Another bridge picture.  The giant crane has moved to the other end of the bridge.  Note the different colors on the surface of the bridge.  They are covering the light green layer with a gray surface.  It's interesting to watch the process in short bursts. I do not sit on my balcony all day.  I'm interested and that keeps me in a forgiving mood, even when they start work at 6:00am.  I do understand though.  Working in the cool of the morning is much better than in the 90 degree plus afternoon.  My mother used to have us up and out "in the cool of the morning" (her phrase) to weed the strawberry beds. This may explain why I'm not too fond of strawberries.  But back to the bridge. Actually it wasn't too bad this morning.  The equipment was making a swishing sound as it spread the surface material.  Almost like swishing ocean waves......almost.

it's puzzling...

 The question today on my trivia calendar is "How do horses avoid falling over when they sleep standing up?"  I never thought about horses falling over in their sleep, although I have heard of cow tipping. In case you're wondering, yes, I grew up in the country but no, I never took part in cow tipping.  But I digress.  About those horses, evidently they have a system of ligaments and tendons, called the stay apparatus, that allows them to lock their legs in position when they sleep standing up.  Now you may wonder why I even care about this.  It's because, in the senior's exercise class that I attend twice a week, we do a lot of exercises to improve our balance, and I have observed, in myself, that I am much better at balancing on two feet than one (I'm pretty sure that's why God gave us two feet, but I could probably use that stay apparatus.  So maybe I'm just experiencing leg envy.  It has to be easier to balance on four feet than two.

But that's enough on that topic.  I will leave you with a riddle/challenge  that my west coast brother shared with me earlier today.  Can you write down eight eights so they add up to 1,000? I will provide the answer tomorrow.  

inspection

 There are many things I really do appreciate about apartment living. I don't worry about leaky roofs, flooded basements, lawn care, weed pulling, furnace or AC breakdowns, appliances catching fire, etc.  You get the idea.  I have experienced all of the joys listed above in my years of home ownership.  Not all at once of course but still.  Ok, not exactly everything.  The appliance that caught fire was my mother's clothes dryer (but I was still living at home then so that should count). But there is one aspect of apartment dwelling that doesn't thrill me, apartment inspections.  Now this doesn't happen too often, once a year at most, and it is, as they take pains to explain, just a quick check of the 'condition of the building.'  But you know, and I know, that I, and most other people, don't want their home looking sloppy when inspectors come in.  So for the next three days (or at least til they get to my place) I will be keeping things picked up and straightened up.  Now that I think about it, this may be a sneaky plot by management to make sure we all clean our apartments.

no good deed...

 Once a month, members of our church agree to provide supper for a local shelter for homeless young women.  In a moment of weakness, and because it was a friend who was asking, I agreed to provide dessert for this evening's supper for 18 girls.  Since it really seemed too hot to bake, I decided to buy the ingredients for banana splits and some cookies and let them create their own ice cream treats.  I figured if they didn't all want bananas, they could keep them for breakfast.  Because my freezer is small and full, I decided to buy the ice cream and other stuff, just before I delivered it.  It's only a 10 minute drive from my grocery store to the home on Lake Avenue, and I bought the ice cream in plastic tubs so I assumed all will be well.  I was forgetting the construction underway on Lake Avenue.  I had been to this place before, but that was a few months ago.  I reminded myself what the house looked like by googling it and felt fairly confident.  It looked white on Google but blue in real life.  But the real trouble was, not only were stretches of street torn up and one way, the sidewalk all along the side of the street I needed to get to had been dug up in long swaths with only little bitty poorly paved sections to let you get into parking areas.  After my first time accidentally passing the little bitty drive, and driving from Lake to Coliseum to State and finally on a cross street back to Lake again, and missing it again on the second pass, and figuring out that I could make a U turn, which I did, so I could miss it from the other directions, I finally pulled into an easily accessed clinic parking lot to regroup.  Did I mention that I had melting ice cream and browning bananas in my car?  In desperation, I called the friend who got me into this, and told her I couldn't fine the way into their parking lot.  She commiserated, said she had trouble spotting the entrance also, gave me a phone number to call and wished me luck.  I called the number and, of course, got an answering machine, and asked if someone could come to the lot where I was parked and pick up the stuff from me there.  But then I realized it could take a long time to get an answer and decided to try one more time.  This time I went so slowly that I'm sure the drivers behind me were annoyed, drove in the middle turn in either direction lane for a long block and finally spotted the "driveway" and turned it.  At that point I really didn't much care if I had the right house or not.  But I did, and they were very pleased to get the ice cream, soupy or not.  But wait, the story isn't done.  Once I was home, relaxing with my own supper, a different friend called me and asked if I could give her a ride tomorrow morning to an appointment on that same stretch of Lake Avenue.  I can't wait.

