PASSAGES

 I've been taking pictures of the tree in front of our home for about a week as the leaves changed color so I thought I'd show them to you today.

On another note, my older brother passed away last night in Minot, North Dakota.

Wayne had turned 90 at the end of July but was suffering from congestive heart failure.

He died peacefully under hospice care in a hospital.

MOON DAY

 Today the moon crossed paths with the sun.

It's an annular solar eclipse.

In it, the moon is far enough from the sun that it never totally blots it out, hence causing what is called the Ring of Fire.

I thought you would like to see my photographs of it.

Yes, I did take that photo.

But it's of my television screen as the total annularity was shown from San Antonio, Texas, where scores of people had gathered at the Alamo to see the event.

Here in Arizona, we were a little ways off of the direct path so we never saw the total ring of the sun around the moon.

But, and I am amazed, I found that I did get a couple of photos of what we did see with my Android smartphone camera.

And here they are.

Nothing spectacular but at least you get the idea.

And, by the way, I didn't have any of those special glasses so I never looked directly at the sun.

How was it where you live?

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 So 'tis Friday once again.

How was your week?

Mine (DBacks knock Dodgers out of post-season baseball) was okay.

(hee-hee-hee)

But enough about my joy, let's get on to spreading some across the land.

And the seas.

To other lands.

It's time for the funnies!

And, to put it quite simply, that's it Gentle Readers.

Now, as ever, try to live it up the next couple of days and have yourselves an evergreen weekend.

(Oh, and forget that today is Friday the 13th!  Ha! You did, didn't you?)

But always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . now where did she go? . . )

SWEEP

 

Just in case you missed it, the (my) Arizona Diamondbacks completed a 3-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers last night to win the National League Division Series.

(It's baseball, folks.)

In the process they made history, becoming the first team to hit four home runs in one inning in the playoffs.

And the fourth one came from Gabriel Moreno who hit what looked like a home run to right field but after he had circled the bases in a home run trot and lengthy consultation among the umpires it was ruled that it had gone ever so slightly foul and he was called back to the plate.

Then he hit the very next pitch into the left field stands.

Blow, Gabriel, blow!

The team will now go on to play either Philadelphia or Atlanta in the League Championship Series to see which team goes to the World Series.

Can you blame me for my hubris today?

FRIENDS

 

Lovely Lana & Tommy Terrific

"on the beach"

MONDAY MIRTH

 

A BOY AND HIS DOG

Is there no joy greater than that of a boy and his dog?

Even if "the boy" is 70 years old?

Judy's son, Scott, and his new friend, Blaze.

MUSTANGS

When I was out running around, doing some errands, this morning I stopped off at a Pony Show.

Now since I live in the modern-day version of the Old West, i.e. Arizona, I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking horses, right.

Well there was plenty of horse-power at this show but it was not the retro kind.

It all came from these Mustangs.

Ford Mustangs.

This was one of the early ones , from 1966.

The first Ford Mustang automobile was a 1964-and-a-half, according to this owner.

He said he'd done everything on his car but the paint job.

(By the way, if you click on the pictures they'll be bigger)

Here's another 1966, alongside one from 1990.

I think this flashy black one was from 1999 but don't hold my memory to be all that good.

This pink one had an intriguing story to it.

The lady who said she owned it, all dressed out in pink to match the car, said her husband had never given her jewelry.

Instead he always bought another piece for her pink Mustang.

He told her one day she'd have a "jewel" of a car to drive.

I told her now that she had the car, she ought to hold out for some jewelry.

She laughingly replied, "Our 20th anniversary is coming up!"

I think that was the best story I heard but there were a lot more proud Mustang owners in attendance and I only spoke with a few.

It seems there's a car show just about every weekend through the summer.

Just recently there was one of all Chevrolet Corvettes on the Courthouse Plaza in Prescott.

I didn't make it to that one this year but I have in the past.

Vroom, Vroom!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 It would be hard to top the antics in Washington this week for sheer, uninhibited, screaming laughter.

If it wasn't so sad.

So in the interests of keeping you all from crying, here is this week's collection of curiously cringeless comedy.

That's all I've got this week, friends.

Now I have Great Expectations that you'll all do your best to have one Dickens of a fine weekend.

Pip, Pip, hooray!

And always, always, always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . oh, yeah, I know all about that . . )

TEASER

I have been remiss this week in my posting responsibilities.

Just having too much fun I guess.

So as an apologia, I give you a couple of finer examples of what is to come tomorrow and, more importantly, of the humorous tendencies of two of my most loyal and true contributors.

Both of these arrived just this morning.

From Comical Carol . . .

And from Wacky Wally . .

I'll see the rest of you wonderful weirdos tomorrow!

THE MOVIES

 We are trying out Amazon Prime Video for 30 days to see whether we like it.

I was looking through the movie offerings and came up with a couple that we watched the last few days.

First, I finally broke down and ran "Top Gun: Maverick".

As you probably know, it stars this guy.

Tom Cruise is 61 years old but her certainly doesn't look it in this "boy's adventure" film.

Lots of flying stunts and a brief appearance by Val Kilmer, who's been struggling since 2015 with throat cancer that has damaged his vocal cords.

Then last night, I picked out another movie - "Gotti" with John Travolta playing the featured part.

He does a spectacular job playing the late Mafia mob boss John Gotti.

But after watching that one, Judy said "All right, now you owe me one. I've had it with all this testosterone."

And, as you know, she is SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed).

I'd already had my eye on one that should please both of us.

George Clooney is one of her favorites and Julia Roberts is one of mine and their latest reunion in "Ticket to Paradise" is billed as a romantic comedy.

And actually I prefer "rom-coms" to "action movies" anyway.

Sorry, guys.

I'll let you know how it is.

WAYNE AND BRUCE

I'll bet you thought this post was going to be about my brother and me.

Nope.

A different "Wayne" stopped in at the old saloon yesterday.

He showed up when the BAD came by to see her mother.

She didn't say where they ran into each other.

But it's always good to have the Duke in the neighborhood.

========================================

Later:

Oh, okay.

By semi-popular demand of Ball Points, here, and Mike Mulligan, on Facebook, here's the proof that the Duke and I actually DID get together.

It was back in the 70's when I was a tv reporter and I interviewed him on the patio of his home in Newport Beach, California.

I had more hair then and while Mr. Wayne was not sporting a gun, he did have that dog to protect him.

And speaking of hair, take a look at my photographer that great day, the famous Timmer!

Point of history: Timmer later got a blowup of that picture autographed by Mr. Wayne and had/has it on the wall of his house.

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Oh, I'll bet you've just been sitting around fretting and worrying and moaning and groaning.

"Oh, where is he?"

"Will he be here?"

"Will he still have a sense of humor?"

OF COURSE, I'm here and I have a sense of humor.

After all, I read about the Republican debate, didn't I?

I didn't watch it.

I just read the autopsy reports the next day.

But let's put that to bed and get onto the real business of the day: Taylor Swift and that football player!

No, no, no, I mean the near-End-of-the-Week buffoonery.

Oh that wacky crew of extraterrestrial travelers!

Well, all aboard now for a very extraordinarily fine weekend.

And never forget to Keep Laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . ohhhhh . . )