April Fool (continued)

Are you kidding?

This was a view in Prescott, Arizona this afternoon (APRIL 29TH!!!) This is getting ridiculous.

The next four shots are between Prescott and Prescott Valley.

A Magpie Mystery

Magpie Tales are created by writers from around the world after viewing a weekly photo prompt posted by Willow. This is number eleven in the series. After reading and contemplating it, you can find links to view other submissions at Magpie Tales. And now to the mystery.

The only clue was a black wooden walking stick, capped with silver. There was engraving of some kind in the silver but it was impossible to determine what it said or what it meant. The stick had been left leaning against the the white-washed wall of the room. There was nothing else.

Montclair had lived in this room since arriving in St. Elys three weeks prior to his disappearance. He never left it in the daylight, only slipped out in the dark of night wearing a black trilby hat which matched in color the cape he also wore. No one really saw him leave or knew where he went. He was just a ghostly shadow passing by. Wherever he traveled, he was always back in his room by morning light.

His meals were left on a tray outside the door to his room and though no one saw him open the door, the empty and soiled dishes appeared back in the same place some time later.

This went on for three weeks. Then the food dishes weren’t picked up one day. The landlady knocked repeatedly on the door and called Mr. Montclair’s name but there was no answer. Finally, after calling the town constable to her establishment, the two of them unlocked the door and cautiously entered.

There was nothing. No sign that anyone had ever been living in the room. The only sign of anything out of the ordinary was that silver-capped walking stick leaning against one wall. Montclair was gone. With the exception of the walking stick he left behind it was as if he had never existed, never been there.

The landlady has kept the walking stick, waiting for its owner to return or to write or to call, asking for it. But all these years later, the request has never come. And the man in the cape and the hat known only as Montclair remains a mystery to this day.　

Three score and ten!

When I awoke this morning and discovered I was still alive, I knew I had done it. I had reached three score and ten, as the book of Psalms puts it - I was now 70 years old. I remember a friend telling me that one day, saying..in spite of his emphysema..that at least he had reached his allotment of three score and ten.

I seem to be in considerably better health than he was at the time, though I do make do with a pacemaker to keep my heart beating and a plethora of prescription medicines, along with a handful of vitamin supplements, to keep everything else working. Of course, the drugs cause other problems . . like thin blood, swelling on the bottoms of my feet, a weakness in my right leg that usually prevents me from walking or standing for a period of time, some weird type of skin ailment that causes intense itching and red spots, and the like. But still, I am alive.

This comes as a great surprise to me and to many who have known me. I recall making contact with an old friend from my college days after some 40 years and her first comment was "My god, are you still alive?" SWMBO has been convinced for decades that either my smoking or drinking or other bad habits would cause me to succumb. I was pretty sure, as were my parents, that I would not survive an emergency operation for a ruptured appendix when I was around 12 or 13 years old. But still, after 70 years, I am alive.

What a wonder that is when so many friends and relatives have departed. One good friend left me less than a week ago.

So what advice can I give, now that I have reached an age where I can feel free to offer advice? Stay curious, see the doctor, take your pills, listen to your wife. If you smoke - stop. If you do all of these things, perhaps you will also make it to three score and ten and beyond. And you won't wind up looking like I do at this age.

We asked for this!

I had to drive into Prescott today. This is just a little of what I encountered. May I remind you that this is April 22nd and this is ARIZONA!

I encountered one woman who said "I want to know who ordered up this weather. I have friends visiting from Buffalo!"

My comment was "Might as well make them feel at home!"

I think it's payback from all the silly laws the state legislature has been passing. (see yesterday's posting.)

Goldwater Country!

Barry Goldwater was a U.S. Senator, twice, from Arizona and the Republican presidential candidate in 1964. In his last years, he revealed himself to be much more of a Libertarian than a Republican. But he must be rolling in his grave, chuckling, at the shenanigans going on in Arizona today.

First, the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature passes a bill which the Governor signs, allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a permit or any training. Actually that followed an earlier bill which allows people to carry concealed weapons into bars and restaurants but states that they then can't drink alcohol.

Then, the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature passes a bill which the Governor signs, which states that people may carry concealed weapons without having a permit or any training in how to use such a weapon.

Then the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature passes a bill which the Governor has yet to sign which would make it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires local law enforcement to determine an individual's legal status if there is reasonable suspicion that he or she is in the U.S. illegally. Arizona's current U.S. Senator and twice-failed presidential candidate, John McCain, who is locked in a tight primary race to make it back to Washington with a right-wing yahoo named J.D. Hayworth, endorses the bill as a "good tool" because he says the federal government isn't doing the job of protecting our border with Mexico.

And finally, the Republican-dominated Arizona House has passed a "birther" bill requiring the Arizona Secretary of State to verify the citizenship of U.S. presidential candidates! That one came from the mind of Representative Judy Burges of a tiny town called Skull Valley. Even the current Secretary of State, former Senate President Ken Bennett, said the bill is of questionable constitutionality.

Back in the day, former Republican Governor Evan Mecham rescinded the state's holiday for Martin Luther King and a boycott strained the state's finances for a year or so when Arizona became a national laughing stock. Mecham later was impeached.

There is a lot of talk about a boycott of Arizona once again, folks, and right now the state can't afford it!

I'm embarrassed. And Barry is shaking his head.

Goodbye, Reed

I have lost a really, really good friend. Reed Schonfeldt died last night. He was, I believe, 62. Muscular Dystrophy was the cause. He was a great man.

I met Reed when SWMBO and I had a bookstore in Prescott Valley. Reed used to call on us to try to sell us some advertising in the Sun Shopper. But he loved books and he frequently spent more in our store than he ever collected from us in advertising revenue.

We used to talk about his days living in Juneau, Alaska and he always had great stories to tell. He never seemed to forget birthdays and a card would always arrive from Reed, written levelly across the top of a ruler the way he did.

He was one of the sweetest men I've ever known and I will miss him terribly, as will all of his many friends.

Reed - we loved you and we will always love you.

These photographs were taken at one of his favorite restaurants, the Prescott Pantry, which recently went out of business after many decades. It seems like everything goes at once.

And this photo was taken of Reed and one of his proteges and greatest friends, Cindy Brown.

May you go well, Reed, and may we all live our lives as well as you did.

Mag 10

Magpie Tales continue with Willow confounding us with strange pictorial clues that are intended to prompt some type of creative urges from us. This is her prompt for Magpie 10.

A diller, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar!
What makes you come so soon?
You used to come at ten o’clock,
But now you come at noon.

--Mother Goose

What kind of Zen koan is that?

And who knew Mother Goose was a Buddhist?

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Hopefully, better submissions may be found at Magpie Tales.