ANOTHER STICKER?

I have read a variation of this in a fan fic. I spotted a sticker a couple of years ago. It showed a dragon using a knights' lance for a toothpick and various pieces of armor scattered around. I think the caption ran something like this.

Don't argue with a dragon for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Has anyone out there seen anything remotely like this? :-)

BUMPER STICKER

Saw this bumper sticker on a camper on the way home tonight.

Frodo has failed.
Bush has the Ring!

It was good for a chuckle.

THIS IS WESTERN OREGON?

Shower-A fall of rain of short duration. The definition doesn't say how short or how hard.

Usually, when we get "showers" in my end of the Willamette Valley, they're fairly mild. You get wet but you aren't in any danger of drowning if you look up at the sky with your mouth open. I wish I could have gotten a shot of the rain when it was falling 'cause what we got yesterday was the danger of drowning kind of shower. I don't think the shower in the bathroom puts water out that fast. We actually had about three inches of water on the sidewalk and it was floating bark chips off the path.

I don't think the white climber is going to look like itself until the second set of buds come on because the weather has basically trashed the first set. Poor thing is looking pretty bedraggled. I don't think anything can upset the lavendar or the heather.

I get a kick out of the cats. We watch movies like Band of Brothers so it's not like they haven't heard boom booms before. First crack of thunder and you can see the wheels turning. "No music, no talking, crap this is the real deal. If you want me I'll be under the bed! (How to make a fast exit while still looking cool)"

We actually got hit twice. We'd taken a drive out to one of the local farm stands and got there just before the first band of storms went through. Drove the u-pick strawberry lovers right out of the field. This weather is not doing our local berries any favors. We got to watch quite a lighting show. Well, quite a show for this part of the country.

Lisa, where ever you're selling pastry this weekend I hope it's semi dry. :-)

THE VERDICT IS IN

Two prequals down, one to go. Brian Herbert and Terry Anderson are good, but they aren't Frank Herbert. We're talking magic with a small m, not all caps with exclamation points. On to current events.

The medical examiner's report is out on Terry Schiavo. Gasp, gee it seems that doctor's who examined her had it pretty right all along. She was severely brain damaged, almost certainly blind and probably wouldn't have survived on feeding or drinking by mouth. There was no evidence of abuse or foul play.

It would be nice to see as much coverage and hype over the autopsy results as there was over her death. It would be comforting if some of the folks who implied that her husband was an abusive monster would apoligize as publically as they accused. It would be really nice if the rest of us would make a resolution to tune out carnival type coverage of such events in the future. I'd love to see the politicians announce that "you know, this really is a family matter and we don't have any business interfereing." I would hope that her parents would finally be able to let go and treasure the image of their loving, laughing daughter before this tragedy started. It would be a miracle if churchmen who have never been in this situation and never will would decide to stay out of the limelight and ere on the side of compasiion. Perhaps, just perhaps, the still small voice of the spirit speaks to the family before it speaks to the bishops.And perhaps the bishops have grown deaf to that soft voice.

I'm not holding my breath, I'm not going to bet the farm and I expect to find pigs in the tree tops before any of this happens.

COMING UP FOR AIR

It's been nice this weekend. Still haven't had a totally rain free weekend since March, but it wasn't enough to do more than get the street damp and make the air smell wonderful.

Made some interesting discoveries this weekend. If you're going to clean up some bloomed out rhodies, allow enough time to finish the job. A half deadheaded rhododendron looks really weird.

If you have really short hair like I do, make sure to put sunscreen on your ears as well as your face. I know, there's a really good reason why God invented hats. but I wear glasses (can't even see a foot past the end of my nose, the whole world looks like an Impressionist painting) and hats drive me crazy. They keep bumping into my glasses.

Put all projects involving yarn in a closed container. Especially anything that has wool in it. Lucky's been hunting again. Her current "catch" is two balls of yarn, one batch of counted granny squares and several loose ones. I spent the morning outside and mom was at church and the mighty huntress was in full pout mode. The good old "I can entertain myself very well, thank you. Good luck finding your goodies. They're under the bed."

