Uh . . .

 

53!

That number up there signifies the number of years that Judy (aka SWMBO) and I (aka some names you don't want to see) have been married.

Yes, today is our 53rd wedding anniversary.

Back in those early days we looked like this.

It seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating our 20th anniversary in our home in San Antonio Tlayacapan, Mexico.

But time marches on and now we look like this.

So 53 years have passed and we're still in love with each other.

We will celebrate the day quietly.

APRIL FOOL . . . . AGAIN!

 Today is April 6th.

This was what greeted me this morning.

Bright, sunny, clear blue skies shining above a neighbor's white roof.

Wait a minute!

That roof isn't white.

Unless it's covered in SNOW!

It's another joke played on us by the Weather Gods.

La Monja and the Blue Cat echo each other's thoughts: Will this madness never end?

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

 I've been doing a lot of thinking this week about how much longer I can or want to do this.

This blogging.

These Friday Funnies.

All of it.

After all I've been blogging since early March of 2008.

That means I've gone over 16 years.

I can't even remember when I started with The Friday Funnies but looking back randomly that seems like years too.

So as I lie in my bed sometimes letting these thoughts run through my mind, I wonder about ending it all.

No, no, not my life!

I meant this blogging life.

I mean y'all must know about everything about me by now since I rarely keep anything secret.

So perhaps it's getting to be time to pull the plug on it.

Maybe on my next birthday in a few weeks.

My 84th!!!

But then I thought, well, maybe on my 85th birthday.

That's a nice round number.

But then, oh heck what if I don't live that long.

Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts.

Well it gives me something to think about.

But, in the meantime, here's another gaggle of goofy gigglers.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, we await the total eclipse of the Sun on Monday.

Well, some places.

Here in my part of Arizona it looks like 50 to 60 percent will be covered by the moon's shadow.

But the forecast for right here for that day is "Cloudy" so it will probably be a negligible event.

As for the rest of you in the path of the eclipse, remember not to look at the sun without special glasses.

Enjoy the oreo-stuffed Krispy Kremes and the Black Slushout Floats from Sonic.

But before then do your gosh-darndest to have a jolly good weekend.

And always remember to keep laughing!

(Oh, and by the way, I know "arguement" in one of the memes above is a misspelling.)

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . oh, decisions, decisions . . )

DEFINITELY A NICE SPRING DAY

 Today was a Spring day the likes of which I've been waiting for.

I stepped outside in the early afternoon to check the mail and was stunned by the warmth.

It was a very sunny day for a change and when I checked my local weather site it said the temperature was 78 degrees!

I opened up the house and let some of that glorious warm air come in to air out the winter's dregs.

After I told Judy she went out and did a trim job on the two shrubs in front of the house.

I love this time of year.

If it's not snowing!

Earlier in the day I mashed up four bananas and made a loaf of banana bread.

We haven't tasted it yet but it looks great and it made the house smell great this morning.

FIRE UPDATE

 As I reported previously, the huge Legado Luxury Apartment project  under construction here in Prescott Valley burned to the ground early yesterday morning.

Today it's a sad scene in the heart of the city.

What was lost were 329 apartments under construction and the parking garage for a total of nearly 700,000 square feet of property.

Early estimates put the loss at 60 million dollars but a young man who I spoke to, an employee of the general contractor on the project, told me he thought it could run as high as 75 to 80 million dollars.

It was to have housed, in addition to the apartments, a rooftop restaurant and ground floor businesses.

Builders said the apartments were approximately 50 percent complete.

Now they're just rubble.

There are a great number of businesses in very close proximity to the site of this disaster and a large apartment project and the town's public arena lie just across streets from it.

The various fire departments and police agencies are to be commended for keeping the blaze from spreading.

And there were absolutely no deaths or injuries.

Still . . . a woman I spoke to at the scene yesterday told me she had no sympathy for the builders and owners of the project.

"That was just too big for our little town," she said.

I had to gently remind her that Prescott Valley isn't a "little town" anymore.

FIRE

First, let me say that this not an April Fool's joke.

Fire broke out in the Legado apartment project in the heart of Prescott Valley about 1:30 this morning and burned it to the ground.

Here is the aftermath.

What's left is the concrete parking garage and (presumably) elevator towers.

I had reported on this project and told my readers who thought it was ugly that the plan called for the concrete parking garage to be hidden by apartments built around it.

Much of the wooden framing work had been done but all of that wood burned like kindling when the fire started.

No one was injured and the cause of the fire is as yet undetermined.

There will be an ugly scar in the center of my town for some time.

NOT JUST YET

 Easter Sunday morning - 5:30 a.m. - Prescott Valley, Arizona

Old Man Winter refuses to leave us alone!

THE FRIDAY FUNNIES

Here we go again.

Another holiday is looming.

This time it's Baked Ham Day.

Otherwise known as Easter.

But let's get all of our eggs in a row and let this ham show you some of his collection.

The first one is old but as one of my comedy contributors said when it was sent to me . . . "It's traditional!"

That's it, my friends, that's all the humor/humour this hard working lazy retiree could summon forth from the Humor/Humour Bank/Banque this week.

Now please have a Happy or a Blessed Easter.

Or both.

But always remember to keep laughing!

Here, kitty-kitty . . .

( . . . ohhhhh, so sneaky . . . )

B-B-B-BIG!

 

Brioche Buns from Bruce's Bakery

O.K., BACK TO SPRING

The sun is back.

The snow is gone.

Here's another ornamental pear tree to brighten your "safe way".

To explain that last sentence, the tree is directly in front of my local Safeway grocery store.

I couldn't resist.

I'm sorry.

Now here's a thought for the day, sent the other day from Comical Carol with a heading saying "Why I've Given Up Watching the News."

I think many of us have that same thought.

TESTING, TESTING

 After two days of posts about our lovely ornamental fruit tree blossoms here in the foothills of Arizona, what to our wondering eyes should we see last night?

This!

That, my dear friends, is not a meteor shower.

Or an alien invasion.

It was this!

SNOW, falling from the sky once again.

We have had snowstorms in March before, as I have warned in previous posts, but this one came as a surprise even though yesterday was cold and windy.

A little later, just about the time it was ending, our shrub had a distinctly white shawl.

I imagined I heard "False Spring" laughing as it moved on out.

But this morning . . .

. . . la monja and the Blue Cat did not appear amused.

MORE BLOOMS

 The ornamental pear trees are beautiful at a distance, especially as they contrast with the plum trees (lower left).

Up close, their white blossoms are not as showy.

Still, a nice harbinger of Spring.