This photo is from Memorial day at my sister's house. The beginning of summer. Labor day always seems to announce the end of summer. There has been a lot of talk in our local paper about starting the school year after Labor day. When I was in school we never started before September. This is my daughter's last year. I don't care what they do.

We are moving furniture around this week-end. We got a new desk for my daughter's computer and along with the re-arranging comes a lot of cleaning and a lot of asking ourselves why we collect so much stuff. My garbage is going to be full this week. The Goodwill will get some, too.

I read the biography of Johnny Cash by Michael Streissguth. I really didn't learn anything new about the man that I had not already read. It is astonishing the amount of drugs he ingested if this biographer is to be believed. Another surprising note was the fact that he started up again at 40 and basically lived his remaining years addicted to pain medication and that June may have matched him in the pill popping area. Next on the list is The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang.

This coming week is busy. I have an appointment every evening. Groan. Our one big black male cat (Casper) has become violently vicious towards the shy and scared female cat, Moose. My daughter has had to stop him every night for the past week, but the other night she said he was really over the line. Poor Moose let loose a stream of cat poo while trying to get away from Casper. My daughter said usually Casper stops when she yells. This time he was not quitting, she said. He was out to kill Moose. She put him in my room.

That is too much. I usually try to let the pets work things out for themselves, but I won't abide violence of that nature. I am having Casper checked by the vet on Tuesday to see if there are any obvious reasons for his behavior. He is not treating the other cats this way and he is very sweet to me. For obvious reasons he is giving my daughter a wide berth.