WHITE WEDNESDAY

CALIFORNIA BOUND

It has been a week for visiting California.

No, not me.

Friends and a relative made the journeys.

The BRD went with some friends to Palm Springs and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights to the Coachella concert venue (dubbed Oldchella by someone with a sense of humor.)

What transpired was a superstar experience.

Friday night: Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.

Saturday night: Paul McCartney and Neil Young.

Sunday night: Roger Waters and The Who.

That's Peter Townsend on the big screen.

The entire series will be repeated next weekend, in case you've got some ready cash lying around.

Though I expect the tickets are long since sold out.

The BRD arrived home last evening and this morning came down with a cold.

As she said, that's what I get for hanging around with 75,000 people!

So on to the second coastal trip, and this one really did reach the Left Coast, as it's sometimes called.

Our good friend, Diane, and her daughter went to Laguna Beach, a favorite haunt for many decades.

That's the beach and that's the ocean and that's the selfie to prove they were there.

And that's one of many sunsets they photographed on a day that was clear enough to catch a somewhat rare glimpse of Catalina Island in the distance.

Nice pictures.  Nice people.

THOSE FALLING LEAVES . . .

FOR YOUR BOUTONIÈRRE

FRIDAY FUNNIES

Yes . . or as we used to say in North Dakota . . Yah.

Whichever, it is time once again, Gentle Readers, to tickle your ribs with the End of the Work Week Humorosities . . . otherwise known as the Friday Funnies.

Let us begin.

Alright!

Prepare yourselves now to have an exuberantly felicitous weekend and always remember to keep laughing.

Here, kitty-kitty.

(Warning: pun ahead!)

THROWBACK THURSDAY

About 16 years ago, one of my former colleagues and his family came "home" for a visit.

Ron Talley (Thompson) had been working for some years in Washington, D.C.

But before that he had been a reporter at KPNX-TV in Phoenix where I was a producer in the news department.

I forget what the visit was about but it occasioned a gathering of old-timers at a jazz club, Timothy's, which was later torn down.

(Not as a result of our party, I hasten to add.)

Here's the returning hero with his wife and one of his daughters.

Ron told me that with that mop of white hair he was occasionally mistaken for Newt Gingrich in the nation's capitol.

A couple, at least, who were at the party are no longer with us.

My dear old friend, Bill Stull, sitting here with Roger Ball.

Bill was a chain smoker, as you can see from the ashtray in front of him, and he kept puffing right up until the day he suffered a fatal heart attack in the kitchen of his home.

One whose death surprised me was Bill Blannon (Blankstyn), who seemed to take care of his health, in spite of some of his wilder habits.

He's on the right here, with Roger and yours truly.

Bill also died of a sudden heart attack, I believe.

I'm not surprised by the grey hair or the receding hair on myself and so many of my friends of the 70's and 80's.

But I find it surprising that so many of us expanded our waistlines.

Maybe that's what retirement does to you.

AUTUMN

We turned the furnace on for the first time yesterday.

The house had grown cold with the lower temperatures outside and the heat felt good when it began blowing from the vents.

It's a pleasure of this time of year in our climate.

You might be surprised to learn that here in this part of Arizona we actually have four distinct seasons.

Spring and autumn are my favorites.

When winter comes, we will have cold temperatures and possibly even a little bit of snow.

But if it does snow it usually disappears within 24 hours as the sun works its magic.

As I write this, SWMBO is outside, trimming tree branches and pulling weeds.

Her family going back many generations have always been gardeners and though she says she is through with all that she still has to get out and do the scut work from time to time.

For appearances.

Sometimes I pitch in but it's usually only under duress.

I'm not a fan of yard work.

The photos are of a couple of sculptures at the rear of our public library.