Was going to go my own way on this one until started thinking about it. With the passing of a bunch of celebraties recently, it seemed appropriate. A couple went at a young age, Farrah sort of in between, a couple at an old age. Celebrate while you can.

How do you do a photo essay on "Celebrate Life"? The first thing is to define "life". To a science type, it is a molecule or critter that is capable of reproducing and building its own support system. When God and Mother Nature gave us life and DNA, He/she gave us something genuine to celebrate.

Of course, life is much more than that. Ask a lawyer or a prolifer.

Went around outside and got a few photos. Some of what follows is new, some is from earlier, but other than the DNA, all are mine.

Earth is populated with uncountable really simple forms of life to celebrate. Our bodies are populated with a plethora, a vertiable plethora, I tell you, of simple forms of life. I can hear them all celebrating all over my body right now. Hold it down, down there, ya hear! Difficult to photograph, however. Could not find any simpler life to photograph than the mosses that thrive in the shady side of the shed. I like the mosses because they have been around Mother Earth for so many millions of years. Don't you see them celebrating?

Lots of plant life to include but have done too much already. But need to include one of my favorites just starting to come out, crape myrtles. The Eastern Shore is full of lots of them and really enjoy seeing them. Crape myrtles are a reason to celebrate all by themselves.

One interesting thing about life is that is progresses. Like the oak leaf hydrangeas. They were all white earlier in the summer. Here just starting to turn pink just a week or so ago.

And now, all red and will be brown in a few days. and then comes fall and the leaves will all be gone. Celebrate life while you can. Mother Nature will invoke change all too soon.

Change may be painful and traumatic but it is not the end. Those spectacular iris are long gone. But they have gone to seed pods waiting for next year. And the celebration will go on.

Dug around trying to find an earthworm as a form of life to photograph. Every other day, see a million of them, wouldn't you know? Could not even find a butterfly. Ain't that the way it goes? They must be having their own celebration somewhere else. " Lowly's Bar and Grill" maybe? So here is one I had used before.

And a bird I had used before. A robin sitting on her nest in the climbing roses on our porch.

Leave off the reptiles. But here is another garden passer-througher. A lot more skittish than the black snake. Crumby picture because I had to do it through the back door window and screen. Looking for something from the trash to celebrate about.

But the real celebration of life is us. Annie reading to our boys many decades ago,

Our whole family at our 50th reunion last year.

Here is life to celebrate.

On Saturday and Sunday, for my birthday. we went with our daughter to St. Michael's and Tilghman Island, Maryland.

St. Michael's is a really pretty little town with a splendid harbor. A bunch of skipjacks.

Really enjoyed our two day visit.

Callie tried to find cool porches to lie on. Like "The Snuggery".

Spent the night at nearby (ten miles) Tilghman Island. A tiny waterman's town. Sunset at Tilghman

to sunrise.

But the best crabs we have ever eaten at Harrison's Chesapeake House .

Everyone was having a great meal, all you can eat.

So, eat more crabs. And those of you on Facebook, they have a crab fans site there.

In 1664, Sir Isaac Newton found that white light passing through a prism was broken into its component colors and then another prism would recombine them into white again. And we all know that a rainbow comes from teeny tiny water droplets acting as prisms. We all do know that, don't we? So, if the topic is "Rainbows", here are the colors of the rainbow.

And the colors of the rainbow brings to mind Roy G. Biv. .

White is all the colors together. Here is a white gardenia that is just coming out.

And a white oak leaf hydrangea starting to go to pink and brown.

R is for red. Like in a dinner plate dahlia.

Or a zinnia (pink is pale red).

And O is for orange. Like in cherry tomatoes that are almost ripe. There were more of them but somehow a bunch disappeared before I got the picture.

And an orange zinnia half in the shade (great picture taking skills).

Y is for yellow. Zinnias are neat because they have lots of colors and they will grow for me.

And a bunch of marigolds keeping the bugs away.

G is for green, them regular 'maters are still green.

And beautiful green eyes.

B is for blue. OK, they look green but these little ones are blue spruces. If the name says blue, then blue they are.

Hard to find blue stuff in the yard. So here is a geezer in a blue hat and shirt in front of a blue lobelia and a blue porch floor.

Really worried about what to use for I for indigo. What is indigo, anyway? And then noticed the lobelia. This is indigo, folks.

And V for violet. Was tempted to use a picture of a violet plant even though not in bloom. But, anyway, here is a volunteer left over from a wildflower mixture from several years ago, don't know what it is. It comes back stronger and more plentiful each year. My kind of plant. Pink? Violet? Close enough.

And I guess lavender is a subspecies of violet.

