Miscellany

1) A funny thing about living in a place where snow lasts all Winter and all mud, dog poop, and other icky things freeze solid--you can have shoes that are worn to a point where the soles are paper-thin, while the tops of the shoes look immaculate and brand-new. Even funnier is that in such a place as this, which behooves to you have such shoes resoled instead of replaced, there is all of one shoe repair place. I hope it is good. I also cannot believe I used the word "behooved" in a discussion about shoes. The English language, it is so playful, is it not?

2) Let's say a person has just been buried in an avalanche and thinks he is about to die. What could possibly make him happier than his rescue? How about if his rescue looks like this:


This is Miley the rescue dog with his handler, Christina Oberhauser, who is not too hard on the eyes herself. They are unearthing the photographer during a training session in the Heutal Valley near Unken, Austria. How adorable is he? And I mean that in the literal sense... how much does he make you want to adore him? May we all have such usefulness and meaning in our own jobs, and may we all serve in them with as much joy!