THROWBACK THURSDAY

We now have two candidates for President of the United States as the campaign season begins to heat up. It's 9 months until the first primary election and 19 months until the general election but I guess it's never too early to begin boring the electorate with speeches and campaign commercials.

It took me back, on this Throwback Thursday, to 1968. President Lyndon Johnson had announced that he would not run for another term. His Vice President, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, then announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination. He did visit Bismarck, North Dakota, where I was news director of a radio and television combine but the picture I have of interviewing him is so faded that I can't reproduce it here.

But I did find a photo of me interviewing Humphrey's son Hubert Horatio Humphrey III,who went by the nickname of Skip. (In Googling him I learned that he gave one of his children the family monicker, making him HHH the Fourth. He went by the nickname of Buck!)

Anyway, Skip and his attractive wife came to Bismarck campaigning for his father and I interviewed him in the North Dakota Governor's mansion.

The older Humphrey did win the Democratic nomination for President that year but, unfortunately, was defeated in the general election by Richard Nixon.

Skip went on to a fairly illustrious career in Minnesota politics, serving as the state's Attorney General for many years but lost his bid for governor to an independent candidate, the former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura.

I went on to other adventures.

WEDNESDAY WINDOWS

SWMBO prepared an elegant dinner for our big day yesterday. Thick pork chops baked in a white wine mushroom sauce, asparagus, a mix of golden quinoa and jasmine rice. Lovely and it followed a couple of episodes of "Newsroom".

Today is laid back. A chance to use some windows pictures I took awhile back and have been hanging onto until inspiration struck. No inspiration today, really, except for the alliterative muse.

I wonder if architects ever think about the window cleaners.

APRIL DAYS

April is a celebratory month in our family. On the first, April Fool's Day, the BRD and her Beau Jack go down to the county courthouse to take out a marriage license. It's not that they intend to marry. It's just become a silly tradition with them. Six years and counting. Then they take a chauffered limousine to a luncheon spot and meet a bunch of friends. This year we joined them. I took pictures but for some reason this is the only one I saved.

The BRD said she liked this one because she looked thin. As usual, I just think she looks beautiful.

It's crazy but I did save a couple of other pictures, shot through the window of the club where we had lunch.

Amazing what a little (a lot) of money can do in a desert climate, isn't it. This is the Club at Prescott Lakes. I guess those two bodies of water are the lakes. Beau Jack told me when visitors from the Midwest come to play golf they say "Those aren't lakes. They're just ponds!"

But, getting back to the subject of this blog. In another few days, the BRD will celebrate her birthday. Then one of my sons has his birthday. A couple of weeks after that I will have an epochal birthday (more on that later). And today is the 44th anniversary of the day SWMBO and I got married. (Happy anniversary, dear.)

So, all in all, it's a good month for the greeting card industry.

A MONDAY BONUS

I just ran across this and had to share it with you. Call it a Monday Bonus Post. 

Oscar Peterson and Count Basie perform . .

Jumpin' At The Woodside

CATALYST CASTLE UPDATE

Today, as all good Americans should know, is a very special day. (Even though the Chicago Cubs started their newest losing season yesterday with the St. Louis Cardinals handing them their first defeat of the year) It is Opening Day for the 2015 Major League Baseball Season!

Down at Chase Field in Phoenix groundskeepers were preparing for tonight's contest of the Mighty Arizona Diamondbacks and the (reigning World Champion) San Francisco Giants. The dadblasted Giants have won three of the last five World Series so it's about time for the Diamondbacks to have their turn.

Up here, at Catalyst's Castle, spring is continuing it's growth pattern.

The Redbud tree is becoming greener by the day as leaves replace the purple flowering buds.

The Rocketman Russian Sage is taking off like crazy after being hacked to the ground by my gardening expert, aka She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO). As I told her the other evening as we were enjoying drinks on the patio, you can practically see it growing as you look at it.

I like to sit out on the front patio to greet the various dog-walkers who pass by.

My Faithful Companion, Blackwell, would love to join me but since we know him to be an Escape Cat he is confined to the house. He has to satisfy himself by getting as close to me as he can. Whenever I go out the front door I find him patiently waiting for me just inside when I return.

Muggles caters more to SWMBO, taking an afternoon nap on her bed.

"Will you get that blasted camera out of here. I'm trying to sleep!"

The front patio is off limits to not only Blackwell but me these days too.

A pair of warblers has built a nest atop one of the pillars and I've been told to give them their privacy for the birthing season.

Perhaps building their nest right next to this smiling sun face will give them better luck then the finches who nested atop another pillar last year.

So, life goes on around here, my occasional intrusions on it notwithstanding. Mother Nature seems to be telling me to just "leaf" it alone.

A DAY FOR BEASTS AND CHILDREN

I couldn't find any children. Guess they're all out hunting Easter eggs. But enjoy this video, thanks to my childhood friend Jimmy the B.

Happy Easter

NATURE'S MYSTERIES

Nature plays the strangest tricks on us. Take, for example, the Redbud tree right outside my den window. Through the winter months it is a barren skeleton. 

As the weather begins to warm a little it comes alive again and a week or so ago it was ablaze with purple blossoms.

Now another stage has begun as the blossoms give way to green leaves.

The leaf on the left still has a yellowish tinge to it's greening. The one on the right is a tad further along.

In another week or so the purple will all be gone and the tree will be a sea of green leaves, providing a hiding place for finches and sparrows before they drop down to the birdbath for a sip or perhaps a plunge.

The seasons are moving fast and summer is lurking. I think Mother Nature exhibits a great sense of humor in her creation of the changes in her floral decor.