AUTUMN, AT LAST

 

Okay, it's the fall of the year up here in the Northern Hemisphere.

(I know, Meggie, it's the beginning of Spring down there in Oz where you live.)

The Autumnal equinox took place a few days, well nearly a week ago so now the leaves are changing and falling and the temperatures are getting cooler and we're looking for the flannels and the heavy blankets, right?

Well, here in the Central Highlands of Arizona, the mercury is still climbing into the 80's every day and it's still over 100 in Phoenix, just 80 or so miles to the south of me.

Hey, I know! Just get off my back, willya?

Look at the good side of it.

Just last evening as SWMBO and I were enjoying happy hour on our back patio she commented that it was curious how Venus came out and the skies turned dark and it got cooler a lot earlier in the evening.

And that's why she is called She Who Must Be Obeyed.

She understands all this science stuff.

So I just smiled and reflected on my good fortune.

So whatever way you celebrate, enjoy this blessed time of year.

After all, it won't be long until you'll have to get the snow shovels out and spend your days cursing Winter.

(All except you, Canadian William!)

CONUNDRUM, AGAIN

These are the times that try men's souls.

AH, HAMLET

 

To be . .

. . or not to be.

That is the question.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Oops, I forgot.

Maybe the rough night conditioned by forgetting to take my bedtime pills until 3:30 this morning caused it.

But Wacky Wally reminded me so, with a slightly red face, here we go.

Now stop the groaning.

If at least one of those didn't get a smile from you then you're not normal.

'Course, whoever said I was normal!

Listen up now, have an elegant, lively, lovely, lackadaisical, non-lethargic weekend, loaded with lavish lampoonery in your leisure time.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(Uh-oh, NOW who's not normal?)

TBT - Following the News

 Regular followers of Oddball Observations will know that I spent 30-some-years in broadcast journalism, otherwise known as The News Biz.

But you probably don't realize that my wife, here known as SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed), was and is an avid follower of the news.

As proof on this ThrowBack Thursday I present photographic evidence.

In the Black Hills of South Dakota

In Lost Dutchman State Park in Arizona

And at home, during cocktail hour.

"Stop talking to me . . I'm reading!"

DUCK!

 I had to get gasoline in my car yesterday and decided on a whim to visit the Urban Lakes Forest Park to get some photographs of the water.

What I found instead confounded me for awhile.

Yes there was a scenic view of the lake (pond?) with lots of ducks, the two in front doing their head under the water trick looking for lunch.

They apparently had read the signs.

But what puzzled me was the big guy who seemed to be herding them around.

This was definitely a duck of a different color.

I sent a couple of photos to my duck expert in North Dakota, Hunter Dan, and asked him what on earth this bird was.

Dan responded promptly saying he was in the mountains in Montana, had never seen a duck like that but that he'd look it up when he got home.

But in the meantime I decided to ask The Mighty Google and soon had an answer.

It appears to be a Muscovy duck, native to Central and South America but now common throughout the United States and even southern Canada.

And those red wattles on his face are natural, not some kind of disease.

So there you have it, Gentle Readers.

Just another lesson from a naturalist in the city.

LIGHT A LIGHT