We've Had This Dead Tree...

...marring our view for too long now.

It's actually two trees together, and worse than the view is the danger factor; if they came down in a storm they could crash into our pool area.

So we got a quote on having them removed by a reputable outfit that was doing some work in our neighborhood.

These are dedicated arborists, and when you email them, you don't get a 2 or 3 line response.

No, they reply back with a doctoral dissertation on their mission and their heart for the work:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your recent request for an estimate for your tree work needs. We appreciate your interest in our services and are excited to provide you with a quote that meets your needs and budget.

Our team of experienced and highly trained Arborists will be in touch with you soon to discuss your project in more detail and answer any questions you may have.

They will work with you to determine the best course of action for your specific needs and provide you with a detailed estimate.

If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact your estimator, Boris*, directly at xxx-xxx-xxxx or via email at boris@happyarborlovers.com.*

They will be more than happy to assist you with any queries you may have.

At Happy Arbor Lovers*, we take pride in providing exceptional service and quality work.

Our team is dedicated to ensuring that you have a positive and stress-free experience from start to finish.

We value your business and look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

Thank you again for your interest in our services.

We will be in touch soon with your estimate and look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Happy Arbor Lovers*

* not their real name

And good to their (many) word(s), they did send "Boris" out to have a look...young, earnest, professional, affable.

A few days later we got the news: $4,000 to take down the dead trees.

So we decided to call someone Karen had heard about - A Cut Above - and they, too, came out to have a look.

I'm embarrassed to tell you their quote, but let's just say if you subtracted it from the Happy Arbor Lovers quote, you'd have enough to finance a weekend at your favorite B&B on Lake Michigan...

...including dining out, a sunset boat tour, and shopping for souvenirs.

And with what you had left over after all that, you could probably put a pretty good dent in next month's mortgage payment.

Raul came out this week on the hottest day of the summer and took down both dead trees, solo, in about 2.5 hours.

I gave him an extra hundred bucks, just out of guilt.

Here' the view now:

Much nicer, and safer, too.

Thank you, A Cut Above!

Had a happy turn of events this weekend; #1 son and a couple of his sons came over and helped move my 1956 Philco V-handle into our bonus room:

Had to remove the bonus room door, and it's a tight angle there due to the stone turret by the doorway, but many hands made light work and we got it done.

You probably remember the big deal about these refrigerators is their unusual ability to open...

...from either side...a unique feature that's made them the holy grail of kitchen appliances for MCM aficionados.

However, this one does have a defrost problem with the freezer compartment.  It keeps things plenty cold, but the door doesn't seal tightly - you can see there's no gasket around the door - so there's melting and dripping right at the door opening.

Gotta figure a way to solve that with insulation stripping or something.

Got this from History.com in my daily "this day in history" emails:

I've mentioned this previously, how we're living Orwell's 1984 and history is being rewritten to accommodate the current societal sickness.

Don't know about you, but I actually watched the Montreal Olympics on TV 47 years ago, and could have sworn it was Bruce Jenner who won the decathlon that year.

Who knew?

It was really Caitlyn in high heels and lipstick clinching the gold with her triumphant 1500 meters.

God help us.

Time for some Parting Shots...

apparently, there is no escape

got some much needed rain this week

had 5 chances to 1 putt for par this week...

and left 2 of them like this, the others not as close...5 bogeys.

spotted a nestling hopping around, trying to fly

Last weekend in July, folks...we're 2/3rds of the way through summer.

Don't know what's on your "summer fun" list, but I do know the runway is getting shorter by the day.

Time to get after it and make it happen.

later, mcm fans...

Happy Moon Landing Week...

...mankind's greatest accomplishment.   

At least it was when it happened back on July 20th of 1969, achieved with less computing power than you carry in your pocket today.

And it was done by brave men of great skill and strong character...

Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin

...gifted individuals who dedicated their lives to a worthy goal larger than themselves, and who worked tirelessly to accomplish what, just a few short years before, had seemed impossible.

When they succeeded, the world rejoiced with them in amazement and admiration.

