FOOLISH FRIDAY

It's Friday.  Time to relax, kick back and have some fun. 

If you're one of those people who still practice meatless Fridays, you might want to try some tasty catfish.



I hope none of you need to fly anywhere this Friday.  It's become more and more of a hassle.

Where ever and however you spend your day, make it a fun one!



RET.

All right, this time I'm really gonna tick some of you off.  I know it but I just can't restrain myself.

I was a draft dodger back in the late 50's-early 60's.  Not a real brave dodger who went to Canada or something.  I mean, first of all, I was going to college.  That got me "deferred".  That's a real polite way of saying "Let someone else go."

Then I left college behind and I was probably fair game for awhile.  But then I got married.  And my new wife had a 2 year old son.  So I'm not only married, I'm a father.  That got me deferred big time.  All of this was in the time of Korea.  Vietnam hadn't even begun yet. 

So, I never served my country in the military.  Sometimes I feel a bit sorry about that but most of the time I say "thank God".  I don't think I ever had that killer instinct.

All of which is to say that I sometimes scorn and sometimes praise those veterans who proudly make their service known.  Now, on the scorn side, are those guys who put "General, U.S. Army, Retired" or some such on their mail boxes, their personalized envelopes, their business cards, or whatever. 

But there are the other guys.  The fighters.  The guys who left friends behind on the battlefield.

Well.

I saw a car in a parking lot today and I took a picture.  I have no idea what the owner has in his history but he's sure proud of it.  And he may have reason to be.  Anyway, there's the picture.

What do YOU think?

THE COLOR IS BLACK

I'm not sure why it is but the BRD and I both seem to be drawn to black cats.  Don't get me wrong.  We have other cats of different hues and shades and the like.  But especially at this time of year, as we near October and work through the month to that most hallowed of nights . . the 31st . . . Halloween . . . well, then that's when a truly black cat comes into its own.  Just a short time ago, I received a photo by e-mail from the BRD of her black cat, Jet, posed provocatively and letting us all know what Halloween is all about.

I accused her of being lucky with that shot but she says she's been shooting him for three days to get it so I'll just say she's a great photographer.

Now, that's not all.  You may remember my blog post yesterday about that big black Jeep.  Well, the BRD's Beau Jack sent me two, count 'em, TWO photographs today of HIS jeep.  It's a little more rugged than the one I saw.  Take a look.



I like the look of that winch on the front.  You never know when you're going to have to pull some prissy yuppie's car out of a ditch.

A MAN CAR

Now I'm a sensitive guy.  I have my feminine side.  Don't get me wrong.  I appreciate my wife and my daughter and can understand their concerns when things get rough.  But . . .

I mean but . . .

There are some times when a man just has to be a man.

This happened to me the other day when I looked out the window and saw this car in my neighbor's driveway.

That, my friends, is a Jeep.  And not one of those bright red, girly kind of Jeeps.  This one is matte black, tinted windows, high off the wheels.  It's a JEEP, damnit.  The way it was supposed to be made.

Dog-gone!  That's a MAN'S ride!

SIGNS OF FALL

Last year around this time, the BRD and her Beau Jack went to a Halloween party.  She had a single pumpkin outside her front door.  When they returned from the party they found the pumpkin smashed to smithereens, probably by some disappointed trick-or-treater.  Being the BRD, she just swept the detritus off into a garden area.  This year here's what those abandoned seeds have produced.

Meanwhile over at our house the Pampas grass is really flying its freak flag these days.

That plant has grown to 7 or 8 feet tall this year.

Yes, autumn is in the air.  Even if the temperature is still climbing to the upper 80's every day.

FLORIDA STRAW POLL

The results are in from the latest Republican Straw Poll, this time in Florida.  They are as follows:

Michelle Bachmann          1.5%
Jon Huntsman                   2.26%
Newt Gingrich                    8.4%
Ron Paul                             10%
Mitt Romney                        14%
Rick Perry                             15.43%

And the winner by better than 2 to 1 over Perry in second place was . . . . . .tadatadadah!

Herman Cain with 37.11%


All of which goes to prove that Republican voters in this year of the Tea Party are stone cold crazy!

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

There are some . . . like my long-time-ago colleague Tim . . . who say "I can't watch baseball . . it's too slow."

I could say I follow my team because I'm older and slower now.  But I don't think that's true since I've been following Major League Baseball since I was around six years old.  (And that's a long time ago!)  At any rate, last night was exciting to me as my Arizona Diamondbacks beat the reigning World Champion San Francisco Giants to clinch the National League West Division title for 2011.

I watched the game on television and then what seemed like close to an hour of the team celebrating on the field, in the locker room, back on the field and finally into a group jump into the swimming pool beyond the outfield.  It brought to my mind the fact that these guys are all just boys playing a game.  Sure there are million dollar salaries among them but when a big victory comes they all act like kids.  And it's fun to see.

So, they've reached one plateau.  Next are the playoffs and if they survive them it's on to the World Series.  Only a week or so ago the team celebrated the 10th year anniversary of their biggest win as a team so far.

Could they repeat this year?  Their great manager, Kirk Gibson, didn't predict that last night but he did have a great quote: "We're a damn good team!"  Well said, Kirk.  Here's hoping.