Tag Archives: Rants

“I’m thinking about breeding my 2 cattledogs….”

by

0

Think again, please.

Unless both dogs are registered with either the AKC and or the UKC (preferably both) and have had all their health tests (BAER, CERF, PRA, etc. etc = around $800-1000 per dog) and you have 3 times as many people (with deposits) as you might have puppies (8 puppies = 24 owners with deposits) and are willing to take back any puppy you produce throughout its entire lifetime (and that can be 15+ years) and will guarantee the health of all your puppies and microchip them etc etc. Can you provide and have the money for pre-natal care, vet visits for mommy dog, ultrasounds, a possible Cesarean delivery etc. etc…..If you can’t or even balk at doing this because well, you might think it’s unnecessary…..I would strongly advise you not to breed. 

A good breeder, a responsible one spends hundreds if not thousands of dollars on both the stud and bitch. It wouldn’t be fair to the puppies if mom and dad weren’t in the peak of health and had all their eye, ear, hip, elbow, heart tested. If you can’t or won’t do the health testing or you think it’s unnecessary, I would strongly advise you not to breed.

Are you willing to find the perfect home for your deaf puppy (and that happens more than you’d think)? Are willing to do home checks or have a trusted dog friend do them for you? If you don’t think you need to check references or are unwilling to do so, I would strongly advise you not to breed.

Are you financially prepared for seeing the puppies get all their puppy health exams and shots? Will you have a mandatory spay-neuter contract with a held deposit until they new owners have proof of it? Will you get all the puppies microchipped so if (god forbid) at some point in its life that puppy ends up dumped at a shelter, you can go and get it, anywhere? If not, or you think that’s a waste of time or money, I would strongly advise you not to breed.

Are you going to be there for the new puppy owners 24/7 for the rest of that puppy’s life? Or yours? Phone calls in the middle of the night?  Helping them find a good, kind trainer, urging them to take their puppy to class?  Are you willing to keep track of all your puppies for the rest of their lives?  Are you willing to track down them down? Are you willing to deal with the owner who is embarrassed, ashamed, avoids you? If you’re not willing to be your new puppy owner’s mentor I would strongly advise you not to breed.

If you are unwilling or unable to do all of the above: Please Don’t Breed Your Two Dogs.  Please. 

Folks with intact dogs have to be extra vigilant. You can’t depend on your dogs to “be good” when Nature comes calling her siren song.

You have to look at the big picture here. 

 

You breed a litter and you haven’t done all your homework.  Your puppies make puppies. Your puppies end up in shelters.

Too many cattledogs end up in shelters and are tragically euthanized every WEEK. Rescues are overloaded and many good cattledogs die. I volunteer at a very low kill shelter, visit a high kill one. Everyone who is thinking of breeding should visit a “regular” shelter at least once in their life. If it doesn’t affect you at your very core, and make you swear you’ll do damn near ANYTHING to avoid having any of your babies end up there, Please Don’t Breed Your Two Dogs.  Please. 

We need to be the guardians of our dogs and this breed in particular. A lot of people might want a cattledog for a wide variety of reasons but most people don’t “get” cattledogs. The see a smart one, a loving one, a well-trained one, a good worker with a cool “look” to them and they think, “Cool dog! I want one!” The don’t see endless hours of devotion, work, frustration, worry on that dog’s owner’s part.

A Good Cattledog takes some doing.  Nature and Nurture.

There are tons of cool, fun things to do with your dogs that don’t involve breeding!  The options for fun with your dog are endless. Puppies are undeniably cute but the breeder MUST be responsible about bringing these new lives into an often cruel world. They are noisy, messy, need to be raised with love, kindness, socialized properly.  Etc. etc.

This isn’t being mean; it’s being real, fair and honest. You are your dogs’ guardian, now and for always, until the day, old and gray, their bodies leave this world for the Rainbow Bridge. That goes for any offspring you produce.

Of any breed or type.

Please Don’t Breed Your Two Dogs.  Please. 

Sorry about the color of the text. Stupid Word Press won’t let you change it.

The Fundamentalist Invasion

by

0

Those damn Pro-lifers fundamentalists.  

I have maintained for years, whether you are a Christian, Jew, whatever, that the Religious Right (MOST of whom, alas, call themselves Christians) are the most dangerous political group out there and they have made severe inroads into our government on ALL levels. 

