Starship Delivery and Scary Deer

An update on the Starship robots: today I went for a walk at lunch and ran into my buddy from Congress, and she told me they are delivering food to undergrads from the campus cafeterias. Remember when we had to walk everywhere in college? Now the students have free buses to take them up those pesky hills and robots to save them from the long walk to the cafeteria. How do they ever get any exercise? The robots are very cute, though. When one was approaching us, and I said how cute it was, it kind of reared up a little as if it was begging for attention. I suppose the fact that they are about the size and speed of cocker spaniels makes me see them like dogs on wheels.

Last night as I was coming home, I slowed while approaching a stretch of road where there are often deer. Sure enough, one was just leaping gracefully across the road, and a young buck was waiting on the side. I stopped to wait in case he was going to follow the first deer, but he just looked at me. Then I did the most logical thing: I spoke from behind closed windows to a creature that doesn’t understand English. “Go or don’t go!” I told him. He continued to stand there, so I slowly started up again, and then he began to run alongside my car. I was terrified he was going to suddenly jump in front of my car, or into the side of it, so I stopped again, and then he ran off in the other direction. Whew! Who knows? Maybe the first deer was a young doe who was trying to escape his amorous pursuits, so she was relieved as well. Or maybe they were buddies, in which case let’s hope they met up again.

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Starship Robot

Yesterday as I was taking my rosary walk at lunchtime, I saw a strange vehicle that looked like a shiny white cooler on wheels, with an orange flag over it. It was across the street from me, and then it turned and went a different direction, so I continued on to my usual path. Today at lunch I was just walking (since I pray the rosary during my adoration hour on Tuesdays), so when the vehicle appeared in my path again, I followed it. It seemed like a remote control toy, but I could not see any obvious person who was controlling it. It stopped, and I saw there was a sign on it that said, “Open Here.” And then what? Was there candy? Was there a bomb? I wasn’t brave enough to find out. I also noticed that it was called “Starship” and that Starship was hiring. I kept walking, and it followed me like a little dog, but when I stopped and turned around, it stopped, seemed to think a moment, and went around me. I took a picture of it and sent it to Rich, who knew all about Starship robots. He sent me a link to their homepage, so I saw they were hiring a robot technician here in town, and Kathbert used to be a robot technician, so I sent the link to her. Then later I had to run an errand on campus, and the Starship robot was hanging around my building again. It is supposed to be a delivery system, so maybe it’s useful on campus, but I have a feeling they are mostly just advertising to find that robot technician. Though why they would have it hang around the language building instead of the engineering campus is beyond me.

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Mini Kiss

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I went to Rich’s house for a small birthday party for Kathbert and the Single B-Boy, who had both had birthdays on Monday. Cecil Markovitch was there too, and he tried to convince Travalon and me to go with him to the Marian shrine outside of Green Bay the next day, but we wanted to watch the Badger Game and then go to the Mini Kiss concert in the Dells. So of course Saturday we had to suffer through that horrible Badger game, made worse by the fact that for the first quarter they were hanging in there with Ohio State. But no, in the end they were destroyed. We did take a satisfying hike at Governor Nelson State Park. But it was downhill from there.

First of all, you have to understand that the sound of casinos (which to me always sounds like hellish gamelan music) drives me crazy. Also, I had no idea that at the big Ho-Chunk casino outside of the Dells, the main entrance brings you right into the smoky part, which is in the middle of everything, since they always advertise about how they are “smoke-free” now. All that means is parts on the periphery are smoke-free. We hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and we didn’t want the snack bar stuff, so we went to the buffet, but it was $33 because it was prime rib night. We figured for that price we might as well go to the steakhouse, so we trekked back through the smoky part to get to the steakhouse, but they were booked until the “concert” started. So it was back to the snack bar for an uninspiring cheese pizza for me and dry fried chicken for Travalon. At least we figured out that we could avoid the smoky part by going outside, and there we saw a glorious sunset. (I took pictures.) Then after dinner, back outside to get to the show. Here I thought Mini Kiss was a cover band of Little People, but no, it is Little People wearing Kiss makeup and lip-syncing. What the what?? Who wants to pay for that? At least it was a short show, and not expensive to attend. They also told us we got $20 in free play with our ticket, so we had to wait in a line to get our card issued with the free play money on it, which also had your name on it, and they gave Travalon the wrong card. Once we got that sorted out, we went to the non-smoky part of the casino and sat down at two slot machines, but we couldn’t get them to work. Finally we called someone over, who explained that you had to put a dollar of your own money in before you could access the free play money. Travalon had a dollar and I had no cash, so we put the single dollar bill in my machine, but it still didn’t work. THEN the employee helpfully pointed out that our two machines, out of all the machines in the whole casino, had tiny signs on them saying they did not accept free play money. By then I was in a homicidal rage, so we left, and Travalon said, “We can use the free play money at the casino in Madison.” “Yes,” I replied, “but the free play money is only good for tonight.”