Without question or dispute, America was the greatest nation on earth.

Of course, that was more than 50 years ago, long before we'd reached our current state of enlightenment.

Now we realize America is more racist than ever, more xenophobic than ever, more misogynistic than ever.

In our current state of self-loathing, it's unfashionable to honor our past, tainted as it is by our innate and unrepented evil.

No problem...we can focus on our many modern day achievements, ones that rival and surpass those from our shameful past.

Some great accomplishment during the Biden administration, perhaps?

I mean other than remembering which day of the week it is or not falling down in public for no apparent reason.

No rush...have a little think on it; we can wait...

Nothing?

Well, let us know if you come up with anything.

Meanwhile...

...Speaking of Moon Landing week...it was also Chappaquiddick week...

Mary Jo Kopechne, Kennedy's victim

...when then senator Ted Kennedy was given a free pass for the crimes of vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident, failing to report an accident, DUI...you name it.

And like the moon landing, this, too, was followed with great interest by the international press...

...whose admiration for America was no doubt tempered by our kid glove treatment of the (morally bankrupt) rich and powerful.

Watch the movie Chappaquiddick for an accurate and realistic rendering of those shameful events.

The Twins Report from my co-worker:

After a very tough week, the boys are making some progress.

Follow up eye exams showed some improvement, but they have another exam scheduled for next week.

One of them started bottle feeding, but the other is still breathing too fast for that to be practical.

As always, it's a mixed bag of some progress and some setbacks.

Your continued prayers are both needed and appreciated!

Enjoyed a decent round of hickory golf this week, and finished at 1 under par.

Don’t look at me like that; it’s true.

Was actually 2 under after 4, but got in trouble on 5 when I hit into the trees and ended up with a double bogey.

Then I bogeyed 6 with some inept putting, but righted the ship and got up and down for par on 7.

That left me sitting at 1 over, but I finished in a blaze of glory with 2 birdies in a row on 8 and 9.

In the clubhouse at 1 under par!

I know; amazing turnaround compared to my usual weekly outing, hey?

This might be a good time to mention...

...this was on Ryan's Hickory Golf Course in my backyard.

It wasn't supposed to be.

Tried to golf at my usual haunt - signed up for my normal 7 am tee time - but when I arrived I was informed the course was "closed for maintenance", whatever that means.

The young girl behind the counter said I could golf on one of the other 2 courses, but I explained I use hickory clubs from the 1920's...

...and gutta percha golf balls with a max distance of 160 yards.

The blank stare I got in return told me I might as well be speaking in tongues, so I didn't bother trying to elaborate.

But just to be clear, hoping for a good round using hickories and gutty's on the equivalent of a 6,100 yard course is kind of like hoping to douse an inferno with a squirt gun.

Came home and walked 9 on my backyard course, but hopefully I'll be able to tee it up on the real one next week.

Ok, line up by IQ points for a quick Cha Cha...

...through Parting Shots...

daisy's flying solo...

...after she got separated from the pack

Halloween in July?  Even I think it's too early.

the end of another tough day at the home for wayward felines

first Monarch

As always we here at the AMC appreciate your faithful if somewhat mystifying patronage.

And now -

having recharged your intellectual batteries from our unique selection of epistemic essentials, harvested from elite institutions of higher learning where they were organically grown using only the finest guano de toro spewed by the wokest professors this side of the Pecos

- it's time to get up off your keister and get after it.

later, mcm fans...

Beware The Ides...

...of Summer...July 15th...for when this day slips below the horizon, you know what that means, don't you?

That's right...

It's the Zombie Apocalypse!

That dreaded day when...y'know, that horrible day when the...

No...no, hold on a sec...I'm wrong.

It's not that...but I'm pretty sure it is something bad.

If I could just remember what it was...it's right on the tip of my...

Oh yeah!

Summer is half over!

Time to panic!

Hoist the jibbers and luff the leeches!  Clew the trysail and batten the mizzen!

We're sailing directly into belly of the beast!

Well...eventually, anyway.

