Bach Around the Clock

 

Yesterday it was snowing very hard in the morning, so I worked from home. Travalon dropped me off at work in the afternoon, then I walked downtown and hung out until an organ concert at the Lutheran church where I used to sing. It was part of the "Bach Around the Clock" festival, and afterwards there was a reception with all sorts of treats. Of course, I have given up sugar for Lent, so I only had cheese and crackers - even alcohol is sugar, so I didn't indulge in the wine or beer either. Travalon had some treats when he came to pick me up. I saw all sorts of people there, church organists and people from the Lutheran choir, and of course Kathbert and Pete the Sailor Man. It was a lot of fun.

Today Travalon and I had a relaxing morning watching Pixar shorts, then we went to Sauk and saw one eagle sitting in a tree across the river at the dam. We went to Wollersheim and had lunch at their bistro, then Travalon dropped me off at the Episcopal church on Regent Street, where the Bach Around the Clock festival had been going on since ten in the morning. I found Pete the Sailor Man, Kathbert, and Richard Bonomo sitting together, so I squeezed in next to them to listen to my former OTHER choir director play Bach on the organ. Afterwards there was birthday cake for Bach's birthday, and it was evening by then, so I indulged because I can have sugar on Sundays. The four of us did our annual ritual of putting flowers on Mr. Why's grave and taking a photo to send to his mother, then Rich, Pete, and I had dinner at the Mexican restaurant right by Rich's house. By the time we left dinner, it was starting to snow again. Seeing all this snow does give me an urge to go cross country skiing. I haven't done that in years.

Here are some recent photos. The first are some ring-necked ducks Travalon saw off our dock.

And this is the local crane couple. Some people call them Frazier and Lileth. We had been calling them Bob and Hitachi.

Here are photos from Sauk. This is looking back at Prairie du Sac from the dam.

Here is the eagle.

At the reception after the concert today, I said something that Rich said sounded like a song title, but later we couldn't remember exactly what it was. Something about working around the start of the darkness, and I said it would be a good blog title, but now I can remember it even less than we could on the ride home. I did say at dinner that Rich was the most Aquarius person ever, in fact he was the Aquariest, so I thought about making that the blog post title, but then I decided, why not call it Bach Around the Clock? That was a big part of my day, after all.

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TrioLingo

Yesterday I had to go to a meeting in the Union, and in the restroom I saw a sticker with information on ordering abortion pills. Since it was International Women's Day, that made me reflect that women are always told they have to be good or they have to live with the consequences of their bad decisions, but college guys seem to be able to get away with literal rape because people say, "Oh, boys will be boys!" Important: they must be white boys - we all know what would happen to a young black guy who acted like that. They are regularly killed by the police for far less serious crimes. It does make you wonder why a white guy in his 20's behaving badly is treated so much more indulgently than any other group. 

In the evening we watched Turning Red, a Pixar movie about a 13-year-old girl who turns into a red panda when she gets too emotional. It was, I thought, a really good depiction of a girl discovering her own sexuality and turning away from her parents and toward her peers, and I liked the panda metaphor. Travalon was less enthused about the movie, but after all, he was never a 13-year-old girl. Even all these years later, I can remember what it was like, and the movie nailed it.

Today I worked from home, and I'm so glad because the snow started falling well before I would have headed home from work. Tomorrow I am supposed to go in for another important meeting, but it's late in the afternoon so I'll work from home in the morning and hope the snow stops so I can head in for the afternoon. The snow may continue all weekend, which is a bummer because the Back Around the Clock festival will be going on (in fact, they had a concert yesterday that I attended), but Tiffy is reluctant to come to town for it with the unpromising weather forecast. Of course, if the weather is bad enough, I won't even be able to go across town for the festival. This year it's in honor of a local viola player who just died of a brain tumor, so I really want to go. And of course we have to do our yearly ritual of putting flowers on Mr. Why's grave, but will we be able to find it under all that snow?? 

How about a little DuoLingo bragging?

