The Corona Diaries Vol. 25: Frisson From Finally Getting Flooring!

Early July 2021

I am very pleased to say that, as I type, we finally have a kitchen floor!

It's not quite finished – the base, transitions, and end cap have yet to be installed – but we have a floor and the appliances are back from whence they came. And the removal of all the old asbestos flooring has left a ¾" gap between the door and the kickplate so I need to buy a door sweep otherwise the cats will be extremely busy hunting down intruding mice, chipmunks, and all manner of critter. It's been over 2 months since the old floor went away. Soon we can use the new dishwasher. The end of this saga is nigh. I can taste it!

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One evening a couple of weeks ago, neither the Frau nor I wanted to cook so we decided to go out for dinner. She was keen on Mexican food but where to go? We no longer had a Mexican restaurant nearby. El Poblano used to be just a few blocks away and I think I noted in an earlier entry that they closed shortly after the pandemic started and left town. To our shame, we hadn't taken the time over the past 15 months to visit them at their new home with their new name, Las 3 Hermanas. Well, if the tacos and enchiladas won't come to us, the we will go to the tacos and enchiladas. Thusly we headed out to the town of Marshall to check out the new version of an old favorite. 

Marshall is a small town about 15 miles east of Madison and it's a beautiful drive through rolling hills and past multiple horse farms (and Georgia O'Keeffe's birthplace) down County T to get there. I used to have friends who lived there so I was a frequent visitor back in c.2002-2006. One of those friends was a Polish guy who originally hailed from Milwaukee's south side and we'd have Polock Fests which entailed drinking too much beer and bourbon as we made large batches of pierogi from scratch.

Las 3 Hermanas is on Main Street and was easy to find. My understanding is that it is owned by a couple and the wife, Diana, remembered us as we walked in. We chatted for a while as our food was being prepared. I am pleased to report that, despite the change in location, there has been no change in the tastiness quotient.

I looked at the cooler and was happy to see that a favorite of mine, chocolate flan, was available for dessert. So I ordered some to go. Seeing as this was our first visit to the new location, Diana made it a 2-for-1 deal which was most pleasing to our sweetteeth.

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After our trip to Dubuque, I found that I had the Mississippi River on my mind. This being the case, I figured I should, like any good Midwesterner, endeavor to know a bit about the mythic river that figures so prominently in our region's – indeed, our country's - history. I had my local purveyor of books order a copy of this for me:

I have not yet started it as I am still reading this:

Derleth lived in Sauk City, about 25 miles northwest of Madison, on the western shore of the Wisconsin River which flows into the Mississippi about 80 miles to the west. His tales here take place in the fictional town of Sac Prairie and its inhabitants. Sac Prairie is an amalgamation of Sauk City and the adjacent town of Prairie du Sac. I greatly enjoyed his nature observations, such as the migration of birds or the inhabitants of nearby wetlands. But the character sketches were a mixed bag, to my taste. Some were really neat and I could relate to the trails and tribulations experienced by the people in them and/or find great empathy for some of the characters as they struggle with loneliness and aging. Other sketches reeked of gossip and were less interesting to me.

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I've been to the cinema a couple times recently.

First, the Frau and I went to see Summer of Soul, a documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival. These were concerts held on Saturdays from late June through August 1969 at Mount Morris Park in Harlem. While the performances were videotaped, the tapes languished in a vault for decades until they were dusted off for this movie. (More or less. I have seen Sly and the Family Stone's set floating around bootleg trading circles so collector types like me have seen some of it already.) There were many great moments and a lot of fantastic music in the movie but a couple scenes really stood out for me.

One was when Mahalia Jackson invited a young Mavis Staples onstage to sing "Precious Lord". It was simply wonderful and brought tears to my eyes. The other was Nina Simone's performance. While I do not know a whole lot about her, I get the distinct impression she did not suffer fools gladly and gave no quarter. Not only did she perform music, but she also read a poem and it was some potent stuff which, I guess, isn't surprising considering those volatile times. The poem was "Are You Ready?" by David Nelson, a member of the earliest incarnation of The Last Poets, a proto-hip hop spoken word group. Hearing and seeing Simone say, "Are you ready to kill if necessary?" sent a chill down my spine.

The second movie I saw was a screening of the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three down on campus. 

I don't recall if I'd ever seen it before but it's got Robert Shaw in it so I had to go. It was an old scratchy print which was almost a meta commentary on New York in the early 1970s. I found it to be a lot of fun and was much funnier than its reputation as a pure thriller would suggest. The gentleman who runs the cinematheque on campus noted that he contributed commentary to the Blu-ray release of the movie a few years ago.

On my way to the screening, I saw that the university's theater department was putting on a performance of Rashomon.

It is one of my favorite films of all-time and a good short story as well so I shall be going to see it.

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The bonus photo today is a pair of "headless" ducks. I presume they got their breakfast.