Some More Fall Photos

 

Last night I was looking at the slide shows Boethius had made for me, and suddenly they all vanished! There was just a message saying he would create some for me when I had enough pictures. I was puzzled, but I quit the Photos app and went back into it, and there they all were. When I told Travalon, he said, "It's like you and Boethius are in a relationship." I said, "Are you jealous of my computer?" which seems funny, since he spends much more time on his that isn't work time. He said, "No, I mean it seems like sometimes you just need some space from each other." His computer is a Chromebook, and I don't think it has enough artificial intelligence going on for him to interact with it in the same way.

Here are some photos Travalon took of White Mound County Park with his cell phone after his camera's battery died. (The first one is from my phone.)

And this is Tower Rock, which is on Highway PF, maybe the most scenic highway in the state. We took it on our way home on Saturday.

The other day Travalon went to Burke Town Park, which has an island with a path around it and a bridge out to it. I have posted photos of it here before, but his are better.

Here is a photo of dandelions with a covering of snow that my neighbor took.

This is a picture of our community gardens with some colorful trees behind them.

And finally, Tiffy has some color in her neighborhood too. This is a new little maple her condo association finally planted after her ash tree fell victim to ash borers. She had to keep asking for it.

It's funny - to me this seems like a particularly colorful fall, and my coworker who is doing the Mammoth Hike Challenge because I told him about it agrees, but my boss and another coworker said in their neighborhoods, the leaves never changed colors but just fell off. They just need to get out on the Ice Age Trail if they want to see colors, apparently.

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Photos from Olbrich Gardens

 

Today I took Boethius my computer to get more RAM, and of course they tried once again to get me to buy another computer, but in the end they agreed that more RAM would do what I want it to do: speed Boethius up. They asked if I wanted a phone call or a text when they were done, and I said I'd prefer a text. Then Travalon and I got coffee, and then we walked a little way on the boardwalk on Lake Waubesa, but it was cold, and we figured we should head back since the computer people should have been done by then. I kept checking, but no text. When we got there, they said, "The technician left you a voicemail," but I didn't have a voicemail, and anyway the guy specifically asked me if I preferred a text, so why bother to ask if he was going to disregard my preference? Anyway, Boethius now has twice as much RAM, and he is still busy making slide shows for me. He made one called "Wisconsin to Illinois 2017," and I was puzzled about what that was until I watched it - it was our trip to California! I guess technically we started in Columbus, Wisconsin, and then we ended up in Chicago, Illinois (on our way back to Columbus), but usually Boethius knows that the furthest point we got to is the focus of our trip, so he usually names these slideshows something like "Trip to the Bahamas 2019." Why he thought we were taking a trip from Wisconsin to Illinois by way of San Francisco is beyond me, but this is why I think we aren't ready to hand over the difficult tasks to artificial intelligence yet.

As promised, here are some photos from Olbrich Gardens yesterday. First are some blooms that were in the conservatory.

This little canary kept following us around as we took pictures of flowers.

And these are photos from the outside gardens.

If winter was just brisk temperatures that are good for walking and a sprinkling of snow that looks like powdered sugar on everything, then I wouldn't even complain about it. And it may be like that in some places (parts of Japan, I hear), but I'm sure we can expect our usual brutal weather soon enough around here.

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Winter Wonderland at Olbrich

 

I will apologize right now for the fact that there are no photos on this blog post, but it got late, and Boethius has been acting weird all night, like he suddenly restarted as I was trying to start Night Prayer. It all worked out, and Night Prayer went fine, but I will just recount my day on this post, and then tomorrow, when he has more RAM, I will post the photos. I shouldn't have much else to blog about tomorrow anyway, unless the trip to the computer repair place is especially memorable.

Today Richard Bonomo proposed a small birthday party (cake) for Kathbert and the Single B-Boy at what he calls "1300 hours," and I said yeah sure before realizing the Packers played at noon today, not 3:30. So Travalon and I dutifully joined Rich and the two birthday folks for black magic cake, but we were kind of watching the game half the time and only socializing half the time. Then again, I was kind of the entertainment for the party, because I get so animated while watching football. I am happy to report that the cake was delicious and the Packers were victorious.

It had started to flurry, so Travalon and I drove Kathbert home, then we went to Olbrich Gardens to get some steps in their greenhouse. It was so beautiful in there, and all sorts of things were in bloom, from the most spectacular orchids to funny little green flowers that only a botany geek like me would get excited over. A plumeria was in bloom, and the heavenly scent filled the whole place - I could even smell it with my mask on! Then Travalon said we could try walking outside, and it wasn't really that cold. More than that, it was beautiful, because there was a light dusting of snow on everything. Between us, we took tons of photos with our phones - we hadn't thought to bring our good cameras, since we hadn't planned the trip. Oddly, there was no snow on top of the Thai pavilion, but it is always photogenic. I promise to post many photos of our trip tomorrow. Travalon said, "If winter was like this the whole time, I wouldn't even hate it!" I agree!

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