In honor of International Women's Day, some of the girl characters formed a band. I can get behind that, being in a girl band myself. I wonder what kind of music they play? Is it Irish music or French music? And since there are three of them, are they TrioLingo? Of course, I got my very first exercise wrong because it asked me to translate a word from English, so I translated it into Irish... and I was in the French module. Oops! 

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Lost in Translation: "Santo Subito!"

 

Yesterday I was so tired after work that I didn't blog or do much of anything. Travalon and I watched Soul, a Pixar movie about a jazz musician whose soul gets stuck in a cat, and another soul goes into his body. It was pretty entertaining, and not entirely inaccurate about the in-between state. Then today I had to be on campus for interviews we are conducting for a dean. Why am I interviewing potential deans? Because I'm the Vice Chair in my shared governance body. The Chair was actually going to do it, but he couldn't, so I stepped in. It was a lovely day out, so I appreciated having to walk back and forth from the Union twice. 

Otherwise, nothing too noteworthy happened today, although at Adoration I saw someone had left a bunch of rosaries in the place where anyone can take them. I wasn't going to take one, but there was this really off-the-wall one with black and yellow beads and then very colorful starting beads, so I did bring that one home. When I got it home, I saw it was actually poop brown and yellow. Which reminds me, today I was looking at MyFace and someone had posted "Santo subito!" which I think literally means "saint suddenly!" in Italian but anyway, it is what people say when someone who dies was so holy that they feel like there is no need for a drawn-out canonization process, so basically "Saint right now!"... and MyFace "helpfully" translated it as: "Holy sh!t!" I don't know if all this incompetence on the part of artificial intelligence makes me less or more scared of it.

Travalon went down to the dock to enjoy the beautiful day, and he took some photos of waterfowl. This is the mallard with a purple head that we have seen other years.

Here you can see the "tuxedo duck" I saw on Sunday with a regular male mallard and two females.

This is a Canada goose, but I'm sure you knew that.

This is a male bufflehead.

I'm very puzzled by this black duck.

Is it just a female bufflehead in bad lighting? There is a duck called a black duck, but it looks like a dusky female mallard, so that is not what this is. Maybe I'll ask the Hive Mind at Wisconsin Birding if they have any idea. Sometimes people put really sketchy photos of birds on there, and they can still ID them. I'll let you know if I do it and they can tell me what it is.

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Sleepy Sunday Spaghetti Sauce

 

I forgot to blog about this yesterday, but Friday I took the morning off of work to get our taxes done, and then Travalon and I went to the Tenney Locks to see if any birds were there. We did see some goldeneye ducks. I love their crazy mating dance, when the male throws his head back.

This guy seems to be kicking his feet up too!

Here is the female goldeneye, looking all come hither:

And here is the photo of the Best Westerns (or most of them, since I seem to have cut off the slide guitarist at the far right of the photo) from when we saw them Friday night at the Red Rooster.

Last night when we came home from swimming, I saw that Venus and Jupiter are still close, but not like photos people posted on social media from Wednesday, when they were right next to each other. I forgot to look early Wednesday evening, and by the time I ran out to look, it was clouded over.

Today after Mass, Travalon and I drove with Cecil Markovitch out to Ridgeway, to a spaghetti dinner at St. Bridget. Here is a photo of the inside of the church.

We didn't eat there, of course - we were in the basement. The Single B-Boy and his mother met us there, and later the Dairyman's Daughter joined us. The Knights of Columbus put on the spaghetti dinner, and one was wearing an apron that said, "You know it tastes right if it was cooked by a Knight." The portions were huge, so we were a bit sleepy afterwards, and Cecil missed a turn and got onto Highway H, a very beautiful, windy backroad. That took us to Highway 14, so we stopped in Cross Plains for some coffee and a walk on the boardwalks, since it was such a gorgeous day. Cecil was very happy about the coffee; he said, "What did they put in that spaghetti sauce? I can't stay awake!" Travalon was still sleepy when we got home, so he took a nap while I was supposed to be in Irish class...

