Hoof trim

56 Pictures….

Jethro July(?) 2013 - April 11,2015

R.I.P. Beautiful Boy

April 12, 2015

Yes, I’m sitting here, still weeping over the Dam cat.  I’ve got a little bit of weeping left to do, and there will be a bit of weeping over that cat far into the future,  He was a special soul and I will sorely miss him for a long while.

It’s 11:20 and I have to work today, so I know I’m not going to finish this now.  But I’m still drinking the first cup of coffee, I’ve finished with FaceBook for the morning.  Just not in the mood to be really social right now.

Yeah, I know.  But FB really is an introvert’s idea of social.  I make contact with people all over the world on FB.  I keep in touch with family and friends through FB.  I’ve had some good conversations on FB.

But this morning I’m not in the mood.

Jethro’s passing has put another hole in my heart and all the other ones are oozing again.  I’m missing Steve and Stonzie and Ashron and Tyche and the list could go on a very long time….

But that’s not exactly what’s occupying my thoughts at the moment. 

That’s what I’m feeling, and my thoughts are occupied with that.

I’m seriously hurting right now.  I’m sitting here with tears running down my face.

Those that have never loved and lost an animal will not understand that.

And that’s fine.  For those I’ll add that I’ve loved and lost more than my fair share of humans too.  As I said, it’s a new hole and it opens up all the others.  I’ve got a lot of them….

And some are bigger than others.

And some are older and well healed.

And the question that pops to mind is how do you keep on moving?

I really wrestled with that after Steve’s passing.  I’ve always been inclined to just call this whole life a Mulligan and move on, no matter what happens at the end.  If I off myself and there’s nothing more, at least it will be over.  If there’s nothing, then that means there’s no heat ache or worry or physical pain.

That would be relief enough.

But…

I haven’t been allowed out of the pool yet.  I’m still here and, despite my best efforts, still reasonably healthy.

If I’m ever diagnosed with cancer, I’m gonna smoke a lot of dope and let it eat me.

But, with my luck, the dope would cure the cancer and I’d be no closer to the end….

Ah well, I’ve gotta get moving.  I have a job due today so I have to work.

More on that later…

April 13, 2015

Yes, I’m sitting here weeping over the cat again.  Can’t help it, he was a special cat and he was a big part of my days for the last year and a half.  If he were here, he’d be sitting with me, or wanting to make his daily visit upstairs, rattling the door to get back into this part of the house, telling me the water dish was empty…

And yes, I’ve got to work today and tomorrow, but Wednesday is looking like a sleep and binge eat day….

I’m struggling here.  There’s been so much packed into the last week.  In hindsight a whole string of occurrence is weaving into a fairly massive synchronistic boot to the head.  I do a lot of driving for my job, So, I’ve had a lot of time to think, and not do much else, the last couple of days.  Keeping to a single train of thought is difficult for me at the best of times.  I’ve got several STRONG currents tugging at the stream of consciousness right now.  I’ve been pondering the power of music, which is a long wide stream for me.  It’s a concept that has popped up in the fiction I write….

And rarely finish….

But that’s a sidetrack I’m not wanting to explore right this second…

I’m missing Jethro, so he’s on my mind.

Musings on the true nature of the multiverse keep creeping in…

And I’m still on my first cup of coffee….

How do I go on?  That is the question.

And the answer is really very simple.

How do you not?

I’m still here and still breathing.  What am I gonna do?

Suicide, while a viable option in my book, tends to be a rather negative jolt to the universe.  I’m totally committed to the positive side of things.  I’ll admit, for me, it’s always been a struggle, but I persevere, and though I really do think the world would be a better place without me, I’ve got strong evidence to the contrary, so….

I found Jethro in the window well out behind the house on my last trip out with the dogs Saturday morning.  I was gonna walk them around, let ‘em do their thing, get them settled in the house, and head out for the day.  Actually it was Dusty who found him.  We came around the corner of the house and she immediately went to the window well.  I wouldn’t have even noticed without her.  At first I thought he was sleeping.  But he didn’t look up when I called.  He didn’t get up, stretch, and greet his dog…

I knew he was gone before I felt how cold he was.

Kathy heard me call him and asked if I’d found him….

