So he finally called my bluff

But he's right. Sometimes I'd like to do something besides watch over his shoulder as he writes. A person can only do that so long, before he gets impatient (ever watch a dog type????).

And yes. I had a blog going for a bit, but it didn't quite feel right, so I dropped it. Just let it die after eight or ten months.

And then Amerloc fired this screed up, and initially said some things that I was glad to see said. By a dog. By a squirrel. By anything with a brain.

But lately he's been focusing on a world that he finds, quite honestly, more pleasant than the world I read about. I'm not about to deprive him of his right to observe his world as he sees it. This is, after all, a wonderful world, and someone needs to remember that and report it.

And I'm reluctant to impose my view on his blog - I don't want to be anything more than an occassional presence here, at worst. At best, I'd like to set this wonderful guy free.

So I'll make a resolution too: I resolve to take a week or so to sort out whether I want to dredge up the old blog or just start a new one. I'll think about whether I want it to be balanced and thoughtful or knee-jerk reactionary. My dad refused to talk about some issues "because that makes me mad," and I think that suppression is part of what took him younger than I want to be when I cross the bridge to the ancestors, so maybe I'll just come out of the closet all fire-and-brimstone and save myself from a sixth-decade heart attack, or maybe I'll ease into something more subtle. It's going to be an interesting week.

Of course, since my retirement, there's always tomorrow. So "a week or so" may well take "a month or more" (and notice that that's in quotes too).

-Alpha

Hereby resolved

Alpha used to have a blog, back in the days before I came in to the family at his and Beta's most gracious invitation.

They don't always understand or play by dog-rules/pack-rules, but they're overall really good humans, and I truly feel best when we're all together: Alpha, Beta, Ankle-Biter and I, sprawled watching the talking box, or eye-balling the back yard, or roaming down the road on the way to somewhere. It's the kind of pack thing that I believe y'all refer to as "family." Same difference.

Anyway, I've been bogarting the blogging, and Alpha kinda misses having a voice (other than the one he uses for reminding me that people have a right to walk in peace (if they don't have a dog with them) or that the neighbors might not be anywhere near as upset about that squirrel on the phone-wire as I am). He says, "Part of me wants more voice than you give me."

He's never said he wants me to shut up - he's mostly enjoyed reading what I write, but I think he wants his turn at the keyboard sometimes, too.

So I resolve to be more generous. We'll still roll out at the same time in the morning, and see what's going on in the world together. There's something special about that first cuppa in the morning.

And I resolve to be more discriminating. I'll leave more of the human-interest stuff for him, and focus myself more on the dog stuff. Good news and bad. But I reserve the right to draw parallels between the worlds when I see them. Seems only fair.

And I resolve to post more pics.

And of course, like all y'all, I reserve the right to lose track of my resolutions as time goes by :-p

Happy New Year, Ice Train

A follow-up on a story I mentioned a couple posts ago:

Ice Train (formerly known as "Nobie") has been adopted.

The story actually raises a couple of issues, as far as I'm concerned.

First, dogs shouldn't be gifts to others. I guess it seems easy to say to yourself, "Joe needs a pup. It would complete his life." But as independent as I am, I'd have major problems if Alpha and Beta weren't here to let me in and out of the house, and get the food out of the closet, and drive me around on errands. Sure, I can drive, but straight lines are a problem, especially when I see a rabbit. Or a cow. Or a suspicious-looking tree. So it's just better if I let one of them do it. And then there's the case of Ankle-Biter. He can't even get on or off the bed by himself for those few minutes of pack-time every night.

Now, I most certainly understand gifting your child with a pup. Kids and pups just seem to go together, as long as your space allows roaming room for both. Chances are excellent that you know your child well enough to recognize whether it will be appropriate or not. And are willing and able to take up the slack when your child lapses.

Second, this Siberian husky got his purebred heinie frozen to the railroad tracks. You can imagine how my impression of purebred smarts went up after that.

No, if you must give an animal gift, give me a nice, fat, one-step-too-slow squirrel. Or rabbit.

Ankle-Biter apparently has some friends.

Just pulled this from CNN.

Just goes to show that even if they don't do much damage, you can't turn your back on them, either.

Fortunately, our resident Ankle-Biter is somewhat calmer. Somewhat. Anymore, he mostly naps. Plus, he's blind on the left side, so that makes it easier to sneak past him.

