Good day...

As I young child, maybe around 6 years old, I met a man with a warm disposition and the sweetest grandfatherly voice. My mom and I enjoyed him very much and made it a point to get together with him at about the same time every morning. Together we'd listen as he'd share anecdotes and interesting little bits of this and that, usually relating to current events or special people he'd learned about. His sparkling wit was always a high point in our mornings.

Through the years my visits with him became somewhat sporadic but I would check in with him every so often and just like a time machine his voice would take me back to early mornings spent with my mom, each of us watching the time, waiting for him to arrive and then each of us shushing the other so we wouldn't miss the news he was about to share with us. And then, as he was leaving, the three of us, in unison, would wish each other "Good day" ...mom and I giggling at our goofy morning ritual.

Eventually my friend and I lost touch and several years went by before I ran into him again. I had missed his familiar voice and matter of fact chatter so much, I once again made it a part of my routine to hook up with him each morning and occasionally we even got together in the afternoons. It was during those afternoon visits I learned about some fascinating people and events. Some people had risen from bleak beginnings others came from privileged backgrounds -some events were cataclysmic and others more everyday moments but each of them had their own interesting story and in some way were part of our culture and/or history.

I was so sad today to learn that my friend has died. At 90 years old, I think it's safe to assume that he lived a rich life and had many friends all over the world. Although we never actually met, I call him my friend because after hearing his distinctive voice for so many years and all the fond memories I have associated with it, that's just how I think of him. I will miss his familiar greeting of "Hello Americans" and his upbeat delivery of the not so main-stream news and I'll miss our afternoons together with him telling me "the rest of the story". That said, I think most of all, I'll miss his trademark sign-off, wishing me "Good day!"

Goodbye, Paul Harvey.

today's blog post is brought to you by...

the letter B.

B is for BFF. My homegrill Shayna Lou and her stud-muffin Doyle brought their motley crew up to visit us earlier this week. It's always great to see them and I love love love that our kids are BUDS and have no problemo picking up where they left off the last time they got together.

B is also for BEACH. We went to a couple of local beaches while the crew was here and the kids had a blast playing in the freezing-ass surf. I'm pretty sure they each smuggled enough sand home in their pockets (not to mention their nether regions -helleeeew??...chaffing anyone?!) to create their own personal little beaches here at home! Good times. :)

We've had absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather the past few days. I got raccoon eyes from getting BURNT at the beach while I was wearing my big ol' glasses and then yesterday, I managed to flambée myself to a complete friggin' crisp whilst I was finishing up yet another BOOK out on the front patio. *gaaah* I seem to have knack for looking like a complete dork whenever we go out in public and last night was no exception, I was practically glowing neon red when we went out to dinner to celebrate Jack's BIRTHDAY. We celebrated with some of our family who are in town early for our niece's wedding next week. Jack opened all kinds of fun gifts and cards, but the kids and I gave him his big prezzie a couple of weeks ago. We got him a new stainless BBQ -and I think we've used it almost every night since then -it's a real step up from what we had, lemme tell ya!

B is for BIRDS -the kids and I have started keeping a list of the ones we see around here. We saw BROWN Pelicans at the beach the other day so we've added them to the list and then the day before yesterday, we saw some Quail in the backyard -ordinarilly that wouldn't really be that big of a deal except that they had a whole bunch of BABIES with them -they were so stinkin cute running all over the place!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to this awesome little BIRDING shop down in Old Town Eureka and bought some new hummingbird feeders. We've had lots of different kinds but these are by far the best yet because they're so easy to clean. I'm so excited that the hummers have started to visit them pretty regularly. I got a couple of decent pics of a Rufous Hummingbird at the feeder in the BACKYARD but I really wish I could manage to take a pic of the little hummers that I've been catching in my garage window lately. For some reason they come into the garage when the big door is up and they fly to the back window and hover there trying to get out. Eventually, they exhaust themselves enough that all I have to do is go put my hand underneath them and they'll land on my fingers and I can scoop them up. The funny thing, (funny -duh! not funny haha!) is that not only is there a full size roll-up garage door wide open behind them, but there's also a regular door about 3 feet away, that's wide open too! Derrr!

And finally, B is for BLABBERMOUTH... 'nuff said.