♪ Ninety-Nine and Counting ♪

The two convention events are finally over -- we can get back to recording regular TV -- just kidding.  But it is nice to be through with those two events which are supposedly designed to give voters the information they need to make a decision come November.

There are now just 99 days until the election and I find it more confusing than ever as to the candidates. For some reason I was struck by the fact of "99 Days" and my mind took me back to school-day outings and other bus riding outings and the song we sang to keep our sanity and to fend off boredom -- "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".

The song was sung by "taking one down and passing it around" until we got to "no bottles of beer on the wall" at which point it was "get to the store and buy some more" and the whole thing repeated itself.

It is kind of like the four year election process. By the way, in the above photo is a "99 Bottles" store located in Federal Way, Washington named after the song . . .

Beer and parties seem to go together and to the right are a couple of photos depicting the early locations of each of the two parties making up our system.

The Republican Party originated in Wisconsin while the Democratic Party had it's headquarters in Kansas.

The two parties have evolved and probably the originators of either would have a hard time recognizing them today.

But, for all intents and purposes if we want to have a meaningful vote it will be in one of the two parties.

There may come a time when that will change but for now it is the candidate in one of those two parties that will be elected to the office of President of the United States.

During the conventions we did see and hear about many well known folks either not participating in their "normally
assigned parties" or officially dropping their affiliation to a particular party. Ahh, politics . . .

I did spend time searching "in the trees" this week and most of it involved the three trees below:

I actually did pick some apples from our heavily laden back-yard tree (we have one in the front too) but there were a lot on the ground as well that were not-fit-to-eat. Also I lopped off several branches from a neighbor's tree that were growing several feet over our garden and they too had several "good" apples.

Speaking of "good-apples" I spent a lot of time picking the low-hanging fruit in the other two trees as well mostly by seeking out colorful tidbits of information gleaned from old newspapers.

And speaking of colorful it is amazing to see the difference between black & white photography and
color photography:

Last post I shared the above (on the left photo) of a store owned by a cousin of ours --  and then on Dick Eastman's blog last week he introduced a site that could add color to black & white photos and I immediately tried the above photo and what a difference.

I have since tried it out on several other B&W pics and I'll share those over time -- but all a lot of fun and so nice to see. So, thank you Dick Eastman for sharing that site.

So, what else happened this week. Well, while watching the Giants game the other night with the Washington Nationals late in the game the Giants loaded the bases with nobody out and the score was 4-1 Nats, and I remarked "we should get a few runs here and either tie this game up or make the go ahead runs to win" . . .

Neither scenario happened -- the Nationals for the first time in their 12 year history scored an amazing triple play . . .

I can't even remember if I ever saw another triple play (other than in Little League) but I'll remember this one. Everyone was just shaking their heads with disbelief.

The Giants went on to lose the game, 4-1, needless-to-say.

But the good news is that pre-season football will be starting in about 8 days -- hard to believe, but is a fact.

Sunday, August 7 the Packers play the Colts in the "Hall of Fame" game -- we'll be watching.

On our nightstand -- Drew Barrymore's "Wildflower".

This book took the place of "Sinatra" that we just finished.

We are amazed at the difference of perception that this book points out to us.

Drew seems to have "pulled through" those early days and has become a successful and accomplished person.

She clears things up with a series of stories surrounding her formative years.

We are enjoying the book and look forward to reading more about her life as she continues to surprise us.

I have to admit that I always enjoyed her movies and now am
pleased that she has made it into a seemingly successful adulthood.

That is a bit of our week, It is Sunday and it looks like ribs, BBQ beans, & salad for dinner.

See you all "in a few"!