Well I keep seeing this all over the blogworld so I guess I'll give it a try. I warn you, it may not be pretty, may be sad, may be...oh hell, here goes
20 Years ago...(yes I'm old enough to do a 20 years ago..actually I could probably do a 30 and 40 but I'm not gonna tourture myself so there!!!
Lessee....4 years out of college and working for a pest control company in Ft Laud. Courting (read as getting trapped) by first wife (the evil %*%#*& bitch, no anger here mind you). Drinking with free abandon. It was interesting back then. Bars in Ft Laud closed a 2 am then, Hollywood at 4 am and Miami at 6 am. So you could drink your way down the coast and end up at the bleary eyed crack of dawn at (take your pick) 1. Some sleazy strip club in North Miami thinking that you could take one of them home. Fat chance, and even if you did, boy would you be sorry once you'd sobered up. Thank God that I would be so drunk and sloppy that even a 5th rate stripper wouldn't want me. I mean, I had enough problems!! 2. Passed out in the car in some parking lot somewhere in S Fla hoping that you wouldn't wake up dead. 3. Eating breakfast at some place that was cheap and hoping you'd not be poisoned. 4. Driving home with a car load of drunks (driver included) laughing hysterically at the dumbest things you could imagine. 5. Scaring little old ladies at the supermarket while trying to score something that would offset the TERRIBLE hangover you just knew you were gonna have. 'Shcush me, do you know where the ashprin is?? hysterical laughter and giggling while trying to keep a staight face while the sun is poking holes in your brain. Ah, youth...
10 years ago...
Following divorce, move to Maine and New Hampshire, return to Florida, several different jobs etc. Stopping drinking. I mean I did a lifetime of drinking in a few short years. I have barstools all over S Fla with my butt print still on them. But these are stories for another time...
Starting working for the government. Bought a duplex so I could help my dad with his cancer treatments. It was nice spending some time with him, we had had a rocky relationship for many years but we became pretty close and I was glad that we were able to deal with all the shit between before he died. At least I am fortunate to be able say that I have no lingering regrets about our relationship. We talked and said all that needed to be said and when he died we were at peace with each other. It is one of the best things that ever happened to me. If you have the chance to do it. DO IT!! I was no longer drinking but I keep right on smokin' dope. I mean it allows me to relax without turning into a complete asshole. Mind you that's the extent of my substance abuse these days. It used consist of anything I could smoke, swallow or shove up my nose. We're also talkin' about very moderate amounts, long gone on the days when it was a spliff the size of a dog leg.
5 years ago..
Happily ( and I mean happily!!! insert flowers and butterflies and other stuff here) married to my wife. Bought a beautiful place in the country. Spent bunches of money remodeling it. Started on our quest to build the kennel. What a quest! I should have started a blog on that alone. Good thing I didn't, anyone that ever read it would run screaming from the idea of going into business for themselves......However, Dolly and I not being of sound mind, continued.
1 year ago.....
Kennel started!! Hurricaines come....Frances, Jeanne, Charlie, no power for eight days, That's fun for the first night, eat BBQ, play cards by candlelight, snuggle with the sound of rain....oh fine for the first day. Then, freezer defrosts, water running out on my wood floors. Well water, no power, no pump, no water...no showers....washing by pool water. Dogs getting steaks and bratwursts for dinner, they're diggin' it, real meat! All day!! wahoo!! No fans, no TV, no lights, no computer. Finally got a generator and solved most of the problems but it took 6 weeks for the ground to dry enough to pour the slab for the kennel. But progress was being made.
Whew.............
Friday, August 26, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Racoons
I've posted some racoon pics on flickr. You can get to them through the sidebar. We currently have two groups. A large colony of nine that live in the habitat I built out front and the three babies on the porch(!?). We are part of rescue network that rehabs baby racoons and then releases them back to the wild. It's very rewarding (most of the time!). We have to keep the two groups separate for now because the bigger guys will hog the food and beat up the youngsters.
