STILL HERE

TIME OUT

 We have just been informed that the owner of our residence is going to put it up for sale.

Hence we will most likely have yet another move in our future.

Consequently we are going to be very busy for awhile and because of that I am putting Oddball Observations on an indefinite hiatus.

I thank you all for visiting, for reading and for occasionally commenting.

Though I thank the "lurkers", too, for just being there.

If you enjoy my usually mindless prattle I am always grateful.

So until the future becomes less of a muddy picture I bid you not goodbye but a simple TTYL or, if you're not into "text-speak" . . . later.

THE MONSOON ARRIVES

 Yes, once again, I know what you're thinking.

"Monsoon? In Arizona? What the heck is he smokin' anyway?"

But it's true.

We do have a monsoon in Arizona.

Actually two of them.

One in the middle of the year, the summer monsoon.

And one toward the end of the year, the winter monsoon.

What monsoon means is that there is a change in the wind direction, which tends to bring in moisture to our state.

What rain we get . . granted, it's not much . . is preceded by towering clouds.

So here's what I saw the other day.

My view was through a window on the second floor of our public library.

In this next picture, you can see a little of the adjacent city government building on the left, flanked by those delicious whipped cream clouds.

True to form, we have had a couple of days with thunder, lightning, wind and, yes, even some rain.

In this hot and dry state, it is greatly appreciated.

ON ALERT

 The BRD sent this picture of her cats, the lurking Mimi and the laconic Opal, this morning.

She called it "A break before resuming to zoomies."

I interpret "zoomies" to mean racing wildly around the house.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Yes, yes, I know, Gentle (and Faithful) Readers.

You've been thinking "Jeez, it's Friday, it's getting late, he hasn't posted since Tuesday, he IS pretty old, you don't suppose . . ."

Well you can't get rid of me THAT easy, friends and neighbors.

See it was a Dark and Stormy Night here in Paradise, i.e. Arizona.

Around midnight, and for a few hours following, the thunder thundered and the lightning flashed and the sky spat a tiny bit of rain and worst of all the wind blew.

We had the windows open for the expected cool night and around 4 a.m. my bedroom door was blown shut with a loud SLAM.

Which woke me up yet again.

So I opened it but then I had to go to the bathroom and while I was in there it slammed shut again.

Which woke Judy up again and she turned on the light to see if I was okay.

I gave up on a cool night and closed my window and we both struggled back to sleep.

And I woke a couple of hours later than usual this morning and it took me awhile to get my sleepy brains back together and that's why this is coming to you late today.

So . . .

And with that mooving story, The Friday Funnies are complete.

And replete.

Now it's up to you to compete for the all-time tops Weekend.

But never forget to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

SOLSTICE(S)

 It's finally here!

Where I live, in Arizona, in the United States of America, the Summer Solstice arrived at 2:13 this morning.

That corresponds to 9:13 this morning in Merry Olde England, home of Universal Coordinated Time, which used to be called Greenwich Mean Time.

At any rate, what it all means is that this is the longest day of the year, or the day in which we get the longest period of daylight.

HOWEVER!

South of the Equator it's the reverse and this is the shortest day of the year and the beginning of Winter.

We Summer fertility worshippers (that's another story) can offer our sympathies to those folk Down Under, as we scornfully refer to them.

Well, all except fellow blogger William Kendall up in Ottawa who thinks the season of snow and cold is the best season of all.

'Course he also styles himself as a bit of a rogue and a scoundrel.

At any rate for those who love sun basking, barbecues and baseball, today is the happiest day of all.

Happy First Day of Summer, y'all!

CATIFICATION

 Yes, I made that word (above) up but I think by the end of this post you'll agree that it works just fine.

It begins with a visit recently by SWMBO to her offspring The BRD.

Now the BRD has always been an "animal person" but primarily a "cat person."

That is to say she's always had either or a dog or a cat or multiple cats or birds (who can forget those noisy zebra finches) in her households.

In her latest place she was, for a time, down to only one cat and she thought it needed a companion so she got a playful little white cat to keep the older one company.

But then she figured out that the little one was too playful for the older one so she got a third cat to keep them both company and to provide a play partner for the white one.

So Judy went over to Gayle's house a few days ago to meet the new cat.

Opal, the black cat, as Gayle says, "never met a stranger" so she immediately came out to greet Judy and find out what this was all about.

Judy had brought with her a big bag with some things for Gayle and once it was empty it was just sitting on the floor.

Too much for Opal to resist and she was quickly into it with one of her toys thrashing about while Mimi, the little white cat, looked on curiously.

Opal finally came up for air and to pose for her portrait.

The arrival of these two new cats has seemed to give Lilly, the older cat, new life and she came out to sit on the arm of a chair and watch all the wild activity of these two youngsters and to also greet SWMBO.

As Judy often remarks, "she has the sweetest face."

Meanwhile back here at Wistful Vista (does anyone remember "Fibber McGee and Molly"?), our rental cat Matty was up on the wall at the back of our property, stalking something he's unlikely to catch.

His family had been gone somewhere all last week so he'd been spending full days at our house and having to be physically put out at the end of the day.

Now that his humans are back we haven't seen hide nor hair of him for a few days.

And so ends this journey into the World of the Felines.

And probably you now know why I called this post "Catification".