Yikes! An award!

Wow! My pal, Malicious Intent, has given me an award! Unaccustomed as I am to public accepting all I can think of is thank you.

Mal says about me: Go there for peace and quiet. Shot posts, lovely pics...nice guy too! And there are not too many places on this planet on-line or in real life to go for some peace.

Proximidade is described as follows. This blog invests and believes in proximity- nearness in space, time and relationships. Nominated bloggers are exceedingly charming, they aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. This blog award should be sent to another eight bloggers and they, in turn, should forward it to eight of their favorites. You should include the text for Proximidade in your blog announcement.

Well, now.

Okay I nominate Meggie at Life's Free Treats. She lives in Australia and has become a good friend, sending me humor and great animal pictures by e-mail. Her blog is a mix of occasional rage at her GOM, great musings on the past, wonderful pictures of the creations in her magnificent garden and more.

Miss Kitty at Kitty's Bloggy Bits in England. She is the master of sock puppetry and loving mother of her two "smalls".

Darlin' Dawn at Twisted Sister up in far eastern Canada. She rants, she rages, she tells great jokes and she's very attractive . . as are her sisters.

Oh mustn't leave out my nearby pal Grannie J at Walking Prescott. She has not let age or emphysema keep her down as she walks the town with her camera close at hand.

And an outstanding poet and photographer, Sweet Lucy at Box Elder in the Brittania region of France. She's a Brit but has lived, with Tom and Molly, in France for some time. Her blog is a marvel of excellent taste.

Oh, just thought of another one. Joan at Charleston Daily Photo. Joan is another expatriate. She's Canadian but lives in South Carolina where she entertains one and all with tales of her adventures and, again, terrific photographs.

Gee, they're all girls so far. Better include a couple of guys. Tombo of Tombo's Blog from nearby Prescott is a self-styled computer geek whose posts run the gamut: photography, food, videos, books, a little bit of philosophy. Always interesting.

And finally there's my buddy Mike at Tongue in Check. He is a great writer, especially considering that he's an engineer in real life. His posts can leave me laughing madly and printing them off to read to SWMBO and e-mail to others. Don't let the photos on his site fool you - -there's a lot more to Mike than the babes.

So there you go. If you don't know all of these blogs, check them out. They're all worth your time.

Young Catalyst

You who read this blog or who have met me know me as a fat old man.

Well!

SWMBO has been going through photos today and she brought this one in to show me. My first reaction was . . "Oh, gawd, hide that one." But then she commented (somewhat snidely I thought) "Remember when you had ribs?"

After pouting for awhile in the other room, I came back and asked her for the photo. I figure you, my blogger friends, deserve to see what Catalyst looked like when he was . . . A Greek God! Well, O.K. A Norwegian . . . whatever.

The photo was taken, we believe, in Cuyutlan, Mexico in the late 80's. All I can say is "what a difference 20 or so years makes."

Enjoy!

Sunday morning visitor

When I awoke this morning I looked out my window and discovered a visitor. Cats love this perch because it gives them the sun on a cold morning and also the elevation with which to survey the surroundings.

After that first photo I tapped lightly on the window to get this full face shot.

After studying me and the camera for a short time, my visitor decided a slow retreat was the best strategy.

Happy Birthday Arizona!

Arizona celebrates its 97th birthday as a state today. It became the 48th state on February 14, 1912.

Seems like there's something else we're celebrating today, too. What the heck was it? Oh, I remember.

Happy Valentines Day!

Triskaidekaphobia

You might want to check today's date. Unless you're superstitious. Then you definitely don't want to look and, instead, flee back to bed under the covers.

Today is Friday the 13th. Wikipedia tells us that is occasion for triskaidekaphobia, or fear of the number 13. Specifically fear of Friday the 13th can also be termed "paraskevidekatriaphobia" or the always popular "friggatriskaidekaphobia." I'm not kidding! You can check it and much more out here. Of course, not everyone believes in Wikipedia but then not everyone is superstitious either.

Some Christians trace the fear of that number 13 back to their belief that Judas Iscariot, who later allegedly betrayed Jesus, was the 13th person to sit at the table at the Last Supper.

But, y'know what? Not all Christians believe in this number 13 stuff. For a prime example, there is Kurt Warner . . the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals. He's one of those "Born Again" types who always thanks God for every victory. This has been his uniform number for years.

'Course you might note that Warner's team lost this year's Super Bowl. But hey! Who would have thought the Cardinals would even be IN the Super Bowl?

If you are superstitious, here's something you might want to consider. Assuming you get/got through today all right, you might want to gather your strength. There's another Friday the 13th just four weeks away!

February 12th

Today is Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. Happy Birthday, Abe.

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KARL ROVE, the bogeyman of the George W. Bush administration, praises Republicans for opposing the spending bill in Congress. He adds that House Republicans have used the stimulus bill to redefine their party.

Yes, they sure have. Sort of like fiddling while the country burns. One can only hope that future voters will remember that all but three Republicans refused to help out the country or the taxpayers in the face of an economic disaster that Republicans brought about.

(End of rant)

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One can only wonder why this guy (below) is smiling. Not only is it cold and snowy but his message isn't one to cause joy in anyone's heart. Maybe it's because he has a job, no matter how degrading it is.

Snow fields

Just a couple more photos from yesterday of our snow-covered town. I post these mainly for Miss Kitty over in England, who has been agonizing over my previous sunny day photos while she's been hammered with snow and ice and blizzards. See, Kitty, we do get it too. Once in awhile. Though this is the first snow of this winter for us.



It was a bright sunny day yesterday and it's mostly sunny today so I expect most of this white stuff is gone by now. Fine by me!