The local paper had some real nuggets this morning.

First thing I noticed, there was an obituary for a guy who was 67 when he died. 'He worked the flea market circuit for 35 years and enjoyed playing bingo.' I didn't know there was such a thing as a flea market circuit.

Another lady who was 81 when she passed away 'enjoyed dropping a coin or two into casino slot machines.' I told Mr. Troutbend when he dies I'm going to tell everyone he enjoyed dropping a few hundred coins in slot machines.

Another obit was for a guy named Robert, full name provided in the title, and then paragraph two started out with: "Robert (he preferred to be called Bob),..." I'm pretty sure if they had just started calling him Bob I would have known who we were talking about and that is what he went by.

In National News, when I finally got the front section from Mr. Troutbend, there is a new recipe for methamphetamine out there called "Shake and Bake Meth." Instead of cooking up the drug in a smelly, dangerous lab, now it can be mixed with lower quantities of ingredients in a 2 liter pop bottle. Users will no longer have to buy it from dealers, they can buy a legally small amount of cold medicine, add the other toxic ingredients, and even shake up a batch while driving a car. Yes, that's what the article says, while driving a car. However, like the bigger scale operations this recipe is still hazardous: if there is oxygen in the bottle it can explode in a ball of fire. We are trying to figure out how to get all the oxygen out of the bottle but leave the contents loose enough to benefit from shaking. While driving a car.

There was a murder of a 61 year-old minister in a small town in Oklahoma. She opened her church on Sundays in case anyone wanted to show up and pray with her. Hardly anyone ever did. What caught my eye was the article saying her church was an "A-frame structure" but the accompanying photo was of just a normal four walls frame building. I don't know about Oklahoma, but around here an A frame looks like this:



Our paper has a column where people call in and leave a message, then the paper publishes some of them. A lot of it is rants, but sometimes someone will ask a question and the next day someone will answer it, like 'does anyone know where to get ...' The one today we were laughing about was: Yellow Trees"What's with all the maple trees in town turning yellow? Is it the rainy season or a new insect infestation? What?" Tomorrow someone will have called in to tell them fall is coming and many trees and bushes are starting to change color because of that.

We do seem to be having an early fall. Already the bushes and trees around the yard here are changing color, and I've already told you the hummingbirds have mostly left for warmer climates. Aside from a few early birds, they showed up in force around June 5th, and most were gone by August 20. I will really miss them. Mr. Tbend offered to leave Buddy the Cat to keep me company, but I declined.