Dialogue with a Loon

 

This morning Travalon and I set out after he watched Wolverhampton lose to the Toffees. We drove to Rib Mountain and took a vigorous hike on the rocky trail on the top, then we took a short walk on the Bearskin Trail. We got to the church in Manitowish Waters not long before Mass started at 5:30, and afterwards they had set up rows of very aesthetically pleasing but slightly stale snacks as we left church. Travalon took popcorn, and I took a cup with fruit, cheese, and pretzels, but I was intrigued by the cups with what looked like it would top a Bloody Mary: pickle, sausage, cheese, and cherry tomatoes. It was that last part that made me go for the other kind of cup. 

We got to our cabin (Bear Spot), the same one we stayed in last year, and unpacked, then we went to Shillelagh Irish Pub. It had burned down a couple of years ago, the day after St. Patrick's Day, and last year it was an all outdoor affair with a food truck, but they have rebuilt. They still have the amazing Guinness and (don't read this part, Jilly Moose) mushroom soup, and Travalon also had a shepherd's pie while I had half of a fancy grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and grilled onions. (Guess what I'll be having for breakfast?) There was a stage that said live entertainment from 6-9, but nothing was going on until some school-aged girls were singing and dancing and playing with hula hoops. I thought how they will remember this night as magical, and I felt all warm and fuzzy about it until one of them ran past me and whacked me with her hula hoop. That's kids for you - they make you feel all fond of them until they do something totally stupid.

When we got back to the cabin, we walked down to the beach and sat on chaise lounges, gazing up at the stars. We saw some satellites and some meteorites and what seemed to be some northern lights activity, although it was hard to tell with the bright half moon. There was a band in the distance loudly playing all sorts of random things, from Earth, Wind and Fire to Journey, and a loon called from somewhere across the lake. The band played a Styx song, "Renegade," so we talked about Good Styx (Tommy Shaw songs) vs. Evil Styx (Dennis DeYoung songs.) I said Chicago had the same thing, although Peter Cetera isn't so much evil as insipid, and I started singing, "Ooh-ooh-ooh," the way Peter Cetera does in every song he writes. To our surprise, the loon called back, so we started singing things like "Indian Love Song," and for a little bit we had quite a dialogue going with the loon, but eventually it tired of responding to us. Maybe it was more of a "trialogue," but the loon responded more to my voice than Travalon's, probably because mine is so much higher pitched. It made me so happy - I come to the North Woods partly to see and hear loons. Maybe tomorrow we can take out one of the watercraft here, and if we're really lucky, we might see the loon swimming alongside us. Stay tuned!

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Cathopalian Mass and the Scattering

 

Yesterday Travalon and I had big dreams of going to Irish Fest before the Cathopalian Mass at St. Josephat's, but while I had a free ticket, he could only have gotten in free with some canned goods if we had arrived before eleven, and ain't no way that was happening. I had a pounding headache and felt a bit nauseated, but we walked on Governor's Island, and that helped. By the time we went to Cecil Markovitch's place. I felt fine. There were too many people to fit in one car, so Travalon drove, and the Dairyman's Daughter came in our car. We got there before the other car, so we went to the gift shop, and I (shocker!) bought a rosary bracelet. Then we went up to the church, which is so beautiful.

The closing hymn was so gorgeous.

I thought these Masses were supposed to be quarterly, but we went to one late in January and then hadn't heard anything since. I asked Cecil if he had heard anything, but he hadn't either. (We both signed up for their email list.) Then finally they emailed about this Mass on Sunday. It was much better attended than the one in January. Travalon loves it because it's midafternoon, so we can have a relaxed morning.

After that the whole gang, plus some seminarian Cecil knows, went to Three Brothers Serbian Restaurant, where Tiffy met us. She and I had the spinach and cheese borek, which you can get three meals out of. Travalon had the chicken paprikash, which he said was almost as good as his Hungarian grandmother's recipe. When we got done with dinner, there was just time for Travalon and me to head over to Irish Fest to catch the Scattering, the big concert at the end with all the musicians together on stage.

