Ukulele Strum with Songs about Animals

 

Today I worked on campus, and Seabird and I were able to walk between storms. I showed my younger and much tech-savvier coworker the photo of the train artwork featured on this blog yesterday, specifically the one with the figure between two tags, and she said she loves train graffiti too. We agreed that "modern art" you see in museums is often terrible because it's either produced by nepo babies or artists who are so famous that they don't have to try anymore, whereas train artists don't make money, and they constantly have to prove their cred to other artists, so their work is often amazing. She also laughed when we found the photo of Seabird and me on the Alumni Association boat, because it's specifically an ad for the party we are going to on Friday where we hope to ride the boat again, and my coworker said how meta it is for me to be in an ad for an event I'm going to. I also asked her if she could help me find the photo of Travalon and me canoeing on the Wayback Machine; we had no luck, but we did laugh really hard because at one point the website had a photo of two guys in a canoe from a side angle, and then later they had the same guys in a canoe, but from more of a head-one angle. I asked if she could help me with the bewildering folder of files of an unknown type that saved to my computer when I tried to save the image from the website, but she had no ideas about that either. I guess the photo is lost to posterity. 

Speaking of photos, I took this one of a tree peony seed pod that looks like a star when Seabird and I were walking in Allen Centennial Gardens.

We also saw this tree that looks like hops, and in fact it's called a hop hornbeam.

There is a guy who makes videos of every train that passes by and then posts them on social media, and I saw that he made a video of the train Travalon and I heard pass by around 5:20 yesterday evening, so I watched the video to see if there was any good graffiti. Answer: yes.

As you can see, I still need to learn something about screenshots, since these all have the "pause" button on them. Fortunately, it's higher than the graffiti in every photo.

I already had my steps for the day by the end of our lunchtime walk, so I was thinking of skipping my afternoon walk, but I needed more fresh air. I could hear a train coming, but the way campus is set up, there wasn't a good point to see it from for about a football field's length away, so I started running until I couldn't anymore... and then I heard the horn very close and started running again. And I saw the whole train! It was short and didn't have a lot of graffiti, just the 4AL that I thought was "YAL" until I saw the "Four" spelled out, and later I saw it was "4 A LAUGH." No "Puck" this time.

I left work early to catch the shuttle before my usual one in order to get to the ukulele strum on time. The sky was getting dark as I headed north, and I thought about going home instead of heading all the way into Waunakee, but I did beat the storm. It started shortly before the strum did, so right when I would have arrived had I taken the later shuttle. After the storm, a rainbow!

We played songs about animals today, like "Horse With No Name," "Three Little Birds," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - you get the idea. Everything was clear once the strum ended, and when Travalon came home, we went to take care of our neighbor's cat. There were some beautiful pink clouds.

As astute readers might have noticed, I have mostly given up on clever blog post names and now call the blog post whatever it's actually about. This is mostly to make it easier for me to find past blog posts, because if I'm looking for the time I went sailing but the blog has some clever pun of a name that has nothing to do with sailing, it gets frustrating for me. Maybe I'll save the clever titles for days where I'm just working from home and nothing happens.

Famous Hat

Just What You've Been Waiting For - More Blog Monsters!

 

This morning the guy came to fix our internet, and he needed to find some cable panel that we couldn't find anywhere in our condo because it turned out to be somewhere outside. I had to leave for an appointment, but Travalon texted me that things were working again, so that was one-third of my problems from yesterday solved. I had to go see the doctor because I had an episode of I think it's called tachycardia (a racing heart) on Ash Wednesday, but I chalked it up to fasting until having another episode last Thursday. They did an EKG this morning that was perfectly normal, and they did some labs that were all normal except one low level that could be caused by a viral infection, and my glucose level was too high because they said it didn't matter that I hadn't fasted, but it obviously did. I wore a mask because of my cold, so then the nurse put on a mask too. I had thought of canceling, but it seemed important to go in despite my cold. It was good to find out nothing's wrong... except now they want me to make an appointment to get some device that I have to wear for a week. Ugh. 

