Ohh the times they are a changing or Those damned kids!

 Wow, according to the posts record, I haven't actually posted a new blog in this Blog. Been so busy being snarky, mean and insulting on my other blog ( blatant plug) that I kind of forgot to post anything from here. I'd like to claim that I was just too busy to do more than one blog or that some horrible life-altering event happened to distract me, but really it is because I have the attention span of a gnat. The only reason I actually remembered this blog is because I happened to click the blog name button at the top of the Blogger site and saw a couple more pop down. So, since I am making a concerted effort to do more writing and be more productive, I am back writing this little puff blog. I am sure all of the people who get notified when a new blog is posted are going to be more than a tad surprised after 3 years.

So the original goal of this blog was just to comment on the odd or interesting things I had seen or done during the day. I have commented on birthdays, parking, churches and oh so many other topics. I just wanted a place to talk about things that made me stop and go “Hmmmm.” It was never meant as a deep, meaningful source. My only goal with this blog was to make you smile and laugh or at the least go, “WTF?!” With that in mind, let me tell you about my most recent WTF moment and see if it amuses you. (Keep in mind, that even if it doesn't amuse you, I will keep rambling on and on and on so you are warned that I will not shut up any time soon.)

As a little background, I am from LA (that's Lower Alabama) and spent most of my life in areas so rural that little towns of 500 or so people was deemed a major metropolis. The first house I remember living in had no running run, heating or air and no electricity. We had a truly fancy outhouse with three holes and fresh water came from a well where you lowered a bucket down 60 feet. Even after all of these many years away from there, I am still very much a product of that kind of life.

So day before yesterday, I was reading a rather interesting piece in Scientific American online talking about how much 4G communications had spread and was also discussing the next generation of the Internet which would be able to access it. After I read the article, I (as I always do) scrolled through the comments section for my own amusement and one comment from a very young looking fellow read as follows.

“If I couldn't access the internet anytime I wanted to, I would just die. No one could ever survive without it.”

Now, folks, I LOVE the Interwebz and I happily admit that I am constantly using my smartphone and tablet to access everything from Facebook to YouTube no matter where I am. I check my emails and text various friends and family more often than a hyperactive teenager with five hands. I would feel severely inconvenienced if I couldn't do these things when I wanted and where I wanted. Don't even get me started on all the mobile games that I waste time and money on. That being said, I can state plainly without hesitation that I COULD very easily survive without it. Hells, I survived 30 odd years without the Interwebz and 40 odd years without a smartphone or tablet. My first couple of decades, we ALL had tablets and you wrote in them with a pencil. My first experience with meeting with others with a computer was a dial-up connection to Electronic Bulletin Boards. My first use of the internet was more dial-up and America Online. Apps were short for Appetizers and had nothing to do with games or chatting.

Now that I have established just how old I am, let's focus on the poor soul's comment again. Now some of you would prolly call him/her/it? a spoiled and entitled brat and you might be right, but the funny thing is you might be wrong too. I remember back when I was starting college and started to hang out with people slightly higher up the food chain. I told them about how I had lived growing up and they would say, “No lights? No running water? My God, I would die if I had to live like that.” (As a side note here, I have to add that once I had begun living in an apartment with said lights, water and an air conditioner/heater that I wasn't really sure how I had survived it either.)

So, to me it is funny watching each “older” generation talking about the “spoiled and coddled” new generation because dollars to donuts if you could magically travel back in time, you would hear their parents saying pretty much the same thing about them. The whole idea behind learning and developing ourselves and our world is that the next generation won't have to lack the things that the previous one did. Even now, we have a generation growing up that has never been without smartphones, ones and high speed internet and you can bet there are plenty of people out there who had to deal with flip phones and hitting the same key three times to make “S” looking at them and thinking, “You know back in my day.”

In the 56 years, I have been on this planet, I have seen what was literally Science Fantasy become fact. I have seen inventions that even the brightest and more talented genius from the 1970s would have deemed beyond impossible. I sit at my touch screen reversible laptop/tablet combo while posting this blog over my high speed internet while checking my emails on my smart phone with the inch screen and 4G access and my mind boggles. I personally cannot wait to see WTF is coming next. Until then, however, YOU KIDS GET OFF OF MY LAWN AND GET A JOB! OH YEAR AND HAIRCUT!

