Songs of Ourselves

Sunday was an interesting day. It began with us taking a friend from Reedsburg to the airport in Madison to catch a plane to visit a friend in Texas, near Dallas. (I forgot to mention that he was going to Texas when I talked to Mama and Daddy.)

Then we went to Half-Price Books where Tom found a couple of things he liked. I didn't get anything there, but at Barnes & Noble I found one of the Portable Professor series courses on sale for $10, marked down from the usual $40. Since it was one I had not heard, I snapped it up.

It is Songs of Ourselves: Walt Whitman and the Dawn of Modern American Poetry, eight lectures by Karen Karbiener of New York University. I am looking forward to it.

Tom may be doing some regular conducting at the railroad this summer (on staff, not just volunteering), so we spent some time looking for cargo Wranglers for his "uniform", but without any luck. Jack, the main conductor, wears a real conductor's outfit, but Tom doesn't want to have to wear a tie. Since he gets dirty anyway, this is another excuse not to go the white shirt and jacket route. His compromise is to dress like a worker-cum-engineer, which is good since he does all sorts of grubby stuff around the place and volunteers as an engineer, too. At any rate, no cargo jeans on the horizon at the moment.

When we got home around four we found a message from another friend who wanted to come chat. He is dealing with some major stuff and that conversation wound up lasting into and through supper.

So far this morning, we have had no crisis calls from friends or family. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

On the weather front, we are expecting some snow today and the temps will drop to below zero. Over the course of the next few days it will stay near or below zero all the time. Wind chills later in the week may get to forty below.

And you thought that was just an expression!