I worked from home in the afternoon and felt okay until taking a short walk right after work, hoping to see the train. Immediately I started to feel woozy, so I went home and just missed the train, but I felt so lousy that I didn't even care. (And as I'm writing this, another train is going by outside right this moment.) I called in sick to adoration and spent a quiet evening at home, and someone else volunteered to lead Night Prayer. I joined but only "talked" by writing in the chat. Hopefully I feel better by tomorrow - I'm supposed to work on campus, and it's not clear anyone else will be there if I can't be.

Meanwhile, at work Travalon got the kids to draw blog monsters. This is a fresh batch of kids, so they hadn't done this before, and they were all very small and had no idea what a "blog" is. I'm not sure they know what a monster is either, since this looks like a girl wearing a tiara. This can be Princess Blog Monster.

Travalon had no idea why this kid thought a blog monster would look like a cup of McDonald's hot chocolate. This can be Micky D Choco Blog Monster. The marshmallows are a nice touch.

I love how colorful some of these are. This one looks like a comet. I'll call it Halley's Blog Monster.

This one looks like a rainbow with eyes. It's Roy G. Bivp Blog Monster (the P is for pink).

Is this one supposed to be a robot or a little girl? I'm calling it Kawaii Blog Monster, since that's the Japanese word for "cute."

Here is Travalon's Irish blog monster. I'm dubbing this one Paddy O'Blog Monster.

He said this kid drew a blog monster and then scribbled over it, so he worked to salvage it.

I like how this blog monster looks like it's suspended in blue jello, like it's a salad at a Lutheran potluck or something. Maybe I'll call it Lutheran Potluck Blog Monster. Then again, it looks like it's dancing, so maybe I should call it Disco Blog Monster. I'll let my readers weigh in on this one.

My other two problems from yesterday were solved too, because my DNA data is deleted, and my timecard is fixed. Yay!

Famous Hat

Ming at Work

 

This will probably be my last blog post before I start posting from the road. I don't have too much to say. At lunch I walked with my colleague again, and she said she would start reading this blog again once we are on the road. She asked if she had a name on my blog, and I said no, since my habit was to use people's email addresses, but I only know her work email address, which of course is her real name. So maybe we should think of a name for her on this blog. Any ideas? Then I went up the stairs on Bascom Hill again, but this time I only got credit for three staircases, not five. What the heck?? There are the same number of stairs as yesterday - why does my phone think there are two less staircases? This is how random it is. At least I got credit for some vigorous move minutes.

Since I don't have much to say today, enjoy a photo of the yarn I had sent to Ma Hat. It's supposed to glow under blacklight, so I asked if she could knit a cuddly rosary out of it, and she said sure. 

And here is a photo of Travalon's three Sinclair Dinos.

This is Travalon's red panda warmie, Ming.

This time of year, when the weather is cooler, Ming has to work. (He gets the summer off.) Here he is, being warmed up in the microwave.

I don't dare warm up my axolotl, since the previous one got a hole burned in it. I still have that one, but it's sitting here in the living room, waiting to be fixed up. 

I can't wait until the cuddly rosary is done and I can see if it glows under my blacklight. I promise to post a photo of that!

Famous Hat

More Blog Monsters

 

I brought the blooming gardenia inside the house because of the low temperatures at night, and now the whole house smells wonderful. The other day someone stopped by, and when I said, "Doesn't the gardenia smell good?" they claimed they couldn't smell it. The next day, they told me they had COVID and I should test myself, and I was thinking that the lack of smell should have been my first clue. I can't actually test myself until Friday without the chance of a false negative, so I've been trying to lay low. I worked from home yesterday and today, but my boss says I should come in tomorrow and wear a mask. He said let him know if I have any symptoms, but how will I know? I've already been sick for what feels like weeks with something that isn't COVID. It might just be allergies.

I was very sad to learn that my first Irish teacher died on Sunday. She was only 65, and I have no idea what happened. I never heard that she was sick. 

Speaking of bringing plants in, a neighbor asked if I wanted her fuschia because she was just going to leave it outside to freeze. You know I couldn't say no.

Time for some DuoLingo bragging!

This is crazy, but I gave a generous donation to an environmental group to get this stuffed animal. It was signed by William Shatner, but that's not why I wanted it - I just thought it was pretty.

Here's William Shatner's signature.

