I want a drink!

I had just filled the fountain and a couple of dishes with water.

But Smoke apparently didn't want to drink from the cat dish.

He wanted a drink from the fountain.

Meanwhile, watching from a distance was the long-missing Goldie. Haven't seen him for several weeks but there he was this morning. But he was keeping a safe distance and would not allow me to approach him.

The worst part of a rainy day

Sedona, Arizona is a small town in northern Arizona . . famous for art galleries, crystals and vortexes, not to mention beautiful scenery in the red rocks.

But yesterday a huge thunderstorm rolled directly over Sedona, dropping lots of rain and causing the normally placid Oak Creek to flood in low-lying areas. One place hard hit was Tlaquepaque, a Mexican themed mall of galleries, shops and restaurants with some huge sycamore trees. To see what happened, check out these photographs by Karl F. Mullings Photography: Sedona Flood

The best part of a rainy day

When you expand this photo (by clicking on it) you can see faintly a double rainbow to the right.

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A great radio station!

As I was perusing the New York Times on the web this morning, I ran across an article about Scott Johnston. He's a Montana man with a dream, which he made come true. Johnston runs a low power radio station playing wonderful music - - from his front porch! The 100 watt wonder has a coverage area of only a few miles north of Creston, Montana. But thanks to streaming audio on the Internet, KXZI can be heard all over the world. I've been listening to it this morning and I'm hooked. Johnston bases the station's playlist on music you may never have heard but wished you had. Just scanning the list now, one finds Precious Bryant, Eric Clapton, Clinton Fearon, Koko Taylor, Duke Robillard and the Eagles.

Johnston's radio station is a 24-hour one-man band. He's the only employee and he's got a great smooth delivery. You don't hear him much. He never announces the songs he plays though you can identify all the performances by scanning the playlist on his website.

That website is http://www.montanaradiocafe.org Check it out. I think you'll become a fan as I have.

A rainy day . . . and a movie!

SWMBO and I finally took in the movie - Julie and Julia - this afternoon. We so seldom go to a theatre that I can't recall the last movie we saw in one but suffice it to say it was a year or two ago. I'd been waiting for Julie and Julia to come out and was anxious to see it when it first appeared in the theatre but, procrastinator that I am, it had been a month or more before we finally attended a showing.

We both enjoyed it immensely. SWMBO said she couldn't imagine Meryl Streep not getting another Oscar for her portrayal of Julia Child. As is usual in her performances, she was spot on.

It was raining when we entered the theatre and still dripping when we came out. Enroute home, I had to stop for a photo of this very low-lying cloud bank hugging the ground.

Lunch+++++

That tuna melt lunch yesterday was pretty good but not nearly as good as lunch today with the BRD and SWMBO at the Asylum in Jerome. This hotel restaurant has marvelous views with a few tables right by the windows overlooking the Verde Valley.
Here's a guy with one of the busiest jobs in the place.

Dark wood. Candlelight. It's enough to make you want to spend the day. And the night. If you didn't have to drive back down the mountain to home. Nice afternoon, though.

Lunch

A few . . oh, that's a lie . . . it was more like 15 years ago, I had my first tuna melt sandwich. I liked it but I don't think I'd ever had another one. Until today. I stopped at a Subway sandwich shop with tuna melt on my mind. They don't have one on the menu but I asked if they could make one and the guy said "sure!"

So I ordered tuna salad on Italian bread topped with pepper cheese. That went into a toaster oven for a minute or so. I had them top it with some chopped black olives, chopped green bell peppers, and chopped red onion. Topped it off with a splash of vinegar and oil dressing. And it was pretty darned good. SWMBO was amazed.

Rain on the horizon

I took a couple of pictures from behind the wheel yesterday.

Yes, I know I shouldn't try to take pictures while I'm driving down the road at 65 miles an hour. But it was only a couple of snaps and I wanted you to see our rain.

You can see it better if you click on the photos to expand them.

Speaking of music . . .

. . . and of old memories. Here's a song that's come to be popular on the Internet. The singer is Tom Rush.

Jazz

This past weekend the Prescott Jazz Summit kept aficionados of the form content for three days. I stopped downtown to visit with an old friend, Joel Goldenthal, who is the executive director of Jazz in Az. He performs as Joel Robin and has played piano behind many newcomers who have become stalwarts. I reminded him that I had seen Margo and Francine Reed perform for probably the first time in Arizona. It was at a big outdoor jazz festival at the Town and Country Shopping Center in Phoenix. The Reeds had just moved to Phoenix from Chicago and came out of the audience in blue jean cutoffs to perform with the Armand Boatman band. They tore the place up! Joel said "that was my first gig in the Valley, too!"

Later he said he met Timothy Johnson, who opened Timothy's Restaurant. Johnson asked Joel what he thought about bringing in some live music. Joel, always looking for gigs, brought in Francine Reed and the place became a reknowned jazz club. Francine, incidentally, is more commonly known these days for performing with Lyle Lovett's band.

I didn't get to hear much of the jazz this weekend but what I heard was spectacular. Mike Vax, who fronted the Stan Kenton bend for years, did a great job in putting it together and bringing in some great artists. Toni Tennille was the headliner but Margo and Blaise Lantana and Joel's wife Delphine Cortez and Dennis Rowland were on hand for the festival, as well as a number of very talented musicians. The BRD and her Beau took in one of the final sessions at the Hassayampa Hotel and she said the jazz was fabulous.

