PAST PARTICLES

They aren't past particles as found in a physics textbok or as part of language in an English class.

What I'm referring to here are particles from my past office life.

For example, does anybody use paper clips anymore?

I have a plastic box full of them.

I used some the other day when I was sorting through some recipes, to keep each bunch in its proper category.

How about this?

Those evil looking jaws are designed to pull staples from paper that's been connected together without destroying the paper.

It works well, too.

(Pardon the beat up old desk top. It's a piece of junk but I suppose I could paint it some day.)

Speaking of evil looking devices, take a look at this one.

That's a letter opener and that pointed blade sticking out of the upper left is very sharp.

The device is resting on a cover for that end that protects the user who's searching for it in a dark desk drawer.

But turning back for a jiffy, I showed you a staple puller but does anyone under the age of 30 know what a staple or a stapler is?

Here's mine.

The staples were made by Stanley Bostitch but the stapler came from a different company.

There's a lot of history in these office tools but I was just wondering with the advent of computers and on-line document storage, if any of them are used anymore.

Letter writing, by the way, has been largely replaced by email and texting so that letter opener in my desk may gather more dust than this blog writer.

(Probably just as well, she said, as she wiped up the latest bloodstains!)

LIKE A PHOENIX RISING

The Legado housing and shopping complex is coming back from the dead.

A year and a half ago, it was about 50 percent complete.

Then in the dark of night an arsonist torched it.

Lost were 329 apartments under construction, commercial space and a parking garage.

It covered 700,000 square feet of property in the heart of my town.

The loss was estimated at 60 million dollars.

The site was leveled and cleaned up and earlier this year construction resumed on the rebuilding.

Here's what it looks like today.

The project will rise from oblivion.

The arsonist, believed to be a young man also connected with break-ins and damage at the local high school, has not been apprehended.

Yet.

FRIDAY EVENING

 

Anyone like pepperoni?

FRIDAY MORNING

Fresh Blueberry Muffins

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Well-oh-well, it's been a fairly good week here.

Oh, I had to turn on the furnace this morning when it was only 35 degrees outside and 68 in the house.

But it felt good after it ran for awhile.

And now that it's warmed up outside, it's stayed quiet so the electric bill isn't going out of sight yet.

We're full up on sweet stuff what with my baking the past few days and I'm going to pick up my grocery order in an hour or two.

So all is well.

And now I get to enjoy the fall season and all it brings, like pumpkin jokes.

Siss-boom-bah!

Now that I've punned you into a near coma, let me prescribe for you an adventurously advantageous weekend!

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . yes, once again, you rascal . . . )

CATALYST'S AGES

After posting those pictures of my career meet-ups the other day I thought it might be interesting to get a closer look at how I've aged through the years.

So brace yourselves . .  here we go.

Awww, what a cute kid!

Starting out with my dad.

That happy smile has turned into The Smirk.

But who dresses this kid, huh?

Ah, high school graduation and just a flicker of mischief there.

Then the serious radio and television journalist.

Looks like a lot of Brylcreem up top but I know, you were stopped by that natty seersucker sport jacket.

Speaking of natty, a few years later in Miami to cover a Republican National Convention while sporting a Nehru jacket?

What must those Republicans have thought, eh.

Oh the good old days of dope craziness.

(Just kidding. It was actually a posed picture taking a whiff from a bottle of rubber cement.  Just ignore the eyes.)

Some years later, with the gorgeous SWMBO at a Scottsdale Arts Fair.

This may or may not have been taken the same day though I know it's the same turtleneck.

I loved that chair but I don't think we bought it.

And yes those are muttonchops.

The 1970's, and I still hadn't learned about the dangers of smoking.

Then the 80's and lending my IMMENSE wisdom as a producer to reporter Ron Talley in Washington at Sandra Day O'Connor's hearing to become a Supreme Court Justice.

Later on, after my first retirement and four-plus happy years living in Mexico, Judy and I are heading back to the U.S. of A.

Our friends threw a party for us.

(Did you notice the first hint of gray in my beard?)

A few years ago, not only the beard but the hair have turned gray and I'm seeing wrinkles I didn't have before!

Which brings us to this morning and an older and . . . well, let's just leave it at older, shall we?

Nearly 85 and a half but still kickin'.

As a friend used to say about old age, it beats the alternative.

P.S. The BAD contacted me and told me to replace the last picture to something brighter. So I did.  I hope you're (BAD) all satisfied!

NEW BAKING

Good day, Wednesday.

Good grief, Wednesday already?

What happened to Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?

Well, I've been busy in the kitchen, that's what.

So here's a brief summary of my efforts.

First, yesterday I baked a new recipe for me, a Blueberry Buckle.

Yes, there are blueberries under there (a few of them are peeping through).

But most of them are in the cake underneath that crunchy sweet topping.

They show up in this kind of a messy picture of the interior after some apparently starving people around here got after it.

Then this morning I slipped a Chocolate Walnut Banana Bread into the oven by 8 a.m.

I topped it with a few chocolate chips, just for the heck of it.

My photography skills are "lacking" but I suppose I could try to blame that on only having a camera in my phone to use.

Or maybe the tremors of old age have a part in it too.

Anyway, that's the sum of my baking this week.

So far.