All Day on Campus

 

Yesterday Travalon had to take the bus to work so that I could get to Adoration, then he took the bus downtown and we met at the church. We were going to go to Banzo for dinner, but they are now closed on Tuesdays, so we went to Bear and Bottle instead and sat out on their patio. Highly recommended! The chicken street corn tacos, crab rangoons, and coconut-limeade cocktails were all fantastic. As we drove home, we could see the remnants of the sunset, pink clouds like cotton candy across the sky. They were so pretty, but by the time we got home and I grabbed Travalon's good camera and ran out to the dock, they had lost their glow. I did take a few pictures and may post them at some point.

Today Travalon could use my car again as long as he dropped me off at the Killer Building, so I had to spend the whole work day on campus. This meant I got to walk on the Lakeshore Path for lunch, fortunately before a huge storm hit. I had forgotten just how beautiful the path is, with lush vegetation and incomparable views of the lake. However, I was a bit footsore after having taken yesterday afternoon off and going on a two-and-a-half hour hike at my top speed, with Richard Bonomo along the Yahara River, so I was very slow. Everyone was passing me easily. I have gotten my 10,000 steps for the day and may even get five miles yet, but it's slow going. Hopefully tomorrow I will be back to what constitutes a normal speed for me.

While I was on my lunchtime walk, I saw something surprising: a pair of cardinals, and the female was bald! Not only that, but she had a white patch on the top of her head. I was going to try to take a photo, but just then someone ran right toward them and scared them off. My regular readers may remember how I discovered there is a bald cardinal living in Allen Centennial Gardens, so whatever this issue is, it seems to be going around campus. Maybe it happens to other birds too, but it's really noticeable on a cardinal, when you expect to see a big crest on their head and instead you see a little wrinkled head. They look like tiny, colorful vultures. Not a good look, but it doesn't seem to affect their health. Unlike whatever is going around killing songbirds - in case you have not heard, everyone in the Midwest is advised to take bird feeders down because some contagious illness is going around, killing songbirds, and they think it might be spreading at bird feeders. Just a Famous Hat PSA. (I guess this means I won't get to put up that new oriole feeder anytime soon...) 

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