Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
Official Google Blog: Mowing With Goats
Google has decided to use goats as living lawnmowers at their headquarters. No joke.
Dolphins Keep an Eye Out While Sleeping?
Dolphins have a clever trick that doesn’t involve jumping in the air for fish: They can overcome sleep deprivation and remain constantly vigilant for days at a time by resting one half of their brain while the other half remains conscious. Because they need to periodically come up for air and keep an eye out for potential predators.
16 Preposterous Products For Pets
As proud pet owners, we understand the desire to spoil and pamper your furry, feathered and scaled little friends. But some people take spoiling their pets to a new level, and manufacturers are making it easier with weird and crazy, sometimes preposterous products for pets. We found 16 of the craziest pet products the internet has to offer.
Unwanted Easter Bunnies Multiplying Like Crazy In Florida
What is it about Florida that inspires pet owners to set their captives free? On a Florida island, forgotten rabbits, the spawn of Easter gifts from as far back as 2002, run wild in a field of two-story condominiums.
Kenyan Man Bites Python In Struggle To Survive
A Kenyan man bit a python that wrapped him in its coils and hauled him up a tree in a struggle that lasted hours, local media said on Wednesday.
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Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
I am going to tell you a little story. Yeah, I thought you would appreciate that, especially since things have been a little dry around here lately. First, I must apologize for not offering any photos of the occasion. Laura has been swearing to me that she took pictures of the whole thing and that I have them somewhere. I don’t know what she is talking about. I can’t find them and I have no recollection of taking them. The best I can do is to paint a mental picture for you, because trust me, the mental picture I have is very vivid.
Okay, let’s go.
A long, long time ago (about 5 years), we lived in a small lake cottage a few blocks from a small lake in New York. It was a tiny, but cute rental. We lived there for three fairly uneventful years. I can still remember the night we arrived at this particular house. We had just driven 5 hours from all the way up in Naples, NY and were totally beat. About an hour before we arrived at the house, I was forced to stop short in the middle of the road while driving the huge moving truck I had rented. I was sitting there with my eyes wide open, reading the big sign on an overpass in front of me that read, “Maximum Height – 11′9″.” Unfortunately, I was driving a truck that was 12′3″. I guess that wouldn’t have been all too bad if I wasn’t towing my car on one of those two wheeled tow dollies. With all those pivot points, backing up wasn’t an option. Even better, I was facing downhill and it was pitch black outside. Let’s just say that it took a good long time to get that situation squared away and there were some mildly annoyed fellow drivers. It was not one of my best memories. I can only imagine how many times I was called an “idiot” that night.
Anyway, we eventually made it to the house, which was good. We parked the truck on the road and slept the night away, only to unpack the next day. Things were fine for about two years.
It was a beautiful sunny spring day. I was walking out to my car on my way to work when I turned around to check out the house, like I always do. It’s just a habit of mine. Well, on this particular day, everything looked fine, except for that small hole in the corner of an attic vent that was facing the street. It was up near the peak of the roof on the front of the house. I thought to myself that I had never really noticed that hole before, but was pretty sure that it had always been like that. Besides, this was a rental; it wasn’t my place to give daily inspections of the building’s exterior. I went to work and forgot all about it.
Upon returning home that evening, I did my thing inside and then grabbed a beer. I remember having no shirt on and walking to the mailbox to get the mail. Just as I got about half way across the front yard, a pickup truck rolled down the road and stopped right in front of me. The guy opened his passenger side window and starts telling me something in an excited kind of way. “Hey man, you got a raccoon living in your attic,” he said. I replied with a, “What?” “Yeah, I was driving down the road this afternoon and I saw a huge raccoon crawling through the little hole in your vent. I have no idea how she got in there because the hole is so small, but I sat here for a good 10 minutes watching her. She finally got through after a while,” he replied. I said thank you and started devising a plan on how to patch up that hole in the vent. I mean seriously, how hard can it be to keep a giant raccoon out of your attic?
Well, let me just tell you that it is a little trickier than one would think.
