Pieces

Today is the final day of the 2015 Denver National Western Stock Show and I wish I was present.  I love the livestock, the exhibitions, the shows, the vendors, and the food.  The only thing I don't appreciate is the crowd...  I'm always happy when the Stock Show breaks attendance records, but I hate being in a large crowd.  That's why I don't go to football games or concerts any longer.  Too many people in one place make me feel like I'm suffocating.
  It's beautiful outside today - the sky is a bright blue to the east, the sun is brightly shining, and one can almost see the Indian Peaks to the west (there's cloud cover up there, again).  The squirrels and birds are playing, eating, and singing, and my cats are enjoying running in and out through the patio door.  We're at 50 degrees already, and should approach 60 this afternoon.  When the weathermen started predicting highs in the mid- to upper-60s for Monday and Tuesday, people thought we'd be setting a record high temperature; we won't, though.  The high temperature records for Monday and Tuesday are in the mid-70s, so while we'll be 20 degrees above normal, we aren't setting records.  Even so, 65 to 68 degrees in January, in Colorado, seems a little strange to me...
   I've been working on genealogy for a friend, and finding out how often Ellis Island clerks changed the names of immigrants.  In one family, twin brothers, aged seven, got separated from the rest of the family while going through "processing" and were assigned the surname of Cagman, while the rest of the family was given the surname of Cohen.  They met up again, outside the walls, and found out they'd been given different surnames.  They went back in and tried to get the surnames to be made the same, but it wasn't allowed....  Silly rules.  So the youngest two brothers in a family of six children had a different last name than their parents and siblings.
   I am enjoying re-reading the Preston & Child Agent Pendergast books again - there are always so many twists and turns that I'm always surprised - good reading, if you don't mind a bit of gore!