paddle on

 My west coast brother informs me that today is National Canoe Day in Canada.  It's National Chocolate Pudding Day in the US but I think chocolate has gotten enough attention.  I've seen many kayaks on the St. Mary's in the years since I've lived here; more since they opened a kayak rental place just up the river, around the bend.  I do remember one couple who were paddling a canoe last summer.  Do you suppose they had come all the way from Canada?  My husband and I owned a canoe many years ago.  It was an 18 foot yellow fiberglass canoe and it could be strapped securely on top of our VW camper (when the pop top was down of course).  We used that canoe frequently for the first few years we had it.  We never took it cross country but had lots of fun with our children paddling it at Chain of Lakes and other lakes in northern Indiana.  But then the time came that we realized we could save a lot of work if we just rented a canoe at whichever lake we wanted to explore.  Gradually it was used less and less, and finally my husband suspended it from the rafters in our downstairs garage, where we kept it for many years, on the chance that we might want to use it again sometime.  In the meantime the kids grew up, we grew old enough not to want to hoist a canoe onto the top of a car (the camper was long gone) and it hung on.  This tale does have a happy ending though.  When I was clearing out the house prior to downsizing, I mentioned the canoe at work and one of my much younger coworkers was thrilled to buy it so she and her young family could take their turn paddling a canoe.  

peer presure

 When I was young we didn't have air conditioning in our church, or anywhere else for that matter.  What we had were fans.  Do you remember those fans?  They were usually donated by a local funeral home.  These weren't folding fans, instead they were flat cardboard pieces sort of rectangular in shape with rounded corners, and a handle. They were fun to swish back and forth and actually did give the illusion of coolness. And fun to look at.  They usually had a picture of Jesus on one side, brown hair and blue eyes of course, and an ad for the funeral home on the other.  Now I am not suggesting we turn off the air conditioning in my church.  It keeps things very comfortable.  But I have thought of a different use for those fans or something like them.  During the pandemic I started making my donations on line, and it's so convenient that I have just kept giving that way.  There are several others who are doing the same thing.  And this is great except when the ushers come down the aisles with their collection plates it looks like no one or hardly anyone is making a donation.  What I want is a little fan I can hold up as the usher goes by, that says 'I gave on line.' I mentioned this jokingly to one of our pastors and she said one church she knows of has little laminated cards in the pew racks that people can put in the collection plates.  They have little messages printed on them like 'I give on line.' or 'I mail in my donation.'  I think this is pretty inventive but I've actually seen a better solution.  I attended a funeral in a church that was new to me, and I was interested to see that they had a fancy brass framed slot in a wall just inside the entrance with instructions to leave donations there.  When I suggested that, I was told that there is symbolism involved in the ushers carrying the donations up front; we are making a sacrificial offering.  Hummm, I'm still pondering this.  

no joke

 Nothing to joke about today.  SCOTUS is trying to take us back to the dark ages with the argument that abortion is not specifically mentioned in the constitution.  I am grateful that I have never been faced with the need to have an abortion, although my step-mom was, after she was raped, but I have three granddaughters who are young ladies now and I am grieved to think that, if one of them was ever faced with that decision, it could be very difficult for her to get a legal, safe abortion.  Women should have the right to decide on situations affecting their bodies, and be able to access safe treatment, without interference from any government agency.  And if men don't like the idea of a baby they started being aborted, they can prevent the problem by getting a vasectomy.  

