Cop Car's Beat

Hunky Husband found me out!

From: Family Circus website

Progress in woods cleanup

Every few years, our creek decides to favor us with lots of water. Well...I guess it's the rain clouds that actually donate the water; but, the creek gathers it up for channeling to the Arkansas River that flows about two miles from our house. Last year, we were blessed with at least three or four floods - which left us with lots of flotsam. Most of the flotsam comprised logs from our new neighbor's yard, where he had cut down multitudinous trees, accumulating large quantities of logs and tree trunks. I've posted flood photos a few times; but, I also posted photos  of what we had left after I started the cleanup, October 04, 2016: Progress in the yard & woods. By December, this (photo, below) is what the edge of the woods looked like.

In February or March, the neighbor came and retrieved many of his logs and tree trunks; but, we still had a large amount of debris in the woods - which - by mid-April was well hidden by the undergrowth in the woods. In addition, as they do each year, the trees at the border between grassland and woods sent out branches to find available sunlight. By the time I could get the tree/cleanup people in to work, last Tuesday, the "before" photo would have looked much as shown in the photo from last October. (Clicking to enlarge the photo will hopefully show the debris under the trees.)

Below is a photo showing the "after" following expenditure of 21 person-hours by the tree-trimming/cleanup crew.

We were well-pleased with the work. They were unable to finish the entire job*; but, that was expected. This fall, when leaves are off of the trees and the undergrowth has died back, we plan to have them out again to finish the cleanup and to take out a couple of mature elm trees and a few ashes.

* They ran out of room in the truck they used to accumulate/haul off the chips from the smaller limbs/debris that they ran through the chipper, and completely filled the flat-bed trailer in which they hauled off logs.

For nostalgia's sake

One of my favorite musical pairings was Julie Andrews and Mama Cass. I cannot embed the video; but, here's a link: Mama Cass & Julie Andrews.

My first microscope

Hunky Husband gave me my first microscope for my birthday. The only microscopes that I had used, before, were electron microscopes. Having an optical microscope is a new experience!

Of course, the first thing I did was to drop the un-wrapped container of specimens covers (the silvery package to the right of the blue-on-red stack) while carrying everything downstairs to do set up down there. Though I took pains in cleaning up, and though I constantly walk up and down those stairs in my bare feet, I still find small pieces aglitter on the bottom three steps of the basement stairs. I've replaced the package of covers.

April's the month!

Within my own family, April has always been a month that is fraught with birthdays. Daughter Bogie, my late Uncle Edwin, Wonderful GrandDaughter, my late Grandmother Hall, and I all celebrate(d) birthdays in April. Then, in 1988, Hunky Husband and I cemented our second marriage in April. That last item has caused a forever problem: HH and I, let alone anyone else, can never figure out whether we should be celebrating our anniversaries in April or in January, in which month our first marriage took place in 1958. Heck! HH and I are doing well to remember to celebrate either one; but, we sometimes celebrate both. Why not?

This morning, I ran across one of the anniversary cards for this year, that I found rather clever; although, it does allude to HH's and my being somewhat strange. Who us? Well...maybe he is strange, but certainly not moi!