CATALYST-SPEAK

 

(Wacky Wally read my mind when he sent me this)

IT'S SO WHITE!

 Recently I was reading a blog I keep up on written by a youngish fellow (in his 60's) in Sheffield in the U.K. (England, actually).

He had a post about Lebanon, Kansas, which he identified as the geographical center of the contiguous United States.

I commented to him that if he had gone to the geographical center of North America he would have been around Rugby, North Dakota, which is about 120 miles straight east of the town where I grew up.

Today I was surprised to find that he had done a post on my home town, Stanley.

He learned and related that the town, with a population of something over 2,500 people, is a tad less than 99 percent white.

Well, I do remember that there was only one African-American man living there when I was a kid and the population was only around 11 hundred.

There were some Native Americans but I don't remember if any of them lived in Stanley.

I do remember, thinking back, that it was a pretty-much Opie-like existence (as in the old Andy Griffith television show).

All of which brings me to an email conversation I had the other day with another blogger friend in the Seattle, Washington area.

She (Margaret) was saying that the mountain passes in her state were getting hammered with a blizzard, meaning lots of snow.

Which brings me to a conversation I had this morning with a cousin in North Dakota (only about 60 miles from my home town).

She said they were expecting a blizzard to hit at any time and the forecast was for up to 30 INCHES OF SNOW!

Now that's white!

And may I remind everyone that this is nearly mid-April?

I told her I was very happy that I now live in Arizona.

This is about the only white I relate to these days.

That's an ornamental pear tree just a couple of blocks from where I now live.

LURKING IN LUCKENBACH

 A very good writer for the local newspaper, The Daily Courier, for many years also travels quite a bit and documents her travels on infrequent blog posts.

Cindy Barks' blog is called NearandFarAZ and she has a fresh post today, which can be found here about a number of towns she visited in Texas.

The last one, which she calls a bonus town, is the tiny spot called Luckenbach.

With a population listed as 3, it's more of a wide spot to go to for drinking and dancing than anything else.

There's a dance hall and one other main building which houses a souvenir shop and a working saloon.

One warm summer day back in the early 1990's when we were living in Austin we visited the town and partook of it's hospitality in the saloon.

Cindy mentions a song that made the burg famous, recorded by a couple of good old boys back in 1977.

Just for old time's sake, give a listen to Waylon Jennings and Willy Nelson (and friends).

WHO'S THERE?

 

(Thanks to Tommy Terrific for that one)

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 April is my favorite month.

It's the time when Spring really does burst forth.

Oh there may be the occasional snowstorm but we all know it won't last and the buds will soon be exploding into blossoms.

And it's the time for celebrations.

Anniversaries, like ours.

And I just learned that my great-great-grandparents got married on the 5th of April in 1826!

And it is a month of birthdays too.

The BRD's is in a few days and mine is in a couple of weeks and . . .

No, no, no, I'm just kidding about that.

Her birthday isn't until next month.

But speaking of kidding . . .

Pop goes the weasel!

Hahahahahahaha!

Oh, sometimes even I have to laugh.

What's that?

I'm alone?

Harrumph!

Well, y'old grouches, try to struggle through the next couple of days and have a good weekend.

And always remember to KEEP ON LAUGHING!

Awright?

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

ANOTHER CYCLE

 

It's been a long time since this photo was taken of Judy and Bruce, aka SWMBO and Catalyst.

It's on our doorstep at Governour's Square apartments in Indianapolis, Indiana.

We were newly married.

A lot of miles since then and, as the old saying goes, a lot of water over the dam.

Today marks our 51st wedding anniversary.

UH-OH

For a long time now I've been pooh-poohing people who complain about side effects from the Covid shots.

I never have side effects.

I never have had side effects from flu shots either.

At least not since I was a little kid, back in the Dark Ages.

One nearby friend beat me by a few days to getting his SECOND booster shot for Covid.

Then he described his side effects.

Neuropathy the first night, he said.

Ha!, I scoffed.

And Monday SWMBO and I got OUR second booster shots.

No problem, said I.

We did some shopping and some gardening afterwards.

That night the neuropathy began.

Now if you don't know what neuropathy is let me describe it to you.

