AS THE YEARS GO BY

This is a picture taken a couple of weeks ago of my high school graduating class.

The class of 1958.  This was their 54th class reunion.  I wasn't there.  As I have not been to one since my 10th reunion, in 1968.  To add to that, I haven't been back to my home town since 1988, 24 years ago.

All of which may explain why I can only identify a few of the people in this photograph though I grew up with most of them in a very small town in isolated North Dakota.  People change over the years and I have come to realize that if you're not keeping track of the changes through the years, you lose track of what the people now look like.

Who would have thought, for example that this handsome young guy from 1958 . . .

 . . . would turn into this gray bearded old guy in 2012?

That guy in the upper left in the group picture was one of my best friends in high school and, amazingly, he hasn't changed hardly at all.  Plus I've seen him a few times in recent years.  He now makes a trip down to Arizona and Texas about every winter and stops for a cup of coffee with me.  I remember seeing pictures from, I believe, the 50th reunion which featured a fashion show and he ended it by coming on stage in the same outfit he wore to our senior prom.  It still fit him perfectly! 

But most of the rest of us have put on weight, gotten gray or white haired or even bald.  And of course a handful of my classmates aren't around anymore.

Time.  It's a killer!  Know what I mean?

LITTLE RED ROD

I snapped this picture the other day at an intersection in Prescott.  It's through my windshield.  Sorry for the reflections.  And for the crack.  (Shhhhhh!  Don't tell anyone.)

ALOHA PRESCOTT!

Saturday was the big day for the Old Fireside Plaza's annual Hawaiian luau day.  This is the third year that Goodwin Street in front of the plaza has been closed off after tons of sand have been dumped on it for a sand volleyball tournament.



The entire plaza is decorated, Hawaiian style.



There is live entertainment by local bands, a pig roast, raffle prizes and much more.  Visitors are encouraged to "dress Hawaiian" and many of them do.

The employees of the plaza's shops also dress the part.

I could feel this poor fellow's pain.

The mascot for the Arizona Sundogs hockey team showed up and posed for pictures.



Security is provided by the Arizona Rangers in their natty all-black uniforms.



That's probably a pretty good thing considering some of the other employees and their costumes.  If you're not an admirer of the female form you might want to look away.  But you'll be missing something.  After all, it's Hawaiian, right?

This young lass was getting a compliment from a female customer on her red hair.  One of her male co-workers commented "Don't worry, no one's going to notice it today."

I asked this young lady to pose as I wanted a picture of her tree.  She commented, "that's one I've never heard!"  But she posed.



What can I say . . . but . . . aloha!  Oy!

OK, OK, THE MONSOON RAIN IS HERE!

Finally!



In nearby Prescott, it rained hard this morning, then came back in the late afternoon.  Good thing because that meant it didn't wash out the Hawaiian luau that was going on in downtown.  I'll have pictures of that tomorrow.

These pictures were taken this afternoon after the rains came back.

If you look closely at this second picture, you can see the rain coming down diagonally.

Meanwhile, when I got home I found it sprinkling lightly but nothing like the torrential downpour I drove through to get home.  The ferocious thunderstorms have slid by us for the most part.

But here's the cloud formation that brought that heavy rain.

So thanks to all of you who were concerned about us and offered to send us some of your rain.  We can still use it but I think the monsoon is going to take care of us for awhile.

TOOT, TOOT, TOOTSIE

See that little tinge of color up there at the top of my patio roof?

Take a closer look.

Those are a few blossoms on our Trumpet Vine.  There are quite a few more, tooting out their hope for some rain.

Just send us some damned rain!

Actually Prescott, which is just a few miles west of us, has had a couple of good rain storms in the past couple of days.  But the rains have been splitting and avoiding us here in Prescott Valley.

But . . it will come.

MONSOON SKIES

It's looking more and more promising for some rain.  We've had a few sprinkles but that's all.  But this is what caused that low temperature I showed you in my last post.



Dagnab it, there's got to be some rain up there somewhere.



Stay tuned.

UNBELIEVABLE!

Oh I bet you've all been worried about me since my Monday post, right?  Well, I'm okay.  Except that I ran my foot into a leg of my bed this morning and split the end of my little toe open.  I'm so used to running into things that I didn't think anything of it.

UNTIL!  As I was walking around in the kitchen I suddenly looked down and saw spots of blood all over the floor.  Oh, hell!  But I put a bandaid on my toe, cleaned up the floor and SWMBO never knew anything about it.  Until I told her later.  So it goes in the life of the old and clumsy Catalyst.

But there's better news.  At late afternoon I passed an electronic sign and was amazed to see this.

Oh, not that, you idiot.  The next one.



Can you believe that?  Nearly 5 o'clock in the afternoon and only 73 degrees.  That's California coastal weather!  Amazing.

But even more amazing was the sight just a few hundred feet away that SWMBO called my attention to.



That my friends is a double century plant, rising perhaps 25 or 30 feet into the air.  Since they reportedly bloom only once in about 100 years, that's pretty darned amazing.



All hail the plant of the century!