The Corona Diaries Vol 38: The Kids Back Then Knew the Game of Fisticuffs

(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.

I haven’t been out on a long trek in a couple weeks and my two-wheeled journeys have mainly been to run errands and then take a really circuitous route back home. On one such ride I went down a street I’d never been on before (which is really an alley) and found this lovely tall grass.

On a bus ride last week, I noticed a Trachte shed that I had never seen before so I made a point to get a photograph of it when I went to the pet food store which is only 2 or 3 blocks away.

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:

I am not sure what kind of duck we have here. Rare species? A common one just passing through on its way down south?

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.

Wondering if there might be more, I began walking around the school. Almost immediately I discovered that it still has a fallout shelter sign next to a disused entryway which was filled in at some point.

Capacity was 100.

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.

Before Marquette wintered in what would become Chicago in 1674, he and Joliet traveled to Green Bay and paddled the Fox River south until they could paddle no more and portaged the rest of the way to the Wisconsin River. The area where they lugged their canoe is now a city called – quelle surprise! – Portage and is about 30 miles north of Madison.

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:

It appears that they taught pugilism in gym class back in the day.

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.

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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.

A week or so ago we went to a restaurant called Ahan. My Frau had been there previously but I had not. It’s mainly Laotian-Thai food but with some Chinese and Vietnamese thrown in for good measure as the chef is ethnically Laotian, Vietnamese, and Chinese.

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?

I had 2 options: tofu or breaded & fried chicken. I opted for the latter despite it sounding very odd. Indeed, I’d never heard of such a thing. But it’s not like I am a Thai culinary expert. Perhaps that is a trendy method of preparation back in the homeland.

The Verdict: 2^nd 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.

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My most recent trip to the movies was to see this:

I’d never seen any of director Julia Ducournau’s previous films and went on the strength of it being described as twisted and disturbing. And so it was.

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.

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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.