In Need of a Tie

In Need of a Tie

Noel Laflin

2-26-19

I have ventured into the dark side of the closet and retrieved, tried on, and now laid out my best black coat, shirt, and trousers for a funeral this weekend. I need to locate shoe polish next. Oh, and a black belt too. Most of mine are in bad shape, frayed in places – sort of how I feel at present.

The pants are tight, but they’ll work.

An appropriate tie is needed. Too many of mine are merely frivolous, and this will be anything but a frivolous occasion.

It’s going to be a sad farewell for many of us and I do not like the thought of it.

But I am going to find a tie that works, even if, like me, it’s out of fashion and a little frayed as well.

Open Doors

Open Doors

Noel Laflin

2-12-19

This little lady flew into the house yesterday as I had failed to close the balcony screen door behind me. It was a first for a hummingbird in the 35 years that I have absently left open screen doors around here. But come to think of it, there was a dove that also flew in once long ago. I should have learned my lesson way back then I suppose. However, in all honesty, I just thought that hummingbirds were smarter than doves.

Anyway, yesterday's little green lady in question immediately went to the highest window of course - some eighteen feet up - as she was drawn to the bright light there. She would not give up in her repeated attempts of tapping against the small panes of glass in hopes of escape. She ignored all other sources of light, like lower windows or the two opened doors - both front and back.

An extension ladder was fetched, the 'Monkey Business' movie poster - an apt metaphor for the situation - was moved, and a fish net was employed as a tool of entrapment.

It took nearly forty-five minutes, but everything worked out in the end.

She had tired herself out, so eventually perched on the edge of the extended fish net and allowed me to walk her down the tall ladder and show her the open front door - from which she made a grateful escape.

I will be more mindful of closing any screen doors in the future.

In Need of Cameos

In Need of Cameos

Noel Laflin

2-11-19

Breakfast at Tiffany’s was on last night, so I tuned in since I had not seen it in many years.

The opening strains of Moon River got to me immediately, as I was suddenly thrown into a lovely time warp from 1961.

Images of a young, radiant looking Audrey Hepburn strolling down deserted New York streets only added to the time travel pleasure.

A few weeks ago Roman Holiday aired. I tuned in to that one too as I had never seen the original all the way through.

   

Hepburn was even younger then – a regal princess.

And of course there was a young Gregory Peck showing her a fine Roman time.

I am now waiting for To Kill a Mockingbird to air again.  It will tie things together (in my warped mind anyway), as Truman Capote – the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s – was the model for young Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.

You see how it works, right?

Well, okay, yeah, maybe it’s a stretch, but if Hepburn had only made a cameo appearance in Maycomb, and Peck, a cameo in New York, then my logic would make better sense.

Till then, pop some more corn, open another beer, and hand me the newest cable lineup.