Autumn Trees on Campus

 

The big news today when I got to work is that my new boss has COVID. This is not good news for me, because he spent about half an hour in my office last Thursday. I will take a test tomorrow. Of course, since I didn't know I had been exposed, I went to work as usual and then had to wear a mask all day, except when I was alone in my office. One thing about being on campus is that there are lots of beautiful trees this time of year. I took some photos.

This tree can't decide: should it change? Shouldn't it? How about halfway?

I love these autumn crocuses in the Allen Centennial Gardens.

I wish I could see the tree in the back - it's so red! But it makes a pretty contrast with the trees in front of it.

And I have completed the October Challenge on Duolingo! This is actually from a couple of days ago.

I often wish I had brought my good camera with me to work. Maybe when I'm back on campus on Wednesday, I'll bring it and see if that amazing tree by the water is still in full color.

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Packers in London and Amazing Views in Wisconsin

 

This morning (our time) the Packers played the Giants in London, but I didn't wear my lucky Packers T-shirt to Mass, the one I've been wearing when they win. After Mass I checked the score, and the Pack were up 20-10 at halftime, so I felt good about things as we went to brunch at the Edgewater Hotel. What a view of the lake! Rich wasn't impressed because they didn't have hot chocolate, and their chocolate milk was only 1%, but I enjoyed my smoked salmon Benedict.

Then Travalon and I headed out to hit the trail - the Ice Age Trail. We're trying to get forty-two miles by the end of the month, and after today we're almost up to fourteen. We hiked along the edge of the Shoveler Sink Segment; this is a nature preserve with a pond on it, and I'm guessing the name means that northern shovelers (a type of duck) are there at some point, but today we saw no birds at all on the water. Here are a couple of shots of the pond.

And this was a cool little hill on the other side of the pond.

Then we went to Crossroads Coffeehouse in Cross Plains, because if we go to four Ice Age Trail Communities and spend money at certain businesses, then we can take ten miles off our total and will only have to hike thirty-two miles total, or sixteen each. I think we can do that in a month! After our short break, we went to the Valley View Segment and hiked a little more. The parking lot was on a road called Moundview, and I can see why! Here are the views to the east.

And here are the views to the west. You can see Blue Mound in the distance.

I was a bit late to Irish class, which on a usual day would have been awkward since it's often just the teacher, another woman, and me, but today there were like eight other people there (most of whom I'd never met before), so nobody really noticed my presence. While I was in class, Travalon ran some errands, and he took this photo of the trees by Warner Park.

Then we took a short walk in the woods across from the bluff in a nearby neighborhood, since I hadn't quite gotten my five miles for the day. It would have been great to get that extra mileage on the Ice Age Trail, but there are no segments less than twenty minutes away, and we had to watch the Packer game before I led Night Prayer tonight. Wow, that was not worth watching! The first half was magnificent, and then in the second half both the offense and the defense stalled. Yuck! We watched two episodes of The Office to cheer ourselves up after that, but I'm still not over it. Packers! Why are you always letting me down??

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Art D-Tour and Ice Age Trail

 

Sorry that I haven't blogged in several days; Thursday we were at our neighbors' party, and yesterday we went to a fish fry at Cherokee Country Club with two neighbors and Richard Bonomo, then Rich helped us move plants inside before the frost. Also, Travalon and I have been watching The Office a lot. I sure do love that show!

Today I had two goals: to do the Art D-Tour and to hike on the Ice Age Trail. And guess what? Goals achieved! We got going this morning and drove to the Sauk Library, since I misunderstood and thought they had the official Art D-Tour map. They had a map, but it wasn't as detailed as the official map. Still, it worked well to get us along the north side of the Figure 8 and then down to Wittwen, where we had tacos, tamales, and street corn. It was hard to miss the art, since there were usually so many people gathered around it. The first display we came across looked like ceramic mushrooms - very cute.

This one has a little plant stuck in it that looks like a miniature tan version of itself.

Another art installation we saw was a "diner" with a climate theme.

Here are the menus.

Here you can see the chandelier more clearly.

And this is one of the tables. We were supposed to sit at them and discuss climate actions with whatever random people wandered by. (Travalon and I did not do this.)

This very cute old truck was doing the D-Tour at the same time we were.

The real draw of the Art D-Tour is the amazing topography of the area, and the leaves starting to change only add to its beauty. They aren't at peak yet, but there was still a lot of color.

This is more art.

This artwork had a very long name about how before cows came here on boats, passenger pigeons flew free.

We approached Plain from the south, and once there we got a more detailed map with information about all the art installations. Then we headed north to the other part of the figure 8 and found this giant puppet. If we had stayed fifteen minutes longer, they were going to do a puppet show with him, but we figured fifteen minutes could get us quite a ways down the road.

The hills behind the giant puppet were very colorful.

This is more art.

There were some cool rock formations.

This is another art installation.

Tower Rock. We bought white chocolate chip cashew cookies from a bakery in its shadow.