People were leaving Irish Fest when we arrived, so we found an excellent free parking spot. I had my free ticket to get in, but at that hour they just let you in. I mentioned that my Irish teacher Famie would probably be there... and then she was four rows ahead of us! There were some empty seats right behind her, so we moved up to join her, one of her beginner students, and another girl who has been on the online conversation circle. The giant session played, and dancers danced, and there were songs for us to sing along to. It lasted about an hour and was so much fun. As we were leaving, we ran into an old coworker of mine from the Press who has a very Irish name and has always been into Irish everything. She was saying she no longer goes to the Summer School because in years past they had culture and history classes, but now everything is language or music, and she doesn't do music. She did mention the singing classes, and I said, "They still do those." I am thinking I should take one next year.

I didn't sleep at all well last night, and this morning as I pondered going into the office, I threw up twice, so I gave up and worked from home. It was not an exciting day for me, but Travalon didn't have to work, and he went fishing at Tenney Park and caught six fish. (He didn't keep any of them.) Here are four of them.

Probably because it was overcast all day and rained off and on. I never felt that much better and ended up skipping the big jam session at the music club. Oddly, I did have a very productive day at work. Here's hoping tomorrow I feel a little better.

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Walking Around the Ponds

 

This morning there was a huge thunderstorm right at the time we were going to leave for Mass, so we didn't go. I'm terrified of lightning, and Travalon is terrified of the road flooding and causing his car to need expensive repairs again, like what happened last summer. About an hour later the rain died down, so we met Tiffy for brunch at the Venezuelan restaurant. We told her to be careful going home, since there was bad flooding in Milwaukee last night. True story: Travalon was thinking of going to see Lynyrd Skynyrd at the State Fair last night, but he decided the ticket prices were too high when there were no original members, so we listened to classical guitars and lutes at a coffee house. This morning we found out the State Fair was shut down and the concert was canceled, so he totally made the right call.

The weather continued to improve, so we met Jilly Moose for a walk around Stricker Pond. We saw a family of sandhill cranes.

We saw a lone mallard.

And we saw a green heron in a tree.

We also met lots of friendly dogs. We then walked around Tiedemann's Pond, which had just as many friendly dogs, no interesting birds that we could see, but way more wildflowers. This is obedience plant.

This is common rue.

I took both of those with my phone. Travalon took some photos of hibiscus and lotus blossoms with his good camera.

He also took a photo of this "blossom" on the ground. I assume it fell off of some little girl's jewelry.

There was a creek we didn't remember seeing before.

By then we had just enough time to get to the big A-frame church on that side of town.

The music was better than at the parish we usually go to, but there isn't the same sense of joy. I wonder why that is? It was a lovely Mass, and the young priest chanted a lot of it, but the vibe is definitely that people are there out of a sense of duty. The people at our church seem happy to be there.

So that was our day. I skipped band practice, since they were practicing for a gig I can't attend next week, so I'll probably hear about that. Our leader thinks I go to the Irish sessions too often and that we should practice more often as a band rather than going to the sessions, but I feel like the sessions make us better musicians. And believe me, we all could use that!

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Not Even a Beer Pop at the Wedding

 

OK, so I am blogging twice in one day because we have enough time this evening, although it was a challenge to get on the WiFi here for me. Travalon had no problem, but my computer kept saying it was encountering an error, and even my hotspot wasn't working... until suddenly it was, so now you will be blessed with a second blog post in one day.

After I blogged this morning, we hit the road and had lunch at a Jimmy John's in Waupun. We drove until getting to Sheboygan Falls, where we took a walk at Riverside Park. We still had a little time before Travalon's high school buddy's daughter's wedding, so we went to find the actual falls. Here they are!