Dolly went out tues morning to give the racs out front some water and inadvertantly left the door unlatched. Escape artists that they are, within a few minutes they were all in the trees and just charging around. She jumped the fence and got most of them just to have them re-release themselves in few minutes. She is no longer allowed to touch the cage! In the process of capturing the escapees she got into poison oak or ivy or chiggers or some sort of nasty, itchy bumpy stuff. She is covered with horribly itchy red bumps and is scratching, scratching scratching. I have to laugh quietly or I'll get blasted! It's funny but I still don't like to see her suffer like that. I'd show you a pic but boy would I ever be in the doghouse if I did!. Anyway, back to the racs. So we eventually recaptured 7 of the little devils but still had two on the loose. Over the last two days I managed to recapture both of them with delicious food and a have-a-heart trap. Although they may look big enough they are not yet skilled enough to find food and water on their own so I knew they didn't go far. They are completely dependent on us until they are 9 or so months old. At this point most of them are still quite friendly and like to touch you through the cage and grab your fingers and shirt. They have the most fascinating hands, large soft pads with articulated thumbs. When they hold onto your fingers it's like velvet gloves. I understand that the reason they appear to wash their food is actually that the water makes their hands more sensitive. Apparently touch is their primary sense.
The little guys on the porch are a panic. They come and fuss at the door when it's time to eat. They watch us as much as we (and the dogs and cats) watch them. I'm not sure who is more interested in who! When you go out to feed them they will come charging from wherever they are and banzai at the food. Milk, banana, omnivore biscuits, grapes, sardines, apple, left-over spaghetti, pear, dog food, cat food actually just about anything.
After the racoons are about 6-7 months old they are moved (that should be fun) to the big release cages out back in the woods and eventually they will be released, wished good luck and that will that until baby season next year!
Just a note about racoons as pets. They are quite cute and affectionate when they are small but as they get larger they can get really mean and quite vicious, particularly at breeding time. Any idea how much fun it is dealing with a cranky 40 lb male racoon in your kitchen? All in all a bad idea and certainly not fair to the racoon.
Dolly went out tues morning to give the racs out front some water and inadvertantly left the door unlatched. Escape artists that they are, within a few minutes they were all in the trees and just charging around. She jumped the fence and got most of them just to have them re-release themselves in few minutes. She is no longer allowed to touch the cage! In the process of capturing the escapees she got into poison oak or ivy or chiggers or some sort of nasty, itchy bumpy stuff. She is covered with horribly itchy red bumps and is scratching, scratching scratching. I have to laugh quietly or I'll get blasted! It's funny but I still don't like to see her suffer like that. I'd show you a pic but boy would I ever be in the doghouse if I did!. Anyway, back to the racs. So we eventually recaptured 7 of the little devils but still had two on the loose. Over the last two days I managed to recapture both of them with delicious food and a have-a-heart trap. Although they may look big enough they are not yet skilled enough to find food and water on their own so I knew they didn't go far. They are completely dependent on us until they are 9 or so months old. At this point most of them are still quite friendly and like to touch you through the cage and grab your fingers and shirt. They have the most fascinating hands, large soft pads with articulated thumbs. When they hold onto your fingers it's like velvet gloves. I understand that the reason they appear to wash their food is actually that the water makes their hands more sensitive. Apparently touch is their primary sense.
The little guys on the porch are a panic. They come and fuss at the door when it's time to eat. They watch us as much as we (and the dogs and cats) watch them. I'm not sure who is more interested in who! When you go out to feed them they will come charging from wherever they are and banzai at the food. Milk, banana, omnivore biscuits, grapes, sardines, apple, left-over spaghetti, pear, dog food, cat food actually just about anything.
After the racoons are about 6-7 months old they are moved (that should be fun) to the big release cages out back in the woods and eventually they will be released, wished good luck and that will that until baby season next year!
