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Dust storm on Augustinergasse

Last week employees in an office on our floor discovered a closet full of insulation. Today, it required one man four hours, eight trash bags and a professional vacuum cleaner to remove it. I am grateful for how quickly they took care of it.

It might have been foreshadowing.

Check out the reflection in these windows: those men are standing over my head. They are standing on a roof showing lots of open lumber. Can you see the square stacks of red clay roofing tiles up there below their feet?

I suspect tomorrow will be a pounding! Two weeks, my landlord promises. Just two more weeks.

 

I shall interpret it as a metaphor for positive change: the (dust) storm must pass before the lovely calm can arrive.

Modern Matterhorn

I escaped the Man Zone last week to the Matterhorn. 

I'm pretty sure this peak is also a "he" btw. He's just rough and lustig that way.  I photographed him every morning as soon as I opened the curtains. This was last Thursday. 

Turns out Mark Twain had been near where I stayed in Zermatt in 1878.

He scaled to the top of a scant mountain that just starts slanting up in the left of this photo.  I downloaded Twain's book of  A Tramp Abroad and read the essay about his climb. Hilarious.  A century later it still gave an amazingly accurate description of how the Alps feel, especially crossing them - as I learned two weeks ago myself.

One thing I guess was different for Twain:  He said everywhere you could hear loud, crashing mountain streams.  He's right.  You nearly always hear them.  Plus.  Now you can add to that continuous sensory experience flying machines!  Look at that trail across the sky that greeted my camera. Could he have imagined that?

I wonder what will be different for the person who reads Mark in 2111?

Man zone

Every morning last week between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m., I entered the MAN ZONE.  This view greeted me at all five windows of my studio.  ALL FIVE.  

As the day wore on, the men wore less.

Skin of widely ranging varieties showed above the beltlines.

Finally enough-was-enough!  This week I've escaped to the mountains, where the men are no less manly, but I'm enjoying a girlie week.

Girlie-size backpack, walking sticks made for girls and after a long hike, a girli- type sauna, a prosecco, a lie about painting my toe nails after the hiking boots make their marks.  

Man zone - we'll see you next week!

When the road gets rocky - illustrated

Found this pic when downloading my camera. 

It is my favorite view of yesterday's post!

Spot the girl on the trail?

When the road gets rocky

A friend took me for a long mountain hike over the weekend.  Might I add - a highly trusted friend. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not comfortable with heights.   The hike had lovely moments.  And rocky ones. Literally rocky.

Who on earth calls it a "well marked hiking path" when you have to climb over boulders?  Well, the Swiss at minimum.  I wasn't exactly always happy while crawling over those rocks.  It needed downright hard work. My friend kept calling out ahead trying to motivate me - don't you have a metaphor or some technique from your business that will help? 

Metaphor? I didn't want a metaphor - I wanted to be done climbing over rocks!!

There are times when your own medicine doesn't work until after the climb.