Sleepy Smoke

This is a lazed-out Smoke.

Ha! Bet you thought I was asleep, didn't you!!!!

American Politics

Announcing Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential pick one day after the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention was John McCain's ploy to take the attention of the media away from Barack Obama's marvelous speech of the night before.

But what now? Not only has the attention to Palin been taken away by the oncoming Hurricane Gustav but the Republican Convention is in turmoil, with McCain on t.v. today telling his folks to "take off their Republican hats and put on your American hats." (He had barely finished speaking when I received a telephone call from a friend who asked "What is McCain doing? He was talking like he already has been elected and is running the country!") Gustav has also caused the cancellation of speeches by Bush and Cheney to the convention and apparently shortened the convention itself.

Earlier today, the BRD called to say "Remember how the Republicans were praying for a thunderstorm to wash out Obama's speech the last night of the Democrat convention? Now look what's happening to their convention! They should be careful what they pray for!"

I was tempted to call her back later and sing "Obama will win now . . . with God on his side!"

Meanwhile, back to Palin. I have several friends who live and formerly lived in Juneau, Alaska. While one says she is smart, tough and dedicated to her family, others deride the choice of a woman with so little experience being a heartbeat from the presidency. Particularly with a 72 year old president with health problems.

She also believes in:

• Teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in the schools.
• Drilling for oil in the ANWR area of Alaska.
• Global warming is NOT human-caused.
• Women should not have the right to decide for themselves whether to end a pregnancy.
• The war in Iraq is a good thing.

She also refuses to live in the governor's mansion in Juneau, preferring instead to remain in her home in Wasilla, a long air flight away. And, despite campaign promises to the contrary, would like the state capitol moved from Juneau to Anchorage.

I'm sorry, folks, this woman is not playing with a full deck, no matter how many fish she catches and how many moose-burgers she consumes.

Sarah who???

The pick of Senator John McCain to be his running mate. Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.

Click on the bottom picture to read the caption.

Transformation

I've said it before: Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention tonight was a transformational moment. He made his first big impression on the national conscience four years ago when he gave a speech at the convention of that year.

People began to notice him.

Tonight, I can't imagine anyone, even my lifelong Republican father, who couldn't have been moved by this speech. Granted, he is a natural orator. But tonight he overcame all the rhetoric and got down to the points of his "change."

I was a supporter of Hillary Clinton to the end of the primaries. But tonight, I totally came over to the Obama side. For the first time, I saw not only the high-minded speechifying but the true measure of the man.

I will be proud to do what I can to elect Barack Obama the next president and I think he may go down in history as one of our best.

====================

Other convention highlights:

The speeches of Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton. I thought Joe Biden's speech was good but not great. Although I didn't see all of it, I gather the speech by the governor of Montana was quite a barnburner too.

I was quite happy not to see any sign of John Edwards.

Contrary to the view of Colonel Colonel, I think the Clintons were spectacular at this convention and both of their speeches were great.

================

AND, I thought Michael McDonald's verson of "America" was nearly as good as the late great Ray Charles'.

Carpentry

The BRD is moving out in less than a month. She bought a house in the next town over . . about 11 miles from here. Since the other half of the duplex will be rented out to strangers, she decided to put a wall between the two halves of the back patio. Up until now it's just been one big open space, which none of us really used because of the shared front patio.

So she hired a carpenter. The guy she had used once before, who did exemplary work, never answered her phone calls this time so she found a different guy.

SWMBO asked if she could have him build a ramp down from our back door to the ground, a distance of about three feet. SWMBO's ailing knees can't handle steps very well any more but since we would now be using the back yard for our outdoor time, she needed a comfortable way to get down there.

Well, after two or three weeks, here's what the guy has accomplished. (And he hasn't shown up since last Friday.)

SWMBO says it's typical of construction guys. They take on two many jobs all at once and then go from one site to another, doing work for the person who yells the loudest.

And let's face it. As the guy pointed out the last time he was here, we can get down to the back yard now though I don't think SWMBO will attempt it until the job is more done and the promised railing is in place.

Meantime, the wall between the two yards? Hasn't been started yet.