Was it just coincidence the 1st ever Atomic bomb exploded on July 16th, 1945?

Don't think so!

Half our (meteorological) summer is gone!

Poof!

Vaporized by the inexorable forward march of time!

So, what to do?

Well, contrary to our first instincts, we should not give in to panic and hysteria.

No, it's time to knuckle down and do our level best to squeeze all the good stuff we can out of the 2nd half of summer.

So take a calm, reasoned approach and make a logical, well-thought out plan for how you're going to make the most of the time you have left.

I suppose that's one option...

What are you waiting for?

Chop chop!

In a far more serious vein, the Twins Report is not great news: both boys needed eye surgery this week.

One of them is recovering well, the other, not so much.

In Philippians chapter 2 the Apostle Paul talks about God healing one of his coworkers and a “fellow soldier" in the Gospel.

He said God had mercy on his brother in the Lord, "...and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow."  (Philippians 2:27)

Please pray for God's mercy and healing for this young family, as they are indeed suffering through "sorrow upon sorrow" these last several months.

I mentioned my recent purchase of a 1950's Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera:

Shot 2 rolls of film with it; one black and white, one color.

The b&w was a total loss; while I was loading the roll into the camera, it suddenly "unspooled"...went from a tightly wound roll of film to a loose one in about 2 seconds.

I was sure it was most likely ruined from the light exposure, but went ahead and loaded it into the camera anyway.

Sadly, I was right.

Here's the 1st pic on the roll, which was the worst of the 12:

...and here's the last pic on the roll, which was "the best" (a relative term to be sure) :

Very disappointing.

Had no such mishap while loading the color roll and consequently it turned out much better:

love the bright vibrant colors

our flower fountain, Karen's handiwork (of course)

you thought selfies originated with cell phones?

Loving my new hobby, and have 5 more rolls of color film on the way.

As the folks at the Film Photography Project like to say...

...Shoot Lotsa Film!

Where do you think you're going?

It's time for the HGU! (Hickory Golf Update)

Actually, I might join you in your race to the exit; not much happy news this week.

3 chances to 1 putt for par...

love the cornfields in the distance

...but settled for bogeys on all 3.

Everything else was a double bogey.

Pretty disappointing, right?

Oddly, I feel ok about the round.

I was striking the ball pretty well, consistent from the tees and in the fairways.

The problem was my final approach shot to the green; it was usually "between clubs".

By that I mean it was longer than my niblick, but shorter than my mashie.

With guttys, that means it was between 55 and 75 yards from the green.

Within 50 and I'm either chipping or swinging away with my niblick.

If it's 80 to 100 I'm hitting my mashie.

But 70?  Hm...

Several times I tried hitting a 3/4 speed mashie with little success.  My timing was off and usually hit a fade to the right of the green.

Once I tried cranking my niblick, but pounding a shot for extra distance is always a stupid idea...and this was no exception.

So my hopes of "getting up and down" for par from 75 yards out usually turned into a double bogey.

Yeah, I know...add a mashie niblick to my playset and problem solved.

For now I think I'm going to practice hitting 3/4 speed mashies...it's a swing timing thing...or maybe just a shorter backswing at the same speed?

Something to work on.

Ok, NOW you can race to the exits...unfortunately for you, they're just after the Parting Shots department...

#5 son and his wife were with us over the July 4th holiday.  photo taken with my Kodak Brownie Hawkeye on 620 film.

Mr. White stopped by for a midnight snack of Seafood Sensations

from Larry at his cottage...Bell's should pay him to advertise their product...love the background

recent purchase from Original Grain watches...made of reclaimed wood.  you should check them out

they built "strawhenge" here in Michigan for a Celtic festival

more pics on 620 film using my KBH

tiger lilies by our patio, ibid

our courtyard, ibid

Alright folks, that's a wrap.

We're headed into the 2nd half of summer, so ratchet up your sense of urgency, get out there and seize the day(s).

That sentiment agrees with God's Word:

Ain't it the truth.

later, mcm fans...