Rain

More rain overnight. When I woke up yesterday morning and got out of bed and looked out the window, I was relieved to see that we finally lost all our surface water. I expected to let out the cats this afternoon, perhaps after a quick mow. The rain washed away all those happy thoughts and intentions. We have all our little ponds and lakes back again, and the cats' day of freedom is set back over the horizon again to who knows when.

1976 Republican Convention

“Reagan could get a standing ovation in a graveyard. Ford puts you to sleep in the third paragraph.”

-- H. L. Richardson, California state senator

President Gerald Ford had just barely wrested the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1976 away from Ronald Reagan. It was a bitterly fought contest, such that the Reagans and Fords became heated adversaries. When it was suggested to Ford that Reagan should be his running mate, Ford said, “Absolutely not. I don’t want anything to do with that sonofabitch.”

[Source: Craig Shirley, “Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America”]

Home Life

Pop left for Kay's. "I'll be back Saturday. Maybe Sunday. I'm not sure." I said okay. No problemo. It is a godsend that he has taken to prefer going over there. As for possibly staying over an extra day, I wonder if it may have something to do with the cats staying in the house so long, and being serenaded by Sammy's yowling throughout the night and the small hours of the morning. I have kind of grown used to it myself.