58 Comments
User's avatar
R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

We need rain! I can’t believe how long we’ve gone without any precipitation. I think the only thing that has somewhat saved us is all the rain we got this spring and part of the summer. It’s been over a month now, and nothing. At least the corn and soybeans seem to have made it. I need to talk to some farmers to ask if this has ever happened before that they recall. I sure don’t.

CynthiaW's avatar

It's been quite a while since we had rain. I guess when the fringes of Helene went through, so like 3-1/2 weeks ago?

Kurt's avatar

Yeah, that was our last hit. I'm in approximately the same zone as Anne.

Phil H's avatar

They had some good tunes. "Greenfields" is particularly haunting.

R.A. Watman (Anne)'s avatar

Madison, Wisconsin, has a lovely zoo that is free to the public. And, they have a sloth! It’s also interesting to me that the mammals that move very slowly seem to have unusually long lifespans, while things that are hyper active have very short ones. Anyway, this was a good one, Cynthia. Thank you!

CynthiaW's avatar

Here's a red panda making a good choice for the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gLjOEoP770

Dsfelty's avatar

Thanks, Love these animals! "The Sloth" by The Brothers Four will be going through my head the rest of the day!

CynthiaW's avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T_pqXUd9N4

It's fantastic that this exists. My parents had a Brothers Four record when I was young, but this song wasn't on it.

Dsfelty's avatar

"Try to Remember" album, as I recall. Played it to death as a young guy.

Phil H's avatar

They pronounce "sloth" like "loaf" or "quoth", not like "goth" as I opined earlier. But then, they are affecting an Aussie accent.

Kurt's avatar

TSAF, Sloth Edition.... Love this.

Jay Janney's avatar

Ya know, if Joe Biden was actually in a tree all those Delaware weekends, I might think he's a sloth! Oh wait, do sloths like ice cream?

I am tired, but it was a good weekend. Katie hosted her Halloween gathering. 15 in attendance. We got out Halloween decor, including two orange pumpkin signs her Mom made many years ago. Snyder the Spider is on the roof, but he has a small leak I need to repair. His pincers hang down in front of the front door. Many costumes arrived by mail Friday and Saturday. My youngest went as Michael Jackson, including the glove. No blackface in case he ever decides to run for politics someday (Katie says there is a medicine for that). Katie happily finished my costume for me. I bought a white apron and chef's hat. She sewed a grey panel on it that read

Fe

Iron

Yes, I went as an Iron Chef. And Friday afternoon my orange tshirt arrived. The eyes are cut in the shape of the pi symbol. I wore it backwards, so I had two costumes: Iron Chef and Pumpkin Pi. I'm surprised Marvel hasn't create an evil villain named Pumpkin Pi. 🧐

We had plenty of food. Katie created a "chili bar", with two chili: chorizo chili and hearty bean & meat chili. We had baked potatoes, hot dogs, nachos, my t-shirt; really anything you put chili sauce on! 🤦‍♂️Okay, that last one is not intentional, but still, it's another reason the dogs love me.

I built a fire in the fire pit. Katie rolled her eyes 🙄 because she sent me to wal-mart for marshmallows, and I bought a bag of baseball sized marshmallows. The bag called them "roaster sized", Katie called them "Texas sized", some of the kids present called them nuclear sized. Did I mention they were big? But everyone enjoyed a s'more! The kids played cornhole until Katie shooed them to the driveway for pickleball (I had blow dried the driveway that morning, while also mulching leaves in the yard). I told my youngest we should hit a marshmallow into the woods. He grabbed his hybrid 3 wood (I bought it at goodwill), and we whacked half a dozen into the woods. He really liked it. Katie saw us do that, and 🙄.

Both of my sons worked through a rotation on pickleball with me. I heard Katie tell someone I hit too many drop shots or angled shots when she and I play. 🥺 I'll work on it. My problem is the shot that feels most comfortable to hit has a lot of top spin and drops quickly. But most every played until it was dark, when we wrapped up for the night.

Yesterday, I put some small twigs in the fire pit, and within 2 minutes they were smoking. During the day I raked a dozen piles of small sticks into the fire pit, plus logs too long for our wood burning insert. I'll let it die out today, but I did get a lot of fallen debris off the ground yesterday. This weekend I'll do it again.

