Just Something I Have Been Fiddling With A Little

 

Wilco Robotronics Inc.

            I’m a creature of the wheat fields of eastern Washington, spawned among the farmers and small shop owners of Watertown in the back of nowhere. I’d never been anywhere west of the Cascade Range in all of my life. The Rockies are a different matter.
            I went to college in Spokane. Not Gonzaga. EWU. Did that.
            Then I came home to Watertown. My name is Marchant Joneson, Mars to my friends, and I wanted out! Watertown doesn’t have a lot of useful occupation for single college graduates in physics and mechanics.
            I looked around online, and I found something that felt like a good fit. It was just about as far west as you can get in Washington, minus the peninsula. Wilco Robotronics Inc. in a little city on Puget Sound. I negotiated with them, back and forth and finally they said I should come on over and we’d talk some more in person. Mr. H.R. guy, Bob Davis, said not to show up looking like an LDS missionary. “It’s not that kind of a place,” he said. “Wear normal clothes.”
            Maybe he thought that I might because of where I came from.
            I left my suit in my old bedroom at home, kissed Mama goodbye, listened to several helpful lectures from the Old Man, packed up what I called mine into my old Accord and started driving westward. Visions of robots danced in my head. I mean, they literally danced!
            Wilco makes household robots. But not generic dopy looking robots. The idea is to not scare and maybe to entertain the children. Household help in the forms of cute animals, various well-known cartoon characters, like that. You could get Sponge Bob, or a bunny, or a motherly tabby. They prided themselves on avoiding the Uncanny Valley of the Japanese models. Wilco made cute robots.
            There were others. They made Batman, and various celebrities too.
            Now, a customer with enough money, but who was squeamish about AI, could order one which was merely online. They could control its basic functions with a smart phone, or they could talk to it. They could assign a new name to it; there were lots of other options, like hair color, language spoken, and all that jazz.
            For the enthusiast, with more money, there were AI creatures. I had seen them in video. To see a nimble and apparently self-aware figure of say, Hello Kitty, moving around doing home making chores, while chatting with the owner and performing the functions of a rational computer was, frankly, a little, or a lot, scary. But I was intrigued.
            Wilco even made a Sasquatch model. Not kidding. Not as big as the real deal, but darn good looking in an uber-hairy kind of way.
            I don’t know if you’ve guessed by now that I’m an AI guy. Love it or hate it, it’s the coming thing.
            Davis wanted somebody to make sure that the AI models were docile.
            It’s a big responsibility. You don’t want a Wilco Robotronics Spong Bob running amok!
            Monday morning, having driven all across Washington state, I arrived around 8AM and parked on Wetmore Ave., right a across the street from Wilco headquarters. Colorful but dumb versions of several of their models adorned a walkway across Wetmore. Various others appeared in the windows along the street. The building had been a department store before the various malls were built, hence the big windows.
            I got out of the Honda, stretched, and yawned. I thought I better walk around a little in this strange, to me, little city and wake up, smell Port Gardner Bay, so to speak, before going into the building and finding Davis.
            Oh, you wonder how Wilco got around copyright? They made the heads big, but recognizable. Let Marvel, or whoever scream!

🤖

March 2, 1836. Texas Independence Day!

             Today is an important date in American history!
            On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico and became the Republic of Texas!
            

            First flag of the Republic of Texas.

            

            Washington on the Brazos, the birthplace of Texas. Replica of Independence Hall, where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. 

            The inscription reads: "Here a Nation was born."

        

Texas, our Texas! All hail the mighty State!

Texas, our Texas! So wonderful so great!

Boldest and grandest, Withstanding ev'ry test;

O Empire wide and glorious, You stand supremely blest.

⭐

GOD Bless Texas!

In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb

 2026 Marches On

This appears to be a very mild lion.

May your month of March also be pleasant and agreeable!

It will be interesting to see the lamb when he appears.

Happy Suzday to all!

💛

Crash Retrieval Site, Milltown, WA

 

            Nobody saw a flash of light in the sky as far as I know. There were no strange unearthly noises. Little short humanish manikins didn’t run amok over the misty landscape of barely spring. Outside of this house, as far as I know, things have been rumbling along perfectly normally.
            Inside the house is a different matter.
            There have been crashes. There was a planter, one of those long ones on a window ledge on the inside back porch. It went down, baby! It went down hard. That was the first crash retrieval.
            Two little souls ran from the site, spurred on by the sheer glory of their accomplishment.
            Papers have been shoved off of tables. A pizza box was nosed open by Booker. You can’t really blame him.
            Anything that dangles has been climbed, including garments, while being worn. Many needle sharp toenails made short work of it, human flesh be darned. I didn’t really need that leg.
            Then there was the matter of the small pot of tulips placed strategically on the top of dad’s old piano. Mr. Baby was a natural suspect as he likes to hang out on the piano. But, no one actually saw him shove the tulips off. It’s a little hard to feature those two shorties getting up there, but I’m not absolutely sure they didn’t.
            We have a lot to look forward to. They’re just going to get bigger and sleeker, and brighter and wider, and altogether better!

🐈🐈

February 27, 2026. Open Thread

 🤍Introducing Methyl Ethyl Ketone.🤍

"Ethyl"

            She was a good old girl. 

