Traveling with dogs

My trip with the dogs to my parents’ house included an overnight stop at a hotel, one that we’ve stayed in before. Our last visit there in the middle of winter was a nightmare because three high school athletic teams were staying there the same night, and they were active and noisy well into the wee hours of the morning. Rudy growled and barked at every thump and shout, and I got hardly any sleep the whole night.

This visit was a little better, or at least quieter–we didn’t hear a peep from any of the other guests so Rudy didn’t make a peep all night, either. The weather was continuously rainy, though, and the pet area was two flights of stairs away from our room, so I was deeply anxious that the dogs would require their 2 a.m. bio break like they do at home. I again got very little sleep because every time they moved, I imagined they needed to go out (fortunately, they didn’t). I had bad dreams and a bit of heartburn from a late, spicy dinner, so I was overheated all night and really uncomfortable. I tossed and turned and wished we were at home in our own bed.

Around 6 a.m., I was awakened by a strong vibration in the bed. Since it wasn’t that kind of bed, the only thing it could be was my dog. Rudy slept next to me on top of the covers while Reggie had decamped to the other bed, and by dawn he was chilled clear through and shivering uncontrollably. I pulled him under the covers and held him until he stopped shivering, while Reggie stood on the other bed watching us. She made no move toward the door to indicate she had to go out, but she also wouldn’t lie down again or jump over to my bed. When I finally got up for my own bio break, I realized she, too, was shivering hard. Cue the guilt! My poor dogs must have had as miserable a night as I did.

When it was time for breakfast, I told the dogs they could stay in the warm(er) hotel room and be quiet, or I would put them in the bone-cold car so they wouldn’t bother anyone. I shut the door behind me and got about 10 steps across the parking lot before they both started yapping and squealing at the top of their lungs. Since it was still early, I reluctantly tossed them into the car while I went to eat, and came back 20 minutes later to find them, once again, shivering uncontrollably. What’s a dog mom to do?

We got on the road with no problems and proceeded to my parents’ house that was flooded to survey the damage and satisfy my curiosity about how things are going with the reconstruction. My brother was there working on the plumbing and answered all my many questions. The damage is really horrendous; 80% of the house is stripped to the studs–no flooring, no walls, no ceilings, no fixtures.

I’ll post some pics of that later.

After seeing the house, visiting with my favorite high school English teacher, and taking a turn around my old home town, we headed on up the road to my parents’ other home. We stopped for a break at a sweet little “pocket park” alongside the highway where the dogs could run around safely off leash. We had the whole place all to ourselves, and they both enjoyed getting their feet wet on a fine spring day.

They were both so good about being in the car for hours and hours, and behaved beautifully while we were at the damaged house by minding me the whole time and not getting into anything they shouldn’t have. They have been there with me only once before, and this time they were both agitated and puzzled by how much it had changed. Dogs know what’s going on, more than we give them credit for.

Even though they cost me some sleep, I am glad to have them with me when I travel, for so many reasons.

Really spring

Not a minute too soon, the sun is shining with real warmth, the snow-cooled winds off the mountains have stilled, and today looks, feels and smells like spring after a very long winter.

The first daffodil of the season in my yard, peeking out from under the fence rail.

I’ve put the dogs out to play in the back yard for most of the morning because they won’t get cold, and in the meantime, I’m packing my bags to leave town. It’s time, once again, for another visit with my parents to celebrate Easter and my mother’s birthday next week. I’m told that there’s far more evidence of spring at their house than a lone daffodil in the front yard, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

Excessive optimism

As I mentioned yesterday, my hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule some time this summer that all state laws prohibiting civil marriage between consenting adults of the same sex are unconstitutional because they deprive certain citizens of equal protection under the law (the Fourteenth Amendment).

It seems so obvious and simple to me that this is what needs to be done because California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are so clearly discriminatory against a certain group of people on no legally defensible grounds. But apparently that view is both naïve and excessively optimistic at this time.

A friend of mine who is well-versed on the matter pointed out to me that although the Court may, someday (say, 20 or 30—or more—years from now) find DOMA and Prop 8 and other laws like them to be unconstitutional, they are not going to do so now because the tide of public opinion on same-sex marriage, while it may be running from one pole to the other more swiftly on this issue than any other in recent memory, has not yet reached the tipping point at which the court must affirm the will of the people.

