Lots of Craic at the Elks Lodge

 

Still not done blogging about my plaid tam... I was looking at the red on it and it seemed so bright, so on a hunch I shone my blacklight on it. And check it out!

On the one hand, this probably means the hat isn't that old, since I don't think they made yarn that glows under blacklight in the 1920's. Google AI says it wouldn't be more than thirty years old at the most. But on the other hand, come on, isn't it cool? Every day there's something about this hat that just makes me love it more.

This morning Travalon didn't go to Cherokee Marsh, since it was so foggy out; he only ventured as far as our dock to go birdwatching. The ring-necked ducks look a spooky in the fog.

They were joined by a couple of buffleheads.

Meanwhile, I was on campus but had a very quiet day since not too many people were around, although my coworker whose birthday is coming up on St. Joseph's Day talked to me quite a bit. Hardingfele was busy, so I took a long rosary walk at lunchtime. It was fairly warm out, so I wore my lighter coat and my argyle beret, but it was very misty.

In the evening Travalon and I went to the Elks Lodge again for the second First Thursday Irish Session. We saw a bunch of Shamrock Club people there, and the red-headed flute player was playing but came over to talk to us at the end. I also thought I saw an old coworker of mine, so I called her name, but she didn't look my way. I sent her a message on social media in case she saw it in time, which she didn't, but after getting home she verified that she was there. I also saw some Moldy Jam people. It was truly craic - not just good music and good food, but good fellowship. The red-headed flute player and my Irish teacher Famie (who was not there tonight) were very happy to hear that I'll be at the Slow Irish Session and the St. Patrick's Day singalong at the music club not this coming Sunday but the one after. I had thought about going to a Cathopalian Mass in Milwaukee, since they only have those sporadically, but Cecil Markovitch was lukewarm about going, and the red-headed flute player couldn't believe I'd want to miss the "high holy days" around St. Patrick's Day. Truly, Travalon has been dreading the coming two weeks for over a month now - he's already feeling over-Celtic'd. But he can go play against Bald Bull while we're playing Irish tunes and singing Irish songs the Sunday after next, and there is a tamburitza concert in Milwaukee next month, so then he can get his Croat on.

We are pondering joining the Elks. We already belong to the East Side Club, the Shamrock Club, and the music club, and I also joined the St. Andrews Society and so far have gotten nothing for my dirt-cheap membership, not even a lousy email. Still, the Elks Lodge is beautiful, and they have food most nights of the week, and the people are very friendly. They were having a salad dressing contest, and I voted for the two that were submitted by the two women who talked to us about joining, so now I'm really on their good side. Neither one won the contest, which surprises me because they were popular with all the Shamrock Club people, and even Travalon liked the peanut butter sesame one. Maybe we can have these two ladies make the salad dressing for our next Shamrock Club event.

Famous Hat

Circus Tent Hat

 

Today I worked on campus, and at lunch I walked with Seabird. I'm thinking of making a collection of people's reactions to my plaid tam:

Tiffy: You sure are getting your Irish on!

Three people on campus: I really like your hat! It's so stylish!

Hardingfelde: That hat is so 70's!

And my new favorite:

Seabird: That hat looks like a circus tent!

She's not wrong, and now I can't unsee it. Here's the photo that made me fall in love with it, which I stole from the seller's site:

Cue circus music. Ah well, maybe I'm a dork, but 50% of the comments indicate that I'm a stylish dork. And now it's a protest hat, with the little red hat pin on it. Of course, I already have a protest hat, and my neighbor said she might be able to get me a full-sized red tasseled hat. Someday I will blog about something other than my hat, but right now I'm kind of obsessed with it.

Meanwhile, Travalon took some photos off our dock and at Cherokee Marsh today. First, some hooded mergansers.

Some ring-necked ducks.

Two female mergansers among the Canada geese. 

And now... swans.

This photo just killed me.

Check it out! A two-headed swan! (Just kidding, of course.)

Some male common mergansers.

And back to swans.

I was planning to go home and relax tonight, but then there was a Union meeting at 6:00, so I was going to go home, get into play clothes, and log in from home. Then another email came saying oops, it was at 5:30, so I sighed and stayed on campus. I got to the meeting place not long before 5:30, but the Leprechaun had not started the meeting yet, so the organizer (who was supposed to be in person but had to go home for some reason) sent a new link, so when we few in-person attendees finally logged into the Zoom meeting, there was nobody else there. The Leprechaun had forgotten his phone, so the other person had to notify him about this. We finally got it together, and the organizer had promised the meeting wouldn't last more than an hour, but it was dragging on, so at 6:30 I took my leave. If I didn't catch the shuttle back to my car, the next one was half an hour later. So now I am exhausted. I'll try to get to bed on time tonight, for once.