Before the kind fellow with the pickup truck even made it to the corner of the street, I already had the mail in my hand and was walking across the backyard looking for a piece of plywood. I was going to cut it to size and screw it to the 2″x4″ beams from inside the attic.
Picture this – standing on a table in your living room to push open a small trap door that leads up to a tiny attic in a tiny lake cottage. That’s really not that bad. Now, picture doing this while thinking that an enormous raccoon is sitting up in that attic just waiting to see the whites of your eyes. It’s a little unnerving. The problem was, I had no idea if the raccoon was up there or not. It was the early evening, so I was hoping she was out gathering some food. You know, just as I began pushing that little trap door open, I remembered that I did hear some strange noises a few nights earlier coming from up above me. I just chalked it up to some branches hitting the roof or something.
Laura was in the living room holding my legs as I jimmied up through the trap door. You should have seen my head whipping around in every direction I could think of. There were no lights up there and I was totally freaking out. As every second passed by, I kept expecting to hear a “whoosh” and have 20 claws and something furry attach to my face. As it turned out, the raccoon wasn’t even up there. She must have been outside doing something. I shined the flashlight that Laura handed me all over the place and saw nothing, so I slipped through the hole in the ceiling to screw the piece of plywood over the vent at the front of the house. I was totally confident that this raccoon wouldn’t get through this rock solid piece of wood and that our little raccoon problem was solved.
That night, around midnight, I heard a “bang, bang.” I woke up and started looking around. I walked to the front of the house and heard, “scratch, bang bang.” I really had no idea what in the world was going on, but my adrenaline was pumping and I was ready for anything. I kept hearing this noise as I was standing at the front door and it was coming from above my head. I walked back into the bedroom to grab the flashlight. I opened the front door and walked out to the front yard. As I shined the flashlight up towards the roof, I immediately saw two beady little eyes staring at me. Apparently, the raccoon was trying to scratch, rip, tear and push her way through the vent to get back inside the attic. I stood there in disbelief.
I went back inside to get some clothes on. I kept wondering why in the world this raccoon wouldn’t let this go. Why was she being so stubborn? I went back outside and started yelling at the raccoon, in an attempt to scare her away. All she did was look at me and continued to try to get through the vent. At this point, I was getting annoyed and wanted to end this adventure. I walked to the back porch, grabbed the garden hose and hooked it up. I turned it on and dragged it to the front yard. Now, Laura was standing there and was manning the flashlight. I started spraying the raccoon with the water and she ran across the roof towards the back of the house. I looked at Laura and gave her a smile. No raccoon was going to ruin my beauty sleep. We went back inside to crawl back under the covers.
About 10 minutes later, I heard the same “bang, bang, bang” and sprung to my feet. I am not even going to tell you what we did, because it’s basically a repetition of what we did just 10 minutes before. This time, I went outside and chased the raccoon all over the place, but she just kept trying to get back in that vent. I had enough. I really didn’t know what to do, so we went back inside and lay awake for the rest of the night.
When it was light out again, I went outside to see what kind of damage the raccoon did to the vent. There were a few more cracks in it, but nothing too drastic. I didn’t see the raccoon anywhere, so I held out hope that what we did to her the night before taught her a lesson. If she didn’t want to experience getting sprayed by a hose again, she would find a new home.
I went back inside, got ready for work and left.
That evening, when I got home from work, I found the house and vent exactly as I had left it. I felt very happy that I beat the raccoon at her own game. Laura and I sat around until it got dark, chatted a bit and decided that I would go out to grab some Chinese food to celebrate. You know, it’s the little things in life.
I will remember this conversation for the rest of my days. As I was getting out of the car in the Chinese food place parking lot down the road, my phone started ringing. The caller ID said, “Home” on it, which surprised me. Laura never called my cell phone from home. I answered the phone and I was greeted by a flustered female voice telling me that something was screaming up in the attic. It was Laura and she was jumping from one thought to the next. She said that either we had 20 birds up in the attic, or there were BABY RACCOONS!!! Holy man oh man. Baby raccoons? No wonder that lady raccoon was trying to get back in the attic so badly. I ran into the Chinese restaurant, paid for the food and ran back out to drive home faster than I was supposed to. I figured I should still get the food, even during a time of crisis.
