Strange and Wonderful Things

It's amazing how you come across strange and wonderful things on the internet.

I had lunch today with my friend Ruth, about whom some day I really will get around to writing an article (in conjunction with reviewing her book, "The Weight of Gold.")

I came home and was going to write a bit about the lunch, not that anything monumental happened, but I thought I would look for a better photo of her. I had already done a Google search on her name, but the only picture I came up with was one from my own blog.

So I did a search on her character's name. She is part of an historical kind of reenactment group, and she plays the "Widow Chambers" on the streets of Old Sacramento. Her book is based on the story of the Widow Chambers and how she survived in the gold rush town of Sacramento.

Well, I did a search on "The Widow Chambers" and didn't find anything but did find this web site, which has some marvelous historical lore from old England. I didn't read the first one, but got intrigued by the Merman of Orford, telling of an incident which took place during the reign of King Henry II (1154-1189) and then the history of witch persecution in East Anglia during the reign of terror (1644-5).

I loved the sentence, "the wild man returned to his captors to resume life on land. But interest in him waned and the guards became lax and some months later he dove under the nets and was never seen again." So very British. They think they have a merman in their midst, but they get bored by the whole thing and he escapes.

I just love Google. You never know where a little search for a photo of a friend can lead you!

Our lunch was lovely. I think this is our fourth lunch, since we decided to renew our casual friendship. We meet at an all-you-can-eat Chinese BBQ, sit in the same booth, and share information about our lives. I first met her when we were both working at a homeless shelter and we enjoyed each other's humor, but never really knew much about each other. Now we are learning about our respective backgrounds, which are quite similar, even down to both of us being addicted to Spider Solitaire.

When our lunch was over -- and we promised to meet again in 2 weeks -- I stopped at Raley's to get a passport picture taken. I can't believe you pay $7 for something like this,

when with a little basic Photoshop, you can get it looking so much better

I actually don't need a new passport, but I need a photo for my visa application to get into Russia. I hope I don't scare them away.