I HAD BETTER NOT BE SNEAKING OUT ON MY BEST PAL AGAIN!!

It was 10:45 Wednesday night when I quietly slipped out the door.  Pheebs was sound asleep on the couch and I didn't want to disturb her.  Minutes later I was a couple miles east of home setting up a lawn chair on a country road where we do our morning walks and dark night star gazing.  How disappointed I was when I stepped out of the Jeep, looked to the southern horizon, and couldn't even see the constellation Scorpios.  What!! How is that possible in a clear night sky at this time of year?  Sagittarius was missing as well and as I began glancing around the sky I noticed a lot of other familiar night sky stars and constellations missing as well.  Clouds?? Nope!!  Then it dawned on me.....it was the smoky haze from all those western forest fires.  And that haze seemed to amplify the horizon's light pollution as well.  The clearest night sky was directly overhead where the smoky haze was thinnest.  Well, not allowing myself to be too discouraged I set my reclining lawn chair up on the road, tipped back, and with my 10x50 binoculars had at a look at the Planet Saturn.  No detail of course, just a bright point of light in the sky.  One aircraft flew over and I didn't see any satellites.  Only staying about 20 minutes I soon packed things up and headed for home.  I tried to slip into the house quietly but I got busted.  Pheebs was right at the door waiting for me with her tail wagging furiously.  She later made it quite clear I had better not be sneaking out on her again.....or else!!!!

 CAN YOU IMAGINE JUST HOW NICE THIS NEW MOWN HAY SMELLED THIS MORNING

 THIS FARMER EVEN MOWS THE DITCH GRASS ALONGSIDE HIS CORNFIELD

CORN COBS ARE GETTING BIGGER

 A GROUP OF STRAW BALES TUCKED IN ALONG THE FOREST'S EDGE

 A SMALL ROADSIDE SPILL OF WHEAT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO IS REGROWING ITSELF

Not a cloud in the sky again this morning and luckily the heat and humidity didn't begin to roll in until this afternoon.  It was yet another leisurely stroll and drive in the countryside for Pheebs and I.  It is always the best hour or two of my entire day......everyday.  

GROANER'S CORNER:((A Few Questionable Quotes By A Few Famous People:  

- "A modest little person, with much to be modest about."
Winston Churchill
- "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
Clarence Darrow
- "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
- "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
- "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."
Moses Hadas
- "He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know."
Abraham Lincoln
- "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
Groucho Marx
- "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."
Mark Twain
- "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."
Oscar Wilde
- "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one."
George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
- "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."
Winston Churchill, in response
- "I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here."
Stephen Bishop
- "He is a self-made man and worships his creator."
John Bright
- "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."
Irvin S. Cobb
- "He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others."
Samuel Johnson
- "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."
Paul Keating
- "He had delusions of adequacy."
Walter Kerr
- "There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
Jack E. Leonard
- "He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."
Robert Redford
"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge."
Thomas Brackett Reed
- "He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them."
James Reston (about Richard Nixon)
- "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."
Charles, Count Talleyrand
- "He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."
Forrest Tucker
- "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"
Mark Twain
- "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."
Mae West
- "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
Oscar Wilde
- "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination."
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
- "He has Van Gogh's ear for music."
Billy Wilder

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