And now... more blog monsters! Yesterday Travalon had to think of an activity to do with the kids, so he asked them to draw blog monsters.  This first one just looks like Pippi Longstocking, not a monster.

This was the one both Travalon and I liked best. It's so cute!

This is the BW Blog Boog, apparently.

I'm not sure why this kid decided to insult the aesthetics of my blog...

And he got one more today. According to the label, this one is a bog monster. It looks more like an inkblot to me. Maybe it's a Rorschach test. Did I pass the test?

I hope that you enjoyed these additional blog monsters. Feel free to tell us in the comments if you had a favorite. Travalon told the kids this would be a contest, but they seem to have already forgotten about it, so they didn't ask who won. In a sense, they are all winners because they are all featured on my blog. How does it get better than that?

Famous Hat

More Blog Monsters

 

We have more blog monsters! A couple of tween girls drew these. I really like this colorful one, which is actually a "bloog" monster.

This one looks like a scary pizzacorn.

Speaking of pizza... Behold my entry into the Blog Monster gallery, the Pizzasaurus that I bought at Meep Meepleton's during Street Fest and just painted tonight.

It is a squishy Pizzasaurus so perfect for squeezing whenever blogging gets too stressful.

Today I read an article about the use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of psychiatric problems, and the woman writing the article had a bad trip and was frustrated at how little is known about what causes them. Not long after that she went on a hardcore meditation retreat, and that just messed her up more. She said Buddhist monks have long known that some people have bad experiences with meditation, and that it's considered a high-reward, high-risk activity. She did concede that psychiatrists using ayahuasca and peyote and other things that were traditionally used in religious rituals have divorced them from their ancient spiritual origins, but she said there's nothing to predict who will have a bad trip, such as preexisting psychiatric conditions, family background, etc. I wondered if people having bad trips were upset to experience the Divine and realize there is something more powerful than themselves. I thought of a guy I met years ago who said he hated going into Gothic cathedrals because "it makes me feel so much smaller than God, and I hate that! I like to think of him being my size." Uh, what?? So if he is weirded out by going into a building, imagine how shattered a person might be who goes on this spiritual quest and finds out that they are not the ultimate answer to everything.

At Adoration I pondered this idea, and I thought of myself. I'm not the humblest person (and it would hardly be humble of me to say I am!), but I've always had a healthy respect for the Divine as Other than myself and obviously far more powerful, intelligent, and kind. When God spoke directly to me the other day, I was in a very safe mindset to encounter Divine Greatness, because I was extremely contrite about hurting someone and crying about people feeling unloved. So I was a) thinking I sucked, and b) focused on the needs of others. Maybe it is downright dangerous to try to pursue contact with the Divine when you are not in a good state to do so. A good state might be, for example, right after Confession, when you've just gotten done thinking about how much you suck and you're also extremely grateful for the mercy God has shown you. I hadn't thought about it, partly because most of the people I know also understand God is incomprehensibly greater than they are, but some rando who wants to "see the face of God" and does some drug or meditation to facilitate that might be so deeply shaken by how much greater God is than he is that he just can't get over it. This is probably why in all religious traditions you have to work and pray and get spiritually fit for years before you start messing around with this stuff. Also, I wasn't looking for a direct encounter with God when it happened; yes, I was praying very hard for people who feel unloved to know they are loved, but I wasn't expecting a direct answer. And - this might be the most important part - I didn't just moon around over God talking to me; I went out and did something about what He said to me. That's the part so many of these people who want instant enlightenment are missing - the holy is most present in quotidian existence. To work is to pray.

Famous Hat

The Blog Monster

 

Today everything seemed to be going right at work, and I walked with my neighbor on my breaks. She asked the gardener in the next condo association over to take our photo in front of the garden. Notice that we are both wearing our FitBits.

The gardener commended us for walking so much, and another neighbor called us "the awesome twosome." I will sure miss this neighbor when she moves!

