TIGERS

The biggest of the cats and, for my money, the most beautiful.

MEDITATION

There were a number of interpretations of yesterday's photo.

I was thinking "lines of communication from the haze of the past."

But I may have been putting too much into it.

If the picture made you think, all the better.

Now enjoy this mind boggling video.

YESTERDAY'S ENIGMA AND A NEW CHALLENGE

The photo from yesterday's post was, indeed, a flag of the United States, on a pole perhaps a mile from my location.

Shot with the telephoto lens on my little point and shoot camera, through the mist of a lightly raining day, then blown up as much as I could with my photo editing software.

Hence, the quality.

But that mistiness made me think and I believe Jager had the best guess as to my intentions, with Ball Points perhaps leaning, and Val's second guess, as well.

But let that be.

I've got another photo from yesterday for you all to interpret.

The original . . .

and how I cropped it . . .

I have a vague idea but tell me what it means to you.

ENIGMATIC

What do you see?

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Well hello, Gentle Readers.

Keeping up with the news?

You poor people, I can ascertain that it's time for my weekly handbag of hilarity.

Here goes.

O.K. folks, while you're figuring that one out I'll just take the opportunity to tell you to have a terrific weekend and toddle off.

Oh, and always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(awwww, I think you want to come in, don't you?)

TBT - Smoke

Once in awhile, I like to look back and see what I was blogging about in the past.

Today was such a day (because I couldn't think of anything else to blog about.)

When I looked back ten years I found a snowstorm had hit us in 2010 but a couple of days before that we had an even sadder event to report.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

R.I.P. Smoky

This is our big boy cat Smoke. We had to put him down today. He got sick, seemingly in 24 hours, and when a veterinarian examined him this morning, he found his red blood cells were down to nearly nothing. It was probably feline leukemia.

It's a pretty sad day around here but I wanted to leave a tribute to a great cat.

I used to joke that when he was younger he liked to read.

He adopted us one day but grew to be larger than either of his step-sisters. Even so he was the most placid of the three. Jazz (on the left) used to hiss and growl at him but Smoke never retaliated. Occasionally Muggles (center) used to have words with him. Smoke just gazed at him.

While he was the only one of the cats we allowed to go outdoors, he spent a lot of time in contemplative poses inside.

But when he did go out he seemed to be a natural poser for my camera.

Or a snoozer on my deck chair.

He was nimble, whether tip-toeing around the edge of a fountain for a sip or two of water . . .

. . . or doing his gravity-defying walk across the top of the fence.

He liked to snooze on the tiles, while keeping a lookout for any brave small birds, or lizards, or bugs.

He is gone now and he will be missed. Our Smoky.

It's always sad to lose a member of one's family, even if it's "only" a pet.

BOB SHANE

Yesterday I featured the Kingston Trio in a short blog post.

It apparently brought back good memories for quite a few of you.

Steve (in London) called my attention to the news that the last of the founding members of the group, Bob Shane, had just died recently.

Through the generosity of the Great Google, I learned that that occurred just down the road from me, in Phoenix, and that he had been 85 years old.

I was struck, in reading his obituary, that he said in a 2011 interview that occasionally someone will call him and ask him to go on stage and he would quickly pack a couple of oxygen tanks and go.

I assumed that meant he would have the oxygen backstage to prepare him for his performance and to renew him afterward.

But no!

I learned that he would go on stage with his portable oxygen tank and perform with the tubing strapped on.

So here, for all of you fans, is a video of him in his senior years wearing oxygen and singing the song that he made his own.

That is an illustration of a trouper.