It's a severe nerve pain that comes and goes in the sufferer's feet.

At least that's where I get it.

And, for some reason, it's usually worse after I go to bed, leading to prolonged moaning and occasional screaming and cursing.

This night, in spite of the medication I take for it at bedtime and the acetaminophen I took about 4 a.m., it did not go away all night.

And when I rose in the morning, not from sleep I might add, I was groggy enough to be walking into walls most of the day.

Judy kept telling me it would be better the next day and she helped it along with a dose of another, stronger medicine for last night.

It worked.

No neuropathy or at least very little.

I slept like a baby.

And I don't mean I cried and woke up to pee every hour.

That was the night before.

I slept well and woke feeling refreshed and today has been a different story, though I still have some fatigue.

More than usual, that is.

So to all of those people who have been insulted by my cocky comments along the lines of "I ain't got no side effects", I hereby offer my humble apologies.

Now I think I'll go lie down.

Again.

TASTY TUESDAY

 Several of my commenters yesterday prompted me to go to the Almighty Omniscient Google.

The commenters said they had never heard of rubber mulch.

Weakling that I am, I began to wonder if what was scattered around our yard WASN'T rubber mulch.

If, in fact, it never existed.

I am pleased as punch to find proof that rubber mulch does, indeed, exist.

When I related this to SWMBO, she said (wisely, as always) that I could just have gone to the back yard and looked at the bag.

With that gentle put-down I shall switch subjects.

Take a look at this:

My chef's delicious concoction of Spicy Paprika Shrimp, sizzling in the pan.

Now in my younger days I detested grits.

But I thought I'd try them again and Herself prepared some with a hefty dose of some White Sharp Cheddar Cheese I had purchased.

Shrimp and Grits.

Why has it taken me this long to taste, appreciate, love this classic Southern dish?

Looking at these photos makes my mouth water, even though we just had this a couple of days ago.

How about you?

MONDAY MEANDERINGS

 Interesting comments on my Masked Man post of yesterday.

At first the number of people still committed to wearing masks regardless of dropping of mask mandates was overwhelming.

But then late in the day it changed a little bit.

However I'm convinced and have gone back to wearing my mask in public places and continuing with caution.

Today we got our second booster shots.

That's four vaccinations we've now had for Covid and, so far, we've been fortunate.

Neither of us has succumbed to it.

And neither of us has had side effects, other than feeling a bit weary for a day after the shot.

Well, heck, I feel weary most of the time any way!

I had an interesting conversation about side effects with my pharmacist.

I told him that neither of us has had side effects and he said that's not unusual.

He said they seem to be dependent on the strength of one's immune system.

Younger people have a stronger immune system that tries to fight the foreign invader (the vaccine) while older folks like yours truly have a weaker immune system that doesn't try as hard.

Hence the side effects syndrome.

Meantime, Spring Fever has set in for SWMBO.

No, not the kind of Spring Fever that leaves one listlessly staring into space.

This is the kind that fires up her Project Mode.

The other day she went out to a couple of stores and came home with two 25 foot garden hoses to replace the old, heavy 50-footer, and three bags of rubber mulch.

She was disappointed to learn that one of the new hoses wouldn't reach the bird bath so the two were spliced together and, though lighter in weight, are just as long as the previous monster.

She's now talking about getting a six-foot hose to tack onto one of the 25 footers.

As for the old hose, several ten-foot-lengths have been cut out of it and wired together to be used as a sort of dam, the purpose of which is to keep dirt and eventually the rocks from washing down off the slope in the corner of the yard during our infrequent rainfalls here in Arizona.*

The rubber mulch is also designed to help.

How about that?

It looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Still some tinkering but Judy the Designer has got a nack.

And I only had to do a little scut work.

* You DID hear that Arizona is in the midst of a record drought, didn't you?

MASKED MAN

 Mask mandates are coming down all over the country and with two vaccines and a booster, with another one coming soon, I'm feeling more relaxed about not wearing a pandemic mask.

Actually where I live I'd say the majority, possibly the vast majority, of residents never have worn a mask.

The percentage of people who've been vaccinated just recently hit 70 after hovering at 69 percent for months.

