Trip recap... at least in part

I arrived in Milwaukee on a Thursday night, spent the evening upgrading Mom's computer to OS X, and then went with her to Madison first thing the next morning. For April in Wisconsin, it was incredible -- sunny, beautiful, temperature easily in the 80's. We dropped our things off at the hotel -- our room was on the Capitol Square, with a great view. Why didn't Ken and I stay in this place when we visited a couple of years ago? Possibly because this hotel cost four times as much as the Red Roof Inn on the edge of town and we just wanted a place to sleep, but really, I think a visitor should stay on the square with a view of the Capitol like a giant alabaster moon. It was lovely.

We walked down State Street, through campus -- the lakeshore path, the Allen Centennial Gardens, the new construction -- and wandered down to Hilldale Mall for the traditional Friday fish fry. I got a Bucky Badger Celebriduck at the University Bookstore, despite my aversion to Celebriducks.

After dinner, we finally came to the reason that I rescheduled my trip (originally planned for Mothers' Day weekend, when you'd generally expect better weather): the UW-Madison Neon and Light Show. Held every other year, this was one of my favorite events when I was in college, and I wanted to return to see it again. Unfortunately, they'd given in to the uncertainties of April weather and simply scheduled it indoors -- in past years, they used to have it outside on Library Mall, which added an extra level of eerie surrealism. The Stock Pavilion is used mostly for showing animals and hosting the occasional concert; it's an indoor arena with stadium-type seating and sawdust on the floor.

As we crossed the bridge from the bus stop to the pavilion, I could see inside both the lower level, where Holsteins were lounging in their stalls, and the main level, where neon artwork gleamed through the windows. I took quite a few pictures inside, but I haven't processed them to put online yet. They don't quite capture the atmosphere of being inside an arena lit only by the neon artwork, but there are a few cool things.

Unfortunately it was a bit crowded and stuffy inside, and once we'd done the rounds a couple of times I was more than ready for some fresh air. It was a gorgeous night, warm and a little breezy, and though I'd never planned to walk all the way back to the Capitol square that's what we ended up doing. We climbed to the top of Bascom Hill and took in the city view, then walked down State Street again, this time taking in the night scene with everyone hanging out in the outdoor seating areas (at night! in April!). When we got back to the Square, instead of going inside the hotel we just sat and watched the lit-up Capitol building and the students still sprawled out on the lawns. Maybe we should go inside and swim at the hotel pool, I thought... but no, it was just too beautiful. Eventually the wind kicked up with a sudden chill and drove us inside.

And that's where I come to the picture. You never thought I'd reach the picture, did you? There were thunderstorms every night I was in Wisconsin, but they always came late and were gone by the next (warm, sunny, summery) morning. The first night, I set up my little camera and tried to catch a lightning flash. If I'd thought of it quickly when the storm began, I'd probably have gotten a good one, because visible streaks of lightning were flashing everywhere for the first ten or fifteen minutes. I tried a bunch of different exposures, but the shot of the Capitol through the rain on the window was probably the best thing I got.

( Here's a few more, though... )

Weight of stuff

I think my poison oak is gone. Finally. The poison oak I contracted on March 20th, after a year and a half of frolicking through fields of triple leaflets gloating about my immunity. Six weeks of itching later, I can tell you that almost nothing helps, except perhaps the sickly skin-toned Aveeno with oatmeal. It smells horrible and leaves your skin feeling tacky but it works. A little. For a while.

I just stabbed myself with a toothpick that had been bouncing around in my purse. God knows what might have been injected into my finger. I'm glad I'm getting my money's worth out of the tetanus shot I got at the end of 2002 -- the side-effects were horrendous, and I spent a few days regretting it, but within a couple of weeks of the shot I actually cut myself on some rusty barbed wire.

It's hot out again -- up to 92 this afternoon, if wunderground.com can be believed. It was windy, though, and we had a dew point of 36. 36! In Milwaukee, we'd call the 50's comfortable. It's a dry heat, indeed, but it was actually a relief to enter the cool, cement-walled depths of the library this morning.

I spent most of my weekend cleaning the apartment, which badly needed a vacuuming. You might not think it would take two days to vacuum a two-bedroom apartment, but I was trying to get everything out of the way first. I was mostly successful. I'm now down to an annoying little pile of stuff that has no real place. My usual reaction to the Little Pile of Stuff is to put it in a box and put the box in my closet, but I'm almost out of room in there. Hell, I'm almost out of room everywhere. I threw out a bunch of stuff in frustration, and made some extra room by moving my little three-drawer 'dresser' out of the closet and over by the sink/vanity, consolidating some boxes and putting empties in the patio closet, clearing off a shelf in the den that held games and puzzles we never play with and putting those in my newly-vacated closet space... but I'm still unhappy. I don't know if it's just that there's too much stuff, or too much of it is in boxes, or there's just nowhere FOR so much of it. The bookcases in the den are frustrating to me, because the shelves are so deep and high that my paperback books are dwarved in them. It's space, but I'm not sure it's useful space.

I also put a few things up on amazon.com; I've considered eBay, but I'm afraid nobody will bid. On Amazon, they have two months to buy your stuff. In fact, I sold my old digital camera this morning. I'm still trying to get rid of an old CD-RW drive and some books, but it's progress. What I'd really like to do is get rid of my two old computers. I'm resigned to having to recycle the iMac with the bad screen -- I want to give my mom the keyboard anyway. But I've got an old PowerMac and I'd be happier if I could find someone to give me a few bucks and take it away, rather than my having to pay for the privilege of tossing the thing. I'll have to clean the hard drive off in either case, so I'd especially like to make rather than lose money after all that work. The going price appears to be $20 if you're lucky. I bet none of the college students here are enterprising enough to take it and make it useful. When I was in college, I bought a Mac Plus with no hard drive and managed to make an 800K floppy containing system 6.0.2 and enough software to let me mud. With a little effort, I think this would be an entirely usable computer.

I'm just so sick of stuff. That, or I want more storage space so I don't feel so cramped with my little closetful of boxes. I can't decide which. I know I'm tired of obsolete computers and non-working vacuum cleaners and old shoes and clothes that don't fit and unsuitable presents. I've tried to reduce the amount of stuff in those boxes -- do I want this? do I really, really want this?. And in the end, for a lot of things, the answer is yes. Dammit. Well, the carpet looks a lot better vacuumed, and there isn't any crap lying on the floor (except in my closet, where I've piled the Little Pile of Stuff). That alone makes the place feel neater and more open. I'm going to try to do some more Tuesday, but for now, it's an improvement.