Gone to the dogs followup

It is now official. The High Primal and I have indeed gone to the dogs. Griffin and Butters demanded their fair share of this blogs banner and they got it. With this post, one might also conclude that this blog has succeeded in going to the dogs.

Nothing is permanent?

According to Buddha, nothing is permanent. With apologies to the Buddha, a more realistic statement would have been that almost nothing is permanent (loopholes are always a good idea).

Such a loophole would account for the endless basketball season.  When we tack on playoffs , tournaments and something called March Madness to the regular  season it seems like playing basketball goes on forever. Everyone is currently busy making brackets ( including POTUS) and the racket is driving me nuts. I guess that's what March Madness is all about. Just when March Madness is over, we will be ready for the NBA playoffs.  In all fairness, Buddha should be forgiven for not anticipating March Madness and the NBA playoffs. How was he to know that the world ( at least the world according to the U.S. of A.) would one day allow itself to suffer the burden of  an interminable basketball season.

And then there is the campaign for President of the United States. We hardly finished Campaign 2012 and Campaign 2016 started.  Although nothing is permanent about presidential politics, election campaigns are permanent. Not ever having run for office, Buddha the teacher can be excused for not predicting the permanency of presidential election campaigns.

Buddha the warrior does not get a pass for not making an exception of wars when he proclaimed, "Nothing is permanent". War is right up there as one of the most permanent events in the history of mankind and Buddhism has done its share to promote it along with Christianity. Islam and Judaism.
Even wars to end all wars have not succeeded in removing the stamp of permanency from wars. We have learned to live with wars and with the help of the NRA we will put an assault rifle in every home to insure that mass killings are more homey.

Another thing upon which I cannot give Buddha a pass, is his failure to take into account death and taxes. Death and taxes are cast in concrete. Of course Buddha might argue that death is merely proof that life is not permanent. As for taxes, if he were around today he would defer to The Tea Party.

I must bring up Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians mascot. Evidently he is as permanent as they come. We are coming to terms with same sex marriage but still put up with this racist caricature. If only there was a Buddha to give the team owners a karate chop to the balls for their obstinacy in not freeing the Chief.

Then there is the weather. As winter drags on, it's comforting to think, thanks to Buddha, that lousy weather is not permanent. Today being the first day of Spring I could argue that the change of seasons is a classic example of nothing being permanent.  Just as death and taxes are certain , the weather is uncertain. Global warming may eventually make the foregoing moot, but in the meantime I will enjoy the arrival of Spring, even though it looks and feels like Winter and hope that Summer is kind to us and that Fall takes its time arriving.

Gone to the dogs

High Primal and Griffin

Butters

Its been almost a year since our grandog Thurston went to the land of endless treats. We still miss him but a new grandog, Griffin, has entered our lives and is filling the vacuum admirably. I should  mention that we are also the proud great grandparents of Butters who has a shoe fetish. You might
say that we have gone to the dogs in our "golden years".

Dia Nacional de Siesta

I feel guilty as all hell. Today of all days, I missed my daily afternoon nap. What hurts is that watching the local news tonight, I learned that today was "National Nappers Day". I never knew that there was such a day. If I had known , I would have napped this morning as well as this afternoon. For good measure , I would have napped while in the blogosphere.

As an avid napper I was disappointed that no one sent me flowers or even a card as a reminder of this important day. Those who ordinarily care about my well being were probably napping. National Napping Day in this country should not be taken lightly.

 Our neighbors to the south have been observing it every day for centuries. They prefer to call it "Dia Nacional de Siesta". The fact that we have joined our sleepy compadres in the celebration of naps, is evidence of the growing influence of Latinos in our national affairs. The next thing you know, Cinqo de Mayo will become a national holiday. Of course everyone in Washington is too busy napping while Spanish becomes our national language by default.

I don't know whether or not "Il Giorno di Sonnonino" is celebrated in Italy. If it is , I hope its not on Tuesday. One hundred Cardinals taking a snooze during their Conclave to elect a Pope would not bode well for the Catholic Church. Come to think of, they must have gone into a deep sleep when they elected the last Pope.

All this musing about naps has taken its toll on me. One more shot and I'm off to bed. Who the hell keeps track of all these days. It seems like they all run into to each other. Oh my God, Sunday is St. Patrick's Day and my High Primal will be pissed if I don't come with some sort of a celebration. I'll never get any sleep now. Wonder if she would go for a case of green beer?

