Tilting at windmills

One of the things we can see on a clear day, besides forever, is the wind farm on the northwest side of Madison. We used to see it when we came to town via Highway 12, and now from the apartment we see the big windmills about eight miles away.

I mentioned that on our visit to view the apartment back in October, although the view is wonderful, I was a little disappointed we could not see the state Capitol. Now that we are here, I have discovered that if you know exactly where to look you can just see it, about five miles away, almost hidden by a hill.

One reason I mention this is that the wind farm is generating energy for Wisconsin. The state Capitol, on the other hand, is generating lots of hot wind these days, but no constructive energy.

Sixteen random facts

As I begin another year, I thought I would share some random facts about Your Obedient Servant, sixteen facts in honor of 2016.

1. According to my Fitbit, in 2015 I walked well over seven and a half million steps, about 3,400 miles.
2. I have a secret.
3. I have had my driver license since I was fourteen (over fifty years), have never been involved in an accident and have received only one citation -- for not coming to a complete halt at a Stop sign on a frontage road in Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas at one o'clock in the morning in 1972. The ticket cost me ten dollars.
4. Political talk shows annoy me. Okay, they drive me crazy. Right-wing or left-wing, doesn't matter. Trust me, this is not my secret. And call-in radio programs on any topic annoy me. This is a character defect.
5. Most people make the wrong assumption(s) about my religious beliefs.
6. I cannot bend the second and third toes on my left foot. The muscles were cut when I stepped on a broken jar in a leaf pile at the age of three.
7. For two years in the monastery, I slept on a blanket on a board without a mattress.
8. I'm not crazy, although my mother never had me tested. The Discalced Carmelites did, however, as part of the application and admissions process.
9. I worked as a prison guard the summer between freshman and sophomore years in university. (Do not do this.)
10. In my teens, I had a flying squirrel as a pet. Actually, I had two of them but not at the same time.
11. The clinic where I was born in Gainesville, Georgia later became a church. Just sayin'.
12. I walked without crawling first.
13. I can compose lyrics to familiar melodies on the spot, with rhyme and meaning. I often do this spontaneously, to the bemusement (not amusement) of those around me.
14. Although I only studied Latin for two years in high school, I later tutored doctoral students for their Latin comprehensive exam.
15. I walked the entire length of the fourteen-mile East Bay Bike Path in Rhode Island one day at the end of my sabbatical at Brown University in 1994. 
16. I was in a liturgical dance group in 1984-1985 while a student at St. Louis University.