Nuff said or ISN"T MY NIECE AWESOME?!

 Her dad is one of the brightest men I have ever met.  Her mom is one of the kindest women that ever lived.  Her brother is fun loving, caring and one of the happiest souls ever.  Her Uncle is pretty awesome too.  (That's me btw)  I could add some wordage of my own but I feel it is unnecessary.  Read and be amazed.

 

 

Susan Baker

God provides everything we will ever need and more. It's our choice to distribute it evenly.
That includes the gifts and talents you have, the food and shelter you earn, the love and compassion you allow yourself to waste.
And don't ever belittle something that you've been gifted with.
It is a gift to listen to and help others. Just because it seems everyone else can do it does not mean it's not special.
The reason it's so common is because it's in such high demand.
We are selfish enough to keep it to ourselves because we have the mentality that someone else can give or someone else can do.
It's not God's fault that world hunger is so dominate, it's our fault that it even exist.
We should never blame God for lost people when we are the ones leading them astray or scratch that-not leading at all.

Brew Long and Prosper

A long hard road, but worth it.

     I often hear people talk about Shelter Animals and Rescue Animals are "damaged" or "unadoptable" like they are somehow less worthy of love and devotion than Pet Shop animals.  It bothers me because 1000s of animals every year are put to death while people go to expensive Puppy Mill Breeders to adopt the perfect pets.  It also saddens me because of the deplorable conditions many of these animals live in because Breeders are more interested in money than taking care of the animals.
    

     This is Trellis.  She and her Sister (Who passed away recently) are probably animals the anti-Shelter people would use as their poster children.  We adopted them both 11 years ago from a wonderful Rescue Group.  I was told they they were going to be put down because they were too timid and fearful to be adopted.  At the time I had a massive fenced in back yard and I would be damned before I'd let animals be put to death because they were frightened.   We were told that the pups had been horribly abused as puppies with beatings and being imprisoned in cages too small for them to move around in.  We were told that they might never interact with us or trust us.  We adopted them anyway.
     Thus began an 11 year exercise in frustration and pain.  No matter how well we treated them and no matter what we tried, it seemed like the dogs would ever trust us.  They hid in the dog run whenever we came out the back door and don't even get me started on how difficult it was to get them to the vets once a year for their shots and checkups.  (Actually towards the end of our time in Georgia, we had given up on that and arranged for a mobile Vet company to come by once a year to do what needed to be done.
     I think most people would have given up and even sent the dogs away.  I am not proud to admit there were a couple of times I thought of doing it myself.  Still, I never gave up and towards the end of her entirely to short time with us, Trina actually started to warm up to us.  Trellis stayed fearful and refused to interact with us any more than she had to.
     Fast forward a year or so after our big migration to the DC area.  Trellis now is a completely different dog.  She hangs out upstairs with the family.  We go for long walks and she gets lots and lots of attention.  She is still a little fearful, but she is growing braver every single day.  After 11 long years, I finally get to have her be a willing member of the family.  It wasn't easy, but this long journey is finally starting to crest the top of the hill.
     What people seem to mean when they say Shelter/Rescue animals are damaged and cannot be adopted is "I don't have the time or willingness to help them move through whatever horrors they might have been exposed to."  I can understand the feeling.  Adopting a new puppy or kitten who won't have those problems is a lot easier.  However, I can promise you that every time I now cuddle with my dog or go for a walk in the sunshine with her, all of the pain, frustration and effort was worth it.  The next time you are thinking about adopting, think about a dog or cat stuck in a cage somewhere frightened and yearning for a home.  Take a chance.  Trust me, it is worth it.

Brew Long and Prosper

Forget the Flag, save the ones who defended it.

Forget the flag, save the vets who defended it.

