This is a public Service Announcement:

I will be one of the three featured readers this coming Thursday at Fixed & Free Feb 23 features Don Krieger, Catherine Strisik, Lenora Good. If you are up for a night of poetry, and even a chance to read one of yours, contact Billy at Welbert53@aol.com get your free ticket to join us. Should be a night of fun and frivolity. Bring money and buy books!

Weather in the Tries:
   We have high wind warnings until Tuesday. We also have fairly warm days in the mid 50s, and on Wednesday, it travels downhill in a handbasket with our lows going into the teens and our highs barely above freezing. Friday is scheduled for a sunny day and Saturday starts warming up again. And it’s going to be cloudy. Hey! This is a desert—I don’t mind the cold, but dahyamn! the clouds belong on the other side of the Cascades! Those folk over there are called Mossbacks for a reason!

Sammy Needs a Job;
   This is a good news bad news story. A bit of background to explain how it all happened. Housemate Dan and I share the larger bedroom as a joint office. So we each wear ear pieces/headphones when we are watching something on our computers so we don’t disturb the other person. I have a pair of Beats ear pods. I really like them, and I take out my hearing aids so I can use them. The aids have a special place on my desk—a place that is seldom messy. 
  The other day I received a ring light for Zoom/Skype meetings and moved my computer and extra monitor a bit to get it set up. I noticed one of my aides had fallen off its usual place. I did a cursory looksee, didn’t find it and decided to wait until morning. Big mistrake. Somehow, the one aide was knocked off and onto the floor and, being a dog who is always looking for snacks, Sammy grabbed it and proceeded to chew.
   Yummm, this tastes like my human. Crunch. Crunch. I’m so glad she threw it away.
   Yes indeed, he crunched it. Thank goodness he didn’t swallow the battery or break the casing! As you can see in the photo below, he did badly dent it. I took the pieces to the nice man at Costco and made an appointment for 31 Mar to get re-tested and order new aides.
   Remember, I said this story is a good/bad news one. Well, you now have the bad. The good is the replacement aides are considerably better than the chewed one, and cost almost half of what I paid for the last ones! A friend has suggested I see if I can get into the VA system for aids, but I don’t hold much hope. They declined me for medical because I have too good of insurance, but I did write Sen. Patty Murray about it and we’ll see what her response is. So much for the promises to our Vets! /snark/   The upshot is, Sammy needs a job to pay me for eating my right ear aide. Admittedly, his resume is a bit thin, but I list it here in case you know anyone looking for some help. He is excellent at keeping the Humpfolumpuses off furniture, and Hippopotamuses out of parking slots. And since he started patrolling the apartment complex we have had no alligator or giraffe sightings. He is also very good at disposing of snacks and cuddling for naps. Any help you can offer is appreciated

   As it is still Black History Month, but you maybe aren’t reading like you’d like to, may I suggest some music and or poetry by Avotcja (pronounced Avatcha). She’s a fascinating person, check her out. YouTube has a few hours of her and others on this page. Chances are it’s been a while since you’ve listened to Johnny Mathis too, well, fix it!

Photos of the Week:

Entertainment:
Books Read:  If I finish it, I review it:  https://lenoragood.blogspot.com
  Slim pickin’s—haven’t finished a single book or movie or even an episode of Bab5. Colds affect me that way.

Sammy Says:
   I don’t know why my human is so upset because I chewed her ear toy. It tasted really neat. Just like her. If she didn’t want me to chew it, why did she toss it down for me? Now she wants me to get a job to help pay for her new one. Oh, well. I’ll snuggle up to her, batt my eyes at her, and she’ll forget. Won’t she? She doesn’t understand, I work for treats, and she doesn’t like my treats. But if treats will help her get a new ear toy…Humans are so hard to understand.