Occasionally, Tara or I will have a song stuck in our heads. Often without rhyme or reason. When this happens, we’ll have Alexa play it.
Last Thursday is a great example. As we were getting ready for work, Tara said, “Alexa, play ‘Suffer in Silence’ by The Frames.” This was a very out-of-left-field pick; we rarely listen to The Frames, Irish singer Glen Hansard’s band. The one song most people know is “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once. Anyway: we listened to the song, Tara left for work, and all was forgotten.
Until a few hours later, when I was scrolling through Facebook. I clicked on Memories, and the first thing that popped up?
Exactly 10 years earlier, we happened to see Glen Hansard play a show at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland.
To say this freaked me out is an understatement. If Glen Hansard or The Frames were in heavy rotation, that would be one thing. But I can’t remember the last time we gave ’em a spin. So, I immediately texted Tara, asking her what fresh sorcery was this?
I’ve written before about living in a simulation. And look, I’m not saying I actually believe all of this is pixels being controlled by a bunch of faceless, nameless overlords (probably some teenager whiling away his time in the basement). But I don’t not believe it either, you know? My life is absolutely swamped with bizarre “coincidences” like the Glen Hansard one. These things happen to me all the time: some obscure, seemingly random reference will pop into my head, out of the blue, with no apparent rhyme or reason. And then a day or two later, it will pop up again in some meaningful way in real life.
It’s impossible to make sense of any of this. I’ve seen ghosts, grew up reading The Berenstein Bears, was really bummed when Nelson Mandela died in prison in the ’80s, and have an uncanny ability for manifesting things out of thin air.
Oh, and my Fruit of the Loom underwear absolutely had a cornucopia logo on the tag.
Aurora Bor-e-Wow-Us
Last week was exhausting. I blame it on those pesky Auroras, robbing me of sleep two nights in a row.
I’m not really complaining, even if I ended up standing in a windswept field for over an hour both Tuesday and Wednesday night, my ungloved fingers half-frozen from the cold. They were absolutely magical, and we’re at the tail end of an 11-year solar maximum cycle, so enjoy them while you can.
The clouds were being a pain in the ass at times, but the Aurora still found a way to impress, each gap glowing bright red and green, making those gaps look like clouds.
Talk about a pharmaceutical-free mind trip. This would totally be my band’s debut album cover, by the way.
Chomp, chomp
This was one of our busier weekends in recent memory.
We spent most of Saturday in Madison. The weather was crazy-warm – 69°, what?! – and we wanted to take advantage by wandering around Willy Street, checking out some of the shops in one of the city’s more eclectic ‘hoods. Spent a couple of hours there before meeting up with blogging friend Shelly and her husband Tracy, who recently traded in the Airstream life for a home on a foundation instead of wheels, buying a house right here in Wisco. We’d met them last year when they were passing through, so it almost felt like meeting up with an old friend. Old as in known-you-for-awhile, not geez-you’re-gettin’-up-there-in-years, I should stress.
They invited us to check out their house and we were more than game. If you read Shelly, you know they are living in an apartment for six months while working on repairs and renovations to their home, which is to be expected with a 100 y/o property. So, they gave us the grand tour, and we were impressed. Sure, there’s work to be done, but the place has a ton of charm. And you can’t beat the location! They are within easy walking distance of a bunch of great restaurants, bars, and shops, so we hoofed it over to Harmony Bar & Grill for lunch and drinks. Took us all of six minutes.
Even though I’m not even close to being a vegetarian, I ordered The Famous Harmony Walnut Burger, because that’s what they’re known for and I’ve always been a “When in Rome” guy. I will always order a restaurant’s signature dish if they’ve got one! Per their menu, Our secret recipe has been made with love for 30 years! This vegetarian option is rich and delicious…Tell us what you want on it: lettuce, tomato, mayo, rosemary garlic, fried onions, raw onions.
Much to my kinda-amazement, I really liked the burger. Much to my even-bigger amazement, Tara really liked the burger. She tried a bite and declared it better than her traditional beef one.
After chatting for a couple of hours (these two are very easy to converse with), we bid farewell ’cause we had more stops to make. First up: Atomic Antiques. We might as well have opened up our wallets and shook out the contents the moment we stepped inside ’cause we sure didn’t have trouble finding things we just had to have.
One of those was not, fortunately, this monstrosity:
A giant ceramic crocodile mauling a hapless deer, its neck lodged in the reptilian beast’s jaws – though certainly a conversation-sparker – would simply clash with our current decor.
Next, it was onto Trader Joe’s because did you know Thanksgiving is next week?! We needed a turkey and stocked up on some of our TJ’s faves before heading home for the night.
Today, we drove to Janesville, hitting a bunch of stores and dropping an obscene amount of money on groceries. I don’t want to talk about it.
Came home and fired up the John Deere for one last ride before he goes into hibernation. No, the grass didn’t need cutting, but our neighbor was kind enough to let a shit ton of leaves from his maple blow into our already-thrice-raked yard. If I never see another rake again, it’ll be too soon, so today I said F it and mulched instead.
Oh, and did I mention it was 22° colder than yesterday and the wind was whipping up something fierce? So, it felt especially frigid. But at least now I can confidently say, that should be a wrap on yard work for the rest of the year.
Amen to that.
Are we living in a simulation? Did you see the Northern Lights last week? Is your yard work done for the year?
Mark My Words 
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