Disco Halloween Party

 

Today I worked from home, and Travalon decided to dress as a "political activist" for Halloween.

At lunchtime we walked on Governor's Island, where we saw about a thousand coots on the lake.

In the evening we went to the East Side Club for a benefit for Palestine, featuring the disco cover band V05. Travalon dressed as a Sinclair service station attendant.

I dressed as a traffic cone - at least, that's what Travalon said I look like when I wear this outfit to go out walking after dark.

I don't know if anyone figured it out, but one person thought I was a candy corn, so that's sort of the right idea. Someone else thought I was a crossing guard.

On the way there, we tried to stop by a house with impressive Halloween decorations, but there were a thousand trick-or-treaters around, including in the middle of the road, so we drove by it quickly and didn't stop to take a photo. 

The party was a lot of fun, and they turned the World Series game on, so Travalon didn't have to miss that. We did dance a bit, especially when they played "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind and Fire - I danced so hard that my FitBit said I got a workout on an elliptical. (It also said I had a half-hour workout of biking during my last Brazilian drumming lesson.) Here's a photo of the party.

They had a device that made a really fun video of us.

Some very cool costumes, including couples costumes: a cow and the moon, a deer and a road, a trapeze artist and a weight lifter. One guy was a bottle of beer just labeled "beer." Another guy had a high vis vest on, just like me, but I don't think he was supposed to be a traffic cone. Some people had obviously commercial ones, like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but one woman had all this tulle wrapped around her head like a cloud, and then it lit up now and then like it was a storm cloud full of lightning. Apparently her costume was "woman with her head in the clouds." My favorite might have been two women who wore white dresses and then had adorable mushroom hats, red with white polka dots, and for some reason they also had red fake eyelashes. I was a mushroom for Halloween way back in first or second grade, and I wish I had a photo to show you - it was like the best costume ever! I got to lead the parade! There probably is photographic evidence of this somewhere, but who knows where?

Unfortunately the Bluejays, who had been so dominant the last couple of games, were unable to put the Dodgers away, so there will be a Game Seven tomorrow night that we can't watch. (We made plans long before knowing this would happen.) After the game finished, we left the party, which was going on for another hour, and we stopped by the Halloween house on the way home. Sadly, the lights were all off, and the inflatable decorations were all deflated all over the lawn. It was quite spectacular, almost overwhelming, but I have no picture for my readers. Maybe next year.

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Ukulele Costume Party or Quebecois Jam?

 

Today I worked on campus, and in the afternoon Hardingfele and I took a walk. Here are some more photos of fall foliage on campus.

We also saw this crazy vehicle:

When I sent Tiffy a photo of the most spectacular maples on campus, she sent me a photo of the maple outside of her condo.

And Jilly Moose sent me photos of a ghost she made. She didn't say how or why she made it.

Tonight there was a ukulele strum where you were supposed to wear a Halloween costume, and there was a prize for the best one. It started at six, so I would have had to think of a costume before work, wear it to work, and maybe sneak out of work early to get there. This morning I was too exhausted to think of a costume, and Travalon said he'd rather go to the Quebecois jam at the liberal brewery. In the afternoon Famie my Irish teacher texted the red-headed flute player and me to ask if we were going to the Quebecois jam, so that pretty much decided it for me right there. I don't really know anyone at the ukulele strums, and they have not shown much interest in me the times I have gone, since they all know each other from their weekly strums during the middle of the workday. So would they know or care if I didn't come? No.

Travalon and I went to the liberal brewery, and Famie, a student of hers who often comes to Alt Brew Irish sessions, and the red-headed flute player were sitting at a table, all without instruments. I had brought my fiddle, and we all talked while Travalon and I had pizza and the others said they thought the brewery didn't have food. The others kept encouraging me to join the session, so finally I did. Boy, if I thought playing by ear at top speed was difficult, it's twice as hard to sightread at top speed! And it doesn't help that the dots on the page don't totally match what the others, who know the tunes in a slightly different variation, are playing. In fact, during one tune they switched to another one after a couple of reps, and I didn't have the music to look at for the second tune, but I actually found it easier to learn it without the music. Maybe I just am a creature who learns better by ear than by sight-reading. Plus the written music has misleading things like in one tune where the A part clearly had the key signature of A major, but the B part had the key signature of D major because it was actually A Mixolydian and there just weren't any G naturals to worry about in the A part. That might have mattered more if I were playing chords on the mandolin and thought I should be playing D major chords instead of A major and then G major, although I'd hear that was wrong. For some reason the fact that I can do all these things seemed to blow the others' mind. I am far from the greatest musician who ever lived, or was even playing at this jam, but I do have a combination of knowledge and instinct about music that seems to freak people out a bit. Maybe I should have been more serious in my younger days about becoming a better musician - who knows how far I could have gone?

