a delivery for Travalon, and someone had to sign for it. Meet Roy Jr.

Travalon came home with Zippy Lube fried chicken sandwiches for dinner, and then we went swimming. The health club was not crowded, just like last week, so the trick must be to go later in the evening. As we were leaving, I saw this abandoned narwhal picture.

When I was a kid nobody else knew about narwhals ("a whale with a horn? you're making this up!") or red pandas ("you mean it's red and white instead of black and white?") or axolotls ("an ax-o-what-ll?") or capybaras ("a guinea pig the size of a cocker spaniel? what??"), but now you can find these creatures in every toy store and coloring book. I'd call that an improvement.

As promised, here is the video of a night train that Travalon shot for me:

And here is the video of boats on the Milwaukee River:

If you are feeling too wintered out, just watch this video of boats, and you can almost feel the sunshine.

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Brazilians on the Big Bendy B Bus

 

Today after Mass at the church on the far east side, there was a meeting of the Care for Creation team, so I went to that. Just like last time, I had to wait a while before anyone showed up, but this time I stuck it out and people did show up. It was kind of an interesting meeting, and I was just so happy to meet actual Catholics who care about the environment. Afterwards, Travalon (who had gone antiquing during the meeting) and I went to Dairyland Restaurant for lunch, and my Spanish omelette was so tasty, but the side of fruit was old and odd-tasting, so I didn't eat more than a sample bite. Travalon really enjoyed his gyro omelette.

Then... the Packers playoff game. I kind of figured they would not beat the Eagles and would be One and Done, but for some reason the refs seemed to have it out for them, which was entirely unnecessary since they were going to lose anyway. It started with a fumbled punt return that you could CLEARLY see in the video replays was recovered by the Packers, but they gave it to the Eagles anyway, who quickly got a touchdown. They also kept calling penalties on the Packers that even the announcers were puzzled by, but they ignored a bunch of dirty tricks by the Eagles, like targeting and a face mask. When the Packers lose because they play badly, like last week against the Bears, I am bummed but not frustrated, but it's so different when you feel like every time they get some momentum, the refs shut them down. It's not every game that's like that, and in fact I remember one game where the refs seemed really biased toward the Packers and against the Lions years ago, so I felt icky when we won. But it's hard to get into the game when you feel like there are outside forces that would never let the Pack win. Still, the defense was playing so hard that I had to watch a little bit because for a short time it almost seemed like they had a chance.

I had to leave for band practice before the game was over, and Travalon drove me because he heard there would be some bad weather that never materialized. Of course the Packers lost. Hardingfele never came to practice, so I wished I'd brought my violin, since I played melody on the mandolin so the one fiddle wouldn't be alone. On one song I made up a harmony, as I often do, and this time the guitarist said, "Sing that harmony." I said, "There are no words," and she said, "Sing la la la - I'll do the same on the melody." So okay, that's what we did. I was joking that Hardingfele didn't come to practice because she - true story - had a mouse in her office, so she caught it in a live trap but felt it was too cold to release it outside so she LET IT GO IN HER BASEMENT AT HOME. Where she owns like FIVE CATS. Maybe she missed band practice because she had to clean up what was left of that mouse. Just sayin.'

If you think that is the craziest crazy I dealt with today, then let me tell you about a friend who called and asked if I wanted to go to the World Cup. Now I am not usually asked to do something a year and a half in advance, except maybe weddings, but even those aren't usually planned that far in advance. The World Cup will be held in 2026 in Mexico, Canada, and the US, and this friend said we should go to a game in the US. I said hopefully they would have one in Chicago, and she said she thought they would have one here in Madison. Why? You will never in a million years guess why she thinks that. It's because of the big bendy buses that the city recently acquired. OF COURSE!! Why else would the city have invested in mass transit but for a major soccer game? I managed to keep a straight face until the call was over, and then Travalon and I lost it. He said there would be Brazilians on the Bendy Bus, and I thought that would make a good blog post title.