Merry Christmas, Ice Train!

This is a terrific story - it made my Christmas: linkage

Overheard

Alpha to Grandson #1 (a 6-yr-old): You know what tomorrow is, don't you?

GS-1: Yeah. It's Christmas Eve.

A: Right. And you know what Christmas Eve is, don't you?

GS-1: What, Grandpa?

A: It's the day where the whole family gets together to look at the presents under the tree. And eat. And eat some more. And then eat. You don't get to open any presents no matter how often you ask. That has to wait until Christmas morning. All you can do Christmas Eve is eat.

Alpha's a trouble-maker.

Mixed marriages

Rode to the grocery store with Alpha the other day, and for part of the way we followed one of those ubiquitous SUV things with a Texas A&M logo on one side and a UT Longhorn logo on the other.

"Mixed marriage," Alpha said, "just like in Minnesota between Norwegians and Swedes."

You actually never know how those will finally turn out, but you know that it takes strong love to overcome the hurdles. For starters, you have to have dual everything, from cookwear to logos for the vehicles. Most Saturdays you need two TVs, at least during football season. It's a budget strain. I won't address the issue of which school is better or for what. Sometimes I know when to focus my attention on that squirrel, to the exclusion of other issues.

At least with the Norwegians and the Swedes, they likely agree about lutefisk.

Wireless (in)conveniences

So I get to go back to my rambling whine about all the wireless appliances around here.

The first thing that Alpha put in was the wireless phones that we've had ever since we moved off the mountain and actually got close enough to civilization to have a land-line-based phone. They're handy, in that he and Beta can wander around while they talk to folks. They can fill the food dish or the water dish without missing a conversational beat.

Of course, as soon as the satellite guy got done, the TV, the DVD player, the DVR, and the surround sound were hooked up. Each has it's own wireless remote. I don't have to get off Alpha's lap while he changes stations or anything, so that's cool.

Then came a wireless router. That way he and Beta and I can all be on-line at the same time without his having to string CAT V cable all over the house and the back forty too. We all see it as a major convenience. I especially see it as a plus, since I can take the laptop out into the backyard, and keep an eye on the squirrel while I blog. Gonna get him one day, I am.

Finally came the first in a series of ceiling fans, starting with a couple out on the covered patio. I understand having the fans out there, as Texas summers can get on the stick-to-yourself side of 100 degrees, and even a whisper of moving air can help a great deal. And the wireless remote means you don't have to pause mid-sentence to reach for a pull-chain. Sweet.

I was with Alpha at the hardware store when he bought the temperature-controlled wireless remote for the ceiling fan in the living room, and saw the look on the clerk's face that said, "that's gotta be the epitome of laziness." I just shrugged my shoulders. It's not my debit card.

So far, lots of convenience, right? You knew I'd tie all this to the title, though, right?

Something in this whole system of wireless appliances actually triggers one of the outdoor fans. I won't say I've paid a ton of attention to it, but it doesn't seem to be the television or any of its peripherals. It might be the phone, but certainly not every time it rings. It MIGHT be the wireless router, except that the light or the fan will sometimes come on when nothing has changed on the router. Maybe, though (and this has ranked as a top possibility in Alpha's mind for a while), what it is is that anytime the furnace or air conditioner kick in or out, it triggers a random button on the fan remote.

We may have gotten another clue yesterday: Alpha had an electrician come over (and I know him from somewhere - he's Beta's step-brother or something) to upgrade the service panel from 100 amp to 150 amp. And when he finished the install and was running through labeling the breakers, and flipping some of them on and off in the process, that porch fan or its light was going nuts. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off.

So the final theory is that Alpha has to take the fans back apart far enough to take them down, and change the frequency at which the remote operates, because whenever ANY major appliance turns on OR turns off, there's a CHANCE that it will trigger the patio fan.

What a deal.

I need to do something...

to get a handle on the personality of this blog. It ranges worse than I do. Of all the things I had planned for today, sending you here was not one of them. I wanted to talk some more about all the wireless crap Alpha has hooked up around here, and how his training is progressing.

But thanks to Old Hoss , I ended up over at Marti's and the writing was REALLY funny until I got sucked in and... Well, I felt the pain, I guess. But that's what good writing is about. Sometimes it makes you laugh, and sometimes it just sneaks up on you.