            Ethyl came to us as a second choice. I had brought a gray female cat home from the local very fancy animal shelter. That kitty went under a piece of furniture and stayed there for three days. She did not want to be here. So, I scooped her up and took her back to the shelter. While I was there I met Ethyl, who wanted to come with me in the worst way.

            Whoever had her before had her declawed. You know, declawed cats are kind of crazy. She did not disappoint.

            Even without claws, she hunted. I saw her dispatch a mouse once. She had a way of pouncing them until they were done for.

            The photo was made by my Navigator. She took many many photos of all of the cats!

            She was a bonified nut, but we loved her.

😻

Found and Lost, and a Little Blue

 

 
            Ralph doesn’t really get the blues. But he did miss the big Amigo hat. It had come to him in such a magical way, and had been dismissed a little reluctantly. He knew it just wouldn't do for the lord of the Great Forest to be swanning around in a big old cowboy hat, no matter how much fun it was. He sighed.
            Ramona saw him gazing into the fire, then looking up to the sky, as if he was not in his usual glad place. She knew that his spirit of fun was a little crushed.
            “You did the right thing, Baby,” she said.
            “I know. Thank Birdie for her sharp eye,” said Ralph. “She didn’t even have to say anything.”
            “It’s probably a good thing. In some strange way, It worked,” said Ramona. “You looked good! I wouldn’t have been able to say, ‘get rid of it.’ Why don’t you take a walk? You always find something to be happy about when you move around the forest!”
            “I’ll do that!” said Himself.
            And he did! He gathered himself up and strolled up to the Gifting Stump meadow to take another fond look at how well the alder trees were gathering together. There was new growth everywhere and soon he would coax blackberry vines to climb the Alder Tree House to add to its richness.
            He walked inside, glancing approvingly at the nice flat black slate floor. He was so pleased with all that he saw that he forgot about the big cream colored Amigo hat
            Then he wandered on up to Uncle Bob’s place and sat with him and Suzy by their fire. Having a second breakfast didn’t bother him at all! That accomplished, Ralph decided to visit the river on up the other way.
            The early spring sunshine warmed his head. It felt good just to be out and about walking in his forest.
            To get to the rive he had to go through the Home Clearing. While there he kissed Ramona and Cherry. The cats were lounging around the fire, so Ralph asked them if they would like to come with him, that he was going up to the river.
            “You don’t need to catch fish today, Baby,” said Ramona. “I’m already working on something else!” She winked at him over Cherry’s head. “Feeling better?”
            “Mhm!” he said.
            The river ran like an endless silver being. “Run forever, Silver River,” murmured Ralph softly when he saw it there. Some things are really beyond expression, but sometimes he tried anyhow. He took a seat on his favorite boulder. The cats crouched on either side of him and watched the river run too.
            Finally, Bob, looking closely at the familiar rocks and pebbles, said, “Forest Lord, I have never seen that one before. The round one. What do you think it is?”
            Ralph stood up, seeing the strange round rock for  himself. Then he waded out into the edge of the moving water. He picked it up. It was a perfectly spherical ball of granite with little shining specks in its surface. It was about the size of a basketball. He looked around some more. Hidden under the surface of the water he found two more, just about the same as the first one. Dark and wet, sparkly in little spots, and mysterious they were.
            He held them in a row upon his crossed arms.
            “Brothers,” Ralph said, “Let’s take these home and show Ramona.”
            As he and the cats walked back up the riverbank and into the forest he thought that maybe he could hear a harmonic ringing sound, but couldn’t determine its direction. It wasn’t very loud.
            “I hear something,” said Bob.
            “So do I,” said Ralph.
            Back at home he showed Ramona and Cherry the strange granite balls, saying, “Look what the Silver River gave me today, Mona!”
            “A mystery for sure,” said she. “I wonder what they are, besides round rocks?”
            Ralph laid one at each third position around the fire circle. He noticed that the light harmonic ringing became inaudible when he did that. It gave him an idea.
            He moved them together so that they were touching each other in a row. The ringing came back and was louder. “So,” he realized, somehow the ringing tone was coming from the round stones.
            Then he moved one away from the other two, and the tone changed. It became deeper. So, he put it back into position and moved the other one away. The tone changed again, becoming so high that their ears almost couldn’t catch it.
            “Let me try something,” said Ramona.
            She placed them in a triangle position, but touching each other as they lay on the forest floor. “Hm,” she said. The harmonic tone was more complicated. Three sounds at once and louder than any other arrangement. “Well, then,” said Ramona.
            So then, she kept them in the triangle position but further apart. We would say that each was about four feet from its fellows.
            All at once the Home Clearing was full of a multitude of voices, shouting a song in impossibly glorious tones. The song filled the forest clear up to the meadows, over to the stone cabin of Ooog and Thaga, and even up to the Silver River. Every soul heard it.
            “I’m not sure I can bear it,” cried Ramona! She rolled the rocks together again, where they hummed harmoniously.
            “Put them back, Mama!” said Cherry, “I want to hear it again!”
            Ralph, the pumas and the wolf watched open mouthed.
            “It is the voice of Heaven, Mona! Put them back!” said Ralph.
            So, she did. Once more the forest was filled with the Heavenly Praise song. They couldn’t distinguish the words, but it didn’t matter.
            “That’s enough,” said Ralph after a long while. Then he picked up one of the stones and laid it beside the door of the cave. He picked up a second one and placed it by the fire circle. At last, he took the third stone inside the cave for safe keeping. The singing ring died down to a subliminal whisper.
            “That is a real miracle,” he said to his family and their familiar beasts.
            “When Twigg and Leely and the young one get home, we must let them hear it,” Ralph said.
            “Of course,” agreed Ramona. “It won’t be long now, will it?”
            “Not long,” said Ralph and he wasn’t thinking of his absent Amigo hat at all. His mind was full of the song of the Singing Stones only.
            The family ate their evening meal of potato, onion, and mushroom soup in awe and reverent silence.

