SKETCHY

 I wrote yesterday that I would show you another piece hanging below the Bil Keane cartoon on my wall.

It's a sketch of yours truly in 2015.

I was attending a Diamondbacks game with my pal, Baseball Steve, at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a sketch artist sitting half a dozen seats away and he apparently became transfixed by my movie star looks and drew a picture of me.

The first I knew of it was when the stranger sitting next to me handed me the sketch.

It had been passed down by the artist.

I was stunned and upon having him pointed out to me I went to where he was sitting, thanked him and asked him how much he wanted for it.

He steadfastly and smilingly refused any payment.

Back in my seat, the inning came to an end and cameras throughout the park roamed looking for something to put on the Jumbotron until the game resumed.

I held up the sketch alongside my head and, lo and behold, the cameraman found me and within seconds I was on a huge screen seen throughout the ballpark.

It was a great laugh and when the game was over I once again approached the artist and tried to pay him and again he refused any payment, shook my hand and sent me on my way.

But there's more to this story which I just learned today.

I cropped down the artist's signature to see if I could figure out his name.

I never had before.

Using my secret cryptoanalogy skills, today I made it out to be "Roger Pops".

Then I went to the all-knowing Google and amazingly I learned his real name.

It is Roger Johnston but he sketches here and there as Roger Pops and here's a photo of him I found on Instagram.

I recognized his smiling face.

So now you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say on his radio programs.

Thanks, again, Roger.

One other thing.

In a previous home I used to have an entire wall display of photographs and badges from my (somewhat) illustrious broadcasting career.

Judy named it and I kept it: Bruce's Trophy Wall.

A GIFT FROM BIL

 My blogger friend, Sharon, has a post today that gave me an idea for this post.

(You can see her post here.)

I, too, own an autographed Bil Keane cartoon.

And, by the way, he did spell his first name with only one "L".

It was when Judy and I owned and ran a bookstore here in Prescott Valley.

One day his cartoon "The Family Circus" rang especially true for us so I quickly wrote him a letter at the newspaper in Phoenix and asked him if I could have a copy of it for our store.

He kindly sent one up to me, personally signed in one corner and we displayed it in the store until it went out of business.

You don't have to squint - I cropped the signature portion and blew it up.

I had met Mr. Keane many years before at a party and knew him to be a sweet gentleman.

This proved it once again.

When we moved into our present home I was planning what pictures to hang on a wall in my room and ran across this and decided to give it a place of honor.

There's another piece hanging below it, which I'll show you tomorrow.

RAVENS

 In my tours around the blogosphere I often see murals displayed on various blogs and in various parts of the world.

I have not muralized (is that a word?), i.e. gotten into the weekly or monthly posting of pictures of murals on my blog.

Why?

Well, I live a pretty sedentary life so I don't have the opportunity to spot them.

And while I know there are some great ones in Prescott, I don't go there often (except to visit doctors) so I don't spot them either.

But surprise!

I did see one the other day at the end of a small strip mall on the wall of a tattoo parlor.

I'm not sure what it's meant to represent except that there are a lot of friendly ravens in our town and the mural seems to be illustrating how they're taking over the world.

Anyway, here it is.

Oh and I don't know who the artist is, either but the logo in the upper left refers to the name of the parlor: Avatar Tat2.

It's quite colorful.

THE TRICKSTER

 The BRD lives in nearby Prescott, about 12 miles from us.

She also has three cats living with her and they are quite observant.

They like to lie near one of the windows gazing out on the outer world and spotting birds and squirrels.

But this past week a different creature was spotted by one of them.

It was The Trickster!

Trickster is a name given by many Native American tribes to the coyote.

In their mythology he may have at one time been a human, or humans may become coyotes when they die.

He can represent either good or evil or both.

He is known for being a sly creature normally not seen in daylight.

But here was one calmly walking through a populated neighborhood in the middle of a city in BROAD DAYLIGHT!

Trickster, indeed.

APRIL FOOLS' DAY

 There, I've gotten that out of the way so I don't have to fool you.

The real April Fools' joke occurred a couple of days ago shortly after I took these photographs in my neighborhood.

The flowering plum trees breaking out, seemingly overnight, into beautiful blossoms would seem to mark the coming of Spring.

Springtime, that wonderful season of warmer temperatures, bursting flowerbuds, honeybees swarming and various varieties of birds filling the air with song.

But a couple of hours later as I was returning from the mailbox, it was snowing again!

It wasn't sticking at all and it was only tiny dry flakes but it was definitely snow.

Today The Weather Gods predict the mercury is due to rise into the upper 60's.

But I've been fooled before.

I'm not takin' nothin' for granted.

After all, as a meme I received from Crosstown Lori this morning clearly explains: it ain't over 'til it's over.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 I was out taking pictures of the flowering plum(?) trees yesterday.

Then a bit later I walked out to the mailbox and it was snowing.

I know I've picked on The Weather Gods several times in the past but I know they can take it because they have a sense of humor.

Do you have a sense of humor?

If you do, it's a good day for it.

Yup, those guys are still making us chuckle groan.

Now, all alliteration aside, please do your best to have a wonderful weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(. . . oh, I know how he/she feels . . .)

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.

(no comment)

SPRING, SPRANG, SPRUNG

 

Okay, you can ring those bells - Spring has officially sprung.

As you may be able to tell it arrived with a pre-April shower here in paradise.

But at least now I can stop harping on the subject and lean back and enjoy it.

Judy saw a mockingbird yesterday and I saw a robin soon after.

'Twon't be long now.

LATEST FROM THE BAKERY

 Just to inform those of you who might have been worried about the apparent lack of reports from our kitchen, the Taylor Family Bakery was in full production mode today.

At Judy's behest, I started things off with a try of very dark Brownies and she followed up with a double batch of sugar cookies, half topped with sprinkles, the other half with Turbinado sugar.

That should take care of our sweet tooth (teeth?) for awhile.

IS IT SPRING YET?

 After a terrifically hard rain a couple of nights ago, yesterday was sunny and bright as the mercury soared into the middle 50's here in la-la-land.

I came out of my cave in mid-afternoon to find SWMBO had repaired to the side patio to sweep and to put a few things in order amongst the mess.

As I opened the slider door she greeted me with "I think it's warm enough to have our cocktails out here."

It's usually me who rushes to open the bar so it caught me by surprise when she beat me to it.

"What would you like?", I asked.

"Whiskey", said she.

Not "Red-Eye" but close enough.

So I hastened to pour before she changed her mind and soon we were ensconced in our chairs in the sunlight rejoicing that we could stand the weather for our traditional toddies outdoors.

Actually in the direct sunshine it was quite comfortable.

And the Monja and the Blue Cat were waiting expectantly for us to get the darned birdbath up and provide them with some entertainment.

That will come in time.

But this was our first real taste (heh-heh) of the actual coming of Spring and it couldn't have been too soon.

I hope you all survived St. Paddy's Day and that the weather is improving where you are too.