I got the dogs back in the house and we all went out and fell apart.  We all knew what a special soul he was. We’d all recognized that in his earliest days.  He was one of THOSE animals.

And only the true animal lovers will understand that.

I can sum it up in; cats are cool, and Jethro was a cool cat.  He really was an animate ray of sunshine.  Always sweet tempered, he loved everybody.  He went upstairs almost every day to hang with the upstairs cats and the rabbits.  While he was an avid mouser and I was a little worried about him and Leonard, I was confident that once Leonard is big enough to be out of the lunch category, I wouldn’t have to worry about Jethro.

But now I’ll never know…

We all fell apart.

I’m still feeling bad about not dragging his fuzzy butt back into the house Thursday morning, and then forgetting that he was out till after the big storms passed through….

Shoulda, woulda, coulda…

Didn’t.

But we all sail through our lives oblivious to what is right in front of us.

Cuz, hindsight is golden and looking back there were indications that his time with us was drawing to a close, and I think he knew that, if we didn’t.  I truly believe that things happened exactly as they were intended to.,,,

But that’s another side track and I have to move.  Weather I want to or not.

And that is how you keep going in the wake of all tragedies, large and small.  I went out and worked Saturday, cuz I HAD too.  I had a job due.  I had to go finish it, same with yesterday and today and tomorrow.  I have to keep going and get these done.  I need the money.  I have other mouths to feed and responsibilities to tend.

How do I deal with the pain?

I blubbered like a bitty baby all the way from here to Granite.  I blubbered like a bitty baby all the way from Granite to St. Peter’s and I blubbered most of the way home.  I’ve sat here crying in my coffee for 2 days now.  I’ll be sitting crying in my coffee for more days to come.

How do you deal with this?

The best way is, don’t.  Don’t ‘deal’ with it, feel it.  Let the tears fall, laugh at the inappropriate moments, sit and stare blankly into space, sleep, move when you have to, and repeat as often as necessary.  Don’t judge yourself for what you feel, just keep moving and being and feeling.

And remember to pause.

I’ve been going through pictures, that’s where the title of this post came from.  I have 56 good pictures of Jethro.  Doesn’t seem like a lot.  But then I consider that I don’t have that many good pictures of Steve.

And I only have a handful of pictures of Stonzie and she was with me for 17 ½ years…..

Pause and share the chance moments with the people and animals in your life.  Pause and look at the beauty around you.  Listen to music, look at pictures, do something that makes you feel better.  Pause, breath deep, and realize that this to shall pass.

Be very consciously aware that all things pass, both the good and the bad….

Cuz you can't get it back when it's over.

Shot to Hell...

That's my day.

I'm having a 'not far from my own bathroom' day.  Waylaid by the irritable  bowel.  I stay home on days like this.

And that has included not going out for fun things, as well as calling off work.

Luckily, I don't have to worry about the call to a supervisor now.  Taking today off will make for a couple of longer days over the weekend, but I've got nothing due today and time for everything on my schedule.  So no worries there.

I know to the 'you work unless yer dying' crowd this seems like a cop-out.  While I could regale you all with graphic descriptions and a high gross out factor, let's just say, it's never good to feel yer insides, especially not the copious feet of inflame-able tissue packed into yer abdomen. I've already done the extra shower and change of cloths for the day and really, really don't want to be 30 mins. to an hour away from the house if that is necessary again.  Nobody's ever paid me enough to deal with this crap in public.

While I sit here pondering how to salvage something positive out this crappy day....

I've been listening to The Plain White T's.

I really like 'You Belong'.  I'm hooked on the sound of the song; the beat and blending of the voices and instruments.  I like the lyrics.  It makes me feel better.

And that sparks thoughts on the power of music....

And the whole positive/negative thing...

And there's at least 3 posts in there...

Really not sure which one this is going to be yet...

Cuz there's a whole lot here.

Listening to 'Pause' makes me grateful for all the times I've blown off things I should have done to go and do things I wanted to do.  Like the beautiful summer day years ago that Steve and I blew off classes to go out to Northwest Square and see an early movie.  We went to 3 movies that day, had dinner at Steak N' Shake.  Killed time between the movies just walking around the mall, browsing, enjoying time with each other.  We really didn't have the money to do it, but we did it anyway.

