Well, good morning... in These titles mean nothing.

Trip to LaCrosse went pretty well.
We crossed the Lansing bridge - the new one is being built just north of the old one and it’s always fun to cross the old one. When I was a kid it was closed because of flood damage and it was a big thing when it reopened in the mid-1960s.

The doctor thing was ok. He put a ‘spaghetti-diameter’ (his words, not mine) camera on a string down my nose - I had to keep lifting my chin so he could see around the corner. He had determined nothing much was wrong before seeing me - he’d seen cat scans, etc. and I’d had a sonogram of it 15 years ago. Since I have no symptoms, etc. etc. etc. He wants a fresh ultrasound and I can get that in Decorah tomorrow. I go to Decorah by myself. I could go to LaCrossse alone too, but I like having someone with me and Jim has this curiosity as well. Plus I hate getting lost in big medical places.

Interestingly enough - he said if I needed my thyroid removed they could just do it when they fixed the aneurism and replaced the valve. A few extra snips I suppose.

Also interestly enough - the two receptionists at the counter were male, one was new and the other was advising him. That was kinda cute. The new one had an Irish name and he was fresh and helpful. Fresh in a good way.

Then we had lunch at the Bodega. We are still in recovery from the closing of Fayze’s and we haven’t found a place that’s downtown and has good, not too expensive food, and a bit of atmosphere. The Bodega has atmosphere up the yin-yang. It’s old. It’s the only place my father would eat ‘out’ at. In those days it was a cafeteria and he liked seeing what he was going to get. It’s been through several incarnations - there was a period that my own family went there quite a bit. No longer a cafeteria, it had blue and white checked table clothes and Bloody Marys that came with a little glass of beer - I know that’s not special but it was to me at the time.

I once had a dream about meeting Richard Nixon at the Bodega. He was sitting at a big table at the 90 degree angle where the entry bar met the cafeteria part. The huge gold framed mirror was behing him and the equally huge brass branched light fixture was above him. I of course was surprised to see him in my dream and I thought wow, maybe I should go over and have a few words with him. He seemed to be alone. I remember asking him if there was anything he regretted about his presidential career - I was too polite to mention the criminal stuff. He said he regretted loosening up welfare - the effects weren’t what he’d planned. To a certain degree my dream was right - I think - after the Vietman war was over the government had extra money and he decided to give it to poor people. Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway there in my dream, in the Bodega in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, that’s what he said.

We sat in the bar part against the windows and watched traffic. I had a hamburger and a peach cider - was quite good.

Then we went to the book store just around the corner. The owner, Beth, met us at the door with face masks. She said she was requiring them on Mondays, perhaps as a political act. She’s recently had an independent book store event and had what she thought was 2000!!!! people and she’d had them wear masked. To be honest I found the mask kind of cumbersome and was glad to remove it after I got back outside. I did get a copy of Ian Frazier’s Siberia book. And a late novel by Joseph Heller called Portait of the Artist as an Old Man, ha ha ha, and a book about the Depression that Jim wanted me was anti-FDR but I got it anyway - The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. I need to look her up. Might find an interview with her too.

Then we bought groceries at the big store. Not a whole lot but what we needed. Coffee filters, catsup, peanut butter and sugar were on the list. Got cheese, pizza, potatoes, carrots, bananas, grapes, cereal, milk, chips, chip dip, crackers and I can’t remember what else.

Came home, the cows were still at home, I brought clothes in off the line. And that was about it.

Lots of white-blooming trees a bloom - some are wild plums. I guess that means the orioles should be back soon. I bought a jar of grape jelly for them, so I can put that out soon.