13 February …
0730 …
Hip deep snow drifts (on my 6’5” son) with WIND. And it’s still snowing. A storm like the old days before the turn of the century. I-5 is closed northbound just above Redding and southbound just south of Yreka. Snow Day at all the local schools.
Very little snow on the trees because of the wind. None of us will be going much of any place today. But we’re secure. Mark got the woodshed full last fall and there is food aplenty as well. It has been a few years since I’ve seen this kind of storm.
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The opera … !!!
Two friends and I saw this year’s Met production of “Carmen” last Wednesday. What a romp. Don José is such a dunderhead and Carmen kept trying to pop out of her bodice.
I love mezzo sopranos so this is an opera for me. I remember hearing Risë Stevens sing some of the arias in recital back in 1947.
Don José and Michaéla were sung by a married couple so watching their interactions was interesting.
However, for me the highlights were the bass-baritone who sang the Lieutenant (Richard Bernstein) and the second mezzo (Samantha Hankey). 
Bernstein is a good actor as well as having a nice voice. He is a deNiro type (probably because he is from Brooklyn). 
And Hankey is brand new. She just made her Met debut. She sounds good, acts good, and I will be watching for her to sing the Carmen lead in the next few years and to pair with a good coloratura for those wonderful duets which in the past have been done so nicely by the Horne-Sutherland and (more recently) the Garanča-Netrebko duos.
The three of us will be going again the 2nd of March, this time to see “Daughter of the Regiment”. The drive up should be a bit different. Last time there was snow at the summit which showed the earth striations from the plate upheaval clearly … 
and snow and fog on the madrones on the way down into the valley.
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They seem to have managed the first taiko lesson for this year without me. Paul tells me two of our learners from last fall are back and there is a new one. Counting me, that will be five in the class. I’m looking forward to starting again … but it won’t be today.
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More on the weather ..
The Polar Vortex has moved west and our weather has become VERY cold. Not as bad as the Midwest had it last week, but cold enough for us.
These were the icicles yesterday …
… this morning after the wind packing.
The hens have stopped laying and we have to bring their water into the house every night because it freezes. This is supposed to last another three or four days.
Everything is icy so walking is treacherous You either crackle or slip. I walk everywhere out there with a ski pole and this morning may need to use snowshoes.
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Tomorrow morning I was supposed to go to the Great Northern warehouse in Weed to help pack the holiday take-home snack bags for south county elementary school children. Great Northern’s food sharing includes lunches for children during the summer and snack bags for all school breaks for elementary and middle school students.
Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be there to help.
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One more thing about “Carmen” … the stage curtain was captivating. It was black with a red slash like blood thrown from the point of a knife.
This is the best picture I could get.
And “just one more thing” (to quote a grandchild’s telephone conversation closings from when he was younger) … It seems the staging at the Met this year is innovative, to say the least. This is the second opera we’ve seen where action on stage has started with the overture. No more sitting through the overture waiting. With “Carmen”, each overture provided a dance synopsis of the coming act danced Smuin style in front of a partially open curtain.
The first instance of the use of overture time which I saw was “La Traviata” where Violetta’s death was pantomimed by the main characters during the initial overture.
Makes me wonder what they’ll do with “Daughter …”.
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0845 …
It has stopped snowing. Now the WIND is whipping around and blowing snow off the trees and roof. Just like old times.
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A reminder …
Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being.
… or to paraphrase an insightful author …
No one is as bad as the worse thing they’ve ever done.
So … ‘til next week …