Dinner with My Former Neighbor

 

Has anyone ever asked you for a headshot? Do people just have those on hand? I have a really good one that's got to be like fifteen years old, so I feel weird to use it. I asked my coworker who does our web design stuff to take one of me today, but it looked awful. Who knows, maybe I just look awful. Weird, because I'd been eating well the last few days, and usually I look worse after eating sugar. They want a headshot of me because they're going to publish a short article I wrote in Guidepost magazine. It has always been a dream of mine to have something published in Guidepost, and now it's coming true! If I can give them a decent headshot, anyway...

This evening I met my former neighbor, the one I walked with all through the pandemic, for dinner at Bellitalia. She had some train videos she wanted to show me from her extensive travels for the last four months, and she wanted to know what was new in the old neighborhood. She wanted cannoli but I couldn't even finish my pasta so I was going to pass on dessert, yet somehow she convinced me to split the cannoli with her. Then we went to try to find the comet, but we couldn't see it. How are all these people posting photos of it and rhapsodizing about how they can see it with their bare eyes? I tried taking a photo of the western sky, in case a three-second exposure would reveal what my eyes couldn't see, but all I got was a really good photo of the Big Dipper. Rich said the comet should be very bright right now, and people were saying they could even see it in the city, so I don't know why I am not seeing anything. We were all joking that it's a big hoax and there is no comet. It's supposed to be visible for a couple more weeks, but getting fainter every day, so I may still have a chance. Stay tuned...

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Where's that Wily Comet? (I Can't Find that Confounded Comet!)

 

Yesterday Travalon and I went to a field near our house to try to see the comet. Everyone is posting photos of it online, but we couldn't see anything. Tonight after adoration I went to a really good spot to look west over Lake Mendota, but I couldn't see anything. Here are photos of the remnants of the sunset.

I was thinking that I should have brought a Padre Pio chaplet with me, because I've really fallen off praying this one. I got a free coffee-colored one in the mail just before the pandemic started, and then a couple of years later I got a free purplish-red one in the mail. Both of those are translucent. As I was going into adoration, I looked at the window well where people will leave religious articles they don't want, and there was a blue, non-translucent Padre Pio chaplet. It's basically the Sacred Heart Novena with added prayers at the beginning and the end. So I took it and prayed it. Here it is.

And here's the whole collection.

There is finally some autumn color in our neighborhood.

Here's some DuoLingo bragging:

And here are some photos Tiffy sent me of the Zoo Lights in Racine.

I don't know if I'll ever see this comet. Everyone says to look west about an hour after sunset, which is exactly what I did tonight. It's just going to get fainter (I guess the best day to see it was Saturday, which was rainy and cloudy here), so maybe I've missed my chance. But there is supposed to be another one coming, so maybe I'll get another chance to go comet-gazing.

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Humming with the Harpsichord

 

Today Travalon and I got going early and went to the Mass closer to us, partly to avoid politics at the Mass in the gym, and partly so we could meet with Tiffy earlier. Then the three of us drove out to Spring Green on Highway 60, since it was cold and blustery out, so we could enjoy the fall colors from the warmth of the car. As we drove, we listened to Weird Al Yankovic doing polka versions of popular songs. In Spring Green we had lunch at the General Store, then we went across the street for chocolates and warm beverages, and then we headed back. We got stuck behind a slow vehicle the whole way from Black Earth to Cross Plains, so Tiffy and I were afraid we wouldn't make it to the early music concert at three, but we just made it. It was harpsichord and viola de gamba, and we both heard what sounded like a male voice now and then, but I couldn't figure out if it was someone talking in the background (there were some people in an adjacent hallway, but the sound continued after they left), or something weird with the acoustics, or if one of the performers was humming. However, I thought the sound was from the side, not the front, and afterwards when people asked questions, one guy sounded like the voice we had heard. After the concert we compared notes, and we had both heard it. Was someone so rude as to hum along?

After Tiffy left for the day, I did a rosary in the house to get some exercise, since it was still blustery and a bit rainy out. I had originally been confused and thought today's concert was in Milwaukee, so I had told the band I'd be out of town and miss practice. However, a bandmate had been at the concert last night, so I told her never mind, I'll be there. And then... I was kind of tired and wished I'd never told her that, so they wouldn't be expecting me. I tried to call her, but her phone kept giving me some weird message about how she didn't have voicemail set up. I tried texting other bandmates, but nobody looks at their phones. Hardingfele didn't even bring hers, so she saw my message when she got home, and she said, "We were all wondering where you were!" Man, I wish I'd never seen my other bandmate at that concert last night! I could have skipped band practice for swimming in the warm pool in peace! Because that is what Travalon and I ended up doing. Then when we got home, I walked around to several songs and somehow got all my steps for the day, on this very low-activity day. No Ice Age Trail hiking for us this weekend!