The Internet Has No Soul

Recently the High Primal decided that we should send some "get well" flowers to a dear niece of ours. As High Primals are prone to to do, she instructed the Low Primal to get his ass on the Internet and accomplish the task ( which was obviously not worthy of the intellect of a High Primal). The Low Primal went to a web site specializing in delivery of flowers to all corners of the earth.  After much one way discussion , a suitable flower arrangement was picked out for delivery to our niece in Rochester, N.Y. The High Primal left to dream up other tasks to keep the Low Primal occupied during the day.

As instructed, the Low Primal started to navigate the floral web site hoping to eventually place a bona fide order. He finally concluded that Columbus had an easier job navigating to the Indies. It became obvious to the Low Primal that he could not place an order without divulging all sorts of personal information designed to harass him in the future. True to the traditions of Low Primals he made a monumental decision. The hell with the Internet- get in the fucking car with the High Primal and drive to the local florist.

Once at the florist, the High Primal and the Low Primal were assisted by a little old lady with heavy mascara around her wrinkled eye lids. When it came time to write up the order it became obvious that perhaps ordering the flowers via the Internet wasn't such a bad idea. The tip off was the little old lady trying to make out a printed address ( in large type) that the Low Primal had given her. She was having trouble because she couldn't see! Finally the glasses hanging around her neck were put to use and some semblance of an order was written up. Noticing the consternation of the Low Primal, she informed him that she had macular degeneration in one eye and a cataract in the other. She planned to do something about the cataract in the near future. Defensively, she was quick to add that her opthamologist had informed her that her vision was fine (he probably told her that her vision was fine except for the cataract and the macular degeneration.). The order finally got written up. More accurately, the order finally got scribbled up.



As High Primals are prone to do, she sweet talked the sweet little old lady throughout the whole ordering process. In return, the little old lady made the High Primal's day. After admonishing the Low Primal for not buying flowers for his spouse on International Woman's day, she presented the High Primal with a beautiful rose. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the flowers we ordered are on their way to Bosnia instead of Rochester. Regardless, I'll have to remember that the sweet little old lady saved my ass on yet another "day" designed to make florists rich.


After much meditation, the Low Primal had to conclude that even if the flowers ended up in Bosnia the whole experience at the florist had proven that although ordering flowers on the Internet might be more efficient, the Internet had no soul.

This post has gone on longer than I had planned, but according to the High Primal, sometimes long is better than short. She quickly added, that less is better than.more, which leaves the Low Primal in a quandry. FINIS!!!!

About Drones

Much has been made of President Obama and his gaffe on a metaphor he used last Friday, March 1. During his news conference, Obama said some people unfairly expected him to be able to force Republicans to accept his terms. “Even though most people agree... I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right,” he said. He goofed when he confused "Star Wars" with " Star Trek" ( I must admit that it was lost on me). Regardless, this man more and more appears to be an aficionado of "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" weaponry. His administration has gone for drones in a big way. Drones are the weapon of choice not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but reportedly are hovering in the beautiful, spacious skies over amber waves of grain. between the purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain of America.

The era of the drone may very well herald Star Wars , Obama style. As with the atomic bomb, justification for this new weapon is that it will save the lives of our soldiers as we combat insurgents, terrorists and mass killers at home and throughout the world. The day is not far off, when conflict among nations will be like playing a video game. I daresay that in this type of conflict, civilians will bear the brunt of war like they never have before. As with nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the day will come when the United Nations will be debating the necessity for drone control - and with similar results. I wonder how long it will be before we have rogue drones?

I'm all for saving the lives of our military. I'm just not comfortable with the decision making process being used  to determine how and when drones will be deployed. I wish I could do Jedi mind-meld with the folks with their finger on the red button and convince them to do what's right.

Sequestration For The Nation

After sequestering myself for the past few days, I decided to peek outside and see if the nation had embraced sequestration aka budget castration. Sure enough it had.

The system is broken. I feel like I live in Hoboken. I’m not joking - just poking. After all I did receive my Social Security check. Still I boldly predict that the implementation of sequestration will lead to litigation. As a token of my faith in a democratic government, I’ll try to let sequestration settle in and remember to make my voting count in the future.