I think I need Mike.

Miss me?

I don't know. I just don't seem to have much to talk about. Or write about. I may be getting bored with blogging. I have a friend in Denver who works for a t.v. station. While he was in Beijing, for over a month I think, his station asked him to write a blog. When I complimented him on it, he responded "Have I told you? I HATE BLOGGING!" Yet he was very good at it. I don't HATE BLOGGING. But I do get bored with it from time to time. I guess all bloggers do. Or most of them. Some of my fellow bloggers seem to spin a good story every day. And Tombo is amazing, putting several posts out nearly every day. Of course, he is fascinated with photography, too, and frequently posts great pictures or commentary about photography. As for my photos, they all too frequently have been of one or more of the cats, or the flowers or the sky. Too narrow a focus? Could be. Reminds me of an old song: Don't Get Around Much Anymore.

So . . . what do you all think of the Democratic Convention so far? It was good to see Ted Kennedy last night although he seemed to have trouble reading the teleprompter. But he can still stir up the crowd. His niece, Carolyn, comes from good stock but she definitely is not a spellbinding speaker. The biggest surprise of the night for me was how good a speaker Michelle Obama is. Her talk even kept me away from the Diamondbacks game for an inning or two.

It will be interesting to see how this 70 day election cycle plays out. I hear both Bush and Cheney are going to speak at the Republican convention. What can they say? How will the conventioneers treat them? That should be interesting.

Equally interesting: How this 70 day election cycle will play out.

A New Look

Well, I have that dratted Tombo to thank for this. If you look over on the right, you'll see a new look. It's called a "manga" for whatever reason and allows you to create a cartoonish version of yourself. I don't have that much hair (most of the time) and it may have a little gray in it these days. But what the heck, it gave me something to waste my time on for an hour or so.

Elvis has left the building

Elvis Presley died on this day in 1977. He was 42. Had he lived, he'd be 73 now.

But he left early. His way.

Potpourri

It was nice to see Michael Phelps erupt with joy when his teammate in the 400 meter relay knocked off a Frenchman to win the gold at the Olympics. For Phelps, though it was another gold medal, it wasn't an individual honor.

----------------

John Edwards. What can one say? The story is not going to end and as revelations follow revelations, he seems to look more and more sleazey. On NBC tonight, there was a report that said a friend of the girlfriend said the affair began much earlier and lasted much longer than Edwards has claimed.

And the money. It costs a ton of money to relocate both Rielle Hunter and the former Edwards aide from North Carolina to million dollar homes in California. The man who claims to have paid the bill says Edwards knew nothing about it. But, can we believe him?

-----------------

Back to the Olympics, or at least to Beijing. A friend of mine is there helping to cover the events. He has sent pictures and many videos back for personal use. I can't run the videos but I have seen pictures of Brian Williams, Lester Holt, Dave Barry, and an array of formidable appearing "food" in what is known as the "snack area". The Chinese have put on a great show so far but that food - - - sorry, can't take it. And my friend, who has a much weaker stomach than I, certainly can't. I can't imagine what he's eating.

-----------------

As regular readers of this blog know, we have roses. Lots and lots of roses. We also have an archway over our front patio. We've been trying to train the roses on both sides to climb up, over and join. I've been encouraging them recently with a little bending of stalks and tucking them into the lattice work. Hopefully, they will soon join and grow together.

-----------------

A friend of mine in Idaho sent me this by e-mail today:

An elderly couple was celebrating their sixtieth anniversary. The couple had married as childhood sweethearts and had moved back to their old neighborhood after they retired. Holding hands they walked back to their old school. It was not locked, so they entered, and found the old desk they'd shared, where Andy had carved "I love you, Sally."

On their way back home, a bag of money fell out of an armored car, practically landing at their feet. Sally quickly picked it up, but not sure what to do with it, they took it home. There, she counted the money--fifty-thousand dollars.

Andy said, "We've got to give it back."

Sally said, "Finders keepers."

She put the money back in the bag and hid it in their attic.

The next day, two FBI men were canvassing the neighborhood looking for the money, and knocked on the door.

