Life is not a TV show, so suck it up

Raising them right:

whole-world

(here is a link to the original)

Something you may not know about me: A year ago I became involved in rescuing dogs. It started with one very sweet, very scared dog. She was adopted quickly, and replaced by another. Then a couple of puppies needed a place to stay because their current foster parent was leaving town for a week. And so on.

I haven’t counted an exact number but somewhere between 75 and 100 dogs have called our house their home over the last year, mostly very temporarily but some have stayed for months while waiting for the “right” person to come along. How do you know if they are right? That’s the trick, isn’t it?

During this time it has become very clear that it is not the dogs (and cats, yes, cats too) that are the issue, it is people. People suck. Dogs don’t lie, or cheat, they don’t pretend to be something they aren’t. They won’t take advantage of you to further their own agenda. They won’t leave you for dead at the end of a dirt road or throw you off of a bridge. People have done all of these things, in the small corner of the world that I inhabit. People suck.

How do you find the right one? You learn as much as you can, and you take a leap of faith.

I’m mentally 12

I say… and you think…

Free association is described as a “psychonanalytic procedure in which a person is encouraged to give free rein to his or her thoughts and feelings, verbalizing whatever comes into the mind without monitoring its content.” Over time, this technique is supposed to help bring forth repressed thoughts and feelings that the person can then work through to gain a better sense of self.

This is Week 629

  1. Tripple :: hang on, didn’t we have this word last week?
  2. Ownership :: responsibility
  3. Promising :: optimism
  4. Bonding :: glue
  5. Flurry :: snow
  6. Weather:: snow
  7. Conclusion :: jumping to
  8. Scolding :: teacher
  9. Nipple :: without them boobs would be pointless
  10. Freezing :: ice

Let the good times roll

When I was in high school my best friend had a paper route, it was an evening paper so he would go home after school and roll the newspapers, put a rubber band around them, and stuff them in a giant canvas bag. Then the bag goes over the shoulder, hop on the bicycle and go up and down the streets of the neighborhood; he of course had the route memorized and knew when to throw left or right or both ways. On Saturday evening it was much larger paper and took two trips or so to get them all delivered since they wouldn’t all fit in the bag. If it was raining we put the papers in a little plastic sack, but that costs more so we only did it if it was supposed to rain. I’m writing all this down because nowadays not many people read the paper (duh) and the ones that are still delivered are usually delivered by someone driving a car, not some kid earning money after school, and they always wrap them in plastic because so many homes have lawn sprinklers. At least around here. I don’t remember the last time I saw a young (under 18 years old) person deliver newspapers.

Several of us would go over to his house a lot of days and roll the newspapers; many hands make light work and it was a great time to chat. His mom would sometimes sit by the fireplace and have a cigarette and talk to us about school or girls or whatever. We also loved to watch TV, and Barney Miller was on reruns during that time. Other days we would put on Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin (like the day John Bonham died).

But Barney Miller is one of the best TV shows ever. Says me. Partly because of the awesome theme music, which is up there in the top ten TV theme songs on my list.

A few times if he was out-of-town I would throw the papers for him, it always took me about four times as long to do the same task. He was a freaking machine. I didn’t have a paper route, when I was 15 I started working janitorial and fast food jobs. We didn’t have cell phones and $4 gasoline to pay for back then, so a little went a long way.

I don’t know that the powers that be would make a show like this anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOj5Zmi4dwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48URjmAtGUE