But I have been faithful to the scientific guidelines and have been going into stores looking like a bandit for months.

Actually I guess I could say "for years".

And, actually, I guess I could say "an aging bandit".

But lately, with even the President frequently going out without a mask, I have doffed mine too.

Except at medical offices.

They still require them.

Even if you're just there to deliver or pick someone up.

Like I was the other day waiting for SWMBO at a medical lab.

It's not particularly flattering.

But some of my very near and dear relatives would say, "You ought to see him without it!"

Like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield used to say, "I don't get no respect!"

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Well here it is at last.

The last day of March.

And the end of a gruelling month that just seemed to stagger in this year 2022.

But it also brings us to the end of another week and a chance to lean back and LAUGH A LITTLE!

Okay, folks, those are the jokes.

Now have yourself a very, merry weekend.

And always, always, always remember to keep laughing.

Oh, and that statement at the top of this post . . . it's wrong.

It's actually April 1st today and I knew it all along!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

BIRTHDAY BLUES

 

THOUGHTS

 

It's a bleak morning out there with rain showers forecast off and on for much of the day.

But my mood is much better than yesterday's.

Sunday evening I forgot to take my "night pills", which include a couple of supplements which help me to sleep.

I was troubled by insomnia until about 3 a.m. when I realized what I'd done and gulped them down.

Of course it takes an hour or two for them to "kick in" so it was well toward morning before I caught a few hours of sleep.

A two-hour afternoon nap helped somewhat and then making sure I took the pills last night eased me into the arms of Morpheus.

I've been using that expression, the arms of Morpheus, for decades now and I just thought to Google it to see how it's defined.

It was as I thought with one slight adaptation.

Morpheus was the Greek god of dreams, a son of Hypnos.

Hypnos was the god of sleep.

But "the arms of Morpheus" is correctly used to mean sleeping.

So there you have it.

Your daily lesson in Greek mythology.

Or just another few minutes reading a silly blog post.

Ho-hum.

Time for a nap?

You can thank me later.

CATCHING UP

 

An outing!

Our first cultural immersion in I don't know how many years.

We went to a piano and strings concert at Yavapai College in Prescott yesterday.

The musicians were exemplary. 

Their leader, James D'León has been playing piano since the age of 4 and is a touring Steinway Artist.

His first violinist was Grace Nakano, the assistant Concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, a lovely native of Japan who played with great emotion.

Also performing were second violinist Laura Cásarez, also from The Tucson Symphony; Ruthie Wilde, the principal cellist with the West Valley Symphony; and Kimberly Sullivan, the principal Violist with Arizona Philharmonic.

I liked the entire concert but I think my favorite piece was the Scherzo: Allegro by Brahms.

So to come down from that excitement we went to Murphy's Bar and Restaurant in Prescott for a drink and a shared platter of mussels in a garlic, butter and white wine sauce.

Heaven!

And a perfect day.

Oh, that picture at the top of this post?

I just wanted you all to know I'm not taking you for granite.

(Ba-Da-Boomp)

RANDOM PHOTO

 

Home

MUFFINS

 We just tasted my latest culinary creation - Banana Walnut Muffins.

If I must say so myself, they are spectacular.

And SWMBO said "You done good."

So, as I responded to her, I think I'll keep the recipe.

For those of you about to ask me for my recipe, it's Dr. Dan's from the website you can access by clicking here.

He's a doctor so it's gotta be good for you, right?

VETTE

 I've never been a fan of the Chevrolet Corvette but this one caught my eye yesterday.

Something about that brilliant color and the sleek shape caused me to stop and stare and think "This might be fun to take for a drive."

Judy would say "That's your old man coming out, thinking you could lure a younger woman."

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Well, well, well, how's your Spring planting weeding going?

Oh, stop with that nasty language, I get the drift.

Here in Paradise the temperature is scheduled to climb clear up to 80 degrees today, the sun is shining and all is right in the world.

So let us not dither any longer.

Strike up the band.

Well how about that, we ended right where we began.

This guy is amazing!

Now, no negativity, no niggling, no nagging, no neanderthalism, just nacreous nicety this weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

(awwwwww)