"Mem'ries ...."

There are few nuisances as frustrating as trying to find something that you absolutely know that you have but that is somehow missing from where you thought it was. Believe me, that is something that happens more often than not as my years climb inexorably higher and "senior moments" become ever more frequent.

Healer Sis, prompted by years of Catholic theology, insists that she has often had success by calling - somewhat informally - on Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, to wit: "Tony, Tony, look around, so that what is lost can be found!"  Because I'm not too sure of how my stock in The Hereafter is perceived, I usually do not call on Saint Anthony but follow what I believe is an old adage: "if you want to find something, look for something else." It more often than not works for me.  Unfortunately, neither "Tony" nor the looking for something else has yet helped me to retrieve the wedding ring I misplaced - or that slipped off my finger unbeknownst to me - in June 2011. But I still hope.

But last summer, I needed to locate my diplomas to complete my faculty file. Employers in Europe like to see facsimiles of the actual "sheepskin," so to speak. I was sure that they were here, but when I had looked everywhere I could think of, I came to the conclusion that I must have included them in the shipment of personal effects that was sent to the US in early 2008. Luckily, that was true of the most important - the highest value diploma academically - which had been framed. That, together with transcripts from the other universities I had attended, were satisfactory to my employer. But I still wondered where the others had gotten to, that is, until a few weeks ago. To prove the adage, I was searching for something else entirely, and eureka! There they were, together with several other papers from my penultimate employer! The pesky things have now been scanned so that if I ever misplace them again, at least I have the facsimiles.

Among the other treasures that I discovered at the same time was the photo below. HWMBO and I were visiting Venice together after he had just spent three weeks with a group, cataloging the condition of Venetian bell towers as part of an Earthwatch "public art" project.

If he looks tired, it's because there were a LOT of bell towers that needed to be located, cleaned off well enough to decipher dates and inscriptions (lots of pigeon droppings were involved), described in detail and rung so that their tones could be recorded. Still, he had a wonderful time. Once his project was finished and I was able to get a few days off to join him there, we both enjoyed our visit to Venice very much. As I recall, the Doge's Palace is to the left in the picture.

Those memories are still quite fresh so I was amazed to see the date on the back of the picture: August 1996! That is 16 years ago. Where on earth did the time go?

More importantly, what has happened to the world in the meantime? That was a comparative Age of Innocence.