"Pardon me, but did either of you find a bag that fell out of an armored car yesterday?"

Sally said, "No."

Andy said, "She's lying. She hid it up in the attic."

Sally said, "Don't believe him, he's getting senile."

The agents turned to Andy and began to question him. One says: "Tell us the story from the beginning."

Andy said, "Well, when Sally and I were walking home from school yesterday. . . "

The first FBI guy turns to his partner and says, "We're outta here."

Bye Bye Dick

August 9th, 1974 - 34 years ago today - history was made by this man.

He became the first American president in history to resign his office in shame and infamy.

I wonder what it is about August.

John Edwards

I never trusted John Edwards.

There was something smarmy about the way he looked.

When he denied the reports from, say it, the National Enqirer . . I wanted to believe him. But I didn't.

There was something about the way he looked. The way his eyebrows raised and his eyes slanted. His hair. Way too perfect.

So I believed the tabloid reports, in spite of Edwards' angry denials.

And today, it came true.

Now Edwards says the baby isn't his. He says he didn't pay the woman off.

But those denials are coming in the wake of his other denials. And there are already reports coming out that seem to deny the truth in both of them.

John Edwards. Just another in a long line of sleazy politicians who think . . as he himself said . . that they are "special", and above it all.

When will they learn?

When will we learn?

Close and closer

The yellow roses are for Meggie, who said they're her favorite.

The big red hibiscus is for me.

Tropical!

Roses and reverie

I'm sorry.

I just can't stop photographing SWMBO's roses.

The Dollmaker

We had a wonderful visit this afternoon from a very talented lady: The Princess.

Well, she's not really a princess but she does have an amazing talent. Mary Ellen Frank, living in Juneau, Alaska, has become a highly acclaimed dollmaker. She takes as her inspiration the Native Americans who live in her state. The doll's faces are carved from wood and animal fur is used to make the clothing.

By the way, that's the BRD holding one of Mary Ellen's creations and ME sits in the background.

This is another amazing creation by Mary Ellen.

She had just attended and demonstrated her art of making leather faces and hands at the annual conference of the National Institute of American Doll Artists in Las Vegas, Nevada.

She had come to Prescott to visit a mutual friend and took a few hours to visit us today.

It was a pleasure, Princess!

Rain, rain, rain

The monsoon hit our town today. This is taken from the front of our house at the height of the rainfall.

The pictures are larger and more effective if you click on them.


Heavy rain in a short time in the desert does not just soak into the earth.

Through the front gateway you can see our front yard flooding.

This is the drainage ditch in front of the house.

Too much water for the culverts under our driveway.

Our home is lucky. It sits up at street level. Our neighbor's house is lower and we worried that they might have water inside.

Additional run-off ran down one side of our house where it was blocked by leaf debris from exiting under our back fence.

The run-off was diverted alongside our back fence.

Until I got out there in the rain with a fork hoe and cleared the debris so the water could exit.

We love it when it rains here. SWMBO pretended to be worried but I loved it.

It was fun!

Oh, relax, willya?

Yes, my blog was blocked last night also. As were many others. But it was not . . . as some of my friends have written . . . a monstrous, evil plot against bloggers. It was just one of those damnable technical glitches that happen from time to time.

To make things worse, this morning my Internet Service Provider was defunct. So I couldn't receive e-mail, bring up the Internet(s), or even get the ISP offices on the telephone. Busy, busy, busy.

So I went to the grocery store and spent some money. When I returned, I had the Internet and e-mail again. The Internet was very slow all day but seems to be getting back to normal now.

BUT IT'S NOT A CONSPIRACY!!!

It's just technical stuff.

As I said on a comment to one of my blogger friends a few minutes ago, it is bizarre how dependent we have all become on something that didn't exist ten years ago.

So I say "relax". Read a book. Watch an old movie on t.v. Take a nap. (I think I did all three today.) It will all be o.k. eventually. And even more than eventually, pretty darned quickly.

Reminds me of when I lived in Mexico. When a storm would blow up, the power would go off. We learned to live with candles and quiet. And it took a lot longer down there to restore our "normal" life than it does up here in the U.S. of A.

