Made it

Happy Halloween! If you’re reading this and I wrote it, we made it to another holiday that most enjoy. Thought we’d share some pictures we got yesterday that may, or may not, put you in the right frame of mind for the day.

The day started for me before it got fully light out. These geese flew over before the sun kissed the horizon. We didn’t mind and the silhouettes put us in the mood for Halloween. They must not be in a hurry to leave as they were headed northwest.

It was a cloudy day that seemed to want to stay that way and made taking pictures a little more challenging. That didn’t bother this guy who got down amongst the fallen leaves to have his breakfast. He’s a fine looking specimen.

Can’t remember the name of this bird, but they are fun to watch. This one landed on the side of the stump and decided he’d rather hike than fly. He must have walked up and down the stump a dozen times before flying off and we smiled the whole time we watched.

It can’t be Halloween without a black cat and Little Bit was the model. She wasn’t a very cooperative model, but she’s the only black cat around so we took a shot. We’ll attempt to get a better shot today.

Finally, as day progressed to night the sunset was amazing. Makes us with we lived somewhere with a clear view to the west, yet we thought this was a decent picture. The clouds made it that much more interesting, and we like the shot, even with the power line cutting across the bottom.

Enjoy our Monday, and Halloween.

Sunday snicker

One day in heaven, Jesus sees a familiar-looking old man sitting by a lake.
“Moses, is that you?”

“Jesus, you rascal, how have you been?”

“Oh, good, no complaints. Say, you know that thing you did with the Red Sea?”

“You mean parting it?”

“Yeah, that. I missed watching you do that the first time, and well, we’re here by this big lake, so I was wondering if you’d be so kind as to show me? I read the story, it sounded awesome, but I’d like to see it in person.”

Moses shrugged, stood up, lifted his staff, and parted the waters of the lake down to the dry bed. Seeing Jesus grinning, he let the waters recede.

“That was amazing, Moses, thank you.”

“Of course, of course. Anything for the big guy’s son. But while we’re on the subject of lakes, you know, I heard about that trick you pulled at the Sea of Galilee from St. Peter…”

“Oh, the walking on water bit.”

“Yeah, that. Could you demonstrate that one for me?”

“Of course!” Jesus said, taking off his sandals. He lowered his feet to the water and took two steps before sinking up to his ankles.

“Oh, no!” Moses said.

“It’s all right,” Jesus said, wading back to the shore. “Let me try again.”

The next time he got out four steps before sinking up to his knees.

“What’s happening?” Moses cried. “Are you all right? Should I get an angel or something?”

Jesus waded back to the shore and shrugged. “No, that’s okay. I think I figured out what the problem is.”

“What?”

“The last time I did this, I didn’t have holes in my feet.”

Think pink

We know this is late, and the flower pictured isn’t pink, but we work with what we got and we’ll explain why we’re late after a short disclosure. We would like to state that we do not know Mr. Pelosi and harbor no bad feelings against him. We also wish him a speedy recovery from his injuries sustained during a break in at his home. But we also can have some fun.

When we first heard of an attack on the husband of the speaker of the House we grabbed the key fob and jumped in the car. We went to Lowes for some pink paint and a paint brush. Thinking was that since someone had the audacity to attack the spouse of a high-ranking Democrat politicians would overreact. Not one to wait for signs things were going to go fubar, I got the paint.

Spent last night and up until a short while ago painting all my hammers pink. After all it stands to reason that if politicians go after gun rights following a shooting, hammer rights will be in the sights after a hammer attack. Being a former general contractor, I have a lot of hammers. These tools may look scary to those unfamiliar with them and some even of the names spread fear among the unknowing.

I have air hammers, sledgehammers, claw hammers, ball-peen hammers, body hammers, dead-blow hammers. and even a couple that use 22 caliber blanks to shoot nails into concrete to name a few. Not wanting to lose any of these tools I decided to paint every one of them pink. Then if the government bans hammers I can call them wall hangings. I even made up a couple of ‘Barbie’ stickers to put on the scary hammers so I could call them toys.

Some may think I have jumped the gun on this, but worse case I’ll have the worlds largest collection of pink hammers. Even if someone follows my lead and paints their hammers pink, I’m still the first. Enjoy our Saturday.

Really?

Yesterday, the day started with this view to the east. The Heavens looked like a wildfire complete with smoke and a little bit of clear sky to give one hope. And the day got better as it went along. The wild birds at the feeder made for a colorful day and a little later, flocks of geese nosily made their way across the sky.

Today I had a plan. Up at 0500, out for a smoke and to feed the herd of feral cats, a shower, then a quick run to the grocery to pay too much for what I needed. All but the last went smooth as silk before the bottom fell out. Usually, I’m in and out of grocery store in 10 minutes and cruising back home shortly after that.

The cashier at the only open register was having a problem with a little old lady who had a coupon. Not a handful of coupons like some but a single coupon. Thinking this was a small matter and would be resolved quickly, I got in line. It was not resolved quickly, and the little old lady was still standing her ground, so the store opened another register. Still thinking it wouldn’t be long now I stayed in line until the other cashier came over and told me to go her register.

After checking out I glanced back and the little old lady was still waiting to get the coupon taken off her purchase! Spent an hour instead of the usual half hour with the round trip. Looking back, nobody got hurt and I still have to work on my temper. Enjoy our Friday as it’s Halloween weekend.