When I pulled in the driveway and got out of the car, I heard a faint squealing. As I got closer and eventually entered the house, the squealing got louder. When I stood in the middle of the living room, the squealing was really loud and right above my head. I put my hands to my face and wondered what in the world I was going to do. It was dark outside and I was really tired from getting no sleep the night before. One thing was for sure; I wasn’t going to live through another night of that momma raccoon banging on the side of the house. Add the squealing of hungry baby raccoons in the attic, and I was ready to move out.
Within a few minutes, I had devised a plan. I would go outside, climb up on the roof and pull the vent down. Then, I would go up in the attic and unscrew the piece of plywood that was blocking the mother raccoon from getting to her babies. This way, the big raccoon would be able to get in the attic to feed her babies and they would shut up. Also, she wouldn’t need to tear at the vent any longer and I would get a good night’s sleep.
I informed Laura that we were going to be getting into some hairy stuff here, so she better be at her finest. She was going to man the garden hose. I walked around to the back of the house, grabbed the step ladder and the hose and brought both up to the front of the house. I handed Laura the hose. She already had the flashlight in her hand. Her job was to spray the mother raccoon if she showed up while I was pulling off the vent. Her other job was to shine the flashlight at what I was working on, so I could see what I was going. It was quite dark up on that roof.
I climbed up on top of the porch and pointed out what I wanted Laura to shine the light at and she did. I began working the vent off the front of the house, while constantly looking below me to see if the mother raccoon was climbing up the porch beams. If I saw the raccoon climbing up, I was going to throw myself off the roof. I know, I know…not a good plan, but I had limited options. Plus, my heart was beating a mile a minute.
Things were going pretty well. I was tugging on the vent and talking to Laura at the same time. I said, “Do you see any sign of the raccoon?” She replied with a, “No.” I was a bit neurotic that night, so I kept on asking Laura if she saw the raccoon. She kept answering, “No” and I was sensing a little annoyance in her voice. I didn’t care, because she wasn’t the one on the roof who was going to get tackled by a crazy raccoon who was trying to protect her young.
I was almost finished getting the vent off the front of the house and I heard the faintest scratch above my head. I shot a glare down at Laura who was standing there pointing the flashlight at me and holding a garden hose. She looked so cute; poor kid. I said in the quietest voice ever, “Sweet doll, please shine the flashlight above my head.”
She did.
I slowly looked up.
About a foot above my head was the mother of all mother raccoons, staring right into my eyes. She was standing on the peak of the roof above me. “HOLY FREAKING MOTHER,” I screamed. Luckily, I had a bit of wit about me and I ran for the ladder instead of jumping off the roof. I climbed down the ladder at record speed and ran to the front lawn to stand next to Laura. I had to jump up and down to shed some of the shakes and adrenaline off of me. “MAN,” I started saying, as we watched the raccoon climb down to inspect the vent. “I have to get that vent off of there or we are never going to hear the end of this,” I said to Laura.
New plan – Laura would spray the raccoon to keep her away from me as I finished getting the vent down. She did and I did. The vent was off. You should have seen that raccoon trying to get to that vent while I was working on it though. Laura showed her good aim that night.
The next thing I had to do was to go up in the attic and unscrew the plywood I put up the day before. This was going to be a little trickier because now I knew there were going to be animals up in that attic with me, as well as a fully grown raccoon on the other side of that plywood.
I crawled up into the attic again. I had my screw gun and a flashlight and was ready to go to work. I made my way to the front of the house, while constantly looking around for those baby raccoons. I didn’t have any idea how big they were, so I was pretty nervous. When I got all the way up to the plywood, I heard some sounds coming from my left, under the overhang of the roof. I shined the flashlight over there, but didn’t see anything. I grabbed a piece of scrap wood that was laying on the floor and pushed some insulation away from the beams. Right then and there, I saw four of the cutest little raccoon heads pop up and look at me. I don’t think they wanted the light shining in their faces, but seeing them sitting there changed the whole dynamic of what I was doing. I softened up and my mission turned from one of war to one of rescue. They looked so helpless. Since they weren’t about to go anywhere and obviously weren’t any threat to me, I started slowly unscrewing the plywood.
