Critters

We had some critters around the neighborhood yesterday and we got some pictures to prove it. Here are a few we thought interesting.

These two are from the last batch of feral kittens, that we know of. The one in front looks like the Mama and the one the rear the Dad. They grow up fast and we see them occasionally as they live at the neighbors. And yes, this was taken yesterday. The leaves just blew in from elsewhere and stayed.

Mama cardinal was out the brush enjoying the day as the temps got into the 40s yesterday. She didn’t seem to mind the wind either. Always a good day when we see cardinals.

They say there’s one in every crowd and this is my soulmate. Not sure where the pizza comes from but this is second time this one’s been seen with a good sized chunk of pizza. He certainly makes sure that he has enough and does seem to enjoy it. He’d be out of luck here as I eat pizza crust and all.

This little one was singing up a storm and kept singing until I grabbed the camera and got a shot. Can say the bird was not out there this morning. Do like to hear them sing on a quiet morning.

Finally, this guy was sitting on nearby fence trying to hide. We spotted him but will admit he confused the cats who were tracking him on the ground before he took flight. Funny how the cats kept looking around like they’d just seen their first magic act.

Enjoy our Monday as soon we’ll be moving to a new month. Now for some coffee.

Sunday snicker

This is an old snicker and since we haven’t run it again in a while we’ll share it now…

On the outskirts of town, there was a huge nut tree by the cemetery fence.
One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,” said one boy. The bucket was so full, several rolled out toward the fence.

Cycling down the road by the cemetery was a third boy.
As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery.
He slowed down to investigate.
Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”
He knew what it was.

“Oh, my Goodness!” he shuddered, “It’s Satan and St. Peter dividing the souls at the cemetery!”
He sped off down the road as fast as he could and found an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
“Come quick!” said the boy.
“You won’t believe what I heard.
Satan and St. Peter are down at the cemetery dividing the souls.”

The man said, “Shoo, you brat!
Can’t you see I’m finding it hard to walk as it is!”
After several pleas, the man finally hobbled to the cemetery with the boy.

Standing by the fence he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you,one for me…”
The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ the truth!
Let’s see if we can see the Devil himself.”

Shivering with fear, they peered through the fence, yet they were still unable to see anything.
The old man and the boy gripped the wrought-iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of Satan.
At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. And one last one for you. That’s all.
Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence, and we’ll be done.”

They say the old guy made it back to town 5 minutes before the boy!

Recent takes

A recent little winter storm left us with a mixed bag of hail, sleet, and snow that ended with colder temperatures. The hail is this picture was about the size of marbles and hard to get a shot of.

Later the snow fell so fast it hard to see the church steeple just 3 blocks away. These streetlights were only a half block away and things weren’t that clear. We were just hoping it didn’t keep coming down at this rate all night.

Come Friday morning things looked like this. Claim is we got just under 2 inches of snow. Was out earlier shoveling so we could get groceries to eat for another week. Did see a wreck on the way home and we wondered who was in a hurry and who got in the way.

Later Friday the icicles were starting to melt along with the snow on streets, alleys, and sidewalks. So what we didn’t get shoveled earlier was clear by afternoon.

Finally, we give you the snow cat. This one loves being out in the snow and plays like a kitten when he is. He stopped long enough for us to get quick shot before diving off the knee wall into the snow. Should have got a shot of that also.

Enjoy our Saturday since it’s here. Now I need coffee.

Just a coincidence?

Woke up early to snow on the ground which we’ve been moving around, mainly on the driveway. We noticed that gas went up here 20 cents a gallon in two days, groceries came to $166, and Russia had sanctions against them to stop an invasion. Didn’t buy bottled water as the store brand was almost $4 for a case when it’s usually $2.99 or less. We even made a stop at the hospital so the wife could get some lab work done.

We’re just hoping we can survive 3 more years of this administration. They all can’t be as stupid as they act but they do have the ‘reply to the question without answering it’ part down pat. Would be nice if somebody in Washington wore big boy pants and did something to change things. We don’t have the answers yet don’t feel bad about is because neither does anyone in a position to do something about it.

Will be getting more shoveling done in a bit, and later we’ll upload some pictures which we’ll share tomorrow. If they turn out alright. We’ll see how that works out. So enjoy our Friday before Monday get here in a few hours. Now for some coffee.

Just another day

Looks like Ukraine has been invaded, snow is on the way here, the TV news still isn’t news, Trudeau has lifted the emergency orders, and we’ve all gotten a day older. Yeah, it’s just another day in paradise. Kind of makes one wonder when the worlds governments were filled with nutbars.

Went outside to have a smoke and found it quiet in our little portion of the east coast of Iowa and was thankful for that. The same can’t be said for the other night though. Some idiot decided 2 am was a good time to get in a shouting match and we could hear him a block and a half away. Not sure what it was about but did hear him call somebody a word that rhymes with ‘witch’ about 30 times.

Went out a little later and all was quiet so figured the guy had wore himself out. Oh no, even later when I went back out the guy was yelling at somebody to get out of his yard. As a card carrying Oldfart I see the need at times to keep people off the grass. The wee hours of the morning isn’t one of those times. Got to love city life.

The icing on the cake happened yesterday when the wayward dog made its way into our yard again and emptied both bowls of cat food then drank all their water. The pellet gun isn’t working out as the moment he hears the door open he is on the run. If it wouldn’t drive the neighbors nuts, I’d rig an electric motor to the door to open and close it all day.

