Pandas and Sharks and Bears, Oh My!

 

Today the water was shut off in my building, but I didn't care since I always work from home on Tuesdays anyway, and then I went to Adoration with my new polar bear-tracking bracelet with the lava beads which arrived in the mail today. How timely, since it matched my lava rosary, which I used at Adoration. This is a female polar bear on the western side of Hudson Bay in Canada, probably in the Churchill area; we're also tracking a young red panda in Nepal and a female hammerhead shark off the coast of Florida. The original shark was Riptide, but then she vanished, which they said could happen when the tracker is over a year old, and they gave us a new one to track named Athena who has been going up and down the east coast of Florida. Then today Riptide suddenly appeared on the east coast of Florida herself, so apparently we are now tracking two sharks.

Travalon had a short day at work, so he went to visit a high school buddy. He saw a train stopped on the bridge above the road.

Then on my way home from Adoration, I saw some graffiti in the rail yard here in town, so I stopped to take photos.

I told Travalon about it, so after dinner he went to the rail yard and took some photos.

There were several videos on social media of trains in our town, including one I saw on my way to Adoration, but I probably won't make screenshots because it seems like I've already featured all the graffiti on this blog. It was fun to see it again, though, like seeing an old friend. "Oh, there's 4AL Car! And 4 A LAUGH Car! And I remember that Puck!" Hopefully if I keep seeing the same graffiti over and over, that means I will see the really cool graffiti I saw last Tuesday but didn't get a chance to photograph. They must be keeping all these cars local.

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Tulip Trees, Trains, and the Terrace

 

Today I worked on campus again, but it was much quieter because only my one coworker who is going to be a grandpa was there. At lunch I walked with Hardingfele to see the black locust and yellowwood trees (the second kind are similar to the first, but with even prettier, more fragrant flowers), and then as we were walking over to see if the tulip trees were in bloom, we saw my coworker out walking around too. If you are wondering about the tulip trees, here's your answer:

I also took this photo of my "summer rings" - my fingers get too swollen in the heat these days to wear my regular wedding band and engagement ring.

Meanwhile, Travalon was having a much better day than yesterday. He successfully got a haircut, and then he went to Portage to visit the Railyard, a bar with railyard decor. Here are some photos.

He also took some photos of train graffiti, an engine, and another piece of equipment.

Then he drove to Lake Columbia and took some photos.

After that he went to the Merrimac Ferry and took some photos there.

After work I met with some of my Union peeps on the Terrace, where we had some cider or IPA (I had cider) and some unhealthy snacks: French fries and tater tots. That got us talking about how years ago Congress renamed them Freedom Fries because the French wouldn't help us attack Iraq, which just goes to show this country has been nuts for years. A lot of the people there were so young that they barely remembered the September 11 terrorist attacks, or they didn't remember them at all. (It did happen within all their lifetimes.) Eventually they all left except for the guy who looks like a leprechaun (who, oddly enough, has been the only person to notice my new opal ring) and another guy who stuck around for a while after Travalon arrived. The two of us stayed even longer, enjoying the bluegrass band playing and the sailboats on the lake.

We saw the newest member of my band, who hasn't been playing with us lately because she just had a baby that she named after the Pope. Her older son, who will be four next month, asked me if I had heard the loud horn, so I told him it was telling the boats on the lake that they had one hour until sunset. I also told them all that if they hear it three times in the middle of the day, that means a storm is about to hit. One thing about the University is that it feels like it has always existed and will always exist, so I imagine this tiny boy growing up and someday telling another child about the horn. 

On the way back to the car, Travalon and I stopped at the ice cream shop on State Street because there had been such a long line for ice cream at the Union. Travalon was so happy because his favorite flavor, Scotcharoo, is back for the summer. I wasn't in the mood for something chocolate (I know, shocking, right?) and ended up getting kiwi Italian ice, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then we came home too late for me to join Night Prayer, and we heard a train horn so we went to the crossing, but all we saw was the beautiful moon.

Of course, now the train is going by. I didn't hear the horn until it was at the crossing, so there was no time to go see it. It's coming from the north, which is usual for this time of night. Travalon had hoped to see it come from the south at night, so we could watch the light coming toward us, but so far we have had no luck with that. I'm surprised I didn't hear the horn at the two crossings before our close crossing, but Travalon is watching train videos, so maybe I just thought it was a horn in his video. That's okay, we'll see a train at the crossing some night.

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Train Art at the Rochelle Railroad Park

 

Today Travalon and I were having a pokey morning when we thought we heard the train horn from the south, so we rushed out to the crossing and saw... nothing. So we headed down toward the Rochelle Railroad Park, stopping in Rockford at the Beef-a-roo for lunch and delicious pistachio shakes. We drove along Highway 20 with a good view of the nuclear power plant to the west, then we got to the Railroad Park and found it crowded with people celebrating a birthday, who may not have cared that much about trains. I quickly ascertained that the guys who were alone and seemed slightly on the autism spectrum were the ones who knew a lot about trains. We talked to one guy, and he was surprisingly friendly. Travalon took videos of the trains that passed by, so I will make those into a movie, throw it onto YouTube, and post the link here. Meanwhile, here are some photos of the amazing graffiti on these trains.

Let's take a break to admire my new opal ring in the sunlight:

This is an engine halfway along a very long train:

The rest of these photos were taken by Travalon on his phone. This is me (wearing the official T-shirt) with an approaching train:

Then we checked out a couple of nearby towns, Creston and Malta, to see where we could watch Big Boy come next month, since Rochelle will be nuts. Travalon heard over thirty thousand people showed up last time it was in town. We saw another train in Malta, then we went back to Rochelle and saw a couple more trains. By then it had cooled down, and it rained a bit so we were in the shelter for the first one and then took a walk around and saw the second one coming from a long way off. 

Then we drove back to Rockford and had dinner at the Hope and Anchor British Pub in Loves Park. Travalon ordered the chips and curry, and it was so good that I ate half, and then for our dinner we both got the shrimp-stuffed cod, but I could only eat half of mine. It came with potatoes that I barely touched and mushy peas, and I also had a delicious cherry limeade infused drink. That made me very happy on the way back home, when we took Highway 51 north. There was some road construction in Stoughton, and we got lost trying to find the detour, but then we found this beautifully lit house.

It is very late now, so it must be time for some DuoLingo bragging.

That's a lot of time spent learning languages, but one of the music club owners has been doing it even longer and learning even more languages, so I'm not the only crazy one out there.

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