Evening all from--ahem!--StillSoggyCal:
Overcast all day and just some of those irritating little 'spinkles', instead of our regular deluge, but evidently it's whacking the Sierra up the road with some more snow. Sometimes down here we forget that we can be having 'so-so' weather and 50 miles up the road it's a Blizzard.
Iffy weather predicted for the next several days. There is hope for the sun (whatever that looks like) by Thursday.
Ulrich: Thanks for the Geography lesson--I appreciate it, my friend. I just immediately associated the Schwartzwald with Bavaria. Of course, for me, everything south of Ulm is Bavaria, but what do I know, LOL? At any rate, it's utterly BEAUTIFUL country. The several times I've been there, it just took my breath away. But then, ALL of Germany I've been in makes me feel very comfortable (must be the old Ancestry coming to the fore).
But then, if it makes you feel any better, I always have to remind my friends from out of state that: NO, California is not going to fall into the Pacific Ocean, and YES, I live some 100 miles from any seashore, and I'm not buff and tanned and it's VERY hard to Surf in the Sacramento River, LOL!
Ray: I like both pictures a lot. Actually, I'm kind of leaning toward #2, not because of the composition so much, but because of the logging train on that highly-detailed, absolutely SCARY trestle of yours. That's even more spindly than my Deer Creek Viaduct, LOL! Nice job, there.
Funny thing today: Walked into my first Concert Choir class and the guys just stared at me. "Doc, are we actually going to SING 'Carmina Burana' today, or just listen to it again?" Talk about hopped-up little Medievalists, LOL! Taught them the opening harmonies to "O Fortuna" and they blinked. They thought they ALL had the melody. Did some Major Woodshedding, and by the time we were finished, the First Tenors were all eyeballs. "Toldja," I grinned at them. "Wear TIGHT underwear!" We're going to have fun with that piece.
Well, noticed another DC/DCC topic has cropped up on the Forum. Read through it and it was going just nicely, and suddenly He Who Shall Not Be Named popped up with his usual gasoline can and matches. Here we go again. Who let this kid out of Reform School so early, anyway?
Oh well--
Got home in time to help my next door neighbor. Now this is a really nice guy, just retired from Kaiser as a Pathologist. We get along really well. But he's--ah--a little 'eccentric', shall we say. He came knocking at the door and asked me if I had a toilet Snake. "Yah. What happened?" "I was burying a fish." "Huh?" "Yah. My Angel Fish died and I flushed it down the toilet and now the toilet's stopped up."
Well, he has a HUGE acquarium at his place (it's his hobby) and I remember that Angel fish. It was the size of the Great White in the movie JAWS! "Why didn't you just toss it in the garbage can?" I asked, walking over to his house, toilet Snake in hand. He looked at me aghast. "It was a PET!"
So help me God, I'm not GOING THERE!
Anyway, Snake in hand, I unplugged his toilet for him. He sighed. "Thanks" "Welcome. Don't flush any more fish." "I won't." He looks at me. "I'll be right back. Boy, I really have to GO!" He shuts the bathroom door, I leave with the Snake. Far as I know, he's probably still in there. I have NO idea how long he had to wait until I got home, LOL!
Well, that's it for now. Taking our Liturgy Workshop choir over to the girls high school tomorrow for their St. Francis Pax et Bonum Liturgy. I'm helping herd them. The GUYS are okay, but the girls go berserk the minute they get on their campus. Should be interesting.
Best to all, prayers for those in need.
Tom