Nothing more enjoyable than starting the day with a big ol' bowl of cereal! Here Katie Grace is enjoying her bowl as she does every morning. She likes Cheerios. John is on a Wheaties kick right now and I will likely stick to my Frosted Shredded Wheats for a while. Mel's amaranth flour pancakes are a regular feature in the mornings as well.
Ah, a flashback to a better time. A time when I dominated the golf course. 10 years ago Dave and I golfed in San Diego, CA for the championship. After 9 holes he had me by 6 strokes but I turned up the heat on the back nine and picked up 10 strokes en route to a 4-stroke victory. Those were the days...
This week Melinda woke up and while making breakfast she looked out to the west and saw an early morning rainbow in the sky. No clouds or rain in the forecast made this quite the unexpected and pleasant surprise! Must have been some moisture in the atmosphere for it to happen. This has been the most beautiful summer I can ever remember as long as you don't mind not having rain and lots of brown grass. The trees are simply stunning right now; an early fall pallet of colors. The Fall has always been my favorite time of the year.
I really wouldn't want to be the one responsible for cleaning up whatever happened in there!
The other day Katie Grace found a garter snake hiding under the downspout splash guard in the side yard. She lifts it up every day to check on a giant slug that has been living under it for weeks only to be surprised by the snake this time. The next day the snake was gone but the slug was still there (lucky slug). Last year we had a dozen or more baby rat snakes that hatched in our front yard garden. We took them to the woods and let 'em go and gave a few away to co-workers who wanted them for their gardens.
It was 15 years ago today!!! Some of you were there cuz I remember seeing you. What a great ride it's been! Here's to the next 45 years together! What seems like an eternity in some ways only seems like days in others. Through thick and thin; sickness and health. We've been through it all...together. Side-by-side.
The following is a public service announcement. Some folks think we are the evil aggressors in this war on terror. They have forgotten that Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11/01. We didn't attack them; not even after several attacks during the 90s. We were asleep until that beautiful sunny September morning 6 years ago. Then we were awoken. We were attacked. 3,000 innocent people got up for work not realizing that it would be their last day. They didn't know that they would have to choose to either burn to death or jump from the 110th story. The didn't know that they would be ganging up and trying to retake an airplane that was hijacked by terrorists who had already killed several people on the plane with box-cutters. They didn't know that they would rush into a building to put out a fire only to have the building turn on them. 3,000 families haven't forgotten. To them it seems like yesterday. But now the outcry is gone. The condemnation is aimed at us. Imagine had we decided to fly 2 jets into fully occupied Chinese skyscrapers because we didn't approve of their Communistic government. Would the world's outrage be aimed at China? No. It's all about hate. Hatred for America led to the attacks. Hatred towards Conservatives in America cloud the rational thinking of the left. Remember the facts folks and don't let your hatred of opposing political viewpoints pollute your judgement. Especially if you are from the party of "peace" as the left proclaims. Dump the hate.
We have seen the scruffiest-looking cardinal at our bird feeder the past couple of years so we finally got around to snapping a photo of the less-than-photogenic bird the other day. Looks like it's about 100 years old! Seems to eat well. And what's funny is that his female companion bird is also scruffy like him but she hardly ever ventures to our feeder. All the other Cardinals in the area are beautiful and full of vibrant color. Maybe this is the Cardinal patriarch of the family? Who knows.
I just picked up the new Arcadia Press release "The Cincinnati Sound" by Randy McNutt which chronicles the music scene in Cincinnati from 1940-1980. My dad, Bob Jonas, played bass guitar in the early and mid 1960s around the greater Cincinnati area with a few bands. The first, while he was still a teen was The Citations. They performed on a live Channel 9 local talent show around 1960 as well as at many dances around town. This band later evolved into The Vikings, who provided the backing instrumentation on several Casino singles leading up to their big hit "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." By then, the Casinos, a vocal group, had reformed to include instruments. My dad was left out of the mix because one of the singers, Ray White, already knew how to play bass. The Vikings would also be the live band behind the Casinos when they would play around town at several clubs including the Touchez Club, Green Hills, proms, Moonlight Gardens at Coney Island, and even opening for the Beach Boys at the Cincinnati Gardens. They were playing a dance Green Hills when a famous murder mystery unfolded back in 1963. Here's a link to the story: http://www.cincypost.com/2001/nov/24/teen112401.html Dad would tell me stories of running into James Brown at King Recording Studios in Cincinnati as well as Lonnie Mack whom he knew well enough to receive a 'get well' card from when he had back surgery during his band days. My dad passed away last November and with him a plethora of stories of his time in the Cincinnati Sound experience. I hope to be able to pluck some of those stories that he told me that I never got around to writing down before they also pass away.
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