🤍

"I Could Have Told You That!"

 

🧡🧡

            Suzy doesn’t spend as much time as she did B.T. (before them) hanging out at my desk debating with me. She’s usually in seclusion somewhere avoiding Them.
            Ah, but here she is. They must be asleep again.
            “Look. I’m an old lady cat,” she said. “I’ve been around a little bit.”
            “In a sense, that’s true,” I said. “You’ve been around for a little while. In this house, Suzy.”
            “I’ve had enough time to observe a few things, while being stuck in the house here,” she said from her perch on the arm of my chair.
            “You know it’s because we love you and don’t want you to get eaten by that raccoon out there. Right?” I said. “You’re in protective custody.”
            “Yeah, I know. But do you really think I couldn’t beat a raccoon?” she wondered.
            “No. I’m pretty sure the raccoon would beat you!” said I.
            “Well, be that as it may, you messed up today with that little beast, Sweetie. If you has asked me, as a Cautious™ Cat, I could have told you how to go about it. Especially since these are not normal cats, P!” sighed Suzy.
            “Well, what would you suggest, oh wise and Cautious™ old lady cat?” I said.
            “Toots and I have two possible suggestions. Both involve letting the wild little beast get used to the concept of water on his own time.”
            “Well, what?” I urged.
            “Numero Uno, you could just leave a trickle of water running in either sink and let them discover it, and that it’s not dangerous. You know how we feel about dangerous, right?
The other thing you could do is leave a shallow pan, like a rectangular plastic box of some kind with some warm water in it in the bottom of the shower. They already like to romp in there. They’d probably start playing in the water,” said Suzy.
            “Hm. Sounds easy, but the transition to me bathing them could still be tricky,” I said.
            “You have to understand, P, that you are dealing here with the whole Wild Kingdom, Cat Style, concentrated down into that tiny body. You need to ease up on them! Good grief. You don’t just walk up to the sink and turn on the water like he’s a dog or something! *shudder*
I could have told you!” she said.
            “But you didn’t!” I protested.
            “You didn’t ask,” she said, with a bit of gotcha in her tone.
            “I didn’t even intend to give him a bath. I just wanted to know that I could, in case he got fleas or something. Besides, it was the smallest stream the faucet would make.”
            “Doesn’t matter. You shocked him,” she said.
            “OK. OK. Tell Toots that I’ll try it your way. We’ll see what happens then!” I said.
            “Just check with me next time you get any great ideas. Harrumph,” she said.
            “Alright. I’ll check with you first,” I called to her retreating tail. I suppose she was going back into seclusion, since I could hear rustling and mewing somewhere nearby.

🐾🐈🐾

"It's OK, Amigo!"

 

