Several more businesses bite the dust

The Little Cafe (very aptly named) has fallen on hard times. Previously it was Apple Pan 2. Before that it was Uncle Sal's sandwich shop. In its latest incarnation, it has been closed for about a month.

No one, it seems, can make a go of it in this tiny location, which is fairly close to where I live in Prescott Valley.

A sign on the front door explained the reason this time.

Meantime, in Prescott, Granny J recently noted the passing of the Stepping Stones thrift store. I dropped a box of dishes off at the store in Prescott Valley this morning and asked an employee what had happened. While acknowledging that the Prescott store had only been open for a few weeks, he said no one knew why it had closed or if a new location would be found. As he put it, "no one tells us anything." So the mystery continues.

And another closing has been reported in downtown Prescott. Sweet Tarts, a restaurant with delicious home-made French pastries, also has closed its doors. No word on why, except for "the economy."

Musical Sunday

I drove over to Sedona today to hear a group I had read about. ZAZU calls itself a gypsy jazz band, modeled after the likes of Django Reinhardt and Stephanie Grappeli and Le Jazz Hot in the good old days in Paris. With only two guitars and an upright bass, they recreate the sound beautifully.

The players are, from left to right, Larry Czarnecki, Steve Douglas and Ken Aurich. A great group.

But my big surprise of the day occurred on the road back to P.V. from Jerome. There's a large overlook down the canyon into the Verde Valley. Usually there are many cars there with tourists oohing and ahhing and taking photos. But today . . . there was something different.

That's right. A very accomplished drummer with his entire kit blasting out rhythm over the canyon. When he finished playing I said "that was great but where's the rest of the band?"

He responded, "Oh, they're always late. I'm always the first one to arrive and the last one to leave."

But then he grinned and said he just didn't have a gig this weekend and needed to get his jollies. As I left, he was beating out more sounds on his drums.

Facebook Follies

Oh, my god.

I have warned friends about this.

But now I have succumbed.

Facebook has taken over my life.

I finally got into it and now I have found multiple former friends, people I used to work with, some of them for a long time, some of them very briefly.

But now.

Thanks to Facebook.

They are my friends.

And I am finding that I am checking the page tens, hundreds, thousands of times a day.

What have I become?

Okay, gotta go.

Got to check Facebook.

Good-bye Mary

The Big C has claimed another one.

Mary Travers, the female singer with Peter, Paul and Mary, has died of cancer at the age of 72 in Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Topping it off

A next door neighbor had this Cottonwood tree in his front yard. It was probably 50 feet tall. Until this morning. Going out to the mailbox, I noticed tree cutters hard at work. I asked them if they were going to take it down but they said they had been asked by the owner to reduce its height.

A few hours later, the job was done.

I'm not sure why the owner wanted the tree cut back but probably he was worried about windstorms toppling the top portion onto his duplex.

Calling all nervous nellies!

From the north side of Prescott, looking south, a forest fire appears to be encroaching on the city. (Yavapai Regional Medical Center in lower left of photo.)

But it was a controlled burn, one of two today. The next view is from Juniper Lane, on the south side of the city.

The other burn today was on Mingus Mountain but it was so far away only a dim smudge of gray smoke could be seen in the sky.

These controlled burns are done every year but every time they're done a certain number of people don't get the message and are all but running down the streets, shrieking "the sky is falling, the sky is falling."

There is no danger, folks, everything is being strictly controlled.

We're Number 37!