lets put a dog in the White House

Getting tired of politics? Maybe we should put a corgi in the executive mansion. After all, corgis know how to make things happen in a group. They're great organizers, don't take no bull 'till the cows come home, either. Run on hyper drive, don't miss a detail. Get along with folks on the other side o f the aisle? Sure, as long as they get in line pretty quick. Just a thought.

By the way, Barak Obama doesn't have a dog. John McCain has several. Call it my own personal prejudice, but I don't trust people who don't have dogs. So there. People with dogs can cope with messes, and chaos and aren't too picky. They are more open. In my experience, people who don't like dogs are often too fussy and preoccupied with their appearance and clothes and brocade furniture. Not casting any hard biscuits here, just a personal observation.

Well, on another note, I am glad to see that John McCain is putting his country first, suspending campaigning and postponing the first debate with Barry Obama in favor of returning to Washington to meet with the current President and bipartisan committee politicos concerning the very monumentally serious National financial crisis and proposed bail out. Once again, John McCain is being the maverick a lot of folks admire. In my humble opinion, Senators McCain and Obama need to be on the Senate floor to vote for solutions instead of out there in middle America wooing voters. Though Mr Obama seems to feel his campaign and first debate is more important. I was most disappointed to hear Obama's response to McCain's call to return to Washington. He all but snorted in derision on CNN and said in tones of condescension that a president has to deal with more than one thing, not just rush off to handle every (implied little) problem. He suggested the two candidates issue a joint press statement?!! Wow, that would be impressive non-action wouldn't it? Mr Obama proposes change in his smooth campaign speeches. But what specific kinds of change? In my mind, I can imagine can his mental wheels and gears turning. Uh...lets talk about that...and solutions....uh...they'll be under discussion in a future...uh press statement. Just as soon as I figure out what people want to hear to make them feel good about me. Excuse me, gotta run and talk to my advisers and speech writers. Got an expensive fund raiser in Hollywood tonight, too. I wonder if this smile looks perfectly genuine?

You go, Barry. Sometimes, experience and proven character, and proven commitment do count. Like now. Ta.

update

Hello Bloggers,
The first photo today is an aerial photo of a friends house out in Seminole County that borders Lake Harney. The photo shows what Tropical Storm Faye did to the area. In normal times, you approach the front of their house down a long country driveway and view the lake at the back edge of their property several hundred feet away from the edge of their pool. The last time we were there, we saw eagles and deer in the back pasture and their horse was grazing nearby. Now, and the water has gone down several feet, their house is a sandbagged island. The front drive and part of the house flooded and waves came over the pool wall immediately after Faye. They got to the front door in a bass boat. Still do. And yes, there are gators in the driveway. These are brave hardy folks and we hope all goes back to normal very soon!!!

The second photo is Baby Alex at eight months. I was a lucky lady on Thursday: I got to go to visit Alex and Amy and take them shopping for new stuff for Alex. We bought him lotsa new duds. a Gators ball cap (to match Mom and Dads'), some books and a soft side baby "laptop" toy. Fun!! Then Laura and fiancee came over for dinner and went to watch us work the poochies at dog agility class. Both daughters and grandson in one day! Whoo hoo.

Friday, I was suffering from what I will call "tummy troubles" but managed to get a short haircut and eagerly await delivery of some recovered furniture. Then, dinner at PF Changs after a protective dose of Pepto Bismol. Friday night is ethnic food night. We don't mess with that tradition no how. If its Friday, its Mexican, Itlaian,Chinese, or Greek. Saturday, we had a meeting for Free Geek, then went to (as Danny calls it) that good Swedish socialist store Ikea to buy some new bookcases with glass doors for the home office/library. We bought seven tall bookcases and today Danny is engaged in bookcase assembly. My lovely job will be to remove the books from the old cases, dust, and restock...in alphabetical order for fiction and by subject for reference. A big job!!!

My roof is still leaking a bit but the roofers have promised to come Wednesday (at last!) for repairs. I have my fingers crossed on this one.

Thats all the news on the homefront. Happy autums. Pumpkin Day is coming.

Nuthin much again

Here's a fun photo of a canine energy conservationist from the CURS website.

