Breaking Rules I Don't Know Exist

 

I certainly didn't expect Rodgers to endure a season-ending injury last night. As someone said online, the Jets paid him $75 million to run around with a flag before the game. As someone else said, Jets = Just Endure The Suffering. But hey, they won without him. Now he has plenty of time to take more ayahuasca, do another darkness retreat, and talk about what he learned with Joe Rogan. Or, as someone else said online, if he's just going to keep copying Favre, he can recover enough to go play for the Vikings next season.

Today I was feeling very salty, especially towards an accountant who had told me some time ago that I could put some charges on a particular grant and then told me today to transfer them off, but also toward the people who are not giving final approval to expense reports after I approve them in anything like a timely manner. Then as I was driving to adoration, on a one-way road, an ambulance came up behind me. I was in the left lane because I was going to turn left soon, so I pulled over into a parking spot on the left side of the road. There was no other traffic around me, and the ambulance had both the left and right lanes clear to go through, but he honked at me really aggressively and kept honking at me as he passed by me. Was he mad that I didn't pull over to the right? But I would have had to cut in front of him to do that. I was puzzled by what rule I'd broken, and when I asked people at Night Prayer, they had never heard that you must pull over to the right. They concluded the guy was just in a bad mood. I hate driving as it is, and episodes like this don't make me like it any better.

Tiffy is having a very crazy week at work, so she asked me to randomly text her "beandzdzdz." Yesterday I texted: "Breathe. Relax. Eat beandzdzdz." Today I texted: "I traded my mom's cow for some magic beandzdzdz. Am I the A$$hole?" We'll see what I come up with tomorrow.

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Jordan Love's First Regular Season Game

 

Today Travalon and I went to Oconomowoc to see his mother and two oldest brothers. The oldest one sails a lot, and he said what I should do is volunteer to be a crew member on a racing team, since I know a little about sailing, and then I'd get to be on a boat with the spinnaker up. His mother taught us how to say "I love you" in Croatian. Then we went to Mass at Holy Hill, which was very lovely, and of course afterwards I bought a rosary in the gift shop. I wasn't going to, but then I thought, "If they have a sea foam green one..." Which they didn't, but they had a hunter green one with Our Lady of Guadalupe medals for the Our Father beads that somehow really spoke to me. The cafe there was open, so we had a simple, late lunch and then headed back to Madison.

We got home just after the Packer game started, so we listened to the first few minutes in the car. I really wanted Jordan Love to have a good game for his first regular season game. The first half was brutal, and the Pack were up, but only by a point at halftime. We took a vigorous walk on Governor's Island, since we hadn't had much exercise all day, and in that time the Packers managed to get two touchdowns. I understand Aaron Jones got both of them. We taped the game, so I can go back and watch them. (Travalon already did.) Then as we watched, Quay Walker got a beautiful interception and ran it way down the field for a pick six. Also, their kicker got another field goal that was over 50 yards. Wait, maybe that was just before halftime, so then they were up 10-6. Anyway, they ended up beating the Bears 38-20. In Soldiers Field. As the Packers announcer, Wayne Larivee, said, "Aaron Rodgers still owns the Bears, but he seems to have subletted them to Jordan Love." A fantastic win!!

On the way to band practice, I ran into some road blockages because of the Ironman Triathlon, so I called Hardingfele to say I'd be late. She wasn't even bothering to go to band practice, so I played melody on my mandolin, since there was only one fiddle there. We practiced the Ukrainian music from our last gig, then we practiced klezmer music, and then we did rags, but those are hard so we were struggling with them late in the practice. We should have done them right away. On the way home I was exhausted... and then I kept running into road blockages because of the triathlon. The French apparently invented triathlons, but they also called them "the race of those sick in the head." Sounds about right.

Here are a couple of photos from yesterday. This gourd at the Farmers' Market looked like a green swan.

This is Tiffy's chocolate mousse. She blew the candle out before I could take the photo.

And it's always a good time for Duolingo bragging!

Sorry, no photo of the rosary yet. I will try to take a photo of it, and the other green one I got a few weeks back at the Sauk antiques shop, soon. Maybe tomorrow?

