A SAD ANNIVERSARY

75 years ago today the Japanese Navy mounted a surprise attack against the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the attacks and all eight U.S. battleships were damaged with four of them sunk.

Three of the four were later raised.

Only the USS Arizona remained at the bottom of the sea where a memorial has been built over it.

Many tourists from around the world have visited the memorial over the years.

Later this month the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will join President Barack Obama in visiting Pearl Harbor.

He will be the first Japanese leader to come to the scene of this disaster.

He may see this.

I think one of the many insanities of war is that the burial place of nearly twelve hundred men has become a tourist attraction.

THE HOLIDAYS!

A NEW BED

We live with two cats.

That is, our two cats allow us to live with them.

Blackwell is the younger of the two.

Muggles is his older and smaller sister.

She sleeps most of every day and SWMBO has created a velour cat bad for her on one corner of the bed.

She spends most of her time curled up in it.

(Side note: we humans have a habit when we get too warm under the covers of sticking a foot out into the open air to cool us down.

Apparently, Muggles does the same.

Or she was just stretching.)

At any rate, SWMBO had an old afghan throw that she decided to convert into a new bed for Muggles.

Yesterday she began forming and sewing it.

Blackwell came up on the bed and carefully watched every movement that SWMBO made and when the new nest was done, he promptly claimed it as his own.

The brother and sister eyed each other for a bit from their respective spots only a foot or two apart.

But then Muggles turned her back on Blackwell, they both settled down and soon nodded off.

Peaceful co-existence?

Could be, now that each of them has their own nest.

Blackwell certainly seems to be pleased.

SWMBO will now have to do some work on that velour home to make it more comfortable for Muggles.

And move one of them off the bed so the Creator has a place to sleep!

UP EARLY

I'm not usually up before sunrise in the morning.

But when I am and when it creates such beauty, I have to take a photo.

This was only a few days ago.

ROCKIN' ROBIN

Yesterday morning I was startled to see a robin come to my bird bath.

It seemed like the wrong time of year for him with temperatures in the low 40's.

I thought they usually were here in the Spring.

And then, all of a sudden, there was an entire flock of robins.

At one time, there must have been 7 or 8 in the tree just above the bird bath and they scrapped to see who could use it.

SWMBO said they must have just stopped in as they were migrating to Mexico for the winter.

This guy above first drank, then got into the water and sat looking around and then began a thorough bath.

His vigorous splashing had water flying everywhere.

At the same time the yard filled with what seemed like dozens of tiny birds pecking for seeds on the ground and ravaging the sage brush.

I didn't get photos of them but I think from my guide to Arizona birds that they were bushtits.

All in all it was a bird-lover's heaven for a little while.

FRIDAY FUNNIES

Well, good morning, Gentle Readers.

How are we all this morning?

Really?

Well, let me try to cheer you up.

Ohhhh-kayyyy, are we all feeling a bit better now?

I hope so and I also hope you will go out of your way to enjoy this early December weekend.

Stay home, avoid the crowds, maybe work on those Christmas cards you haven't already mailed, eat something sweet, maybe even play a game with a loved one.

Or a member of your family.

Above all . . . ENJOY LIFE!

(It beats the alternative.)

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(Ahhhh, nice to see somebody takes my advice!)

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Three generations of the Taylors on vacation at Camp Lake, Minnesota.

August 1st, 1946.

Back row left to right first is my Uncle Zenas, a WWII veteran and, by this time, a long-time California resident, hence the stylin' striped shirt.

Then my dad with his shirt buttoned to the cuffs but at least with an open neck.

Mom, looking vacation stylish.

My great-aunt Eliza, dressed and hatted formally, as I always remember her.  

She lived in Los Angeles but I don't think she ever lost her 19th Century upbringing in Minnesota.

And the patriarch, my grandfather, Berthold Wayne Taylor, better known as B.W.

He's the only one wearing a necktie, perhaps befitting him as the senior member of this clan.

In the front row are the only two current survivors, though my brother Wayne and I are both in our elder years now.

You'd never known from the sober expressions on those faces that this was a vacation and supposedly a happy time, would you?

'Course it could have been because this may have been the final day of fun and frolic and we were preparing for the nearly 500 mile drive back to home in North Dakota.

Probably 7 people in one car would have been a bit much for anyone to look to with a sense of glee.