Time Travel: A Primer, Lesson 3, Time To Go Back

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Chapter 3: Travel Methods

Since this journal has been covering, extensively, various methods of time travel, this simple exercise is left to the reader.

For review, the Reader may wish to refer to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series

American House Spiders Unite - No Sacrifice Required!

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A female American House Spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum. Apparently, she is still alive and kicking

Identified at Spider Identification Org, by Bug Eric,

a.k.a. Eric Eaton author of the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America.

Having read too many articles about how to be a good parent, I thought she had left her poor decayed body behind to feed her offspring, but Eric says that she looks alive. I guess she is simply hanging around waiting to see what kind of peanut butter the kids want to go with their flies.

In the photo below, she is waiting for her kids to emerge. I guess this is the equivalent of reading a magazine in the parking lot.

The London Loaf, For Anna

Laurel's London Loaf

Inspired by my ancestor, Anna Sherman

For more about making bread using a combination of a bread machine and traditional oven, see my previous entry, The Mystery of Trenta

Bread Machine Dough Cycle

2 loaves (if making half recipe use 2 and ¼ t yeast)

Wet Stuff

1.5 c buttermilk (low-fat if possible)

1 c water

pinch salt (put in w/ wet, isolate from yeast area)

Dry Stuff

Grated outer peel of one or two lemons

4 3/4 c BREAD flour

3/4 c oatmeal

Nestle on top of Dry Stuff

1/3 c brown sugar (first)

1T plus 1 t good fresh yeast (on the very top) (if making half recipe use 2 and ¼ t)

200 degrees 20 minutes (re-raising)

350 degrees, 30 minutes

The Heart of The Music

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It’s been a tremendous pleasure singing right in the 'midst of the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg I’ve sung with instrumentalists and orchestras before, but they were separated from the chorus, and usually seem to be uninterested in the singers. Here, we are cheek by jowl with a chance to nearly touch each other’s music as it emerges.

The concert master, from my point of view in the middle of the stage, takes on a new role. He doesn’t just lead the strings, he encompasses them. His body and violin lean back toward his section, eyes and bow sweeping back and directing the form for a sea of moving wands.

I’m close enough to watch the blond wind player switch from her clarinet to her piccolo. The first notes tremble out bird-like. Then I eye the French horns as they take their shimmering brass bells in hand. The first mellow notes of their part, resonate in my own body as the notes rise up from my diaphragm into my own instrument.

Wunderbar.

The Concert Master In Rehearsal

Any Bugs in the Bell?

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After 14 hours on a plane from Frankfurt, Wolfgang figures perhaps, there COULD be bugs in his horn bell. I played French Horn up through the end of middle school. Which made my position on the stage in Memorial Church, just behind the brass section from the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg even more enjoyable.

In my case, the drummers sat off to the right of us. Being the third french horn, lowest in the pecking order, I was the target of their happy-go-lucky juvenile male behavior. The only instruments with more time on their hands than horns are drums Though the french horns had a lot of rests to count, the drums had even more, and so they needed something to do to occupy their time, while waiting their time to play.

We practiced in the school cafeteria before school. These resourceful fellas would gather up old pieces of stale food and, when I leaned on my horn, counting, or was otherwise distracted by my best friend, the second french horn, they would toss old french fries and stale pieces of hamburger buns into my horn bell. Then when it was my turn to blow, out would come a fusillade of ancient bits of lunch.

At the age of twelve and thirteen, it didn't seem funny to me at all, but it sure does now.

Concert Details and

my other art-journal entries about this performance can be found at

* On Stage

* Playing Beethoven

Playing Beethoven

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The Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg playing Beethoven in Stanford Memorial Church

On Stage

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We're rehearsing every night for our performances Friday and Saturday, Stanford University, Memorial Chapel.

Verdi: Requiem, Friday August 6'th 8 p.m.

Beethoven: Ninth Symphony, Saturday August 7'th 8 p.m.

This symphony orchestra arrived today an hour before rehearsal started, from Freiburg Germany. We sure couldn't complain about having to work hard when they were willing to sit right down and start working like that.

I love getting to be up on this stage. As an added bonus we actually get to sing there. There's gorgeous stained glass windows all around, and a mosaic tile floor that can't be beat.

Don't you want that floor in your house? I do.