Happy to be alive.

So I thought today would just be another day at work. Roll in at 6:45am, pretend to work for 5 hours, eat lunch, pretend to work for another 4 hours, then head home for some hardcore exercise with Elvina followed by German beer and Swiss chocolate with our favorite couch potato Peter (by couch potato, of course, I mean he plays tennis or mountain bikes for a few hours, then sits and watches some soccer afterwards).
This was not such a day. Peter told me a few minutes before lunch that he was taking the afternoon off to go to the Oeschingin See, where we were on Sunday. I asked my boss for the afternoon as well, and he obliged. So, as on Sunday, Elvina and I hiked as Peter fished. It wasn't as hardcore as Sunday, but it was still strenuous and good. We saw some Steibock, which I don't know how to translate into English exactly. They are similar to Bighorn Sheep, but the horns are tall and mostly vertical rather than curving in a circle. After the hike, we went back to the beach of jagged rocks for an ice cold swim followed by reading and sleeping on the jagged rocks. Anyway, long story short, beautiful day, sure beats work.
After some sleep, we got up and moved locations because Peter had moved.

That's when the real excitement began...

As Elvina and I were crossing a waterfall's stream I suddenly heard a loud WHOOSH then CRASH. WHOOSH CRASH. WHOOSH CRASH.
About half a dozen large stones (between 10 and 20 pounds) fell from the 100 foot cliff above all around Elvina and I, even right between us. All I could do was cover my head with my arms.
I'm pretty sure two of them came within 3-5 feet of me. There's no question about it, if either of us had been hit, we'd be dead. Elvina said in her entire life of hiking, she has never had an encounter with falling rocks like that. After the experience, I was a bit shaken, but I somehow managed to calm my nerves with a delicious half liter bottle of Hofbräu München and celebrate the continuance of my life.

It just goes to show you the awesome power of nature and how quickly your life can be taken completely unexpected. There was reasonably probably a 10% chance of me getting killed or maimed on that jagged rock beach today, I dodged a bullet, and now I'm happy to be alive.

To quote the great Homer Simpson, "There there, shut up boy. People die all the time. Why, you could even wake up dead tomorrow. Well, good night."