Return of The Whirly

 ( the missing cat, Mike's B/d, of Pumpkins,Bluegrass spiders,turtles, a Rose and a Beach Boy)

3 months without a Wurlitzer! The jukebox was our first piece of  ?furniture in our house before Past Perfect took it away to clean and get it to working order again.  I didn't realize nor did they provide an estimate that the jukebox would be gone that long. As the only place to fix jukeboxes, what can you do? Wait, and hope, and wait.  The day it came back 10/3/14  Lightning our boy cat slipped out the back gate. My guess is that curious, he was near the opening, and was spooked when the guy from Past Perfect lumbered the jukebox in). Lightning would be gone for 3 days.

    Once I realized that Lightning was out of the house for the first time and not hiding inside (the jukebox makes a lot of mechanical hissing and switching sounds, the speakers are near the ground, with the bass rumbling off the floors), I went searching for him. By foot, by bike. The usual lure of shaking food bags, or opening a can of food did not bring him in.  Was he hurt? Did he- with fright of a passing car, take errant shelter falling into a storm drain?.  I felt ill and saw the jukebox as symbol of this horrible turn. Since we moved into this home, Lightning had become extremely affectionate and now on my watch, he was gone.  This great day off to welcome the Whirly before heading out to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was now not such a good day.

Lightning's sister, Thunder makes a friend

dopey sweet boy

neighbor's nice pumpkin work. we miss our old Halloween ritual and our crowd of friends. It wasn't until the night before Halloween did we decide to spend it in Alameda. Our apologies is we left anyone waiting on us!

Thunder as rabbit

Lou and 2 friends

Mike's Birthday (and Kevin's too) 11/8 on Hibbard  Thanks for visiting! It was great to have Mike, Hingee (bro,sis) and Kevin (nephew) out to spend a day. The warm sun  was with us too, as well as the discovery of  a whole lot of white flies in the back yard.!

King of the Dorks

Proud of our writer. In her element. 'nuff said.

Oliver and I spent a day at the beach, by way of bicycles. It's easy riding on this island., yeah. 

Dr. Ralph Stanley and Band

Emmylou to close

 Although I missed all of Friday, we went to HSB  both Saturday and Sunday; Saturday morning we took turns searching for Lightning- without any positive results  Maria posted Lost signs. Our listening path was not very ambitious this year; just wanting the music to carry us forward and to lift our spirits.  Dexter, working at Sota met us later in the afternoon.  It's a real sweet deal, this Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.  People are kind and friendly and although some places are very crowded, you can find a place to listen and to relax.

  Sunday night when we came back home- around 9:30, Dext and I headed to the back yard. More hopeful, than probable. What else could we do?  Something bolted out from the shadows onto our back porch and as his figure crossed into the path of a streetlight; it was him!   Lightning returns! Maria and Oliver didn't believe me when i ran inside but when they saw the very thirsty, very hungry cat- we four were a sappy sight.  I was expecting to feel a happiness on Friday and that didn't happen but here it was Sunday night, and everything I wanted that I could have, was all around me.

the return of Lightning

Maria with her uke, and our temporary? house guest, Minnie Meow

I have a program to make the song strips for the jukebox and it's easy to use,  It's fun switching out records and looking through 45's in record stores. Although I thought Jack's Record Cellar was long closed, it's still open on Saturdays!  It took about 2 weeks before we started using the jukebox- just keeping the house quiet until all the cats had calmed down  The total bill was about $440 for the old Whirly, $400 for the deposit (work, pick up) and another $400 for the rest of the work and it's return.