And now it's one of the best days I can remember...

And there are many days I'm glad I paused and enjoyed.  They are positive things that lift me up when things are bad.

Cuz, I know that this crappy day is stressed related.  The past few days I've been letting the worries and setbacks get to me.  Had trouble sleeping the past couple of nights.  Letting myself get all bent out of shape over the lack of money...

And today I'm being forced to pause and consider...

It's good to pause and be mindful of the good moments, the moments when you want to stop the world and linger.  Pay attention to every little thing there, set the memory deep.

But, it's also good to pause in the moments of adversity.  To pause, breath deep, and realize that as bad as it is, it could always be worse.  Be grateful for all the bad things that could have happened, and didn't.  Remember the good things in your life, and know that there will be more.

Lately, I've been feeling the lack of big, 'want it to last forever moments' in my life.  There really haven't been a lot of them the past several years.  But in this pause, on this beautiful spring morning, after indulging in some serious puppy therapy, I realized I have a lot of little pause worthy moments everyday.  Watching the birds out my window, visiting with good friends, seeing the flowers bloom. listening to good music, these are all the little things that make life worth while.

And I'm grateful to have so many of them in my life.

And on that note, I'm going to go and try to be productive....

It's a 5...

I really like these guys.  I like their early stuff and I like their latest.  Would like to get their new album.  Maybe it'll happen...



Their music continues to appeal in both sentiment and sound.

FBEs from the last couple of days....

 March 28, 2015
 Quotes from and comments on the article linked.  These are things we seriously need to fix.

 'The wingnuts went ballistic, posting on the Facebook page of a local television station that if the girl wanted to speak Latin, she should move to Latin America.'

This is one of the biggest problems in this country.
And if you don't see the glaring inaccuracy in the quoted statement, you are part of the problem.

'Too many Americans naively believe that the 1% have their best interests at heart, and they fail to realize that when unions are strong and their members earn decent wages, that money goes back into the economy.'

That's another problem we need to fix.....

9 basic concepts Americans fail to grasp

March 28, 2015
Comment on the article cited.

Oh yeah, the war on is drugs is working, for the PTB and their minions.  It's working to keep the for profit prisons full, give the police state a reason to seize private property and search people's houses without warrants.  It's working to keep people running scared of both their neighbors and the police that are supposed to protect them....

For Years, DEA Agents Attended Illegal “Sex Parties” Paid for By Drug Cartels, Using Govt Buildings

Also love how the the Justice Department says:

“The Justice Department law enforcement agencies do not have adequate technology to enable them to detect that type of misconduct.”

REALLY?!
You guys know when some poor Schmoe from nowhere makes a date with his mistress, yet you can't monitor the electronic communications of your own agents?
Let's say it all together now,  BULLSHIT!

 March 27, 2015
Response to meme quoting Sean Penn on Bush and Cheney creating ISIS.

Yes, the PTB do manufacture our enemies, both directly and indirectly.  Wouldn't surprise me if there are NSA or CIA agents embedded in some of the groups to facilitate their formation and determine their agenda.
Look up some of the released documentation, they've been doing this for at least the last 60 years...

There really are 2 separate and vastly different entities inhabiting the U.S.  There's the Military/Industrial Empire run by the captains of industry and finance, foreign and domestic, that seeks to control and consume the whole world, and then there's the Average Joes, who just want to own a yard and go on vacation a couple times a year.
The Empire has been growing since the late 40's early 50's and is on the cusp of end game.
And not handling it very well....
But that's a whole nother post entirely....





March 27, 2015
Comment on the article cited.

'Next, it was revealed that the Kochs own a 200,000 acre cattle ranch in Montana that has received more than $12 million of state and federal subsidies since it was founded. Two-thirds of the cattle operation is on public land, which means the Kochs pay grazing fees that are far below market rates while taxpayers make up the difference.  (In 2011, the state of Montana proposed raising these fees to get them closer to market, and a guy from the Kochs' ranch showed up to the hearing to protest this increase.)
This grotesque set of facts—two billionaires taking subsidies while trying to block our poorest citizens from getting assistance for medical care—was not well received by the press or public when it was brought to light.'

Kochs burning bridges in Montana Medicaid fight

'The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows...'

