”Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.”
The rain started slowly late yesterday afternoon, got a bit heavier and then stayed around most of the night. The morning is chilly at 67°, still overcast, breezy and damp. The sun is supposed to warm the day to the mid-70’s but seems reluctant to appear. The clouds are hanging on, but the rain is gone.
Henry still has some dog door issues. Sometimes he looks through the flap and whacks it but doesn’t come inside. I try to ignore him but then I feel bad and let him in. Other times he gives up and comes inside. What I love is he’ll be in the hall tapping his nails on the floor until I say, “Go, Henry,” then he runs up the hall and goes outside. He has no trouble going out.
When I was a kid, summer days were the best days of the year. I was gone from just after breakfast until close to supper. The streetlights came on later because of the light hanging around longer so I could even go out playing after dinner. I remember hide and seek. We hid in the shadows.
We were a game family. Every Christmas we got a new game, and we played it around the kitchen table. My father taught us whist, and we played in teams, girls against boys. My mother and I usually won. Sorry was the best game. It was so much fun and so very aggravating. Knocking someone back to start was followed by hooting and cheering. Even when I was an adult, we sat around the kitchen table playing cards. We played endless games of hi-low Jack. My father was both the worst winner and the worst loser. When he lost, we taunted him. Once his back gave out and he fell off the bench, but he still bid from the floor. My father loved his card games.
The birds have found the feeders. They were constantly in and out this morning. The chickadees waited in line. They all seemed to like the same feeder. The titmouse chose the feeder the spawn likes. Today it was the female cardinal. Both she and the male like the new feeder. They can sit in it and munch. I had seen the shells of the sunflower seeds in that feeder and wondered how they got there. Now I know.
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July 29, 2024 at 4:19 pm
Hi Kat,
The sky is partly cloudy with a predicted high of only 97° which is about the average high temperature here.
My family were not game players. My sister and I would play board games like Monopoly when we were kids, but our parents never joined in nor did they play card games. Therefore, I am not a game player either. What game is “Whist”. You may have answered that in a previous post, but memory is the second thing to go when you get old. BTW, I can’t remember what the first thing is, but I think it was fun. 🙂
We’ve had a few dogs when my kids were little, but we never had a doggy door. We had to go outside to wipe their feet when they were ready to come inside. Now that we are empty nesters, we don’t have either kids nor pets. My better half threatens to bring home a miniature dog and train it to do its business on a pad. I am opposed to this idea because I know that I will be the one who will have to walk it outside when it refuses to poop or pee on a pad. Our backyard has no grass, just a pool surrounded by shrubs and trees.
July 29, 2024 at 9:29 pm
Hi Bob,
The sun finally came out, just in time for it to shine on me at my concert.The saving grace, though, was the breeze. Right now it is 70°. They are predicting more rain tomorrow.
My family always played games together. My father loved cribbage, and I played many games against him at the kitchen table. If he won, it was skill. If I won, it was luck. My friends too are game players. We’d get together for dinner and games. A card game called Phase 10 was a favorite.
In whist there are two sets of partners who gave each other. All the cards are dealt. You make a bid based on the quality of your cards and the hope your partner will help. If the bid is three, you have to win 6 tricks plus the 3 you bid. You call a trump card. That means if a suit is played which you don’t have, you can play the trump card which usually wins the trick. There are different versions of whist, but the above is what we always played.
My kitchen floor does get dirty when the dogs come inside after being in the yard when it rains. I think paw prints are a small price rice to pay for the dogs going out and coming in on their own with me staying on the couch. The backyard is trees, grass and brush. I call it the dogs’ yard.
Dogs pick up using a pad easily. The very small dogs are seldom let out anyway.