The spotlight's hitting something That's been known to change the weather

Yesterday was the wife’s redacted birthday. The grandgirls helped me bake a chocolate cake. We did not do much celebrating, the girls had their dance recital last night. Both did great. I did take the wife for a steak dinner on Wednesday. 

The baseball season is about a third of the way complete. The Cubs are ten games under .500. I cannot look forward to the NFL season, I have no hope the Colts will be competitive. So it goes. 

It looks to be decent weather Saturday, so I hope to get some more yard work done. Sunday may bring some much needed rain. In the meantime, I have work today. The paying kind. 

I had a couple of professional writers take a look at the opening portion of my someday novel. Both gave me valuable insight. I think I may start a new blog and publish it in sections. Stay tuned and watch the sidebar. BTW, it is mostly complete. Now it needs significant editing. The end needs a bit more flesh, but it is done in principle.

Here is some music for your Friday. Since it is apparently some sort of law we must acknowledge the alphabeters, here is the Queen himself:

Head Scratchin’ here boss.

One of the issues of the “woke” crowd is cultural appropriation. We are told that a person of one race adopting the culture, dress, or language of another culture is wrong. Pale skin red head with dreadlocks? Nope. White guy playing a Native American in a Western? Uh-uh.

But then why is okay for a person of apparent African American decent to portray Cathryn of Arygon in the Broadway musical Six? 

Can only White People be guilty of cultural appropriation? Is there a list of rules somewhere, so I can keep up?

That old guy across the street came over today

The wife’s day lilies are starting to bloom. The pop of bright yellow always makes me smile. There are buds on the tiger lilies, those plants I can see. That flower bed in the back is getting swallowed by weeds and stray mulberries and is in need of serious work. I should have pruned and dug in the fall and weather and laziness prevented it and now that flowerbed is just ugly. Maybe this weekend. I will have to trample some of the flowers to get at the weeds. There is some kind of metaphor there, but now we are back to that laziness thing. 

One of my neighbors sold his house and moved last month. He was the longest resident of the cul-de-sac and they were a great family. Some new people moved in. They appear to be a young couple; late twenties, early thirties. Yesterday while grabbing the mail I saw the wife out moving her trash cans from the curb. I sauntered over to introduce myself.

Close your jaw and get rid of that shock face. Yes, I attempted to be neighborly. 

I told her I was Joe and welcome to the neighborhood. She said nice to meet you. She never offered her name or anything. I uttered some nonsense about it being a good neighborhood as she stared at me with disinterest. I told her I work from home if she ever needs anything. It was a total throw away statement implying neighborliness. She said no, her husband works from home too. Dismissed. Ok then. I walked back home. Message received. 

Boy, are the new neighbors going to be surprised when the whole court stages a Fourth of July block party in a few weeks. 

A mea culpa. I did not put up a D-Day post yesterday. It is one of the few times in this old blogs history I did not mark the occasion. WTH, Joe?

Edit. Said new neighbor is out there at 7:30 AM mowing his yard. I don’t find that too neighborly, either. 

The Picture Diet

I remember one time when I was home visiting my folks. My mom asked me to set the table for dinner. I opened the refrigerator and taped to the inside of the door was a risque picture of a lovely, slender, perfectly built, but scantily-clad young woman.

“Mom, what’s this?” I asked.

“Oh, I put that up there to remind me not to overeat,” she answered.

“Is it working?” I asked.

“Yes and no,” she explained. “I’ve lost 15 pounds, but your dad has gained 20!”

this week is starting out crappy

I had a busy day yesterday. I cut the lawn and power washed the front porch and the back patio. And of course, later in the evening when I went to sit on said patio, I noticed a bird had crapped all over the place. It is as if he sat on the gutter and dropped diarrhea right outside the patio door. 

Now it is on to Monday.

How many more days?

My wife’s birthday is in June. So is Father’s Day and our anniversary. It is generally a pleasant month kicking off summer and lots of great memories. 

That said, I wish it was over and done and July was upon us. I am already sick and tired and disgusted with Pride Month. 

when the sun beats down and burns the tar up on the roof

So that is how it is. I usually have about 12 readers here at the old blog. I guess yesterday’s effort was more boring than usual since only about six tuned in. I guess I cannot hit a home run every time. That said,  I have  even less to say today. It will be hot. We are taking the kids to the public pool to play in the chlorine and pee soaked water with the gen pop. I will pretend to have a good time. 

In my youth, I loved the public pool. I went pretty much every day in the middle school years. There is even a post over there in the archives about those memories, should you care to search for it. Here I did the work for you. You are welcome. No, no, I am no hero.

This tune always evokes summertime memories.