Help the homeless US Vets

Friendship, the Next Generation (tm)

      I am a man blessed with many friends.  Some I have known for far too many years to count and others I have met only recently.  I have a very few friends that are as close to me as family and I have others that I am still learning about.  So because I have been so blessed, today I find myself pondering exactly how much the very way we judge friendship has changed in such a very short period of time. 
     Let me categorize three sets of friends as an example.  First are the friends that I made decades ago.  They are a unusual and dare I say (Dare dare) strange group of people.  In some cases, we spent most of our college career seeing just how much trouble we could get into.  In some cases I have literally fought alongside and bled with them.  (Look up the SCA and don't be fooled, Rattan wrapped in duct tape HURTS!)  I don't always agree with them and sometimes I question their sanity, but I love them all dearly (Yes even you, TC)
     The second set  is drawn from that same group, but the bonds go much deeper.  I have friends that are my family that I would gladly give my life for. People like my brother in all but blood, BB and his amazing wife SCB (I'd call her my sister, but that might sound a little odd since she married my Brother.)  It wasn't that long ago, we reconnected after decades not seeing each other through the miracle of the Interwebz?  The first day we met in person, it was like we had never been apart.  BB, Shag, PP and others are still my family after all these years.
     Then there is the third set.  I think I shall call them "Friends, the Next Generation(tm)"  Through the miracle of the Inerwebz, I connected with a huge number of people that now share my life.  I read about their lives, joys and sorrows every day.  I share their losses and their triumphs.  Now most of these people are only loosely defined as friends.   I enjoy seeing their comments and laugh at their posts, but it is only a tenuos connection.  This doesn't mean I don't care about them, just that our bond isn't as strong.
     Of this group, there are a couple that I have never met that I feel the same sort of friendship or kinship that I do with the first groups I mentioned.  People that seem to know me so well and that I know just as well.   People like the larconic and often times silly Kevin or the insanely creative and funny Ken W. make my day brighter and I appreciate every single one of them.
     Long ago, Penpals were a popular thing.  People would write and connect with other people around the world.  Later on, Ham Radios added voices to the words.  I am certain if you were to speak to the people who did these things, they would probably tell you that they felt a connection to these faceless people that they would probably never meet.  The modern Interwebz is a technological extension of those early versions of social media and things like Facebook, Twitter and others are changing the very way we define friendship.
     In the end, what exactly does it mean to be a friend?  If you speak to someone every day and share each others lives, does it really matter if you do it physically or online?  I think, as time moves on, we will come to understand that friendship and even love is spiritual not physical and that how we experience that friendship is completely unimportant.

Brew Long and Prosper

MAY 15th OR BUST!

Everyone has some special day or time. You know, where something amazing happened that makes the day truly stand out from all of the others you have been through. The most common ones I can think of are the birth of a child or finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. You remember these times and you think, “Holy Cow, did that really happen to me?” They make you give thanks to a kind and generous Universe for the gift it has given you.

May 15^th, 2000 at around Noonish time is that day for me. On that day, the most amazing woman who has ever lived finally (after many years of begging) stood beside me in a simple room surrounded by friends and family and said, “I do.” In slightly less than a month, we will celebrate our 14^th Anniversary and it is my goal to do several blogs to explain the impossible miracle that occurred when the woman who would become my Wife lost her bloody mind and decided she actually liked me enough to marry me.

My wife is 13 years younger than me, much more intelligent and has much better tastes so it always boggles my mind that she ever decided to be my friend. The idea that she somehow got it into her mind that she could possibly love a broken down old guy like myself still amazes me. There are many hilarious stories surrounding our friendship, my frustrations and our eventual courtship and if you are very lucky I might go into them during one or two of these little pieces.

I can honestly say that there are many people who see the two of us together and ponder out loud, “What could she possibly see in him?” To tell the truth, I sometimes look in the mirror and wonder the same thing. I can never really understand how she fell in love with me in the first place and really don't understand how she has managed to stay with me all of these years through all of the trials and tribulations we have been through.

So over the next few weeks, I am going to ramble on and on about all of the amazing things that make up my wonderful wife and all of the impossible situations we have been through together. If you don't want to read post after post of how incredible the woman I married is, please feel free to skip to posts starting after May 15^th. If you want to hear about how even the most broken down old reprobate can find love and happiness against all odds, please feel free to keep reading as the days go on. I promise you won't be bored or disappointed.

Brew long and prosper

I'm just saying...