(The above video is not of the actual baby raccoons, but of imposters.)
As I was almost finished with the last screw, I lost my silly little grin. I remembered the beast sitting on the other side of the wall with a very determined mindset. I knew what I had to do.
I held the plywood hard against the beams and finished taking out the screw. I held the screw gun in my hand and picked up the flashlight with the same hand. The plan was to move as far as I could away from the board, while still holding it. Then, I was going to run and jump through the hole in the floor back to the living room. After that, I was going to slide the trap door board back over the hole, so the beast couldn’t follow me down through the ceiling.
If you have never seen a grown man scream like a little girl and run across about 15 beams of an unfinished attic and jump through a hole in the floor, you are a lucky person. If you are that grown man, you’re not so lucky. After I jumped through the hole, I landed on the table and slipped off it to land on the floor (on my back). I had to quickly scurry up to put that board back in place before we had one extra mammal living with us. I got the board back in place and ran outside to see if the raccoon went through the hole.
Apparently, Laura had the same idea and gave me a full report as I met her on the front lawn. She said that the minute I let that board down, the raccoon flew through the hole. I remember standing there and how good I felt. It was like I just won the lottery. Then, I remember thinking about how we now had five raccoons in the attic instead of just one. It felt like someone just took all my lottery money away from me.
It was time for a real plan…a plan that would solve the problem.
Laura used to work with animals and had access to really heavy duty animal handling gloves. They were about three feet long and about a half inch thick. These gloves were meant to hold down a mountain lion. If the mountain lion bit, you probably wouldn’t feel it. Okay, you would feel it, but the teeth wouldn’t go through your arm. Okay, maybe they would, but these gloves were really heavy duty.
My plan was to wait until mid afternoon when the mother raccoon was out for the day. Then, I would go up into the attic and screw the piece of plywood back to cover up the gaping vent hole. I would capture each baby raccoon and put them into a cat carrier that we had hanging around. After that, put the cat carrier outside and just wait for momma to come back.
That was the plan and I must say that I executed it perfectly the next day. I think the worst part was that the attic was about 150 degrees then and moving the insulation around covered my bare top half with sweat and fiberglass. It was pretty terrible.
You really should have seen it. I was like a professional animal handler. With the exposed baby raccoons looking at me and the cat carrier open and ready to hold the animals, it was show time. I put the gloves on and started reaching back into the corner of the attic. I grabbed the first baby raccoon and put it in the carrier. You should really see the claws on these raccoons. They are very long and really stick on everything they touch. I can only imagine wrestling with a full grown one. No thank you.
The first three raccoons went into the carrier without incident. The fourth one gave me a little problem. I am assuming that this last raccoon was the big brother of the bunch, because he kept trying to go deeper and deeper into the corner of the attic. He was hissing and being very aggressive. Eventually, he saw things my way and was placed into the cat carrier with the rest of his siblings. Another thing you should have seen was how much fun I had while trying to place each baby raccoon into the cat carrier while there was already one in there. Each time I opened the carrier door, the raccoon that was in there tried to climb out. It was crazy.
After I got the last little devil in the carrier, I beamed a great big smile. I kept the plywood over the vent hole, picked up the carrier and slid through the hole in the ceiling to enter the living room. I walked the carrier outside and sat it down in the shade at the side of the house. I kept the carrier locked, because I didn’t want any baby raccoons walking around without the protection of their mother.
I am sure you can imagine the excitement on Laura’s face when she got home from work that day and I showed her a cage full of baby raccoons. I’m not sure which she was excited more about, not having to deal with the “raccoons in the attic” issue any longer or getting an up close look at these little cuties. She asked what I was going to do with them. I answered that I was going to leave them there just like they were and wait until the mother raccoon returned to get them. We were certain she would be back.
