May Day Strike

 

Today I was going to take the shuttle down to campus, but I was on strike, so instead of going to work, I was going to go to a pancake breakfast at the place we used to go to for Slow Food dinners. However, I missed the shuttle by just a minute or two, which is odd because I should have seen it leaving, but there was no sign of it. Fortunately the good ol' Big Bendy B Bus came by a few minutes later, and it dumped me off several blocks east of where I needed to go before it turned south. A couple of non-bendy buses had passed us, and I was bummed because they went by where I needed to go, so I was about to walk when a Big Bendy F Bus stopped, so I hopped on it... until the next stop. The pancake breakfast was a leftist dream, and while I found the vegan sausage delicious, I was not as excited about the vegan options for cream in my coffee. I had a pancake AND a waffle and some fruit as well, then I sat with my Union peeps and we listened to some rousing speeches. Little kids made signs and got their faces painted, and it was a very festive atmosphere. 

Several dozen of us walked over to a grassy spot on campus and had a campus-specific anti-ICE protest, with more speeches, then we walked over to Library Mall to join a much larger protest that included public school teachers and high school students, since they were all on strike. Here are a couple of photos.

There was an inflatable rainbow, and a Cookie Monster holding a cookie that said "Eat the Rich," but I couldn't get photos of them. We had a big banner that said "Local 171," and we were with some students (including my Irish class buddy I saw yesterday) who had an "ICE Out UW" banner. They had those of us with banners line up as the protest was winding down, and then a papier mache dragon went by too fast for me to get a photo, with a guy dressed as an Aztec warrior dancing in front of it. That was way cool. We started marching up State Street, and we were toward the front of the crowd. I peeled off briefly to powder my nose at my old church, and then I could see how huge the crowd was behind us. We chanted as we went along, and then up at the Capitol we went up the stairs and stood with our banners, while a mariachi band played at the top of the stairs. We could see the rest of the crowd coming up State Street. Wow! I saw the Irish fiddler, and a guy from the Brazilian drumming collective, and then my Irish teacher said she was in the crowd, so we found each other and stood together in the grass. (I actually sat for a bit, since I'd been standing for hours at that point.) People were handing out free sandwiches, but I had brought my own cheese sandwich, so I ate it. There were a lot more speeches, and a lot of the crowd drifted off, but my Union peeps and I stuck it out to the end. Then I caught the Big Bendy B Bus back to the parking lot where my car Noelle was, and as I got there, the B Bus going the other way came, and the shuttle arrived too, so a whole bunch of people got off and drove away as I was making my way back to my car. Then I came home, did the laundry, and had no more energy to do anything except talk to Tiffy. Hopefully tomorrow I have enough energy to go to Horicon Marsh.

Speaking of bird parties, Travalon saw one at those ponds on Wheeler Road today. Check out all the different birds he saw!

There were wood ducks, blue-winged teals, at least one mallard, a snowy egret, and a great blue heron. Did you catch them all?

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Nordic Party with Fiddle Music

 

The photos were not syncing from my phone to my computer, and I wasn't sure if the issue was the phone, the Cloud, or the computer. They all said they were set to automatically sync, and they all seemed to have plenty of storage room left. But I turned my phone off and back on, and the missing photos appeared on Boethius, except for the ones with the rainbow. Here is the view we had yesterday from the Madison Club, pre-rainbow.

You can see the skylight of the room we were in last year below us, and the fountain and blooming crabapple trees on the Monona Terrace. You can see what a gloomy day it was.

This morning I woke up briefly at 6:35, rolled over, and woke up at 7:35, well after my alarm should have gone off. Apparently I'd forgotten to set it. I rushed to get ready and was late for work, but not too late. I figured I could make up the time this afternoon. It was just that kind of day, like I put the last of the coffee into the new mug they gave us yesterday (sorry, no photo yet), and before I could make another pot, someone came in desperately needing coffee. On my morning break I took a leisurely stroll, sniffing the lilac, the crabapple, and the currants along my path. At lunch Hardingfele and I went to Allen Centennial Gardens. Here are a couple of photos.

On the way back we ran into a person I know from the Union and a person I know from Irish circles who were walking along together - I had no idea they knew each other! Hardingfele and I had Indian food in the cafe in her building, then I ran into another person from Irish circles. 