My feeling is, if these laws will be deemed unconstitutional at some point in the future, why wait for public opinion to provide the push? Why not get ahead of it and do the right thing for the right reasons—not just for the sake of the law, but for the sake of all the human beings in this country who are being hurt every single day by the bad laws now in place? Why should same-sex couples in blue states be able to enjoy the benefits of marriage while those in the red states remain second-class citizens? Is this one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, or not?

The answers to these questions are, like everything involving human sexuality, complicated.

Jonathan Rauch gives a good explanation of the legal issues and likely outcomes in an article called Gay Marriage Hits the Supreme Court for the Brookings Institution. As simple as the issue seems to me (i.e., discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is both wrong and unlawful), to the Court, the issue is anything but simple. And the most likely outcome, according to people with far more knowledge of the case and the law than I have, is that nothing much will come of this in terms of sweeping change to federal laws, state laws or society in general.

Some people say the Supreme Court justices are cowards for not tackling this issue head-on once and for all while they have the chance. My well-informed friend calls the Court “a political body of people with lifetime appointments and axes to grind” that has swung so far to the right in recent years that it is unlikely to take any action on this issue before at least a few of the hardest-right members are replaced with people of a slightly more liberal frame of mind. That could be a long, long time from now.

I remain stubbornly optimistic on this one, though. As Winston Churchill once said, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing … after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” If not this year, perhaps next year.

 

Seeing red

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week in a case that challenges California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. I am not familiar enough with all the legal ins and outs to say what the outcome might be—whether they’ll decide that all 50 states must allow same-sex (or equal) marriage, or that all 50 states can decide for themselves whether to allow it, or what.

My hope is that the court delivers a unanimous ruling similar to the one they made in Loving v. Virginia, a 1967 case in which they struck down all state laws banning interracial marriage. To me, it’s exactly the same issue: Only one definition of marriage should exist in this country that applies equally to all citizens, and individual states should not be allowed to decide which consenting adults can and cannot marry based on nothing more than bigotry and prejudice.

The arguments against what used to be called miscegenation were all the same as those against equal marriage: God never intended it and does not approve, it’s bad for the children, it will lead to the downfall of civilization as we know it. All bullfeathers of the purest ray serene, and everybody knows that … now. I hope that someday soon the vast majority of Americas will regard same-sex marriage with exactly the degree of indifference with which they now regard interracial marriage.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is encouraging people who support equal marriage to change their Facebook and Twitter profile pictures to the symbol for equal marriage, which (naturally) is an “equals” sign:

        

The one on the left is the original version; the one on the right is the one the HRC is promoting for use this week. The red symbolizes love, which is what marriage equality is really all about.

I’ve been seeing a lot of red today as my Facebook friends and their friends have changed their profile pictures to the red symbol. I’m pleased and proud to see so many different people willing to publicly support equal rights for all citizens. This is a civil rights issue and a legal matter, not a religious or moral matter. Ensuring equal rights for everyone takes away no rights from anyone. If you’re opposed to same-sex marriage, don’t have one.

The We Do campaign organizes actions across the Southern United States in which same-sex couples are filmed going to their local courthouses and “requesting—and being denied—marriage licenses in order to call for full equality under federal law and to resist unjust state laws. WE DO actions make the impact of discriminatory laws visible to the general public and illustrate what it looks like when LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered] people are treated as second-class citizens under the law.”

There are several videos of these actions available. The one below brought me to tears when an older lady plaintively asks the very young clerk, “Can you tell us what steps we might take to become full and equal citizens under the law before we die? Can you help us with that?”

That’s all that we’re asking for: full and equal citizenship under the law. I am very hopeful that this battle will be won before I die.

Oh, and by the way, I thought the red symbol was nice but not quite fabulous enough for my taste, so I am using this one instead:

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Related: Standing up for family values

 

Irrational nonsense

I found this image today on the Facebook page for The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Shiatsu, acupuncture, Reiki, feng shui, rolfing, chiropractic AND karma are all quackary? I am a practitioner of Reiki (which has been helpful to me), I observe principles of feng shui in my home, and I am absolutely convinced that karma drives the universe. Oh, and a couple of different homeopathic remedies consistently help me when nothing else works.

I guess I’m either a tool or a fool, but certainly not a scientist!

It’s kind of sad to me to see certain “irrational” practices in which I have found tremendous value to be tossed into the same bin as seances and crop circles, for heaven’s sake.

