GROWTH

 I was just reading this morning new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and guess what was the fastest growing county in the entire country last year?

It was Mighty Maricopa!

Yes, Maricopa County in Arizona, which is dominated by the Metro Phoenix area, was the fasted growing county in the United States in the past year.

It added something over 50,000 people to it's population, which is now at about 4 and a half million people.

So then I did some more Googling around and found that the population of my little "town", Prescott Valley, is now estimated to be over 49 thousand souls and the "little city" to the southwest of us, Prescott, is estimated  to have about 15 hundred fewer people.

I can still remember the first time I laid eyes on Prescott Valley, in 1972 when we moved to Phoenix from Indianapolis, Indiana.

We drove through it on a reconaissance tour of a small part of our new state one weekend.

The standing joke though mostly reality was that Prescott Valley was just street signs and crooked land speculators.

Those guys were getting rich convincing folks back in our country's hinterlands that Prescott Valley was a retirement paradise.

It took a few decades for the place which still officially calls itself a "town" to take off but now it's growing at a rate of nearly 2 percent a year.

The county I live in, Yavapai, now has an estimated population of just below 244 thousand.

Which should answer SWMBO's frequent questions when we are out in the community "Where are all these people coming from and where are they going?"

Of course, with all of that additional traffic, there are inevitably scenes like this.

So enjoy the growth if you can, fellow Prescott Valley-ites, but for my and yours and everyone else's sake, learn to drive a little more slowly and a lot more carefully.

The city fathers and mothers can call it just a "town" but it's actually part of a metropolitan area of over 100 thousand people now.

The Old West is hard to find nowadays.

LIFE CYCLES

 As I have grown ancient older, I've found some differences in my life.

Oh there are the obvious things like doctor visits and eyeglasses and various other devices to prolong my span of years.

But I was thinking of my sleep cycle.

When I was younger I stayed awake until late at night, either carousing with friends or reading a book that kept me in thrall.

And I could sleep half the day if my schedule allowed it.

(It usually didn't, which accounts for the lines in my face.)

But now in my dotage Golden Years, I find the arms of Morpheus taking hold earlier and earlier.

Some times there is a wakeful period in the middle of the night and sometimes I sleep through the dark hours.

But frequently I find myself waking and rising for the day at around 6 a.m.

When this first started I found it unusual.

But I've grown accustomed to it and rather enjoy being awake for the dawning of the light.

There are other things that have changed in my life, too.

For example, The Imaginary Gods used to say coffee was bad for us.

Then it was good for us.

The same with red wine and chocolate and even red meat.

(I never went along with their affection for kale, by the way.)

So I've decided to just ignore all of their well-meaning advice and live out my years as I prefer.

Well I might heed the advice of an old-timer, Benjamin Franklin.

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

But other than that I'll ignore the punditry.

After all -

THE PAST AND A DATE PASSED

 I've been going through a huge collection of photographs in my family files and found an amazing one.

It was taken in 1904 - 119 years ago! - and it shows two members of my family.

Seated in the rocking chair, presumably wearing a christening gown, is my father, Franklin Berry Taylor, at the ripe old age of ten months.

The pouty boy sitting on the floor is his brother, Zenas Howland Taylor.

He seems to be pouting because as a five year old boy he wants to be exploring the land, looking for adventure, and not ordered to stay at home and look after his little brother.

They were living then in Cathay, North Dakota, where my grandfather had come to operate a bank.

But they moved to Stanley, where I was born, a short time later.

Cathay had a population of 20 as of the 2020 census.

Now the second part of this post.

I said recently that since Spring had finally come I wouldn't have to harp on it anymore.

And then a few days later I woke to find snow on the ground.

AGAIN!!!

So with help from Jocular Jean (and Mother Nature) I hereby offer the following apology.

Isn't that always the way?

TWINS

This back-to-back posing started years ago. 

Back when our fraternal twin grandchildren graduated from high school in Colorado.

That's Christina (Christy) on the left and Russell (Rusty) on the right.

It was taken in (probably) 1998.

Then let the calendar pages riffle quickly some 4 years later and we catch up with a more mature pair.

Christy had gone to college in Israel and Rusty was on leave from the military.

And now?

Wow, what a difference another 21 years can make.

It's difficult to imagine these very accomplished grandkids are the same people.

But these back to back poses confirm the story.

And the years!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Oh yes, oh yes, it's that TGIF day again!

I know how you all struggle through the week just counting the minutes until it is once again Friday and you can break out into uproarious laughter once again.

Well, I have a sad announcement.

I have come to the end of my strength and the Friday Funnies are hereby decommissioned.

That is, put to rest.

Over.

Sorry.

Okay?

Oh, hahahahaha, I was just kidding!

Here they come.

Will those Trek-sters never stop?

As they keep coming in from my crew of co-collaborators, I don't think they will.

Well now, just endeavor to enjoy an exciting, exhilarating, efficacious, enviable, electrifyingly emotional weekend.

But don't get enervated.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . oh yes, deep thoughts indeed . .)

COUNTING

 The other day Red, up there in cold cold cold Alberta, Canada, had a post that noted his blog counter had topped one million views.

Now that's an amazing figure and I believe I commended him for it.

And for sticking with his blog since he started it in 2008.

But it got me thinking so I went in search of the stats on my own blog because it's been running continuously since 2008 itself.

Actually I found that I started blogging in 2006 but I quit a couple of times and erased my posts so they only go back to 2008.

Well, lo and behold, as of today my 4,367 posts have been viewed an amazing 1,139,898 times!

But of all those views, only 35,284 comments!

C'mon folks, stop lurking and start commenting, even if it's only to say hello.

I don't know how many of those viewers were spammers or hackers.

And I try to filter them out.

But the whole thing kind of makes me weary when I look at those numbers.

And speaking of which, we had a visit yesterday from two great-granddaughters whom we had never had the opportunity to meet before.

They are Alexis, age 9, and Cadence, age 7.

They came with their parents from Tennessee, via a visit with their aunt in Mesa, just down the hill a ways from us.

I am wearing a red sweater for a very special reason.

Both girls, their mother and their father are all redheads.

Though as I noted, my grandson . . a truly young man . . already is showing some gray in his beard.

But the young-uns (well, they're ALL young-uns to us) were great fun to meet and enjoy.

Part of the blasted aging process that sometimes makes it all worthwhile.

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