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China Lights and Organ Pipe Pizza

 

Sorry for the long silence. Friday I took about an hour off in the morning to get our boat out of the water for the season, which is always kind of a sad occasion, then in the evening I talked to Tiffy. Saturday Travalon and I met Jilly Moose for coffee, then we visited his mother and had lunch at the cafe overlooking the lake in the place where she lives. They have slowed her motorized wheelchair down to an excruciating pace, and every time she goes through a door, an alarm sounds and someone appears who says, "She's a wanderer. She can go as long as you stay with her." It all seems a little cruel, and I can see why she would want to make a break for it! Then we hiked on the Scuppernong segment of the Ice Age Trail. We went to Lapham Peak to see if we could go to the top of the peak; there was a festival going on near the main parking lot, but a ranger blocked the road up to the peak. They were having some sort of "Fright Hike" that evening.

Then we went to Hales Corner to go to China Lights, where the theme this year was Alice in Wonderland. We took photos, and I'll post some soon. Our favorite thing was the two big budgies that would repeat whatever you said. We got some hilarious video footage of that. Afterwards we went to Organ Pipe Pizza right nearby, because they have a theater organ from the 1920's that my uncle helped rebuild. They had an information sheet about the organ, but it didn't mention my uncle anywhere. The pizza is edible, but the real draw is the organ with all the great sound effects (like a row of ducks), and because it was so close to Halloween, the organist played scary songs like "Thriller" and also a medley of polkas, but he didn't play my aunt's request for "Elmer's Tune." I got some videos of that too.

Sunday one of the guys who regularly goes to brunch brought food for after Mass, and it was French silk pie, ice cream, donuts, kringle, and cookies, which wouldn't surprise you if you knew this guy. He loves food! Travalon and I took a hike on the path beside the Yahara, then we went to an All Saints' Day party... I guess, since nobody wore costumes. The hostess grilled burgers, and everyone else brought vegetables and salads. I brought a spaghetti squash I'd grown in my garden plot, and Richard Bonomo brought tomato sauce to put on it. We did have several desserts, including Rich's famous brownies and a pumpkin cake made by the guy who always makes fabulous desserts, even though he couldn't come himself, and Jilly Moose brought a bucket of Halloween candy. Then Travalon and I sort of half-watched that horrible Packers game. It was just as bad as I'd expected, since the Bills were 5-1 and were playing at home. A couple of drives looked really good, but mostly the offense couldn't get anything going, and where was the defense? It seemed like every time Buffalo got the ball, they scored. That game was the scariest thing about this Halloween season.

Today was actual Halloween, so I wore my devil horns to work, and people liked that. Some of the grad students dressed up - one was an ear of corn! I got a cupcake and some German treat that was a chocolate bonbon full of Nutella - so much sugar! Then on Night Prayer the leader wore a cheesehead, so I put on my Carmen Miranda hat, which inspired the Dairyman's Daughter to put on her turkey hat, Jilly Moose to put on her wolf ears, another guy to put on a bear hat, and Anna Banana II to put on her giraffe poncho. Rich did not get in on the fun. He said he has no silly hats. Guess I know what to get him for his next birthday...

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More Ice Age Trail Photos

 

I have some terrible news: my light-up unicorn horn doesn't light up anymore! Who could have foreseen that a four-year-old cheap plastic piece of crap would cease working?? This evening the secret club I'm in had a Zoom Halloween party, and I was going to make them all envious with my light-up unicorn horn (that, may I remind you, flashed in four distinct patterns), but I had to settle for the Carmen Miranda hat I have featured on this blog before. That I got for 50 cents at a garage sale, but it will never stop working because it never started working. It just exists.

As promised, here are some more photos from Sunday. First, some shots from the segment of the Ice Age Trail that goes along the canal in Portage.

These next photos are from the segment of the Ice Age Trail that goes through John Muir Nature Preserve, where there is a small lake called Ennis Lake and an oak savannah.

These look like conifers that are changing colors. Maybe they are tamaracks, since those lose their needles.

More oaks in the oak savannah.

When we came home, we went along the edge of the Wisconsin River. These photos are from the causeway that passes over Lake Wisconsin.

I love how exotic it looks, like a land of ocean, mountains, and islands. We didn't take the ferry because we were already on the south side of the lake, so it would have made no sense to cross over it and then just have to cross back over it again. Hopefully we get a chance to take it again soon.

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Photos from September and October

 

Here are some photos I hadn't posted earlier from Travalon's trip to Little Round Lake over the Labor Day Weekend.

This is the sunrise a week before the equinox:

This is a very big moth hanging out on our porch one night.

Here is a photo Travalon took of the alphorn at the gig I played for pizza.

These are some photos of the Ice Age Trail, the Monches and Loew Lake segments. Travalon hiked on them while I was in the corn maze with Tiffy.

He could see Holy Hill in the distance.

Here are a couple of photos my neighbor took of trees in our neighborhood.

And here are some shots from around campus the last couple of days.

It was kind of crazy weather today - it snowed over my lunch hour!

And here I am, preparing for Halloween.

The hat and teeth were in the package I got from the secret club I'm in. The teeth are not very comfortable, so I only wore them for a few minutes to take the photo. The hat is very comfortable, so I wore it all evening. Even on Night Prayer!

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