Been thinking about my black dog. It started because a good friend also has a Pomeranian with health issues. Her Pommie should recover, and I send best wishes for that to happen; but it made me think about Barkley who has diabetes and Cushing's disease. It doesn't seem to bother him too much. He's not angry about being blind. I think he just wishes the stupid humans would turn the lights on. He goes about life just the same with the exception that he is a bit slower so he doesn't run into the walls. And he doesn't go down the back stairs off of the deck. He still barks at motorcycles and kids on the sidewalk. He still wants a taste of whatever I'm eating. (He doesn't get ice cream anymore.) He's basically the same dog. Still my companion. Tonight I got in the hot tub to ease the tension. When I got out, Barkley was laying on the pillow which has worked it's way under the rack where the towels are kept. He was waiting for me, knowing that after the hot tub I rinse off in the shower and then get in the bed where he joins me. We enjoy each others company. I'll make the best of the time we have left together. Life is good.

Of Rain and Dogs

You know that great smell when it hasn't rained yet but the air is saturated with moisture and the inclination to take a deep breath to is irresistible? Why is it that that is the time when the dog laying next to me in bed becomes flatulent?

Sink the Bismarck (Politically speaking, that is.)

One of the (few) advantages of being an old guy is that I can read a book that I read years before and not remember a thing. I'm re-reading William L. Shirer's "The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich." I read it in high school when I was danged sure I knew everything about everything. Now that I'm older and am only pretty sure that I know something about a few things I find that what I'm reading makes quite a bit of sense but now it scares me. A little background before I offer a quote. The German political, economic and hierarchical systems were in a bit of chaos during the 19th century. Otto von Bismarck worked to unify the various German provinces into a cohesive state. He was successful and established an empire of which he was the chancellor. There was an expense though. An excerpt from the book: " The middle classes, grown prosperous by the belated but staggering development of the industrial revolution and dazzled by the success ofBismarck's policy of force and war, had traded for material gain any aspirations for political freedom they may have had. The German working class made a similar trade. To combat socialism, Bismark put through between 1883 and 1889 a program for social security far beyond anything known in other countries. It included compulsory insurance for workers against old age, sickness, accident and incapacity, and though organized by the State it was financed by the employers and employees. It cannot be said that it stopped the rise of the Social Democrats or the trade unions, but it did have a profound influence on the working class in that it gradually made them value security over political freedom and caused them to see in the State, however conservative, a benefactor and a protector." (Italics are mine.) I can't help but make comparisons to today's political climate. What are we willing to give up in order to have security, both financial and political? What is being forced on us in the name of security and for our own good by those who feel superior to the masses? I'll admit that I'm a little concerned. Back to reading.

I think we should find things for cats to do. My dogs keep busy protecting us from people walking down the sidewalk, loud cars, snow melting off the roof, grass growing in the summer, all kinds of stuff. Cats on the other hand don't seem to have much to do. Ours spend their winter days laying on the end of the bed and sleeping on the white chair. I think we should get them jobs. Working on a production line somewhere would be good. Or being a receptionist. Yeah that would do it; they'd stay busy answering the phone and dealing with irate people, taking dictation and building data bases. Yep, cats need jobs. They need to earn their keep somehow.