The recent destructive fire that mauled the Notre-Dame Cathedral drew me back into my photo archives to revisit the City of Lights, only this time with Notre-Dame mostly intact  - scaffolding stood next to the side of the church where work was taking place during my visit. And I have a feeling the vow to rebuild will become a reality, especially with so many generous donors coming out of the woodwork. Still... very sad this even had to happen.

Excitedly, I found these 2 vintage badminton rackets in basement storage and flashed back to swatting birdies around at my Mom's annual office picnic at Offutt Air Force Base Lake when I was a college student. Fortunately, these 2 rackets will get another chance at play time since they so decently stood the test of time with only a little bit of weather damage. However unfortunately, these guys came from a set of 4 with the other 2 rackets completely destroyed by small backyard-playing children and woodland creatures over the past several years.  Counting my blessings, though.  Let's hope one of these will become my good luck charm while battling with the CSM IT Tennis / Badminton team on our makeshift court.
​*fingers crossed*

Let's just say I've always had a strong sense of intuition, as evidenced by my suspicious stare at this poor, unsuspecting Santa Claus who never stood a chance.