Ice Cream Social with Death Bloom

 

This morning was dark and gloomy, so when I got to work, I had a second cup of coffee. Maybe not the best idea, because then I was really wired during our staff meeting. We always start with a dad joke or two, and today the question was: Why do chicken coops have two doors? Answer: Because if they had four doors, they'd be a chicken sedan! Badoom-ching! I rarely contribute a dad joke myself, and I've only made up one that I can think of offhand: If lemons cost less than limes, are they sublime?

After the meeting I went up to the FART 5 office because one of our members had just come back from Japan, and we all wanted to hear about it. She LOVED Japan! I asked what surprised her most about it, and she said that there were signs in all the public restrooms saying not to squat on top of the toilets. Seabird (who is Chinese) said those signs were for the Chinese tourists, because they have so many squatting toilets in China. Everyone I know who has been to Japan loved it, so someday I may have to get over my fear and hatred of planes to make a trip there.

Right after lunch Seabird, two other colleagues, and I walked through the rain to the ice cream social. Because of the dismal weather, it was held inside the Botany hall, and we were the first ones in line, since Seabird had a meeting in an hour. I usually get orange custard chocolate chip, but today they had key lime pie flavor. Seabird always complains that they don't have blue moon, but today they did. However, she and the other two got some birthday flavor that was champagne with raspberries. After that we went to the greenhouses and saw the "death bloom" again. The flower spike is just as impressive, but the poor agave is starting to die from the bottom up. We looked around at other plants and then went back upstairs, and the others noted that not too many people seemed to have braved the rain, although Hardingfele and her coworker who goes to my church were there. (I had invited them, and my coworkers, but got little response.) So we got seconds; I picked up a serving of orange custard chocolate chip, but I was too full and was going to save it for tomorrow. Then when we walked out of the building, there was a long line to get in, so I felt guilty for taking seconds when some people hadn't had firsts. To assuage my guilt, I gave the ice cream to Travalon when we got home. He made a delicious dinner of whole wheat pasta with chicken, marinara sauce, and goat cheese that was just unbelievably good. So far I am loving this Mediterranean diet, and when I deviated from it today with the ice cream, I did feel off. The only thing is that my diet app, which has been screaming at me for ages about how I need to cut down on my fat consumption, is now suddenly telling me to eat more fat. You just can't please that thing.

Here is the video compilation of the trains we saw in Rochelle over the Memorial Day weekend:

It's very long, but there's lots of awesome graffiti.

Famous Hat

Tuesday Evening Stroll

 

Today I worked from home, so not much to say about that. Before work I did DuoLingo, and apparently I am an A+++++ student.

I can also order food at a restaurant in Portuguese! Apparently due to a nuclear blast.

The only notable thing about Adoration tonight was that I forgot to bring my reading glasses, so writing in my prayer journal was not as easy as usual. Sigh... getting old sucks. When I got home, Travalon had made another delicious Mediterranean diet dinner of baked fish, kale with feta, and whole wheat bread. I am enjoying this diet so far, and it seems like I eat a lot fewer calories on it but yet don't feel a need to eat a lot more. It's true that I do have to eat snacks, but those are healthy too, like fruit or hummus. I told Travalon we should give it a week and see if we feel healthier. I am highly motivated because I don't want to go on statins; Travalon is blessed with a better constitution and can eat worse with fewer consequences, but he said he'd like to lose weight too. Tomorrow there is the annual ice cream social at work, but it will be inside due to expected bad weather... again, so I might not even bother venturing out into a storm to get ice cream I shouldn't be eating anyway.

After dinner we went for a walk in the golden evening light. We went out on the dock, and Travalon took some photos. We saw a flock of graceful birds some distance away, which Merlin says are Forster's terns.

Some shots of the sunset.

Here are some daylilies blooming along the walkway to our dock.

It was a very pleasant evening, and surprisingly cool. It's been unseasonably cool the last couple of days, but I'll take that over 90 degree heat.

Famous Hat

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...

Famous Hat

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.

Famous Hat

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.

Famous Hat