THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Yes, I know what you're going to say.

"He's rushing things, isn't he?"

And I know, Halloween is more than a week away.

But what can I say?

My Comedy Corps has been sending me follies full of witches and goblins and black cats and I just have to share them with you.

So try not to get too gobsmacked by all of these hobgoblins and just enjoy the humor of the season.

Oh, c'mon, I knew you'd like that one.

By the way you may have noticed that I didn't post yesterday.

Nothing about picture hanging or plumbing or getting settled in our new home.

Just nothing.

That's because yesterday was International Sloth Day!

You could Google it!

As for today, let's go get 'em.

Eat well, drink well, play well and have an absolutely wonderful weekend.

Avoid pumpkin spice anything, if you can, and always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

ONWARD!

 

All of the plumbing was done yesterday.

Today my buddha collection was hung in a proper place.

It was hung before but it wasn't level and it was too close to the bookcase.

This is better.

HOME

 Slowly our house is becoming a home.

We hung some artwork yesterday.

The pastel of my uncle, Zenas Howland Taylor, was done when he was a young accountant in San Francisco in 1930.

It's hard for me to believe that the picture of him is more than 90 years old.

It's been in our family for many decades and I've always loved it.

He's now keeping my new blog header of Blackwell company.

Meanwhile the kitchen got several pieces hung yesterday.

And a couple of our larger pieces have finally found their places in the living room.

I say "finally" because at first they were reversed and, dang, those framed pieces are heavy.

Meantime, some other works are on and against the couch for now while they find their proper places.

It is said that a house is not a home.

We feel a house is not a home until the artwork finds it's proper place.

And Judy has always said it's not right until the books have come out of their boxes and been placed on their shelves.

It's feeling more and more like home.

BLACK SATURDAY!

One of my faithful contributors to the Humor Bank sent me this photo last night with a note: Blackwell would be proud.

For those of you who don't know, Blackwell was my beloved and departed black cat whose photo is on the upper right of this blog.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 Yay!

The end of another week is in sight!

They're getting easier here as we adjust more and more to our new home.

So that makes it easier to move right on into the business at hand: COMEDY!

With that culinary note, I shall take my leave.

And leave.

Amongst the leaves.

Oh, stop me, please!

Have yourselves a wonderful weekend and always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

MAN VS. WOMAN

 In any good (?) marriage, there is a struggle between the masculine and the feminine participants.

The character traits of the two protagonists rise to the surface during prolonged activities such as joint projects or moving.

In our marriage I call it a battle between Wisdomatics and Brute Stupidity.

As I have aged I have learned that Wisdomatics must prevail.

In fact Wisdomatics SHOULD prevail and Brute Stupidity must and should take a back seat.

And Brute Stupidity DOES take a back seat, whether by one's own realization that Wisdomatics position is the correct one or by virtue of Raised Voices from said Wisdomatic.

So, except for one slight error way, way back in the mists of time by a Wisdomatic with an attributed name of Eve, the distaff side of a couple is (almost) always right, should be listened to with Humble-icity, with Acceptance-icity and with, above all, Obedience-icity.

No matter how strange it looks, Wisdomatics' way is the right way.

Or, at least the way it eventually will be done.

Men of the world, aka Practitioners of Brute Stupidity, hear my words.

Or more importantly, those of your very own Wisdomatic.

Your life will be much more pleasant.

SPEAKING OF SETTLING IN

 Today is a day to celebrate, to rue, or both.

Columbus Day?

Or Indigenous People's Day?

SETTLING IN

 Our new abode is starting to feel more like our home and less like a warehouse.

Judy has been attacking our back yard lately, now that most of the boxes are empty.

We (mostly she) got the arbor in place yesterday.

For some unknown reason the soil here is very rocky and a lot of scraping a place and sinking the legs was involved.

Our first attempt was foiled by a micro-burst that came through with an intense rain storm a week or so ago.

But somehow the honeysuckle plant survived being moved a few miles from our previous home while attached to the arbor and then lying on its side for a couple of weeks.

That's it on the left.

Our poor wisteria plant, on the right, survived an even rougher transplantation hanging its head in shame until Judy got it attached to the arbor today.

Now we'll see what the new location will do to them.

And for Jager, who expressed concern about the blue birdbath a couple of weeks ago, and for you others, here it is in its new location.

As far as we know it hasn't had any visitors yet but it's only been located for a few hours and it may take some time for the birds to discover it and get used to it.

I mentioned the rocky soil and the somewhat battle-scarred old Blue Cat has found a pedestal to curl up on but I suspect that's a temporary location.

He seems his usual unconcerned self, looking on at all the activity by his Crazy Humans with bemusement.

So our outer area is coming along.

Now we can turn our attention to some serious plumbing issues inside.

As always, stay tuned.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 It's been another rough week here but I cannot allow that to deter me from trying to cheer ALL of us up.

And some of my contributors to the following line-up have joined me so, without further ado, prepare to laugh!

Okay so that's it.

Share these with your friends if you like.

After all I didn't originate them, I only stole amassed them.

Have yourselves a great weekend and always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

PASSING

 Judy's older sister died today.

Treva was, like Judy, a beautiful and dynamic woman.

This photo was taken in 1972 just before we moved from Indiana to Arizona.

Of the three siblings in that family, only my wife remains.

Her younger brother, Steve, passed away some years ago.

I can't help but remembering the song "Time Passages".

They were a great trio but now only my beloved remains.

WIND

 The news for about a week has been all about Hurricane Ian and the severe damage it caused to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Florida, the Carolinas and on up the East Coast.

But yesterday we here in Arizona could have been forgiven if we hadn't thought we had our own hurricane.

It began in the morning with a forecast of occasional showers in the afternoon.

But when it came, it came with a passion.

We huddled inside as the rain blew horizontally and two big trees in our front yard rocked and roared, threatening to come right out of the ground.

The power failed several times briefly and once for about 25 minutes.

Today our news was filled with reports of the power outages and of trees down from north to south.

A couple fell across two cars parked at a dentist's office in Prescott.

There were reports of 8 to 10 homes damaged by a tornado to the north of us west of Flagstaff.

And in Phoenix to the south a dust storm swept into the Valley downing trees and causing at least one inbound airplane flight to be diverted to Tucson.

Here in our new home we worried about our brand new roof which was just put on last week but it seems to have survived.

It was a little scary but at least there do not seem to have been any injuries caused by what for Paradise, i.e. Arizona, was what would be called some freak weather.

Today the sun was shining again.