What made you smile today?

sky-writing jets play tic-tac-toe ...

This story on the local news last night..



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-36762715

Bout 6 AM this day, I was awkwnwd by a phone call telling me that weve a "few sheep loose"
I drove down to the pastures off the side road an there were about 40 ewes standing around in the middle of the road urrounded by cars beeping for them to get out of the road. Sheep, are not the kind of animal to run for their lives when threatened. Instead they huddle together so the predator can take a pick of the tenderest cuts. Same thing with cars. The sheep see the cars, the cars beep away, the sheep huddle in fear, peopl keep beeping. Ive alwys wondered qho is the dumber.
An AMishman , on the way to xhurch services at their neighbors house , topped and he yelled that he would push the sheep to me (One of the SUV drivers had locked the gate so the sheep, unless they could operate a gatelatch, were doomed to stand there confused and threatend by big angry SUVs.
I had a bucket of grain nd, when I opened the gate, nd the Amishman quietly drove the sheep toward me, they all qwent inside and enjoyed the little snack of molasses and corn and oats.
The cars drove away loudly and several guys (all recent suburb transplants) gqve me the finger, and the Amishman said, "You folks are always in a hurry eh?"

Apparently one of the hands left the roadside gate open last night when they drove the sheep back from that pasture thats across the way.
I thanked the Amishman, hopped into my little JD and slowly drove back to the lane . I saw two more gates opened and I immediately knew who did the gate opening. It was me. I was hauling brush to a burn pile from a bunch of more remote fieldsand drove through with the dump wagon and failed to reclose
Funny thing is that, back at the main barn, I have a huge sign that I carved and it readsCIERRE LAS GOD-DAMN VERJA(It always been a sign that draws comment from the Spanish guys who say I shoulda called em "Apuertas"

Neverthelless, I made a resolution to be more careful when I end the workday (I just got this dump wagon JD and Ive been driving it around like a kid when I should have been walking from gate to gate and checking to see theyre shut properly.)

I'm getting very forgetful at my age, and I can't even trust myself about remembering simple things. My wife went to church today to volunteer at their annual bazaar, and won't be back until after 4pm, so I drove to the shopping mall to do some walking. I made sure to remember where I parked the car, and walked around for a good 45 minutes in the mall before returning to the car and driving home.
That's the kind of accomplishment I feel are my limits.

I always carry my cell phone with me in the event I get lost. My wife's cell phone number is pasted on the back of mine.

I so seldom use mine that I paste my own cell number on the back.

and the reason for that is what?

I always enjoy watching people who know how, work sheep. I understand the dogs are basically wolves who went to work for the man in return for the same reward: mutton.

Here in Texas not closing gates will get you into a sticky wicket. And cows are on the roads legally in a lot of places. Some fairly traveled roads have cattle guards on them and it pays to be aware of them.

I love my car - a big Freestyle - if only I could find it in a parking lot. Its not very subtle but I can walk right past it. And I really, really love that car.

pa is not a cattle friendly state . We have strict laws that presume the owner of the cattle is at fault, should a car hit a cow or something. It happens occasionally and there are big settllements (Im not certain that there arent people who troll around for cattle on roads to precip a collision.
When properly closed, all our gates have padlocks.

Texas is the opposite. Some gates are padlocked - usually some outsider with a "ranch", but most aren't because there are few roads through or between parcels so the social convention is: you close my gates and I let you through. Works pretty good.

Heard from my ex this morning, interesting news, well, to us. It's been about twenty years since we broke up, but after a time, friendship remains and we talk to catch up on stuff a few times a year. How family/friends/each other are doing, and so on.

Turns out one of our neighbors when we lived in Venice (CA) saw his name on Facebook, and they started talking and he drove up to visit (going there anyway, for a class he was teaching). She remembers me/us, and so does our more immediate neighbor, who is also still there. I in turn remember them - and also a dog named Jock, a Cairn Terrier, wonderful dog. All good people.

He and I are separately dismayed by changes in our rather open old town, Abbot Kinney's canal 'city'. He left before I did, but we both feel it has grown to a place we don't like as much as we used to. Google and other tech firms like Snapchat are there now. Housing is astronomical to us now, when it was not only affordable but somewhat redlined back when we bought, him with his handyman work savings through his school years and me, with my bit of money from my lab work.

First of all, our house was remodeled and is no longer a small california bungalow. I used to think of it as our baby house - it was only about 600 sq. feet, had a great porch.. Now it rises to the sky and is hardly viewable for all the walling in with hedges. He says the whole street and neighborhood is like that now, because there is a routine situation of vandalism and theft from the well-off - which mostly none of us were when we lived there.

Why do I smile? Because the neighbors still remember us. Cool!

I haven't learned my own number, and it seems that if I try to dig it out of the menu I end up disconnecting a call.

My brothers first house was about 600sq ft. When he sold it he got about $600,000 in the eighties for it. It was not anything special, but it had three very important things - location, location, location.

He played the market right between boom, bubble and bust and now lives in Italy between his real estate bucks and his retirement from San Diego school teaching with an advanced degree.

I'd like to have been like him but not necessarily him.

If it wasn't so believable, that one would make me smile...

Me too. But my smile is a knowing smile.

seeing the John Malkavich and friend as we were walking out of a supermarket in Cambridge MA today...

I got a free ticket to the opera on Friday.

My phone rang and I saw it was the boss of our division at work. She asked if I wad interested in a free ticket to the opera Friday night. Hell, yes! Australian Opera, Cosi fan Tutti, at the Opera House.

I had to meet her friend to collect ticket. It turned out her friend was flying in from Darwin, and then discovered flight was late. Finally reached Opera House at 6.50pm for 7.00pm start, and friend was still trying to get taxi from airport. (Sydney airport at that time on Friday is a zoo!)

I'm standing at the coat check counter, trying to check where the friend (that I don't know) was and the coat check lady came up and asked me if I was going to the opera. I said yes, but the friend hadn't arrived with the ticket. By this time it was about 7pm. She walked away and then came back with a ticket and said "Here, take this and run!"

It was a ticket for the circle. I raced up a myriad flights of stairs. Got to the door as they were closing as the overture started. Waited until the end of the overture to take my seat - in the middle of the row.

Absolutely brilliant seat - second row of circle, excellent view!

At interval, finally contacted friend, who said to stay put as her seat was nowhere near as good.

The performance was absolutely stunning. I had looked at going myself, but the tickets were far too expensive for me. Just a brilliant night - at only the cost of parking (in itself hideous! )