(early October 2021)
It seems
only a week ago that trees were merely tinged with yellow, red, and
orange and that my sidewalk was more or less leaf-free. But now, when I take a
peek out my living room window, it looks like it’s snowing out there with
leaves falling by the hundreds when there’s a breeze turning my sidewalk a sea
of yellow. In preparation for winter, I went out and bought a roof rake. We had
really bad ice damns last year with water coming through the soffit out front
and even through the front porch’s light fixture. No water came in the house,
that I noticed, but I’d still like to not have sheets of ice on the front porch
and front door’s screen like last winter.
Even though
the trees are becoming barer by the day, the weather has been fairly temperate lately so
I’ve been able to get out on my bicycle. Here’s a scene from one of our
neighborhood's parks just before the colors started to change.
On my way
there I crossed the Yahara River and noticed many ducks swimming below on what
was a beautiful day. In addition to many a mallard, I saw this one:
So I got my
shed picture and was making my way to purchase some succulent tuna when I decided to get some photos of
the reliefs on the elementary/middle school I was riding by. Although I lived a
block away from it for 6 years, I’d never documented all the animal reliefs near the
east entrance.
There were
ducks, frogs, fish, and my beloved cats.
Going over
to one of the entrances on the older building, I found the datestone – 1939. (There’s
another wing which was added in 1961.) Looking up, I discovered that there were
more reliefs just below the roofline with one of the man whom the school was originally
named after, Père Marquette, in the center.
From there
they made their way to the Mississippi River. Today one can see the confluence
of the two great rivers from bluffs in Wyalusing State Park, one of our state's grandest.
Continuing my way around the building, I found another set of Marquette and company reliefs above the other main entrance. At the opposite end of that side were more animals adorning the walls. The gymnasium must have been on this side of the building at one point (perhaps it still is) because reliefs illustrating various sports dotted this side. In addition to activities you’d expect like basketball, there was this one:
I eventually got to the cat food store and stocked up on skipjack tuna and shrimp cat chow. However, my little venture investigating the school’s reliefs meant that I didn't get home until past 5 o’clock and so I got the look from Marilyn/Grabby that appeared in an earlier entry.
********
Food!
In a past entry,
I noted how my Frau and I have made the last Tuesday of the month Taco Tuesday with
a trip to nearby Marshall and Las 3 Hermanas. On the last TT I had these tasty
tacos.
My late,
great brother Carl was a big fan of Thai food and, if my memory serves, I
believe one of his favorite dishes was tom kha gai, a coconut soup. While I
enjoy it, I am partial to tom yum soup. Truth be told, I think it is one of the
best foods ever devised by humanity. Some kind of gustatory magic is conjured when you put
lemongrass, lime leaves, chili paste, and fish sauce together. Its spicy piquancy is undergirded by umami and I just cannot
get enough of this incredible ingesta.
My favorite
in town is at Ha Long Bay which the Frau and I used to live 3 blocks from. The joint has remained incredibly popular during the pandemic. It's nightly packed dining room and an entryway perpetually populated with several diners waiting for a table or takeout are the stuff of Anthony Fauci's nightmares. So how would Ahan’s take on it
measure up?
The Verdict:
2nd best in town. The broth was really, really tasty. Perfectly tangy
with just a little chili heat. I could drink it by the gallon. Perhaps even as
good as Ha Long Bay’s. But the breaded chicken, although it tasted fine, was
just out of place. It was as if someone played a cruel joke and made Paula Dean
guest chef that day. I will definitely try it again but with tofu.
********
My most
recent trip to the movies was to see this:
It concerns
a young woman named Alexia who was involved in a car accident as a girl which
left her with a metal plate in her head. Well, she becomes a murderer. While on
the lam, she adopts the identity of a boy who went missing several years ago
and would now be roughly her age. Oh, and this happens after she has
"sex" with a car.
The missing
boy's father is so desperate that he accepts her as his long lost son. He is
what I guess we'd call a first responder. She accompanies him on his job. We
then find out that Alexia is pregnant.
Like I said,
it is pretty twisted and was a fine intro to the Halloween movie season.
********
The bonus photo this time is photos. A then and now pair of an intersection downtown Madison. I think the first photo is from the 30s sometime.
No comments:
Post a Comment