The paper says humid and 80˚ for today going down to the low 60’s tonight with rain possible. The whole week will have similar weather: warm days and cool nights. Gracie, my weather prognosticator, has been panting all morning so I have already turned on the air-conditioner and unlocked the back door. Knowing me as you do, you probably didn’t even question why those two are connected. Anyway, Gracie is now sleeping in her crate probably with a smile on her face as the house begins to cool.

This morning I was at the sink looking out the window as I worked and could see my prayer flags going up and down with some ferocity. After it happened a couple of times, I went on the deck to look. What did I see? It was the red spawn pulling on the blue flag trying, I suspect, to rip it off. I clapped my hands, and the spawn left only to return in a couple of minutes. I clapped again but it stayed there. The red spawn knew I was blowing smoke so it did an in your face and kept yanking. I got the hose, put the nozzle on jet and let it go. It reached right to that flag and that spawn which went tearing up the branches to where I couldn’t reach with the hose. It tried the flag again, and I sprayed it again. It raced to a higher branch and started yelling at me in squirrel which I am so glad I don’t speak as I think the red spawn wasn’t being kind and might have been using inappropriate language.

Today’s paper was pretty dismal filled at is was with not so great news. I did finish the cryptogram in record time but it was small consolation. I’m thinking I’ll go back to when I was a kid and the only thing I looked at were the comics. Back then there were pages of comics. Dennis the Menace got a big square, not a strip, and though Dennis was always well-meaning, poor Mr. Wilson bore the brunt of Dennis and his shenanigans. I used to skip over a few like Mary Worth, who is still around and looking no older even decades later, Mary Perkins and Brenda Starr. I found them boring especially Mary Worth with her advice on everything. I loved The Phantom on his white horse, Buck Rogers and Steve Canyon. Jiggs and Maggie seemed to fight all the time and Andy Capp could be found at the nearest pub. Dondi was a bit sappy for my tastes. Sad Sack was just that. Prince Valiant showed up on Sundays and was pretty wordy, but I followed it anyway through generations.

I know there are tons more comics which have been gone for a while. Few are episodic now. Most you can read one day, skip a week or two, read the newest one and find you’ve missed nothing. Sunday comics are always in color. During the week some days are black and white days while other are color days. I have no idea why.

The one bit of news I’ll share is that 5,000 new words are being added to the Scrabble Players Dictionary. Some of the new ones include bromance, buzzkill, frenemy and qajaq. That last one is a keeper. Notice the q didn’t need a u, but there is a hitch. You can only use it if you have a blank tile as Scrabble has only one q. It is also a palindrome though that means nothing in Scrabble. I just thought it was interesting. I’ll leave you with another of the new words, quinzhee, just in case you’re playing tonight. Q words are always good to know.