Do you still not believe me?  Look at these blasted anti-abortion laws.  Look at how these so-called “men” have done to women’s rights.  I tell you what: when every single one of those pro-lifers has adopted a crack, disabled, bi-racial baby and one need homes, maybe then I’ll be impressed that your so-called “faith” is genuine. 

This nonsense will trickle to affect men as well.  

Women’s rights and suffrage in Ohio has just gone back a century.  

What’s next, women are property?

I know the Spousal Unit has disagreed with me when I have said this, but damn, I’m right and this latest Ohio bill debacle proves it. 

These (mostly) white males sure as heck have given true Christians and Good People of Faith a really bad taste in the mouth. 

And ya’all wonder why I don’t go to church.

I think Jesus would be/is severely pissed off.

Today’s Adventure & 5 Crazy Words

by

0

I decided to try this “take your bike on the bus” thing today. It’s really the only way I can get to the towpath without a car.  Akron Metro has a video on their website which I watched about 5 times.  I figured if it was really stupid, I wouldn’t do it.

There are a couple of reasons I wanted to go on the towpath.  For starters, it has rained the last few days and if I went on the Bike And Hike through Silver Lake and Munroe Falls, I’d have to bike THROUGH a lake as there are a few areas that flood like hell. I’m not that fabulous of a cyclist to get everything soaking wet including my shoes.

And sometimes I get tired of riding on the Bike and Hike, even though it’s a total blessing that we have it!!  We actually are rather blessed around here; there are tons of places to bike and walk and hike.  We have the Metroparks and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (thank you, Bob Hunker).  Granted the CVNP can be a total nut house, especially on the weekends.  Parts of it (mostly between Szalay’s and Boston) is like the Oklahoma Land Rush.  It’s crazy town and you have to actually be very careful, especially the Peninsula to Boston leg. If I were truly an extremely brave little toaster, I’d bike on the road for that leg BUT I am not that brave.  I get freaked out riding in a CAR!

I get to the bus stop which is about 3/4 of a mile from my house.  It took a bit of jerry-rigging to get the bike on the bus bike rack but I managed.  I’m carrying my helmet, bike bag and water and trying to get on the bus as fast as I can.  Yikes, sometimes getting stuff out of pockets is a pain!

About a mile into the bus trip, a guy with a white cowboy hat puts his bike on the front of the bus and gets onto the bus announcing, in a loud voice for all the world to hear that our local bike shop sucks!!  Bad service, etc. He’s rambling on about something having to do with a debit card and phone number.  He keeps on yakking and I’m wishing I had headphones on.

I’m thinking, “Ah, the joys of public transport! God, is the rest of the day going to be this weird??  Sh*t! And who in the hell in Northeast Ohio where’s a white cowboy hat while riding a bike?  OK, maybe in TEXAS, but here???”

After several of his victims had disembarked the bus, he says to me, “You’re a cyclist, I can tell.”  (I guess the helmet and bike bag were a give-away, huh?)  I do my best Polite Nod.  The Queenly one.  The “yes I acknowledge you because it would be rude to not do so but really my tea is getting cold and this is my way of politely blowing you off because I wish you’d shut the  f— up about my bike shop” nod.

He rallies on, “Can you imagine such sh*tty customer service?  Has that ever happened to you?  Come on, it’s happened to you! What do you do about sh*t like that, huh?”

I then utter five words I never thought would ever come out of my mouth:

 

I choose not to comment.


Holy crap, what did I just do?  Did I have an out-of-body experience?  Channel my inner Queen Mum?  Suddenly become my sister or brother who are MUCH more tactful that I am? Decide the diplomatic corps is going to be my next career?

Have I really been watching way too many episodes of THE WEST WING?

Who the hell said that and what did they do with me?  Since I’ve turned 50, I’m rarely reluctant to get into a verbal duke-it-up especially when someone is dissing a friend, a policy I believe in or a place I really like and  have patronized for years.  Truly, I had an out of body experience because I would normally have said nothing and hope that the bus would absorb me.

I will say this for this extraordinarily rare moment of tact. It shut him up.  Damn. He went on to bother some young lady who was on her way to a 12 step thing.