My mother is an open-minded seeker of truth down many paths, and she’s dabbled in far more of these fields than I have, so I’m familiar with many of them second-hand. What I’ve seen is that almost everything works for somebody, but nothing works for everybody.

Two examples of what has worked for me:

First, when I was a freshman in college, I had to have my four impacted wisdom teeth extracted under general anesthesia. My parents drove me to the oral surgeon’s office in another city a couple of hours from our town for the procedure. Afterward, on the long drive home in the dark, my mother sat with me in the back seat of the car and gave me Reiki for most of the trip. I recovered literally overnight and never experienced any pain, swelling or complications from what was, in my case, a fairly significant procedure.

Second, I once decided to take a bike ride early in the season, when the weather was fine but a stiff wind was blowing. I was a very inexperienced rider at that time and not only did I head out with no food and only one water bottle, but also I didn’t realize the implications of a 25 mph tailwind pushing me down the road until I was well over 25 miles from home with virtually no effort on my part and had to turn around into that same spanking wind and get myself back. I arrived home hours later ravenous, dehydrated, utterly spent in every respect and sore to the bone. Again, my mother gave me Reiki and I woke up the next morning feeling a bit tired but otherwise perfectly fine. I’ve ridden many a hard mile since then without benefit of her ministrations and felt the difference, so I know wherefore I speak when I say she performed a miracle that day.

I am by no means anti-science or anti-intellectual. But I have seen with my own eyes that some things that cannot be explained scientifically are still very much real. Sometimes I think a love of and/or devotion to purely rational thought can close one’s mind and one’s eyes to the ineffable, the magical, and the miraculous. It’s a big world we live in, filled with many mysteries.

I’m willing to allow for a good measure of “irrational nonsense” in the world if it makes things better for even one person.

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Please note: I did not choose this graphic on the basis of its apparent conclusions about Scientology, but rather because it includes several other topics of interest to me. I have no personal opinions about Scientology. No offense to any reader is intended.

 

Happy dogs = happy weekend

I took the dogs up to the river to play today as promised, and they had a wonderful time running their little legs off. I took my cameras with me, both of them, and if I were a better photographer, I probably would have come home with some pictures. 😉

Actually, it’s not that I’m a bad photographer, it’s that I don’t really care much about taking landscape pictures, for one—I like taking pictures of things that don’t move in a carefully controlled environment, which is why I specialize in product photography. And for two, I have hundreds of photos of my dogs playing at the river and doing everything else they do, so not a lot of incentive to capture that, either.

Hm, why did I take the cameras with me, then? I guess I was hoping to capture some scenic signs of spring, but it’s still just a little too early for that yet. Some green-gold leaf buds on the ends of the branches of the aspen trees was about the extent of it, and those were not very photogenic. Another few weeks, though, and spring will be busting out all over.

Seeing my two happy pooches stretched out on the couch snoring gently this evening after their exercise made me feel good about the day and helped redeem this past difficult week. I hope this mood carries over into next week and that things start moving in a positive direction soon.

Measuring productivity

As I’ve mentioned before, I generally have a vigorously proactive “to-do list” mentality, wanting very keenly to identify what needs doing every day and then doing it efficiently. Not having clear goals at the start of the day or any accomplished objectives at the end of day always leaves me feeling uneasy and not a little bit guilty.

My sister shared this image with me yesterday as a reminder of what is important.

I would like to be able to maintain the presence of mind to practice just those things each and every day. But that “be productive yet calm” part nags at me. What is a productive day?

Today I got up early so I could take the dogs to the groomer, then came home and launched into a full-scale cleaning assault on my kitchen and bathrooms. I did yet more caulking in both the kitchen and bath (I think I’ve got it all now), and disassembled the master bathroom fan to clean out many years’ worth of fuzzy dust and grime. I called my brother to arrange a visit to my parents’ house, which he is helping to rebuild, some time next week. I did two loads of laundry and washed the dishes. I picked up the dogs and we had some lunch. I finished my cleaning and settled down to read for awhile. I balanced my checkbook and answered a couple of emails.

I finally got around to taking a shower about the time the sun set and a real cold wind started blowing, so I skipped walking the dogs, and in so doing felt that my whole day was completely wasted. So disappointing.

This is supposed to be an animated image. If it’s not moving, click the image to see the animated version.