The wedding was at a Lutheran church, and it wasn't part of a service, like the Lutheran weddings I remember going to before, or all the Catholic weddings I've attended. I hadn't counted on it being so short, so I said to Travalon that there was a 4 pm Mass three minutes away, and he thought that sounded like a great idea. However, there was a visiting priest from Myanmar who spent the homily time droning on about the political situation there, and while I'm very sympathetic, we are not currently in such a fabulous political situation ourselves. (Do we even still have a democracy? I guess we'll find out the next time we're supposed to have elections.) Also, Saturday evening Masses are usually short, but because of the guest priest, this one was running long, and when we left, the two bathrooms were both full. I thought, no problem, I'll go downstairs... and they had locked the downstairs!! What?? What a very strange church.

It was all good, because when we got to the reception at a converted loft in Sheboygan, it was still cocktail hour. We saw another high school buddy of Travalon's and his family, who had sat right in front of us at the wedding, and they told us we should take a Polaroid photo of ourselves to put in a scrapbook for the bride and groom. I took a photo of them, then they took a photo of us, and I took a photo of the photo.

This isn't a great photo, but Polaroids never are - the fun is watching the photo develop. As you can see, we dressed all Hawaiian. Nobody else did, but you know what? Who cares? We found our table, and it was right by the DJ, who was blasting music and then adjusted his speaker so it was blasting right at us. Since all of us at our table were of a certain vintage (and I was by far the newest vintage), it seemed odd to put us right by the loud music that the kids love. At least we were near the windows and right in front of the bridal party table, as if we were VIPs. I was plugging my ears, so a guy at our table said he could go to his car and get me some earplugs. I assumed he meant he had a bag of cheap earplugs, but he came back with a really fancy pair and washed them off for me. They were AMAZING: I could hear people talking, but the music seemed really faint. I ended up talking to the woman next to me a lot (her husband was an old friend of the bride's father, Travalon's buddy), and she said she liked every kind of music except country. I said me too, except old country like Johnny Cash and stuff like that, and she concurred. She said, "I don't know why," so I said, "I do - because I like my music minor key and syncopated, and country music is almost always major key with a straight beat," and she thought about that and said it makes sense, that's probably why she feels the same way. 

Travalon and I both had the baked cod for dinner, which had an amazing sauce on it but twice as much potato and half as much vegetal matter as I would have liked. One woman at our table was a vegan, and she had ordered the vegetarian lasagna, but it had cheese on it, so she couldn't eat any dinner. She and her husband (another old friend of the bride's father) had another party to go to anyway, so they didn't stay long. I hope there was something there for her to eat... We bid them adieu, and then ten minutes later I remembered her husband was the one who had lent me the earplugs, and I have no idea who he is. Guess they're my earplugs now. I assume he forgot, but honestly he may not want them back after I've used them, and he did mention that he never used them because he had an even better (!) pair he always used.

The woman next to me and I were confounded by the first dance song, the groom and his mother dance song, and the bride and her father dance song, which were all slow, sappy country songs we neither knew nor liked. However, partway through that last one, the DJ suddenly switched to "Low Rider" by War, and while it's not my very favorite song by War (that would be "Cisco Kid"), any War is excellent funk music, so the whole crowd cheered. The DJ announced the floor was now open for dancing, so Travalon (who has caught my cold and had been suffering since during Mass), suddenly felt energized enough to dance. The DJ played some Whitney Houston, then one of my favorite songs of all time, "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire (why no Oxford comma??), and a couple of ABBA songs, and we were amazed to see all these young kids who loved and sang along with these old songs from our youth. One young guy was an amazing dancer - he moved like he had no bones! But after the obligatory "All the married couples get on the dance floor! Now sit down if you've been married less than X years" dance, to "Falling in Love with You" by Elvis (which was weirdly the processional at the wedding), the music changed back to country - peppier country, that you could dance to, but still not my jam at all. Travalon was feeling worse, so we decided to call it a night. And one odd touch was that there was no cake, just Culver's frozen custard, several flavors that were unlabeled so I took reliable old chocolate. Travalon had some swirly thing with graham cracker crumbs in it.