When the bus arrived in downtown Akron, I managed to get my bike off the front of the bus and walk over to Lock 3, a public area in Akron where they have festivities etc.  I managed to get lost pretty quickly (no surprise) but with the help of two nice guys and after walking my bike up a huge flight of stairs, I see the bike bridge over the inner-belt. Phew!  OK, I have a pretty good idea of where I’m going!  Down a great big twisting hill!  Wheeee!!!!

I wend my way down the towpath from Mustill Store to Botzum Trail Head.  The only part that got really dicey was (alas) around the sewage plant. The trail became bumpy and slippery.  I’ve been trying to use all my gears on this new bike and I must have heard or read somewhere that being in a low gear (what I’d call low, which is probably wrong) gives you stability and I needed it. Badly!

When I stopped at Botzum (pictured above) I toyed with going a bit further but wisely decided to turn around.  One mile (after 2 slight rest stops) before I got back to Mustill Store, I met up with 2 nice ladies and walked back with them, chatting.  Hermione and Florence.  Ageless women of color. (What is it with black folks?  Those ladies were anywhere from 35 to 70 and you can’t tell!)

Now I figured there might be a bus stop near here. I could have sworn I saw the parking lot for Mustill go by.  I start walking looking for a bus stop sign. I’ve turned off my RunKeeper app and taken the odometer off my bike.

And I’m still walking. Things look familar but….

And I walk up this HUGE hill.  I get to the top.  I don’t know how to get there from here.  I’m not so much lost as disoriented.

Well, this is stupid.  I’ll just go back and go over to Lock 3.” Yes, after I go around several deceptive corners over lovely streams and water falls only to discover I have to ride up two hills with a 5% grade.  The same ones I went merrily down.  The bike performed well but my legs and arms and hands and a** were screaming!!  I finally get near Lock 3 and take a lovely detour (and it is lovely) ending up going past Akron General Hospital.  I KNOW I’m not in the right place but it was interesting nonetheless.

Finally I struggle up the hill at Lock 3 and finally I find a bus stop on Main Street.  I finally get my bike on the proper bus to head home and finally sit down in the air conditioning, which almost made my tummy go nuts. I get off by the aforementioned bike shop so I can ask them a question or two and rest for a few minutes.

I ride home, decided to clean my bike as it was crusted with dirt, dust, mud, sand.

Before I had flipped it, I looked at my odometer:

2+ hours

20.5 miles

8.8 average MPH

Highest speed 18 MPH

Then I flipped my bike over and erased my odometer.  Well, sh*t.

I am sore but I’m glad I did it.

 

Myth, Parable and The Modern Mode: An Opinion

by

0

An old acquaintance of mine wrote this quote:


The question: How to reach the not-very-bright hordes, when they simply refuse to be reached by logic, fact, or modern mode? How to communicate obvious and vital truths (conservation, global warming, public health, sexuality, basic nutrition, religion as parable/myth, the general awfulness of Mumford & Sons) the lack of understanding of which keep the country straggling and embarrassing, the laughingstock of the civilized world?  

T. Alexander


My snappy answer was “Turn off Fox News.” But that is rather simplistic. 


First of all, it’s not just America or Americans that are to blame.  There is general stupidity and apathy, blind obedience to “leadership’ or what is fed to people by the government or media.  Anywhere.  In the world.  To make America and American the whipping boy, the lowest standard is just plain limited. We are not the only idiots in the world.


 Hello?  China throwing hundreds of pig carcasses in the river?  Oh, yeah, that was real bright and far-thinking, eh?  They could have a giant weenie roast and a big ass party!  No, instead let’s pollute one of our main rivers. 


Do people need to step up, look at and make positive steps towards conservation, global warming, nutrition?  Absolutely? We all share the world.  Hey, folks, here’s a clue-by-four: THERE IS NO WHERE ELSE FOR US TO GO. Hello, we have no colonies on the moon or Mars.  So if you screw this joint up, you’re screwed. 


Sexuality?  Of course, that’s a no brainer. Same sex couples should be able to marry.  We need, as a world society, more tolerance towards those who are not heterosexual.  Period, finished, end of story. If you think it’s bad for LGBT in the U.S. you have no knowledge of the rest of the world.  None, zip, zilch.