Here is a video of me playing "Hot Cross Buns" on my toy clarinet that sounds like a demented harmonica.

Hey, if you have no daughters, feed them to your sons. And this is a very cool video of a train going through downtown Seattle that my neighbor sent me. I think she might have taken it from the Space Needle.

While I was trying to find that video, I came across all sorts of cool ones that I have not posted, like ones Travalon made of a train passing by at night and another one he made of boats on the Milwaukee River, so maybe I should make one big video of all of them and post it. Maybe tomorrow. Watch for that.

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Get Kraken with Jerry: Dante the Inferno

 

Today Travalon and I went back out to Sauk. We didn't see any eagles on the island near downtown, so we went to the VFW Park. We didn't see any there either, but it was a pleasant day, kind of sunny and kind of warm, so we found a trail we had not taken before to the dam. And there we saw lots of eagles! And common mergansers. Along the trail we saw this young eagle and this hawk.

There were some eagles flying around at the dam.

And a lot more sitting in the trees across the river.

These are female common mergansers.

These are male common mergansers.

We even saw a mature and a juvenile eagle sitting on the ice, with a bunch of mallards swimming in front of them.

After we walked back, we drove to Wollersheim Winery and had lunch at their bistro. Travalon had the grilled cheese and I had the margarita flatbread, and we both had the corn chowder and the brandy old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie. Oh man, was that good! It was a big, soft cookie with chocolate chips, dried cherries soaked in brandy, and orange zest. Everything was delicious.

We were going through Waunakee on our way home, so we stopped into the old church so Travalon could light a candle for his mother, who would have been 99 today. It was her first heavenly birthday. The old church was open, but you had to go to the office to request a candle. We went into the new church and saw the priest, and he was able to give us a candle, so we could light one for Travalon's mom.

Here are some Christmas lights, one on Langdon Street and one in a nearby neighborhood.

And if it's a day ending in Y, it's the right time for some DuoLingo bragging!

And now what I know at least one of you has been waiting for: another episode of Get Kraken with Jerry! In this one, he interviews Dante the Inferno about the new Wolverhampton manager until things get out of hand. This script was written by both Travalon and me, just to stuff in as many fire-related puns as possible:

Enjoy! We will try to write another script for Jerry soon, since it was so much fun to write this one together. I emailed Travalon what I had, and then he emailed me back with more, and we did this a couple of times until we had a full script. Marriage partners AND writing partners!

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Another Train Video

 

Today was another quiet day of working from home, with a Union meeting after work over Zoom. Travalon did tell me something kind of pathetic: the Badger football team didn't get invited to a bowl at first because their record was so pathetic, but then another team turned down a bowl so they were invited as the second choice to that one. (I don't know which bowl.) However, so many members of the team had either entered the transfer portal or just left for the holidays that they didn't have enough players to go.

Here is another video of trains, a fast one and a slow one that we saw at the Railway Park in Rochelle, Illinois. Bonus: at the end is a bison we saw at the Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Denver, Colorado, so watch for that.

Who knows? Maybe someday I will post the video I promised almost three years ago of the trains at the rail yard in North Platte, Nebraska. Stay tuned...

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Holiday Trains 2024

 

Yesterday was mostly a quiet day of working from home, but when I went to Adoration, the low tire pressure light came on, so on my way home, I had to fill up the tires. Today was another quiet day of working from home, but after work I had to stop by my office to water my work plants, and my boss asked me to bring up the mail, then Travalon and I had dinner at Banzo. 

As promised, here are a couple of videos of holiday trains. First, the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train that we saw in Columbus on the night of December 8.

These are the model trains at the Olbrich Gardens Holiday Train show.

I had to find a background sound for it and was hoping for Christmas music, but all I had access to were my own downloaded songs and some sound effects, so I chose a train. I had to do this because with the first train a little girl popped her head up while I was filming and I made a surprised sound, but worse, with the second train, a guy standing next to me loudly called someone a word that rhymes with "glass bowl," so I thought I'd better get that out of there. Enjoy!

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