Is this really popular?

 The question of the day on my trivia calendar is " What does the popular Tibetan drink known as 'po cha' consist of?"  Well, to be honest I didn't know.  In fact I have never heard of po cha so (even though I certainly don't pretend to know everything) I wonder how popular it really is.  Although I have never been to Tibet.  It may indeed be very popular there.  But, back to the question, it turns out that po cha is a drink made of black tea, butter, milk and salt.  Side note, the butter and milk generally come from yaks not cows.  Well, as it turns out, I've been drinking half of po cha all my life.  Black tea and milk (from cows, or sometimes goats) is my breakfast drink every day.  Is that just po or just cha?  I can almost imagine adding a little butter to the mix but salt?  I'll get back to you on that.

not even then

 I keep a list of things I never, ever want to do.  High on that list is sky diving.  I have absolutely no desire to fling myself our of an airplane, even strapped to someone else who, presumably, knows what needs to be done to land safely.  So, when I saw on the news that a 95 year old woman had been gifted with the chance to go sky diving, I wasn't the least bit tempted to follow her example.  Evidently, she had expressed a desire to go sky diving on her 95th birthday and her children arranged it for her.  Based on the video shown, she landed safely on her back on top of the professional she was strapped to.  Nice landing for her and I guess he was ok also.  Everyone on the news show was going on about how wonderful it was, and how brave she was, but I'm guessing there's more to the story.  I think, many years ago, when she was say 85, she jokingly said that for her 95th birthday she would like to go sky diving.  She probably assumed she would die before the situation ever came up. But, when she turned 95, what could she do but go along with it? She is 95 after all and probably thought "What's the worst that can happen?"

the longest day

 Actually it's not the longest day.  Every day has 24 hours, give or take a few seconds.  But today is the first day of Summer, and has the most hours of daylight.  Not too surprising then, today is National Daylight Appreciation Day.  You won't have a chance to appreciate this much daylight for another year.  I for one am a great appreciator of daylight. The older I get, the less I want to drive after dark, but this time of year it's daylight until almost 9:00pm. Yay! Interestingly, I fine I'm not alone in this preference to be able to see where I'm going when I'm driving, or when I'm walking for that matter.  Some old friends and I have planned our 60 year high school reunion for this coming September, and after preliminary responses from several classmates, have made it a luncheon event.  Everybody seems just fine with that.  

I shouldn't watch.

 I'm watching Antiques Roadshow, and I really shouldn't.  Since I down sized seven years ago, I'm pretty sure I don't have any treasures lying around.  I don't have an attic or a basement for things to hide in, and while lots of my shoes and clothes are embarrassingly old, they are certainly not valuable antiques.  They just appraised an MC Escher print for $30,000 or so.  Now it happens that I own an MC Escher jigsaw puzzle but that's not the same thing at all.  Although it might be worth $1 at a garage sale. I must admit though, that watching the show gets me wondering about the few old pieces I do have from my family.  I have an antique mirror in a mahogany frame from my mother, a beautiful cut glass bowl that was my mother-in-laws, and an antique quilt made by the last congregation that my grandfather served as minister.  It's hand stitched and contains the signatures of the entire congregation in a huge sunburst pattern.  These signatures include those of my mom and her sister and brother.  I'm really not sure what to do with it.  I've considered tracking down the church, if it still exists, and see if they would like it. Our church has a small museum.  Maybe they do too.  A friend suggested that I might contact the Pennsylvania Historical Society.  It turns out that our Indiana Historical Society has a quilt collection and they might too.  I guess I should get busy and do some Googling.  You can find anything on Google.  

Oh, what a day...

