Just chatting
A note to everyone here and a stark reminder.
Live every day to its fullest and enjoy those around you and those you communicate with.
I have lost 3 close friends in the last two weeks. Natural causes. Not Covid or Flu. Just happened.
Avery I thought of you today. I am only about a mile from a large high school. I saw a bunch of high school runners out doing their training run today going up my street in our 60 degree weather. Made me wonder where you run in your kind of weather. I guess MA is not as cold as some places because you are close to the ocean but still????? Hope you practice indoors.
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bdsamm Made me wonder where you run in your kind of weather. I guess MA is not as cold as some places because you are close to the ocean but still????? Hope you practice indoors.
I'm home now for Christmas so I ran this AM with a guy I went to high school with. Outdoors, about 28°F. You get warm fast, the body anyway. Gloves are necessary and a hat helps. When we go back to school we will be indoors.
Sorry to hear about your 3 friends. Just saw the post now.
bdsamm You should come to Arizona to run. Much nicer.
My great uncle retired to Phoenix from Chicago. He's dead now but they used to go out to play golf at like 4AM so they could make it back before the heat of day. Colorado is a place lots of folks go to run. The whole area is very beautiful, I know that.
Avery Yes, Back in the 90's I was offered a VP job in Norwalk Connecticut. When I went to visit I was shocked at the congestion and I bet it is worse today. I did some years later take on a project in Ohio but only stayed a year. Was ready to head west. Colorado is beautiful but does have some pretty wild weather at times.
Southern AZ is warm or hot. Northern AZ is cool or even cold and snowy in the winter.
Unlike year ago, the forum is very active at X-mas time 
From The New York Times best of the year awards: The best German phrase Lauren Oster in New York City learned via Duolingo this year was “Und für meinen Anwalt eine Apfelschorle” (“And for my lawyer, a sparkling apple juice”).
Also, a Christmas song I enjoyed even though I cannot understand a word she is saying:
Yes, the forum is really very active at the moment, but I still have time to write here myself while the food for evening is in the oven.
Anyway, I think even if it's still too early, I can now wish all users of the forum a Merry Christmas and a relaxing one. 
Enjoy the time with the people who are important to you and eat until you or your chastity belt bursts
Avery
German language original version of "Silent Night".
The original was written and first performed in 1818 in a small village in the alps near Salzburg in Austria.
Back then the region was devastated by war and mice had actually destroyed the billows of the church organ.
The assistant priest assigned to this parish was desperate when he found out on Christmas Eve and went to his friend, the local teacher and organ player with the text of the poem "Silent Night" he had written some years earlier.
With in a few hours, just in time for the Christmas Evening church service, they wrote the melody - for tenor and bass with a single guitar as the only instrument available to them.
The simplicity and beauty of the arrangement ensured, it would go on to become the most popular Christmas Song in the world. Today there are translations in pretty much every language in the world where even a few Christian people are living, more than 300 by now (for comparison, there are slightly less than 200 countries in the world).