Yesterday after Mass we got coffee with Cecil and told him how we should have gone with him instead of having that fiasco of a day, and he just laughed. Then we went to Plaka for brunch, and for some reason they served a couple who came in after us long before they served us, so that they were almost done eating by the time we got our food. It was like the bad luck from the day before was still following us! It was a gorgeous day, so we took a boat ride back into Six Mile Creek, but we hadn’t gotten as far as last weekend when the motor conked. Fortunately we had not really gone six miles, maybe a little over a mile, so Travalon tried to restart the motor periodically while I paddled, then he gave up and paddled too, until we got back to the lake. Then the motor started right up. By then it was getting late in the afternoon, so I texted the Rosary Ladies about walking the length of the boardwalk along Lake Waubesa. They didn’t see the message in time, but Rich and Kathbert were free to join us, so we had a wonderful walk. Then Travalon and I watched the Packer game at home, and during the first quarter, the Packers had shown up to play and scored two touchdowns while the defense kept stopping the Chiefs. In the second quarter the Packers seemed to go home again, because the offense couldn’t get anything started while the defense allowed the Chiefs to score every time they got the ball. In the second half, the Packers were way better defensively, forcing a turnover, and Jones ran for a spectacular touchdown, and the best touchdown of all, where it looked like Rodgers had just thrown the ball away… but then Jamaal Williams came up with it in the end zone! That is what I love about watching the Packers – when they have those really amazing plays. And it’s even better when they win!

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My Advice to the Packers

Last night I got together with Light Bright for the first time in forever. We met at Brasserie V because her husband was home with her little boy, so we got lots of adult time. She said when she told Corban, “I’m going to have dinner with Hat,” he said, “Hat – we eat salad with her!” We both thought that was hilarious, since I have done lots of things with him that you would think were more exciting to a preschooler, like playing, reading books, and planting plants. But no – I eat salad with him. We laughed really hard all evening; I can’t remember everything we said that was funny, but she just died when I was telling her the story of how I decided not to do the Litany of Humility anymore, and when I told her how Travalon used to always order IPAs when we would go to brewpubs because they have the craziest names, but then I would have to trade beers with him because he hates IPAs, finally I put my foot down and said, “You are not ordering an IPA – I don’t care how much you like the name!” and she said, “Yeah, it doesn’t affect the flavor.” That really made me laugh. (Sorry, Travalon!)

I realize that I forgot to blog about the Packer game on Sunday! Oops! We had taped it, because it was such a beautiful day, and then we watched it in the evening. By that point we knew that they had dominated the Raiders 42-24, and that Rodgers had a perfect quarterback rating for the game, but I still yelled at the TV like it was happening in real time: “What are you DOING?? Move or they’ll sack you!!” Travalon thought that was hilarious, and admittedly it is pretty dorky of me. It reminds me of years ago when a bunch of us were watching a Packers game at the rectory, including a very cute guy and a woman who I think was only there because he was. At one point I yelled at Favre, “Stop with the running game! You have to try a passing game!” and to my surprise the woman turned to me and said in a very vicious tone of voice, “Be quiet! You don’t know anything about football!” That stunned me into silence for a moment, until the parish priest leapt to my defense: “Famous is absolutely right – they should really try a passing game because the running game isn’t working for them.” Later it occurred to me that the woman thought I was showing off for the cute guy, but the sad truth is I just can’t help yelling at the players on the screen when they are not doing what I, in my infinite wisdom, know would be a much better play. Which is why I am an NFL head coach. Just kidding, but I seem especially prone to giving advice to quarterbacks. When I told Travalon and Tiffy the story about the woman who told me to shut up about football, Tiffy said, “I’m offended too, because you learned everything you know about football from me.” So this woman was insulting both of us! Luckily she hasn’t been around in years.

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Photos of China Lights and Six Mile Creek

Yesterday I was at a wellness seminar most of the day. I wanted to take a class on Gratitude Painting, but apparently so did everyone else, and it was full by the time my buddy and I got to the room. We went to a class on food as medicine instead, which was very interesting. Golden milk was not mentioned explicitly, but the presenter did say turmeric should be taken with black pepper and a source of fat, which is basically the recipe for golden milk. Another class we took was on using improv skills in our work life, because "yes, and" keeps conversations going. First we practiced saying "No, but" and I had to convince a partner that we should do something. I said we should go paddle boating, and she said, "No, but it's cold." I said we could wear coats, and she said, "No, but the paddle boat place is closed for the season," so I said, "We could buy a paddle boat!" and she just lost it. "I did not expect you to say that!" she laughed.

In the evening I went to the Labor Temple for a class on becoming a Union steward, but the bus got me there early so I prayed a rosary while sitting by a dracaena and a neantha bella palm. They were much happier than my own dracaenas and neantha bella palm, and I wondered why. That made me wonder if plants are actually the most evolved souls, and in the afterlife they will judge us. I know this is not a Biblically supported idea, but it is an interesting idea: will I be judged on the plants I have killed over the years? Or will plants judge me kindly because I have always been aware of them?

