Once in awhile I have to tell Mr. Troutbend to change his shirt. He wears the same one day in and day out until I say something. It is not as if there is a shortage of tee shirts and he has to ration them between laundry sessions, he has at least 50 from casinos in Colorado and Las Vegas, and could get more if I would let him.

I hate to bring it up because he is such a nice guy and never criticizes me or what I wear (not stinky I hope) so I don't want him to feel I'm being critical. I could get up in the night and put this one in the hamper and he would have to find a new one, but that seems sort of passive aggressive.

The telephone repair man came yesterday, looked at the tree that is leaning on the telephone cable and didn't get very excited about it. He said there is a 3/8 inch steel cable inside there with the telephone wires wrapped around it. We are welcome to deal with it ourselves, according to him, because there is no risk of electrocution, and the cable is too strong to do any harm to. He didn't acknowledge the second wire, which is fiber optic cable. Maybe because half it is 3/8 inch cable or something like that.

We declined, and told him we'd wait for the line repair crew to take care of it. He didn't climb up there close to it, but the slope is really steep and I don't want to risk Mr. Tbend's pretty head. Note the blue shirt in the picture: that's the stinky one.