            Maybe if they could have been watching like a sort of Matriarchal Greek Chorus, Ralph’s mom, Wren, and her sisters, Poppy and Robin might have shaken their heads in motherly dismay. But what could they say or do as he usually came out on top, and he  had that virtual silver star in his forehead.
            Aunt Poppy might have counseled her sisters to watch and wait. She might have said, ‘You never know.’ I’m pretty sure that Wren could have said, ‘That’s for sure with that one. He is my first, and the one with all the wild notions.’
            ‘We know, Wren,’ Poppy and Robin could have said with indulgent smiles at their sister. Mothers are not above humble/bragging.
            Oh, you wonder what has these Motherly Souls taking some alarm? We’ll get there, but first some ground needs to be laid…
            Now, Ralph had enlisted Uncle Bob’s help in laying the slate floor in the Alder Tree House. It took them one whole day until nearly dark. First they had set up a kind of barrier, using pieces of slate all around inside of the circle of trunks. Then they spread the sand out and they walked it nice and even. Then, since Uncle Bob had kind of an artist’s eye for how things should go, he made the final decisions about how the slate pieces should fit together. When they were done it was a nice even slate floor. They walked around on it some more to make sure everything was packed in nice and tight. They were very pleased with their work, and rightly so. Ralph and Uncle Bob hoped that Leely would like it, that Twigg would approve.
            Looking upward, they could see that every day the branches were growing closer and tighter together. Very pleased, they wandered on back to the fire circle, where Ramona and Aunt Suzy had been making dinner for them.
            While Ooog thought up plans for finishing the house, Ralph and Uncle Bob had a few days off from the project. Ralph is a man of action, mostly, so with nothing to be done on the project, he was sort of at loose ends.
            Sometime previously to all of this, a western style hat company had opened in Milltown. Not only did the Amigo Hat Company sell hats, they also made them in an obscure metal building out by Payne Field, where many other things are also manufactured, quite near to the biggest building the world and all of that, if you go by footprints.
            As a lark, and a bit of advertising, Amigo made an extra super large cream colored “cowboy” hat. To build up a little interest in their hat company, Arnold, the boss, decided to call Millicent Price at the paper and offer the super duper sized hat to this mythical character she was always writing about in columns for the paper.
            OK. This is where things get a little far-fetched. Millicent told Arnold to bring his big hat on over to her office at the paper and she would make it, and Amigo Hat Company famous. So, Arold brought the very large hat to Millicent in person and she was suitably impressed. But her big window was also open because she was expecting Maeve to drop in that morning. Then she had to leave the room to talk to her own boss.
            Well, the wind was blowing pretty hard that morning and was feeling mischievous. The wind popped into Millicent’s window and nipped the hat off of her desk and blew it right out of her open window.
            It landed in the back of a Dodge pickup which was driven by a man who lived in Darrington and was heading home from some business in Milltown. The wind followed along, still feeling a frolic coming on. The wind is an agent of change, as we know.
            At just the right spot between Milltown and downtown Darrington, the wind whipped that big old hat so pristine and fine right out the back of the Dodge pickup, with the driver being totally unaware. It landed right smack on the edge of the Great Forest proper, caught about twelve feet up in the branches of a magnificent Douglas Fir.
            In the serendipitous fashion of Fairytales everywhere, Ralph found the hat! To say that he was pleased is to miss the point entirely. Ralph saw it there in the branches of the big tree and brought it down for inspection. He noted its size and its fine construction. He admired it greatly. He put it on his own big head. The stars aligned, it fit. Suddenly, Ralph was filled with that manly elation a man feels when he is wearing a great hat.
            He had just settled it on his head, correctly as it happened, and had turned to go show Ramona at home, when a kid of 8years, Toby, who had an iPhone, saw him from the backseat window of his mother’s SUV as she drove down the highway. Toby snapped one photo of Ralph just as he merged back into the forest. Toby showed his mother the photo when they got home. Mom was so excited about the photo that she in turn sent it to Millicent at the paper, since she was always writing about this Ralph character. But mom was cagey enough not to say where the photo was taken, and you can bet Millicent wouldn’t have either though she obviously knew.
            Honestly, Ralph looked just great in the hat. Can’t you just see him? 9feet tall, sable brown hair, clean and shiny, with the white streaks in either side of his beard, twinkly brown eyes full of amusement, all topped by the wonderful cream colored cowboy hat, which by some miracle fit him exactly. It was so perfect.
            Cherry saw him coming home from a long way off since she was up in the air a bit.
            “Mama, look,” Cherry said, pointing at Ralph as he approached.
            “Look, Mona! I found the hat,” Ralph called out happily.
            Ramona forgot what she had been doing and just watched him walk. She had to admit that there was something strangely glamorous in the whole effect.
            “Oh, Baby, it’s perfect,” said star struck Ramona.
            He didn’t wear the hat every day. But he did visit Ooog and Thaga to show it off.
            He wore it early one morning to show Rick and Dexter at the Ranger Station. It had a similar effect on all of these human people. They had to admit that he looked great in it, but were also sort of dumbstruck.
            After a couple of days Maeve spoke.
            “Boss,” said Maeve, trying to find the right words, but not finding them for once.
            “Oh, I know, Birdy,” said Ralph. “I can’t really keep it. But it was sure fun for a while.”
            “Do you want me to do something with it, Boss?” said Maeve.
            “Why don’t you take it to Milly! I bet she could write something about it!” said Ralph.
            “Seems like a good idea,” said Maeve. So the very next morning, a nice dry day with cloud cover, Maeve picked up the big hat by the back of its brim and took off, looking very strange up in the air. If anyone saw her, they probably thought they were tripping, and just let it go. Hopefully.
            Maeve flew the hat back into Millicent’s office window, but Millicent was out of the room. So after waiting around for five minutes, Maeve flew off again without talking to her.
            When Millicent got back to her desk and saw the hat, she just sat and looked at it for a while. It looked slightly worn. There was a sort of pinched area at the back of the brim, and it smelled like it had been in a forest.
            Then she went through her business emails and found the photo shot by Toby with his iPhone. It all started to make some kind of sense, but she could only guess about how it happened.
            Milly wrote up a heck of a story, illustrated with a large photo of the big hat and a smaller photo of Ralph’s backside disappearing into the forest. It was a great hit with both believers and amused skeptics, who wondered how she had faked the photo.
            So, back at the Matriarchal Greek Chorus, Wren, Ralph's doting mother might have said, “See, Poppy, see Robin! I knew my boy would be just fine! He always is!” And the other two would have to agree. Ralph always comes out just fine in the end.

🍀

Wild Things!

             I’m a believer now. I watched several videos about pet Bengal cats and all they said was true. These are the wildest, fastest, loudest small kittens I have ever lived with, and they’re just tiny yet!

