Sometimes, Life Happens

Public Service Announcement

On Friday, 25 August 2017 at 7p.m. Inklings Book Store in

Yakima will host a poetry reading of: (drum roll, please!) the

world renown poets Lynn M. Knapp and Thomas A. Hubbard.

These two poets have graciously allowed me to read with them,

so if you're in the Yakima area, Come On Down! (or up or over or whatever).

On Saturday, 26 August 2017, we will be reading at Eternity

Wines in Walla Walla at 2 p.m., and then at 7 p.m. at Adventures

Underground in Richland. All three venues will offer an open mic

at the end of the reading, so grab your favorite poem and come join

us for an evening of fun, possible frivolity, and great poetry!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

You may have noticed that I did not post an episode of Odds n Bods last week. That's because Life happened. It doesn't happen often in my corner of the world, but when it does, hoooo boy, I grab it and hang on! A brief run down is that I decided to get new windows installed. The old ones were no longer holding their seal, nor were they helping to keep the warm out (or in, whichever was appropriate), and they were aluminimumuumum framed. They were scheduled to be installed on Tue & Wed last week. In the meantime, I had to get everything away from the windows, and get all the valences (6) down, blinds (3) down, and I still can't put my head back without falling over. So Thu before the Glass Guys came, a sweet young man (my favorite daughter's favorite significant other) came over and took everything down for me, and helped me move heavy stuff. OK, I could live with the mess for a week or so.

And then a friend called and said he was coming through town and could we get together, so I had unexpected (well, expected, but with date to be determined). Of course, the date was determined to be when the house was an almost total disaster) so I had delightful company for a couple of days. A true gentleman, he ignored the mess.

And then, and then, along came the Glass Guys (go on, admit it. You thought it was gonna be and then along came Jones, didn't ya?*). They had a cancellation, could they come on Mon afternoon instead of Tue morning? They could. They were here a couple of hours and got the new slider installed, and the new living room window. They came back on Tuesday and finished installing the other 4 windows, and I now have new windows, all filled with argon gas that really keeps the summer out (and I'm assuming the winter out, too), vinyl frames, and my house is just about back together. My wallet is in shock, but hey, as Dolly Levi (Hello, Dolly) said, "Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around, encouraging young things to grow."

Then my daughter's very nice SO came back on Thu, with Apprentice (his young son) and they put all the valences and curtain rods back. I decided to not put the blinds back as they were used primarily in a sad attempt to keep the heat out. Since I live on the second floor, I don't need them for privacy, I have curtains for that. ;-) I now have a 10ft vertical blind, an 8ft mini venetian blind, and an 8ft honeycomb blind in my dungeon. If any of you want them, they are free to a good home.

My office is on the west side of the condo. It gets very warm in the summer. No longer. The new windows make a huge difference! Same in the guest/sewing room, which is also on the west side. I can close the windows and let the sun shine and enjoy comfort. Aaaah, life is good ;-)

So there you have it. All the reasons I didn't get Odds n Bods posted last week. And thank you to those who noticed, missed it, and asked about it. It's nice to know I have a fan club. ;-)

*OK, for those of you who have a hankerin' to hear it again perhaps for the first time, here are George Jones & Johnny Paycheck singing "Along Came Jones." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB1yudBBQkQ