Hello boys n girls,

Haven't blogged for awhile for no particular good reason. Call me an energy conservationist, too. Whatever.

Catchin' up on my world: we had an interesting time in dog class last Thursday evening. Danny was having a gall bladder flare up attack, so I had to work with both dogs: Chili in beginner's class and Ginny in intermediate. Chili surprisingly, worked really hard and behaved perfectly. Did all the obedience things as if she'd been practicing all along (which she hasn't since puppy class). No lunging at other dogs. No rolling cages that night. Which was good since it was rainy and the field was a mud pit. Ginny was a wild child for the first twenty minutes, running off the field and all around the fenced area greeting people and other dogs and getting in everybody's way. She didn't seem to think she had to work for me as Danny's sub, but after misbehaving on the A-frame and tunnels, she settled down to do the sea saw and weave poles perfectly.

Friday evening we went to Bahama Breeze for our favorite Ahi tuna and Margarita chicken dishes followed by a trip to the mall and Barnes and Noble. Saturday we stayed home all afternoon reading (me) and doin' stuff with computers (Danny) while waiting for the handyman to finally install the new kitchen cabinet doors and frame for the family room shutters. By the time he arrived and finished it was after six pm! So much for Saturday.

Sunday, after walking the three poochies, we went to Sea World which was fun even though the temperature was in the mid nineties and like Dorothy's witch I was literally melting. Apres park, we chilled out and had fajitas at Don Pablos.

Monday we had another writer's workshop after work. I wrote a piece about bugs at an AA meeting. Really.

So that's it folks. That's why I haven't blogged. Ain't nuthin much to blog about!! I'm too weary of politics to rant...and yes, I do have investments with AIG. Don't want to talk or think about that. I almost forgot to pay my quarterly taxes on Monday. Don't want to think or talk about that either. So, I'm gonna go to bed.

I doubt any American can forget what day this is or where they were when the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center burned and fell. It is seven years now since a group of Islamic terrorists decided to attack America on her own soil for for their own bogus agenda of pseudo religious hatred. We were not at war with Osama Bin Laden or any if his minons. They attacked, on the flimsiest of self serving political excuses, not military opponents but thousands of innocent civilians in New York, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon. I wondered then, as I wonder now, why Muslims in America as well as all around the world did not speak out forcefully against Islamic terrorism or offer aid to those trapped beneath the rubble. Instead, courageous Americans, police, firefighters, search and rescue civilians with their dogs did what they could. In some cases, losing or shortening their own lives in the doing. I salute them for the seventh time. We do not forget them or their courage.

I despise and condemn Osama Bin laden if he still lives and those who follow his twisted vision of hatred to Jews and Christians and oppression of women. Nothing I have seen, read, or heard in seven years makes me feel that the religion of Islam is a religion of peace.

While I thought at the time and still think today that our invasion of Iraq was ill advised and precipitous and has brought our country nothing but expensive mistakes, I continue to support fully the courage, devotion to duty, and commitment of our men and women in military uniform. I still hope for peace, but given the continuation of oppression and terrorism around the world I do not expect it.

Here, for the seventh time, is a poem written for 9-11.

SEPTEMBER MORN

Our eyes fully opened

cannot be safely closed again.

Pain, drawn in blood upon our souls

is pain forever etched

from one moment, on one ordinary day, when

we looked, in horror, upon a corner of Hell.

We learned, too late for the lambs

how hatred ignites, consumes worlds

when one leads, who personifies evil.

Remember, Lucifer was once an angel

and had the option, not to fall from Grace!

From drifting ashes of the towers

massive grave of thousands slain

nameless people, now heroes all,

from hope robbed by crimson flames

our true innocence, one surrendered

seems lost, forever.

On that day, one September morn

our hearts so heavy in our breasts

the taste of shock so bitter in our mouths,

we arose unbowed, vowing in one voice

that America would endure

seeking justice, for those so deeply mourned.

Now, as then, we must defend our cause

freedom, liberty, and justice for humankind

saluting our murdered comrades,

those we'll meet again at Heaven's gate.

