We started off my birthday celebrations with a party on Friday. On Saturday we went to the Farmers Market and bought probably too much food for people who were going away on both Sunday and Thursday.
On Saturday night Madison got over 2 inches of rain, but the basement mostly stayed dry, thanks to the landscaping we had done last fall. The east side of the basement, Al’s old room, where it used to leak really badly stays dry, and now it just seeps on the driveway side. Where we had all the junk hauled away, also last fall.
Basement pano. Room for band practice again.
Parts of Milwaukee got way more rain than Madison, especially West Allis where the baseball stadium is and ‘Tosa.
Flooded interstate on the way to the Brewers
Flooded Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa WI
Meanwhile we sopped up what leakage we had and headed to Chicago. We had lunch at Little Goat, the one up on Southport because they closed their West Loop location that we could’ve walked to from the train. Instead we Uber-ed up to Old Town. Mark had their This Little Piggie, eggs and sausage and a biscuit, that I’d had at the West Loop and didn’t like so much because that day they put a lot of 5-spice powder in the sausage and it was too anis-y for me. I had their Bullseye French Toast, challah French toast with a toad in the hole egg making the bullseye, and crispy chicken tenders. I think I’d like to try making it at home, minus the tenders. Bacon instead.
Oh, yea and Mark had a milkshake. Mocha flavor.
Then we stopped at the big Whole Foods on Ashland where Rose Records used to be, to get sandwiches & fruit for after the show.
Our big entertainment of the night was an outdoor concert with Wilco at the Salt Shed, our new favorite big venue. It was just really great to sit outside and watch Wilco and look off to see the Chicago River and the Sears Tower. Some of these pictures are mine and the rest are from WBEZ, the more horizontal ones.
They’re calling these shows An Evening with Wilco and they do about 30 songs in two sets, no opening act. We got the Dead’s US Blues for the final encore. I’m sure the setlist was similar in Pittsburgh where they were a few nights before, but you still feel like the favored audience seeing Wilco in their home town Chicago.
Wilco, 8-10-2025. Here’s Pittsburgh on the 6th.
Altogether a great night until I slipped on the stairs on the way out and really bruised up my leg.
My bruised leg on Friday at the Denver zoo, as all the bruising is coming to the surface. There’s a big one on my thigh as well bu I’m not showing that to anyone.
We got bagels from Gotham on the way to the train on Monday morning, my actual birthday, and got home about 3:00 and to find that despite getting about 3/4 inch more rain on Sunday, the basement was basically dry. So all good. For dinner we had egg salad sandwiches made from leftover deviled egg filling and the whites that broke, and veggies & dill dip, and leftover birthday cake. Mark gave me a few small but nice presents, like a Japanese folding cloth for wrapping food, a Furoshiki, and a really nice travel umbrella.
I guess a theme of turning 70 has been feeling a bit banged up. I had a cold sore scab in my upper lip for the party and that’s still red a week later, I have a big dark bruise on my right arm I think for the corner of a box of books, and some little dings on my left arm. And of course the massive bruises from my fall at Salt Shed. Wednesday I just felt out of sorts, but somehow Thursday I got the drugs adjusted and felt OK.
Tuesday I volunteered at the UW Library, Wednesday I had Jasper, and Thursday we set off for Denver.
Getting ready to leave for Denver. We flew out of Madison, a treat, no getting up at omigod in the morning to drive to Milwaukee or Chicago to catch the plane, and it was an uneventful trip overall, even though I woke up in the night and started wondering what happens if your plane gets struck by lightning.
Thursday afternoon we did our traditional walk for coffee to Honey Hill.
We’re here to see Rowan, who’s two and his new baby brother, Callan.
Friday, our first full day here, we went to the zoo. I stopped to sit on a chair and that’s when I saw all the bruising on my calf. In a way I was almost relieved because the extent of my leg bruising reassures me that all my feeling not quite right since then is because of that not some other new bad health issue.
We rode the train.
And all of Mark’s pictures of animals came out better than mine.