Busting into Bloom

One of our hibiscus plants on the front patio got a taste of water the other day and it responded gratefully and exhuberantly this morning. Normally we get one to three blooms a day, if any. This morning, there were nine fresh blooms on the plant! (Not all visible here.)

On closer examination, the flowers have a strange other-worldly appearance. But I've loved hibiscus blossoms ever since I first saw them in Mazatlan, Mexico, many years ago.

Baseball . . . and family

Doug Davis is a pitcher for my Arizona Diamondbacks. Earlier this season, he was taken out of the lineup when it was discovered that he had thyroid cancer. After a relatively short period of treatment following successful surgery, he came back to the team. Tonight, he came close to pitching a perfect game. That's a game where no one from the other team ever reaches base, whether by a hit or a walk. Davis was perfect almost through the 7th inning. He had two outs and two strikes on a third batter when it came apart. But he eventually won the game after a miraculous catch in the deep outfield by a rookie, Alex Romero, on a hit that would have tied or won the game. A great night of baseball.

My brother turns 75 tomorrow. I talked to him on the telephone this evening. He says he doesn't think much about this milestone but I think he will spend some sleepless hours tonight. I think it's a pretty big landmark date to have reached. As I told him this evening, only 25 more and you get the big 100. He just chuckled.

A cousin of mine, who is the same advanced age as I am (68), has just learned the name of her true father. Neither her mother, the man who raised her as his daughter, nor her grandmother would ever tell her the man's name. Finally, the husband of a half-sister came to her and revealed the identity. She has now met the half-sister and learned of a now-deceased half-brother. She is very happy to finally learn the identity of her father and of her true family identity. I am happy for her. My brother is not. He thinks she should not have pursued it when she first heard of it. Needless to say, the rest of the family, from what I know, disagree with him. But what can I say. He's always been a strange man. He's my only sibling and I haven't seen him for 20 years. We have very, very little in common.

Strange . . . the patterns life has of working itself out.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty!

Ah the tide is changing.

Mike has a new cat!

Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!

Summertime

And the livin' is easy.

I don't know why Smoke tends to lie upside down but that's his favorite position. It may be for purposes of cooling.

Muggles, on the other hand, stays on her side, usually. She is, however, difficult to sneak up on.

You've all heard of "Dog Days"?

Think "Cat Days" in these parts.

Incidentally, there's one more cat around here somewhere but Jazz is hiding out.

Later:

Jazz surfaced at some time and has found a spot for her snooze on the couch.

Temper, temper

Here is why excessive booze, non-functioning lawn mowers and guns don't mix.

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, man has been arrested after shooting his lawn mower with a sawed off shotgun after it wouldn't start.

He said it was his yard and his lawn mower and he should be able to do whatever he wants.

A woman who lives with him and called police said he was intoxicated.

Fabulous Friday Foolery

It's the end of the week as I used to know it. Friday evening was a time for getting drunk. In most times it meant no more work for two days and then back to it. I've been retired (mostly) for a couple of years now but I still think of Friday night as the end of the week.


Tomorrow there's something to celebrate: Mick Jagger becomes 65 years old. Like me, there's no sign that Jagger is planning on retiring. Unlike me, Jagger is still trim and wiry. (The bastard!)



SWMBO and I spent several hours today getting a family trust set up. We don't have much in it right now but we have some hopes for the future. SWMBO says it will eliminate probate when we both fade quietly into the sunet.


Speaking of that, I'm happy to report . . . in light of a post a couple of days ago . . . that "I'm Still Here."

Why I don't watch the news

I broke a rule today and watched Barack Obama's speech in Berlin. Quite good, I thought. But afterwards, as he was walking through the crowd, MSNBC reporter Andrea Mitchell interrupted the NBC Political Reporter Chuck Todd . . . who was making a somewhat valid point about the stagecraft . . . to breathlessly inform the audience that NBC anchorman Brian Williams was now walking alongside Obama. Well, as they used to say in pre-television days, "Stop the presses!" A little later, Mitchell felt it necessary to point out that Williams was now interviewing Obama.