Enjoy our Thursday as it means there’s a party somewhere only a dream away. Now for some coffee.

Getting old

Getting old is getting old. It now looks like my body dictates when I rise to greet the day instead of the morning sun. What used to be a 2 to 4 hour nap has turned into an 8 hour deep sleep. I don’t like it. Not sure what can be done about it, but I was never one to be in bed at 9 pm. Unless I had to get up super early for work.

I’ll try to make some changes, just not sure what they’ll be. Guessing that will include no longer claiming I’m 39. It was just easier to say than 18 with 53 years of experience. I’ll fight like the third monkey trying to get on Noah’s Ark. That said, one just has to figure out how. As with others going gray and hearing sound effects when we get up from a chair, I’ve never been this old before.

Did get a few pictures of a cardinal this morning and will continue to take the camera when outside. Perhaps we’ll have some pictures to share one of these days. Miss the feeling when I get a good shot. So if you’ll bear with us we’ll keep putting a post out. Hopefully earlier in the day. Sorry this late and will make an attempt to get the posts out earlier.

Enjoy our Wednesday as it means we’ve made it to middle of the week. Now I need more coffee.

Late starts

My solar powered alarm didn’t go off this morning as the sun was nowhere to be seen. Really, it was my forehead above my receding hairline that didn’t feel the sun and let me sleep, but it is powered by the sun. I dislike late starts as it means I’ve slept longer than I usually do which enhances all the oldfart aches and pains when I do get up.

And you may have noticed there haven’t been as many pictures shared as usual. My eyes are still off a little from the cataract surgery and I’ve been using auto-focus. That’s fine, the problem is that I can’t tell if the lens focused on what I wanted it to until I get back in the house and grab my glasses to check. It seems as if it’s now more misses than hits.

For some reason the eye surgeon wants me to wait until May to get prescription glasses so I have a bit of a wait to see if that will help. Until then we’ll share as many pictures as turn out, and some that don’t, if we take a liking to them. I’ll keep working on the problem until then. Hoping to get back to manual focus as I get better results that way.

Time will tell, but I’m not giving up without a fight. Enjoy our Tuesday. Now for some coffee.

Off day

Going to be an off day today. Was outside and heard a cardinal singing so looked around to see where he was. Thought I found him, ran back inside to grab the camera, went outside to focus where the I thought the bird was, and got a great picture of an orange leaf!

Over the weekend our youngest and family went to the Darryl Starbird car show and saw this car. To show how low it sits he had our 6 year old granddaughter stand beside it. When I see cars this low the only thing that comes to mind is how much it would hurt this oldfart to even try to get in it.

Reminded me of another car show, also a national event, and there was a car there so low that I couldn’t bend down far enough to look in the side windows. As we were looking at the car, a guy walks up and told us it was his car. This guy was like 6 foot 3 inches tall and claimed the secret was to tilt the seats all the back and almost lay down in it.

I thought that wouldn’t work for me because if I was almost horizontal while sitting in it I would fall asleep. That and the fact that to get back out I’d need the paramedics, a wrecker, and couple strong guys pushing on my backside to get me out. Cars like this are for the young.

Enjoy our Monday as a new week begins. Now I need more coffee.

Sunday snicker

An atheist is inspired by the Jewish philosophy and approach to religion, how it’s built around questioning and responding with more and deeper questions. He’s not sold on the God stuff, but decides he can look past that if it means getting to engage with a thoughtful, inquisitive community.

So, he goes to see the local rabbi and ask about joining. The rabbi explains it’s not so easy. There’s a process, and it’s a long one, and maybe easier to go back in time and be born to a Jewish mother, if truth be told.

But, the atheist says those rules are outdated, and a religious community should be based only on shared beliefs.

The rabbi responds that part of those shared beliefs is a shared respect for the tradition.

But the atheist points out that the tradition is one of questioning the rules.

They go back and forth, on and on, neither giving an inch in the argument until finally the atheist is just exhausted and gives up saying, “Fine, I guess if you won’t let me join there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“Not let you join?” the rabbi says, “What do you think we’ve been doing this whole time?”

Afternoon edition

Had good intentions of getting an early post in which didn’t happen. Woke up running and after feeding and watering the cats went out to get some snow off places I didn’t want it then went down to get our tax returns only to find nobody would answer the door. May just go lay back down and try again later. Did get some pictures so we’ll share them now.

The clouds were telling different stories depending on which direction one looked. The top picture is looking east and lower one to the west. Thought these were signs the weather guessers on TV were wrong again with the forecast. Turns out they were.

We know this one is out of focus, but how many times do you see an eagle circling your yard? This was a magnificent bird to watch as the eagle kept gliding on the wind. It took off as quick as it showed up so we couldn’t get any more shots.

This is a cardinal in the neighbors bushes. He was hard to spot and even harder to get a clear shot of. This one is as good as it got. We think the problem has been fixed and will test that theory later today.

Finally, had a talk with the man in the moon the other night and he got upset. I mentioned he looked full and his opinion was that he was big boned. That conversation will continue when next we meet. Twas a fine looking moon though.

Sorry for the delay in getting this out and we hope you enjoy our Saturday anyway. Now for some coffee.