January 2012— www.sunlakessplash.com WRITERS’ PAGE Landscaping


Ken Johnson The ways to landscape a yard are as


various as the differences in individual tastes. An unpretentious practice is to buy whichever plant or ornament catches your eye; then place it wherever there is room. The other extreme is to place plants and ornaments in a formal arrangement. This usually includes the unnatural shaping of trees and bushes. But suppose you have a wedge shaped


back yard as we have. A block wall borders the outside. An enclosed patio forms the near side. The large side of the wedge opens onto a street. So standing in the street and looking over the yard, you see a block wall at the narrow end. Even basic design


principles don’t lead to a solution here. Landscaping has never been a high


priority item with me, but following a plan or theme seemed like the best idea. So in an effort to “go with what we have” we decided to follow the wedge’s inside and outside straight lines. The patio door opens onto a recently poured sidewalk which parallels the patio. Cactus and low water requiring plants are planted along the outside wall. Overall existing plants and ornaments,


including a river rock covered berm in the yard’s center, fi t into this arrangement. It’s a work in progress. And like a perspective drawing, it draws your eyes to the theoretical vanishing point somewhere in the unseen distance. 


ANOTHER OFF DAY


Bob Hirt Mr. Cal Amity called to say he needed to


bring his dog, Khant Hellput, in for a check up and the usual vaccinations. When he showed up the receptionists thought it wasn’t the same dog they’d seen before. His face was swollen grotesquely and he looked very downtrodden and sad. In the exam room I noticed all the strange stubble around his nose. It was then that Mr. Amity mentioned that pool Hellput tangled with a porcupine a few days ago. Cal’s mail lady, Doris, had brought a package to his door and noticed the poor wretch with all the quills sticking out. She advised him about the shortcut to all those needless vet bills and true to her “professional” advice he clipped all the quills to about one eighth inch in length. Needless to say this didn’t solve the problem and the dog had to be admitted, placed under short- acting anesthetic and the quills pulled out, one at a time. It was later that day that Mrs. Bea Zarr


came by with her beautiful calico cat, Biscuit, for some serious consultation about behavioral problems her kitty was into. Seems she was urinating regularly on a new carpet upstairs in the house. I advised her that she had three choices: have the cat spayed, get a yellow carpet, or take her to a new offi ce in town, Katie’s Kitty Kounselling Service. She grew furious with me, said I


Epitaph


Lois Grotewold When I die, Only cry for the unfortunates Walking the street beside you. And when you need me, Put your arms around anyone, And give him What you need to give me. Look for me In the person I’ve known And loved. If you cannot give me away Let me live on in your heart, But be sure there are no gentle tears, Only robust cheers with the knowledge That here was someone who would be


cheering loudest If circumstances had been kinder. 


didn’t know what I was talking about and walked out!! I chuckled to myself, knowing that, as usual any attempt to advice would fall on deaf ears. She had called a week earlier inquiring of any male calicos that may be available for stud service. As a lover of calico cats I am aware that virtually all calico cats are females. Only once have I encountered a three-colored male cat but that one was gray, orange and white rather than black orange and white. She immediately informed me that she had taken a genetics course at the local community college and that she was getting into the cat breeding business. She had great aspirations about creating a new pure strain of calico cats: Felis catus, variety Calicotus carolus, in honor of her friend Carol, another cat breeder. I thought Carol might have to wait a long time to receive that infamous recognition. The rest of the day went uneventfully,


thank you very much!! On the way home I passed Arnie’s place, a veterinary practitioner who started there a few years ago and a very dear friend. There, in the parking lot standing next to her bright red pickup was Bea Zarr with her new addition, a tri-colored baby Nubian goat. I feared for Arnie. I had the car in cruise control but


instinctively I smiled and stepped on the gas. On some days just driving home can be so very comforting. 


Stray Cat Tales


Dee Rysdahl From time to time farmers who live on a


busy highway are confronted with unwanted animals that townspeople dump off along the road, and sometimes the strays are part of a family of feral cats who have no home at all. One of these was an orange cat that I named Garfi eld after my favorite fi ctional cat. My husband was not happy with the thought of a cat’s company for the 1800 miles from Minnesota to Phoenix. Fortunately my daughter and son-in-law


agreed to take him in with Ron changing his name to Custer. The man is an architect but, raised in South Dakota, has an affi nity for anything Western. Also he claims to be a “cat whisperer,” and seeing him interact with cats, he just might be. The next year another cat tested our


hospitality. He whole-heartedly ate the food offered but stayed a respectable distance away, a reticence fi nally broken down. He was a handsome copper-colored short hair with four white legs. I named him “Boots,” a nice Western type name in case it didn’t work to take him south and I might have to pawn him off to the cat whisperer; but go South he did. Boots was independent and smart, a regular Houdini, when it came to getting in


Thanksgiving with a Small “T”


Jay R. Strisik I am thankful that 50% of marriages are


successful, That little kids still eat ice cream so


slowly, That English folks say “Thanks awfully,” Never sensing the oxymoron. I am relieved that a lot of people, Prefer dark meat turkey. Restoring a nice balance. I smile when my wife uses a reference, Known only to the two of us... And we laugh. Do you? How great when a movie is cast, By a color blind director. I am thankful each time, My recliner chair proves that, You can have non-sexual fun, With your feet higher than your ears. How nice that dogs were domesticated, And cats are still working on us. That big, hulking guys say “Mom”. I am thankful that I am spending today, With a bunch of over fed, but happy,


table mates. 


CLUBS AND CLASSES 59


and out of things. My daughter called him a cat with cattitude, he could take you or leave you, and if he took you, it was on his terms. He had distinctive tastes, evidenced by his choice of litter box, that choice being my son’s Japanese Meditation Garden at the farm with its abundance of sand. Paul factiously complained of the loss of the zen of the garden. In the end, Boots’ undoing was proving


the old axiom that “curiosity killed the cat.” He must have used up eight of his nine proverbial lives. The ninth and fi nal came as he was checking out the cutting of the roadside ditch by a state employee and got clipped by the mower. Fittingly, his fi nal resting place was the Japanese garden, the precise spot marked by an antique black iron lantern. I sat on the stone bench and cried as my son lovingly laid him to rest. They say that when God closes a door,


he opens a window. Through that window came another stray cat,


this time a furry


copper-colored cat, arriving to the farm in the early spring before the abundance of snow had left. My son discovered him lying on a small patch of exposed gravel, looking thin, his fur full of cocklebur, one eye swollen shut. Paul’s fi rst inclination was to put him out of his misery and he fetched a gun from


the garage. Standing over the troubled cat with gun in hand, he had a change of heart crediting the homeless cat with the courage to make it through one if Minnesota’s worst winters in years. The gun was put away and the cat taken into the house and fed. There was a lot of white on the ill cat,


and as I described him to my daughter over the phone, she suggested the Spanish name for white, Blanca; the female name because I thought I detected swollen breasts and feared there might be some hungry kittens somewhere. Later Paul suggested that my gender designation may have been wrong and Blanca became Blanco. Blanco was taken to the vet and


eventually found himself on the plane to Phoenix. As I sat with my daughter enjoying the luxury of fi rst class thanks to her special affi liation with the airline, I commented that Blanco was certainly traveling well probably sound asleep thanks to a pill from the vet. A snickering from the other passengers proved me wrong as Blanco came nonchalantly walking down the aisle like he owned the plane. I scooped him up before the stewardess noticed and stuffed him back into the carrier, this time with the opening toward me. He seems to like it here, and I enjoy the company. 


SUN LAKES SPLASH


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104