The only thing the least bit out of the ordinary was my failure to locate my little calculator.

So I bought another one.

I remember when the first hand-held calculators (with just four functions) came out. They were not cheap, but my father (who always wanted the newest gadget) bought one. That would have been probably about 60 years ago.

And this evening I bought one at the drug store that does more (such as square root and some trig functions) and cost under $5.

Microchips and miniaturization have been the key.

Now that I have a functioning calculator again I shall balance the checkbook.

I also bought a US states puzzle made of sponge for YGD. I'll probably mail it to her, assuming I can find an envelope.

Oh yes--and a Janice Evanovich book, from before her Stephanie Plum series. That will get added to my stack of ToBeRead.

The advantage of having a TBR stack is that the books in it are usually sufficiently varied in topic etc. that one is bound to be attractive when I'm in a literary starvation mode.

Little Goldie came dashing up onto the porch when she heard the cats being fed. She waited patiently--about a foot from me--till I poured out the raccoon chow.

(It just occurred to me that someone who hasn't been following this blog might go to a pet food store and ask about raccoon chow. The brand I use most is WalMart's Special Kitty (cat food)--and Little Goldie doesn't seem to be the least bit picky about flavor. She and the other masked ones--and some of the skinny-tailed marsupials (who have 11 day pregnancies) also like Critter Biscuits--aka dog biscuits. Both the possums and the raccoons hold them with their front paws while the nibble on them.)

It didn't rain today--yet. And, judging by the weather radar, it may not rain at all. Lack of rain leads to hotter days.

I think I've about passed the halfway point in Gibbon's Decline and Fall. It very definitely carries a variety of messages. It was written in the early '90s, and I keep trying to remember just what was going on then. It's a thought-provoking book, and I am anxious to get to the end and see whether the various problems/conflicts are nearing a resolution. It is more than a little dystopian so far.

It's starting to look twilighty--time to toss out the dog biscuits.