And the absence of color is black. Here is my black buddy. A little thick in the middle after swallowing something big.

The other day, Ed (Chicken Fat) in a post about Johnny Mercer mentioned “I'm An Old Cowhand”. Thanks a lot, Ed, that has been running through my head ever since. “My cheeks ain't bowed ,and my legs ain't tanned.”

Not Bing and the Andrews Sisters, but good video.

Well, that is not enough. It is when coincidence looms its ugly head that a blog post is called for. While going over a stoichiometry problem with a slow-to-respond student yesterday, and listening to Pandora at the same time, Willie and the boys sang “Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” Another anti-cowboy song. See, told you there is a coincidence and that the rules of chance are calling on me to make a blog post about it. OK, it is a stretch. I would bet that those who do not see the relationship are the same ones who count the shots from Roy's six-shooter.

I hummed and sang sotto voce to the pill bugs and an inch worm while I was gardening this morning. The pill bugs said they don't want their sons to be cowboys, anyway. So I wasted my breath on them. The inch worm did not even pay attention. Too busy trying to loop his way up the stem he was on. Singleminded little buggers.

Not the best video but the very bestest version of this song.

There is one line in Willie's song where he sings “they're always alone, even with someone they love.” Thought a lot about that while I was pulling weeds. There are a lot of songs about the opportunity for love coming along and one of the pair not being able to commit. Did not do much right in my life but I surely am glad I did not fall into that category. Back in 1958, the option to commit or not did not even enter my brain. In fact, once I looked into those green eyes, not much in my brain worked at all. The best thing I ever did was to not avoid committing.

Guess I am not a cowboy after all.

Some days! Went down to the Food Lion for just a few things. One of those trips where we did not want to spend a lot so I had a list and Annie stayed in the car to read. When we both go in, we end up with a big cart full. Pleasant sort of day, between storms, for a quick trip.

The Food Lion here is not one of their flagship stores. We often comment that the stuff that did not sell “across the Bay”, they send over here. And the parking lot is a sort of old time strip mall parking lot. And full of sea gulls, especially when the weather is due for some change. And it was. The nearest other acceptable grocery store other than this is 20 miles away, however. And the people and service at our Food Lion are very good.

There was a poster on the window for 2 cantaloupes for $3. Really hungry for them so added that to the list. The first thing was that all of the cantaloupes were gone. Asked the guy doing the produce and he said come back tomorrow. Darn. (That is not the word I used to myself.)

Quickly picked up the stuff we needed. And got to the ice cream aisle and Edy's ice cream was on sale! Happy, happy, joy, joy. We love Edy's Double Vanilla. Not enough to buy it at the regular price but enough to get it – maybe even two “half gallons” (joke) – when on sale.

The supply was pretty much depleted but, down on my knees rummaging through them, found one. A nice lady asked which one was the best and I told her about Double Vanilla and handed her the one I had, certain that there would be more. Went through every one on the rack. Lots of French Vanilla and Vanilla Bean but they do not cut the mustard. Only double Vanilla will do. There was one more, only one. The lid had been torn on one edge but got it anyway.

At the checkout line, the checker asked if I still wanted the ice cream with the torn lid. Told her the story about giving away the only good one. And that I did want the torn one.

Got out to the car and my decision about the ice cream with the torn lid was immediately and vociferously vetoed. At the same time, the checker came out to tell me that they were putting some more ice cream out and she went back inside to get a replacement. Told you it was good service.

Followed her in and left the half empty cart beside the car. Another mistake. Had parked the car beside one of the shopping cart return bins. Maybe a little close. Well, someone in my car felt the cart should have been emptied and not left standing there. But getting out and then putting the bags in meant crawling out through a narrow space and then putting the bags in on hands and knees on the seat. Heard about that.

The store did not have any more ice cream. But while I was gone and Annie was putting the bags in the car, one of the dive bombing sea gulls had made a direct hit – not on the windshield, mind you – right through the open driver's side window onto the pristine Corinthian (not really, but it sounds good) tan leather seat.

That beautiful tan leather interior is one of the reasons we got this Grand Marquis. Oh, the expressions about that. The air turned blue. Luckily, one of the items bought was toilet paper so, with a few unrepeatable expressions, cleaned it up pretty quickly.

The store was called when we got home and disappointment about the ice cream was expressed. Took it back but still no Double Vanilla so got strawberry. Another indication of a bad day.

But not all days end bad. When we got home from exchanging the ice cream, there was a box on the porch labelled “Perishable”. One of our daughters had sent us a Father's Day and birthday (the 28th) present. Two live lobsters, two bags of clams, two pieces of scrod, two pieces of Boston crème pie from Legal Sea Food.

And, oh, was it good.