Where to begin ….

Feeling so behind and not sure where to start …

Looks like I last posted on March 25 – that was the Saturday we got a foot of snow between something like 2:00am and 11:00am, and I went off to work at the early voting during it. We were in this really nice back room at Lakeview Library, which is next door to the northside co-op.

We got into a bit of trash talking fellow election officials, but it was relatively good-natured. And I had a great crew on election day  – more on that in a minute. I got myself a coffee and a banana from the co-op, and a book from the library – not literature, but enjoyable, a kind of a rom-com going back and forth in time between WWII and 2008, and in space between Germany and Texas. The main character is a baker and the book came with recipes at the back, and on Wednesday morning I copied the ones I liked. I used the photocopier in the iSchool Library and there was an in-person class getting ready next door. An old-fashioned start to my morning, making paper copies and in-person classes, that could have happened 30 years ago when I was in grad school.

Pictures showing how melted off the snow was by about 5:30pm.

[portfolio_slideshow pagerpos=disabled size=large]

When I got home after my early voting shift, I made coconut-pineapple muffins and we had breakfast for dinner. Tried out these diner style pancakes with fizzy water in them.

The snowy Saturday was AFTER iSchool advising week when I had so many appointments followed by the 5 hour early voting shift that I made Mark go to Chicago by himself on Sunday. I spent most of the day grading then made chocolate pudding – using the recipe from Alice Medrich’s book, Pure Dessert, that’s got chopped chocolate as well as cocoa powder in it, so maybe just a tad too rich for what I was craving. Probably should of used the regular Betty Crocker cookbook, the ring binder style, pudding recipe. And I also made some almond macaroons trying to use up some almond paste I made back in January (for a friends wedding cake). I broke out Odense almond paste pignoli nut cookie recipe I always use at cookie season, and I left off the pignoli nuts. Without the bitterness of the pignolis, though, the cookies were also a bit too much – too sweet. Mark wouldn’t eat them and I ended up composting the last 10 or so.

Sunday night when Mark got home from Chicago I had eaten my pudding and macaroons, and was watching the premiere of Succession, and he seemed a bit put out even though it only had about 20 minutes to go, and I moved down the couch to my regular spot, leaving him his regular spot.

Then Monday was my brother David’s birthday, but his birthday ride’s not till April 15 this year. I worked a full day in the office and took some of the muffins in to share. I think I walked in and bussed home.

I did courier shifts, short shifts where you go pick up the ballots, on Monday, 3/27 (Dave’s Birthday), and the following Thursday and Friday. The notable thing about Monday – after we’d been trash talking our fellow officials on Saturday – was that the two women working at the site had obviously been fighting all day over how to handle all the administrivia – does the label printer go in the laptop bag or loose in the tote, which time sheet to sign, are initials OK. My last one on Friday was the most deluxe courier shift. The weather was stormy so I decided to drive, and I went from the underground parking under the building where my office is to the underground parking at Union South to pick up the ballots. I could’ve left my coat in the car. And the parking only cost $1.

On Wednesday, I worked an early voting shift (same as the snowy Saturday), In Person Absentee Voting – IPAV – at the local community college. They had some kind of gas leak and when we got there the building was closed, but came back in time for us to open at 11:00. The library and cafe never opened, and we only had 4 votes all day. My Monday courier shift with the arguing women was a pretty low number of votes, too, but my Thursday and Friday shifts at more central locations with no gas leaks were in the hundreds.

Tuesday was food pantry then Jasper care, and then I went to the Subaru dealer where I’m leasing a Crosstrek, and drove a Solterra, their all-electric vehicle. After, I started thinking maybe I’m not ready for all electric given the lack of charging stations – and the price – it’s basically a $50,000 car although I get a good trade in plus a tax credit. But I think I’ll call back soon and ask what they can do for me on my trade-in, and see if I can buy the Solterra, or maybe a new Crosstrek (sadly they’re phasing out the hybrids so I can’t get one of those) or maybe buy out my lease. Then in a few years I can get a new car, preferably electric, and I’ll have something to sell instead of just a lease to give back.

Saturday, April Fool’s Day, we went to Loonapalooza, Loon the Juggler’s retirement party at the Children’s Museum. It was really fun and I got to be in charge of passing out the flying monkeys, but also kind of broke my heart. There were so many people there I knew from so many contexts, from all my years of doing so many Madison things, WORT, Willy Street Co-op board, Survival Graphics, driving a cab, my supper club, working at UW, the protests in 2011, taking my kids to soccer. I mean Loon was my phone answerer at WORT when I did my show. Just being on the scene. And now with my knee and getting old, I’m not out there. Somewhere I have a picture of me and Loon at the 2011 protests. I was banging on an oatmeal carton (that had been filled with cookies when I arrived, and turned into a drum after the cookies were eaten) and here’s that.