Fresh local strawberries have nothing in common with the the ones they bring in from out of state. (I already knew this, just got a chance to be reminded) I know, the imports are perfectly shaped, perfectly colored, yadda yadda yadda. But, they can give cardboard a run for its money. The locals come in all sorts of crazy shapes and sizes, but they taste wonderful. They don't last very long, so we get 'em while they're hot.

The first blueberries are coming on too. I'm willing to share with the birds. sort of. Back to strawberries. We've got plants here and there. Once upon a time they were in a rea, planned bed. The ones in the bed are gone but the runners migrated. They actually make a good groundcover and they replace themselves. Three or four years ago I watched a squirrel work his way through the early berries. He finally picked one nibbled it and tossed the rest. I got curious and went exploring, He'd very carefully nibbled most of the red part off a half ripe berry and tossed the rest. Cheeky little fur ball. :-)

Well, I'm suddenly losing the ability to spell and I'm about to yawn myself into oblivian. After several years of getting up about six-thirty to get ready for work, the bed insistts on giving me the boot at about the same time on the weekends, too. Go figure. I guess I'd better check out this entry while I can still spell.

I MAY GO MIA

I may go sort of MIA for a little while. I got some goodies in the mail yesterday. The three novels that set up the world of Frank Herbert's Dune. If I know me, I'll barely come up for air for the next week or so while I devour them for the first time. That's me, skiim for the good stuff because I can't stand not knowing and these guys have enough plot threads to make the Gordian Knot look simple. Then I go back and fit it all together. It wouldn't be so bad if it was Friday, I could stay up until after midnight just reading my little heart out. These three are actually the prequals to the three prequals that precede the six novels that are now called the Dune Chronicles. And the story line in those covers ten thousand years.

For anyone who has visited Frank Herbert's incredibly complex worlds this is the beginning. Herbert created a universe where humans function as computers, of political planning that spans millenia,  genetic manipulations that make your hair stand on end, a planet where open water is unknown and giant worms swim the sands like great whales.He also had some political insights that it wouldn't hurt our politicians to consider.  

I read Dune for the first time when I was a freshman at the Uof O. It's a hell of a ride and my tickets are bought..  :-)

CATCHING UP

I haven't been posting as much lately. It isn't that I'm not interested, just-I guess distracted would probably be the best description. Two months of dealing with dental appointments and getting used to the results with contribute to that I guess. Then there was a couple of weeks where my knees were giving me fits. It's hard to be creative when you can spend about ten minutes at a time at the computer before the joints announce "you will move, this is not open to discussion."

Had a great time at Lisa's last weekend. I still haven't met the two newbies she call's the Assassins-AKA Alvin and Theo. They'd had their perspective on life "altered" and were pouting upstairs. The drive north was great. I just realized no matter which way you go-getting to Scapoose involves very curvy roads. You can take off from I5 and brave the Terwilliger curves. Or take the Sunset Highway and cut over through Cornelius. Only real difference is that it's two lanes of curves and nobody tries to go 70 while they're on it.

There's a stretch of I5 they've been working on FOREVER I may at retirement age before they're done. The bypasses aren't so bad during the day, but driving it at night is weird. You just keep hoping everybody else sticks to the program.

We had about twice as much rain as normal for May and June isn't looking any better. The lavender and the ground covers are ok so far, but the roses, rhodies and peonies are trashed. I thought I had retired the turtlenecks and sweatshirts for the duration. I like the rain but once you start psyching yourself up for sunshine......Could be worse. We get very few tornadoes, really bad thunderstorms or hurricanes in this part of the world. Gray days are a small price to pay. :-)

I saw in the paper this morning that the Iraquis are making plans to start trying Saddam for events that happend in 1982. They are doing this over our objections. I can understand why the US would object. In '82 while we knew he was an SOB, he was our SOB-at least part of the time.

Everybody have a good week.