It’s official. Today the days get longer and nights shorter as we progress through the calendar on our way to summer. It’s important to note that the Vernal aspect of this equinox relates only to the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere it’s called the Autumnal Equinox.

The March 21 date can mark the March equinox, when day and night are nearly equal as the Sun crosses the celestial equator from south to north.

An interesting event happened on this day in 1963 when Alcatraz was closed. That may, or may not, be meaningful to you depending on your individual beliefs regarding capital punishment. I’m not sure what that meant for the inmates who were there when it was closed but I think they were just transported to the San Francisco side of the bay and released into the wild. I could be wrong, of course, because I’m often wrong. I just didn’t see any follow up regarding what happened to the inmates so I made it up about them being released. I’m sure someone reported on what happened to them but I’m not inclined to look that up right now. Maybe later.

No, okay, I looked. At the time it was closed there were only 27 inmates living there. With that few, I think they should have just turned them loose but they were, instead, transported to other Federal facilities in America. If you want more information than that, please look it up and share with the masses.

The bush in the picture below lives on the corner of our lot. I took a photo of it because I wanted to know what it was and it magically showed up where you see it. Since I couldn’t delete it only fitting that I explain it a little.

The app I have dubbed it to be a Swamp Azalea. It’s been in this location for many, many years and there’s not a swamp within 6 miles of it so I don’t know how it got here. Diane’s Mom and Dad must of captured it during one of their historic Sunday rides after church.

Soon it will be covered with those pink blossom. It’s quite magnificent.

My friend, Scott, lives down around the corner and spends a great deal of his time working on his Daughter’s PT Cruiser. Hi Daughter is Izzy. She works at Walmart. I pass Scott pretty much every day walking Max around the block. Normally he’s laying under it to replace one thing or another. I could actually tell you everything he’s done to this car but it would take too long. I’ll just leave this intro at Scott is the neighborhood PT Cruiser Pro Mechanic. If i still had a PT Cruiser, I’d break something on it intentionally just so I could have him work on it. I don’t know his phone number so I can’t give it to you. All you have to do is take a drive around Shore Drive and look for a PT Cruiser with a pair of legs sticking out from under it. That would be Scott.

There’s no smooth ending for this so I’m just going to stop.

Today is Sunday, my day off. Surprisingly, Jeff caused injury to himself that required a trip to the hospital. He did this yesterday afternoon, but thought it would be okay if he waited until this morning. For me, that was a good choice because i didn’t have to spend Saturday night in the emergency room. Instead, I’m spending Sunday afternoon in the emergency room.

In case you’re wondering, he jumped off his couch yesterday evening, after pulling the drapes for the night, and decided to jump to the floor and landing on his knees and elbows. Apparently, his right knee didn’t hold up like the other three and swelled up magnificently.

I took him to to the Good Sam emergency room after an entertaining discussion about which hospital we should visit first. There are many choices. Since I was driving, I had the deciding vote and chose Good Sam.

They took him back for an X-ray where he learned that his right knee bones don’t have any cushion between the separate pieces. Surprisingly, that’s not normal. They’ve probably been that way for years but didn’t make themselves noticeable because he’s never fallen on them previously like he did yesterday. Now we know.

After his X-ray they returned him to the waiting room and let him think about this problem for about 5 minutes before they took him out again for an unknown reason. I suspect it’s to see a bone doctor who wants to tell him he needs surgery to put it all back together again. I’m guessing he’ll have an immobile right knee for 8 weeks before he can drive his car again. That means I’m going to have to find a way to get his vehicle to the emergency room parking area so he’ll have a place to stay during this time. Either that, or I’ll have to take him to all his appointments which will number in the dozens. The obvious solution is for me to transport him as needed.

After a few hours, and 3 MRI’s they determined that he had a bad sprain, put a new super brace on his leg, and sent him home. Now it’s up to his doctor in Scappoose to make the arrangements for him to get the surgery he needs to fix the bones on bone defect.

We were both hungry but decided to go home and eat there. We had a lively conversation on the way home. We reminisced about things we shared while he was growing up. We both found it interesting to discover we remembered old events the same.

After dropping Jeff off at his dwelling, I went home down the hill where a little dog was waiting for a trip around the block. He’s such a good little guy. He was home with Lydia and she walked in around the yard, but he needed that trip around the block. I let him lead and allowed him to sniff everything that got his attention for as long as he wished. It took a while for this trip, but he was happy and that’s what pleased me. He earned it.

After the walk I went shopping. I got too much for the small box I chose for my goods and dropped pieces of it all the way to the car. I nice young man followed me and picked them up as we went and helped me get it all in the car. It’s good to know there are still good people in the world.

Now it’s time to go to bed. I’ve been spending the last hour watching a Chinese serial TV show. It has subtitles so while watching the action you have to read what everyone is saying. It’s very difficult for me to do that so I just watch and make up my own dialogue and play it in my head. Kinda weird, I know. With that admission, I must quit before I start revealing all my secrets.

Good night.

To start, yes, Jasper celebrated his 6th birthday yesterday. His mother, Jennifer, adopted the chosen Big Foot theme for the celebration which made Jasper very happy.

I was told that the Bigfoot in this photo was an attendee’s husband but it kinda makes small children wonder, don’t you think.

It was a small party of children, but Jennifer told me there were about 40 people in attendance so it was successful to the extreme. Point of interest, the little girl to Jasper’s left, whose name I cannot divulge, because I don’t know it, is purportedly his girl friend. I believe it’s a mutual attraction.

Walking Max around the block reveals many treasures every day and this is one of my favorite. Max and I have monitored the advancement of daffodils that litter the edges of this yard and proudly announce that Spring is coming. I don’t know if the owners of this yard read this blog, and that’s OK. If they do, then they can rejoice in the joy they give to an old man, and a little dog, as they visit them every day.

I’m happy to see the days getting longer. It’s been dark too long. Cold, too. It was 37 this morning when I got up so Max and I will bundle up before making our rounds.

Rain is a good thing unless you’re out walking in it without your raincoat. Then it gets messy. I’m just talking here, not from experience anyway. I always have my raincoat on if there’s just a remote chance it will rain. Max couldn’t care less. He’ll go outside no matter what the weatherman tells him.

Lydia has a vegetable garden growing on the dining room table. It’s only on the table when the sun isn’t shining.

When the sun comes out she makes me take it to the yard. That’s a lie, of course. She doesn’t make me do stuff I don’t want to do. Taking the farm outside is exercise, and as everyone knows I love to exercise.

That’s another lie. The day isn’t starting out very good here. Maybe I should back up a minute and compose myself before I wind up in deep kimchee.

Here’s the farm inside. Once everything is planted outside, there will be a jigsaw puzzle there.

Here’s the farm outside.

It’d evident that she’s got things growing nicely. Now all she needs it a spot to put them when they crawl out of those little trays. It’s amazing how quickly they grow. Not everything is poking out of the soil, yet, but it won’t be long. Today is her last day off so I expect there will be a flurry of activity to get them in the ground.

One of Jeff’s friends has a mess of railroad ties so he’s bringing some over a few at a time so the wild acre by the shed can be beamed and excavated. That’s the perfect area for the flower garden Lydia wants and which Grandma Diane will love. Diane wanted to put a deck of some sort out there but we never got to it. Lydia has plans to make a sitting area surrounded by flowers where one can sit and listen to Milton Creek sailing by on its way to the Columbia River. That will be nice and Diane will love it.