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.
Just chatting
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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
Laura moved a post to Merry Christmas.
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).
5 posts were split to Merry Christmas.
so christmas dinner is really a danger, i have had the feeling several times that my belt is about to burst. anyone had similar experiences?
11 days later
Americans, of course, think all the world is interested in our politics. At about 2AM last night, after 15 rounds of voting, the 435 members of the US House Of Representatives elected a new Speaker (the House leader). Usually it takes 1 round.
At one point someone nominated Donald Trump. Trump, of course, currently holds no elective office, but it seems that the US Constitution does not require the Speaker to actually be a member of the House. Guess no one thought it would ever happen.
What the Constitution does say is that whoever is Speaker is 2nd in line to the Presidency, after the Vice President. So, if President Biden should pass away or become incapacitated, not unlikely given his age and general frailness, and something should happen to Vice President Kamala Harris, then Trump would again be president despite not having been re-elected by the people. What a great country (irony)!
I followed the "drama" a bit. i'm really surprised that someone who isn't a member could become a speaker and i thought there are two speakers (one for the democrats, one for the republicans)? then there should actually be two people at number 3 on the presidential list, or can only the majority party provide a speaker?