(mini) * * * HIATUS * * *

Ralph Roberts is a friend of mine in West Virginia.    He's one of those old fiddlers that I like to go over there to hang out with.  Well, Ralph's having a birthday sometime around now and we've been invited to go join them and some others to celebrate it.  So we're leaving early this morning for Frametown, WV, to join Ralph and Charlee and some others for some good food, good company and good music and won't be back until Monday evening.

While I'm gone, I'd like you all just to think about


     Since we invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003

               3,154 U.S. service members have been killed in

                    "W"'s War.


                            "When a man don’t use good judgment it’s the innocent who pays"

                                                                                                                             -- Echo Mountain

ADDENDUM:  POSTED AT 12:04 PMSNOWED IN/SNOWED OUT - Rats!    We thought we could make it, despite the forecasts of a major winter snow/ice storm.    Our bags and instruments were packed and by the door and I had driven the dogs to the sitter, but several inches had already accumulated. When I returned Betty said that they already had 8 inches in Moorefield and it was still snowing hard.    Since we had six mountain ranges to cross to get to our destination in central West Virginia and Moorefield was just across the first one, we finally decided we'd better not risk it.    So, it was back to the dog sitters (we don't like to leave them in the first place; we certainly weren't going to be within 10 miles of them and not have them with us.).    Turns out I spent the hours between 7:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on the unplowed, snow-covered roads ferrying our dogs.    I don't care.    But we're missing a really good time.    Surprisingly, if we could have gotten there, at our destination in central West Virginia they're just having rain.    Global warming.   Global Warning!