Just a note about racoons as pets. They are quite cute and affectionate when they are small but as they get larger they can get really mean and quite vicious, particularly at breeding time. Any idea how much fun it is dealing with a cranky 40 lb male racoon in your kitchen? All in all a bad idea and certainly not fair to the racoon.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
ranting, ranting ,ranting
I watched an episode of Law and Order last night about a suburban militia group. Ordinary guys that become radicalized due to the way our government is operating. I was surprised at how much it hit home. I have been saying (a lot to myself) that the REAL problem with this country is the culture of government that we have here. I mean it's all about money and restrictions on this and that. It was reinforced by the receipt of our property taxes statement last night. Looking through the list of "neccassary" expenditures by our local government it is astounding how much money they want. $200+ for the school board!? Let's see, what can I say about this. Several years ago I noticed that one of the nearby schools had a brand new, fancy facade redone for the entrance for the school. Knowing how these things worked it was probably VERY expensive. Yet there are portables in the back of the school! Oh I'm sure there is a very compelling argument for why money is spent this way. I work the for government. I have watched them mismanage, piss away and generally waste an ENORMOUS pile of money in the years I have been here. One example. A year or so ago some overpaid moron decided that a competancy test would be the way to go. So, at great expense they contracted with a private company that developed an on-line assessment that a chipmunk could have passed. They also spent millions building training rooms in all the offices statewide with state of the art computer desks and nice fancy new machines for this test. We all took it once. That's it, once. Then they decided, well maybe we'll go in a dramatically differnt direction since this doesn't seem to have the desired outcome. Millions spent for a test (I heard $6 million) millions more for an enormous number of facilities and computers and furntiure for NOTHING! This is one department in one state in our country! How much overall money is wasted by our government (local, state and federal). We can't provide sufficient equipment for our boys in Iraq but we can build stupid training rooms for dumbass state employees! I hate to be so negative but I'm watching our country get sucked down the drain by politicos that are in it for themselves (wallet, prestige, retirement, whatever) and not in it for our country. Our founding fathers are spinning in their graves at about 200,000 rpm at this point. Don't even get me started on our "justice" system. Well since you mentioned it I will rant some. Have you noticed that it's all about the process of law and not really about justice? Innocent men spending years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit. Prosecutors refusing to reopen cases because someone might look bad (read as stupid, criminal, etc). Hemming and hawing about DNA testing because it might (again) make them look stupid. Overbearing, power hungry cops. man it just seems like such a mess. And what's worse there doesn't seem to be anyone on the horizon that will be any better than the bunch we already have in Washington......., we're doomed..........
However, the kennels doing just fine.......
Upon reflection the above makes me feel like a hipocrite since I, too, feed off the public teat. I guess I better hope that the kennel does well enough so I can get out of here. I would prefer to work with the animals and to help advocate for stronger animal cruelty laws.....perchance we all dream....
However, the kennels doing just fine.......
Upon reflection the above makes me feel like a hipocrite since I, too, feed off the public teat. I guess I better hope that the kennel does well enough so I can get out of here. I would prefer to work with the animals and to help advocate for stronger animal cruelty laws.....perchance we all dream....
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Overly Busy
Well since the kennel has opened we are overly busy. It's rare that we get any time to do much of anything except for the ENDLESS CHORES around both the house and kennel. I'm sure it's because we are not particularly well organized. We have begun a campaign of ORDERLINESS. We'll just have to see if we can pull it off. The problems as I see them
1. We have have just too much stuff. I mean our stuff has stuff. We need to get rid of anything we haven't touched/used/looked at for the last 6 months or so.....
2. We are not organized. We have no real routinue. We get things done as they need to be instead of having A PLAN
3.We spread ourselves too thin. In stead of trying to concentrate on the things that need to get done we keep taking on more. I'm not sure that this one is going to get much better. Most of the extras that we do are animal rescue related and I cannot in good consience let animal die or otherwise be neglected just because it's inconvienent.
4. Dollys' mom needs increasing amounts of care. the poor dear has failing hearing, eyesight, increased confusion (which way is the bathroom, bedroom etc). The cancer and her failing heart don't leave her with much energy and it's very sad to see her continue to decline and of course she gets whatever level of care that she needs. Another one that we cannot change.
So, I have taken the following steps to see if we can get some of ths under control.
1. I have purchased a Palm Pilot to try to get organized, put all the obligations on it and get through the list each and every day
2. Try to taclke each room at a time, Go through it and decide whether we REALLY cannot live without this or that.
3. Try to get things done earlier in the day to hopefully free up a little time to breathe.
One other annoying thing is that because we live in the country I cannot get broadband. I have to live in the land of dialup. it'snot so bad for just reading the mail and reading newspaers and such. When it comes to uploading pictures and stuff it SUCKS. I can get one or two pictures up on flickr before it gives me the message "you are not connected". Crap! I am connected, it's just dead SLOW. I have looked at the satillite service but it is still quite expensive. I am looking at Wildblue, a new sat internet but again it's like $500-$600 to get connected (equipment purcheses etc) and then $50 or so month. Hard to justify that kind of expense. Oh well, I'm just livinlife...............
1. We have have just too much stuff. I mean our stuff has stuff. We need to get rid of anything we haven't touched/used/looked at for the last 6 months or so.....