Funny how the mental checklist runs the show. My daily list includes, at minimum, sleeping, eating, showering, blogging, and walking my dogs. If I don’t do all those things, I feel as if I’ve failed myself. And if the thing I don’t do is the walk, I feel as if I’ve failed the dogs, even if I justify it by saying “you got to spend four hours hanging out with all your little buddies at the groomer’s today and that was your treat.”

So I’ll make it up to them tomorrow, weather permitting, and take their freshly shorn keisters up to the river so they can run around. No matter what else I do or don’t get done tomorrow, I will feel productive if I at least make my dogs happy. 😉

Counting my chickens

More than a month ago, I was contacted about a professional opportunity that I wanted to happen very, very much. I thought the contact was quite positive, and I really got my hopes up that it would prove to be the perfect answer to my prayers.

Now yet another week has passed without any follow-up on that contact, and I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that this egg will not hatch at this time.

For all the hoping and waiting I’ve invested, that’s hard to take. I’m badly disappointed and not sure what my next move should be now that this opportunity has expired.

It’s hard to want one thing so much that you lose sight of all the other possibilities that might be waiting out there, too, which is what I’ve been doing. I’ve simply frozen in my tracks, intent upon being ready to move forward with just this one thing. My world has shrunk down to waiting for a telephone call. Not a happy way to pass the days.

So this weekend I’m going to try to shake loose from my torpor and think about anything and everything else. There is never only one solution to any complex situation. It’s time to widen my field of vision and let the light shine in so I can start identifying some other possible solutions. 

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again,
this time more intelligently.
~ Henry Ford

The last CD I’ll ever buy

Last week, I picked up P!nk’s Greatest Hits … So Far!!! CD on sale at the video store, and I am pretty sure this is the last physical CD I will buy in my life. From now on, all my music will be digitally downloaded. I have a dozen albums picked out on iTunes already, along with several dozen more singles. One by one, I’ll eventually get them all.

I’ve completed my music project of loading all my CDs onto my Mac–a grand total of 138 albums, about 4 days’ worth of music. I’m pleased to have made this conversion, and when I can fit a new iPod into my budget, I’ll be happy to load it up (I’m going to need a 32GB at least).

So many pretty colors!

It’s exciting, this new technology, but also a little sad for me. I remember vinyl records, 8-track tapes and cassettes–holding the music in my hands, reading the liner notes, memorizing the the order of the tracks. When I look back at the albums I played over and over again when I was young, they are complete sets of songs–the order in which they followed one another and fit together formed the work in its entirety.

I agree with some artists who say that digital downloading destroys the continuity and therefore the artistic integrity of their albums. People want only one or two songs that they’re familiar with, and all the rest of the artist’s work is ignored. I’m as guilty as the next person on that count. I do make a point of previewing all the songs on an album that has the one song I like, though, and I will buy the whole thing unless the one good song is a complete aberration and the rest of the work is crap.

The distressing part to me about downloading is that it’s leasing rather than actually buying. You pay for certain rights to play a song, but you don’t own your copy of it as you do when you purchase a CD, so you can’t give or sell it to anyone else without violating the Terms of Service to which you agreed (without reading them, I know) when you first signed up with Apple.

I doubt that anyone currently understands all the ramifications of this new business model, but I’d guess that theoretically, everything I purchase from iTunes could someday be taken away from me without compensation (this would be called “suspending my account”). I think that’s really sad, and short-sighted on the part of the content providers.

I bought P!nk’s CD in large part so I can own “Glitter in the Air,” my latest favorite song. I might even download this amazing video to my iPod at some point because that’s another thing that iPods are good for.

 

This is funny, and true (I’ve already written a few of these myself). The 11th one should be “The Reblog” … there’s a first time for everything!

The Official How To Blog

Today’s guest post is brought to you by the letter X better known as the List of X. To read more about guest posts, see step 6.

I have been reading WordPress blogs for months now, and I have noticed that certain types of blog posts are more common than others. So I thought I’d aggregate these most common blog posts into just one short post for your enjoyment. Alternatively, you can use this post as your blogging guide which will save your valuable time by providing you with the pre-written template blog posts that you can simply copy and paste into your blog.

1) Hello, World!  This blog will be a platform for my thoughts about me, myself, my thoughts about myself, and occasionally about _____, _____, what I think about this, and Kim Kardashian. I will write as often as I can, since I usually think…

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