Yesterday was a lot of fun, sad, and brutal. Contradictory terms, I know, but it’s all true. Fun because, well, I was able to attain a vertical position, again, we were able to stay up until eleventy-thirty for a farewell visit with Ashlee and Mike, and the Walters clan joined the fray in to regain custody of their vehicle which they loaned Ashlee and Mike for the duration of their apartment hunting visit. Sad because we were saying goodbye to the newest members of our extended family. Brutal because we stayed up until eleventy-thirty then had to get up Oh-Dark-Thirty (2:00 am) for the trip to the airport.

OK – that’s all done now. Diane and I dropped Ashlee & Mike at the United sign, got goodbye  hugs, then returned home around 4:00 am. We were in bed by 4:01 and both of us slept like logs. Well, one of us did. I was up at  7 to feed the dogs, who were confused with all the commotion, then went back down until 11:30. Diane remained prone until 12:30. She always has to outdo me on things like that. I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure she knows when the dogs wake up but pretends to sleep so I’ll get up and feed them. Her fitbit backs her up so I can’t really challenge her about that. Besides, it’s the least I can do, get up to feed the dogs, when she feeds me so well. I really don’t mind. Honest.

The really good news about the A&M visit is that A found an apartment to rent and will be returning soon to take up residence and begin her doctoral studies at Pacific University. Here are a couple of pics taken to commemorate the visit – Mike & Ashlee are the young ones, in case you didn’t know.

This is of all the ‘kids’ who were left standing at the end of the night from tallest to smallest.

Since we got up late enough to have breakfast for lunch, and it’s pouring buckets of rain, I’ve been given the day off. Can’t mow, can’t pull weeds, can’t trim “stuff”, can’t weed whack, and it’s too humid to mow anything so I’ll just fiddle around. So, I read the news.

With all the news about Muhammad Ai passing, a sad loss I confess, but there is a lot more happening out there in the world. And other places.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft, for instance. The JUpiter Near polar Orbiter was launched on August 5th, 2011 and is scheduled to enter orbit around Jupiter on July 4th, a mere 24 days away. That’s quite a hike. I can’t help but wonder what the citizens of Jupiter will think when they see our JUNO buzzing around their planet. Will they be happy? Will they feel threatened? Will they retaliate? Guess we’re going to find out.

Then there’s the knucklehead, and his knucklehead sister, who wandered off a designated path and fell into a very hot acidic pool in Yellowstone National Park. I wonder what their drug of choice was that caused them to think it was a good idea. There was no further news about the sister, and her brother’s death is purely speculation because there was no body left to recover. He’s probably headed for Arizona where he will hide out while his sister waits the required seven years to cash in on the 2 million dollar life insurance policy she took out on her brother just a few days before the plunge. That’s a guess, of course. It might be 3 million.

That’s enough news. I’m going to quit, now, and maybe draw something. Diane bought me a $60 set of water-color pencils (for $4 at Goodwill) and I have a new drawing pad, so should give it a shot and see what happens. Could be interesting. Never done anything like that before. I’ll let you know how it goes.