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Random Early Music Encounter

 

While there isn't too much to say about today (I worked from home and went to Adoration), something interesting did happen to me. At our morning break Travalon and I went out on the dock and he took photos, and he took more when we went out at lunchtime. These are mostly ring-necked ducks.

I left him on the dock, taking photos, and set off on a vigorous walk around the neighborhood. Suddenly a car pulled over, and the youngish guy driving asked if I went to the Lutheran Cathedral of the Midwest. I was puzzled because I did sing there years ago, as my regular readers know, but this guy looked too young to have known me back then. He asked if I went to the early music concerts there, and I realized he is the baritone who always sings there, one of the directors of the whole thing, so we chatted awhile. I had only ever seen him all dressed up in a suit, so I hadn't immediately recognized him in a baseball cap and hoodie. He asked my name and recognized me as one of their donors. (Probably not the biggest one.) He asked if I would be at Bach Around the Clock, and I said my band has a gig out of town that day, but I'd try to catch their group, who are performing last - I should be back in town by then. As all the musicians I know do, he has a side hustle, and it's delivering food. Apparently there is a regular in our neighborhood so he has seen me walking around before, and I said, "Probably with a different hat every time," and he said, "You have to be fashionable." 

I do love my new hat. I just kept looking over at it during Adoration, sitting on the pew next to me. I love my argyle beret, but that's a thing that anyone can order online so there are many in the world. My plaid tam is one of a kind, hand-knitted by someone who knows how long ago. It doesn't have any tags inside of it. If the St. Andrews Society has another ceilidh, or I ever take up golf, it's the perfect hat for that.

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Apologies to Noelle My Car

 

Today Travalon went back to Cherokee Marsh and took more photos of the common mergansers and the tundra swans and the flicker.

I think this puffy little bird is a chickadee.

Judging by some of his other photos, which weren't clear enough to post, he also saw red-headed ducks, canvasbacks, scaups, goldeneyes, and ring-necked ducks. I have posted his photos of all these types of ducks on this blog previously, or you can just google them if you wonder what they look like.

Meanwhile, I worked on campus, and in my building not one, not two, but three people said they liked my new plaid tam, two of our grad students and someone I didn't know in the elevator. One guy said it was very stylish. When I walked with Hardingfele at lunch, she said it is very 70's, but I think it's an older style than that. She wants us to play for some singalong at her department, on a Tuesday when I'm not usually on campus. I have to think about this one. Maybe I'll take the afternoon off and drive in - she said she could get me a parking pass. I asked if we had music, and she said no, but everything's in G, so she's right in that I don't need music for that. She wants me to play the mandolin, and she and her coworker will play violin, and a woman we don't know will play the guitar.

Speaking of playing, this evening I brought the violin to the Moldy Jam jam. I left home earlier than usual but had to park far away, and I got to the music club in time but they had already started to play. My A string is starting to unravel, but it is a gut string I've had on there since I did early music, and that was ages ago. It may be time to put new, steel strings on the violin. Heaven knows the mandolin has needed new strings for ages; Travalon bought a set for me some time ago, and now I can't find them, and Hardingfele always mocks me for it. She changes her strings every year - is that really necessary? The string didn't break during the jam session, but I didn't know the first few songs and wondered why I had even come. Then people started to call out tunes I did know, so it was more fun, and the ones I didn't know seemed easier to pick up. I called out two tunes I've known since childhood, "Rakes of Mallow" and "Blackberry Blossom," and they were happy because those are tunes they know but don't do all the time. (I was trying to do old timey tunes instead of Irish ones, since I always do Irish ones, but "Rakes of Mallow" is Irish - oops!) People were really friendly to me tonight, so I was kind of late leaving the club, and then I had the long walk to the car, plus it kept sounding like a train was coming but it never came on the track alongside the street where I parked. On the drive home I hit a median really hard (no idea why), and the plastic wheel well came off of the front driver's side wheel, so I had to stop and pick it up. I apologized to Noelle my car, but she drove fine without it. She is fifteen years old now, so we have to think how much we really want to spend on repairs for her. If she drives fine without this part, and you can't really tell there's a problem by looking at her, does it really matter? Maybe it was the full moon that caused all this weirdness tonight - it was so beautiful, with a rainbow around it, but they say it makes people crazy. There's supposed to be a lunar eclipse early this morning, around five, but I don't plan to be up to see that.

Famous Hat