Playing the Mandolin Is a (Biking) Workout

 

I thought I might not have time for a lot of exercise today, so I went for a good walk this morning. When I went out on the pier, I saw my favorite boat, the big yellow catamaran, coming down the channel to dock at its usual spot. I had been wondering if it would come back this year. Alas, apparently Midnight Splash will not be back. We haven't seen it, and the website to reserve it appears to be defunct.

Travalon and I drove out to Sauk, where I had three beautiful rosaries on layaway.

I had my gift card with me, and if I'd had the self-discipline not to spend any of it, it would have mostly covered the cost of the rosaries, but of course I had to buy narwhal socks (as part of a generous donation to the World Wildlife Fund) and a Packer hat that arrived yesterday. The hat is even better than I'd hoped; it's a floral bucket hat, but I didn't realize it had a drawstring, so it's perfect for boating or windy days.

After that, we went to the dam and saw pelicans and a blue heron, but when I downloaded the photos from Travalon's camera to my computer, I found a good photo of our buddy Tux Duck too. Of course, he doesn't live in Sauk - he lives just off our dock!

Then we drove to the Spring Green General Store for lunch, and I got a free iced latte because of being with the band. We sat out on the back porch, and eventually my bandmates showed up and were somewhat shocked to find out we'd be playing outside. I, on the other hand, felt like the day had been saved. I wasn't looking forward to spending two hours inside on such a beautiful day, especially since we'd had to spend so much time in the car to get there. There are train tracks right by the general store, so I imagined a train coming through and drowning out our music, but that never happened. We had very little audience that weren't people we knew, and I thought a couple of people I knew were going to try to make it but didn't. We joked that we were practicing, but honestly it was so beautiful on that back porch, and we were so in the groove, that I didn't care about our lack of audience. 

We started at one, and at ten to two my FitBit told me I still had 110 steps to get. That surprised me, because I'd been sitting the whole time, so it picked up some movement from me. That gave me an idea: I always wear the FitBit on my left wrist, but what if I moved it to my right wrist? That's the one that moves a lot with all my picking. I am happy to say that not only did this idea work and I got my steps for the hour, but I even got a workout that was apparently "outdoor biking," and I got my 10,000 steps. Crazy!

Travalon had gone fishing after a few songs, and we saw a bunch of motorcycles pass by, then a bit after that we saw and heard a bunch of emergency vehicles pass by. I wondered if something happened to a motorcyclist, but Hardingfele (whose husband recently had a heart attack - he's okay now) said the crappy way 2023 has been going, maybe it was for Travalon. Of course that thought had crossed my mind, and she said maybe I should call him, but not long after that I saw his car returning. Then we heard Med Flight overhead, so we knew the accident must have been very bad. Oddly, I can't find a story about it in the news. There was a really bad accident up near Horicon, but that's far from where we were.

We each got $1.50 in tips. Back in the day, we actually made enough money at this that it basically covered all the expenses, like gas and new strings and fixing up my instruments, but now it's a pricier hobby. I don't know if we're getting worse, and that's why we have less gigs and tips, but I still love doing it so I'll just keep doing it. Travalon made some really good videos, but Blogspot says they are too large to load onto the blog, so for now enjoy Travalon playing an instrument on the Riverwalk in Beaver Dam. 

In the evening we went to a talk that was part of a conference on the novel put on by a couple of faculty members in my department. They had specifically invited me to the reception to thank me for all my help organizing things, and they said I could bring Travalon too. The talk really fascinated me because the renowned author was talking about how her book was based on interactions with her friends, and how they reacted to being in her book. I thought that was kind of a mean thing of her to do, but then I thought, don't I do the same thing with this blog? She said she changed some things and then she remembered things happening the way she wrote them, but when she prepared for her talk, she went back to old emails and realized things had happened differently. I feel like this person is my soul sister, because in my own diary I once put a line in my roommate's mouth even though I'd said it, because it seemed funnier for her to have said it. Why lie in my own diary? I would have liked to discuss such things with this author, but tons of other people wanted to talk to her, so Travalon and I just had some delicious food at the reception and then headed to the Union Terrace. There was a really good band playing there called the Hails, so we sat and listened to them. They were the opening band for another group that we didn't like as well, so then we headed home. We walked so much there and back that I got another two workouts and walked over six and a half miles. To think that this morning I was was concerned that I wouldn't get much exercise or outdoor time! Fortunately neither turned out to be true on this beautiful day.

Famous Hat