Before Loonapalooza, I had to go to Film Fest training and then listen to the Chief Inspector zoom for the election, then go pick up the tote of all the supplies, then the 2nd shift Chief came over so we could go through the tote and tab the poll books. It was a lot of trainings with people asking convoluted questions that seemed to be designed to show off how much they knew rather than elicit actual information that we all could use. Whew.

Sunday we went to Chicago for an overnight, for the opera, Carmen, and met John and Megan at this Indian joint in the West Loop, Rooh. The food was really good, the cocktails were strong, and I discovered that not only do Al and Emma still watch WWE Wresting, and dress Jasper for the part, so does John. We talked about breaking our phones, and carrying around busted phones – that becomes significant later, hold that thought.

Waking up in Chicago Monday morning, and the train station is still the train station.

 

Mark stayed over another night, Monday, to see the Saint Matthew Passion at Harris Theater, but I had to come back on the bus to be in Madison to open the polls on Tuesday morning, election day. I was thinking that everything was perfectly easy: I caught the bus at Amtrak, and had time to stop for coffee and a doughnut on the way. There’s an 8:00am from downtown now, don’t have to shlep out O’Hare to catch it the way I did when we had the apartment and Mark was working for ALA.  But we stopped at O’Hare and the bus filled up and I had to share a seat the rest of the way. The wifi was too sucky to work anyways, so I just read my book on my phone and saved my doughnut and ate it with a banana and fresh coffee when I got home.

I had a couple of meetings and baked Cowboy cookies, a double batch of my small batch, got a fair amount of sleep, and got the polls open OK on Tuesday morning, and worked until almost 2:00. We were a little short staffed so whenever I wanted to rotate people through jobs I had to go fill in on one of the jobs. When I got home, I dropped my phone in the garage and broke the glass, so that’s the broken phone connection. At least the election had a good outcome for liberals, both in the WI Supremem Courtt and Chicago mayor. With he creepy subtext that the WI legislature has a Republican super majority that can do a lot of damage.

After working the polls, I drove out to the far east side for the first  of my rehabilitative PT sessions, and the therapist said because of how much pain I still have, she thought she should call sports med and ask about a follow up x-ray or MRI. We proceeded as if it was healing and I got new exercises. And it all seemed pretty positive to me. Until I got a message in MyChart (medical app) from the sports med doc when I was at Colectivo with Susan, we’ve started walking there instead of driving, since my knee is supposed to be better. The message was to back off on activity, cancel the 1-3 miles per day I’ve been walking, and go back on crutches like the way I was in February. Don’t need the frikkin’ sticks for walking around inside at home, I can use them for going up and down the stairs, and if I go anyplace, I’ll have to crutch around outside. I also have a follow up MRI next Tuesday. Shucks. So we walked home, and I got out the crutches and I’ve been using them since. I wonder if I’ll be able to volunteer at the Film Fest next week.

Our big remodel job, siding repair & insulation & painting, and build a screen porch on top of the addition off the back of the house, is proceeding in fits and starts. The carpenters started with the siding right away March 20th, and peeled off various bits of the house. Then the insulators got Covid – I blame spring break – and the insulation got pushed back, we thought for a whole week, but they showed up all of a sudden the following Thursday. I went out in my pajamas and boots and moved Mark’s car to a parking spot a few streets away. But then the insulators found knob & tube wiring in the walls, and stopped until an electrician could come and yank it out. Stalled again. Our project manager brought over an electrician Monday but still no idea when the yanking will start.

Meanwhile the screen porch is stalled because evidently the addition is one foot too close to the lot line, and even though it’s in the back where hardly anyone can see it, and it’s been that way for 80 years, we can’t build on top of it without jumping through hoops. Our application to the landmarks commission needs to wait until we first apply for a zoning waiver because of the one foot encroachment. So now in addition to the dumpster and the porta potty in the front yard, there’s a big sign “Notice of Public Hearing” for the zoning waiver. I feel bad for the house. It’s got all these parts of siding peeled off with Tyvek and tape patches, and all this junk in the front of it, plus we’ve had a a foot of snow and crazy thunderstorms and high winds, making the Tyvek flap.

Speaking of Passover, the 2nd dessert for our 3rd night sedar, a rhubarb strawberry crisp with matzoh streusel, is in the oven and I guess I better go wash the rest of the dishes. The other dessert, flour-less chocolate cake with meringue in and on top, got a little burnt on top. I think it’ll be ok with a whipped cream cover-up job.

Pics of desserts from Friday morning when the light’s better.

Hoping April is not the cruelest month, or unlucky, as it seems so often to be.