            I don’t think they are even all Bengal either. Even a half-breed Bengal cat is a wild thing.

            But, in addition to that they are utterly sweet and I believe that local hillbilly I bought them from, and his family socialized them very nicely. Thank you, William and family!

            So, I promise not to write about Booker and Sweetie every day for the rest of time, but I must say that I have fallen completely in love with the little infant predators.

            My beloved Granddaughter, who made the connection for me, tells me that the guy does in fact breed real Bengals. So, maybe they are Bengals! Time will tell!

🤎

Ha Ha, Suzy!

 

It's very hard to get Suzy to sit for photo!

🧡

            As you know, Suzy took a rather ambivalent attitude towards Booker and Sweetie. She did not run to them with licks, purrs, or open arms, so to speak, when they first came into her world. If anything, she wasn’t sure what they were, apparently.
            So, anyhow, I was supposed to be asleep yesterday, but I wasn’t. I was silently watching because there had been some noise in the area. And what I saw was Suzy playing with one of the kittens. I’m not sure which one because he was behind the door. He kept sticking his paw out from under the door or around its out edge. I saw Suzy swatting at it in a playful, friendly manner.
            Later, when she strolled by my desk, I said, “You don’t fool me, Suzy. I saw you!”
            “Hm?” she said. “Saw me what?”
            “You were playing with one of the kittens!” I said. “Behind the door!”
            “Oh, was that a kitten?” she said, evasively.
            “The only thing around here with furry paws, beside you or Mr. Baby is a kitten!” I crowed.
            “Oh, p’shaw. Pfft! I thought it was a snake,” said Suzy, continuing her stroll.
            “That’s really nice, Suzy! I’m glad to see you warming up to them,” I said.
            “I don’t know what came over me. All of a sudden I just felt like playing!” she said. As she walked off, tail high, she seemed a bit surprised at herself.
            It seems as if she has fallen right into her natural role as a lady cat!

😹

He Steps Forth

 

 
            Millicent Price, and all of her devoted readers of her columns in the Milltown paper, know that Ralph sings. He sings for pleasure and to please too. He sings as a form of prayer. Things really move when Ralph sings because he knows what’s what, and Who’s who.
            To the dwellers in the Great Forest, this is only natural, he is the one they look to, and he does his best to look after them. Ranger Rick probably hasn’t seen this in practice, but he wouldn’t be surprised after everything he has witnessed.
            A reader from Darrington, a cashier at the grocery, a little more up on things than most, sent a question in to the paper, directed to Ms. Price.
                        Dear Ms. Price:
                        As one of your most devoted readers, I felt free to send
                        you a simple question about your forest buddy, Ralph.
                        Does he dance too? I can only imagine.
                        Maybe you can elucidate?
                        Thanks, Emma T.
 
            “Well,” thought Milly, “If that’s not an opening, there isn’t any such thing!”
            As usual, enlisting Maeve, she set up an appointment to pick Ralph up for an interview. She had what she thought might be a fun idea for the meeting. She packed a big lunch. Deli Reubens, Gummi bears, obviously, bottled tea, Nanaimo bars too!
            Milly was pretty sure he would go for all of that.
            When she picked him up at the usual wide spot on highway 20 she said, “How about we have a picnic at the place we first met, Ralph? The beach on Camano island? Sound good?”
            “Sure, Milly. It’s been years. I’ve never been back. I wonder if it looks the same or if they built new park buildings or anything,” said Ralph.
            Ralph did that thing where he shrinks down a little to fit into the big green Escalade, put on a Cabela’s cap, and kinda looked a little obscure. He was thinking that a jacket might have been a good idea, but a jacket his size would have to be custom, and he didn’t want to bother Thaga about a jacket. Then he started paying attention to the ride, looking out of the window at the cool cloudy day passing by.
            Nobody was parked in the parking strip at the beach. A cool spring day with cloud cover doesn’t pull in the picnickers like a sunny one. An abandoned park was just what they wanted. Ralph noted that there were no new buildings. It was just as beat and shabby and comfortable as it had been the first time he had seen Milly.
            “I brought lunch!” said Milly, indicating a bag.
            “I know,” said Ralph. “I can smell it, looking forward to it!”
            The same picnic table waited for them in the same spot.
            Over lunch, Milly said, “I have a reader who wants to know if dancing is part of your repertoire. I got to thinking about it, and wondered myself. Do you dance? Why, if so? Do you sing to accompany yourself? I’ve heard about your singing, though I haven’t heard you, Ralph!”
            Still in his Cabela’s cap and in his smaller form, he was a very large presence across the table from Milly. He smiled. “Yes. In a word, sometimes I dance. I’m not sure it would look like dance to human people. There’s usually a good solid reason for it.
            “Like when I was setting up the Home Clearing. The Great Forest has always been there and always great, but I made it a little hard to find by certain steps. It’s such a physical thing that it’s hard to explain how it works. Thanks for the Gummi bears, by the way! Hard to beat a Gummi bear! And the sandwiches! And those bars, wow!
            “When I sing I try to square myself with what’s right, you know. I search for words to reveal truth, if that makes any sense. When I dance, it’s the same but maybe the postures seal the deal in my mind,” said Ralph, lapsing into silence, looking at Milly to see how she was taking all of this.
            “You know, Ralph. Maybe I’ll just tell the lady that yes, you do dance. I don’t feel like I could adequately explain what you just said. Or, I could tell her that it’s a form of prayer. How about that?” said Milly.
            “Pretty much covers it, in a word or two,” said he. “You know whatever you decide to say is fine with me!”
            “Some of them believe that I am writing about an actual person, but most of them don’t. They think it’s amusing fiction,” said Milly. “I think this lady knows something.”
            “Would you like a little lighthearted demonstration?” asked Ralph.
            “I think I could take it,” laughed Milly, but she looked a little tense.
            “OK, you watch me. I’ll do a little bit, and then you won’t have to drive me home. I don’t do this all the time, but it’s sure possible, if I want to,” he said, standing up. “See you next time, dear friend.”
            Ralph seemed to be humming a little bit, almost sub vocally. He winked, and began a little series of very smooth steps going backwards in the direction of the big Cadillac SUV. There was some arm action too. Soon between Ralph and Milly’s car there was a sort of shimmery area in the air like looking through rain spattered glass. It got more distinct and Ralph did his smooth stepping thing backwards right into it.
            Then he was gone. The beach was empty, except for Milly, her Escalade, and the leftovers from the picnic lunch, most just wrappings and a few Gummis in the bag lying on the table.
            “Wow,” said Milly to the air, the beach, and whichever gulls and such might be around. She stuck the remaining Gummis in her jacket pocket and walked the rest of it to the trash can.
            Then she drove back to Milltown with her mind full of wonder. She would tell Colin, but probably no one else.

