May 1, 2010

The bike pub crawl that I had developed with great assistance from FAQ commenced. The number of attendees was modest, about 10, and we began the ride by having a cup of Revolution Roast coffee at my house. We biked to Forest Lawn Cemetery where we visited the Confederate's Rest, the section of the cemetery where Confederate soldiers that had passed away while at Camp Randall where laid to rest. We then proceeded to the LaFollette lot; and I drank some Spanish wine over Bob Sr's grave.

From the cemetery, we biked to the Memorial Union by way of the lakeshore bike trails, and we rode past my old freshman dorm room. After some pitchers of beer on the Terrace, we made a quick visit to the State Historical Society to see the refurbishing of the spacious reading room on the second floor - excellent job, and viewed some of the documents from the labor library. I spoke to our party about the time I visited in 2008 and they had a display on the 75th anniversary of Social Security in that the main architect of this program was Edwin Witte, an economics professor plucked by the Roosevelt Administration to develop this program. It also had the first unemployment compensation check that was made out to some guy who lived on Doty Street, just as Wisconsin was the first state to develop Worker's (Workman's in 1911) Compensation.

We ate and drank at Amy's Cafe where we first witnessed drunken attendants from the neighboring Mifflin St block party; a lot of drunks at noon. Finished with lunch, we biked up State Street, past the Capitol, and stopped at The Bayou bar for some more refreshments. At this time, I attempted to wear my red banner for the May Day celebration. The cloth banner was given to me to wear from one of the attendees who worked in military intelligence during the 1980's and brought this banner back from a visit to Yugoslavia. It had yellow lettering that read in Yugoslavian "workers of the world unite." The winds did not bode well for the worker's banner, as I had to take it off as the wind was blowing it in my face during the ride.

We stopped for a very nice visit to Just Coffee Coop where we were served complimentary coffee in honor of our event and we were given a tour of the building. We then stopped at Mickey's Tavern and the Ohio Tavern. The Malt House was out of Summit's India Rye Ale, but the Scurvy IPA was good. On to Dexter's where we had some food and more fine beers. Our last stop was at the Italian Workmen's Club on Regent Street where we had some Cava to end the night at about midnight.

April 17, 2010

We had two families visit for the Badger Spring Football Game. We had a bunch of pizzas and beer and rum drinks for the adults. We attended the kids' fair first at the athletic facility adjacent to the stadium. It was a nice time, but we could not garner enough influence to be allowed into the closed line to have a photo with Bucky; he's quite a popular guy.

The game was pretty lackluster. Barry looks good, but I swear he was wearing a girdle; perhaps he read my prior entry from 2009 were I thought he looked like a red buddha cross field. Bret is looking better, also, but I am sure if we all had a stable of young women, we would all look fit.

April 8, 2010

I first learned that Noam Chomsky would be in town this morning. I decided to see him at the Orpheum theater. I arrived on State Street to see quite a line; it wrapped around the block and spilled into a parking garage; quite a difference from the crowd when I last saw him in 1989 around the same time.

I decided to stay to see if I would be able to get since I made the effort to attend. I saw a professor of German language and film whom I took a class from on the history of German film; still looks the same, just a bit more gray in the beard and on top of the head. I hadn't seen him since 1990, unless one counts seeing him on the DVD of Heimat for which he did the introduction to the film/mini-series.

The Orpheum looks about the same as the last time I was there, I think that was 1993. Noam looks still as strong and intense as ever, although his gait and posture does give away his age a bit. His speech was interesting and thought-provoking and he spoke quite a bit about the Spanish Civil War and the Weimar Republic, touching on some parallels of note for the current political climate of the US. I was happy to see that he shared the same sympathy for the TEA party movement as I have fostered; you have to empathize with this group of people even if they are fed by nefarious sources; wages as a whole in the US has decreased in the past 30 years, while taxes have not. People can't bite their employer's hands, so they bite the hand of least resistance, the government.

The Q and A period was prefaced with the stern words that if a person at the microphone begins to extend their question to what appears to be in the slightest and attempt to proselytize/polemicize, then the mic would be cut immediately. I stayed for a few questions, then left to beat the rush; there were at least 2,000 people there, standing room only.

April 1, 2010

Our first day of 80 degree weather for the year. Cooked out with F and Q. We had shrimp. After dinner, we began to plot our May Day bike ride.

March 23, 2010

I saw a flock of cedar waxwings today, traversing the trees lining the street to the building where I work. Neat little birds, look sort of like cardinals, but a bit smaller.

March 18, 2010

On my morning bike ride to work, I labored at my most strenuous section of the route as I always do. It is a strip of road where Island Drive turns into Inner Drive. It does not look like much of anything to the eye, but the illusion unfolds as you proceed for about a half-mile of continuous grade that plateaus twice. One of the plateaus is near a public swimming pool. It is just beyond the pool that I encountered a flock of turkeys crossing the road. It caught me by surprise, and even more to my surprise when one of the turkeys, whom I thought were all hens, transformed into a tom and began to chase me on my bike. At first, I wondered what I would do to defend myself, as anyone who has ever encountered one of these birds before knows that they can be fearless and aggressive, however, before the thought could finish, the tom was on his way with the hens.

Later in the Cap Times, there was an article on a turkey colliding with a Badger bus on the interstate, smashing into its windshield, and resulting in the bus having to be replaced and returned for repairs.

I saw my first robin today.

March 15, 2010

Karen and I had our first sighting of the chipmunks; they have arisen from their winter repose, just as obnoxious as ever. I hope they remember the fate of their fellow comrade last October that tried to obtain all the riches of food located in our garage, but ended up dead.

I completed our Census form.