Here are some recent photos. This is the "before" and "after" shots of my sunshine bowl, and Tiffy's spoon rest, that we made at Fired Up.

These are some photos from China Lights in Milwaukee.

One of my cacti is blooming, and my pickle cactus now has two arms sticking off of it.

Here are some photos from our trip back into Six Mile Creek, including the rainbow we saw.

And this is just a really pretty young tree on campus.

I can't find the drone photos that uploaded from my phone, but when I do, I will post them.

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Corn Maze Failure

I hope that my readers had a good weekend. Sorry that I didn’t blog yesterday, but I had a meeting after work, and then because of the rain I hadn’t taken a lunchtime walk, so I had to somehow get most of my daily steps during my foreshortened evening. Travalon is still sick, so Friday evening we had a quiet evening, going to Cherokee Country Club for fish and then just staying in. I do love their Puttin’ on the Ritz fish, which is cod encrusted with Ritz crackers on a bed of broccoli slaw. So tasty!

Saturday Tiffy came to town, and we had been planning to do the corn maze, but it was raining so Travalon just took us on a drive along Highway 60 to see the fall colors. We stopped in Spring Green to go to the bookstore, where there was an author signing. The book was a biography of Frank Lloyd Wrong, and the author was very popular – tons of people were there. I got a book on the classics, abridged (my favorite was Ethan Frome: “Can a farmer’s life get any worse? Hey look – a sled!”) and a collection of articles from the website “I F—king Love Science” about really fascinating facts. In the evening Tiffy and I went to a Baroque music concert that featured three women singing Monteverdi and a woman composer I had not heard of before, and offhand I can’t remember her name, other than that her first name was Francesca. 

Sunday Rosa Peligrosa was in town briefly, so we joined her for brunch. She has known Tiffy even longer than I have, because she used to be roommates with Tiffy’s college friend. She is as entertaining as ever; when going off on a conversational tangent, she announced it by saying, “And now, a commercial break!” Still, nothing beats the time she called the Single B-Boy (Happy Birthday yesterday!) to ask if he would fly her, me, and Anna Banana II to St. Louis in his small plane, and she started the conversation by saying, “Forgive me for being so bold, but there is no taxation on dreaming!” As far as I can tell, these are not actual expressions in her native language of Spanish but just her own colorful idioms. After brunch Tiffy, Travalon, and I did the corn maze, but it was so muddy and the footing was so treacherous that we gave up after finding only half the punches. No Maze Master pens for us this year! I think this may be the first time we have ever failed. After Tiffy had left for home, Travalon and I took a long boat ride back into Six Mile Creek, which was really beautiful. I’ll try to post some photos soon. This is why we leave the boat in the water so long: some of our best rides have been in October, because the weeds are all dead so we can get into interesting places that are inaccessible at the height of summer. I would say this was another amazing October boat ride.

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The Wonders of Golden Milk

Sorry for the silence the last few days. I kept meaning to put some photos on the blog, including cool shots that a drone took of my condo and the surrounding area, but Wednesday I had a class and yesterday I was just too tired after digging all the carrots out of my garden. I should have waited until today, since it’s gorgeous out and yesterday was a bit colder than I expected. It’s surprising how tiring 45 minutes of digging up carrots is, but maybe that’s just a testament to how out of shape I really am. The purple carrots are more consistent, with most of them being a decent size. The orange ones produced a lot of these teeny tiny baby carrots that were barely worth digging up. Maybe I was more aggressive about thinning the purple carrot patch? Or are they just better producers? Surprisingly, the two kale plants and the two Brussels sprout plants are going strong, but basically everything else is dead, including the weeds. And, weirdly, the strawberries still have some unripe fruit on them, but will they ripen in this cold weather? My heart goes out to the cordylines that are in the outdoor planters at Hilldale – tropical plants should not be treated like annuals! It must have taken years for them to get that big, and now they are just being left to shrivel out in the cold. I thought about stealing one but wondered if they would arrest me for saving a plant’s life. In Milwaukee we saw a bank that had cycads in the decorative pots outside – please tell me they don’t leave those out to freeze! They grow so slowly that they must have been at least a decade old to get to the size of small palm trees. I’m tempted to go there and see if they are still outside…

The one thing I was going to say is how wonderful golden milk is. I was vaguely aware of its existence before having one with Tiffy at Garver Mill a few weeks ago, but now they seem to be everywhere. They even make them at the coffee and juice bar at the co-op! They also sell the powder to make them at home yourself, so I bought some and have been adding it to my oatmeal every morning – golden oatmeal! The most noticeable thing was that my vision got so much clearer, and some internet research led me to believe this was because the turmeric in golden milk reduces inflammation. Suddenly the fact that my pants seemed looser made sense – maybe inflammation had made me slightly bloated! The experts are always saying how reducing inflammation is the best thing you can do for your health, so I would recommend everyone have a daily glass of golden milk. Or a bowl of golden oatmeal. It tastes good too!

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