 Happy Fathers' Day to all of my friends out there who happen to be fathers and, in many cases, grandfathers.  I thought it might interest you to know (thank you Trivia Calendar) that Washington (the state not the DC) was the first state to celebrate a state-wide Fathers' Day.  The year was 1910 and a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd led the movement to establish the state-wide celebration.  I thought that was interesting and I think my west coast brother will appreciate it since that's where he lives.  I was more interested, and surprised to learn that it didn't become a national holiday until 1972.  Thank you Tricky Dicky.  So then I was curious to see how that compared to Mothers' Day.  It turns out that Mothers' Day in the USA was created in 1908 and became a National Holiday in 1914.  So we win, although we didn't get the vote until 1920.  So was it a win or a consolation prize?  Any way, Happy Fathers' Day again to all you wonderful dads out there.

sign me up

 Most of my friends know that I love Las Vegas, and the casinos of Las Vegas love me because I seldom walk away a winner.  I'm more of a 'break evener'. But I do think Las Vegas is a fun place to visit.  I like to play Blackjack and, of course, put money in the slot machines.  Although that was a little more fun when you had to pull the lever.  I mean, I can play push button slots on my laptop.  I don't though.  I only gamble in Las Vegas (except for two or three lottery tickets a year), which means I haven't lost much.  I think it's been ten years since I was there last.  But now I have another reason to go there.  After seeing the picture I posted yesterday and learning of my desire to drive one of those big machines, my west coast brother tells me that there is a place in Las Vegas where, for a fee, you can drive big machines around a large open area.  Sort of an adult giant sandbox.  Visualize the bright yellow Tonka trucks you used to push around in your sandbox.  Bulldozers, backhoes, loaders and more.   Always assuming I could climb up into one of those big machines, wouldn't it be fun?

That's what I want to do.

 This morning when I checked up on the bridge work, (I do this most mornings about 7:30am when they start making noise), I discovered that the giant crane, which has been folded up along the side of the bridge, was up and moving.  While I watched, the long boom moved back and forth a few times and looked quite impressive.  Workers in their bright yellow vests were scurrying around on the new bridge deck and watching as the crane lowered heavy stuff (that's the technical term) onto the bridge.  I decided right then that, if I was involved in building a bridge, I would want to be a crane operator.  I mean, it did look like they were having fun.  Have I mentioned before that I am easily entertained?

Why would I?

 My daily 'Trivia Calendar' taught me a new word today.  It's an adjective - erinaceous.  Any guesses?  I thought it might have something to do with making errors as in "An erinaceous person makes lots of errors."  But I was wrong, which does not make me erinaceous.  Erinaceous means like a hedgehog.  According to the explanation my calendar gives, if you think someone looks like a hedgehog or behaves like a hedgehog (prickly or rolling up in a ball?) you can describe them as erinaceous.  Hedgehogs are kind of cute so if your saying someone looks like one, it's not really an insult.  If you're not sure what a hedgehog actually looks like, think porcupine but with shorter quills.  You can also google them to see some cute pictures, and you can learn how to take care of a hedgehog as a pet.  I was not tempted.  

worth the effort

 Yesterday, because of the power outage around here that included their house, I invited a friend and her husband to spend the night with me.  With temperatures in the high 90s and oppressive humidity, I thought they might appreciate a cool place to sleep.  She declined, saying she thought they would be ok.  So I patted myself on the back for having made the offer, then relaxed and didn't worry about doing any cleaning.  My basic philosophy of house cleaning is clean when company is coming.  This afternoon my friend called and said, if my offer was still good, they would like to come and spend the night tonight.  It was just too hot in their house and the power might not be on til tomorrow evening.  Of course I said yes.  I couldn't very well say "Nope, sorry, you missed your chance."  Then I sprang into action, made sure the guest bath was clean, put clean sheets on the guest bed, did a quick de-clutter of the living areas, some dusting, and decided that everything was ok.  In the meantime, they went out to supper, decided they had to go back home to check on a delivery she was expecting, and discovered that their power had come back on.  Hooray!  This was definitely a win win.  My apartment looks pretty good, the guest bed is ready for some expected guests coming in a couple of weeks, my friend and her husband can sleep in their own bed, and I don't need to worry about what to serve for breakfast tomorrow.  Good intentions count, right?