Everybody Knows, Leonard Cohen

The rich taking from the poor to give to themselves.  That's what the Tea Party is all about at its heart.  Anything else they espouse is lip service and sham.

An evening time waster....

FBEs from the last few weeks....

Random thoughts and opinions.....

'These are not the words of a man who wishes to establish a Christian theocracy. Jefferson promoted tolerance above all and said earlier that his statute for religious freedom in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammeden, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination." He specifically wished to avoid the dominance of a single religion.'

'Declaration of Independence (1776)
The most important assertion in this document is that "to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."'

 Founding Fathers: We Are Not a Christian Nation

The power comes from the people, not from any god.
Our founders went out of their way to keep religion out of government. They knew first hand that a government of faith, any faith, leads to oppression. We need to look no further than the divine arrogance of Israel, the tyrannical zealots of Sharia to see the danger of mixing religion and government.

Feb. 28, 2015
Thoughts after reading the article.

 The war was never meant to end. It is never meant to end. War is a big profit maker for these guys and a few others. As long as they are making money there will be no end.

Mar.. 4, 2015
Response to a meme quoting the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld on the Iran war a decade ago.
If you're tired of seeing young people bleed and die for ungrateful old people, it's time to radically change the system.

It doesn't have to be violent.
And if I'm getting MY country back, there will be reasonable gun control. A back ground check, waiting period, and license are not too much to ask for an easier way to kill things.

 Mar. 5, 2015
Response to a meme from the gun owners of America about taking the country back.  I'm all for the right to keep and bear arms.  I'm also in favor of imposing some common sense and restrictions.  I don't trust my fellow man to act sensibly.  From what I've seen of the open carry crowd, my distrust is justified.

'Take, for example, Wal-Mart, which recently made headlines by announcing it would spend a billion dollars a year raising the wages of its lowest paid employees — a minor tweak to its low-wage business model. Over the past 10 years, according to data compiled from its public filings, Wal-Mart has spent more than $65.4 billion on stock buybacks — about 47 percent of its profits. That’s an average of more than $6.5 billion a year in stock buybacks, enough to give each of its 1.4 million U.S. workers a $4,670-a-year raise. It is also, coincidentally, an amount roughly equivalent to the estimated $6.2 billion Wal-Mart costs U.S. taxpayers every year in food stamps, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and other public assistance to its many impoverished employees. In this context, how can stock buybacks be either morally or economically justified?'

 Column: The biggest scam bankrupting business and the middle clas

It can't be. It's part of the recipe for the Fascist state this country is turning into. Hanauer sees where this is going, and has looked past the corporate end game to the pitchforks, which will come.
Not that I agree with Hanauer that a new, more balanced, capitalist state is a glorious achievement.
I don't agree that profit is the only motivator of the human spirit.
I think we could do better than a longer, more balanced game of Monopoly.....

 Mar. 11, 2015
 Thoughts on the article cited.

I say we should let Bernie Sanders & U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren save their money. They should forget about bowing and scraping to the self-appointed aristocracy. Let's run a true grass roots, social network campaign for them. These two should be our next president and vice president. I don't care which is which, let's just all agree to write them in....

March 23,  2015
Response to a status update from Robert Reich about Ted Cruz's official entry to the Republican Primary.
People want Warren and Sanders to run.
Both have said they can't afford it.
Neither will be able to raise the necessary money.  Which is an extremely sad thing to say in this country.
Both of them could do a lot to pull this country, and the world, out of the downhill slide to destruction we are tipping into.
I would like to see Bernie Sanders as the next president of these United States.  I'd be happy with Warren.  My ideal would be 8 years of Sanders/Warren and 8 years of Warren/Sanders.  I believe the two of them would pull together and haul this country out of the slime pit it is turning into.
I'm writing them in in 2016, Sanders for president, Warren for Vice-president, and I'm getting as many people as I can to join me.
We are the American People and we can pull off the greatest Hail Mary in history.

To the cult of Ayn Rand….

One of many rants that’s been brewing…

This one goes out to all Libertarian, conservative, ‘I built this’ selfish asses.

Get over yourself.

You may have rearranged some stuff, but you didn’t really build shit.