We are changed forever

and at cost we never chose to pay

the blood of three thousand lambs yet calls

asking that we do not forget

one September morn,

that horror day, when the towers fell.

A Good Dog

Amy and Elias lost a good friend tonight: their Great White Pyrenees Dog, Abelard. Abbo was suffering from cancer and had lost the ability to stand. He was in pain and it was time for him to move on. Now, he is safely on the other side of The Rainbow Bridge, waiting patiently to wag his plumy white tail again one day when he will be reunited with his beloved human family.

The Rainbow Bridge must be a fine place for a dog to wait. So many of my dear friends are already there. So, this is for Lady, Corky, Abby, Tara, Nikki, Belle, Chelsea... and Abellard. We do not forget you.

Below, some of my favorite lines from poems by poets who abviously had dogs in thier lives and hearts:

THE BEST FRIEND
By Meribah Abbot

If I was sad, then he had grief, as well-
Seeking my hands with soft insistent paw,
Searching my face with anxious eyes that saw
More than my halting, human speech could tell;
Eyes wide with wisdom, fine, compassionate--
Dear loyal one that new not wrong nor hate.

From

THE HOUSE DOG'S GRAVE

By Robinson Jeffers

You were never masters, but friends. I was your friend.
I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures
To the end and far past the end. If this is my end,
I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.


From MADDY'S WOODS in DOG MUSIC

By Jim Simmerman

And let the heart rest
that ran so hard, that grew
too big for this world.

Much ado about Sarah

Hello boys and girls,

Wouldn't the Republican Convention have been about as interesting as...well...a political meeting or a golf tournament or watching paint dry without John McCain's choice of running mate? I watched the great Democratic Love Fest Spectacle last week almost to the very end (I was just too saturated by too much crowd adulation and Hollywood glitz to make it through Obama's speech without barfing) and since I suffered through most of the donkeys braying I thought I'd give the elephant boys equal time to trumpet. Well, Hurricane Gustav changed their plans a bit and not much was happening on CNN or Fox or the other slightly less partisan stations like MSNBC. But, wow, the selection of Sarah Palin by John "Maverick" McCain sure gave everybody lots to talk, squawk, sputter, shriek, criticize, praise, and conjecture. All of a sudden, there was electricity in the air.

I'd wondered, at the close of the Democratic Convention, which was only a little less of a slickly produced spectacular than Nero's Colosseum Offerings or the China Olympics opener what the Republicans were going to be able to do with less money to spend, less high voltage help from the Hollywood and the Political Superstar folks, and the Bush burnout. Well, luckily for McCain, GW and Darth Cheney were otherwise occupied and the Sarah buzz was all that was needed. As far as the show, somebody opted to 'keep it simple stupid'. Good move.

Suddenly the Demos' overblown four nights of media slobbering and fireworks and slavering courtiers...uh delegates...at Senator Obama's feet reminds me a little of the couture gowned King and Queen partying at Versailles while the downtrodden people of Paris cry out for bread. "Bread, why my countrymen, we shall reduce your taxes while raising our own. You will be able to afford cake...and then who will need bread?! And we shall give you more government programs and control in your lives so you won't have to take personal responsibility." Vive le Democrats? Cie bon. Same old same old.

Like Sarah or don't like Sarah. She is, depending on the station and the reporter, either the media darling (Barry who? Joe who?) or a pariah. But, Sarah is news. Big news. Everybody everywhere is talking about her and her unmarried pregnant daughter and her special needs baby and her moose burgers and Alaska ways. She's young, a looker, different. Definitely not the usual Washington politician. Or Republican. Or the usual Democrat. Pretty much the most interesting Republican in a long long time. (Sorry John. You are a genuine hero but you have been around for awhile).

And how 'bout that Joe Lieberman and his speech? One thing is for sure, this election of 2008 is turning out to be very exciting. And no matter how it plays out, it is and will be history making in ways that we have not seen before. Glass ceiling broken or racial barriers falling...who knows what will happen.

I hope folks let up on the pregnant girl and the pro family values mother, though. Remember the Biblical story about the one who is without sin casting the first stone? Besides, its not smart to pick on a woman who knows how to shoot, dress, and cook a moose.

Ta