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Fish Fry with Jilly Moose

 

Today I had to go to the DMV to get a new license, and after all that waiting in line, I didn't even get a new license! I got a paper receipt to use as one until the new one arrives in the mail in two to four weeks. Of course, I have only myself to blame for not noticing that my previous license had expired. They charged me $5 extra because it was expired. I'll have to remember in late 2030 to go get a new one before it expires at the start of 2031 - better get that on my calendar now.

It was a quiet day. I walked with my neighbor, and she took this photo of roses in our neighborhood.

The big excitement was that we almost ran right into the crane family with two colts while out walking. They were on the other side of a big pickup truck, so we didn't notice them until we almost collided with them. One of them made a warning sound, and we looked up, saw them, and quickly moved to the other side of the street. Since they know who we are, they are polite to us and warn us. I'm not interested in messing with the cranes, so I heed their warnings.

In the evening Jilly Moose came over right before Travalon got home, then we all went to Brothers 3. They said there was a twenty minute wait for a table, so we sat at the bar for well over half an hour before they got us a seat outside. Travalon and I had a cup of seafood soup, since our waitress told us the kitchen was so backed up, and then later they comped us the soup because we had such a long wait. It was lovely sitting outside, and I heard a song I'd never heard before, "Apollo" by St. Paul and the Broken Bones, that I will add to my playlist. What are all these great songs I keep hearing at bars that never get played on the radio? I need to get out more because otherwise I will never hear them!

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Squeaky's Back!

 

I meant to get our hummingbird feeder up last Thursday, and then Friday morning I saw Squeaky the Hummingbird flying around, looking for it. At least she didn't sit on the railing and glare at me like last year. I put it up, and she makes these squeaky sounds when she drinks out of it. To our human ears, it sounds very happy and cute, like she's saying, "I LOVE nectar!" But really, knowing her bossy personality (I've seen her chase away another hummingbird and even a wasp), I'm wondering if she's really saying, "Back off, beeyotches - it's all MINE!" We just think little things are cute, even if to other small things they are total Karens. According to scientists, elephants have the same reaction to us - they think humans are TOTES ADORBS. But in my case, I'm only partly adorbs.

Yesterday and today I was on campus because I had to participate in interviews. They were over the lunch hour, which bummed me out, but then I got an email: "Choose your lunch." Whoa, free lunch?!? So I did, and yesterday I got there way early because I'm not quite as slow as I think, and there was my lunch so I ate half of it before the others got there. (It was so big that I had to take the other half with me, but everyone else ate their whole lunch, and they're all thinner! What???) Today I got there early again, and I had chosen an Italian sandwich, but there were no Italian sandwiches, there were only ham sandwiches and tofu sandwiches. Since half the sandwiches were tofu but I doubted that half of us were vegetarians, judging by our lunches yesterday, I took one for the team and took a tofu sandwich. It wasn't that good. I do like participating in the interview process because it makes me feel kind of important, like I'm representing all the hourly employees with my presence, asking questions, and people care about my opinions. Plus, FREE LUNCH.

I love how the university landscapers plant trees and shrubs that flower in succession. First the magnolias, then the crabapples, then the lilacs, then the honey locusts, and now the Japanese lilac trees. They all smell so good! Right now should also be prime time for the tulip trees, which don't have a scent that I have noticed. Yesterday when I went to pick up my complimentary Forward tickets, I stopped to see the tulip trees by the math building, and they were covered in blossoms, but a lot were past their prime.

Is this because of the drought we're having? 

Time for some DuoLingo bragging!

The big excitement today was that, as I was going home, there was a lot of traffic around Warner Park for the Mallards game. Some pedestrians crossed the road in front of me, including a big black dog, then I turned the corner... and there was a cop pulling me over. I had no idea why, and he asked if I'd seen the pedestrian in the crosswalk. I said I'd seen a bunch of them, but he claims there was some other one in the crosswalk but that I just drove by them. He said this guy was wearing a red shirt and an orange backpack, so he sounds hard to miss, but I don't remember seeing anyone like that. The cop just gave me a warning, but he did say I was driving around with a license that expired on my last birthday. I was shocked: "Don't they send you a reminder?" and he said they probably did. So now I have to get a new license ASAP. At least the cop was nice to me. I haven't been pulled over in years, but the last one was a jerk. He was the only one who ever gave me a ticket. Hopefully it is many years before I next get pulled over!