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Poke-Along Monroe

 

Last night Travalon and I had another idea for Get Kraken with Jerry: Jerry the Kraken could ask various animals how they thought Crystal Palace's season would go, and they wouldn't realize Crystal Palace is a soccer team and would answer like it's a movie theater, or a shopping mall, or a restaurant. Then finally Jerry would ask Rodrigo, who would say Wolverhampton would kick Crystal Palace's patootie. We thought this would be hilarious.

This morning we were going to take a boat ride, but I had gotten new license plates, so Travalon tried to help me put them on my car. The front one was no problem, but the back one turned into a real issue, and currently my license plate is duct-taped to my car. Since this isn't an ideal solution, Travalon agreed to drive me downtown to meet Tiffy, then she and I had lunch sitting outside at the Globe while he went to Sauk to go fishing. Eventually Tiffy and I moseyed down State Street to the Union, then after hanging out there awhile we thought we would walk down Monroe Street to an Indian restaurant for dinner, but just as we started out, we heard thunder and then saw lightning, so we went right back to the Union. There is a Sunset Lounge that didn't exist when we were students, so we went there to watch the storm over the lake. It was full of students studying, so we felt like we had to whisper, even if there was no indication that we had to be quiet. Meanwhile, Travalon had only gotten to fish for ten minutes before the storm hit where he was, so he went antiquing and then came and picked us up. We ate at the Indian restaurant, then I said maybe we should get going since we'd have to poke along Monroe. Tiffy seemed confused, so Travalon repeated that we'd have to poke along Monroe, and finally we said we'd have to make our poky way down Monroe Street, since "poke along Monroe" was not registering with her. It did make me realize that Poke-Along Monroe would be a great name for a cowboy-type character, and maybe Jerry could interview him. I immediately thought of the bull we had gotten at the Christmas market in Chicago last year, which might have had a name but we couldn't remember it. Tiffy hadn't been too impressed with our idea to have Jerry ask the other critters about Crystal Palace's season (I still think it's a funny idea), but maybe she will like the interview with Poke-Along Monroe, once we think of what that will be. She did say we sounded like we were saying Polk along Monroe, like they were two streets crossing, but I don't know of any Polk Street in Madison. He was a terrible president - he stole half of Mexico! She said her high school history teacher said Polk was the most effective president because he said he would do four things, and he did accomplish them. I said, "If three of them were 'stealing half of Mexico,' then he could be right."

Travalon dropped Tiffy and me off at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church for an early music concert, and the first thing was three madrigals by Monteverdi, so that really set the mood. There was a really great countertenor. I was spellbound, but as everyone was applauding, Tiffy pointed out that the next piece was by Haydn, so I hove a big sigh, and she laughed. I mean, it's the Wisconsin BAROQUE Ensemble! What the bleep is Haydn doing on the program? It wasn't the worst thing, but it sure wasn't Baroque. Then there was a very eerie piece by Buxtehude which I had heard before but hadn't realized was for his father's funeral, which may explain the eeriness. There were also two pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach's much older cousin Johann Michael Bach, and they were wonderful, a Telemann piece, and some stuff by composers who are not household names, and generally I can see why not. When I came home, I listened to the Buxtehude again because it's so haunting. In this spookiest of months, a spooky Baroque piece seems appropriate.

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GLEAM 2024

 

I had a quiet but productive day working from home today, then Jilly Moose came over just before Travalon got home, and the three of us went to Athens Grill for dinner. I am sure they used to have spanakopita (Hardingfele and I got some there once), but now the vegetarian option is the eggplant pita, so that's what I got. With fries - those are some calories I didn't need! However, I might have walked them off during GLEAM.

My regular readers may remember other times I have gone to GLEAM, the light art installation at Olbrich Gardens. It always seems to be very cold when I go there, like wearing my heaviest winter coat cold, so it was a pleasant change to go on such a warm night. Here are some photos. Some of these were taken by Jilly Moose, some were taken by me, and some were taken by Travalon with his good camera. These are all in random order because they come from three different sources. First, there was an obelisk rising out of the Sunken Gardens pool.

Then some random blue filaments in the waterfall.

These are like Chinese lanterns but with a vaguely organic pattern.

Travalon's favorite was the dragonfly display.

These are... pineapples on sticks? They look vaguely tiki-torchy.

This was a kaleidoscope on a display that glowed under blacklight.

Here is the whole display.

An enchanted walkway. It made me think of Christmas in real life, but not in this photo.

And an enchanted tree!

I loved how they lit up the fountain under the Rose Tower.

This is the conservatory all lit up at night.

Here are Travalon and I, in front of the pineapple torches.

There were globes that you would howl into, and it would project animal shapes onto the trees. These seem to be a moose and a bear.

This was a field of fake corn that lit up different colors, and we walked through it.

Here is Jilly Moose in front of the pineapple torches.

This owl would open its eyes and hoot.

There was a long line to stand in front of these butterfly wings.

Here is a brief video of the owl opening its eyes and hooting.

And a bonus photo: as we left for dinner, we saw this cloud that looked like a shrimp.

I hope that you enjoyed this somewhat redundant tour of GLEAM 2024. It's almost like being there, again and again.

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