2. We are not organized. We have no real routinue. We get things done as they need to be instead of having A PLAN
3.We spread ourselves too thin. In stead of trying to concentrate on the things that need to get done we keep taking on more. I'm not sure that this one is going to get much better. Most of the extras that we do are animal rescue related and I cannot in good consience let animal die or otherwise be neglected just because it's inconvienent.
4. Dollys' mom needs increasing amounts of care. the poor dear has failing hearing, eyesight, increased confusion (which way is the bathroom, bedroom etc). The cancer and her failing heart don't leave her with much energy and it's very sad to see her continue to decline and of course she gets whatever level of care that she needs. Another one that we cannot change.
So, I have taken the following steps to see if we can get some of ths under control.
1. I have purchased a Palm Pilot to try to get organized, put all the obligations on it and get through the list each and every day
2. Try to taclke each room at a time, Go through it and decide whether we REALLY cannot live without this or that.
3. Try to get things done earlier in the day to hopefully free up a little time to breathe.
One other annoying thing is that because we live in the country I cannot get broadband. I have to live in the land of dialup. it'snot so bad for just reading the mail and reading newspaers and such. When it comes to uploading pictures and stuff it SUCKS. I can get one or two pictures up on flickr before it gives me the message "you are not connected". Crap! I am connected, it's just dead SLOW. I have looked at the satillite service but it is still quite expensive. I am looking at Wildblue, a new sat internet but again it's like $500-$600 to get connected (equipment purcheses etc) and then $50 or so month. Hard to justify that kind of expense. Oh well, I'm just livinlife...............
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Birthdays and stuff
The 26th was my bros' b'day. Went over to his place and ate paella and watched everyone get drunk. A most humerous evening. It's interesting being the only non-drinker at these events,I'm the one that remembers everything....much to others consternation (haha). This weekend we celebrate my mas' b'day. We're going to Tims' Thai, mmmm, much good food and they let you BYOB so all is cool.
We will be in the yellow pages come October, full color ad and listings in two places!. Even though we are doing better than I expected at this point it is time to go the next level. Since this book comes out in October we'll be in the book for the holiday season! I hope we are so busy that we have to turn people away! Wouldn't that be nice!! Not the turning people away, the being busy natch.
Also we have taken in a charity case for the animal pound. A little Jack Russell that was involved in a domestic violence case. The woman has had to flee into hiding and was unable to take her dog. After being in the pound for the last 3 months Bob has asked whether we can board her for a while until this all settles down. I had always wanted to do this since I read about cases where the animals were left behind and killed/tourtured since the wife and kids weren't there. I'm glad to be able to help. It has it's own rewards.
Carolyn and the girls went home. It's much quieter and and a little lonely without them. However, they did take several new household members with them. The two kittens that had been abandoned and a german shepard mix from the local pounds New Hope list. Basically it is a last chance list. The animal is due to to euthanized (read as killed, after all that is what it is, euthanized my ass, I hate sanitized expressions). Anyway, I digress, the animals are available for $10! Neutered, shots etc. A great deal, we have two for the kennel, a dog and a cat.
Well gotta go back to work so, till later.....
We will be in the yellow pages come October, full color ad and listings in two places!. Even though we are doing better than I expected at this point it is time to go the next level. Since this book comes out in October we'll be in the book for the holiday season! I hope we are so busy that we have to turn people away! Wouldn't that be nice!! Not the turning people away, the being busy natch.
Also we have taken in a charity case for the animal pound. A little Jack Russell that was involved in a domestic violence case. The woman has had to flee into hiding and was unable to take her dog. After being in the pound for the last 3 months Bob has asked whether we can board her for a while until this all settles down. I had always wanted to do this since I read about cases where the animals were left behind and killed/tourtured since the wife and kids weren't there. I'm glad to be able to help. It has it's own rewards.
Carolyn and the girls went home. It's much quieter and and a little lonely without them. However, they did take several new household members with them. The two kittens that had been abandoned and a german shepard mix from the local pounds New Hope list. Basically it is a last chance list. The animal is due to to euthanized (read as killed, after all that is what it is, euthanized my ass, I hate sanitized expressions). Anyway, I digress, the animals are available for $10! Neutered, shots etc. A great deal, we have two for the kennel, a dog and a cat.
Well gotta go back to work so, till later.....
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