Adoration was another story completely. Once again someone was leaning right over me when there were other pews and even plenty of room in her own pew. Suddenly everyone left and I was alone, so I took Niko out of my purse to show him the chapel and settled in to write about my mystical experience. Just then a guy came in with two kids, a girl of maybe seven and a boy of maybe five, and the boy was totally out of control. I thought he was a bit old to be constantly shouting and jumping around, but maybe he was neurodivergent. I blamed the father more for bringing his kid to a place where he couldn't stay quiet. The dad kept saying, "Are you ready to leave?" and the boy would holler, "No!" but it shouldn't be up to him. Was this some sort of test? I kept shooting them dirty looks, but maybe I should have been more charitable. Still, why would you bring a kid who can't keep quiet to a place that's supposed to be totally silent? Though for all I know the boy was having his own mystical experience as he jumped around in front of the altar. This just goes to show that no matter how close I felt to God last Wednesday, I still have a long, long way to go.

As promised, here the Murano glass rosary I got at the shrine in Champion. It kind of looks leopard-patterned.

Every evening Travalon watches (or, more accurately, sleeps in front of) videos or movies on his computer while I am blogging, then I ask him to proofread my blog. And almost every evening, when I say, "Honey?" he half wakes up and says something that sounds like: "Blaahhgh?" He has a very deep voice like Cookie Monster, and I said he sounded like the Blog Monster. He said he would get the kids at work to draw their depiction of the Blog Monster, and today he got a couple! You know a monster drawn by a five-year-old girl is going to be totes adorbs.

This is what a teenage boy thought a Blog Monster would look like.

Travalon said his own depiction of the Blog Monster would look like the Loch Ness Monster.

Apparently the Blog Monster smokes a pipe and wears a tam-o-shanter, which I guess makes sense if he's Scottish. Or is the Blog Monster even a he? Who's to say it's not a she? All we know for sure is that the Blog Monster's cry is "Blaahhgh?"

Famous Hat

Mystery Blog Location

 

Today I worked from home, and nothing too exciting happened, but I do have some more photos. First is this little stuffed animal we got in Florida and forgot about until suddenly finding it on the dining room table. Isn't it cute?

We got it on St. George's Island. Also, I took a couple of photos of flowers in the neighborhood.

This blog is going kind of nuts. This photo Travalon took with his cellphone of the inside of the castle in Eagle Point Park was in my Photos app, but when I tried to post it, Blogspot couldn't find it until I saved a copy to my Documents folder.

Weirder still, I noticed that on my post from Monday, under "Labels" there is something called "Location" with a bunch of letters and numbers. It appeared to be a hyperlink, so I clicked on it, and it took me to a map of a spot in the middle of the Tasman Sea, right between Australia and New Zealand. I can assure my readers that I have never been anywhere near this spot (though Travalon might have flown over it), and I'm not sure why the blog thought I was there when I was posting photos taken in Iowa and Illinois and was writing from right here in my home in Wisconsin. Is it a secret map showing where treasure is? Maybe it's where that plane that disappeared in March 2014 fell into the ocean. One thing I can tell you is that it is not a spot that has anything to do with where this blog post was created.

Famous Hat

Happy Birthday, Dear Blog!

 

Yesterday this blog turned fourteen, and I celebrated by not posting. Why, you may ask? Because I was busy. In the morning it was beautiful, and Travalon and I talked about going for a boat ride, but we ended up just taking a walk. Then he headed off to visit his mother and his brother (and, most importantly, his brother's new dog), and he also hiked on the Ice Age Trail for our Mammoth Challenge this month. He ended the evening by going to see a cover band doing music by the Highwaymen.

I met Tiffy downtown, and we ate outside at the Globe, then we went to the corn maze and found eight secret punches in about an hour. The picture this year was a boy on a swing, surrounded by birds and butterflied and flowers. They had that "maze within a maze" again this year, with no map and random numbers that you have to add up, but Richard Bonomo had been busy and he was the one who was so good at that part last year, so we just skipped it. When we went to the prize table to claim our maze pens, the guy asked if we had done the secret number part too, and when we said nah, not this year, he seemed genuinely disappointed. I saw a 5 and a -2, so I could have said 3 and been totally wrong. All you get for that is to put your team name on the board - if they gave you a pen for that part too, then I might bother doing it.

