SOMEWHAT BETTER PIC OF THE PECKER

Ah, Gentle Readers, what am I going to do with you?

I meant, of course, the woodpecker at the bird bath.

I finally was able to upload a couple of photos from my camera that are better than the ones from my "smart" phone.

So here, in all his glory, is the Ladder-backed Woodpecker, stopping off for a wee sip on his way around the neighborhood.

The glare from the rising sun spoils the photo a bit but at least this is better than the previous picture.

With his head in that posture I can only surmise that he is very proud of his flashy coat.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

I joined in yesterday when millions of people across the United States marched to express their agony over the murder of innocent schoolchildren, their disfavor with automatic weapons (some with any guns), the National Rifle Association, and the twisting of the meaning of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In Prescott, a relatively small town located in a very conservative county in a fairly conservative state, the local newspaper said 15 hundred protesters lined the Courthouse Square.

I shot many photos but, in some crazed computer foul-up, the one above and the one below are the only two that survived.

As I entered the grounds I stopped to take a photo and a man who had come to join the march said to me, "I thought this was a children's march but it looks more like an AARP convention."

Indeed he was right.

Most of the marchers were probably mothers and fathers and grandparents of kids who risk their lives every day just to get an education.

There were a small handful of counter-protesters shouting rude insults.

The FIRST amendment gives them the right of free speech but as one of the marchers commented, and I paraphrase, the less said about them the better.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Here we are again.

Gentle Readers, I hope you've got . . .

In spite of the depressing news coming out of Washington one has to take a moment to laugh.

So let's all turn off the t.v., discard the newspaper, stop the lunatic voices coming from your all-talk radio station and pay attention to Your Leader, the Sweet Catalyst.

Here goes.

O.K.  are you feeling better now?

A little better.

Well, I tried.

C'mon now, let's all try a little harder to enjoy the first week of Spring (yeah, I know), eat hearty, drink well (and safely), appreciate your friends, have a great weekend and always (Ah say ALWAYS) remember to keep laughing.

Here kitty-kitty . . .

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Ah, memories . . .

EARLY MORNING VISITOR

Yes, I know.

It's a crummy photograph.

But when you only have a couple of seconds and you're using a phone camera and you're shooting through a window and you're trying not to move so abruptly that the blasted bird flies away . . . that's what you get.

He did fly off after drying his beak on the tree just after I took this shot so my point is well taken.

And I show it just to prove to you that I do have a Ladder-backed Woodpecker in the neighborhood.

It's been awhile since I'd seen him and this is my first view of him actually having a drink at the birdbath.

Pretty, isn't he?

BELIEVE IT OR NOT . . .

. . . today is the first day of  Spring!

But what's this on the Weather Channel?

Another "nor-easter"?

Yup, snow and wind and coastal flooding and possible tornadoes and heavy rain in the Southeast.

In my environs, it is supposed to be mostly sunny with a high temperature of 66 today.

Happy springtime, Gentle Readers!

FWIW

Montana Mike (Genial Misanthrope/Should Fish More) inquired yesterday after the health of SWMBO and my own self and after reassuring him that neither of us was, as far as is known, at death's door, it occurred to me that I have not posted an update on our relative health for the rest of you for awhile.

So, as the post title says in abbreviated form, For What It's Worth here goes.

The captain of the ship, aka SWMBO aka Judy, is suffering through several weeks of physical therapy torture, as she refers to it.

She had reached a level of agonizing pain in both hips and both knees about a month ago and got in to see her orthopaedic doctor (actually his physician's assistant) to inquire about a shot or two of pain killer into the hip that was bothering her the most.

Instead, after examining her and probing and pressing on her various and sundry pain points, he informed her that an injection wouldn't do any good because the inflammation, or whatever it was, was so widespread.

Instead he prescribed PT at the torture chamber next door.

That was several weeks ago, as I said earlier, and while the massages and exercises are not of a pleasurable nature, the end result has been an improvement.

Her mobility is better and her pain less so labor on she will, at least for the balance of this month.

Judy's problems are caused partially by the femur fracture she suffered last June but even moreso by the fibromyalgia she has endured for many years.

If you have a choice, don't get it.

As for myself, I'm at a bit of a plateau in my weight loss program.

Can't figure out why.

Well there is that.

I have slackened off a bit in my regime in recent days but I'm just happy I haven't gained back any of the pounds I've shed.

And SWMBO reminds me that plateaus are to be expected in any type of diet.

So my next goal is to break the 200 barrier and I'm less than 5 pounds from that as of this morning's weigh-in.

It may seem like a lot of weight to carry to some of you loathsomely lithe Gentle Readers.

But let me remind you that I AM 6-feet and one inch tall  (having compressed in my declining years from 6-foot-2) and I am a stupidly sedate individual.

I mean SOMEONE has to sit in this chair all day coming up with these scintillating sagas of my existence.

And I AM down from 221 at around the first of February and 241 at the height of my slovenliness a year or two ago.

As for my health it is normal for someone of my advanced years.

(Should I survive for a mere five more weeks I will reach the accomplishment of 78 years on the earth, rather than under it.)

My blood pressure is back to a quite satisfying number after I cut the medicine which supposedly controls it in half.

And the extrinsic pathway of coagulation of my blood is returning to a normal ratio since I slightly increased the amount of medication I take for it.

(Note to Mike and others: I have no idea what I wrote in the first part of that last paragraph; I found it on the Interwebs.)

Both medication adjustments, I hasten to add, came under directions from my various medicos.

In general, I have the normal aches and pains and occasional sleep disorders of a dinosaur like myself but I am pleased and somewhat surprised to still be perambulating.

