Mass 911, Grandpa Glitter, and Red Panda Art

 

Two things I forgot to blog about yesterday: the emergency at Mass and Grandpa Glitter. The emergency at Mass was when the woman next to me started making a strange noise and slipping off her seat, and the man on the other side of her caught her and snapped at me, "Go get someone!" So I got the usher, and meanwhile some women had surrounded the sick woman (who wasn't young), and I asked, "Should I call 911?" They all said yes, so I did, but I had to hand the phone to the usher because I didn't know the address, and then I had to hand it to one of the women tending the sick woman because they were asking questions about her condition that I couldn't answer. That made me feel useless in an emergency, and also totally self-centered, since all I could think about was whether I'd get to receive communion and whether I'd ever get my phone back. (Yes, and yes.) The woman was conscious and talking when the paramedics arrived, so I think she'll be okay, but I may never know.

"Grandpa Glitter" was Travalon's name for an old guy who came to dance at all the events at the East Side Club, including the late, lamented rock jams. He wore light-up shoes and a light-up, glittery hat, and Travalon said he was a real role model, showing you can have fun in your golden years instead of sitting around being a grump. His real nickname was Fast Eddie, and he was renowned for dancing all over town, but especially at the East Side Club, so when he died earlier this year, they announced that today they would be dedicating their stage to him. Travalon went to the Empty Vees concert while I was at drumming (but he left before the stage dedication), and they were handing out cheap plastic glittery derbies like Fast Eddie wore (but I don't know who could wear these because they were too small for me and I have the smallest head of anyone I know) and fans with his face on them, so Travalon collected two of each - one for himself, and one for me. We never spoke to Grandpa Glitter, but we admired him from a distance for years.

Today I worked from home and was very busy, but I did get a chance to put up the hummingbird feeder, and they immediately discovered it. They had been flying around, looking in the window at me, for over a week. The one fun thing is that the red panda we are tracking made an angel with his wanderings.

 Or maybe it's a butterfly. It reminds me of when pilots purposely take flight paths that draw a part of the male anatomy, if you catch my drift, only way more innocent and fun.

In the evening I went to Moldy Jam, and there were a dozen of us. The owner wasn't there, but the new assistant was, and she played guitar and stand-up bass. I called "Green Willis" just because someone said it went well with the tune before, and I called "Pig Ankle Rag" because I always do. Who doesn't love that jaunty tune? I would have called "Drowsy Maggie," but they didn't get back to me a third time. Someone called "Mairi's Wedding" in D, but then there was some discussion if it was in A, so we did a few rounds in D and then a few rounds in A. I noticed that I played a C natural in D and a G natural in A, which made me think the tune is actually in Mixolydian, but when I mentioned this to the feisty mandolin player next to me, she said, "There's no C in the tune!" She showed me her music, and sure enough, there was no C... but I definitely played one! So just now I googled it, and it said "Mairi's Wedding" is usually played in D or G (so where did A come from?) and made no mention of it being modal. Weird...

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Healthy Groceries and a Light-Up Ukulele

 

Today was a busy day for Travalon and me. After Mass I had our monthly Care for Creation meeting, where we talked about how we would get people to contribute to the fund for putting solar panels on St. Peter's. The church we go to, St. Dennis, already has solar panels. Meanwhile, Travalon recycled the plastic and went antiquing. I forgot to take a picture of the cute little coal car he got, plus he got a couple of books, and all that for ten dollars.

We were running a little late to my drum lesson, and then my water bottle leaked in my "Train Nerd" bag, so Niko was soaked. Poor guy! I pulled him and my phone out of the bag, but then I forgot the phone in Travalon's car. Worse, the water had gotten onto my jeans (it was kind of cool out today), so it looked like I had peed my pants. Everyone was all ready to go with their drums when I got there, but people are so nice - they helped me out with getting a belt, a drum, and drumsticks. I asked my buddy in the class if I could text Travalon from her phone, and he texted back that my phone was safely in his car, so then I could focus on drumming.