My "working late" was kind of a joke, because I'd forgotten that there was a party for the graduating seniors, with snacks and with live music.

I told Hardingfele to come over so she could enjoy the snacks and live music too - she knew one of the fiddlers. Then I took a later shuttle back to my car, but to my surprise some of the people from my usual shuttle were on it. Were we all working late today?

Someone wrote "Mandalorian" on a blackboard in the hall at work, with a symbol that must be from the show, so you can see my response below:

Travalon went back to the pond with wood ducks.

Wow! Finally the rainbow photos have downloaded to Boethius!

I hope that they were worth the wait.

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Day at the Capitol 2026

This morning I thought I could get going a little later than usual to get to the Day at the Capitol, but then I wasted too much time and wasn't sure the Big Bendy B Bus would get me there on time. Two girls behind me were threatening to beat each other up, but then they both abruptly shut up. You don't get that kind of thing on private mass transit. I sat in the back and enjoyed how the B Bus feels like big-city mass transit. I got to the Concourse Hotel a few minutes late, but the presentation hadn't started yet, so I had some Second Breakfast and sat with an older gentleman and a woman from India. There was a presentation about talking points, and this year we had handy apps that gave us our schedule and all sorts of information. Here is the swanky ceiling of the room.

My first meeting was with a legislator from my district who is also practically my neighbor - he lives like a two-minute drive away. I met with his staffer last year. Another alumnus and I talked to him, but it was preaching to the choir because he's on the University Committee and is totally in favor of everything we brought up. He gave us Blue Books, and we had our photo taken with him.

Then I went to the break room they had set up this year and logged into the app to upload the photo, do a post-meeting review, and send a thank you email. There were some other people there too, and we walked back to the Concourse for lunch while the Chancellor spoke, followed by a panel discussion about nuclear fusion. 

Last year I didn't go to any flash talks (10-minute talks where faculty discussed their research), so this year I went to a number of them. They were in a room with some very odd lighting. Here is the skylight.

I thought the lighting made my beret look more yellow, but this photo doesn't really do it justice.

I went back to the break room, where they suddenly had coffee and cookies from Panera. I opened the box of cookies and took one, and suddenly a big, ugly insect flew in and landed on a cookie, so the guy in charge of the room grabbed the cookie and threw it, along with the insect, into the trash. It looked like some kind of wasp. That was certainly startling! Then I met with the staffer of my state senator, along with a bunch of other people including a guy I ate lunch with, the guy I had eaten breakfast with, his bubbly wife, and the woman from India. We had our photo taken in the Senate chamber.

The woman from India and I went back to the break room and did our post-meeting stuff in the app, then I went back to the flash talks. They had munchies there too - there was so much food today that I ate about a day and a half worth of calories, so tomorrow I'll just have to eat half a day's worth of calories. It wouldn't be such a disaster, except it followed right after that conference yesterday where they also overfed us. 

Because I still hadn't eaten enough apparently, I went over to the Madison Club with the couple from the meeting, and the woman from India joined us. This year we were in a room upstairs overlooking the Monona Terrace and the lake, and at one point there was a rainbow, but for whatever reason those photos aren't downloading to my computer from the cloud. They're on my phone... We had lots of fancy hors d'oeuvres and free wine or beer and a sundae bar. Then I took the B Bus (where a guy behind me on the phone said he was "Gangstafied") home in time for the Shamrock Club board meeting on Zoom, followed by the Rosary on Zoom, followed by Night Prayer on Zoom. Now I am Zoomed out. I also went up seven flights of stairs at the Capitol today, and even thought I got riding the Big Bendy B Bus and going to the Madison Club off my bucket list last year, it was just as fun this year. I plan to go every year if I can, but next year there will also be a similar thing in DC on St. Patrick's Day, so I'll probably skip that. I'm sure it's awesome, but St. Patrick's Day should be for Irish stuff, not politics.

I guess those photos from the Madison Club are not going to show up tonight. Instead, enjoy some more photos of wood ducks, courtesy of Travalon.

There was also a great blue heron.

It was much larger than the ducks.

I heard a little blue heron was seen in Sheboygan, which is weird because they usually stick to the East Coast, but we have seen plenty of them in Florida.

There were also photos of the green heron, and a couple of cormorants by the island, but those weren't in focus enough to post.

Stay tuned tomorrow when maybe I will have photos from the Madison Club for you...

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