We had dinner outside at the Mexican restaurant near my house, and for once I didn't order the shrimp chimichanga; I branched out and ordered the shrimp fajitas. Seemed healthier. We debated about getting tres leches cake for my blog's birthday, but we were too full, since Tiffy also had fajitas. Then we went to an early music concert at Holy Wisdom Monastery featuring Italian Baroque composers. It was so lovely. Afterwards as we walked back to my car, the headlights of another car illuminated a big maple right above it, and Tiffy was shocked at how red it looked. "Is it that red in daylight?" she asked, and I promised that it was every year, and we could come back and see it today. Oh yeah, at intermission they were selling good chocolates in three flavors: caramel, blood orange, and rose. We both got one of each, and they were so good, so that was how I celebrated my blog's birthday. I told the young girls selling the chocolates that my blog was fourteen that day, and they had no idea what I was saying, since blogs are so old-fashioned that nobody in their generation reads or writes one. Then again, they also asked Tiffy if she wanted a regular or senior admission, and since everyone thinks she is aging more gracefully than I am, I can only imagine what they would have asked me if I had gone first! Maybe they would have offered me the "special decrepit" rate. But since she went first, then they must have assumed I was also not as ancient as they actually thought, and they only offered me regular admission.

This morning after Mass Tiffy came with a bunch of us regulars to brunch at Inn on the Park, where service was very slow because there was only one waiter. I think every restaurant is having that issue, and I'm not part of the solution since I'm not moonlighting as a waitress. (Did it once for like five weeks, and that was enough for me!) Then Tiffy, Travalon, Richard Bonomo, and I went to Holy Wisdom Monastery so that Tiffy could see the red maple in daylight. We took a walk around the grounds, going all the way around the pond, then Travalon and I took a boat ride back into the marsh, where all the lotus seed pods looked dried up. There were still some green ones in the channel, so I grabbed one, and the seeds were perfectly ripe. They taste a bit like macadamia nuts. I thought we were too late, since they usually ripen around the solstice, but maybe the ones in the channel are a little pokier. Then I had Irish class for the first time in ages, and so I didn't think it would be good to skip it to watch the Packers. Travalon went to a nearby bar to watch the first half of the game, then he returned just as I was turning the game on after my class had finished, and we watched them beat the Patriots in overtime. (In other football news, the Badgers have sacked their head coach after a disastrous game yesterday that we didn't even bother to tape, since we just had a feeling it would be awful.) Then we watched some episodes of The Office. I introduced Travalon to the show, and he loves it. It may be nearly twenty years old, but it has aged well. It's still absolutely hilarious.

Famous Hat

Teenage Blog

 

Eleven years ago, the town of Stoughton hired someone from Illinois to paint their water tower, and they ended up being renamed Stoughon for a couple of days until the situation was rectified. Back in July, the town of Plover had their water tower repainted, and they were renamed Plvoer, which doesn't even make sense. At least you can pronounce Stoughon, which would sound something like "stow-un," unless you subscribe to the school of thought that Stoughton is pronounced "stuffton," in which case it would be pronounced "stuffon," which is still easily pronounceable. The articles don't say that "Plvoer" was painted by the same brain trusts who painted "Stoughon," but I wouldn't be one bit surprised.

This blog is now a teenager! My very first post was on October 1, 2008. I forgot to celebrate the blog's birthday at the start of the month, so why not now? Happy birthday, blog! Many posts later, it is still just as random, although now and then a theme will seem to appear: it's a blog about birdwatching! No, wait, it's a blog about early music! No, maybe it's a blog about hiking on the Ice Age Trail! My answer to all these questions? "Yes, it is." Since this is also sometimes a blog about astrology, I'd just like to pause and take a moment to note that this blog is a Libra with its moon in Scorpio.

Sorry, I'm too tired to deal with the train movie tonight, but that's something to look forward to tomorrow night! Instead, I will post some photos Travalon took today when he went for a walk on Governor's Island. You may remember photos of it from last year at this time, when it was a riot of autumnal colors. This year it isn't too colorful, but the water is still beautiful.

Travalon said this is the only color he really saw.

And here is a selfie of the man himself!

Wow, I feel like we should have a party to celebrate my blog's birthday. In fact, we should have a spaghetti party where we don't use plates. Now that may sound oddly specific, but I'm just saying that it would get my secret mission for the month completed AND celebrate my blog achieving adolescence. Win-win!

Famous Hat