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Three Good Things for Friday, March 1st

 Funny somehow that my Leap Day, rather than having some spaciousness and flex to it (as one might hope from a whole extra day grafted into the year), instead felt like five days crammed into one. I don't know how it was for anyone else, but I am moving sloooooowwwwwww this morning. I gave myself a little grace last night at 11 and decided that I didn't need to try to cram in an entry before midnight. But today is a new day so here are my Three Good Things to kick off the month of March:


1. The Mechanical Fair (Todd Terje Remix), by Ola Kvernberg

https://youtu.be/hSE7GIVJz6g?si=cCadk1naLR1jowW4

I love this tune. It builds so well, and has such a playful propulsive energy. It grabbed me from the first time I heard it on Ezekiel Kweku's (aka Scholastics) live-DJing Twitch stream (Curricular) and I have never tired of it since. Some pieces of music are medicine for your soul, and this is certainly one of those for me.


2. Trains! 

I thrill to the notion that one day in the next decade or two I will be able to bike downtown to hop on a train to Chicago. The drive through Northern Illinois and then the Chicago burbs and then the Chicago car traffic is such a wearying slog. To be able to relax and read a book, or watch the beautiful Southern Wisconsin scenery, or take a nap instead of keeping my eyelids pried open as I realize that, Oh God, we've only made it as far as Belvidere... I'm very ready for this, is what I'm getting at here.

https://madisoncommons.org/federal-grant-get-wheels-turning-on-amtrak-in-madison/


3. Little Cranberry Island, Maine. 

This is our annual family summer trip, and I am already looking forward to setting everything down and getting slow for a couple weeks. This photo is from four or five years ago, of boathouses facing the bay on the western edge of the island.


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