I was up at my usual early hour this morning (OK, by most folks' standards it's still an early hour as I type this). A year ago I would have turned on the TV to get the latest news from one of the 24-hour news channels but I soured on that at some point early in the last election cycle. Now I enjoy the silence while I check my laptop for the latest emails, Facebook posts, and classic car sales. About an hour later I turn on one of two DishTV music channels - either 9976 for classical symphonic music or 9975 for Met Opera Radio. I like that one because they typically play an entire opera through from a recording made at a Met performance. This morning's opera was Lucia di Lammermorr by Donizetti. Classic Italian opera and enjoyable to my tastes. (It's OK, my wife doesn't like it either.)
Before each opera the SiriusXM announcer gives some background on the composer and the opera, including a synopsis of the story. In the case of Lucia she said it's based on a supposedly true story that was the basis for a novel by Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, The Bride of Lammermoor. All of that took me to Wikipedia to read the entries for the opera, the story, and the historical characters in Scott's novel.
The opera is Tragic with a capital T. (The music isn't. If you didn't know the story you'd never guess by hearing the music, especially if it's sung in Italian as this was.) Both Scott's and Donizetti's versions have wicked and a manipulative mother, an innocent daughter hopelessly in love with a good and loyal man who has to suddenly leave for an extended trip and - thanks to the mother's evil interventions - is portrayed to the daughter as having abandoned her. She is then forced to marry a wealthy man she despises so the family reputation can be enhanced. The night of the wedding the new husband is found bleeding profusely from stab wounds, the daughter, still in her now blood-soaked gown, cowers in the corner, and neither of them will say what happened. The daughter dies of madness two weeks later, the original lover returns from his trip and becomes a broken soul, and the rich usurper recovers and goes on the greater fame and fortune.
They don't write them like they used to. Now it's all sex and violence.
We now have camping reservations for our trip to Prunedale in August. It's a 10-hour drive so we're breaking into two. The first day we'll only go 3 hours south to Valley of the Rogue State Park, the southernmost state park in Oregon, at least along I-5. We camped there several times on trips when the boys were young and it's a beautiful place. And unlike CA state parks you don't have to pay for a hot shower, get clean restrooms, and much prettier campsites.
The next day we'll make the 7-hour drive to Henry Cowell State Park in the Redwoods outside of Santa Cruz. It's about an hour from Prunedale but too beautiful to pass up. When I was pastor there I took Mondays off and we'd often drive up there with the boys as a day trip. The trees are the largest living things on earth, the walking trails amazing, and the whole setting too wonderful to pass up. Except for the time we'll spend on the Peninsula to see the Concours de Elegance and Sunday at church we'll enjoy being back in that setting.
Speaking of murderous intrigue, I just came in from the morning animal routine. The goats are fed and watered for the day. While they're eating I tend to the chickens, giving them a handful of cracked corn scattered in the pen, checking and filling their food and water as necessary, and making sure everything else is in good order in the coop. This is what I found when I opened the door:
Note: if this pic offends you just turn your screen clockwise 90 degrees and he'll look fine.
I do have my suspicions. One of the hens has NO feathers on her back. That means she was either Spike's favorite or he really despised her. Either way she fled from him whenever he got near.
That same hen was smiling just a wee bit too much this morning. But without sufficient evidence no charges can be filed. Schadenfreude? The investigation is ongoing.
OK, maybe I've been watching too many BBC detective shows on PBS.
By the way, if Pam were here she'd FORBID me putting that picture on my blog. But she's not here so there you go.
I don't know the real reason Paul Ryan is leaving Congress but I'm disappointed in the glee some are expressing at the news. One person on Facebook wrote,"Looks like the swamp is draining itself."
You can't complain about the hyper-partisanship in Washington and, at the same time, rejoice over the departure of a true centrist and a social conservative. Ryan was a strong advocate for the unborn and religious freedom. I read that he said he didn't want to be a "weekend dad." If that's the case, good on him!
I'm trying to get several special tasks done while Pam's gone. This morning I emptied and washed out the fridge.
Montgomery Wards. Yeah, it's really old and showing its age. It may be as old as MoHo (1978), is crazy small, and so noisy we have to turn the TV volume up when it kicks on (which it does all the time because it's so old and inefficient). The plastic shelf at the bottom that goes over the crispers is supported in the middle by a #2 pencil.
Pam hates it. But it's now clean!
This just in!
Last week I was in the Habitat For Humanity store ("Restore") and saw five or six fridges, some of which looked almost new. And they were cheap! So today while out running errands I bought a new used fridge. It's a side-by-side. I did a video chat with Pam using our cell phones and showed her all the options and we agreed this one was best. The other nice ones all had in-the-door ice and water dispensers which just eats up room in the freezer. The well water that comes out of the tap is plenty cold and the fridge is on the other side of the kitchen.
But wait! There's more!
They're having a sale during April. All appliances are 20% off. So I got this nice late model fridge with glass shelves for $200. There's a 30-day return policy so if it doesn't work like it should (they check them for 24 hours before putting them out) we can take it back for a full refund.
Anybody want a really small, old, but very clean fridge? Yours for the taking!
Oh, in order to get this one to fit through the front door (old MoHo's have non-standard and narrow exterior doors) I'll have to take the fridge doors off. I may have to take MoHo's front door off. And I'll have to remove the cabinet over the fridge because the old fridge is way short. And the base cabinet to the right has to come out because the old fridge is so narrow. (Did I mention it's really small?)
No sweat. I've got a Sawsall.
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