HERE COMES THE MONSOON

The Prescott Daily Courier's ace reporter, Cindy Barks, had a story in the newspaper today about the drought conditions in Arizona.

Here in our immediate area, she reported, we've had only a little more than two and a quarter inches of rain in the past 9 months.

That compares to about 13 and a third inches the year before.

And it makes 2018's "water year" the driest since 1898!

Tell that to your climate change deniers.

But the monsoon season is on its way, partially courtesy of Tropical Storm Bud now off the southern tip of Baja California, pushing moisture north through Southern Arizona.

Here in the Prescott area that gives us about a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms by Friday night.

I changed my header picture to encourage it.

But the rain, if it comes, will only be around for a couple of days.

As any local knows, the monsoon season doesn't officially begin until the 4th of July.

THE "CATZ"-ENJAMMER KIDS

I may have said this before.

Our cats are Indoor Cats.

They don't go outside.

Except when they get a chance.

They both escaped out the patio door a week or so ago.

Muggles just lay down on the patio and enjoyed the night air.

Blackwell was gone for a couple of hours before he returned, looking even cockier than ever with his John Wayne amble.

Last night he did it again and went over "the Fence".

Judy blamed herself but I said "you just can't trust the evil bastard!"

Anyway, he came back after a mere 30 minutes of rambling this time.

Muggles, meanwhile, was bored by the whole event.

Incidentally Blackwell had an eye injury some time back.

It looked like he might have caught a claw in one of his eyes and it eventually turned a bloody, reddish brown.

We feared he had lost the sight in it.

Judy used some of her glaucoma eye drops on him.

We don't know whether those or just "Natural Cat Healing" made the difference but, amazingly, the eye has nearly totally cleared up and he has just a slight spot at the bottom of his pupil.

His sight appears to be back to normal.

Normal enough to see a door open a crack, affording him the opportunity for another late night ramble.

THE MURALIST

I can hear the mental wheels whirring even from the other room down the hall.

She has told me the fence mural is far from finished.

But what will be added to it is known only to her.

I got a hint though after she returned from a visit to a crafts store.

These are lined up and ready to be used.

For something.

Grass Green, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Titanium White, and Crimson.

Hmmmmmm . . .

(stay tuned)

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Ahhhh, what a week.

There's only one good thing you can say about it.

Because as you know, Gentle Readers, Friday brings us all that brief period of time when we can put our careworn troubles aside, ease back in our respective chairs for awhile and LAUGH!

So let us begin.

Did you know that cats are not the only animals that can not resist small spaces?

Take a look at the evidence.

Listen, I have it on good authority that even BIRDS seek out those tiny spaces.

So there you have it.

Some thoughts to dwell on tomorrow morning as you're sleeping off your Friday night debauchery with a new friend.

Or an old pal perhaps.

Whatever.

Now I won't equivocate, prevaricate or prattle on any further.

Let's all have a perfectly, positively, painstakingly, precisely fine weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!!!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(Yes, you can bring a friend.)

IT'S DONE!

Well, the first stage.

Now comes some detail work.

Continue to . . .

. . . stay tuned!

THE SIXTH OF JUNE

Today always means something to me.

Not because of the anniversary of D-Day in World War Two.

And not because it is the anniversary of the day SWMBO and I entered Mexico on our 4+ year adventure back in 1987.

No, it's because it is the anniversary of my mother's birth back in 1904.

Hattie Loretta Hylland Taylor was born one-hundred-and-fourteen years ago.

Amazing.

She was a school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on the North Dakota prairie when my dad found her.

As young people do they fell in love and were married.

Seems like they ought to have been happier, doesn't it?

Oh they were.

They spent their honeymoon and much of the first year of their marriage "snowed in" on a North Dakota ranch.

Later on, they posed for what I always think of as their "Bonnie and Clyde" picture.

She gave birth to me when she was approaching her 36th birthday.

And 13 years later she was gone, the victim of a brain tumor.

65 years ago but I still think of my childhood memories of her every June 6th.

39 x 2

I was waiting in a fast food restaurant yesterday and was engaged by a woman in idle conversation who said something like "I hope we're all still learning."

The subject was a (presumably) 2 year old child who was trying out his voice.

Anyway, I thought of saying to the woman "I'm 39 and I'm still learning," and then adding "Actually I'm 39 twice!"

I didn't speak those thoughts aloud but then I started doing some mental arithmetic and realized that 39 twice is exactly my age now.

I told SWMBO about it when I got home and she commented "For awhile, anyway."

Talk about puncturing one's balloon!

Anyway, back to the back "yard" projects.

You may recall that we lost a glass birdbath to a dust devil yesterday.

I was planning on putting it into the dumpster because it was beyond repair but then I thought "Hey, why not use the two largest pieces as a decorative item."

And that's what I did, with SWMBO's direction.

I rather like it.

Speaking of SWMBO, she continues to paint "her" fence.

Last night she was adding more blue, creating a sky above the green hills.

You will note that she has made a more distant mountain range above the closer hills.

The work goes on, though it is too hot during the day to paint so she does a little in the evenings when the temperatures have dropped a bit.

Stay tuned.