There is a restaurant over in Findlay, a chain, that usurped their name from a Rolling Stones tune. Ruby Tuesdays is a pretty good place for lunch. When I take my Uncle Jim along on my monthly trip over to the "big" city (50,000 pop.) we lunch on his wallet. Usually we go to Cheddars, Olive Garden or some other sit-down joint like The Red Pig.

This week Ruby Tuesdays had a coupon deal in the paper. I want to utilize it, because it will just about pay for a gallon of gasoline and it takes a few of those to make the 50-mile round trip over there.

I go to Findlay to

1. Get birdseed and millet for Bisbeebird. The only other place around here to buy seed is Wal-Mart, and I don't do Wal-Mart any more...
2. Peruse Hobby Lobby for cheap frames, discounts on art supplies and canvas..
and
3. So Uncle Jim will spring for a lunch.

He always picks up the tab for the eats. That's good, because I usually overshoot my art supply budget. Uncle Jim is a widower 2 years now. He lives in a senior apartment but is fully capable...

Except for cooking.

His boys, all grown up and married and some with grandchildren, visit often and bring great quantities of food for his freezer so he can snap it in his microwave.

I love Uncle Jim. Our times together are fascinating. I envy him, too. Sure, he lost his wife of almost 60 years but he has a loving and caring family.

I have a parakeet and five cats who only care about what's in their bowls.

But I don't have to pay for weddings and Bar Mitzvahs and all that crap.

So tomorrow will be Findlay and I'm going to suggest we dine at Ruby Tuesdays because the coupon will save just about four bucks. It will be Uncle Jim's four bucks.

...........

I finished and framed the painting with the golden poplar trees in a row. If I can get it photographed I will post it. I am very proud of this one.

...........

Mister Bunjii Rooney Longtail Adams went to the doctor place yesterday. He yanked open about a three-quarter inch section of his sutures. The youngest vet was on duty and complained that the cat was having such a hard time. I complained that the sutures much not have been affixed correctly and that shut his mouth. I could have done a better job with duct tape.

He really was quiet on the drive home. He knows where we go after the doctor place. At home I opened the Sherpa Bag up in his isolation ward guest room.

He scampered under the bed.

Later I went up and lay down with him and true to form he drooled all over me. The new staples are tight. I think they will keep the incision closed until it heals. I put Catdancer's pet shirt back on him and that may keep him from licking the area.

..........

The newspaper today had four pages of foreclosure legal notices. It continues. The mortgage crisis will continue, especially in such a depressed economy as Ohio's. Everything is depressing here now: the economy, the weather and even baseball. Especially baseball.

The Indians' season may as well be over. It isn't even the halfway point and they are double-digits behind the division leaders, the ChiSox. Most of the fault lies with the number of injuries. Travis Hafner may not even play again this year. He has a "sore" shoulder.

I had a sore shoulder when we had the blizzard, but I shoveled the goddamned snow off my sidewalk!

Martinez is on the DL, too. I think he has a bruised pinky or something. He had not hammered even a single home run in the first two months anyway, so who cares.

Jake Westbrook is not pitching and is on the long term DL. He had the same problem last year. I wish I could make a couple million when I don't feel good.

Fausto Carmona has a sore hip.

Next year. I can see the changes. Westbrook and Paul Byrd, another pitcher, won't be in a Tribe uniform. Neither will a few of the rookies they brought up from Buffalo. How can you put together a winning season when four starters are veritable rookies from triple-A?

Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey are probably on the trading block.

They should have paid Manny Ramirez the billion dollars he wanted, way back when.

Anyway, I still watch all their games on TV. I am still a fan. That gives me the right to complain.