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Do you use either of those terms?

Pickles

I hadn’t seen them in years, but they bring a smile to my face.

Do you know some old words you still like?

September 20, 2026

Pickles

The story is, little Johnny said to his father,

Let’s play darts. I’ll throw and you’ll clap and say, “Yay, Johnny!”

The great thing about being an adult is we don’t need other people to be our cheering section. I thrive on hearing “Yay, Jean!” So I celebrate all my little successes whether or not anyone else joins me. Yes, it may sound silly, but it works for me. It keeps me focused on what I can do when things don’t go my way. I celebrate any small step I can take instead of complaining about all the problems that keep popping up. Yay, cheering sections!

September 19, 2026

And we may get some more. Here is AccuWeather’s forecast yesterday:

But it probably won’t be enough to help our drought. (Click on image for higher resolution.)

(We are in extreme drought, not exceptional.)

We’ll have to see what happens — they’re predicting a snowy winter because of El Niño. Andy could even get snowed out for a while — I will let you know!

September 18, 2026

9 to 5

September 18, 2026

I’m still smiling.

September 17, 2026

Pearls Before Swine

Andy and I used old-fashioned road Atlases. When we traveled we would get a new Rand McNally one from our insurance company each year.

I sorely missed that a few weeks ago when I was trying to see where a wildfire was in relation to our town. Maps on the internet didn’t have enough resolution for what I needed, so I ordered an atlas from Amazon.

I love looking at maps, and I like the spiral-bound version because it’s easier to hold. I’m just grateful they still make them. Do you use maps much?

September 16, 2026

This poor old world has way too many of them.

Off the Mark

September 15, 2026

AccuWeather is predicting that yesterday’s high of 86°F is the end of our hot weather — presumably for the year.

Fingers crossed!

September 14, 2026

The Other Coast

September 13, 2026

Andy and i were tickled the other day reading the National Weather Service forecast — we were going to have a slight warming trend. No, we weren’t happy about the added warmth, but we loved what the fellow wrote in parentheses:

Come on! It’s September! It’s supposed to be going in the other direction.

It did get up to 88°F yesterday, but maybe now it will go in the “right” direction?

We have air conditioning in the living room, but not in the bedrooms. It was still 77° at 9 o’clock last night, but I’m still sleeping just fine with a fan blowing on me, so no complaints.

September 12, 2026