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This kid will punch you in the face, steal your hoppity hop, and then drink chocolate milk with her preschool pals!  And if you try to make a joke about her hair, you might wake up with peanut butter on your pillow case!  I’m talking about Dan and Jessica’s little girl, Ava.  She’s actually a shy and quiet little kid until you get on her bad side, like the person who took this photo.

He barely eats, he throws up a little, and then he acts like everything is fine.  The only thing that literally shakes him up is when he goes to the vet because he doesn’t know if I’m going to leave him there or not.  I’m talking about our cat, Max.  He had a couple of teeth pulled in August and he hasn’t really been eating right since.  We’ve tried a few things and a couple of visits to the vet… now I think it’s in God’s hands… and Max’s paws.  I pray that I can accept what will happen in the event of his demise, and keep giving this stubborn little cat my love and care.  The pic above is his usual spot between my right leg and the arm of the recliner.

I wasn’t actually in front of a TV screen when video killed the radio star, but you can bet I watched MTV every chance I got during the 1980′s– and I watched it at Hoovie’s house!  We only got the three major networks at my house, but Hoovie had cable, and that meant he had MTV, God bless him!  I can still remember thinking “it will always be this way, watching music videos, eating junk food, drinking soda…” I had no idea how fleeting those days would be.  Now when I get a hankering for videos by the Motels, Huey Lewis, the Kinks, or ABC, all running together and hosted by the original VJ’s, I just pop in a flash drive full of 80′s goodness that I downloaded from archive.org and go back in time to Hoovie’s living room.

One minute it was 1:00 in the afternoon, and the next minute it was noon.  Tuesday we drove west to Paxton, NE and crossed over into Mountain Time.  There were no mountains, but I did have a sense of deja vu.  I had been here before, but this time I was going with the deliberate intention of traveling back in time, even if it was just for one hour.  We parked our time machine next to an old depot that is now an antique shop.  Turns out it was a stopping point for George Wyman, the first man to ride a motorcycle across the country in 1903.  According to the locals he stopped in Paxton to wait out a storm that lasted 3 hours.  Later he spent the night in Maxwell.

It was a little chilly and windy, but it was worth it.  Wednesday we climbed up 5 flights to the top of a lookout tower in the Halsey National Forest.  It was part of our week long visit to Jenny’s western Nebraska roots.  From that height we could see eye to eye with one turkey buzzard who briefly glided within spitting distance.  He was either taking in the sights or looking for his lunch.

Unless I was on my deathbed, the answer was obvious.  Christy invited me to go geocaching with her family and I accepted.  It was a new experience for Ben (pictured above on the left) and Katelyn to go looking through bushes, under rocks, and along fences for treasure– and we found three out of four!  It was one of the last cool mid-50′s nights before the temps started rising, and it was glorious.  So glad I still have some bloodhound in my veins to go sniffing around for hidden containers full of foreign coins, rubber balls, and other trinkets!

I should have drawn these cartoons at the same time with each hand, but I guess hindsight is 20/20.  Recently at work I was getting tired of using my right hand to work my mouse, so I moved it over to the other side of the keyboard.  I’m a little slower with my left hand, but I can still click a mouse.  Then I wondered, “I wonder how wobbly a cartoon would look if I drew it with my left hand?” I’m right handed.  So I drew one with my right hand, and then I drew one with my left.  The one on the left looks like it was drawn by a stroke victim.

Eve is on the left.  You can tell it’s her because she’s holding the apple… and she has wider hips than Adam.  This is another photo from our trip to Lucas, KS.  This pic is from the Garden of Eden where S.P. Dinsmoor sculpted figures from his imagination and the bible, collected badgers, owls, and other wildlife in his backyard, and built a mausoleum for his mummified corpse– which you can still see for $9 (the cost of admission).

He sleeps, he snores, he stretches, he yawns… he’s Max, my cat.  I was taking a nap the other day when Max decided to get on Jenny’s side of the bed and take one too.  I couldn’t believe my luck when he yawned as I was taking this pic.

When I saw the piano covered in foil, and circuit boards fanned out like a deck of cards, I knew the room had potential.  The babies’ heads on bamboo sticks were a nice touch, but it was the foil and circuit boards that turned my head inside the Deeble House a few weeks ago.  We drove 4 hours west to Lucas, KS, to explore “The Grassroots Capital of Kansas” with Steve and Diane recently.  We saw sights like the Deeble House, The Garden of Eden, and the coolest public bathroom I’ve ever used.  Lucas is also the home to The World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things.  That collection has scaled down replicas of the Eiffel Tower, Cadillac Ranch, Carhenge, and many other items.  Anyway back to the foil covered piano in the Deeble House– I told the tour guide that I have the technology to hook wires up to the foil and actually play the house the same way I play vegetables on Beep Goes the Weasel.  She showed interest and we exchanged contact information, and who knows?  Four people on four walls might be playing Smoke On The Water in western Kansas someday!