so many choices

Today is International Bath Day (nice, but I'm a shower person myself), and also National Strawberry Shortcake Day (not my favorite dessert but I would never refuse it).  But much more interestingly, to me at least, today is Family History Day.  I just finished watching Finding Your Roots, one of my favorite series on PBS, and that, plus this special day has inspired me to share a story from my family history.  Way way back, in the early 1700s, my great, great /  / great grandfather, Phillip Von Steinmetz came to the Americas from Germany.  As the story goes, he didn't exactly come willingly.  He was arrested for killing the king's deer.  I like to think he wasn't a terrible criminal, but was merely trying to feed his family, but those details are lost in the mists of time.  Somehow he managed to escape from prison and hot footed it to the colonies.  He then fought in and survived the Revolutionary War, married, fathered several children, and had several grandchildren.  And there it is, the earliest story I know about my family.  To give credit where due, my aunt, my mother's sister, did the research that uncovered this story. 

I've know a few.

 Today is National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day.  When I first heard this, I thought well this doesn't apply to me.  I have known friends who have fallen and broken bones in the kitchen, but not me.  When I slipped and broke my hip, that was in the garage.  Granted, it was while my kitchen was being remodeled, so it might almost count.  Then I got to thinking about kitchen disasters of my youth.  There was the time I was lifting a stack of plates out of the cupboard to set the table and they slipped out of my hands and shattered on the kitchen floor.  I think only one survived.  Which explains why my current collection of my mother's favorite dishes includes mostly cups, saucers, and pie plates.  And then there was the time I bumped against the pressure cooker on the stove and got a nasty burn on my upper arm, and the time I was testing the doneness of a cake by tapping lightly on the top and drove my finger deep into the cake.  These days I always test with toothpicks.  Now keep in mind, all of these incidents happened while I was a young teenager, and you must admit that's a typically klutzy time of life but I do think it qualifies me to be considered a Kitchen Klutz. If you feel you also might qualify, welcome to the club.

very clever

Yesterday, as I was flipping through my mail, I spotted an envelope with a border of red, white and blue diagonal stripes.  My first thought, and this will validated how old I really am, was "Oh, I have an air mail letter."  As quick as I thought it I realized what a ridiculous idea that was.  When was the last time you received a letter on tissue thin paper in a feather weight air mail envelope?  Then of course I was curious to see what the mailing was all about.  It turns out it was a nicely printed brochure from a Hearing Aid company.  That made me laugh.  How many people, of the age to need hearing aids, do you suppose had that first flash back reaction to the envelope?  And then opened the brochure out of curiosity?  I'm thinking this was very clever advertising.  

It's festival time...

 Three friends and I went to German Fest today and you would have thought it was the first festival in this city in years.  Actually it is the first major festival in two years, the weather was perfect and if you arrived before 2:00pm admission was free.  Evidently this was an unbeatable combination for many, many people.  The line to get in stretched for half the block, and the lines to get food were almost the full length of the pavilion.  But people were patient and happy to be there and oompah music filled the air.  The food, once we got it, was delicious and so was the good dark beer.  Kudos to the two gentlemen of our party who stood in that long, long line to get the food, and left the pitcher of beer with us.  My only regret was that, alas, I missed the Wiener Dog races.  They were advertised for 2:00pm but evidently were run earlier in the day.  Ah well, there's always next year. 

it wasn't perfect...

 Today was the last day of our one week arts camp at First Pres, and we ended with a performance for the families.  We had a rehearsal this morning and another this afternoon and the big performance this evening.  Picture 100 children, ages 5 to 11, being herded around a stage in large and small groups, singing, dancing, doing skits and making noise.  They had very little understanding of getting on and off stage quietly, but when they finally were all in place and singing their last song of the evening "Let's Go Fly a Kite" they brought down the house.  No one noticed or cared that light cues were a little off or that the microphones weren't always on (not my fault, I was doing lights, not sound); as long as their darlings were on stage they were thrilled.  It was a fun show, but I must admit the phrase "herding cats" kept running through my mind.

