Memorial day

The last Monday in May is designated as Memorial Day to show our respect and gratitude to all those who gave their lives so we would be free. Originally called Decoration Day but like many things, that changed with time. Another change is that many also remember the first responders who were lost on 9/11 during that attack on our soil.

Today is meant to honor the fallen so that we won’t forget them. Please give them a nod or silent thank you today.

Sunday snicker

The seven dwarfs go to the Vatican , and because they are the seven dwarfs, they are immediately ushered in to see the Pope. Grumpy leads the pack.

‘Grumpy, my son,’ says the Pope, ‘What can I do for you?’

Grumpy asks, ‘Excuse me your Excellency, but are there any dwarf nuns in Rome?’

The Pope wrinkles his brow at the odd question, thinks for a moment and answers, ‘No, Grumpy, there are no dwarf nuns in Rome.’

In the background, a few of the dwarfs start giggling. Grumpy turns around and glares, silencing them. Grumpy turns back, ‘Your Worship, are there any dwarf nuns in all of Europe?’

The Pope, puzzled now, again thinks for a moment and then answers, ‘No, Grumpy, there are no dwarf nuns in Europe.

‘This time, all of the other dwarfs burst into laughter. Once again, Grumpy turns around and silences them with an angry glare. Grumpy turns back and says, ‘Mr.. Pope! Are there ANY dwarf nuns anywhere in the world?’

The Pope, really confused by the questions says, ‘I’m sorry, my son, there are no dwarf nuns anywhere in the world.’

The other dwarfs collapse into a heap, rolling and laughing, pounding the floor, tears rolling down their cheeks, as they begin chanting……

‘Grumpy shagged a penguin!’

‘Grumpy shagged a penguin!

Runnings done

Good start to the day as I got my ears lowered, the wife got her hair done, and we went out for breakfast when we were done. Once again not being that hungry I decided to just get an omelet with hash browns. I was forewarned this was a three egg omelet yet forgot it was a Greek restaurant which means instead of 3 eggs you get 6.

The waitress brought out a platter with half filled with hash browns and the other half the biggest omelet I’ve seen this side of one made with an Ostrich egg. Finished though and the wife said her french toast was also good. We even stopped at a Dollar store as someone told the wife they had spray bottles, this one did not. We still managed to pick up a couple of cheap things we’ll probably never use but may need down the road.

Now we’re finally back home and I believe a nap is in order. Only got 4 hours sleep again last night and the body is telling me it needs more. Feel like the cat pictured above so believe I should just plop down somewhere and get in the nap. Don’t know how that will work out but we can hope.

Got a few pictures earlier and may share some if they turn out. I’m still playing with the settings and if I don’t get them right soon may shoot on automatic. It’s been one of those weeks. Will add that the low of 37 degrees was crisp at 5 am this morning as the cats got fed. We may start charging them room and board.

Enjoy our Saturday on this 4 day weekend for some. Now for a cup of to prepare for the nap. Comments are always welcome.

A wet strange day

This innocent looking cat turned into the daughter of Satan yesterday morning. I woke up feeling slept out and oddly refreshed after only 4 hours of sleep, again. It looked dark outside so I figured it must be real early when it turned out it was a little after 5 am. After getting my jeans on it was time to feed the cats and that was when Lil Bit threw a conniption fit.

She tried to shred the bottom of my jeans and even bit my boot! Jeez, a simple greeting would have been nice. Not sure what her problem was but hope the food helped. Either that or she doesn’t like the current brand of cat food. So much for her being a favorite.

When it did lighten up a little, the sky looked like this. It was shot in color and was just that grey out as the wind kept the clouds moving across the sky. Not a good day for taking pictures unless you like the retro look or dark pictures.

Not long after the previous shot, things looked like this. At least this one has a little color in the background. We didn’t get a lot of rain and yet we found it relaxing to watch the water fall off the roof. Even tried some different camera settings to see how they would look.

After the rain stopped the temperature started to drop like a rock. We ended up with a low in 40s and tonight it forecast the low will be in the upper 30s with frost warnings! But the paid TV professionals who guess the weather tell us that we’ll warm up to near normal temps by the end of the weekend. And it may be an interesting weekend.