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Blood Pressure Shenanigans

 

Back when I worked at the hospital, they used to have blood drives on site all the time, so I donated regularly. At least half the time they didn't want my blood due to anemia, so when I no longer worked at the hospital and had to actually travel somewhere to give blood, I kind of stopped doing it. It's a real pain to take time off of work and travel halfway across town just to be rejected. Lately the Red Cross has been reminding me that they really need my Type O+ blood, so I tried a few weeks ago. My iron was amazingly high, like it's never been before, but then they saw rashes on the insides of my elbows that I hadn't even noticed, probably from gardening in the heat, and so they rejected me. They said technically I could try the next day, but wait until the rashes cleared up.

Now the rashes are gone, so I went in yesterday. My iron levels were still really good, but they couldn't get my blood pressure. Finally on like the fourth try they said it was 140/100, but that it was so high from them poking at me so much. They waited ten minutes and then it was 150/110, but they said not to worry about it, it was from them poking at me. Here's the thing: I have a blood pressure cuff at home, and it used to give me believable readings, but lately it had been telling me things like 150/110, so I just figured it no longer worked right, being a teenager at this point. But... what if my blood pressure really was 150/110?? So I emailed the doctor, and she said come in right away, so today I went in, with my own cuff, and first the nurse took my blood pressure (which was fine), and then she had me take it with my cuff (which was like 140/95). So my cuff is kaput, and they recommended getting a better kind if I wanted to check at home. Who knows what happened at the Red Cross? The traffic was horrible getting there, but then it was horrible getting to the doctor's office today too. Maybe I need to quit driving if I want to have a healthy blood pressure.

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Keepin' It Minor Key

 

I didn't go to the Killer Building today. My boss had made it sound like she wanted me to go every week, but then she didn't bring it up again this week, and I wasn't about to. They have removed the deadly falling concrete slabs from the third and fourth floors, but not from the nineteenth floor. As my coworker said, "Now we don't have to worry about them falling from twenty feet above, just from one hundred feet above." We can't figure out why those slabs aren't considered a problem...

The only thing about not going onto campus was that I had to drive to band practice instead of walking there, which was a lot less relaxing. The main drag I have to use to get there is under construction and down to one lane, and now there is a lot more traffic. It's practically back to regular rush hour. Last week the signs said the right lane was closed ahead, but in fact it was the left lane. At least they had the signage correct today... But once I'm at band practice, it's so wonderful to be outside, except when Hardingfele is telling me in the middle of a song that there's a bee on me. (Fortunately it just flew away without stinging me.) I had agitated last week for adding a cumbia called "Elizabeta" and some klezmer songs back into our set list, since the audience likes them. I think that, because I have the most unusual instrument (and maybe the friendliest demeanor...?), people come talk to me after gigs, and so I hear which songs they like. We do one klezmer song called "Shah, der Rebbe Tanz," or something close to that, which I understand is Yiddish for "Shut up, the rabbi's dancing," and it starts slowly and gets faster and faster. People LOVE that one! Okay, so I'll admit that the cumbia and the klezmer pieces are minor key so I prefer them. It's a weird thing I've noticed that the minor-key songs seem to creep out of our set lists until I say something, and then they get put back in for a while, until they disappear again. Am I the only one in the band who likes minor-key music?? But the audience must too, because when people say which songs they like, it's the minor-key Irish jigs, and the klezmer, and the Finnish waltz "Metsakukkia." It's never the relentlessly major-key Norwegian waltzes. And they REALLY like "Ashoken Farewell," which is modal. I like modal music too. I'll just have to keep fighting for those songs to stay in our set lists. 

By the way, our band is playing for Make Music Madison on June 21st, which is a Monday. I think it's at some awkward time like 5:00, before people are home from work, and we're just playing in the driveway of my bandmate's house, where we always practice, but if anyone is interested, I can get you more details like the exact time and the address.

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Speeding Ticket

Friday around noon I was driving down the Beltline when suddenly a state trooper pulled up behind me with flashing lights. When I pulled over, he asked me why he had pulled me over, and I said I wasn’t sure. After all, if it were for speeding, there were plenty of people going a lot faster than I was. He asked to see my license and my proof of insurance, and then he gave me my first-ever speeding ticket. Apparently he thought I wouldn’t be insured, because he noted with great disappointment that if I hadn’t had insurance, he could have written me another big ticket. That made me wonder if he had profiled me, since Erin Caitlyn O’Honda is getting pretty old and beat up. Maybe this state trooper thinks that anyone driving a hooptie must be uninsured.

