November is continuing to be a rollercoaster of a month for me. Right after Mass Travalon and I searched my car for my poor, lost rosary, since everyone kept saying, "It's probably in your car." We had no luck, so we went for a walk on Governor's Island, and then I played repique at my Brazilian drum class again. My buddy seems to have quit, but I like the other people in there too. By then the Packer game had started, so Travalon and I watched part of it at home, and they were killing the Patriots. I had to leave before the game was over to go to band practice, and then when I got there, nobody was there, not even the hostess. I really had to pee, and I was so puzzled - was it at someone else's house? Were we not having it? But I double-checked the email. Eventually some other bandmates showed up, and then the hostess ran over from her neighbor's house, where she'd been having dinner. I was kind of grumpy but cheered up as we practiced Christmas carols for a gig at the airport in December. I did stop by the Adoration Chapel on my way home just to see if my rosary had shown up, but at this point I have to face that fact that it is gone. I will make a few posters and put them up, in case that helps at all.
I did steal this photo off of social media today.
Oh yeah, here is a photo from the corn maze yesterday. This is "Umbrella Street."
Here are photos from Travalon's trip yesterday. He went to the model train show in Milwaukee and then watched some real trains in Pewaukee and Dupeyville and Oconomowoc. He said he had a fantastic day.
He also went down to the lakeshore in Milwaukee and took some photos there.
Travalon says this ship is called the Saginaw:
And these are buffleheads:
Stay tuned for more videos and screenshots from videos that he took.
Today there was a model train show in Milwaukee, and Travalon really wanted to go. I said I'd go with him if Tiffy and I weren't able to do the corn maze, since for various reasons (weather, Brewers, wedding in Philly) we hadn't been able to do it in October, and this was the last weekend. It was quite rainy earlier this week, but yesterday was dry, so Tiffy came to town with high hopes, and Richard Bonomo joined us. We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant not far from my house, then we went to the maze.
Today the maze was not as crowded as we were used to, and I wondered if we would be able to find the secret punches without being able to hear the "clink" of other people letting the paper punch fall against the metal pole. It was a beautiful day, very sunny with a bit of a chill in the air, but just right for running all over a corn maze. The maze itself was mostly not muddy, but Rich and I did slip a couple of times on patches of mud, never badly enough to fall down or anything. We found our eight punches, and I said we should quit because that is the number you need to get the "Maze Master" certificate and the maze pen. To my surprise, Tiffy said, "Let's try to find all ten. Let's achieve perfection this time," and she plunged back into the maze to go to the one section we hadn't really checked. I said, "Why are you suddenly getting all Virgo on me? Perfection? As a Capricorn, I only care about getting the pen. Extra punches don't get us anything." She said, "What about Rich?" and we agreed Aquarians are just there to have fun. We didn't find any secret punches in the area we explored, but as we were trying to find our way out and not really sure where we were on the map, Tiffy walked right by the ninth punch. Fortunately Rich and I saw it, and we called her over. It was shaped like a lucky number seven. They all had fun shapes, like a heart, a moon, a crown - even a dog! So we got our pens and our certificates and stickers too. We didn't do the secret "maze within a maze," but all you get for that is the chance to put your team name on a board. We did succeed at that one year.
On the way back to my place, we stopped for dinner at the Waunakee supper club, Rex's Innkeeper. We were like old people, eating our salad bar plates before 5:00 pm. They both had steaks, and I had walleye, but of course I brought half of it home after that salad bar. Now I am just chillaxing at home while Travalon hangs out in his old haunts in Pewaukee and Oconomowoc on his way back from Milwaukee. He may have photos of the model train show for me to post, but I'll do that tomorrow. As long as I'm sitting here barely able to move after our marathon in the corn maze, I'll blog.
Here is a short (five minute) movie I made of lights we saw at GLEAM and China Lights:
And here are more screenshots of graffiti on a train Travalon made a video of last month in Slinger.
Whew! That is only one-fourth of this train video! The rest will have to wait for another day.
I am a third-hand gift, a straw hat with a wide brim. I used to have natural and navy stripes, but after much time in the sun, the navy ones have faded to a sort of chocolatey tone. The big blue flower around the brim was my wearer's own touch.
