People, dogs & thoughts

In my rounds Wednesday out of the office, I found a few note-worthy blog photos, what we used to call Kodak Moments. My first worthy sight were these two Weimaraners. Their owner had loaded them, one at a time, into a shopping cart and rolled them inside Home Depot. They were like babies, sitting with impatience, worry and anticipation as dogs can do. First one carried from the back seat of the truck to the cart, then the second one. Blind obedience, wagging tails and whining. Glad to be going anywhere with their master. This sight enlightened my attitude.
Then, as I was in a long line of traffic, you know, the ones so long you hope you can make it through in one light change cycle. This cyclist decided to change lanes and bolt into my 'safety space' I like to keep between my car and any vehicle in front of me. I lost my good attitude. No, I didn't honk or yell at him. I told myself relax since he wasn't going anywhere either.
Later in the day while downtown, I had just left the District Attorney's office and saw this usual/but unusual homeless person with all this personal property. (term loosely used) I had held my camera down at my side, as if casually just walking by, and hoped to have taken this picture as innocently as I could. As I neared I could see she knew I'd had taken her picture. I stopped and asked if all this stuff was her belongings. She said, "Some of it, some I'm watchin' for others." It was a matter-of-fact-I-should-have-known-this answer. I asked if she had family and if they knew she was okay. She said yes to both questions. Since I couldn't do what I once was able to do, sometimes get social services involved, I did something out of the ordinary for me. I gave her money, a $10 bill. She took it with a muffled thanks, not a bit fazed by the hand-out. She didn't look to be underfed, but it could've been due to the several pants and coats she wore. I left not really knowing what I should feel having seen this for years without much involvement, keeping a safe distance from this street society. I questioned if $10 was too much or too little. Would $10 buy alcohol or food?

I've saved the best picture for last. It reminded me of the TV commercial where the dogs stick their heads out the window. What a contrast between dogs and us humans. They enjoy life, don't judge us, are resilient and trusting of anyone nice to them (well, most dogs anyway) and seem to enjoy the moment they're in; the little things are important to them.

I can think of several analogies here but I'll leave these to your imaginations. Have a good weekend everyone.

Just political ranting

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." This sound familiar? I'm sure you all read learned about it in school. (those who paid attention in school) So, how did provide welfare come from promote the general welfare?When you think about, our country began as a bunch of insurgents who stood up to Britain and said they won't live under their tyranny any longer. What's going on today with politics scares the beejeebees out of me...

Where's John Wayne and Audie Murphy when you need them?

hAppy thAnksgiving

Thanksgiving Day, 1968, Central Highlands, Vietnam. It was my second Thanksgiving away from home. (the first had been in Basic Training) The day started out like any other, except my assignment that day was to haul hot thanksgiving dinners to the grunts and artillery units in the field. Uncle Sam did it's best to get hot chow to these guys who normally lived daily, eating C-rations - now MRE's. (C-rats were actually pretty good and had some variety, of which my favorite were beans and franks and cheese and crackers) That day I remember coming back to our base late at night after flying all day. (I'm sure we had normal resupply flights as well as the hot foods) The mess sergeant had saved dinner for us guys in the flight platoon, we ate a nice dinner after all, just later than normal. The picture below is a pretty good example of what I flew into on a daily basis, to include Thanksgiving Day 41 years ago. Funny, it doesn't seem that long ago.

So now with all the hoopla about this day, at least one of the things I'm thankful for is that I made it home alive and well for family dinners and trying to live the normal American dream as it pertains to this over-rated holiday. I've had a lot of Thanksgiving dinners since then, some better than others, some to accommodate my working shift...it's not always about the food.

Enjoy everyone!!!

Jumping on the Thankful wagon

With all the thankfulness going on, I thought I'd share a few thoughts. I'm thankful for older, nostalgic, non-neon advertisements on buildings.
I'm thankful I'm not this guy (and who knows if he really is a vet or not) but I'm thankful I'm a vet and survived it all with some sanity and health.

I'm extremely thankful for these little guys & their caring parents. . . .

& I'm thankful that I'm healthy enough at my age to ride my bike.

This list can go on and on and on but I don't have the corresponding pictures, IE, my lovely & understanding wife, my super and talented children and having been born of goodly parents. . . Oh, and the turkey dinner I don't have to prepare any more.

Redneck, White trash or Trailer trash....

I wondered if these terms are interchangeable so I did a little research. Very little. In reality, I wonder if I've been in any of these categories at one time in my life. I lived in Alabama for a few months during my post Vietnam Army time. I shared a trailer with two others, one who was married (primary trailer owner who's wife was in Mississippi giving birth to their first child.)