I was very bummed about my first moving violation ever, but Travalon and his nephew (who wants me to refer to him as the 42nd Doctor) said it’s no big deal – you just go to traffic court and they will knock a few points off and reduce your fine just for showing up. They said you usually get fined three points for speeding, but I got fined four points, meaning I’m a third of the way to losing my license. Tiffy said she had tried going to traffic court with less success. Of course the date they scheduled me for traffic court is right in the middle of my honeymoon, so I called to see if they could reschedule it. They told me it’s too early to reschedule it, my ticket isn’t even in the system yet, but I could email them to reschedule it. So I emailed them and got an email acknowledging receipt of my email. Whether I can get a court date while I’m in the country is still an open question.

I tried to look on the bright side: after almost twenty years of driving, only getting one ticket isn’t so bad. Then several friends told me they have never gotten tickets, including one who actually got a letter from the Department of Transportation that people were complaining about her driving. If she has thus far eluded a moving violation, how did I succumb? From now on, you will easily be able to spot me on the Beltline – I’ll be the only one actually going 55 miles per hour.

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Vegetarian Feast

Saturday Catzooks and her boyfriend wanted to make a vegetarian feast at Richard Bonomo’s house, so of course Rich went and got a roast for the meat eaters after taking me on a remedial hike at Pheasant Branch. (I say “remedial” because I have gotten sadly out of shape.) This was a potluck feast, so Kathbert made bread and Jilly Moose made her own version of trifle with strawberries and raspberries. Cecil Markovitch brought wine and a delicious cucumber dip. I, however, was lame and just brought crazy soda from the Mexican grocery store near Rich’s house. Catzooks outdid herself with a curry cauliflower dish, roasted tomatoes, two kinds of cheese, pomegranate juice, hummus, and apple-peach wine, plus several more “C” vegetables (celery, carrots) and pita bread. Everything was so tasty! Catzooks wants to have another vegetarian meal at a time when more actual vegetarians can make it, like Mr. Luxuli. As it was, only the men at this dinner party availed themselves of the meat. I think this must have something to do with the fact that men evolved to be hunters and women evolved to be gatherers, because I’ve seen this pattern before, like when we order pizza. Women always want veggie toppings and most men (though of course not Mr. Luxuli) want meat, meat, meat.

After dinner Catzooks’ boyfriend showed me a most amazing video on YouTube, a compilation from Russian dashboard cameras. Dashcams are all the rage in Russia, where people want to prove someone else was at fault in an accident, and you can find these compilations all over YouTube. The most amazing one was probably where someone hit a pedestrian, then she got up and got into the car. Who gets into a stranger’s car even if he hasn’t just hit you? Watching these videos, we wonder if Russia has any actual traffic rules. There don’t seem to be any lanes in the roads, and people are always driving in ways that would make no sense in the US, like right into oncoming traffic. I am definitely not adding “driving in Russia” to my bucket list of things to do!

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Watch for Falling Duck Decoys

A-Joz told me that her car’s gas tank was all smashed up on the bottom, and her mechanic wanted to know who or what she ran over, but she has no idea. When I said that was the worst car story I had heard since someone on the bus said a possum got into her engine and chewed up some wires so the car started on fire while she was driving, A-Joz replied with this:

Oh geez.  I've run over a bag of duck decoys that flew out of a trailer and under my car on the Interstate, just barely missed an orange barrel rolling into me on the Interstate, narrowly avoided being rear-ended on the Interstate, but I have never had my car start on fire.

I felt that first story was worthy of a blog post, so I asked if she could elaborate and I could blog about it, and this is what she said:

Oh feel free.  The net caught under the car.  I had to pull over onto the shoulder.  I dislodged the ducks, walked back a way on the shoulder to pick up a few that had fallen out of the net, and then threw them all in my car.  I even stopped in Town of Summit and contacted the police to see if someone had called about them.  A very nice police officer came out to talk to me.  He said, "May I see the ducks, ma'am?"  I led him to my car where approximately 10-15 ducks and geese regarded us from the back seat.  I think it was all he could do to not crack up.  No one ever claimed the ducks, so I gave them to some hunters.

So beware of duck decoys on the Interstate.

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