RIP Tiffy's Dad

 

Yesterday at my morning break I was in a perfect spot to see the train tracks on campus when I heard the whistle. I could have made a video, and it was a short train with one engine and three cars, but it was a bit cold to take my hands out of my gloves. Besides, train videos were what was clogging up my phone in the first place. I just watched it in real time and enjoyed it, feeling grateful to have been in the right place at the right time. It was a cool view, looking down the hill, but probably better in real life than in a video.

Just after my break I got a text from Tiffy: her dad had died of COVID. He was vaccinated but hadn't gotten the booster shot. He had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks, so it wasn't a shock at that point, but it's still very sad. Her mom got sick too, but just lying around the house sick, not going to the hospital sick. It hits everyone differently. I always felt like an honorary member of their family, so it's like losing a beloved uncle. He was always so funny, always joking around.

The reason I didn't blog yesterday is because just as I was sitting down to blog, I realized my bus pass was missing. My best guess was that it fell out in the church library as I was biding time before my adoration hour, so I asked someone who lives right by the church and has a key to the library if it were there. Indeed it was, so Travalon kindly drove me back downtown to rescue my poor bus pass. I needed it today, to get to and from work - Travalon could have dropped me off, but then I would have been stuck at work until he could come get me more than an hour after I was done.

Today at four my coworker went home, and as far as I could tell, I was the only person left on campus. Then at 4:30 I heard a faint bell sound coming from outside. I stood by the window, and sure enough, someone was playing the carillon! Why would someone play it at 4:30 on the day before Thanksgiving, when nobody was around to hear it (except me)? They don't need to practice on the actual carillon keyboard, because I have taken a tour of the carillon, and they have a practice keyboard in there so you can practice without everyone hearing your mistakes. When I told Travalon about this, we started thinking about how every college campus we could think of has a carillon, so I googled it and came across a list on Wikipedia of every carillon in the world. Not only do they have our beloved campus one (which I can see out my office window), with a picture and everything, but they also have the carillon in the cemetery in Monona. Wow! Maybe it really is a comprehensive list!

Here are the promised photos of Patrick Marsh from Sunday.

Mostly all we saw were gulls, but we did see these three ducks, which I believe are canvasbacks.

We walked on some new paths and found this monument that was just put up this year.

We can't remember exactly what it was, but it had something to do with an elementary school doing a conservation project.

Famous Hat