On a brighter note, I now have a visually measured 24" vertical leap. That squirrel is lunch, as soon as I find some shorter trees to chase him in to.

Where have you been, Billy Boy?

Silly human tricks

Alpha just said to me, " I bet I could train you to get me a beer. But then you'd be able to get your own, too, which would create a whole 'nother problem."

And he throws that squeek toy for me without training????

I mean seriously...

are these people conscious? Did they pay any attention at all in high school? Bill Frist is ready to block a filibuster on Alito (should it come to that)

I realize it's a legitimate maneuver, especially if we regard politics as a game best played with the refrigerator nearing empty, but consider the inevitable: THINGS WILL CHANGE!

I'm not saying that the Dems will ever quit shooting themselves in the foot. What I suggest is that at some point in time the Reps will get so totally full of themselves, get so totally arrogant, that they will shoot themselves in the foot as well, and SOMEONE ELSE WILL WIN.

Do you really want to eliminate the filibuster long-term, for a short-term gain? Think, Bill. Think.

Damn. Richard Pryor died too.

Too many bummers for one day. I was willing to chalk Eugene McCarthy up to having been a footnote in the history of the '60s. I suppose some will be tempted to characterize Richard Pryor as a footnote, too, but I suspect that's not really valid in either case. They reflected their times. They made us laugh (Richard did it intentionally). Those of us who remember them as vital living beings are, I know, better for it.

They each made us reconsider our positions. They each made us reach beyond ourselves. They each made the world a better, healthier place.

And they each did it in spite of (or perhaps because of) his individual failings and frailities.

God Bless, and Godspeed, to you both.

Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy dies

Bummer. Wasn't what I came here for at all. Was gonna blog about the surfeit of wireless devices that Alpha has accumulated, and how they're interfering with each other (how else to explain the fact that the OUTDOOR ceiling fan comes on for no apparent reason???) It's obviously related to the wireless phone, the wireless internet, the wireless remote controls for the TV, the DirecTV, and the surround sound, and the other (thermostatically in-tune) ceiling fans. It's overkill. But he doesn't forget to feed me. He's OK, but it's still a nuisance.

So here I am confronting the mortality of my youth (when I was immortal) and remembering how Eugene McCarthy all but forced LBJ to cede the presidency to someone else - whoever it might be. Which is kind of ironic, given that EM was a MN boy, as I was born, and LBJ was a TX product, and I live there now, and I'm not sure any of us ever totally shakes free of our partisan roots, once we get old enough to feel their sustenance.

Godspeed, Eugene. You fired my youth, and your passing rekindles, however briefly, the flames.

Snip, snip: bad. Link, link?

In an article in the L.A. Times, Naomi D. Baron says (to borrow their sub-head, that "Students are trading in books for search-and-seizure learning on the Internet, and real literacy is getting lost along the way".

She raises (and answers) some interesting questions:

Has written culture recently taken a nose drive? These (undergraduates) are the students who grew up on Spark Notes, the popular study guides. Many of this generation are aliterate — they know how to read but don't choose to. And abridgment of texts is now taken to extremes, with episodes from micro-novels being sent as text messages on cell phones.

Point acknowledged.

Admittedly, back in the days when research necessitated opening dozens of books in hopes of finding useful information, no one read each tome cover to cover. It is also fair to say that given how scattershot our searches sometimes were, we often missed what we were looking for. But that said, we also happened upon issues that proved more interesting than our original queries. Today's snippet literacy efficiently keeps us on the straight and narrow path, with little opportunity for fortuitous side trips.

Yeah, sort of. Certainly it can, if we ignore the inevitable links offered. Many times have I gone sniffing around for something specific and, having perhaps found it, perhaps not, caught the scent of something equally interesting and gone off on a "fortuitous side trip." I mean, I wasn't even reading the LA Times when I came across her thoughts, but having arrived there, I found other things of interest as well. And I'm giving you three links (all pretty much what they say they are) which, if you use them the way I tend to (i.e., stripping away part of the URL to see what else might be at that site), will lead you on your own "side trip."

Of course, that may not actually be "research" as much as "wild-goose-chase," but I've always enjoyed a good chase more than the actual capture anyway...