The memory sweater

After several days of temperatures in the mid to high 20s I figured it was safe to get out my summer clothes.

Wrong.

Yesterday the paper reported and I believe them, a 12 degree drop. Brrrrr.

Fortunately I did leave out some sweaters including a favourite bought in Mirepoix on a great trip with a friend who browbeat me into parting with some money after we spent an enjoyable night (not sexual) in a picturesque hotel in converted 12th century jail.

I'm glad she did convince me to buy it. I still love it.

Sigh

I grabbed the last Spenser novel from the library. I'll miss him. I suppose I could always get the DVD of the series. Hard to believe that both Robert Urich and Robert Parker are gone.

A new worst movie for my worst movie list

Song of Norway
Inception
The Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr.

and now drum roll

Tree of Life...if it was the winner at Cannes of the Palme d'or I would hate to see the losers.

In the ladies room afterward we exchanged opinions. The kindest was "arty farty" others were clap trap, pretentious, pseudo Hollywood intellectual, I didn't get the meaning."

Meaning? It meant I wasted my money.

The price of international friendship

Geneva is again Mighty Mom free but for three glorious days this lovely and talented woman was once again walking our Genevan streets.

The problem with international friends is that they move on to other countries.

It isn't just Mighty Mom who left, but the couple Czech, and a certain Syrian doctor among others. We stay in touch. We Skype. We email. We read blogs. We see each other from too long time to too long time.

There are people who won't make friends with internationals because they know they will lose the possibility of daily contact. Then there are those that wouldn't want to pass up the opportunity to share time and activities. It is a variation of not replacing a loved dog because of the pain of losing the next one rather than relishing the time with the new dog.

What make face-to-face contact even more wonderful when it does happen is that not only does it bring back good memories it creates a new one.

Music nostalgia leads to a surprise

In a nostalgic moment last night I went to youtube to listen to the folk musicians that I loved when driving to work in the 1980:

Ferron
Bob Franke
Christine Levin
Lucie Blue Tremblay
Chris Williamson
John Gorka
Cheryl Wheeler
Nanci Griffith

I checked out bios on Wikipedia and their website many of which had photos.
Something happened since I would sit in various coffee houses.

They had gotten old looking, fatter and sometimes even balder.

Somehow, it surprised me in the same way it does when babies I knew are having babies and in some cases (gulp) their babies are having babies.

Now how did that all happen?

Electrical box safari

Rather than happen across painted electrical boxes, and since it was a beautiful day

I started hopping trolleys. Everytime I spied a box, I would get off at the next stop take its photo and hop on the next trolley that came along.


I found nine. Here are two. I'll go back out on another safari on another beautiful day.





be

I ordered the DVD

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbS4ruKw2OQ

It won't be out until July, but Phil Ochs is even more relevant today.

Deal

I won't say anything to my housemate about her reporting an out of order phone to Swisscom, if she doesn't say anything to me about trying to unlock a door not properly closed.

Bin Laden

Americans celebrated the death of Bin Laden in the same way they criticized the Muslims that celebrated 9/11. And although 9/11 was a horrible, horrible, horrible event it unleashed an even worse catastrophe on Iraq.

3,000 people from 82 countries died in 9/11.

More American and Brit soldiers died than were killed in the resulting wars.

An untold number of Afghans and Iraqis died, far greater than the troops and those in NY on 9/11.

A symbol for death and destruction for both sides is dead. Nothing more, nothing else.

The insanity of it all will continue.