End of Summer

Odds and ends are happening as the tourist part of the summer season ends, but not enough odds and ends are happening to devote a minimum three sentences to a paragraph on any particular topic. Warrior Queen, who turns 60 next Saturday, has suggested that I do one of her “brain pukes” - or a blog entry comrising a random stream of consciousness thoughts which do not resemble anything remotely resembling a paragraph. Unfortunately, short and sweet (in her case sweet is like a time bomb) is not always my style.

I could claim an absence of my muses again, but I think I’ve milked that running joke enough for awhile. I could claim laziness. (Dear Reader: please finish this paragraph yourself with a grammatical creation of your own sentence or sentences. Go wild!)

So random thoughts it is…

Cat update: Oreo still stays in the basement for most of her day, but we do open the basement door for a time each day. She then gets to decide if she wants to come up the stairs and explore the rest of the house.

As of yet we have not allowed her to spend time with the other two - Nyla and Gigi - but we’ll have to make the break sooner or later. The other two are getting along better, playing “chase me” and batting at each other occasionally. Their hissing and spitting towards that other feline (i.e., each other) now sharing the house are practically non-existent now.

We will travel up north to my brother’s house this weekend and I will be surprised if I don’t come home with a full blown depression. The reason: mom is completing her first month in a nursing home and it will be a new experience to see her in this setting. My brother and I know that this is the best we can do for her, but still I had hopes that mom could be spared a long (permanent?) stay in a nursing facility.

This brings me around to my final thoughts going into this Labor Day holiday, created to honor the American worker. Not so long ago, an American worker could stand with his children, survey the fruits of his lifetime of labors, and say to them, “Someday, all this will be yours!”

Ah, times have changed and the average American worker has less and less to show for his efforts, let alone passing it along to the next generation. So I propose a challenge: what could the average worker say to his children now given the downturn in our collective fortunes? Finish this sentence with a creation of your own: “Someday, children, all this will be _________.”  

We’re looking for answers that are creative, outrageously satirical in nature, and the more realistic the better! Note: there will be no prizes awarded for completing this challenge. This is due to the fact that we at arteejee are not only muse-challenged and lazy, but we’re also cheap!

(Thank you for reading. Have a safe Labor Day weekend!)