by 
You may recall a couple of weeks ago in a tournament in Hereford Abigail’s Rebel volleyball team fell in a squeaker to Amarillo High in the final. Then last weekend the Sandies sent the Rebels home from another tournament in Dumas in two games. So it was with no little satisfaction that the Abster and company dealt them Sandies a solid thumping in their own gym Tuesday evening. They made hash out of them in two games and danced on under their scoreboard.
Over this past pleasant and cool week we’ve gotten 1.47 inches of rain starting with 1.07 Friday evening. It fell quietly mostly during the night and we woke up Saturday morning to the pleasant realization no watering would be required all weekend. Through the week the place greened up and the .4 that fell last night will sustain that, especially if the mild temperatures persist. A glance at the forecast indicates they are likely to. So August is going down as a most pleasant month and a welcome break from the heat and dry of May-July. We’ve accumulated 2.84 inches this month topping our average of 2.20. I’ll be limbering the mower before long.
Recently our newly-adopted cat Cookie, aka Oreo the Cookie Monster, began behaving strangely. He has a lot of personality but he seemed to change into a more sober, maybe even reticent, cat. Then he disappeared for a couple of days. Joyce feeds both cats and locks them up in the shop every evening and Cookie was always there for his dinner. He wasn’t around a couple of times before but was always outside the shop door waiting to be let in the next morning. When he didn’t show up for a couple of days we feared the worst. Wandering soul that he is we hoped he was just spending some time with other humans he was friends with. Just when when we had reconciled ourselves to his permanent absence he showed up none the worse for wear except for a small gash on his shoulder. He gave no explanation and is his normal self again. I suspect drugs as the cause of this erratic behavior.
Then there was the matter of the sparrow in the bathroom. Early in the week I found a sparrow head and lots of feathers in the shop. One of the cats, Cookie no doubt, had apparently caught the unfortunate bird and brought it into the shop to consume. Sydney, given her advanced age (18), has no interest in such nonsense, Well, when you have cats and lots of birds about, that is going to happen occasionally. Then one morning I discovered a sparrow in the bathroom. Sydney was in the bathroom with it and it unusual for her to go in there. It isn’t unusual for the Cookie Monster to go in there to relax and I can only conclude that he caught the bird and brought it in the bathroom with him as a pet. Keep in mind this was in the morning and the cats had been locked up all night so the bird must have enjoyed their company since the previous day. It was none the worse for wear and it flew off as soon as I released it.
Joyce’s brother Max is spending a few days with us. Two of his daughters live in Plainview so he has family close by. Still, he gets a little lonely sometimes. The three Browning siblings drove 65 miles west on I40 from Amarillo to Allenreed where their grandparents are buried and visited their graves.
The grapes are ripening apace and only occasionally does a bird get inside the net to feast on them. It is such a large crop that there will be plenty for making a batch of wine. We’ll probably start that process shortly after Labor Day.