Women’s right and equality?  Again, a no-brainer.  Last time I looked men don’t have a vagina and can’t give birth.  So, grab your weenie and shut the front door.


Religion as parable/myth? Really? You honestly think that communicating “obvious and vital truths” in regard to religion is needed?  How exactly are you going to do that? Whose “obvious and vital truths”: would those be? I sense a disturbance in the Force. 


I shall start this off by stating that I am not a Christian, Jew or Muslim.  By the mere fact and dictionary definition I am a pagan. (See DEFINTION.)


I believe in a Higher Power, which at any given time I can call God, Goddess, Mother, Mother Earth, Father Sky, Gaia, Great One, The Universe, Divine Love, Angel Michael, Great Spirit, Father Of My Ancestors or “Hey, Ralph!”  And I’m not joking about the last one. 


I believe in something greater than myself, a power which can “restore me to sanity.”  Some days I am “coming to believe.”  Some days, moments etc. I truly doubt.  Some days I’m pissed off and don’t want anything to do with that idea. And there are days I forget too!  


I don’t hold that thought or belief in a Power Greater Than Myself all the time.  I forget to ask for help or guidance, to meditate, to turn things over when things are in the crapper, to let go and let that Higher Power do something positive, heal a situation (even if temporarily). to bless those around me, to help those in need, to open a closed door or show me another one.  Etc. etc. 


A Higher Power can be a “deity”, a group (such as a 12 Step type of thing), Nature, the Universe, Order, etc. 


My Higher Power is not confined to a couple of thousand pages in a book called the Bible, the Qaran, the teachings of Buddha or the Torah.  It’s “bigger” than me, it’s within and without of me.  


My question is: why don’t you believe in a Higher Power?  Why do you believe that religion is a “parable/myth?”  Isn’t that a rather simplistic view? Traditional church-temple-mosque type beliefs can be rather constrained, I’ll grant you.  But the Divine, that Higher Power is so much more than what’s found between 4 walls or a book.  Whether is be religious or educational!


Logic, you say?  What is logical about a tree?  A flower?  Nothing.  It’s not linear, it’s not logical.  Yes, it grows and dies but where was that original spark.  The big, cosmic, universe-colliding bang?  Sure, absolutely.  But why do people think that logic and belief are incongruous. 


Facts?  Facts can be misconstrued, re-phrased, re-tuned to suit the listener. Whose Facts are those?  Yours?  Look at pre-WW2 Germany and I rest my case. 


Statistics? Please. You can mangle statistics in so many ways that it’s almost ridiculous.


Math, you say?  Yes, math is very “pure” in concept but how is it used, explained, taught, related to? Math can all be expressed in a different ways.  Math to me and how it relates to my life is different from math to you.  Funny thing: so is the concept of a Power Greater Than Yourself.  


Science?  Science as truth?  The Ultimate Truth?  Really?  They have come up with so many ways to change our perceptions of how dinosaurs lived and looked in the last twenty years, that the old stuff I learned as a kid is barely relevant  That’s just as an example. “Hard” Science is ever-changing.  New discoveries are being made every day. Where does that spark of inspiration and sweat and try-again-because-that-one-didn’t-work come from?  The human will?  Sure.  But when a scientist says, “Hmm, I wonder if I did THIS, that would happen?”  Where does that come from?  Isn’t that the same as a musician writing a song?  Yes, he might know notes and theory but what is the essence that puts it all together and makes a decades-loved tune or symphony?  A touch of genius?  Luck? The hand of God? The Creative Spark?


So I ask again: Why don’t you believe in Something Bigger Than You?  A “Higher Power” if you will. Why do you try and negate that but using the fear-based “parable/myth: argument?  Why does it frighten you?  Because of the sheep-like devotion to rhetoric? You could say that about law or government or media   


That Something Bigger Than You inspires you!  It gave you the thought in your brain to write that paragraph and ask those questions about the “hordes.”  It doesn’t wipe the board clean of logic or facts.  It could inspire you in a way to help make those changes you want.


Modern Mode?  Let’s talk abut that, shall we? Exactly what is that? The Modern Mode of what? Communicating?   It  sure as hell isn’t the “Modern Mode” of compassion and forbearance and tolerance. 