Tomorrow I’ll get my ears lowered. Haven’t had a haircut in a while since so many places require masks. The place we’re going to tomorrow doesn’t. There is even up side to this plan. After a hair cut I may look so different Lil Bit won’t recognize me and attack someone else. We’ll see how that works out.

Enjoy our Friday as we won’t see another this month. Now for some coffee and popcorn. Comments are always welcome.

Some pictures

This European starling was on the roof looking to cause trouble. They are an invasive species that run other birds out of the area and are a pain. Don’t know how to get them to move on but are working on it.

Way up in the sky we spotted a pelican just soaring and circling the area. The bird didn’t get lower and I knew by the time I ran into the house, changed to a bigger lens, and got back outside the bird would be gone. A few years ago if we saw one we saw dozens. This is the first one we’ve seen this year.

Fluffy decided she’d had enough drama for one day and plopped down in the shade. She’s been grooming herself better and no longer looks like she just woke up and got out of bed. Glad to see her looking healthy. She’s a fun cat to watch.

This is another shot of the cat whose picture we posted yesterday. She’s skittish and a typical feral cat who is still getting used to us humans. This one looks to be a good hunter and won’t go hungry as long as smaller critters roam the neighborhood.

From the just because file comes this picture of a piece of weathered rough sawn wood. This piece of wood is at least 100 years old and has been at our place for 40 of the 100 years.

And sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses. Looks to be good year for this rose bush as it has a bunch of buds on it also. By the way, they smelled like roses to me. Looks like the flowers will get more water toady as everything from rain to hail is in the forecast for today.

Enjoy our Thursday as that means the weekend is only a dream away. Now for some coffee. Comments are always welcome.

Yesterdays news

Yesterday morning I felt like this cat looks, determined and knowing my limitations, yet ready for the job ahead. It was decided to move the antique dresser from hell and take it from the dining room wall to the hallway wall at the bottom of the stairs. No problem right? About 20 feet and only two doorways with one sharp turn. I measured three times and was sure it would be smooth going.

But this dresser is no IKEA poser of a dresser. It is almost 4 foot wide, almost 4 foot tall, and right at 2 feet deep. It also weighs a ton and is an antique made in an Amana woodshop, probably before I was born. Did I mention everything was measured 3 times? This dresser even had little hardwood wheels on it which should help in moving it. Do you know that small antique wood wheels don’t like to go over uneven floors? We do.

So as the project began said dresser got stuck in the first doorway. Now when I was a lad I would just climb over the dresser and pull from the other side. Since I’m now 70, I had a cup of coffee and a smoke. Somehow that worked and I managed to get the dresser through the first obstacle. Then the project hit a snag. The dresser refused to roll over a throw rug we have in the front room which quickly caught in the small antique wooden wheels of the dresser from hell.

Managed to get the wheel untangled, the dresser moved another 3 feet, and hit another snag. A couch that my tape measure assured me would not have to be moved had to be moved. And of course, it’s a hide-a-bed. Got it moved enough to squeeze the dresser past when another problem arose. While the dresser physically fit through the last doorway, the small antique wood wheels would not go over the metal threshold. If I were a quitter I’d have given up at this point as I don’t go upstairs much anyway, so had another cup of coffee and a smoke.

Again, that seemed to do the trick and I wrestled the dresser through the doorway and into the hall. After this experience the dresser may be there when I die. But we can say the job is done, we’ve had a nap, and it’s time for coffee. Enjoy our Wednesday. Now for some coffee. Comments are always welcome.

A few more

The clouds stayed close most of the day but it didn’t rain. The clouds just kept rolling in on each other and views changed by the minute. As I was looking at these clouds I remembered yesterday would have been Moms 94th birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

And as you can see, the weeds are starting to overtake the flowers in a nearby yard. We’ve had that hot and wet weather where weeds get out of hand in a hurry. It won’t make any difference come December anyway but it spoils the view for now. Not sure how much longer these flowers will hold out.

Speaking of weeds, these fluffy little weeds from hell have been popping up. While fun to look at sometimes, they are not easy to get rid of. The wind catches the fluffy part and blows them all over, So much so, at one point yesterday I thought it was spitting snow!