A few hours passed and we were watching TV in the bedroom when we heard something outside tampering with the cat carrier. We ran out there to see what was going on. Well, low and behold, the mother raccoon was tossing the cat carrier around, trying to get it open. She wanted to get at those babies badly. I tried to walk over to open the carrier, but the mother raccoon lunged at me. Okay, obviously our mutual understanding of not harming one another was over. We were enemies once again.
Since I wanted to get this ordeal behind us and I wanted this raccoon family to reunite, I ran to the back of the house again to grab the hose. I came back and handed it to Laura again, with the same instructions. “Spray the raccoon while I open the carrier,” I said. Laura started spraying the raccoon and she backed up into the neighbor’s driveway. Each time I went over to attempt to open the carrier, the raccoon ignored the water and lunged at me. Laura had to keep getting closer to spray the mother raccoon harder. Eventually, I got the cage open and took off. Big momma ran in there and grabbed the first baby. She raced up the willow tree across the street and placed the baby in a “V.” Laura and I walked inside to give her some peace and privacy.
About five minutes later, we walked back outside to see if the mother got any more babies. We were surprised to see an empty cat carrier sitting on the ground. Man, she was fast. We would be resting easy that night.
The next morning, I walked across the street and looked up into the “V” where the raccoons were placed and noticed four small heads looking down at me. What a sight.
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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
I can officially call it winter now that it’s the 22nd. It feels like just a few weeks ago that I had sweat dripping off my face from working outside. Now, sweat is just a distant memory.
When I woke up this morning, I noticed a blue sky peeking through the little half circle window above the closed shades in the bedroom. I was pretty happy because every time it’s sunny during these “dark” months, you pretty much have to take advantage of it. Being trapped inside a house during a very snowy weekend can get on your nerves. Not that it isn’t beautiful outside, it’s just that seeing the same walls over and over again can take its toll.
I decided that today would be a great day to take Holly down into the woods to go for a walk. Since Holly is a Nordic dog, I figured that she would jump at the chance to bounce around in the deep snow. The plan was to hike down the hill behind the house, cross the walking trail, climb over the rock wall and continue down to the river. Maybe Holly could get a quick drink while we were there and then we would figure out a way to get back up that steep, snowy hill. That was the plan.
I went downstairs to get Holly, who was asleep on the warm basement floor. I said, “C’mon Holly…c’mon,” while slapping my hand against my leg. She kind of just lifted her head to look at me. Then, I started jumping around so she would get the message. Holly isn’t the best listener, so it takes a bit of theatrics to get her to do anything. Finally, she got up and followed me up the basement stairs and out the garage door, where I clipped her to her leash. I think she was starting to wake up, because she had a little pep in her step once we hit the driveway pavement.
To get Holly warmed up for the snow hike, I walked her up the driveway to the mailbox and back down to the edge of the woods. Once we were all set to enter the woods, I gave her a tug and jumped in myself. She followed me, but once her paws hit the snow and her body sank about a foot into it, she looked a bit discouraged. She glanced up at me with those, “No way, man” eyes. I wasn’t having that, so I started to tug on her leash a little more. We got about 50 feet into the woods and she stopped. She just stopped. Her head kept on leading back to the driveway. I stood there in utter disappointment. What had this dog turned into? Oh well, today is her birthday and she did just turn 14. I’ll give her a break.
We started heading back up the driveway and she began hopping in the snow. “Oh, so there’s all that energy,” I said. She was saving it to make sure she would make it back to that warm basement floor. She might need it to fall asleep again. Oh well. I brought her back inside and headed down into the woods myself.
Good thing I had my big boots and snow pants on. If I tried to hike around in anything else, I would have been totally covered in snow. We must have over a foot, because the white stuff was well past my shins and right below my kneecaps. It’s not fun when it hits the skin and starts to melt. Winter is all about dressing the right way. I figured that out a long time ago. Believe it or not, the second time I went skiing, I attempted to go down Mt. Snow in jeans. What an idiot. I’ll chalk that up to being an inexperienced youth.
I had my camera in my pocket and was ready to take some really beautiful shots of the New England woods after a snowstorm. I made it a bit down the hill to the treehouse. I figured I would take a few pictures of it to show you. I mentioned to Laura this morning that we should make a point of fixing it up this summer, just in case we ever wanted to sit up there and watch the woods. It’s situated in a nice little cluster of Hemlocks.