...only, I'd forgotten my Irish peeps were all in Milwaukee for an Irish weekend, so I went for a long walk. It had cooled off a lot by then, and clouded over, and gotten windy, so it wasn't as pleasant as the walk in Cross Plains. I did see a pair of ducks off the dock where the female was a mallard and the male was one of those "tuxedo" ducks that is black with a white chest. Then I came in and did the crossword puzzle about our former chancellor that was in the program for her funeral, since she was apparently also a crossword puzzle fiend.

When Travalon got up, we went to Zippy Lube to get some chicken. They said it would be forty minutes, so we went for a walk. When we got back, they said it was still going to be a while, but they gave us our sides, so I snacked on some macaroni and cheese and some coleslaw. Then they gave us two chicken sandwiches for free: a spicy one that I ate and a regular one that Travalon ate. They said since it was the end of the day, they were giving us a bunch of free stuff, so even though we had ordered a four-piece of fried chicken, they gave us sixteen pieces!! By then I was too full to eat the fried chicken... and then they brought us a donut, so we split that. I am beyond feeling guilty about yesterday, because I remembered today that it was Vivaldi's birthday yesterday, and I hadn't celebrated... and then I thought nope, I did - I had cake and ice cream and punch! Tomorrow I'll be back to my Lenten penance.

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The Best Westerns and the Chancellor's Funeral

 

Tiffy was busy yesterday and couldn't talk, so last night Travalon talked me into seeing a Western swing band at the Red Rooster, a blues venue that used to be the Knuckle Down Saloon. Now it has food, which is quite tasty. I don't like country music, but apparently I like Western swing. The band was called the Best Westerns, and the leader, who played the stand-up bass, said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what the Best Westerns sound like!" and then they started playing. They played a lot of stuff by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, which made us very happy. The slide guitarist was so good, and so were the guitarist, the fiddler, and the drummer, and of course that very charismatic bass player. Sorry, no photos - I can't seem to upload them to the blog tonight. I have a couple of videos too, but my blog has long since decided it hates posting videos, so I have to make them into YouTube videos and then post a link. So look for that.

Today Travalon and I got going and went to visit his mother, who seems to be doing well. Then we went to the funeral service for the former chancellor, at First Congo. We were asked to wear red, but the only thing I have nice enough for a funeral in red is a deep red velvet jacket. I was surprised how many women there had blazers in bright cardinal red. I was also surprised that the church was fairly full but not packed, and hardly anyone was sitting up in the balcony like we did. I didn't see anyone I recognized there. We sang a number of hymns because apparently (and this was news to me) the former chancellor was musical, and she enjoyed singing and playing the organ. Huh. I had no idea. She had been in the administration of three presidents, and someone told a story about how in high school a teacher said she would make an excellent secretary... and then she became Secretary of Commerce under Obama. So the teacher was right. 

Afterwards there was a reception at Union South, and I saw all sorts of bigwigs who I swear were not at the service. As you might expect, they had quite a spread, and I was going to stick to cheese and fruit so as not to break my Lenten vow, but they said German chocolate cake was her favorite, so I caved and had a piece, along with some Bec-Key Lime Pie ice cream. (I had already bought something I don't need without thinking at the thrift shop at Travalon's mother's place - another rosary and a picture frame from Key West.) Guess I'll pretend that today was Sunday and tomorrow is Saturday, and I'll be good then.

After that, Travalon and I went to the health club and swam in the warm pool.  Hopefully that worked off a few of those calories... We also watched the movie Encanto tonight, which is a story about a magical family with one member who isn't magical, but is pretty clearly an allegory for typical family dysfunction with the Perfect Child, the Strong One, and the Black Sheep, and how they all suffer from expectations. In the movie, the magic is disappearing, and they all blame the member who has no magic, but in the end the grandma realizes she has caused the problems, and the magic returns. This is true: if the older generation blaming everything on the black sheep of the family realizes the problem is caused by them, not the child, then the issues in the family can actually be fixed. But so many families would rather blame an innocent child than actually look at their own behavior. Also true, like in the movie, the bad behavior of the older generation is often traced back to some trauma. The movie was set in Colombia, and the colors were bright and the music was lively. I recommend this movie.

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Who Wouldn't Want to Wear a High-Vis Vest?

