Friday... My grand-daughter, Ashley, helped me water some of the trees. I've a "nursery" area for a number of oaks and cedars and pine, and have planted some for Ashley and David to get a sense of closeness to the trees - a connection to the land. That pine is David's... and that cedar is Ashley's... and that cedar is Ashley's and Nana's ( Gail ). We've lots of trees on the property, but a few more won't hurt.

When I first started watering, before Ashley toddled over, a sextet of turkeys ran up into our upper pasture, where we keep "Saudi", Gail's Arabian stud, followed by one interested black kitty. The turkeys are old enough to fend off the cat quite easily. The turkeys have been quite prolific this year and have hung around for an unusually long time.

Reminds me... deer hunting season opens for Richard very soon... have to remember to keep the hunting-futility jokes to a minimum. He did "bag" one last year, but generally just gets a lot of exercise. Personally, I dislike deer... they eat our roses and baby plum trees and other flora... and deer meat just does not taste good to me, even as jerky. My father-in-law, Larry, makes a good teriaki-flavored deer jerky every year, it's said, usually from Paul's ( nephew ) hunting efforts.

Chrissy, my daughter has a birthday soon, the 19th... my sister, Debi, has her's the 27th... and Larry and "little" Larry's are this month too. I think I'm missing a few... have to ask Gail.

I have to find out "what's up" with my truck... my nephew, Greg, keeps saying he's going to do this and that... but no truck. Add that to the fact that he quit working for the owner of the truck and 'twould appear I've been pooched... hope not. I've only paid $50 USD so far, but that's a lot of money to Gail and I.

Before Gail and I left for Sacramento today, I smelled an odor ( ha ! - oder went through the spell checker... German for "or"... caught it on the flip-flop ) from our fuse box located here in the "office". I had caught a whiff last night, but attributed it to dust in the monitor or 'puter. As we were late in gettin' out, we took the precaution of shutting all breakers down. When we got home we troubleshooted by turning the breakers on, one by one. Sure 'nuff, when we turned on the hot water heater breaker an audible crackling sound was heard. Didn't see any arcing, so figure that the insulation is melting for some reason. We don't have the money for an electrician right now... so guess we'll leave the hot water breaker off when we're not home and when we don't need hot water when we are home... else get into hot water if the house burns down. The "place" is over 30 years old and repair needs have started to cascade at a furious pace. "It's always something..." - RoseAnn Rosanna Danna.

Latest approximation of when the kids move in... 20th September... unless they change their minds again.

Fried pork chops, mixed veggies, and fried potatoes for dinner. Leftover pork chop for lunch tomarrow... mmmmmm. Cardiac city here I come... knock on wood.

Reminds me we've "lost" three celebrities this past week: Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, and John Ritter.

I liked John Ritter as an actor a lot and didn't know until today from the talk shows that he had two famous parents: Tex Ritter, I believe, was a singer and Hollywood star and his Mom ( pardon my memory ) was a Hollywood starlet nominated for a number of Oscars... I believe "Rear Window" with Jimmy Stewart was one she was nominated for.

As for Johnny Cash... what an American icon ! The oldies radio station played one of his ballads about a traveling singing troupe who would have gone far if they weren't on the wrong side of politics... something like this... "The one on the right, was in the middle ( of politics ); and the one in the middle, was on the left; the one on the left, was on the right; and the one in the rearrrrrrrrrrr, was a Methodist."... and so on... very humorous.