Dean Rovang's avatar

Does Katie ever bar the door?

Jay Janney's avatar

Only when she's confident the others doors are locked and I am outside! 🤦‍♂️

Because she is practically a saint, she mostly rolls her eyes at my mistakes. 🙄

Phil H's avatar

"In a tree"? If that was supposed to be a pun, that's a misfire.

Jay Janney's avatar

wasn't meant as a pun, just sayin' as much vacation time as the Big Guy takes, some Republicans argue he is guilty of the sin of Sloth!

But I looked, his nails are not 2-3 inches long!

CynthiaW's avatar

It sounds as though you all had a lovely time.

Jay Janney's avatar

It was a good family gathering, a playful one. It was about the joy of being together, doing silly stuff.

BikerChick's avatar

Cute-ish. I’m slow today. Took me awhile to figure out the title and I thought you referred to them as “cats” but you were just making a comparison. They seem much larger than cat-sized.

CynthiaW's avatar

They are longer than cats, but light for their size. Not a lot of bone or muscle mass.

Phil H's avatar

Good morning. Temps on the 40s rising to the 70s. The mothership is covering a report just out on the failures of the Secret Service particularly given the attempts on Donald Trump’s life.

CynthiaW's avatar

Same weathers here. It's cooler here this morning than in Hurricane, Utah.

Time to get the youths up.

The original Optimum.net's avatar

Oddly, the same weather here, though up on the mountain it will only get to the high 60s.

IncognitoG's avatar

Light rooftop frost under a clear-blue thingy. Supposed to be low 70s this afternoon.

IncognitoG's avatar

> Females emit a loud cry to attract males, who sometimes fight for access to a receptive female. <

The resemblance to my high school’s football and cheerleading programs is unmistakable.

Phil H's avatar

I don’t remember any females emitting a loud cry to attract me when I was in high school.

M. Trosino's avatar

A few females in my high school emitted loud cries as they ran in the opposite direction from me as fast as they could, usually after I'd asked them for a date.

Phil H's avatar

I know that feeling.

CynthiaW's avatar

They didn't wave and yell, "Hey, Phil!" in the hallway?

Phil H's avatar

<sigh> No.

CynthiaW's avatar

Here in the animal kingdom, there are a lot of very standard behaviors.

Wilhelm's avatar

In the vegetable kingdom, too!

The mold slime fiefdom? Not so much, I'm a-guessing.

CynthiaW's avatar

Vegetable mating practices are usually subdued.

Phil H's avatar

Often mediated by the wind or by insects.

CynthiaW's avatar

Also mammals, water, and gravity.

Phil H's avatar

Mammals? Bats maybe, in a few cases.

Wilhelm's avatar

Not particularly verbal

CynthiaW's avatar

Slime molds may have more cognition than complex plants.

DougAz's avatar

Some underground molds are subslime

Phil H's avatar

I for one welcome our slime mold overlords.

Wilhelm's avatar

And more than some of our political class.

IncognitoG's avatar

Morning!

Funny how no one ever mentions the Ten-fingered gluttony or the Two-faced envy. Coincidence?

Phil H's avatar

My understanding is that sloth, the name of the creature, and sloth, the sin of laziness, are pronounced differently. Sloth the animal has a soft ‘o’ (rhymes with “goth’). Sloth the sin has a long ‘o' (sorta rhymes with ‘loaf’).

M. Trosino's avatar

🚪

I've long wanted to do that.

Phil H's avatar

That's not a pun!

Amateur.

M. Trosino's avatar

Of course I'm an amateur! I haven't had the months / years / decades? of practice that some folks have. But close enough to the real thing, even though it actually only rated something on the level of a misfire.

I figured I might not get to take a shot again for perhaps months / years / decades and decided to make the most of it, since now that the King of Doors has been fired on his Secret Service protection will probably have their act a lot more together for at least a while.

Phil H's avatar

You "fired" on me with a pop gun.

M. Trosino's avatar

What else am I supposed to *pop off* with?

CynthiaW's avatar

Ten-fingered gluttony is like teenbros.