Next year I may have to shell out the money to attend myself.

Building update

It's been awhile so I figured it was time for yet another look at the new Prescott Valley Library building.

The brand new building, which will also hold classrooms for Yavapai College East, is due to have its grand opening on October 10th.

Down the way a bit is this fenced-in construction project going on in the Entertainment District. Looks to be a huge building. What can it be?

Ah! Yet another place to enjoy a burger. Fuddruckers also is due to open in the fall.

And I don't have a photo but the Hobby Lobby opened a large store this week and a new Chase Bank is nearing completion.

Arizona Beach Party!

Now this may seem pretty strange. Scheduling a Beach Party in central Arizona, far from lake or seashore. But never put Prescott Valley down. This one, in the heart of the Entertainment District, is the 4th annual!

So, the first thing you need for a beach party is a beach, in this case created by a number of loads of sand dumped in a parking lot.

From there on, it's whatever you can find. In this day and age, huge inflatable toys seem to be a favorite of the youngsters.

But it's not all for kids. Look what I found.

One thing we do have plenty of for a beach party - heat. More imagination and some water features help cool the mind, at least. This is a miniature golf course.

And there is a radio-controlled boat in a small pool of water.

Of course you could take to the air in one of these RC-control airplanes.

Getting back to the adults, there's also an RV show on site for dreamers.

There were some classic cars on hand too, including this Dodge Hemi.

Seems like that big air scoop would hamper the driver's vision but maybe he just brings it from show to show on a trailer.

At any rate . . . a pretty good beach party.

And that's jazz!

This is a big weekend for jazz aficionados in Prescott. It's the annual Jazz Summit, three days of performances by a number of jazz artists. Today at noon the BRD and I took in the first event - a free performance by a number of the artists at the Courthouse Square.

There was a tune from one of the headliners of the event - noted vocalist Toni Tennille, currently a Prescott resident.

And Prescott's mayor Jack Wilson (at least for a few more days) got into the act showing off his fairly accomplished dancing with a couple of partners.

It was a warm day but under the trees on the square, just a perfect excuse to kick off one's shoes and wriggle your toes in the cool green grass.

HEY!

...er...make that HAY!

The Prescott Way

Hey, where the angry, raging multitudes?

When Wal-Mart, and then Lowe's, and before them the Gateway Mall, were being built, there was such outrage from the local citizenry about how the mountains were being "scalped" that it even forced a result in a mayoral election. But the same thing is happening again, on the north side of town, and I've heard or read nothing of similar dudgeon. So let me be the one to call it to attention and let the firebrands rage on. This is Centerpoint West, alongside Highway 89-A.

Pretty, isn't it?

Bloggery

Don't be confused. That title has nothing to do with buggery. It is simply a nasty little word that describes . . though not well . . what we bloggers are doing.

As I have noted on other occasions the black dog of depression about this practice does roll around from time to time. One grows weary of trying to come up with something original or inspirational or funny or whatever every damned day. If you're like me, you take small vacations from bloggery to rest and refill the mind.

But why am I trying to explain this malady when a lady of extreme talent has just done it for me. I refer, of course, to the legendary Lucy Kempton of Brittany. Read her thoughts here.

You'll enjoy it. She's a treasure.

Oh boy, another award!

That Twisted Sister, Dawn, who escaped destruction this weekend by Hurricane Bill, has passed on another award which originated with Annie from A Nice Place in the Sun.

I'm passing it on to whoever wants it! You all cheer me up each and every day.

You can read more about the award as well as link to it at Annie's site above. Enjoy!

Rain for Julie

This was the sky over Glassford Hill this morning, looking from Prescott Valley toward Prescott.

It's looking more and more likely that today there may finally be some substantial rain. Nothing would be better for Julie, aka Granny J. Every time I post some photos of our beautiful clouds in the sky, she grouses along the lines of "So where is the #@&**#! rain?" So I'm hoping that today she'll get something like this in her area.
There's nothing like a summer rain to take the heat off things here in Arizona. So, come on Tlaloc , do your thing. Do it for Julie!

UPDATE:


Shortly after writing that I had to drive over to Prescott. As I got into the north end of town it began to rain and it came down so hard there were a couple of vehicles pulled off to the side of the road to wait it out.

Here are a couple of shots I took out the side window and the windshield while stopped at a light.

So you can see the rains have come to Prescott.

But wait!

I said this was the north end of town and Julie lives in central Prescott. The closer I got to her neighborhood, heading south into town, the sunnier and drier it became. I don't think she got more than a few drops of rain. But the weather is still roiling around so maybe she'll get some this afternoon.

The facts - in black and white

You will recall that the BRD lost one of her cats recently. The snow white and blue eyed Emma just disappeared one night and never returned. This is a picture of her visiting our house about 7 years ago. She was shy around us but still bookish.

Well, I knew it wouldn't be long. Not with the animal loving BRD. Her other cat, Sheba, has apparently settled with the loss of Emma or maybe, as I guess cats do, just forgot her after a few days. But one cat just isn't good enough. They are pretty social creatures and they need companionship of their own species. So . . . allow me to introduce the decidedly un-white Jet.

He is about 9 months old and is totally black except for a small smidgeon of white under his chin.

The BRD says he is very friendly and completely unafraid of anything. Still . . . we're hoping she'll keep him an inside cat.