Once we finished the entire Art D-Tour (possibly missing some art, but the beauty of the Art D-Tour is there are no particular rules), we hiked on the Gibralter Rock segment of the Ice Age Trail. This time we started from the other end and hiked toward Lake Wisconsin. We found this lean-to.

There were stunning views of Lake Wisconsin from the top of the bluff.

Then we drove down Tipperary Road and stopped at the park across the street from the cottage where we spent our anniversary a couple of years ago.

We thought of going to a Forward soccer game tonight, or to a gospel choir concert, but after all that hiking we were tired and just had a quiet evening at home. Have to rest up to hike some more tomorrow! After all, we have to go forty-two miles on the trail, and so far we have only gone about eight.

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Racing the 28 Bus, Part Two

 

Today was a busy day with our new boss, but I got a lot of problems solved, so now he probably thinks I'm way more brilliant than I actually am. The real excitement came at the end of the day, when I waited and waited and waited, and waited, and waited some more for the 28 bus. Finally I decided it wasn't going to come and I'd just take the 2 bus that comes fifteen minutes later... and the 2 came right on time with the 28 right in front of it. Before I could decide which one to take, since they both go to the North Transfer Point, the 28 blew by us without stopping. It must have really been packed! So we all got on the 2 bus, which was right behind the 28 until one stop, when all the people who were getting off at that stop had gotten off, but people were still streaming out of the 28 bus, so the 2 went around it and passed it. Take that, 28 bus! 

I wondered which bus would get to the North Transfer Point first, since the 2 bus pokes around the Capitol Square while the 28 goes straight up Johnson Street, but then the 28 goes back into the neighborhoods while the 2 goes straight once it gets to Johnson Street. So one loses time early in the route, and the other one loses it later in the route. Our 2 bus got to the North Transfer Point just before six, and there was no sign of the 28 bus, which just goes to the garage after getting there. (The 2 bus becomes another route at the North Transfer Point.) I figured it had beaten us there and already left for the garage, so I noted that the 28 gets there faster than the 2... but after I got in my car and pulled out of the parking lot, I saw a bus that said "Garage" pulling into the North Transfer Point. That must have been the 28! Take THAT, 28 bus!! I beat you again!! No idea why it was so late in the first place...

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Listening in the Corn Maze

 

When Tiffy and I were in the corn maze this year, I noticed that I found the secret punches by hearing them. They are metal paper punchers that make different shape punches, like a star, a crescent, a diamond, etc., and they are on a metal chain attached to a metal pole, so when people punch their maps and then let the puncher go, it makes a metallic clank. I don't remember noticing this other years; we usually found punches by "thinking like a Treinen" and figuring out where in the pattern they would put a secret punch, or from hearing people holler, "Found one!" or just by wandering around until we came upon one. This year everything seemed to be hearing for me, like we would find the next section of the map by listening for what sounded like a cocktail party, because tons of people were always gathered around the mailboxes containing the map sections. I kind of felt like a stealthy hunter, seeking my prey by listening. Then today I was taking my lunchtime walk, and something sounded like a distant train, so I went toward the area where I could see the tracks. At first the sound seemed to be getting quieter, but suddenly it grew very loud, and then the train came into view. I like this "hunting by ear" - it feels as satisfying as navigating without GPS. It feels like a skill one would have needed back in the days when we were hunter-gatherers. Like it could help me survive in the wild or something. Granted, there are many reasons I probably wouldn't last that long in the wild, but it's good to know I'd hear my problems approaching.

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New Boss

 

Here is a story from Friday: I was busy working when the chair sent a very odd email that said: "Are you free right now? What's your cell phone number?" I was very annoyed and responded, "Couldn't we meet on Teams?" To my surprise, she never responded or called on Teams, and I kept feeling annoyed, thinking how she wanted my personal cell phone number so she could reach me day or night. Then sometime later in the afternoon, the chair emailed the whole department to say someone had been impersonating her and making strange requests, but it wasn't her, and I looked at that first email again and realized it came from "interimchair@icloud.com" or something like that. It was probably that scam where they pretend to be someone higher up and then ask you to buy some gift cards right away and give them the numbers on them, but I thwarted them because the last thing scammers would want to do is meet over video chat. 

Today our new boss started, and he seems pretty cool. Good thing too, because the job my colleague told me to apply for rejected me. She and I were both surprised, since they had said I was an ideal candidate on paper, but I must have bombed my phone interview since I didn't even get a second interview with the team. Honestly, I didn't really want that job, and maybe they could tell over the phone. It might have paid more than my current job, and it was allegedly 100% remote, but I don't ever need to work for the medical school again. Longtime readers of this blog will remember how much I enjoyed my previous job there!

Anyway, how could I leave my current job? They make smiley faces on the bulletin boards!

This is the theorbo from the concert Saturday night. You can see how long it is. It's a bass lute and sounds as cool as it looks.

