IS HE DEAD?

 I know what you're thinking.

Is he okay?

Why isn't he posting on his blog?

What's going on?

So to answer . . .

Yes, I am okay.

I haven't had anything to post.

Life goes on.

So here:

A photo from our side yard, showing  La Monja, the Blue Cat, an old bird bath pedestal now holding a dish of brightly colored glass, a bit of the fence painting, and the current birdbath with a frequent visitor that I believe is a house finch.

And that's about as exciting as it's been around here.

But the fence painting has been progressing.

A new larger tree has emerged from some of the rugged old boards of the past.

The sky has some new clouds above.

So it continues to evolve.

And as much as I could say, I shall not comment about Donald Trump.

Oh, and as I wrote to a friend this morning, we re-watched the original "MASH" movie last night.

I thought it was great, Judy was kind of so-so on it, but we agreed that the recently departed Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce was fantastic.

Peace be unto you.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

It's been a trying week here at Camp Confusion but I shan't bother you with my tribulations.

Suffice it to say we shall saunter on toward Saturday, smiling serenely.

In the meantime, here are some items that will hopefully make the rest of you smile.

So that's the end of my message, friends.

Now wrestle yourselves together and have yourselves a scintillating weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . oh, no! . . )

DEBRIS

 I paid another visit to the site of the Legado project today.

Here's what I found.

All that remains of the 60 million dollar loss is a small part of the parking garage.

The combination housing and shopping complex is gone for now, just rubble being loaded into trucks to be hauled away.

The arsonist that caused all this at this point remains at large.

FATHER'S DAY 2024

 It's really not a big day for me, hasn't been in years.

But here's a rare smiling photo of my own dad, for whom I'm named, the senior Franklin Taylor.

Our names differ in that he was Franklin Berry Taylor and I am Franklin Bruce Taylor.

His middle name came from his mother.

I have no idea where mine came from.

And one picture of the two of us in my back yard in Phoenix, sometime in the 1970's, as we were engaged in a tough game of cribbage.

He died in 1980, 44 years ago now.

On the other end of the spectrum, I had an email from my only living son this morning.

He said his youngest daughter graduated from high school yesterday and also, because of an advanced placement program she was enrolled in, got an AA degree for her first two years of college!

He was very proud of her for that, as he should be, and said he was just going to take it easy today.

And now the picture you've all been waiting for, a selfie I took this morning to send to a friend who's celebrating his 86th birthday today.

That picture gives me . . . . "Satisfaction"!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Well, here we are again at the penultimate day before a weekend.

It looks good for a hot time in the old town.

We consider ourselves fortunate.

Our old toaster oven/air fryer has been relocated to the garage and mostly forgotten.

Except for this time of year in our environs when it's just too warm to turn on the oven in the house.

So the other day I baked some Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken in the device we had nearly forgotten.

We got a hot meal and the house stayed cool.

Good old a.c.

Anyway enough about that.

Let me entertain you!

Now, if there are any (many) of these gems that you don't understand just think about it for awhile and it will come to you.

Speaking of coming to you, you don't think I'd forget these guys, did you?

Here in Arizona, we call it a FRIED-DAY!

All right, I'll stop.

I'm not complainin', just explainin'.

So go ahead, wherever you are and feel free to have an amazingly stupendous weekend.

But always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . sorry, couldn't resist one more . . )

A SONG

This tune has been running through my head today.

So I decided to share my earworm with you.

SIMILARITIES

 What do Florida and Arizona have in common?

It's 97 here in the foothills where I live.

111 down in Phoenix.

"But it's a dry heat!"

Bet you've heard that before.

Well, the humidity right now here is at 7 percent.

Now that's dry heat.

Kinda like the type that blasts you in the face when you open the oven door to check on your pizza.

But you can bet there won't be anyone in the back seat of your car waiting to kill you.

THE MURAL

Readers of this blog have been very kind in their comments about the mural Judy and Gayle are doing to the old, brown fence in our side yard.

So here's where it stands this morning.

I have left a bit of the original fence in the photo on the far left to let you see the difference.

Here is a closer view of the area that Judy has been "dabbling" on, to use her phrase.

As she says, there's a great lot still to be done but it is definitely an improvement.

( . . to be continued . . )

MY VERY OWN ARTIST AT WORK

I can't keep her away from her fence mural.

And why should I?

So my job is to help her with her supplies (you could ask her where she found a missing brush yesterday).

And from time to time photograph her and show you my impressions.

I think she resembles Van Gogh in that hat but thankfully she still has both of her ears.

SURVIVAL

Not having anything of any great moment to write about today I was about to leave this space blank and allow you all to contemplate the stumpers in the Friday Funnies some more.

But then Comical Carol saved the day.

By way of explanation, I should tell you that the heat is on here in the Southwestern United States with daily high temperatures pushing 100 degrees F. the past week and over 110 down in poor old Phoenix.

And it can only get hotter over the next several months.

So this advice comes at the exact correct time.

One other strange thought: when I was typing the first sentence above my fingers apparently were going faster (or slower?) than my mind and the phrase "great moment" came on the screen as "groment".

Maybe I've just coined a new word for the dictionary folks.

Les drôles du vendredi . . . (THE FRIDAY FUNNIES)

 With that teensy French lesson (see above if you missed it) we launch once again into our weekly nattering of noisy knockabout.

It is time one more time (hmm, is that too much?) for our timely humor time.

(Aw, geez!)

So let me shut up (PUHLEEZE!!!) and get on with the gaseous gagology.

(C'mon, c'mon)

Oh, you're groaning.

I KNOW you're groaning!

I love it!

So with that love in the air, please go out to your respective milieus and have a marvelous weekend!

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . ooooohhh . . . )