Treehouse in Hemlock trees
Treehouse in Hemlock trees
The treehouse is built very well and quite sturdy, so I don’t think we’ll have any problems maintaining it. Laura already climbed up there over the summer to peek out the window. I got about half way up and turned around. I few years ago, I would have been jumping up and down on top of the roof. What the heck happened to me?
I continued down the hill, across the hiking trail, all the way to the river. It’s really not that far, but when you are lifting your knees to your chest, trying to walk, it seems a lot further than it really is.
I made it to the river and took a few photos. This one was the best.
River leading into wetlands
The water wasn’t as active as it was a few days ago, after that huge rainfall we had. It was pretty calm today, but I’m sure we’ll see a change after the rain and warm weather that’s predicted for the next few days.
From there, I stopped to smell the figurative roses. It’s not every day I am able to stand, once again, in silence. It was really nice. There were no footprints anywhere, so I knew I was alone. I took a look around to see what I could take pictures of. It was kind of challenging, because there wasn’t a lot of substance. It’s hard to explain, but in the summer months, there are leaves, trees, flowers, animals, etc…to take pictures of. During winter, there is snow and wood. I did find a few things though…
Branch with buds
Looking into the sun
Small branch with ice on it
Tree branches in winter
Dried leaf with snow on it
Small tree in winter woods
At that point, I figured that I had enough pictures. Trust me, there were many more than what I am showing you, but so many didn’t come out the way I wanted them to. With many of them, I was experimenting with the various settings on the camera.
When my fingers started getting cold, I turned around to head up the hill.
If you have never seen this hill, I’ll tell you that it’s somewhat difficult walking up when there is no snow on the ground. When there is snow, it’s all the more fun. I made it about half way back up when I stopped at the treehouse again. I saw a few low hanging Hemlock branches, so I pulled the camera back to see what I could do with them.
Close up Hemlock branches
That was fun because the Hemlock is my all-time favorite tree.
As I rounded the crest of the hill and got closer to civilization, I felt the cold air against my face. I was using a lot of energy, but not sweating in the least. I continued to walk and thought to myself how beautiful winter and snow can really be. I spend so much of my time complaining about how I can’t go outside and plant things, that I overlook much of what this time of year has to offer. Today was a great day to get outside and remind me of that.
The last picture I took was of one of the Rhodedenrums out in front. It looked to good against the blue sky, I just couldn’t help myself.
Rhodedenrum against blue sky in winter
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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
There are a few things in life no one wants to talk about.
Of course I am not going to mention what they are here, because they will only depress me and will probably do the same to you. Included in the list, but really shouldn’t be, is one thing that I don’t think is depressing at all. It’s the topic of having a will.
You might think it’s strange that I bring this up and wonder why I’m talking about it at all, but the reason will become obvious after the next sentence. Just the other day, Laura and I met with the attorney to create two wills.
I know, I know…I debated for days about whether or not I was even going to bring this up, but I decided to talk about it tonight because I began recalling all the “will” conversations I have had in the past ten years. I think that just about everyone I spoke to about it said something like, “Oh yeah, I have to do that” or “Ummm, I really need to update mine.” There wasn’t anyone who said, “Yup, all done. Nice and tidy.”
I guess the reason why many people don’t have a will at all is probably the same reason I never went about getting one. As I put it to the lawyer, “This has been sitting on my to-do list for about a year now and I am just getting around to it.” It’s really not one of those “must do” things in life. It’s more of one of the “should do” things. I think a bit of organization here and there is much more appealing than total chaos at the wrong time.
We learned a few things while sitting at that big table earlier this week. We learned about the state laws and what would happen if we didn’t have a will at all. We learned what would happen now that we did. We also learned all about another type of will, called the “living will.”
If you remember the Terri Schiavo case, I am sure you will begin to understand the importance of having a living will. This, in some ways, is more important than a traditional will. Basically, this piece of paper gives the authority to one person to make a very important decision for you. You can click the “living will” link to learn more about it.
