It was the day we would spend with S. My wife knows a great deal about S, that we have been lovers and that we still have deep affection for each other. For her part, S had been worried about meeting her, wondering whether it would be a tense day. Her tensions eased after they talked on the phone a week before the trip.
So after breakfast, we drove into the city, to her house. In keeping with a long-standing tradition, I drove past her house, even though she was sitting on the front steps. (I had done the same on my previous solo visits.) I had more success after circling the block.
After 20 months apart, we were together again. I hugged her, and then she hugged my wife. In fact, S had a present for her--a malachite and moonstone healing necklace. She had hand-written a description of the necklace and what it can do.
Some of her {grown} kids were sleeping in their living room, so she got into the back seat, and we headed north. Our first stop was Menominee Park, on the shore of Lake Winnebago.
Remember the creative cows that we saw in Madison last summer? Evidently, Oshkosh had something similar with lions a few years back. We saw one at the park and a few others later in the day ...
They had prairie dogs and elk and wolves and other critters at the park, including a silver pheasant--I reminded S of the silver pheasant we saw together during our winter walk in Ontario 20 months earlier.
S is an animal advocate and talked sadly at a cougar confined to a smallish circular cage ...
More about that later.
Our first real stop was the Paine Art Center and Museum. The Paine, as it is known, was built by a wood baron early this century--who then, according to S, couldn't move in because of labor problems and threats of violence. This view shows what it looks like from the street ...
And this is inside the gate, looking at the mansion ...
We couldn't get inside yet--the place hadn't opened--but we also wanted to look at the Paine's many different gardens. This was our chance to do so, and here are some of the things we saw ...
It was finally time to go inside. But their rules, my camera had to go back into its case, so my written description will have to do. We saw a display of exquisite "Fashions in Film," costumes from period movies produced over the last few decades.
The rest of the tour involved us walking from one elegant room to another, with each one more elaborate and larger than the one before. "And these were just two people," S kept saying. Two people planned to live in this huge house. With plenty of servants, of course. My mind kept going back to British royalty and their castles.
Another stop my wife wanted to make was just across the street from the Paine--the Oshkosh Public Museum. They had a display on tusks that my wife wanted to see, but the highlight for me was the Apostles Clock. A huge, ornately carved clock, created by a German immigrant to Wisconsin ...
It's called a monumental clock, we all waited for the hour to strike. According to its website, "Each hour a door at the top of the clock opens, and an angel is seen striking a gong. The music begins; decorative lights illuminate the clock, the door in the center opens, and a doll-like figure of Christ emerges. The Apostles pass before, and He raises his arms in blessing. Each of the eleven Apostles turns toward Christ and bows his head. The last in line, Judas, clutches his bag of silver and turns away. Two side doors open to display scenes of the Nativity and Crucifixion."
However, we didn't get to see the full show. The top door opened, but nothing happened there. Jesus and all 12 apostles did their part. But no music, no lights, no nativity and no crucifixion scene ...
We had to rush our trip through the museum--something I hated doing, since they had a lot of interesting stuff there--but a DVD about the Apostles Clock was on sale in the gift shop, and I bought it. (Two days later, after we got back home, we tried it and found it didn't work, neither on the DVD player nor on the computer. Grrr.)
We cut the museum short so we could go back to S's house and meet her husband, who was going from one job to another, with only an hour or so to meet us and get lunch. I took advantage of the occasion to present him a gift--some Firesign Theatre CDs. It turns out that we both love Firesign Theatre.
From there, we (the three of us) got our own lunch and then headed south to a wildlife park S and her husband had told us about. We eventually found it ... but didn't see anybody around. So we conducted a self-guided tour, looking at the animals. Along the road, they had bison ...
... and some of the most extreme longhorn cattle I have ever seen ...
Inside the park, we saw deer and camels, peacocks and chickens, goats and ostriches, water buffalo and turkeys, and we finally came across the guy who runs the place. Turns out the place is closed on Wednesday ... but the guy was amiable, and we were happy to give him the admission cost.
He and S got to talking, and it turns out that he owns the animals displayed at Menominee Park. As for that cougar in the small cage that S was unhappy about--it turns out the big cat is old and very arthritic, so it can't roam about the way a healthy cougar can. When we had seen it, the cougar was lying on its side in the shade and stayed there.
S and my wife found some peacock feathers on the ground and split them up between them. We walked past some recently shorn llamas and a very wet pigpen.
The guy also gave us some old baked goods he got from area stores--several bags each--and asked us to give them to his critters. That's what we did for the rest of the visit. The llamas got some. The hogs got some. Donkeys. Horses. ...
We walked down a woods path, where some of the trees had faces on them. S said one of them looks just like me ...
It had become a hot day, so we stopped at the souvenir shop for a soda. The guy was there and told us we hadn't seen the elk yet. We still had some baked goods to get rid of, too.
Just as the camels and llamas and donkey had, when we got close to the fence, the elk came running. S and my wife were busy feeding the elk (particularly one wearing a 916J tag on his ear, who seemed to be the hungriest elk ever born). Meanwhile, I was busy with the camera ...
What??? You're still hungry???
It was nearly 6 p.m. now, and we left in search of someplace cooler. My wife suggested Hobby Lobby, and S suggested Wal-Mart. So we visited both. After that, we found an ice cream place, where S and I had Italian ices and my wife found some of the richest, darkest chocolate ice cream she has ever enjoyed. Too bad my camera was in the car.
From there, we went back to S's house. Her husband eventually got home from his second job, had supper, and we eventually sat down to a movie: the original "Bedazzled," from 1967, featuring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It's one of my favorites, and they enjoyed the first part.
But you know what? It had been a long, tiring day for all four of us. During the second half of the film, my wife started dozing off. My wife and I were in big chairs next to each other--they were on the couch, and S told me later that they were both getting sleepy--she got up once or twice to try to shake off the cobwebs.
It finally was time to go. I shook his hand, he hugged my wife, I hugged S, and the two women hugged each other, too. Hugs all around.
We were very tired by the time we got back to the motel and fell asleep very quickly, getting some Z's before the long drive home the next morning.
It didn't occur to me until the next day that the only times S and I touched were those hugs when we met and when we parted ... and about two or three minutes when we held hands while seated on a bench at Wal-Mart. Not even a kiss on the cheek.
I felt a little bad about it ... but realized at the same time that things had gone the way we wanted them to go, on their own accord. Everyone was relaxed and happy and had a good time. All things considered, you can't do much better than that.
(to be continued)
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