Lil Bit and Lil One were at it again. Usually they’re just running around, or napping together but lately they fight a lot. And they get noisy with the growling and hissing. They haven’t drawn blood yet and we hope this is just a passing fad and they soon move on to other things.

Finally one we edited to give it the look of a painting. Or at least our version of what a painting of clouds would look like. Sometimes we just have to have a little fun and see where it takes us. We like it.

Enjoy our Tuesday and the pictures. Now for some coffee. Comments are always welcome.

A good day

There was a lot to look at, and photograph yesterday. That made it a good day. These are two of the sky pictures we took and they reminded us of a kids art class where they smear some paint around and add cotton balls to make it look 3D. It wasn’t like this all day and we’re glad we got to see it.

Just a little close up of a fly on a dandelion. The fly looks to be really getting into his work as we could only see about half of him. We could just imagine that when he came up for air he had a huge grin on his face. Not sure if flies even have faces but if they do he was grinning.

Here’s one of the feral cats out in the lower 40. The wife calls her Fluffy and I call her Grumpy cat. She usually looks like she just crawled out of bed and didn’t get a chance to brush her hair yet. Not sure what happened yesterday but she looks good groomed.

Finally, Lil Bit and Lil One were mixing it up again and when the dust settled we could see no clear winner. No critters were harmed during this shoot and we used an environmentally friendly camera. For all these reasons yesterday was a good day. We did get a short drizzle yet not enough to dampen our spirits.

Enjoy our Monday as we will. Now for some coffee. Comments are always welcome.

Sunday snicker

An elderly lady was well-known for her faith and for her boldness in talking
about it. She would stand on her front porch and shout “PRAISE THE LORD!”

Next door to her lived an atheist who would get so angry at her proclamations
he would shout, “There ain’t no Lord!!”

Hard times set in on the elderly lady, and she prayed for GOD to send her some
assistance. She stood on her porch and shouted “PRAISE THE LORD. GOD I NEED
FOOD!! I AM HAVING A HARD TIME. PLEASE LORD, SEND ME SOME GROCERIES!!”

The next morning the lady went out on her porch and noted a large bag of
groceries and shouted, “PRAISE THE LORD.”

The neighbor jumped from behind a bush and said, “Aha! I told you there was no
Lord. I bought those groceries, God didn’t.”

The lady started jumping up and down and clapping her hands and said, “PRAISE
THE LORD. He not only sent me groceries, but He made the devil pay for them.
Praise the Lord!”

Late day

Today is a late day. Woke up late, fed the cats late, and this post is late. Not sure what my body is trying to tell me, but my usual 4 hours of sleep went to 8 last night. I don’t like it when that happens. Been told a body needs 8 hours of sleep a night yet my body feels worse when I get the extra hours.

Plus it messes up my day. Usually the feral cats are fed and watered by 6 am and my first cup of coffee is shortly after that. Just doesn’t feel the same when your first cup of coffee is at 10 am. Now that I’ve had several cups of coffee I feel like I can type something out coherently. Or perhaps not.

What started this whole mess was an article read online from a car magazine. The article was about the Ford Lightening pickup due out next May. Had all the basic information, some of which had me scratching my head. So I’ll mention them. The first thing was these vehicles would have a 15.5 inch touchscreen in the middle of the dash. Does one really need an information/entertainment video screenthat big in the dash?

Another thing was the use of the word ‘frunk’. For those who haven’t read the info, the trunk on these pickups is where the engine bay used to be and frunk is short for front trunk. Really? There have been front trunks for years. Think Volkswagon, Corvair, Porche, etc.

Then they brag that this pickup has 21 electrical outlets. Oh, now I’m too lazy to go in the house to plug something in? Thank God the truck has 21. There is even a 240 volt outlet. It’s said that the trunk can even power your house for up to 3 days during a power outage. It doesn’t say how you can charge the trunk during a power outage.

Finally, the article said the truck is affordable with the base model costing a little over $41,000. But as we all know, options cost money and the Platinum edition will go for around $90,000. And the article said even the Platinum is cheap compared to other electric trunks! Lord love a duck! I’ll stick with old trucks thank you.

Enjoy our Saturday. Now for more coffee and something to eat. Comments are always welcome.