accidental treasurer

 I was not particularly popular in high school.  I was never a cheerleader, didn't march in the band and didn't play sports.  They didn't have a girls' basketball team in our small town back in the day.  I did have some friends, and for the most part got along ok, but I did enjoy college more.  However, somehow over the years since high school, I have become closer friends with some of my classmates and, somewhere along the line, ended up serving on the reunion committee.  Some members have come and gone but there are four or five of us who seem to be on the committee every five years.  By now you may have realized what this is leading up to.  This year is our 60th year since graduation, and time for another reunion.  This afternoon I met with three other members of the committee to get the invitations addressed and ready to mail out.  I'm happy to say we got the job done.  The letters are in the mail.  Now we just need to see who responds, and especially who sends money, because after renting the hall, arranging for a caterer and paying for postage, we have about $70 left in our treasury.  And that's another thing.  I'm not sure how it happened, I really don't remember, but somehow it was decided that I would be the reunion committee treasurer.  One of the ladies who helped with the mailing today brought along some old high school pictures.  Four of them were posed pictures of our class officers.  I wasn't in any of those pictures.  But here I am, the accidental treasurer and I will be waiting anxiously for responses and checks.  And no, we don't take credit cards.  I've already been asked.

festival time

 It's festival time in Fort Wayne and almost all of them take place in the pavilion across the river from my apartment.  Last week was Arab Fest.  Sadly, I did not have time to take a camel ride.  This weekend is German Fest, followed by three more festivals in the next three weeks.  I had to go to a meeting this evening but when I came home I could hear good German music wafting across the river from the festival.  On Saturday some friends and I will be going to German Fest.  We will be eating sauerkraut, brats and strudel, and I will get my annual glass of good dark German beer, which is also my annual beer.  I'm not a big drinker.  But more importantly, much more importantly, we will be watching the Wiener Dog Nationals.  When I was a child, we had a full size dachshund, and as an adult, my husband and I had two miniature dachshunds.  They are still one of my favorite kinds of dogs, and there are few things as thrilling as watching them race down the track, big ears flapping and tiny legs churning.  They can be fast when motivated, usually with food.  Coincidentally, this week is Pet Appreciation Week.  I will cheer on those wiener dogs and appreciate the ones I had.  

chocolate again

 Today is National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, and I'd say it's about time.  There hasn't been a special day for something chocolate for at least two weeks.  Alas, the only thing chocolate I have in my refrigerator right now is an almost empty bottle of chocolate syrup, and, while I was tempted, once I learned what a special day this is, to make a quick run to the grocery store, I decided against it.  It's hard to justify burning gas just for chocolate ice cream.  However, next week, when I do my regular grocery shopping, I will definitely have it on the list.  It's never too late to celebrate chocolate.  In the meantime, I will have to content myself with listening to one of the warm up songs the campers are singing this week.  I can't sing it for you here (count yourself lucky) but the repeated refrain is "I love my chocolate cookies and I love my Oreos."  Hmmm, I may have to add cookies to the list also.  

it's camp time

 Today was the first day of our church's summer camp.  It's only one week long and it focuses on the arts - music, art, drama and dance.  We limit it to 100 kids (ages kindergarten to 5th grade) and we're full.  Professionals teach the classes and church members volunteer to shepherd the kids from class to class and in and out of their cars for drop off and pick up (not an easy task).  When the request went out for volunteers some months ago I said I would be glad to help if I could have the same job as last year, and our pastor said yes. Last year was our first year to run this kind of camp and I was assigned to be the theater tech.  I think they assumed that, because I've been in a few plays, I know all about lights and sound.  I didn't, but I was motivated to learn, and quickly discovered that turning on lights, making sure the sound system is active and the microphones have freshly charged batteries, and knowing which buttons to push and when, is way more easy than herding cats or small children.  This morning I was reassured that I had made the right choice.  So many children, so much energy; but only four more mornings (did I mention that we have to be there at 7:45am?) and one Friday night performance for the parents to go.  Not that I'm counting or anything.

tongues of fire

 Today is Pentecost Sunday and, as I was sitting in church, I started to think how exciting it would be to have a loud rushing wind roar through the church and suddenly see little 'tongues of flame' on everybody's heads.  And then I realized, sadly, that in this day and age, no one would believe it.  They would assume it was a neat special effect.  We are so jaded by the things we see on television and the internet and at the movies that we believe anything can be made to look real. If people were watching the live stream of the church service they would have assumed it was staged.   Of course, if we all ran out of church speaking different languages, people might have believed, or might have assumed we were drunk, just like in the Bible narrative.  Even then people were skeptical.  I guess it's human nature.  People doubt lots of things.  Unless, of course, you read it on Facebook.  Then it has to be true.

