Hi all. Didn't see the meteor shower. Twasn't for lack of trying, but dearest Mother Nature saw fit to layer a dense thick fog over the southern tundra here. So even though I live far enough away from the city lights, and hauled my tired carcass outta bed, there was naught in the eastern sky.

It's been a tough week: a close friend of mine lost her 49 yr old brother in a freak accident. He was buzzing around on a dirt bike at the family cottage in northern Wisconsin a week ago. A deer ran across the trail, they collided and he was sent flying. Massive head injury, died 8 days later. Wife and 3 teenage kids, close knit Irish Catholic family, lotsa siblings. Sad so very sad.

I am struggling with the sympathy card; I have no words of comfort for something so sudden, inexplicable as this. The best I could find in my Bartlett's is:

"Heaven gives its favourites Early Death" - Lord Byron.

It is this kind of thing that tests faith, when no redeeming reason is to be found. I guess that's why it's called 'faith' and not 'proof'.

3bd