Poor Travalon is really ailing now - he seems to be even sicker than I was on Thursday - but he did help me come up with a title for this blog post. Because he was loaded up with cold medication, he didn't indulge in any of the free beer, soda, or wine available at the bar. (Neither did I, but that was more for the sake of calories.) He remembered a story I told when, years ago, Tiffy and I were visiting our old college friend at her parents' house in Sheboygan, and her father, who spoke Sheboyganese, asked us, "You girls want a beer pop?" It took Tiffy and me a few moments to decipher that he was asking if we wanted a beer or a soda, not a beer-flavored soda. In Sheboygan for some reason they eschew conjunctions - at Mass I once heard a priest say, "The body blood of Christ." No idea why. And they have such a heavy accent that I struggle to understand them, like once at a previous job someone called to have me mail him something, and he said he lived on "Tent Street." I asked him to spell it, to be sure, and he said, "Tent! It's spelled Tent!" so I tried to verify: "T-E-N-T?" and he got very angry and hollered, "No! Tent! Eight! Nynt! Tent!" True story.

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Olbrich Gardens and the Arboretum

 

Today I met Anna Banana II for brunch at Crema Cafe, then we went to Immaculate Heart, which was open this time. The rosary display was gone, but we were able to go into the sanctuary. There is a kind of display on the wall out in the hall about the green scapular, like a setup in a high school for the basketball team that won the state championship in 1996, and I had thought maybe that was the Shrine to the Green Scapular, but we saw the actual shrine in the sanctuary.

Then we went to Olbrich and walked around outside, where we ran into a grad student from my department and her mom. She was wearing her doctoral robe, but she isn't getting her doctorate until the fall. Her mom doesn't really speak English, so we just smiled at each other. Here is a pretty flower that was near the bridge to the Thai pavilion. 

We went into the conservatory and saw lots of blooming orchids, including this interesting one called Gallo Gallo. Isn't that Spanish for Rooster Rooster?

I had to go home and join a meeting for an hour, then Anna Banana II picked me up, and we went to the Arboretum and sniffed just about every blooming crabapple tree and lilac bush. October may be a visually beautiful month with good weather, but May wins because it doesn't just look beautiful, it smells beautiful. This interesting tree didn't have a scent, but I thought the flowers were so pretty. 

It is called a pink mountain silver bell tree, which is a colorful enough name, but I like to think of it this way: Pink Mountain silver bell tree, so I can wonder where Pink Mountain is and long to visit.

We met OK Cap for dinner at the Great Dane, then Anna Banana II went with some other Night Prayer folks to a praise meeting, and I waited on a lovely porch for Travalon to pick me up. I got three decades of the rosary prayed as I waited, so maybe tonight in bed I can finish the other two, because of course it got late. I'll try to post the photos from Travalon's good camera tomorrow.

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Up at the Hands Off Protest

 

Yesterday morning I was a bit slow getting going, so I didn't get to the old time jam at the music club until ten when it started at nine. However, the people there (and I was by far the youngest, which is saying something) didn't seem worked up about it, and I must have acquitted myself well because they put me on lists for several other jams. I played chords on some songs and melody on some others, as the mood moved me and whatever seemed easier. Song in G major? Chords! A tune I know but it's modal so the chords are not a simple 1-4-5? Melody!

Meanwhile, Travalon was watching Wolverhampton, and they won! And so did Crystal Palace! When I got home, the two of us headed downtown for the big protest. We saw a lot of great signs up at the Capitol.

Travalon got some great photos too, but I haven't had a chance to airdrop his photos onto Boethius my computer, so watch for those soon. I acquired a button.

Save Ukraine! Then we began to march down State Street, chanting things like, "This is what democracy looks like!" and, "Hands off!" Here are more signs we saw along the way.

