Paging Tavi ... Rikki Tikki Tavi, party of 10

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but here are some words from today's newspaper, that paint quite a picture. I'm not going to explain this . . . I'm just going to put it out there and let y'all guess what the story may have been about . . . no fair Googling it. Here it is:

"I guess I need a snake lover; either that or someone with multiple mongooses."

This line is good enough to stand without a separate list of The Good Stuff. Carry On.

Hairy Potter

I'm kind of worried about my new "themed" barber.

Deere Darlyn

A couple of winters ago, I took Darlyn home to visit my people. Nebraska - land of big shoulders, and bigger tractors. My brother-in-law is a farmer in Western Nebraska - Willa Cather country. At some point, as we were all walking slow, burning off a big meal, he took us to the massive barn where he keeps his tractor collection. We're not talking Tonka trucks here folks. We're talking about the real deal -- John Deere green from door to door. Being a guy, it didn't take much for me to fall under the spell of the smell of motor oil and deisel fuel. I felt the rush of potential as Tom spun the big weighted flywheel and the old pre-ignition tractor sputtered to life with its syncopated hiccopy cadence.

The big surprise, for me, was Darlyn. I looked over to make sure she wasn't bored and saw a gleam in her eye. Her eyes danced across the ponderous farm machinery and she clapped her cashmere-gloved hands with the delight of  a child on Christmas morning. She had her eye on one of the more recent additions, a big modern enclosed cab job And I knew that, given the chance, she'd be up in that cab, bouncing on that suspended seat, making vroom-vroom noises and singing the theme from Green Acres in a heartbeat.

I wasn't wrong. Vroom-vroom!

The good stuff:
Living in Florida in January.
Rowing reunions
Building a business
Building a s'more
Fresh produce
Vegetarian pizza
Turning "to do" to "ta da!"
The circus coming to town
Cash Cab

Happiness

Spent the last few days under the weather. Darlin' Darlyn nursed me back to health with hot ramen and tender loving care. One of the highlights of the past few fever-addled days, was sitting side-by-side on the loveseat in my library, playing guitar and singing folk songs - Darlyn's sweet melodic voice floating smooth and soothing over my own, tortured Tom Waits. I like the way this picture highlights the grooves in the well-travelled fretboard of my 1970s-vintage Yamaha G-65 classical guitar. Even the frets themselves look dished and worn from 40 years of therapeutic noodlings. We've traveled a long way together -- from This Land is Your Land and Kum Bi Yah  to Blackbird and Classical Gas, through break ups and make ups and countless campfires. I have newer guitars - sleek electrics with equalizers and built-in tuners. But for good old-fashioned chicken soup comfort, it's hard to beat the sweet, mellow sound of my old friend.

The good stuff:

Darlyn -- just because

chicken ramen

Lemon zinger tea - with Grand Marnier.

humidifiers

hometown heroes

antibiotics

seagulls - miles from shore

the day after the fever breaks

new sidewalks

acorns crunching underfoot.