What I'd like to know is who pays her salary: the news department or the promotion department!

The Myth of Threes

A week or so ago, a new neighbor to our left came over and asked SWMBO if she would come over to witness her signature on some kind of paper. It turned out to be permission for a hospice to offer care to the lady's father. Dad was in a recliner of sorts hooked up to oxygen and not looking well.

A day or so later, I was picking up my mail and saw the lady sitting outside and went over to say hello. As I neared her I saw that she was sobbing, with tears running down her face. She told me her father had just died.

- - - - - -

This morning, I noticed a large group of people and cars at a house on the other side of our house. Later, when the crowd had thinned but a young woman was outside, I walked over and asked her if something bad had happened. She told me her father had died in his sleep only a few hours ago.

I had just spoken to him last night as I was checking the sky for clouds and a nice sunset. He was sitting outside his home and waved and seemed fine. He was a nice man and we'll miss him.

- - - - - -

But, as SWMBO said: maybe we should get out of town for awhile. And a friend who I told the story this afternoon said that might not be a bad idea and raised the myth of threes. Well, I know that happens with celebrities and people in the news. If two die, a third one follows shortly. But I'm not superstitious or worried.

However.

If you don't hear from me for awhile . . . .

What's new?

Well, I've been trying to think of something to blog about today.

All day.

Y'know what?

I can't think of a damned thing.

Maybe tomorrow.

Big Screen Action

O.K. I finally got my sound back. Know what the problem was? A loose jumper on the audio board. The computer wizard . . . Tom Leufkens . . . found it. Thanks, Tom.

So, I finally have my new computer monitor fully operational. It's a huge picture, which is very good for these old eyes. The screen is 21.6 inches wide. I make that out to be a 22 inch screen, don't you? And it's a flat screen so I finally have some writing room on my desk.

Your Catalyst is a happy camper.

God-like Catalyst

I have a new t-shirt.

SWMBO took a picture of the front of it.

Boys and their toys

I have a new computer monitor - 21.6 inches wide. It is one big mothuh. Of course, when I first hooked it up, the picture didn't fill the screen, leaving about an inch and a half of black on either side. A trip to my computer wizard fixed that. I needed a new video card but he assured me DVD movies would run fine now without the herky-jerky pattern of before.

But . . . there's another problem. Now I don't have any audio. My little icon is still on the task bar but none of the computer's sounds and no audio from the internet or DVD's or CD's is coming out of the speakers. The speakers are o.k. because I plugged them into a transistor radio and they worked fine. I've been through and through the sound and device sites and can't find anything muted or turned down. My next step is to look inside the tower and see if the sound jack somehow became disconnected.

It is very frustrating.

I also bought a cheap tripod for my digital camera yesterday to use for macro work but the new monitor and attendant problems have kept me away from it so far.

The SWMBO says this reminds her of when I was a ham radio operator and each purchase of new equipment would require more expense to buy something that would make it work correctly. She may be right.

Picture fun

Here's a photo I snapped at a Buddhist shrine on my last trip to the deepest jungle of Thailand.

No, wait a minute. That face looks familiar. Let me turn the flash on it.

Oh, I remember him. That's actually a small statue in our front garden.

This is a photo of our half-cat Smoke. (You remember, I call him that because he only spends about half of his time with us). He's pretending to ignore me.

Have you ever noticed . . . whenever you want to get a nice tight close-up of your pet's face, he won't settle down. First he walks past your camera one way.

Then he turns and goes the other way . . . always just out of range.

Oh, well, I got one good one of him sometime back. It's at the top of this page.

More Macro

Here are a couple of more images from my macro experimentation. I need to buy a tripod or a unipod.

Rainy Day

Another rainy day in Arizona.

Close-ups: solved

Oh, my!

Reading the manual does help.

Look out, macrophiles, here I come!

Experimenting

I've been trying to figure out the close-up facet of my camera. Here are a couple that I think made it, though I forgot to turn off the flash on St. Frank and he would have been better with natural light.

I think the secret is not to look through the viewfinder but to turn on the screen and use it to frame up the photo.

To be continued.