Peaceful Evening on the Dock

 

This morning I woke up all sniffly and sneezy, and Travalon said, "Maybe you shouldn't go into work." I did go into work, but at lunchtime I caught the shuttle home and was surprised to have four companions on it. Once at home, I logged back in and did more work, then at five I logged off and went outside for a walk to make up for the lack of one at lunchtime. In the distance I heard a train horn, so I went to the bridge from which you can see the train bridge, and down in the water below me I saw a pied-billed grebe swimming around. Two people were walking casually along the track, so I figured they knew something I didn't about the train not coming, but then we could all hear the telltale rumbling, and one said, "The train's coming! We have to get off the track!" They just stepped off and stood there as the train passed by incredibly close to them. I wouldn't want to be that close - trains are very loud, even when they aren't sounding their horns. 

After that I went down to the dock to see if Thirsty Thursday might be happening; nobody was there, but it was beautiful out, so I sat watching a pair of pied-billed grebes diving and a pair of mallards dabbling. I heard lots of red-winged blackbirds and saw lots of gulls and one tern hovering over the water and diving into it now and then. I watched them all until the sun set, and while it doesn't sound very exciting, it was a wonderful evening. 

Something weird has happened to the Previous Mistakes section in DuoLingo: it only has one mistake, over and over again. I took full advantage of this yesterday, because DuoLingo arbitrarily assigns me challenges, and this one was to have forty perfect lessons. That's easy to do when you can just correct the same mistake forty times! Then this morning it was still glitching like that, when I didn't need it to. I can see there are other mistakes in there, but every time I go to do them, it just gives the same one over and over. At least this glitch came in handy this time.

Some advisor to Dear Leader said recently that Antifa is an old problem and that they had Antifa in 1930's Germany. Isn't that admitting that Dear Leader's people are the Nazis? Because who else would Antifa have been fighting in 1930's Germany? But then they're always saying the quiet part out loud these days - it's rather frightening how they think there will never be consequences for their horrendous actions. Should this surprise anyone? If you are anti-Antifa, then by definition you are Profa, i.e., Fascist. It's amazing to me how they have made fighting fascism a dirty word.

Here is a photo of the mug we got at Voodoo Brewing on Saturday:

Part of the cost of this mug goes to the Ice Age Trail Alliance. Speaking of which, the Crane Foundation sent an email a few days ago that now you can get a Crane Foundation license plate, and I needed to renew my registration anyway, so I looked into getting a specialized license plate. But then the choice became difficult because they also have an Ice Age Trail one. I ended up ordering an Ice Age Trail one, and personalized to boot. They asked for three choices, so I'll let you know which one they give me when the license plate comes.

On a sadder note, our little balloon panda bear is getting small and wrinkly, just like an aging person.

Reminder: this is what he looked like when he was freshly made.

But he is still very cute. It's funny how his ears are huge and his limbs are teeny now.

Here is my Cubs Bear, celebrating the Cubs win:

What will happen in Game Five? Will the Brewers prevail at home? Will the Cubs do that thing they did in 2016 (when, as I may remind you, they won the World Series) where they fall behind and things look dire, but then they come to life and win the series? They were on fiah tonight, winning 6-0.

Famous Hat