In The GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME...
The following photo might be a great antidote for all the rain we've had lately!

I've posted this before..."Winter" is the price we all pay for living here the rest of the year. I find it a bit ironic that both "snow" and "rain" are four-letter words. In the wintertime, I'm a relative hermit; I just don't like being cold. Maybe as you age, your blood thins? Brrr! I do know that in the "good old summertime", I'm outside as much as possible. Green grass, shade trees and WARMTH. In the meantime, I'll just warm my hands over my little space heater. Brrr!

Here's an old photo that'll put things a little bit more in perspective. It's an early 1950's photo of City Beach, with Playland Pier in the background and luscious shade trees up near the sea wall. You can tell from the swimsuits that this photo goes back a long, LONG ways. I guess you could say this photo was taken back in the "pre-thong" days? Summer, I'm WAITIN' for ya!
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Run of the MILL dept.: "In a short time, little evidence will remain that generations of workers drew paychecks there". That's a quote from a story in today's paper, in an article about the auctioning off of equipment at the old Atlas Mill, a landmark building complex that's gonna be torn down soon, as those with LOTS OF MONEY are going to buy expensive property along the Spokane River. I think the above quote could have also applied to the old Potlatch Mill, back in the '80s. Now, millworkers at Potlatch have been replaced by forecaddies, golf carts and golfers who have to stay at the ultra-expensive Rezzort for the privilege of losing golf balls in the water when they try to reach the floating green. And the beat goes on, and the beat goes on...
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I think we're spinning our wheels dept.: Many Americans feel that the war in Iraq is useless, and that we should get outta there. I think that our entire country was misdirected, going to Iraq in the aftermath of "9/11", when Iraq had NOTHING to do with that horrific event. It was Osama Bin Laden's Iran that "9/11" was traced to. Yet we go and tear Iraq apart and topple their government. Meanwhile, 4 and a half years lader, TODAY, Osama Bin Laden is STILL out there threatening us. A new tape surfaced today, with Bin Laden's voice on it, warning us to expect all kinds of mean, nasty, ugly things from he and his Iranian cohorts. So, what HAVE our soldiers been dying for the last 4 years? Am I the only one who sees absolutely no sense in all this? WHY are we still worrying about Bin Laden? He should've been dealt with YEARS ago.

In a related note, the A & E network, beginning Monday, will show a movie that I really wanna see; the movie is about flight 93, the airplane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, on "9/11"; a plane that, reportedly, Iranian hijackers wanted to crash into the White House, until passengers on that plane rose up against their captors, evidently thwarting a disastrous crash into the center of our nation's government.
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He's got a lot of "gall" dept.: This next item is even sillier than someone selling an ages-old grilled cheese sandwich that contains a picture of the Madonna for beaucoups bucks; I read today that a KIDNEY STONE that used to belong to William Shatner, has been sold for $25,000. Ouch! First, the Kidney Stone evidently caused Shatner "pain", then someone else got socked in the wallet ("OOF"!) when the kidney stone was purchased. There's no intelligent life here; "Beam Me Up, Scotty"! The $25K was donated to Habitat for Humanity. My question is, what do you do with a kidney stone? Do you mount it in a ring? Do you encase it in a pendant, worn around the neck? If the kidney stone is big enough, do you use it for a paperweight? Or do ya just throw it away 'cos it totally grosses you out? Enquiring minds wanna know!
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A tasty way to end this post dept.: (doing my best Homer Simpson imitation here) "mmmm....Peanut Butter Cookies" My mom used to make peanut butter cookies quite a lot, and it's a taste that takes me back to my childhood. (Some people say I've NEVER left my childhood!) Anyway, at the Java place, they sell delicious peanut butter cookies. So now, in addition to being in Coffee Nirvana (with that maple sugar, after all), I can top it off with a peanut butter cookie! Notice how all peanut butter cookies have the same "design"? My Mom used it, and so do the folks at the Java place...little ridges that come from a spatula pressed gently into the cookie dough. It appears to be a universal design, found ONLY on peanut butter cookies. When I went to Oregon last year, I stopped at a rest stop east of Ritzville...and there they were, the ladies' auxiliary, and they also sold peanut butter cookies...with that SAME "peanut butter cookie indicator". It must be universal! As you can tell, I never met a peanut butter cookie I didn't like!
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Better slow your Mustang down dept.: I've got the TV on as I'm typing this, and I just now heard over the news that soul singer WILSON PICKETT died today, at the age of 64. He was one of my most favorite '60s singers...I spent ages trying to find the single of his version of "Land of 1000 Dances"...his songs are immortal..."634-5789", "Mustang Sally", and of course, "In The Midnight Hour"...it always saddens me when a musician dies, especially when their music was such a welcome part of my life. How sad.
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I was gonna end this post after that "peanut butter cookie" blurb, and, "pow!", that Wilson Pickett news item presented itself. You just never know what's gonna happen from day to day. I'm thinking, "wow, he was only 64; pretty doggone young!" But, am I saying "64 is young" because I'm 51? In short, he wasn't that much older than me! I do fear the "grim reaper" is out there somewhere!