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Busy Kitten Days Continue

             The kids seem to be doing well. They run like crazy and then sleep a lot!
            They seem to be willing to eat anything edible, even cheese. I only gave them a sliver of white cheddar. I'm not sure it's good for baby cats.
            In low light it's difficult to tell them apart, but in good light Booker's face is lighter and he has stripes along his nose under his eyes, and Sweetie doesn't and his face is a little darker.

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February 19, 2026 - Open Thread

There's sunshine just down the road.

Spring is coming!

🌸

Getting Ranger Rick Into The Picture

  

            Those four wagon loads of sand lay in a nice pile right in the middle of the alder trees. The project never left Ralph’s mind, but he wasn’t one to push a thing out in front of its time. He’s pretty Zen that way.
            One morning he felt like seeing how his old friend Ranger Rick was getting on at the Ranger Station and maybe shooting the bull with him about things, things like the Alder Tree House and so on. Things like that.
            Ralph knew Rick would most likely be in his office since it was after 8AM, not that Ralph had any truck with clocks. He just kind of knew when Rick went to work. Rick was a very dependable fellow, and he often had doughnuts in the office kitchen nook. A visit was definitely in order.
            It was still pretty early in the morning when Ralph broke out of his forest domain into the Ranger Station parking lot. He noted with satisfaction that Rick’s truck was parked in its usual spot. Perfect.
            Ralph knocked on the office door, just to alert Rick, then opened it and stuck  his head into the room.
            “Hey, Rick, you in here?”
            “That you, Ralph? I’m in the kitchen. Sit! I’ll be right out,” shouted Rick. Then he came out with two mugs of coffee and a large Tupperware box of homemade chocolate chip cookies.
            For a pleasant quarter hour they drank coffee and ate cookies, talking about almost nothing, like the weather and the number of early spring campers in the camp ground.
            Finally, Rick said, “So why have you come out of hiding?”
            “By the way, how’s your new camp host working out?” said Ralph, as a delaying tactic.
            “She’s good. She’s not quite as tough as Marge was. But she does well with the campers,” said Rick. “I wonder where Marge is these days.”
            “Well, therein lies a tale, old buddy. By a round about way, that’s why I’m here this morning eating your cookies and drinking your coffee. Are you ready for this?” said Ralph.
            “Sure. I can take it. I think, no matter how out of this world it is,” said Rick, and he laughed.
            “Funny you should say that,” said Ralph.
            “OK. Tell me,” said Rick.
            “This is the short version. Marge was reborn as Leely, becoming sort of a Forest Woman. Ramona dipped her in the river and renamed her. This allowed her to marry Twigg. See you’ve missed a lot recently!” said Ralph.
            “Wow,” said Rick. “I didn’t know that was even possible.”
            “We didn’t really either. But it was to be. They had loved each other since they were kids, Rick,” continued Ralph.
            “I don’t know if you can handle this, but they are off planet having a long honeymoon on the planet of that Mak guy who shows up in a space-going vehicle once in a while. It’s quite a story but it’s a true one.
            “Before Twigg and Leely married, Twigg had been working on building his own house based on living saplings up in the meadow with their Gifting Stump. It was to be similar to the bee’s house he made, but a lot bigger of course. But once he was married and off on his honeymoon, we realized that the little sapling house he had in mind wouldn’t do for him and a wife, his own Fire Keeper to be,” said Ralph.
            “Oh man, Ralph. That’s a lot to take in! But, how does that bring you here this morning?” said Rick.
            “Oh, I’m not really sure. I just wanted to see what you thought I guess. After they were gone, I got an idea. I thought of making a house on the same general plan, but with full grown alders in the same general area. I located a likely group of trees and talked them into growing together at the top into a sort of dome. They’re doing that and it looks super.
            “Next, me and Ooog figured a way to make a floor in the house. We carried a lot of sand from the riverbank, and piled it in the middle of the trees. We figured on laying rocks into it to make a strong floor that wouldn’t rot or anything. I’ve been thinking about river rocks, but I don’t think they are the best idea. We need flat rocks.”
            “I can see that,” said Rick. “I wouldn’t want to lay a floor with river rocks either. Maybe it would be done, but shale would be a whole lot more stable, I think.”
            “Shale! That’s a new word for me,” said Ralph. “Nice flat stuff, is it?”
            “Nice flat stuff,” said Rick, beginning to smell the metaphorical coffee.
