The state of Wisconsin has no passenger rail. This is an odd fact if you consider how much railway track we passed during our roadtrip, always announced with great excitement by Lucas: "Wien! Mummy! Choo choo wack". But all of that is either for freight, or obsolete. A goods train goes by not far from our house, and we can hear it in the night. The trains have to make a lot of noise as the crossings tend to be unguarded, and people use the track as walkways. Wooo woooo. It can be quite eerie at 3am. Now, with the focus on the environment, some new high-speed rail links are being suggested. There is much opposition, as evidenced by letters to the paper. "Why should I get to Chicago when it suits the train company?" wrote one man. "I want to get to Chicago when it suits me." (This piece of individualistic logic ignores the fact that he won't get to Chicago when it suits him as he will have sat in traffic for at least an hour. Maybe that's part of the excitement.) The idea of doing anything in a group where structure may be dictated by an overarching body (like the railway management) apparently smacks of communism. Now you wouldn't think these issues would enter the world of swimming. Just little old me trying to get a bit of exercise, off in the local university pool. However, brace yourself. If you are used to swimming in pools in the UK then you know that lane swimming means that there is a lane in which a group of people of more or less the same swimming ability share the space. They do so by swimming in a circle, thus making space for everyone. Mmm. Sound a little socialist, doesn't it? Therefore, in the pool here each person gets to occupy one lane. If there is space for 2 people to go up and down in their own lanes then fine. However, the concept of swimming in a circle is frowned upon. When I queried this with the life guard he said I should clear it with the people already in the lane. Well guess what? One of them refused. So I had to wait while 2 people swam up and down in their own private little lanes until one of them got out. I have not been that annoyed in a long time! I love living in the States - but sometimes... grrrr.
It's been crazy busy at work with or big annual Conference coming up next weekend and meeting all sorts of mid-semester deadlines. Lucas continues his soccer ("ball ball") and gym ("jump jump") classes, though he's not wildly enthusiastic about going to either. He loves kicking a ball and jumping around, but structure is another matter. He is doing well at preschool although his teacher told me that when he is busy playing with his train set he objects to having to do "spelling bears". I can well imagine. He loves counting and as he has realised that when people count from 1-10 they get more excited as they get closer to 10, he just bypasses the early stages and starts at 8. "How many cats on the page?" I ask. Lucas counts 3 cats: "8, 9...... [loud excited shouting] 10!!!!" I think those spelling bears can wait. He has started to ask "why?" which makes me laugh. I find by far the best reply is "why do YOU think?" - that makes him laugh.
The weather has been cold but also sunny and beautiful. The autumn colours are stunning.
Yesterday I had to finish a report so I took Lucas to a cafe near the zoo where they have a traintable and wireless internet (the perfect combination by a very long stretch. Put George Clooney at the cappuccino machine and I'd never leave). For two hours Lucas played with trains while I worked, only occasionally interrupted by kids wanting to know the football score. (The Badgers lost. To Iowa. It was a sad sad day in Madison.) Then we went to the zoo. "Which animal do you want to see", I asked Lucas. He was unambiguous: "choo choo wain." The little zoo train stops operating next week so we're lucky to have caught it. Pics above.
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