Happy Birthday, Pete!

Folk singer Pete Seeger will be 90 years old tomorrow. And he's still singing, playing his banjo and speaking out as an activist.

I had the great good fortune to see him and Arlo Guthrie together in concert in Phoenix many years ago. He (they) were great!

Pete is one of my heroes.

Happy Birthday, Pete, and I hope you have many more.

My Sweet Love

I think I've posted these pictures before. Fairly recently. But tonight, Jazz was back in my lap, enjoying the warmth, and I thought I should write about her.

She is my love slut.

Nearly any time I sit down in the chair in my den she is soon in my lap. Especially if I have the Mexican blanket across my legs. It's getting too warm now for the blanket but still she comes.

She is my lover.

She looks at me with her large green eyes, wondering . . . what is he thinking?

Does he love me as I do him?

I wonder, too. What does a cat think? Does it think like we, as humans, do? Does it SEE, as we .. like humans..do. I have heard not. I wonder, as she lies upside down, staring at me, what she sees.

I wonder . . . does she love me as I think she does?

SWMBO brought her home from the animal pound a few years ago. She said Jazz was not pretty, not near as pretty as the other cats. But she seemed so grateful for her attention that she couldn't resist her.

I have always defended Jazz. I think she is beautiful. Perhaps she has heard me and appreciates my love for her. She has seemed to me for these few years to have responded with love for me.

My sweet Jazz.

My love.

A lazy day

I have been neglecting my blog of late. Sorry.

Today it's sunny, calm and near 80 degrees here. A perfect day to loaf around by a lake.

This is Willow Lake, one of several lakes in our immediate area.

There's even a fishing dock.

So where is everybody?

I saw only one woman heading out from shore in a kayak. If I had a kayak I'd be out on the water too.

Big. Bigger. Biggest!

Roberts Marketplace, out here in Prescott Valley, finally got a flag up their brand new flagpole in front of their brand new store recently.

As I gazed at it with wonder, I couldn't help thinking - - is it

a. Advertising . . a banner designed to lure folks in to the store and gas station,

b. A sign of the patriotic fervor of the store owner,

or

c. A stick it in your eye display that says "Mine's bigger than yours!"

Life is curious

I talked on the telephone to my brother last night. It was because of my birthday. We talked for over an hour. It was a good conversation. But we are so different. He is a conservative, I am a liberal. He has become religious, at least church going, I am an atheist. But we still had a good conversation. Strange, how things happen.

YeGods, another birthday!

Truth be told, I have commemorated yet another year on this soil. I won't say which year it was but suffice it to say that the numbers are mounting. Nevertheless, I feel much the same as I have felt for years, nay decades. I know the years are growing and the supposed physical complaints are increasing but most of the time I don't notice them.

SWMBO and I have just returned from a wonderful Italian repast at a local dining establishment, provided in part by the generosity of a friend who supplied me with a gift card. We both dined on something called Lasagna Rollatini in a sauce . . . mine with Italian sausage, hers with chicken breast. And at my insistence, we topped off the meal with more than enough Zeppoli . . . which SWMBO describes as fried dough. Coated in sugar with a chocolate dipping sauce on the side, I found it quite salutory. My companion complained throughout (while devouring one or two of them!) A too pricey bottle of Kendall Jackson wine completed the feast. And now we're safe home to begin the search for yet another year of survival. So it goes.
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I snapped a photo in our neighborhood the other day of a resident Roadrunner. He was a fair distance away so when the picture was cropped and blown up, he becomes a bit hazy. But for those of you who have never seen one of these strange creatures, here he is.

The BRD loves weird art!

I was over at the BRD's house today to feed her cats while she's away. SWMBO had been there yesterday and asked me if I'd seen the new birdhouses in the backyard. I hadn't until today but here they are.

Now I ask you, would any self-respecting bird deign to enter such a strange contraption as either of those? Although there are entry holes toward the bottom of each of these Gaudi-inspired structures, I hesitate to think a bird would trust either one of them.

But it's just the latest in a constant menagerie of rather strange objets d'art that fill and overflow her home.

This is, after all, the home of the infamous Blue Monkey.

And there's this rather dopey but lovable looking dog . . one of two.

I have ceased to put rhyme or reason to any of it but just enjoy each new item as it arrives on the scene. Actually, it's kind of nice having a step-daughter with such a whimsical sense of art.