            “Does shale exist anywhere around here?” said Ralph.
            “Outside Darrington, where the river cuts through, on a forest road. Of course I will help you collect some shale, Ralph. I’ll take everything out of my truck, and we’ll fill it with river shale. How about that?” said Rick, folding his laptop. “Let’s do it now. I’ll put Dexter in charge for the day. Be good for  him.”
            Rick got on his phone and called Dexter, who was up at the camp host’s mobile checking things out with Hannah, for the second time already that morning. “Hey, Dexter,” he said, “Something has come up and I need to take off for a while. I want you to come down here and stay in the office until I get back.”
            “He’s doing better with this camp host than the last one,” said Rick, laughing a little.
            “Oh, good,” said Ralph.
            When Dexter came back, he and Rick unloaded all the stuff in the back of Rick’s truck into the office.
            “You can call her on your phone if you have to, but stay here,” Rick told Dexter. “We’re going to Darrington for a few hours.”
            Ralph squeezed into the passenger side seat, shrinking a bit because he really had to, and they drove out to Darrington, then they took the forest road Rick had mentioned. The road ran near a moderately sized mountain river. There was lots of shale lying around where it had fallen. It was easy to fill the back of Rick’s service vehicle with enough to cover a rather small floor such as in the Alder Tree House.
            Driving back to the Ranger Station, Rick said, “I’m only worried about one thing. How are you going to move this stuff out into the meadow? I can’t drive there.”
            “I have an idea,” said Ralph. “We can try it right now. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to think of something else.”
            “OK, Ralph. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but OK.”
            “OK, Rick. Let’s try it! Park, then close your eyes, but hang onto the steering wheel,” said Ralph. “Keep ‘em closed until I tell you to open ‘em!”
            So, Rick parked on the verge beside the highway, grabbed the wheel with both hands and shut his eyes. Ralph began to hum a little. After a bit he sang a song about the meadow and the Gifting Stump and Twigg and Leely and the Alder Tree House. It took a good ten minutes. All the while Rick kept his eyes closed tightly and hung onto the wheel.
            Finally, Ralph said, “You can open your eyes now.”
            When he did, there they were, in the loaded truck, not parked along the highway, but in the meadow with the back end of the truck facing the Alder Tree House.
            “I’m afraid to believe this,” said Rick, still gripping the wheel.
            “Have I ever told you wrong, Rick,” said Ralph with a grin.
            “No…” said Rick, looking all around in amazement.
            “Let’s unload this shale, and get you home!” said Ralph, "the same way you got here!”    

🍀

A Conference With Suzy

 

Booker

            She seems to be experiencing some anxiety today. Rather than guessing, I figure I had better just ask her why she’s so clingy and/or stand offish. Here goes:
 
            “You obviously have something going on up there beneath the ears, Suzy,” I said. “You may as well admit it.”
            “Monsters..” she whispered.
            “Oh?” I said. “Please elucidate!”
            “They look somewhat like cats, but there’s something wrong with them. I don’t think they can really be cats. I think you got bamboozled by that slick hillbilly. You paid a lot of money for some little gnomes or something!” she blurted out in a rush. “They might even be some kind of Fae loosely based on a cat’s form.”
            “Have you ever met a kitten, Suzy?” I asked her. I knew she hadn’t.
            “I can’t remember,” she prevaricated.
            “You’ve been a kitten! But of course, you can’t remember how silly you were either,” I said.
            “I never felt silly. I did everything as well as I could! Willie was silly though,” she said. “I watch those two little things. They don’t seem to know anything at all!”
            “Examples?” I said.
            “Cats should know certain things, you know, and they don’t! Also, they don’t have proper respect. I think they can’t be cats,” she said. “They must be something else.”
            “Maybe, Suzy, they need your help. Did that ever occur to you?” I asked her. “Hey, you can help name them! How about that?”
            “Me? They need me?” said Suzy.
            “Yeah! You’ll  help them turn into smart cats!” I said.
            “OK. I’ll do it!” she said.
           
            Things are looking up in cat world! I’ll keep you posted!

Sweety

🧡

 

Um, Dateline, Feb. 15, 2026. It's a Kitten Thing..

             It's not a very good video, but I managed to wrassle it from my text messages to my computer and into Blogger.

            This is the litter of Bengals in question. He says I can have my pick, $400 for two of the small beasts. The reason the price is low is because he has 8 other Bengals! WTH?

