Tuesday Twitterdeedum

On this day last year, cows were still happily grazing at the Meserve Preserve.  This fall they went to their winter home about three weeks ago. 

From the looks of this photo, taken Nov. 9, 2014, they still had plenty of grass. 

On this Nov. 9, snapdragons and a few hanging basket posies are still blooming, but lush, green grass in most pastures around here is pretty much ancient history. 

On a couple of walks over Meserve way over the past few weeks,  I've noticed one item in ample supply throughout the huge area where Bert Wood pastures one of his cow herds every summer:  more than enough cow pies. 

Doesn't matter what the pasture situation is, it seems, cow pies still thrive during a summer grazing season. Hence, watching where every step lands is vitally important when passing through.

What's Black and White and Red all Over????  Well, that seems to be Starbuck's holiday/Christmas cups.  From what I've observed, the discussion regarding the "red" cup controversy is either black or it's white with absolutely no gray areas. 

Guess I missed out on the early stages of that earth-shattering problem over my weekend getaway, which included no trips to Starbucks.  

So, by talking about the cup controversy today when it's on its tail end, waiting for the "next offensive thing" to fire up the keyboards,  I'm probably feeding the frenzy. 

Oh well, it's a free country, I think, and I can talk about red cups---almost after the fact-- if I want. 

This kind of problem usually reaches Sandpoint well after it's ended everywhere else. In fact, when I went to Starbuck's yesterday, they put my coffee in a white cup with the usual green logo. 

I'm thinking, though, that my cup was not the offensive plain red with no snowflakes because I only ordered plain ol' coffee----black please. 

The extras----sweet and caloric----came in that melt-in-your-mouth heated snickerdoodle, laced with toffee. 

At the risk of getting in a lot of trouble and having a whole bunch of people boycott my blog---like this morning's Donald Trump suggestion of boycotting Starbucks during the Christmas season----I feel the need to take a stand on this sensitive issue. 

My two cents come in picture form, of course! 

If you drink beer during the holiday season, you won't have a care in the world about political correctness. 

So there! And, if political correctness enters into your beer-drinking habits, go down to the grocery store and buy a sack of those blue solo cups to go with the red solo cups. And, then your party guests can choose what they wish.  

Of course, if a bunch of people get together and start drinking too much beer out of red AND blue cups, it could get even more testy than the coffee cup controversy. 

Can you imagine if someone drank more than the usual "two beers" and grabbed a blue solo cup when they had originally drunk from a red container-----I don't even want to think about that. 

Next.

Guess I'll think up a controversy and try to make it go viral. While I'm thinking of a topic, please send me suggestions.  

Meanwhile, in other news, my daughter is making the preliminary plans for her next big adventure. 

No, that adventure does not involve traveling to Sandpoint this weekend.  Annie is arriving at Spokane Airport at 5 p.m. Friday. 

That's midway through the Gonzaga-Pitt game, which is being played aboard an aircraft carrier at Okinawa. 

Since it wasn't broadcast where we stayed over the weekend, I missed the ZAGS exhibition game and had to call my sister for results.

She gave me a pretty good recap of who looked good, who looked so-so and who fell hard on the floor early in the game and sure did hurt his back.  

I read in this morning's paper, though, that one of the ZAGSs standouts, Sabonis, IS traveling with the team this week, so that's a bit reassuring.  

Anyway, all that said, not wanting to miss yet another ZAGS game and being BAD MOM, I have made selfish preliminary plans for Annie's mini adventure to her own private Idaho. 

While I sit at the airport Ramada Inn watching the ZAGS, she'll land and either take the shuttle or walk over and join me for the rest of the game.  

GOOD ANNIE!  She knows how important these games are to Mom.

Actually, Annie's next BIG adventure involves walking 500 miles through Spain.  She hopes to do that next summer over a period five weeks.  

This weekend she took advantage of some REI deals (Remember them? They're the ones who will not be open to make a wad on BLACK FRIDAY).  

I wonder if Starbucks (also from Seattle) will close for BLACK FRIDAY.  After all, they could gain some points with one fewer day of serving people in red cups without snowflakes. 

Okay, these controversies are getting me off topic way too much this morning. 

Back to Annie.  She has purchased some items which she plans to use on her Camino De Santiago adventure late next spring, including a good pair of shoes, a "Kea" backpack (a lovely tribute to our beloved Kea) and a Fitbit.

Annie told me last night she'll be using the Fitbit to gage her progress over the next few months toward working up to walking 20 miles a day. 

This adventure sounds like a pretty nice follow-up to some of her other pursuits around the world, and, of course, we'll all be anxious to follow along once again vicariously. 

Well, I guess that's all for today.  We do have some lifting fog, and we're supposed to have a nice day ahead before a predicted first snow in the valleys, possibly tomorrow. 

So, I'll move on with my endless leaf pick-up project, and maybe by the time I finish, I can head on down to Starbucks and see if I can get something in one of those red cups.  

Hate to miss out on ALL the controversy, and if you're going to boycott me for expressing irreverent thoughts about red cups lacking their snowflakes, please don't tell me.  

I get offended easily.  Tell Donald!

Happy Tuesday.