SMOKE

 Firefighters are slowly, very slowly, getting a handle on the Raphael fire north of here.

We are in no danger except for the incredibly smoky skies.

Here's what it looks like this afternoon.

That photo doesn't really do it justice.

Here's the view toward the town with the Bradshaw Mountains to the south nearly being obscured.

It's a stinking mess with the north wind blowing the smoke down to us and, I read yesterday, even 80 miles further south into Phoenix.

HE'S OUTA HERE

After a quick dip in the pool, this robin is gone. 

A NEW SCOTT

 We had a visit recently from Judy's firstborn, Scott, from Indiana.

We often say that he looks different each time we see him and this year was certainly no different.

Not only has his hair and beard gone snow white but three braids or "pom-poms" hung down from his face.

Though I teased him, calling him "the Rabbi", he said he's received many compliments from ladies about them.

He said his beard is bristly and irritates his neck so he braided it to keep it away until it gets longer.

It was a new idea to me but lo and behold just a few days later I encountered an elderly man in a grocery store who also had a snow white beard with a braided ball of hair hanging from his chin.

At any rate, here's the matriarch with two of her tribe of three.

PRISMATIC LIGHT

 

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 

Have a good weekend and always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(---)

 

NEW SEATING

 When you get to be our age (the 80's, for those who care) life becomes somehow more simple.

The Wisdomatics would have you believe otherwise.

They'd say things like "Do you have a will?" or "Who's going to take care of you?" or "What will you do if you have to go to a hospital?" or some blather like that.

But if, like us, you're in "fairly" good health and most of your bills are paid and you have an excellent family provider in the neighborhood, your cares become much smaller.

Like, "Damn, these chairs are uncomfortable!"

We bought them less than ten years ago but for some reason the padding on our derrieres seems to have thinned in that time.

They were patio chairs, part of what SWMBO insists is called a Bistro Set.

But they were metal, hard like steel, and the pads on them had ceased to provide comfort.

Plus the arm-rails were harder than they used to be.

Do you know what I mean?

So she began "researching".

(That's what she insists on calling "shopping.")

And she found some plastic Adirondack chairs at a local store and sent me to buy them.

Which I did.

But when they arrived, after a day or so of trying them, she found that not only are they difficult to drag these old bones out of, they were still a tad less than comfortable to our backsides.

So she "researched" some more and found some chair pads.

Which arrived today, delivered to our door, thank you very much, retailer.

And here, without further ado, though I have wasted much "ado" up until now, they are.

Pretty snazzy, eh?

(Joeh, "snazzy" is another term from the Bowery Boys lexicon. It means "fab" or "rad" or, just, "cool.")

So there you are.

New chairs.

New pads.

New comfort.

Happy Fathers' Day.