In honor of the date

And don't forget to turn your clocks back tonight.

Photo taken at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, just about two weeks ago.

Came across an old funny today

 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

This struck me as hilarious the first time I saw it (in 2005). Now it's widely available around the internet (nobody in particular to credit for it, sorry). Now that I have a new kitten I am reminded all over again of the truisms it contains.  With the exception of "Left to themselves, [cats] are relatively harmless."  As anyone who has had a new kitten they had to leave by itself all day knows...left to their own devices, all the houseplants will be tipped over and their soil spread far and wide around the house.

This grandest performance of this grandest work

If this doesn't lift your spirits and make your heart sing, nothing will.
My thanks to silvertoadzzz for letting me know it is posted on You Tube.
As noted by silvertoadzzz:

"Jesu, der du meine Seele" ("Jesus, who hast wrested my soul")
BWV 78, J.S. Bach
Choir and Orchestra of the Bach Guild conducted by Felix Prohaska, Vienna, 1954

This is the wonderful duet from the pictured, and unfortunately now out of print, Vanguard Classics CD.* 
Soprano, the amazing Teresa Stitch-Randall, who was born to sing Bach (almost mezzo here), alto Dagmar Hermann
(*By some great accident of good fortune I have the original CD.)
Do yourself a favor and crank up your sound.

Out of cell range

Life's been pretty busy, not to mention tumultuous, these last six weeks or so, but much was also healing and glorious.  In the midst of all of this—four days after I found Teddy, to be exact—KLK and I flew off to the Great Northwest for a restorative 10-day sojourn.  During this time Teddy continued to enjoy life as a charming boarder at the vet clinic where the staff and doctors doted on him. Teddy has made himself at home with us now (detailed updates to follow, of course) and his fat, joyful presence fills house and hearts amply.

I've been focusing, to the extent Teddy lets me, on going through the 542 (you heard that right) pictures taken in what I thought were hopeless conditions. The Great Northwest autumnal gloom and rains were well underway for most of our trip. It turns out most of the photos are worthy of attention (e.g., horizon-straightening, and, given the clouds and rain, a fair bit of brightening, thank you PhotoShop). Once I make it through I'll post some reports of one of the most interesting and beautiful journeys in recent memory. 

My sanity is coming back, too...

(Photo taken at the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park, at the Hall of Mosses trail head.)
 

Funny how things happen

Very early Tuesday morning, while taking my constitutional along Lake Michigan, my friend Karen and I heard an odd sound in the dark...I said, "hmm, sounds like some kind of bird" and she said, "no, I'm sure it's a cat!" So I looked around, and about 30 feet to our right, there, at the base of a skinny little tree just another 30 feet from cars speeding northbound along Lake Shore Drive, was a little kitty. I leaned over and called to it, and it came running to my arms. I nearly started crying, "I don't want this now!" But as Karen has three grown cats, and I have none, Teddy is now mine. Isn't he spectacular? He's perfectly healthy, except for some scrapes on his chin, the vet says he's about 3 months old (no grown-up kitty teeth just yet), and quite fat compared to Winston at that age.

What a wonderful balm for the nagging pain of Winston's death.

Get Smart About Antibiotics Week! Yay!

It's a good idea, no doubt, for the CDC to celebrate official Get Smart About Antibiotics Week (sure to blossom into an annual event)  but the one thing I couldn't find that would be truly helpful is instructions on how to dispose of unused antibiotics (and other medications, for that matter) in ways that prevent them from streaming into the environment.