Afterwards we went to the co-op, and I insisted on buying a bunch of healthy stuff that's on the grocery list for the Mediterranean Diet. Back home we took a walk on the bike path along Highway M (and the vermilion and purple and white flowers are blooming by Athens Grill), then we had rotisserie chicken, whole wheat pita, and kale with feta cheese for dinner, and afterwards we both did feel good. Is it psychological? I have to change my evil ways, and Travalon says he should too.

We had band practice in a new place tonight. A banjo player has recently joined our group (she and our leader both play in the same ukulele group), and we had practice at her very lovely condo, with her musician husband and grumpy dog listening to us. (The dog didn't like when I had to powder my nose, and he wasn't going to let me come out of the bathroom if they hadn't intervened. He is a very small dog, but I still wasn't sure if I should just walk past him when he was barking angrily at me.) We were told not to pet the dog, so I didn't even try. The banjo player didn't know that we play each tune in a set until the leader puts her foot up, so she had moved onto a second Irish fiddle tune while we were still playing the first one. She said, "Something's wrong! I'm not playing the right chords!" and I said, "They're not actually in the same key - 'Coleraine' is in A minor, while 'Cliffs of Moher' is in A Dorian," and they all sort of rolled their eyes and were like, "OKAY, Famous, enough with the 'Dorian mode' stuff." When Travalon came back to pick me up, we went down into the basement and saw all their instruments, her husband's guitars and bass and her ukuleles. She has one that lights up! I thought I was recording longer than this, but you get the idea.

As promised, here is the video of the two trains we saw yesterday in Portage. Watch for the windshield wipers on the freight train engine just as it starts to leave. Just be warned that this video is almost ten minutes long, but it's worth it to see all the different types of cars and the awesome graffiti.

And here's the video I made of the train we saw at the crossing on Thursday night. This one is almost six minutes long, but again it has lots of cool types of cars and awesome graffiti.

The beautiful thing about today being so busy is that it was only at the very end of the day that I remembered it was Dear Leader's birthday, and I hadn't spared him a thought all day. It's surprising that there weren't any protests planned in town, but maybe everyone felt like I did, that the best way to commemorate the day was to forget that he existed.

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Rocky Arbor, Mirror Lake, and the Portage Railyard

 

This morning Travalon and I went to Crema Cafe, since we hadn't been there in a while, and we sat outside. There was a music festival (free!) at the Overture Center, but it was so nice outside that I had to get out into the woods, so we went to Rocky Arbor State Park and walked along the scenic path. Travalon took many photos.

The roots of this fallen tree looked like an art installation:

This was a rock sticking out of the water. Here are several views.

This pattern in the rock was so intriguing:

Then we went to Mirror Lake State Park, and I asked the people at the boat rental if they happened to have a copy of the photo of Travalon and me that was taken in October 2017 and was on the website in March of 2020, but they pointed out that was a long time ago, and they also think the woman who took the photo was someone who stole a lot of money from the business and fled to California. Sigh... it was a great photo. Here are some photos of the park from today.

Our next stop was the Portage railyard, but nothing was happening and the Railyard Bar right by it wasn't opening until 4:30, so we went to Silver Lake for about twenty minutes. It's very lovely.

I don't know why this one is so tilted.

Here you can see the sand castle collection someone had created on the beach.

We went back to the Railyard Bar, and they were just as friendly as Travalon had said. One of the bartenders seemed to be a true train nerd, and he told us the Amtrak Empire Builder heading east was going to arrive in five minutes, so we ran out to watch it arrive. Bonus: right after it left, a freight train left too. Travalon made videos which I need to compile and edit, so watch for that. Here are photos of the train graffiti we saw in the railyard.

Here are some very old engines.

Here is a more modern one.

This is the Norfolk and Southern engine that pulled out after the Amtrak train left.

This is the little depot where people can wait in bad weather. There isn't even a bathroom! As Travalon said, it's basically a bus stop.

More engines.

Then we went back to the bar and had something to eat to sustain us on the long ride home. We took the long way, the one that takes you on the Merrimac Ferry. Here are some photos from the ferry.

As if all that weren't enough, I have some DuoLingo bragging to do today:

I owe this blog several train videos (and the hummingbirds a full feeder, as they keep reminding me) so watch for that in the coming days.

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