Purrrrrr?

 Today is Hug Your Cat Day.  If you have ever lived with a cat you know that not all of them want to be hugged.  In fact, I would venture to say that most cats don't want to be hugged.  Now, don't get me wrong, they are often very happy to curl up in your lap, on their terms, when they are ready.  But real hugging, not so much.  They also aren't fond of being dressed up in doll clothes, a lesson I learned when I was five.  Heathcliff (my father named him) did not like the bonnet.  When I was much older and wiser, I learned to let the cats come to me.  At that time I had two cats, sisters from the same litter, who liked to take turns snuggling on my lap.  I'm not sure how they did it, probably magic, but they could switch without my noticing.  I would be absentmindedly patting one of them, while reading or watching TV, and glance down to see that it was the other cat on my lap, and I had never missed a pat.  Very strange, but they seemed satisfied with the arrangement, so I went along with it.  It's the easiest way with cats. 

Yummy!

 Today is National Doughnut Day and management here celebrated by handing out free doughnuts to anyone who came to the lobby between 7:30 and 8:30am.  I imagine their main goal was to hand out doughnuts to people on their way to work, but a doughnut is a strong lure.  I'm guessing I wasn't the only senior citizen who showed up.  To give myself credit, I didn't go down to the lobby in my pajamas.  I did get dressed, jeans and T-shirt dressed, donuts don't require makeup. The doughnuts were from Tom's (always delicious) and I got a jelly filled one.   

On a completely different topic, my west coast brother pointed out to me that 2022 is the International Year of Glass; which probably means I should celebrate(?) by washing my windows.  This is not as easy as you might think.  The windows and sliding glass door on my balcony are easy to reach from inside and out but the dining room windows are more challenging.  There is a three foot wide ledge outside those windows, but with no railing and 10 stories up, I really don't think I want to climb over the balcony railing and walk along that ledge to wash the outside of those windows.  And the bedroom windows don't have any kind of outside ledge at all.  I suspect that the windows, which are the kind that slide side to side, can be lifted out of their track, at least one of each set, cleaned and replaced.  Sounds reasonable but I have concerns.  What if I get the windows out and can't lift them back in?  These are 50 year old heavy windows.  What if a goose or pigeon flies in while the window is out?  I may need professional help here, or I may need to find another way to celebrate the Year of Glass.  Perhaps I'll just clean my eye glasses and my phone screen and my computer screen and my tablet screen, and maybe, if I'm really feeling celebratory, I will Windex all my mirrors.

vocabulary

 Here's a vocabulary quiz to challenge those sleepy brain cells.  What does 'macrosmatic' mean?  If you guessed 'an automatic macaroni making machine' you guessed wrong, although it seemed perfectly reasonable to me.  Actually, macrosmatic is an adjective which means having a highly developed sense of smell.  Dogs can be described as macrosmatic and I do believe that.  When we used to travel in our VW bus with our two children and two dogs the male dog's very favorite place to ride was on my lap, when I was in the front passenger seat, with his nose pressed against the air vent.  No AC in that old bus and screens on the windows so this was one of the few ways for the dogs to whiff the great outdoors.  I'm not sure he appreciated the vistas of mountains, canyons, and oceans but (if he could have talked) he could have identified every exotic and mysterious scent from coast to coast.  He was a well traveled dog.

 June is Effective Communications Month.  I thought I'd get that out of the way up front.  It's also National Iced Tea month and Candy Month in case you want something else to celebrate.  But narrowing it down, today, June 1 (can you believe it's June already?) is Flip a Coin Day, so I decided to give it a try.  Heads I write this blog, tails I go to bed. I win, good night.