Oarfish Away!

Back from Cheyenne...I've been there so often, appraising, that it was more like visiting old friends. (In fact, it was, when staying with friend Bea. Thanks, Cheyenne Heritage Quilters!) 

Daughter #2 came on the trip. She used to travel with me a lot when she was little, and I loved having her along this time.
     Fortunately, the much-ballyhoed snowstorm we were supposed to get never materialized. Just a scraping of snow on our car, and clean (though crowded) roads. After taking Daughter home, I got back around 10:30 p.m. Exhausted. While I get my act together, more weird news out there:

In recent months, two oarfish washed up on shore in California.

What's interesting about that -- we know very little about these long, snaky-looking fish. They live deep in the ocean, and are rarely seen. Scientists actually got to dissect these examples -- and found that one was close to giving birth! (They don't seem to know exactly what killed them, though. Maybe parasites.)

Here's a live one:

And reports on the two that washed up -- one was EIGHTEEN FEET LONG. Yikes. No wonder they call them the "sea serpent" fish.