House For Sale
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Black Canyon of the Gunnison
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Change in the Weather
All this year, we have suffered both extreme cold and too much snow. Recently, the groundhog predicted that more of the same was also in store. However, our current ten-day forecast shows highs in the fifties and the sixties. Could this forecast signal the end of winter? This seems too good to be true, because in ten days we will leave town and fly to California, sunny California. However, this same forecaster offers a very rainy prediction over the next ten days for where we are going. Into each life a little rain must fall, but the predicted amounts look more like a deluge. But maybe the rain is just another sign of spring.
Antelope Canyon
Superb Owl Weekend
We went to a potluck dinner party. This event was originally scheduled for tonight, but then someone realized when the big game was. Bill and Mary, our usual hosts had convened another meeting of Team Kaldis, our longtime charity bicycle team. The team is still active, though most of us in attendance are not. We have all turned old and grey. Catching up with each other, last May’s tornado was discussed. Where we were dining and where many of us live was along its path. We were all fortunate. One member had been cycling in Forest Park as the storm approached and had to ride into the storm to get home. Another perennial topic these days was a memoriam for team members who are no longer with us.
Last night, our culinary offering was a salad, persimmons and pomegranates, a NY Times recipe, with ingredients from our local Schnucks. Many at that party shop at this same store and opinions varied. Compared to the Schnucks that it replaced, it represents a big improvement, but time has not been kind to the place. Gone is the live trout tank. Further west this store is both dwarfed and out shone by newer and larger stores in the chain. My store still outsells all the rest. Perched above the food desert that is the City of Saint Louis, it no longer requires a holiday of a snowstorm to fill the parking lot. This winter, I have had opportunity to be impressed twice with its produce department. Last November, it stocked fresh rhubarb from the Netherlands, so that Harry could have his pie. And in January, I just bought fresh persimmons and a pomegranate from Spain. “She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.”
Bryce Canyon Hoodoos
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Let the Games Begin!
Yesterday, I watched the Olympics opening ceremony live during the day. I enjoyed seeing the kaleidoscope of colors, with giant blue, red and yellow paint tubes pouring out their corresponding-colored fabric at the feet of the dancers below and then hearing Mariah Carey sing Volare in Italian. Not bad for daytime TV. The parade of nations split among four locations didn’t really work for me. Divided by locale four ways, too many of the smaller teams were only further reduced in stature. Watching the parade live, I did get to hear the audience boo VP Vance. I understand that for primetime NBC muted these sounds, so as not to offend any snowflakes.
Turning now to a real controversy that is plaguing these winter games, “Are ski jumpers enhancing their penises to fly further?” Youth and WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) want to know. According to recent news reports, some ski jumpers are allegedly injecting their penises with hyaluronic acid (paraffin) in order to fly that little bit further. Injecting the penis with acid would temporarily achieve a visual thickening of their penis size and give the ski jumpers bigger genitalia at the point their suits are measured by 3D scanners. Larger measurements could theoretically mean athletes being given a bigger, looser suit, which would act like a sail to catch the wind and allow them to make longer jumps. Research from a published scientific journal, said that such a 2 cm change in a suit represented an extra 5.8 meters in the length of a jump.
Adding credence to these latest accusations, are the conclusions announced just this week to another ski jumping controversy. After an eleven-month investigation two Norwegian coaches were suspended for eighteen months because they inserted illegal stitching into the crotch area of some of their best jumper’s suits after an inspection by officials. These changes that amounted to cheating were filmed from behind a curtain and uploaded anonymously to YouTube. They served to make the suits larger and more aerodynamically advantageous, thus enabling longer jumps in competition.