This isn't so much a sign as a papier-mache mask of a hand giving the middle finger.

I thought I'd know more people in the crowd, and apparently people I knew were there - my Irish teacher canceled class to be there - but as we were marching down State Street, a woman I know from early music came and marched alongside us. We went down to Library Mall, where there would be more speeches, but since we hadn't been able to hear the speeches up at the Capitol, and since we had already been at this protest for a good chunk of the afternoon, we headed back up State Street. We ran into my Union buddy who looks like a leprechaun, but I would have been stunned if he hadn't been at this. We did pop into a newish place on State Street where all the drinks and bakery items are infused with THC, although you can get them non-infused, or you can choose your level of infusion. Since he was driving, Travalon got a non-infused pistachio latte, and I got a matcha drink with the lowest level of infusion. 

Our next stop was Patrick Marsh, where we saw several types of birds, and Travalon took photos, but it's gotten too late to download them from his camera, so watch for those tomorrow. We also went to Cherokee Marsh to see the pelicans by the nameless island.

I had gotten two free vouchers at work for tickets to whatever movie we chose at the Wisconsin Film Festival, so we had read through the program and decided on one last night called 40 Acres. It was a really good, but very intense, Canadian film about a family of color (mom is black, dad is First Nation) living in a post-apocalyptic world, trying to protect their land from evil (and always white) men who want to kill them to eat them. However, the teenage son is a normal teenager and wants to find a girl, so complications ensue. I suppose the story was a metaphor for trying to survive as a minority, but it also just worked as an adventure story. The mom was so tough, and everyone cheered when she survived in the end. Travalon and I both gave this movie five stars. 

It was very late by the time we got home from the movie, so I didn't blog last night. This morning we went to Mass at our usual time of 10:30, but it was a special Mass at our old church. The place was packed, and I loved seeing that the congregation wasn't lily-white. Since the organ was destroyed in the fire, they used an electronic piano, and the choir wasn't nearly as good as our choir had been... not that ours was fantastic, but this one had a guy who was always a beat behind everyone else. Cecil Markovitch goes to the usual Mass at St. James where this choir sings, and he said that guy is always like that. It would drive me bazonkers to have to listen to that every week!

After Mass, Travalon and I joined Cecil Markovitch, the Single B-Boy, and Richard Bonomo for brunch at a Turkish restaurant on Monroe Street. Wow, was that good! Cecil, the B-Boy, and I all ordered the Turkish breakfast, and at one point they brought the B-Boy a borek, but Cecil and I hadn't gotten one twenty minutes later, so we all split the one. Cecil and I agreed that the borek, which is spinach and feta in phyllo dough, is the whole reason we ordered the Turkish breakfast. But then suddenly they brought us three boreks! And they gave us free dessert and free refills on the Turkish coffee, and then they didn't even charge us for the coffee! Also, the sauces we got with our soft bread were amazing, especially the tahini and the rose-infused honey. We also got a plate of pickles, olives, and cheese (and tomatoes that I gave to Rich), and an omelette made with spicy sausage. Everything was so good!

Travalon and I stopped by the Arboretum to see if the magnolias were blooming, but they are just starting to bud, so we went to Walking Iron in Mazomanie to see if the pasque flowers were blooming. They usually bloom around this time of year, so we found the prairie with the sign advertising them, but at first we didn't see anything. Then we walked a little further and saw lots of them. I took some photos with my phone.

Travalon took photos with his good camera, so look for better photos soon. I love these little lavender flowers that arrive in early spring. 

On the way back we went to Shovelers Sink, since I figured from that name that northern shovelers would be there. We didn't see any, but we did see red-breasted mergansers and ring-necked ducks and coots and lots of gulls. Photos soon.

Today I could have gone to an Irish session from 1-3 in Fitchburg, and another one 5-7 at the music club, but I missed the first one due to our leisurely brunch, and then we didn't get back in time for the second one. I didn't even make it to band practice, because suddenly I didn't feel so well. Nothing serious, just more of the joys of perimenopause. Does it ever end, or does it just go on forever?