The “Modern Mode” as I see it is: lighting fast communications, the Internet, social media, global satellites, force-fed, highly filtered, agenda-driven news, ever-growing ways to “connect” (without really connecting on a face-to-face level), new weapons, organ-regrowth, GMOs, super-farms, cloning, cell regeneration, new medicines and detection technologies, etc. 


Some of it is extremely useful and cool, some of it is great, mind-blowing, fabulously helpful, some of it is horrible, a lot of it is surprisingly de-humanizing and mind-numbing. (Think cyber-bullying.)  It’s slowly creating robotic thinking; the inability to learn and connect without some device helping you. 


The Modern Mode is being collectively disconnected from “real” world. It’s keeping you virtual, fed whatever you want or get the easiest way possible. For the most part, people are inherently lazy.  It’s Fox News.  It’s Rupert Murdock. It’s keeping us stupid.  It’s brain-numbing, soul-stealing.  We are more and more “of the world but not IN the world.”


The “Modern Mode,” in its most comic, yet true version, is two people sitting in the same room, texting each other, sharing a YouTube video. 


The “Modern Mode” has almost nothing to do with:

 Giving your neighbor a helping hand. Knocking on their door and saying, “Hi!” Talking on your porch, front stoop, hallway. 

Socialization face to face. 

Playing a game whether it’s Backgammon, Baseball, Bridge, Bocci or board games with real people not in some virtual la-la land of WOW.

Taking responsibility for your own actions. Accountability  Winning and losing gracefully. 

Fresh air. Open windows on spring night.  Seeing the stars, the moon, a sunset in real time, with real wind and temperatures. 

Live performances  the arts, music, museums, history. Touching a 2,000 year old stone carved by some long-dead person.  

Consequences for bad, negligent  stupid behavior.  Apologies. Amends. 

Fixing it. Healing it.  Making it work and last until its just dead, Jim. You break it, you fix it.  Duct taping it, bailing wiring it.  Shouldering on.  

Caring, kindness, the human touch.  

Commitment; whether to an animal, person, an ideal.  Staying the course. Manners, consideration, politeness, a thank-you. 

A sense of humor.  A sense of wonder and curiosity about things, people, the world. 


These are considered by many to be out-dated, old fashioned concepts. Not in the “Modern Mode” at all. 


I like, use and appreciate technology as much as the next girl (or guy). I might be able to positively impact your life through its use.  The Gods know I sure as hell could implode your life through its use. 


If I want to create change in the “not-very-bright hordes” I can surely use technology to do so.  But human nature is such that to make essential, cellular, holistic change, the surest way is through human contact.  We are screaming as individuals, as a society, as a world, to be touched.  You can watch a video of me singing a song but when you are there, and I make eye contact with YOU or I touch your hand, we are changing each other.  If I touch the shoulder of a gay man who is hurting because society rejects his lifestyle and give him my support, we are changing each other.  If I write to my congressman or testify at a hearing, that’s making change, even if it blows up.  If I walk outside the Afghani embassy with a sign saying, “Rights for Women.” I’m making a change.  If I don’t use a product because I don’t like their policies or spokesperson, I’m making a change. If I recycle, save, reuse, donate, I’m making changes.  If I’m in my yard or on a walk and I get a bolt of inspiration as to how to do something, or who to talk to and FOLLOW THROUGH,  I’m making change.


If you don’t like the “not-very-bright hordes” then quit bitching and blaming and make some changes. Make a shitload of money and buy a television station and do your own unbiased news.  Or if something you see on Facebook pisses you off, message that person or post or blog  and say, “what the hey?” or “Where are you getting your information from?  Here’s another point of view.” One person, face to face, at a time. You can be eloquent, you can get mad. To just blame all of society ills on Americans, stupidity  apathy and religion is too narrow, too easy.  


Don’t be afraid to let the Divine shine within you. Even if you don’t believe in Power Greater Than Yourself, last time I looked you aren’t floating.  If can’t look into the face of a child, a flower, a star, the sunset sky, an animals’s eyes; smell bread, a rose, the wind; hear music that makes you laugh or cry and not see something beyond your comprehension, than you are missing out.That is the Myth, my friends. Don’t blame anyone but your own lack of being a part of the Universe and Beyond. A part of .a Higher Power. A part of everyone and everything else in this world and beyond.



That is all.  I’m going outside.