So there.

Now back to my diet.

Saturday Night's Threatening Clouds

It looked a little scary last night.

But it was only damp this morning and no loud thunder drowned out the concert we watched last night: Roy Orbison Black and White Night 30.

It was a re-edited version of the video that marked the 30th anniversary of the great show at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles that featured Orbison, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Presley's TCB Band and backing vocals by J.D. Souther, Steven Soles, Jackson Browne, Jennifer Warnes, Bonnie Raitt and k.d. lang.

A spectacular show.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Gentle Readers, it's that day when everyone is Irish, even if you're not.

So have a drink at the Temple Bar in Dublin.

Click here to go to Ireland

And a special thanks to my long-time blogger friend Steve G. in Germany for sending me that link.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Woe is me.

My basketball season is over.

The Arizona State Sun Devils, the Arizona Wildcats and my alma mater team the Stanley Bluejays all lost out in the first round of their respective tournaments.

What's left for me?

Oh, Tiger Woods is golfing well once again.

And there's something else.

It slips my mind.

Oh, of course.

It's time for the Friday Funnies!

Life is good again.

No, I did NOT forget the pie chart.

Annnnddddd, I think that's enough.

Now listen, Gentle Readers, I desire that you go out and have yourselves an infinitely fine weekend, be wary of those fake Irishmen and women, and always remember to keep laughing.

I'll be right here, ensconced in my recliner, watching for Tiger to make a big move.

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(See, I told you so.)

RAIN

The weather forecast for our part of Arizona says we might have scattered rain or snow showers today and tonight.

Reason enough to show you a closeup of a water color painting I picked up in Seattle some years ago.

It's called Seattle Rain and it might be more appropriate for Seattle than Arizona.

But I like it.

And actually I like the rain when it falls.

I used to love driving in it.

At night.

I'm older and wiser now.

GO AHEAD. SPOIL ME.

I wouldn't attribute it to jealousy but every once in awhile, SWMBO tries to sabotage my attempt to lose weight.

Most recently it was with this delicious, taste-tempting, scrumptious Quiche Lorraine.

I ate more than my share but I'm back to my regime again and am holding this morning at 205.

And this is only a memory.

A THOUGHT

Apropos of whatever you prefer . . .

Ahhhhhh . . . . .

Breaking News: Arizona stays on Standard Time!

(oh, you mean that's old history?

Never mind.)

JUST IN TIME

Judy's Christmas Cactus has become an Easter Cactus this year.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Well hello there!

Here we are once again, Gentle Readers.

Where?

I thought you'd have that feeling.

You know why he's so excited, don't you?

Big news out of the White House last night.

How will that go?

Well in the famous words of one of the participants "We'll see."

All right, on with the show.

You didn't think I'd forget the pie chart, did you?

All right that's enough.

After all we don't want to have to go to the hospital to have that laughter stitch removed from your side, do we?

Whatever you do, however you do it, no matter how silly you look, please have a super-duper weekend, Gentle Readers.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(Yes, you.)

CYNTHIA/MIRANDA FOR GUV?

While I try to avoid politics in my blog I sometimes am drawn into it almost against my will.

Such is the situation today when I read in the New York Times that the daughter of an old pal I met in my Mexico days reportedly is considering a run for governor of New York.

Governor Cynthia?

A mutual friend in Seattle asked me this morning what I thought.

My response was that I knew Ms. Nixon had been a quite public activist dealing with the New York City public school system for a number of years.

I also said that 2018 is definitely The Year of the Woman in politics and that Cynthia is very intelligent.

But I'm also aware that running a state, especially one as large as New York, is a lot different from acting as one on stage or being an education activist.

On the other hand she does have that friendship with the mayor of the Big Apple to count on.

So who knows?

Maybe some day that young actress I got to know when she visited her dad in Mexico back in the 1980's may have a much larger platform in the 21st Century.

("Need a press secretary, Cynthia?") 

I do know one thing.

Her father would be even prouder of her than he was way back then in Guadalajara.

HOW ABOUT THE HEREAFTER?

How, indeed?

If I can get a blog post out of this I shall mark it up as an accomplishment.

As I was idly reading through various blogs today I was smote smack on the forehead with not one but TWO references to The Great Beyond.

Mr. Pudding began this frame of reference by taking a walk through a cemetery over where he lives in Sheffield, U.K.

Talk of gravestones put my mind into a reflective mood.

And then, as I was reading marvelous Val's latest post there was an aside about a gambler in her area of Missouri who had used a windfall to pay off his mother's headstone!

Well, when one has been smitten right between the eyes twice on the same day it calls to him to take up his duties as a scribe.

So here it is.

I have long planned for my imperfect body to be consumed by flames when it is through perambulating.

Cremation is my game and I had absolutely no plans for the ashes.

Dump 'em, said I to SWMBO and probably also to the BRD, whichever is called upon to take charge of the nasty task.

But having my mind joggled by these two other bloggers today got me thinking.

What if, to my great amazement, there may be someone who survives me who would want to visit my resting place?

Should I have a headstone somewhere with my name on it?

Perhaps with some amusing epitaph inscribed thereon, like "I told you I was sick."

That one has mistakenly over the years been attributed to Oscar Levant.

Then there's this fellow:

Or the voluble Merv Griffin.

Of course, all of these options cost money.

Just ask Jessica Mitford, author of The American Way of Death.

Oh, never mind, she's been gone since 1996.

But getting back to my point(?) what decision must I come to?

To lie under some shrine of some sort or to disappear forever?

Without becoming macabre here, what is your choice?