There is a really big area that so many people forget to address while making a will (or updating your existing one). It’s funny, because we actually reminded the attorney to update his own. This area has to do with pets.
Laura used to work in the animal industry. She told me that most animals that are put in shelters are put there because someone died and there were no instructions on what to do with the pet once the time for that decision to be made. Many family members aren’t too keen on taking on someone’s cat or dog, so these pets usually end up in the local animal shelter. Really, all it takes is one line in someone’s will to specify a friend or “pet friendly” family member that the pets should go to. It’s not like an order, but more like informing the people who usually read a will later on. “Oh, would you look at that. I had no idea that Daisy down the road wanted those cats.”
So, there you have it. I think I got through that with some definite skill. It’s sort of like navigating a landmine, but I realized that talking about these things can be helpful and a reminder for all of those people who might now say, “Let’s go get it done.”
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
I know there are sooooo many people out there who hate pictures of other people’s animals. I also know that I have said this before. I am probably one of them. Oh well.
Since you have probably visited this blog before, you know that sometimes I just can’t help myself when it comes to this kind of stuff.
I found this picture on my camera the other day…
I guess Laura was taking pictures while I wasn’t looking. C’mon, can you blame me for putting this up?
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Friday, April 25th, 2008
Do you want to know what really hurts? My legs, that’s what.
I am not sure if I ever told you that I hate moving. Boy, if there’s anything that can suck the excitement out of the big day, it’s the actual work involved with it all. And we even had a moving company this time. Oh well. Everything went well with the move. We filled a 24′ truck all the way up. I really didn’t think we had that much stuff. I actually had to leave my little blue recliner back at the house. That’s ok, I got that for free anyway.
So, now that we’re here, I think we’re getting used to it. Since we don’t have any plates (they are still back at the house…we have a few more bins to grab when we go back to do a final cleaning), we ventured out to the local Chinese food place last night. We were soooo hungry. I hadn’t actually eaten anything all day and was ready for some food. I have to say, the Chinese food wasn’t bad.
The place is still all full of stuff like big bags and boxes, but we’re getting there. I have the garage about half unpacked. I am starting a list of stuff I need, so when we go to Lowe’s, we can grab it. I need some of those automatic door closers, like the ones for screen doors. I don’t want any of the animals to get out. Also, we are going to grab some new door knobs…some of them are a little wiggly. All in all, everything seems to be in good order. One thing I am finding that I really need is a few 2X4s and some shelves.
I think the cats really like the upstairs. They seem to be very lazy and like to lie on the carpeting.
I will write more later, when I get some rest. I think I was so tired last night that I didn’t sleep all that well. I hate it when that happens.
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Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
Have you ever noticed the complete disinterest that people have when being forced to listing to pet stories? They go something like this…”Yeah, my cat is really something else.” “No, mine is crazy and wild. I really think that my cat does the nuttiest stuff.” “Dude, trust me, just the other day…” Get the picture? People argue and argue about who has the funniest animals with real “personalities.” The truth of the matter is that no one really cares about other people’s pets. If they listen, they listen out of politeness. I am fully aware of this.
With that said, here is another picture of Simon. I thought this picture of him wearing my hat was pretty funny. Right?
If you take a close look, you can see my chest hair overflowing past my shirt.
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
No, this isn’t about drinking, but I knew you would think that.
I have this pillow case…and decided to use it on a certain someone. I had to find someone who wouldn’t care if I shoved their body in it. I found that someone in Simon. Yes, he is a good cat and was a good sport this New Year’s Eve. I took a picture of him after I got half his body in the pillow case.
You see? Simon is half in the bag.
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Saturday, November 17th, 2007
I have had this post on my “todo” list for some time. I am not really sure how to write it without people getting mad at me. It seems like every time I write about something that threatens people’s ways of life, I hear about it. I can understand that, because I wouldn’t want someone telling me what to do, but perhaps a suggestion…I would listen to.
I guess we are all beginning to realize there is a problem out there. I just read an article on Yahoo!, titled, “UN panel: Climate change accelerating.” That’s not good. I mean, the article was well written, but what it was about isn’t good.
