Since the Fourth of July is on a Saturday this year, we got a floating holiday at work. I decided to take today off, since it's my half-birthday and all. Travalon suggested hiking at Patrick Marsh, since the far side is sort of in the shade, and when we got down to the water, we heard a duck going crazy. Then we heard a funny squeaky bird, and we saw a bunch of ducklings swimming away from us as fast as they could. Travalon made a video. It looks like the squeaky duck is a female wood duck, and the babies are hers, while a female mallard is looking out for them. Where are the males? Who knows? I left in our inane dialogue instead of setting this to a tropical beat because I wanted you to be able to hear the difference in the calls of the two species of ducks. Sorry that my editing makes some of the dialogue make no sense. Travalon also spotted a pelican, which is at the end of this short video. At one point a great blue heron flew by off to our left, which is not so strange except that it was squawking loudly, which I had never heard one do before. Unfortunately, that audio doesn't appear to have been captured in this video.
Travalon also took this picture of a bird at Patrick Marsh. I can't really tell what it is, but I like the photo.
After that we cooled off by going to an enormous antiques mall in Columbus. This thing went on for miles! And it had two levels! I looked everywhere, and finally I found two rosaries: a little wooden one-decade one, and one that looks like it was made by a colorblind person, because the Our Father beads are lavender while the Hail Mary beads are the color of tomato soup. I will post a photo soon. I thought, man, I went through this whole thing and there isn't one cool rosary ANYWHERE, but God has a sense of humor. I got back to the front and looked in the locked cases I had perused when we first came in, and somehow I had not noticed a beautiful black and gold rosary in there. Travalon had said he would buy me a $25 rosary for my half-birthday present, and this one was $28, but he said, "I'll get it - I'm not like that." Once we got home, I inspected it and found it has a medal in Polish commemorating the 50th anniversary of something, because it says 1875-1925. So whatever this momentous occasion was, it happened 145 years ago! On one side of the medal there is an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and on the other side is an image of Mary. It does reference Nanticoke, PA, which is a real place with two Catholic churches that both have very Polish names, St. Faustina Kowalska and St. Mary Czestochowa. Per Wikipedia, Nanticoke was a booming coal mining town back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and most of the coal miners were European immigrants. So it all checks out. I just wonder what happened in 1875 that they were celebrating.
On our way home we stopped at the Token Creek Conservancy, where there is a small graveyard, and there was a gravestone for a boy who died at age 8 in 1858. All these 19th century dates today!
In the evening we took a Betty Lou Cruise. It was a fish fry cruise, and we had to wear masks because of Covid-19, except when we were eating or drinking. No problem - we just always had a drink in our hand! (Usually water, in my case.) The weather forecast had said a storm might hit right during the cruise, but the weather was beautiful (except for being so hot) the whole time. So I had a wonderful half-birthday: a new, very cool rosary and a cruise on Lake Mendota!
Famous Hat
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