A Redneck is a disparaging term that refers to a person who is stereotypically Caucasian and of lower social-economic status in the United States and Canada, particularly referring to those living in rural areas. White trash is a term referring to individual or groups of lower social class Caucasian people that are considered to lack social status. You know who they are. It is most frequently used as a slur to describe financially, economically or culturally disadvantaged Caucasians. Trailer Trash is a derogatory description for person who seems well-suited to residential life in a mobile home park and is distinguished by poor hygiene, foul language, slovenly or slutty clothing, and general ignorance. Recreations include drinking malt liquor in lawn chairs under tattered R.V. awning and teenage pregnancy. Although generally assumed that trailer trash refers to Caucasians this term can be applied to minorities as well. Talk about stereotyping! Then there are the classy parks such as . . . . .
and this one somewhere in the south. GA? I reckon you have to use your imagination to see

this park in better conditions. When I stayed in one I didn't think anything negative about it. Carol's family lived in a trailer (Mobile Home, ooops) for a while and she turned out ok! =-)

So, now you know...

Who makes up these words?

Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle whereby people employ alternative living strategies based on "limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources". (Sounds like an unemployed, homeless or psychotic person to me.) Many freegans get free food by pulling it out of the trash, a practice commonly nicknamed dumpster diving. (again, I refer to above bracketed thought) Freegans find food in the garbage of restaurants, grocery stores, and other food related industries, which they claim allows them to avoid spending money on products that exploit the world's resources, (?? huh ??) contribute to urban sprawl, treat workers unfairly, or disregard animal rights. By foraging, they believe they are keeping perfectly edible food from adding to landfill clutter and that can instead, feed people and animals who might otherwise go hungry. Maybe I'll see what my local Von's is throwing away before I actually go inside and buy something next time and avoid exploiting the world's resources. Obviously, it must have it's merits or freeganism would not be around....
(Here's a picture of Carol last week when she thought she smelled chocolate behind Von's.)

Did you know?

Do you believe everything you read? (found on AOL) Sex can trigger amnesia? Doctors say lovemaking is one of the major causes of a baffling medical condition called transient global amnesia in which patients lose their immediate memory. At least I got your attention :-)
Car seats may be dangerous for infants? A new study released Aug. 24 suggests that car seats could constrict a newborn baby's airway because of the way the child's head and neck tend to tilt. The dye used in blue M&Ms and Gatorade can reduce damage from a spine injury? University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found that rodents with spinal cord injuries were able to walk with a limp after being injected with Brilliant Blue G. The only side effect? They temporarily turned blue.
Children age 4 and younger account for more than half of all bathtub- and shower-related injuries? A study in the journal Pediatrics found that such accidents send 120 kids to emergency rooms in the U.S. every day. The most commonly affected area was the head, which accounted for nearly 50 percent of tub injuries.
A diet high in fatty foods may raise your risk for pancreatic cancer? (you know, those double-doubles) People who eat lots of saturated fats are 36 percent more likely to develop the disease, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

**Okay, so I did my duty and blogged today...was this too much information? I can't remember...where did I put my glasses?

hot chocolate - a healthy drink!

Saw this today, thought it'd give me fodder for this blog month we're in..... I will paste excerpts from it to save you the long, drawn out version I had to suffer through, which after reading, I craved a hot chocolate for some reason, even if it was 82 degrees today!

"I never associated hot cocoa with good health. It was just a better, lower fat alternative to an intense craving for, let's say, ½ pound of dark chocolate devoured in one sitting, or a really big slice of Mud Pie...... hot cocoa has been elevated to a new status: Health Drink. Recently, researchers at Cornell University have found that cocoa teems with antioxidants that prevent cancer. In fact, cocoa has nearly twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times those found in green tea. This discovery surprised even the researchers: 'If I had made a prediction before conducting the tests, I would have picked green tea as having the most antioxidant activity,' However using this good news as an excuse to polish off more chocolate bars is a no-no: Although a bar of chocolate exhibits strong antioxidant activity, the health benefits are still controversial because of the saturated fats present,' researchers of the study write. Okay, so hot cocoa (minus the whipped cream & marshmellows) is a good way to fight cancer, but can't you get just as many antioxidants from, say, eating a carrot stick?
Well, yes, any vegetable you pick up at your produce section (particularly grapes, garlic and spinach) is bound to give you healthy boost of cancer-fighting antioxidants. But how much fun can you possibly have munching on garlic cloves while curled up by the fire on a cold winter night? So this holiday season, drink up your hot cocoa - after all, it's good for your health!"

The study did mention to NOT use the pre-made packaged hot chocolates, they have way too much sugar (you know, calories...) and other non-essential parts ~remember my blog of acceptable animal/insect parts in our packaged foods :-)? and make your own. Drink up!!