I think I have become an ever increasingly bitter person. It probably has something to do with me thinking an awful lot about stuff. I spend time thinking about consumption, power, working, relationships and life in general. It kills me to go out there in the world and see people who don’t seem to be doing much thinking at all.
One of the things that really gets to me is people buying too much stuff. I write a lot about things I have purchased and it may seem like I purchase a lot. Maybe I do. Let’s just say that half the stuff I write about, I never get. I usually spend a few months tossing it around in my head. I always think and think and think and that’s one annoying thing about me. Also, I usually buy stuff that has a purpose. I buy things I need for either survival or for business. I never buy things because they are on sale. The good thing is that Laura and I recycle more than we through away. There is rarely a full garbage can out at the end of the driveway on pickup day.
I saw this lady on Oprah the other day who had “hoarding disease.” The show was helping her overcome her problem and they were going through all the junk she had in her house. They would ask how she got some of the items and one time, she responded something like, “Oh, well that was on sale. They were almost asking me to buy it.” To me, that’s just crazy. Who buys something they don’t need because it’s on sale? Who does that?
I suffer from thinking about chains of events. Every purchase has polluted in its own way. Every little trinket has either cut down a tree, burned oil for shipping, used too much packaging, created sub-par working conditions…you get the idea. So how does one live a life being angry about their own purchases and even angrier about other people’s purchases? I don’t know. All I know is that every time I mention it, people get mad at me.
I like charities as much as the next guy, but I have begun thinking about them too. I am starting to think that I have some sort of problem. Now, people can’t just ask me to contribute without me thinking about whether the charity abused animals for research, caused the purchase of way too many toys or cut down a rain forest. The only thing I can think of to donate to is PETA because they don’t seem to be filling the world up with junk or polluting.
As you may know, I have been doing some research on the next car I am going to buy. This is especially important because cars create lots of pollution. There is a debate in my head whether to get one with not so good gas mileage or one with really good gas mileage. I know I am not going to drive nearly as much as I used to, so this issue is smaller than it should be. I think about it though and I guess that’s good.
We have been hearing about over-consumption for a long time now. Why is it that people still are shocked to hear someone talk about it? Can I say that I am not for buying kids so many toys without being branded as being against kids? Can I say that I think people should think more about efficiency when donating new houses to the less fortunate without being branded as being against the poor? Can I say that researchers should consider the rights of animals when doing medical research without being branded as being against the ill?
As you can see, there is a fine line to walk when talking about these issues. Unfortunately, if no one talks about them, we are going to be living on a very hot planet, among many many stinky landfills with no more animals. That is not good.
The good thing is that there are a few people out there who think along the same lines as I do. TreeHugger has a good article called, “Birthdays Without Pressure” which links to a related website that deals with the problems with birthday parties.
Read a little of the information on the websites I just linked to and please leave me a comment.
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Sunday, November 11th, 2007
We were going to go for a hike this afternoon, but I feared the ground would be swampy when we got to our destination. I wanted to hike down to a pond a few acres away. I think we’ll get to that another day, but for today, we stuck with our usual walk down the road.
I have to say, for all those people who put off hiking in the summer because it’s too hot, today was the day for you. Weather.com tells me it’s 44 degrees outside…perfect for walking or hiking. No sweating and no freezing. Just perfect.
In an unusual move, I thought I would bring the camera along. It’s nice and sunny, so I knew the photos would come out nicely. Wanna see a few?
This is a piece of property down the road that both Laura and I are very jealous of. I am not sure how many acres it is, but they have a pond, a grassy area, a main house and another house out back. They also have a table and chairs set up near the back of the pond. I would like to drink my morning coffee there.
Moving further along, there is a river that flows pretty much along the entire road. When Rob came up to visit a while ago, we looked for salamanders under the rocks in this river.
This is Laura’s favorite house on this road. It’s an old white farm-ish type house. It’s hard to see back there, but what I was trying to get a picture of was the nice driveway and Pacasandra planted off to the right.
I just had to grab this one on our way back. The sun was hitting it and the leaves were bright yellow. Also, this is a great stone house to look at.
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