 

Today I went to lunch with my Irish teacher, the native Irish speaker, and the president of the Shamrock Club. The conversation was in English, since the president of the Shamrock Club doesn't know any Irish. He was saying that the club was very lively in the 70's, many decades before he joined, but now we're just limping along. (I'm in the club too, so he knows me.) Then this evening I zoomed into a meeting at the East Side Club to discuss its future because the membership is dwindling and aging. Why are people abandoning clubs? Someone on Night Prayer said it's the same way with his Knights of Columbus group: the only active members are getting on in age. He said it's because of social media, but I feel like people are just so much busier these days that only retired people can participate actively in clubs. Were people less busy a few decades ago, so that people in their prime working years still had time to volunteer at clubs? They say Millennials complain about loneliness, but they don't participate in the things that used to bring people together, like clubs and religious organizations. Is this a self-inflicted wound because they are all watching TikTok videos? Or is there really something going on with society that we have no free time left to go to clubs and to church?

Travalon told me today a guy came from the Department of Workforce Development to talk to the kids about working. They got to wear hard hats and safety glasses and high-vis vests, and they loved it! Why not? My high-vis vest makes me feel important. I've heard people say if you wear one, they will let you backstage at rock concerts or let you wander onto the scene of traffic accidents. Not sure if that's true, since I only use mine for walking after dark, but I said I should wear it to work to seem more important. Travalon said sure, it's dangerous there, I may crunch numbers, but what if the numbers crunched me?? After I stopped laughing, I said the thing most likely to kill me at work is our building, and it probably wouldn't respect my high-vis vest: "Yes, I see you in that chartreuse and day-glo orange vest, and that just makes you an easier target to drop a chunk of cement on your head." For old times' sake, here's the photo of me in my high-vis vest:

This is like a little kid's fantasy of what they want to be when they grow up: "I want to be an important worker and wear a high-vis vest, and I want to wear tall boots so I can jump in muddy puddles, and I want to be a unicorn!" So I'm Bob the Builder and Peppa Pig and a unicorn all rolled into one! Being an adult is fantastic!

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An Irish Conversation

 

Today I had my annual review at work, and it was glowing, but unfortunately it was at the same time as a lecture given by a native Irish speaker. The lecture was recorded, so I should be able to watch it later. After work, I picked up my car from the transfer point and headed back downtown because my Irish teacher was bringing the native speaker to dinner at Himal Chuli. Three of us from our class also came, so this poor young Irish guy had to have dinner with four middle-aged women. Two of us were kind of quiet, mostly listening, while the other three jabbered away in Irish. Even when I tried to say something, nobody understood me because of my horrible pronunciation. Still, it was a lot of fun.

The thing that really stood out to me from this encounter is how I don't seem to be able to focus on anything because everything fascinates me. The other women are all really into Irish language and have gone to Ireland to study it. (Though to be fair, one of them is originally from Ireland, so she has family over there to visit.) I am interested in the Irish language, sure, but I'm also interested in playing the ukulele, but not as much as the people in the group I played with, where that was all they did. It sometimes surprises me how all-encompassing hobbies are for other people, but maybe I'm the odd one out. If I could settle down and focus on something, maybe I'd actually get good at it. All those years of singing in church choirs did leave me with some fairly decent singing skills, so maybe that was my focus for years. That had a good blend of music and religion to satisfy a couple of my biggest interests. But even with that, after many years I started to lose interest, quit one choir, and rarely attended practice for the other one. It just seems like I would join a group, like the early music group I was in years ago, and then they would want me to commit all my free time to that. Now the Irish group is asking me if I want to go to Ireland this summer to study Irish. I mean, sure, in theory, but I used up a lot of vacation time on our recent trip, and I hate airplanes. I'm fine just putting in my few minutes a day on DuoLingo. Speaking of which, I have another brag:

I never asked to be in the leagues on DuoLingo, but somehow I ended up #1 in the top league. Yay me. What does this mean? It means I spend entirely too much time playing around on DuoLingo. Is it helping me understand conversations in Irish? After tonight, I'd have to say, "Not too much."

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