Two things I forgot to mention about yesterday: the first is that Travalon and I were sitting out on the porch even though there was a storm going on, and Night Prayer was about to begin so people were joining the Zoom call and I asked them if I should go inside. Just then lightning struck right nearby, so close that there was virtually no space before the thunder, so Travalon and I ran into the house as fast as we could. Everyone on the Zoom call saw the flash of light and heard the crack of thunder, so they were as shocked as we were. "Yes, go inside!" they said.
The second thing was that earlier in the evening I was charging my phone, and I was practicing for the Brazilian choro session tonight with Mandy on the porch. (I had a whole month to practice, so when did I actually practice? The night before.) When I grabbed my phone, I saw the transcript for a voicemail from our downstairs neighbor, complaining that our music was so loud in her bedroom that we needed to turn it down. I was surprised that a half-deaf nonagenarian would have thought my gently strumming a mandolin on the far side of the condo from her was too loud, but then I listened to the voicemail, and there was music blasting in the background when she left the message. Then I was really puzzled, so I called her back, and she apologized for blasting the music. It turns out that she thought she had set a radio alarm clock for 7 am, but at 7 pm it went off and blasted music, and she couldn't figure out where it was coming from so she thought we were playing it upstairs. By the time I called back, she had found the source of the music was in her own condo. I thought that was hilarious.
Know what else I thought was hilarious? Guess what's in the mini backpack?
I don't know why, but I'm endlessly entertained by the fact that Niko fits into the backpack. I sent this video to Tiffy, and she asked if I was going to carry Niko around in it. I said I used to have a little cardboard box that fit him perfectly that Travalon called the "Niko Nook," but it eventually fell apart, and she said this could be the Niko Knapsack.
Today I had an all-day Financial Conference to attend. It was as boring as it sounds, but they had a ton of food there so I went way over my calories for the day. It was in Tripp Commons at the Memorial Union, so on our breaks we got to go out on the balcony there, and I took a walk along the lakeshore at lunch. It was fun to hang out with my FART 5 peeps - we're the Back of the Bus Kids! We literally did sit in the back because it was easier to pop out to the bathroom - guess I'm not the only one who finds this a concern, especially since they had a lot of sessions that went one right after the other instead of having ten minutes in between for bio breaks. Also, there were a lot of beverages there as well as food, so we needed to visit the bathroom a lot. (No beer or anything like that.) When it was finally over, I thought about catching the shuttle back to my car, but it has to take that long tour of west campus before heading north, so then I decided to catch the Big Bendy B Bus back to my car. That proved to be a good choice, because not only did it get back to my car well before the shuttle would have, but a FART 5 colleague caught the bus with me, so I had someone to talk to for the whole ride.
I worked for a bit from home, then I left for the choro session. I parked some blocks from the music club, and on the way I passed these very fragrant jonquils.
In case you are wondering what the difference is between daffodils, jonquils, and narcissus, the answer seems to be that they are all part of the same family but daffodils generally have one large, showy flower per stem and no scent, narcissus are white with many small flowers on a stem and a lovely fragrance, and jonquils are yellow with several flowers on a stem and a lovely fragrance. So now you know.
The choro session went about the same as last time, since I hadn't practiced so I was basically still sightreading but they all seemed to think I was doing well. It was the leader, who used to play in a well-known choro band in Brooklyn, as I found out tonight; the guy who plays the little ukulele-like Brazilian instrument; the guitarist who is also semi-professional; the woman who co-owns the music club on her graphite cello; and a guy playing the piano, besides me. Then partway through another mandolin player showed up who was really good. I feel outclassed by the other musicians, but nobody has told me to get lost yet, and in fact they seem to want me to come back. Someday I will master all these sixteenth notes with accidentals and interesting rhythms... maybe.
I barely got home in time to lead Night Prayer tonight. Travalon helped me make that movie with Niko and the Knapsack, and now I am posting the photos he took at the Wood Duck Ponds today. He said he's going to go back every day until they stop showing up, so look for lots more photos of wood ducks here in the future. Here are some to tide you over until tomorrow.
And some photos of a green heron! I haven't seen our friendly neighborhood green heron down at our dock yet this year.
It is just me, or does this wood duck look like he's eating a lily pad? Yum?
And our friendly (or not?) neighborhood modern dinosaur! I have seen this one around, but not both of them. Hopefully that is because the other one is on the nest right now, and it's not that one died.
It could be that soon Travalon will have photos of little baby cranes for me to post. They are so cute that Tiffy couldn't believe it the first time she saw them. It really is something that such big, loud birds have such cute, fluffy, little babies. They're even cuter than baby chickens and ducks.
Famous Hat