We wondered

This nest has been in this tree for a few years now and the neighbor and myself have been wondering what lives in it. Last year we really got confused when cotton batting was added. We kept watching but never saw a critter near this nest, until yesterday and I must say it was a bit of a letdown.

This is the critter I saw bringing small twigs into the nest. The neighbor and myself both thought of owls, possibly a hawk, or even Mourning doves, but a squirrel never crossed our minds. Unless the squirrel just took over an abandoned nest. At least we know what’s up there now.

We even saw a relative of the one adding to the nest. This one was just running around looking for any missed walnuts in the trees and on the ground. It’s funny how the groundhogs and raccoons are getting fat but the squirrels all look trim as an Olympic swimmer.

Took this picture because the cardinal looked like somebody pissed in his cereal. Not sure what his problem was, but he was even staring down cats!

Finally, this guy gave up on getting a seat in the bird feeder and just ate on the stump. There is enough seed spilled that he wouldn’t go hungry any time soon. Not sure where the mate was. Enjoy our Thursday as now Friday is only a dream away.

New day

Overslept again so am now playing catch up. I’m not sure what happened but do know that as I get older it takes more to wake me up. It used to be that if someone shut a car door out front it would wake me up. Now, if anybody wants me when I’m zonked you better keep calling back or knocking.

Once I got up the feral cats got fed and watered before coming back inside to give the inside cats a treat then take my medicine. We got a hard frost last night and with the fallen leaves the car looked like a parade float. Not thinking, I tried to pull the leaves off the car to get it looking more like a Ford. Some of us know how that turned out.

So after a cup of coffee, I turned on local news to find out we’ll have another shot at another Indian summer in the extended forecast. Lord love a duck! I don’t like it when the temps go up and down like yo-yo every few days. It won’t be long though before it will be cold every day, and I’m ok with that.

Enjoy our Wednesday.

Smoke and mirrors

Covid-19 is in the news and once again the fingers are pointing at Dr. Fauci. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, a task force that looked into the origins of Covid-19 for 22 months, found that it was probably laboratory generated and the technology was the result of gain-of-function research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The synthetic fingerprint found in this variant leads back to Dr. Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina, NIH-funded gain-of-function research and in cooperation with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. You may remember that Dr. Fauci was the head of NIH at the time this all started.

Red flags went up and word came from Fauci that the virus came from bats and not a laboratory. Studies cited by the media showed there were about 47,000 wild animals from 38 species sold in the Wuhan markets between May 2017 and November 2019. It was admitted that no evidence was found that any animals had the virus. We all know how that turned out with the ‘fact checkers’ and paid ‘experts’
who would deny anything if paid enough.

We may never know the whole truth, at least in my lifetime. Or we could believe in coincidences. Enjoy our Tuesday.

New week

Glad to see the new week arrive and bring us endless possibilities. Yesterday we learned a cousin died Saturday, and the daughter-in-law is in the hospital. It is a nail-biting time for our youngest. He’ll learn more today once visiting hours start.

We’re not sure about today yet but are working on it. As mentioned, there are a lot of choices on which direction to go today. Since I already fed the cat herd and checked on the bird seed, we have an open slate. May go out and shoot a few pictures if the mood strikes.

Could get the chain saw out and do a little clearing, or the pruner and do some thinning. We’ll have to have another cup of coffee before making such a serious decision. Whatever we do it will be spontaneous, and probably the wrong choice.

Enjoy our Monday.

Sunday snicker

Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin and Boris Johnson had a near death experience together.
They met God and his closest angels, who told them that their time wasn’t up yet but that each of them could ask one question.

Biden went first. He asked “God, when will the Coronavirus pandemic end?” God made a sign to his angels. They went away and after 30 seconds they came back and whispered into God’s ear. God replied to Biden “Not in your term in office”.

Putin went next. He asked “God, when will communism overtake capitalism as the dominant world system?” God made a sign to his angels and they went away. After 10 minutes they came back and whispered into God’s ear. God replied to Putin “Not in your term in office”.

Johnson went last. He asked “God, when will world leaders be honest and care for the people instead of working purely to line their pockets?” God made a sign to his angels and they went away. After five hours they came back exhausted and whispered into god’s ear. God replied to Johnson “Not in MY term in office”.

Busy day

We’re having an Indian summer right now on the east coast of Iowa and although the trees are candy colored the highs will be in the 70s and 80s for the next few days. This coincides with the free yard waste pick up which starts Monday. We’re hoping to get a lot done outside this weekend.

We’ll charge up the battery for the chain saw and add bar oil to begin to process and see how things go. There is one small volunteer tree that we have cut back every year and yet it hangs on just to bug me. That tree will be a stump when day is done. And once again, even though we have no trees that drop leaves, we will be raking leaves.

We’re also going to open some windows and get some air in the house. Just hope my allergies don’t get worse working outside. If so, we’ll self-medicate and keep busy. It was a lot easier in my younger days I’d just drink until I didn’t care and get it done. I do have plenty of coffee as I loaded up yesterday in preparation of a couple of warmer days followed by more seasonal weather.

At least that’s the plan. We’ll see how that works out. Enjoy our Saturday as it’s here and it’s going to be great.