THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Hi, there, Gentle Readers.

How's everybody doing today?

Oooohhhh, really?

I know what you need.

A Lilliputian lashing of laugh-provoking levity.

Let's liquidate the labyrinth.

All right, those are your just desserts.

Now that you're (hopefully) in a better mood, I'd like you all to have a wonderful weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(oh, yeah)

THROWBACK THURSDAY

It's a balmy day here in the Central Highlands of Arizona today.

2:15 p.m.

Just checked the temperature.

93 degrees Fahrenheit.

When I describe weather such as this as "balmy", SWMBO says "YOU'RE the one that's balmy!"

So what better time to dip into the Wayback Files.

Five and a half years ago.

We lived across town and this is what it looked like on a day in early January, 2015.

There.

Feeling cooler now?

HERE, KITTY . . .

I'll bet I fooled you with that title.

No, it's not Friday yet.

But a kitty did come.

All the way from Scotland!

This original, one-of-a-kind sketch came from one of our own.

The artist is Gwynneth Rixon, known as "gz" here on Oddball where her blog,  "ook?!", is available in my sidebar.

She is a master potter, as well as a sketch artist.

And, lover of cats as I am, when I saw the drawing of a "Cat on Bricks" on her Etsy page I had to have it.

Here's a better look at that rascal in his gold frame.

It was shipped by Royal Air Mail and originally was expected in about 10 days.

But the pandemic has things here in the United States on long holds so it actually took 41 days.

Both Gwynneth and I expressed relief that it had finally arrived.

And I am delighted to have it.

Thanks, gz!

CLOUD GAZING

When I notice them I am always amazed at the shapes of the clouds in our normally bright blue sky.

I usually don't try to anthropromorphize them.

Actually that sentence was merely an excuse to use that ten-dollar word.

But anyway that cloud formation above resembles a huge white bird to me, flying from left to right.

These I think resemble daubs of meringue, sort of a big Floating Islands dessert.

You may not see them that way.

I have no idea what these are or were but they seem to be disintegrating to me, with small wisps coming off of the larger formation to the right.

I could be wrong, of course.

What I find truly amazing is that the same sky can at the same time hold these lovely white shapes against the azure sky in one direction, while turning my camera around and looking another way I find this.

That mess looks like it contains rain.

Or maybe I'm just boring bored.

I'll be interested, though, to read your views of what you view in these clouds.

SHE WRITES AGAIN

I had an email from SWMBO today.

(That's how we generally communicate through the day.  We get together for face to face conversations at Happy Hour.)

She related an incident that occurred to her last night and wondered if it might make a blog post.

I said I certainly thought so.

So here she is again, in her own words.

A bit over a week ago, while searching for something completely different, we came across a box of letters and cards we had written to my sister back in the 1970's and 80's.

I have no memory of her passing them on to me so I don't know how I have them and she doesn't.

After randomly selecting and reading a few I decided to put them in chronological order so they made some sense.

They seemed to be a very detailed account of our family history at that time, much of which we have forgotten.

So off and on for more than a week I have been making little files for each year's letters and refraining from reading most of them until I could do it in the right order.

Last night I finished that organization while sitting up in bed just before "lights out".

As I started to place the box containing the carefully collated letters down on the floor it slid off my lap and crashed, upside down, and slid across the bedroom floor, spewing the contents hither and yon.

As I stared at the debris I thought "It's not that I don't have the time to re-do the project . . . but will I?"

When I heard the story today I had only one comment: "That's curious. I didn't hear a single $*@$!!&* or !$#@^&*%#!"

CATS

The blue cat was posing regally in our Back Forty yesterday while a bird stole a drink right above him.

And, speaking of sleeping cats, our Rent-a-Cat, Matty, came in from across the street for a snack the other day and then curled up on our couch for hours!

At one point he seemed to be turning himself nearly inside-out.

And one more cat - this one from Tupelo, Mississippi - began his path to stardom on this date in 1954 when he recorded this song at Sun Records.

Happy 5th of July, folks!

FELICITATIONS

My Black Plum Clafoutie in a black iron skillet.

Yes.

It was delicious.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!