            BW and I are most likely going to go meet him at the Walmart in Smokey Point, just up the freeway later today.

            I'll let you know what happened and how it all went down. Possibly this is crazy!

Home and resting, next the nice box apartment!

😹😻😸😹
🧡

"So, Get This, Ramona!"

 

            Ralph had been up to the meadow inspecting the progress of the Alder Tree House. He was happy to see that the growth of the group was toward each other and that the branches were beginning to interlace into a dome shape. It was looking good. The floor was looking good too.
            But that’s a story for another day. Ralph smiled at the memory.
            His big old cedar log lay between where he had come from and where he was going. So, since it was there and he was there too, he decided to lie down just to see if it still fit. It was a dry day, good for lying on a log and just pondering.
            Soon, down at the Fire Circle, Ramona could hear him snoring. Campground visitors thought what they were hearing was a remote landslide, possibly. Or maybe, one thought, it was possible to have a bit of thunder way up the mountain, even without clouds.
            He started hearing a familiar voice. Someone was speaking to him.
            “Boss! Boss!” said the voice.
            “Huh?” said Ralph. “I’m awake. I think. What’s up?”
            “There’s a hippie with a camera up in the Alder Tree House. She. A she hippie. She’s putting it all on camera and talking like she’s in charge!” said Maeve, nervously.    
            “Oh. I better go talk to her,” yawned Ralph, not nervously at all. “I think I better do something about the perimeter of the meadow, huh?”
            “Yeah, but she’s got it all on camera now!” croaked Maeve.
            “I’m going!” said Ralph. “Want to come along, Birdie?”
            “Yeah! You might need a witness, Boss!” said Maeve.
            So, Raven on shoulder, Ralph walked back up into the meadow, past the Gifting Stump and out to the growing Alder Tree House. He saw that; indeed, someone was there. In fact she was inside the structure recording the floor. She seemed pretty excited.
            “The most evolved structure I’ve ever seen….” The voice inside the building could be heard to say.           
            “I just wiped her GoPro, Birdie. But she might still be able to come back,” murmured Ralph, “Unless I do something.” He stood by the door, considering his next move.
            Right then, the girl popped out of the doorway of the ‘structure,’ got a load of Ralph and Maeve and ran back into the interior. In a couple of minutes, she peeked out from behind one of the alder trunks. She blinked a couple of times.
            “Hey,” said Ralph. “Howdeedo? Anything I can do to  help?”
            “Um. Well. Did you make this structure? I’ve never seen anything like it,” said the girl. “I’ve never heard a Sasquatch speak English either.”
            “With help, I did. I learned English so I could talk to humans. It seemed useful,” said Ralph.
            “But, why did you build it? I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere,” she insisted.
            “It’s a gift. You gotta name? I’m Ralph. This is Maeve.”
            “Ashley,” she said. “I make videos for YouTube. I don’t suppose you know YouTube?”
            “Sure do! Ranger Rick, over at the Ranger Station and I watch videos sometimes. He has this foldup computer thing,” Ralph said. “So, um, what kind of videos do you make, Ashley?”
            “I do short programs to help people know how to approach the forest with the right intentions. It’s almost a Zen thing I teach. Like how a human shouldn’t come out looking for Forest People with a bunch of electronic equipment and a pushy, demanding manner, you know? You must know!” said Ashley. “It’s sort of like establishing relationship with the forest and everything that is there!”
            “That sounds pretty good. But I notice that you are here with a camera!” Ralph raised his eyebrows.
            “But I have to! How else can I get the message out? I need my camera,” said Ashley, coming out from behind the alder trunk.
            “I think your heart is in the right place, Kiddo. But we are a reserved people. Most video about us is so goofy that it would never lead to our discovery-unless we wished it. But, you might be on to something. Hm. You know, you have nothing on your GoPro? It won’t work out here,” said Ralph. “I made sure of that. Sorry, Ashley.”
            “Are you like the chief or clan leader or something?” said a rather stunned Ashley, who was checking her camera as she spoke.
            “Something like that. Others look to me. I judge baby contests and cut cakes, and stuff like that,” giggled Ralph.
            “Oh, come on, baby contests?” said Ashley.
            “It could happen,” said Ralph.
            “Then I can’t put your structure on YouTube?” she said at last.
            “No. Think about it. We would have the world out here wanting to see it, even if you didn’t disclose its exact location.”
            “That doesn’t sound good,” admitted Ashley.
            “Evermore,” intoned Maeve.
            “It talks too!” said Ashley.
            “She. She speaks English too. She’s a lady Raven. My confidant,” said Ralph.
            “Is this place magic?” whispered Ashley.
            “You could say that,” said Ralph. “It’s like a dream. When you get home you will remember us like a dream, Ashley.” He hummed a little tuneless tune.
            “A dream?” the girl murmured sleepily. Then she began walking toward the Ranger Station where her car waited.
            “I left the meadow ‘open’ when Marge was visiting here, but it’s in the Great Forest now, Birdie,” said Ralph. “If she tries to find it again, it won’t work.”
            “In a way, it’s too bad,” sighed Maeve.
            “Ashley will be alright, Birdie. Let’s go tell Mona all about it!”

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