Good morning everyone!  It has been beautiful these days.  And those mornings, wow!  Going out on the deck with my cup of COFFEE and listening to all those different birds singing their beautiful chorus of songs.  What a great way to start the day.  If you have never done that then you are missing something you should not be missing so stop missing what you are missing and get out there with your cup of COFFEE so you don’t miss anymore of what you are missing which you don’t want to keep missing even if you don’t think you are missing anything when in reality you are missing what you are missing whenever you are missing what you are missing so don’t miss out anymore.  Sigh.  What do you mean you don’t drink COFFEE?  What else is there to drink in the morning?  Nothing else, and I mean nothing else is as good as COFFEE in the morning.  Now here is something for you to think about.  COFFEE is good for you.  Do you agree that vegetables are good for you?  Well, COFFEE is a vegetable.  After all, COFFEE is made from COFFEE beans.  Beans are vegetables.  Therefore, COFFEE is a vegetable.  Therefore, COFFEE is good for you.  How is that for logic?  And everyone knows that my logic is logically logical.  Sigh.  Just think about it.  I always like a good reason for drinking COFFEE.  Even if the reason isn’t reasonable, it’s still a reasonable reason.  I think.  I actually did today for a while.  It was kind of boring.  Sigh.  It gets rather hot in here on these warm sunny days.  In the low 90s.  And there isn’t much wind these days which makes it feel even hotter in here.  I do like warm weather, but hot weather affects me now.  But poor Muffin.  She is definitely not a hot weather cat.  She likes it better on the cool side.  So she is having a tough time these days.  She either lays down in front of one of the windows to catch any stray breeze that might come along, or she lays down under the ceiling fan.  But it can get worse in this little apartment.  Like hitting 100F or more.  Has happened.  Then I use several fans.  No, not air conditioning.  That’s too hard on my joints.  Sigh.  Maybe I am getting old.  Can’t be.  But it is less than a month to the big day.  My birthday.  Not looking forward to this one.  Sigh.  Might just start banging my head. Like this fellow.  Speaking of heat.  Poor dad.  When he yelled after pouring the COFFEE on his leg, it made me jump.  And I dropped the thermos.  BUT…I caught it!  Unfortunately it was upside down.  And the COFFEE poured out.  On dad.  Things always happened to dad.  Good thing I was always there to help him.  Anyway, with the extra COFFEE on dad I was expecting a bigger yell.  But he was quite quiet.  Though he did start doing his happy dance again.  Though oddly he didn’t look too happy.  Then he finally yelled, ‘BONEHEAD!’  That’s better.  Now I know he is enjoying himself still.  Though I must admit it seemed a bit strange that he would be enjoying this particular moment.  Oh well.  We never did find out what caused that loud cracking sound.  Guess dad’s yell scared whatever it was and it ran off.  A yell that loud would probably have scared away every animal within a mile’s radius of where we were. My apologies to those of you who don’t understand proper ways of measuring things.  I do not like that archaic method of metric or celsius.  Also, by the time dad settled down it had clouded over.  Very dark clouds.  With a few drops of rain.  We better head back, I suggested.  Dad agreed.  Especially since we no longer had any COFFEE.  We had barely gotten started on our little hike back to the car when those few raindrops became a downpour.  With thunder and lightning.  Might get wet, I said.  Bonehead!  That was all dad said.  Amazing.  Hard to believe he could be enjoying this.  Oh well.  Everyone is different.  Personally I would rather stay dry.  Speaking of clouds and thunder.  That is what is happening right now.  Poor Muffin.  She does not like thunderstorms either.  And I might have to close the windows.  Terrible thought.  Makes it hard to breathe.  Good thing I have those fans.  I hope you all enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

Good morning to everyone on this holiday Monday and it is an absolutely gorgeous day out there with the sun shimmering off the newly sprouting emerald leaves and just a light breeze barely enough to ripple those leaves except the odd time and the birds singing such a beautiful chorus as I stand on my deck with COFFEE in hand enjoying this fabulous scene and then a loon flies past calling away in that laughing tone of his and Sir George peaking over the edge of the roof giving his little gluck gluck calls before jumping down to the feeder to get his breakfast and I am still amazed that this huge bird will actually come to the feeder at all since herring gulls are not exactly your typical feeder type birds but Sir George who is the largest of the group started it all and now there are four of them including his mate Lady Pearl and two friends Henry and Herman and yes although they are identical in looks I can still tell them apart as they all have different characteristics and Sir George is definitely the bravest of the bunch and it is just such a beautiful day who wants to be inside but nonetheless inside I am though I have spent a good deal of time outdoors today and Muffin sat at the door sniffing that warm spring air with all the various scents that only she could possibly pick out though she enjoys it even more at night and last night I was able to leave my window open all night which is the first time for me this year though I have left it open for part of the night a couple of times and Muffin certainly does enjoy that and she spends nearly the entire night at the window and I am sure she sees a lot going on out there now that the snow has gone and the warm weather is here to basically stay for the summer.  Whew.  Hard to say all that without taking a breath.  Good thing I didn’t.  Took a bag of frozen vegetables out for supper, opened it, and promptly dropped it on the floor.  And of course it landed open side down.  There was frozen veggies all over the kitchen floor.  And in Muffin’s food dish.  She wasn’t too happy about that.  Frozen veggies are not high on her list of favorite foods.  Though she didn’t mind playing with them.  Scattering them further across the floor.  Sigh.  Not a good start to my supper.  The sun is shining.  The day has warmed up so nicely.  Dad and I were finally back on higher ground and ready to stop for lunch.  We found a nice spot with some large flat rocks which made good chairs and even one for a table.  I set all the sandwiches and COFFEE on our ‘table’.  Dad told me to sit down while he got his COFFEE.  I offered to do it.  I think that ‘no’ could be heard a mile away.  Dad sat down with his food.  I got mine.  Amazingly there were no problems this time.  Dad always manages to spill his COFFEE or do something.  AAAAAA!!!!!, said dad.  There’s no sugar in this COFFEE, he said.  You told me not to put sugar in it because last time I made it too sweet, said I.  Did you bring some sugar?, he asked.  No, I thought you would do that, I said.  BONEHEAD, said dad.  That probably traveled a mile too.  COFFEE without sugar is terrible, he said.  Mine is okay, I said.  You probably put sugar in yours, he said. Naturally, who wants COFFEE without sugar, I added.  I think that was the loudest sigh I ever heard too.  Where is my doughnuts?, asked dad.  In your backpack, I said.  What?!, I have been putting insulators in there, he said.  You could have told me they were in my backpack, he added.  I figured you would see them, said I.  Dad was pulling all the insulators out of his backpack as fast as he could.  Like that would help now.  They are completely flattened, he remarked.  They’ll still taste the same, I said, as I started to eat mine.  You could share, said dad.  But you already have three, said I.  They taste worse than the sugarless COFFEE, he said, as he tossed them aside for the birds.  How about some of your COFFEE?, asked dad.  Okay, I said, and brought it over to pour in his cup. I have an idea, said I, lets mix the two and we will both have sweet COFFEE.  Might actually work, said dad.  Pour your thermos into mine, I said.  Which he did.  Then I will pour it back into yours, I said.  Dad held his thermos.  It was going good.  Until ‘CRACK’. Dad and I both jumped.  Then dad yelled.  You moved your thermos, I said.  So I ended up pouring his share of the COFFEE on his leg.  Hmm, time to stop I see, will finish next time, really.  Enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.