Four inches of snow? In West Texas? In early November? Proof.

I'm enjoying the company of the Reformed. On Sat. I drove up with the pastor to visit a liquor store and smoke shop. At the former I decided to buy some unusual wines (including Portugese, Hungarian, and Cretan vintages) but my beer purchases were conservative (Pilsner Urquell, Unibroue Fin du Monde, and Sierra Nevada stout). At the smoke shop I bought a replacement pipe and 2 oz. of tobacco. Sun. night the parish had a Reformation Day party, a sanctified substitute for Halloween. German food for dinner (red cabbage, brats, onion pie, beer bread), a short presentation by the pastor on the life of Luther, singing of some of Luther's hymns, and some games for the kids: first, a variant of Pin the Tail on the Donkey in which the contestant is blindfolded, spun in place, and then has to grope around trying to tape the "95 Theses" to the "Wittenberg door"; then a three-legged race with pairs of bound contestants carrying a scrolled "Indulgence" on a spoon and depositing it in the trash. These folks are truly Protestants with a capital P.

Unfortunately, one of the ladies told me that the church will fold unless they can get more members in the forthcoming year, so my Calvinistic good times may be coming to an end soon.