Saturday, July 25, 2009

Pals

Smoke, our sidewalk supervisor, yard foreman and the only one of our cats that we let go outdoors, has taken to napping on one of the deck chairs recently. I looked out and spotted him there this morning.

But, to my surprise, I discovered another cat on an adjacent chair.

This little darlin' has been hanging around lately and Smoke seemingly has accepted him. He's quite shy, yet bold, and neither of us has been able to approach him. I think he's a girl but SWMBO says yellow/orange cats are always boys and she named him Golden Boy. But he's not at all aggressive which, I guess, is why Smoke has accepted him so readily.

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Round-Up

O.K. So you don't like my blathering about the rain. All right, then I'll get political again and see if that rouses you.

#1 - Watching the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, I was stunned to view Dina Temple-Raston, who I've heard many times on NPR. She's a stunning woman with great dimples and I predict she'll be on t.v. somewhere, soon. She's also very smart, having degrees from Northwestern, Columbia and some Chinese university. She speaks French (her first language - she was born in Belgium), English (obviously) and Arabic. She's also the author of a couple of very well reviewed books. Watch for her on a t.v. news program soon.

#2 - Dick Cheney was a modern day Attila the Hun. His latest sin was that he tried to convince President Bush to use military troops to arrest the so-called Lackawanna Six - an alleged terrorist group in suburban Buffalo, New York. For some strange reason, W rejected the advice and had civilians take the guys into custody. Word is that Bush loyalists are throwing Cheney to the wolves but who would you rather have the wolves devour?

#3 - O.K. This one isn't political. Heard Terry Gross interview Zooey Deschanel on "Fresh Air" today. Seems Ms. Deschanel was named after the "Franny and Zooey" character J.D. Salinger created. She held off on reading the book until after her high school graduation at age 18 but then found, to her relief, that she loved the character. My friend, RS, loves her and, I think, so do I.

That's enough mental insulin for tonight. Play nice, amongst yourselves.

Oh...one other thing. How come I can no longer adjust the size of my type on Google?

Here comes the rain!

A monsoon storm is moving through.




Monday, July 20, 2009

Post-rain skys

A few photos of a post-rain sky. (Yes, we finally got some rain.)



Meanwhile, back on earth . . .


If you click on the photos, you can almost smell the roses.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Thursday, July 16, 2009

I exist!

Yes, I am legal once again.

Got my driver's license in the mail today, replacing the one I left in Nevada. (see previous post)

On Monday, I went to the public library, to the credit union, to one of my banks, to Sam's Club, to Costco, to AAA . . . all for purposes of restoring my life to normality. The lady who helped me at AAA had the best line of the day: "Now you know what women go through when they get married and change their name!"

The only place that wouldn't/couldn't help me was the local Social Security office, where I sought to replace my card and my Medicare card. The lady there wanted to see my driver's license and wouldn't accept the confirmation of my application for a replacement one from the Arizona Department of Transportation, even though it carried my name, address and license number.

So maybe tomorrow, I'll go back and get that done. Then it's just a matter of waiting for the mail each day to see what new surprise turns up in my box.

After that episode in Laughlin, anything else in my life seems rather mundane so that's why I haven't been blogging this week. I shall endeavor to snap out of it and improve. Stay tuned.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Laughlin!


Ah, our trip is over.
Actually it ended two days early, after I lost my billfold.
Along with a couple of hundred dollars, all of my credit cards, all of my identification and whatever.
Let me say . . . we had a great time until then. My pal, Steve, came up from Phoenix and we played craps for several hours and he did very good and I (more conservative) did okay (until I lost my billfold.)
SWMBO and I had a great meal the last night.
And the next morning I said "do you have any idea where my billfold is?"
She didn't. Neither did I.
So the vacation ended.
But I'd go again. In spite of SWMBO's statement: "It will be a cold day in hell!"
Who's the loser here?