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Sunday Afternoon Antiquing

 

This morning Travalon watched Crystal Palace, and they beat Manchester United 2-0! Wow! As you may remember, that is the same score the Wolves won by yesterday. Jerry and Roy Jr. rejoiced.

When we go to Mass at the church on the far east side, we like to sit on chairs in the back, and then they even bring you communion! Only today did it occur to me that these chairs are for the elderly, but there are always empty ones, so it's not like we're stealing a spot from someone who needs it more. Also, with my bad knees, I can't really kneel right now so maybe it's appropriate to sit there since I wouldn't be able to kneel in a pew anyway. Still, I feel too young to have to sit in the "handicapped seats." When I told Tiffy about this as we had brunch with her after Mass, she said, "The sad thing is, probably nobody would say anything to you, since you're not twenty-something and sitting in those seats. We are getting old." But mostly she and Travalon reminisced about former restaurants in the Milwaukee area.

After Tiffy headed home, Travalon and I went for a walk at Cherokee Marsh. We saw a sign that we had just missed an organized walk, where apparently they looked at "drays," or as Travalon calls them, "The Muskrat Lodge, Resort, and Conference Center." They did have snacks and drinks on a table.

We took a walk and saw lots of geese but no swans, although we did see a dramatic moment when a young bald eagle flew overhead, and the geese all started honking frantically, and then a half dozen or so actually chased the eagle away. We ran into the group returning, and they said to help ourselves to hot cocoa, and we also ran into a couple who told us there are swans in some area by Lone Rock and a snowy owl in New Glarus. We went to the table and indulged in some hot cocoa and peanut M&Ms, and we discussed going to see the eagle nest at Pheasant Branch, but we decided to go antiquing instead.

At the antique shop on Cottage Grove Road, Travalon said there is a whole section of stuffies. We got a couple of them: a different Irish bear than the one I have in three sizes, and a Holiday bear.

Travalon got a couple of signs, of the Hamms Bear and the Swedish Chef.

Then we went to the antiques shop near East Towne Mall, and Travalon got a Beetle Bailey comic book.

I found this unusual rosary that looked really old.

When we got home, I googled "rosary with Lorraine cross and rose quartz beads," and I found this exact rosary on Etsy being sold for ten times what I paid for it. Which makes sense, since a rosary made of brass and quartz seems like it should be worth way more than $15. Apparently it isn't antique, the woman just used antique molds to make the crucifix, medal, and centerpiece. It's a St. Joan of Arc rosary, but there was no explanation for the extra starting beads. I did find they work for kicking off a Divine Mery Chaplet, since you start with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Apostles' Creed, and there are three beads. 

Does anybody really know what time it is? Yes, Chicago - it's time for some DuoLingo bragging!

When I told Tiffy that I'm doing the Math course, she wondered what I was learning, and I said, "Right now, negative numbers, fractions, and decimals." She asked if I hadn't learned all that in school, and I said, "I did, but I'm hoping eventually this will teach me calculus," since I took both choir and orchestra senior year of high school instead of calculus, and I didn't need any math at university for my majors. Though it would probably be more efficient to just buy a calculus textbook.

Tonight at band practice our sound didn't really coalesce. I don't know if it was missed chords on the guitar, strange harmonies on the violin, someone inserting an extra measure, or probably all of the above. I got there a little late, and I apparently missed a discussion about the unelected illegal alien taking over the treasury, so I can see how that would get people worked up. It is all very strange, and people are commenting that liberals aren't protesting much, but I think we're all sort of wondering if this country is even worth saving, considering that a majority of people voted for this. Also, I think we're wondering if these charter members of the Dunning-Kruger Club will just destroy themselves with their own idiocy, and then we can clean up the mess at that point. Hopefully it's not too big a mess...

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