Did you get up at dawn one morning figure out how to make fire, out of nothing and keep it going?  While you were at it you slapped together a little thing called the wheel, then you got the whole farming, domestication of live stock, food chain thing up and running in time to have orange juice with the morning bacon and eggs.

After breakfast I suppose you knocked off smelting, blacksmithing, concrete, power, lights, etc, etc…

REALLY?

Was watching ‘The Story of an Animated Drawing’ the other night, Walt Disney explaining the history of art in a nutshell.  He goes all the way to back to the cave painting of Lascaux.  (And now, he’d have to go farther in both time and location.)  Cuz, without those crude paintings on the walls of caves there is no animated drawing.

The same is true for all that we have today.  Without the millions of people that have walked this earth before us, we have NOTHING.

The whole of your daily reality is a cooperative experiment that was started thousands of years ago.  Without that cooperation, we’d still be scurrying through the tall grass and getting ate by everything around.

Even if you are totally off the grid and making everything for yourself, you owe the knowledge to someone who came before you.  You didn’t do the trial and error experimentation to figure out which plants are edible.  You learned, at least that, from someone else.

YOU DIDN’T TAKE THE EMBERS FROM A LIGHTENING STRUCK TREE AND MAKE THE FIRST FIRE.

YOU DIDN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO COMBINE THE INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THE FIRST LOAF OF BREAD.

YOU DIDN’T INVENT THE WHEEL!!

Even if you just want to consider the here and now, you didn’t do it all by yourself.  Whatever you built is connected to PUBLIC services, at the very least roads, which generations of American taxpayers paid for.

And here we should all take a moment to remember that many, many large corporations, which the Libertarians champion and support, don't pay taxes

Also, consider, whatever your goods or services might be, if someone doesn’t COOPERATE and buy what yer selling, you don’t make any money.

In light of the fact that cooperation is vital to your health and well being, don’t you think you should grow up, grow a conscious, and join the human race?

Oh yeah, without the millions of people that came before her, Ayn Rand couldn't have written her crap.

More pictures....

Just some more pictures I've taken over the last several weeks....

Leonard is settling in.  He's rearranged his cage a couple of times.

He spends his time looking for a way out.

Everybody spends time looking at him...

His first time out of the cage was a shade traumatic for both of us.
He jumped.  I jumped.  He scurried and I fumbled.
He ended up on the floor, behind a rolly chair, under the laundry.  He finally stopped jumping and let me pick him up.  I held him for a bit.  He buried his face in the crook of my elbow and eventually calmed down.
At least now he knows that I will save him and take him back home...

That's Steve.  He's still in the black box.  I haven't found anything that suits him better, yet.  Still looking.  Stonzie is in there with him.

My Mom's Collie Dogs.  Those are about 60 years old now.











It's still chilly enough for snuggling.  That's Riley and Dusty.

Dusty and Juno.

Sundance and Jeb.










Hope's been out and about....

And so have the birds...

Tom Traveler in his usual spot on the steps.

Riley still wants my chair.

Bonfire Day!!

Last Saturday, to celebrate the spring thing, and a couple of Birthdays, we had a whomping big fire over at the fire pit.

It rained all day Friday, the wood was soaked.  But Kathy and the kids built a pyramid earlier in the day.  Saturday was partly cloudy, so the wood had a chance to dry out some.

We started about sunset.

With an old recliner for kindling, it lit fairly well.

We had the pleasure of a red sunset.

 You know, the whole red sky at night thing?

It was a delight.










The fire burned exactly the way it should have.

Burning down and falling in on itself, it blazed the whole night with a minimum of tending. and some nifty fire works.

There were marshmallows and hotdogs roasted.  S'mores were made.  There was dancing in mud puddles and pony rides.  We sampled the new flavors of Peeps.  There were: Sweet Lemonade, Sour Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, Bubble Gum, Party Cake, and Mystery Peeps.  We found out that fire toasted Peeps are not so hot.

And Rose...

Loves Peeps



















I liked the Sour Watermelon and Blue Raspberry Peeps.  But nothing beats the plain old Peep for me, they're still my favorites.

We also tried the new Jack Links Peppered Sausage, and found them very tasty.  We'll have to see about getting them for the next fire night.

It was a great fire and a good night relaxing with friends.  A fitting way to welcome the season of regeneration.