A weird thing did happen at work today. A grad student asked me what was going on with the coffeemaker, and I said nothing that I knew of. She showed me a note on it that said: "There is no more coffee. Go to a cafe." Since there clearly was more coffee, I had no idea what this passive-aggressive note was about, so I asked some coworkers and the chair if the coffeemaker was broken. The chair decided to make a pot of coffee, and it clearly worked, so who knows what the note was about? Weird. Then I went to the annual Benefits Fair, where the vendors always bring schwag, but the dental insurance people weren't there with their cute and very useful travel toothbrushes, and the vision insurance people weren't there with their sunglasses, so mostly I got pens and candy. I did see some people I know.

This evening I was supposed to lead Night Prayer, but Zoom wouldn't create the meeting for me - it just spun around and around. I texted Rich, and he sent me this helpful and slightly mystical text.

I mean, sometimes if Jupiter and beautiful well things happen to programs like Zoom, and the moon is in the Seventh House, and Mercury aligns with Mars, then no wonder it wasn't working. And Richard Bonomo says he doesn't believe in astrology! Seems like his iPhone does. Which reminds me, yesterday the priest started his homily talking about people who think there may be something to reincarnation, and that crystals just might have healing powers, and I feel so seen, but not in a good way. They had a Theology on Tap meeting some time ago for people in their twenties and thirties with the topic "Bad Popes," and just once I'd like to hear a priest come down as hard on people who don't think Francis is the legitimate pope as they do on people who believe in astrology. I mean, they always had zodiac wheels in Medieval churches, but if you don't think the Pope is the "real" pope, then you are not a "real" Catholic, by definition.

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Happy Birthday, Dear Blog!

 

Yesterday this blog turned fourteen, and I celebrated by not posting. Why, you may ask? Because I was busy. In the morning it was beautiful, and Travalon and I talked about going for a boat ride, but we ended up just taking a walk. Then he headed off to visit his mother and his brother (and, most importantly, his brother's new dog), and he also hiked on the Ice Age Trail for our Mammoth Challenge this month. He ended the evening by going to see a cover band doing music by the Highwaymen.

I met Tiffy downtown, and we ate outside at the Globe, then we went to the corn maze and found eight secret punches in about an hour. The picture this year was a boy on a swing, surrounded by birds and butterflied and flowers. They had that "maze within a maze" again this year, with no map and random numbers that you have to add up, but Richard Bonomo had been busy and he was the one who was so good at that part last year, so we just skipped it. When we went to the prize table to claim our maze pens, the guy asked if we had done the secret number part too, and when we said nah, not this year, he seemed genuinely disappointed. I saw a 5 and a -2, so I could have said 3 and been totally wrong. All you get for that is to put your team name on the board - if they gave you a pen for that part too, then I might bother doing it.

We had dinner outside at the Mexican restaurant near my house, and for once I didn't order the shrimp chimichanga; I branched out and ordered the shrimp fajitas. Seemed healthier. We debated about getting tres leches cake for my blog's birthday, but we were too full, since Tiffy also had fajitas. Then we went to an early music concert at Holy Wisdom Monastery featuring Italian Baroque composers. It was so lovely. Afterwards as we walked back to my car, the headlights of another car illuminated a big maple right above it, and Tiffy was shocked at how red it looked. "Is it that red in daylight?" she asked, and I promised that it was every year, and we could come back and see it today. Oh yeah, at intermission they were selling good chocolates in three flavors: caramel, blood orange, and rose. We both got one of each, and they were so good, so that was how I celebrated my blog's birthday. I told the young girls selling the chocolates that my blog was fourteen that day, and they had no idea what I was saying, since blogs are so old-fashioned that nobody in their generation reads or writes one. Then again, they also asked Tiffy if she wanted a regular or senior admission, and since everyone thinks she is aging more gracefully than I am, I can only imagine what they would have asked me if I had gone first! Maybe they would have offered me the "special decrepit" rate. But since she went first, then they must have assumed I was also not as ancient as they actually thought, and they only offered me regular admission.

This morning after Mass Tiffy came with a bunch of us regulars to brunch at Inn on the Park, where service was very slow because there was only one waiter. I think every restaurant is having that issue, and I'm not part of the solution since I'm not moonlighting as a waitress. (Did it once for like five weeks, and that was enough for me!) Then Tiffy, Travalon, Richard Bonomo, and I went to Holy Wisdom Monastery so that Tiffy could see the red maple in daylight. We took a walk around the grounds, going all the way around the pond, then Travalon and I took a boat ride back into the marsh, where all the lotus seed pods looked dried up. There were still some green ones in the channel, so I grabbed one, and the seeds were perfectly ripe. They taste a bit like macadamia nuts. I thought we were too late, since they usually ripen around the solstice, but maybe the ones in the channel are a little pokier. Then I had Irish class for the first time in ages, and so I didn't think it would be good to skip it to watch the Packers. Travalon went to a nearby bar to watch the first half of the game, then he returned just as I was turning the game on after my class had finished, and we watched them beat the Patriots in overtime. (In other football news, the Badgers have sacked their head coach after a disastrous game yesterday that we didn't even bother to tape, since we just had a feeling it would be awful.) Then we watched some episodes of The Office. I introduced Travalon to the show, and he loves it. It may be nearly twenty years old, but it has aged well. It's still absolutely hilarious.

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