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.

Humans

This post is just me venting. I'm disturbed by humans and how crass we can be. Let me explain: On Saturday evening I got called out for an accident on I17. It was at mile post 306, right at Stoneman Lake exit. The accident happened at about 5 or so in the evening and by the time I got there it was nearing 6. A Dodge pickup truck was sitting perpendicular to the road with the rear bumper sitting on the guardrail. The truck had been traveling north, towing an empty tow dolly. It crossed the median, ending up in the southbound lane. When I went to assess the damage to the guardrail I also looked at the truck. The front end was smashed and the driver's door was gone. I looked around and saw the door laying under the guardrail on the other side of the road. Then I realized that there was a body under the guardrail as well. Not the kind of thing I need to see but it's part of the job. The clean up of the accident took a long time. Whenever there is a death on the highway the police officers must treat the scene as a crime scene. That means that they measure tire tracks, survey debris, etc. It takes forever. When they were through I went to ask if there was an ETA on the medical examiner. The officer told me that there had been a mix up with communication and that it could be a bit longer. Finally, around 11:30 the examiner's van showed up. Two guys got out, grabbed the guy by the hands, pulled him from under the guardrail and unceremoniously plopped him on a gurney. In the act of pulling him from the guardrail the victim's pants were pulled partially off. There was no effort made to adjust the pants or reposition his shirt. In short dignity was not part of what they did. Dignity in death. Gosh, we all hope for that. I'll warn you; there's no dignity in death if you die on the side of the road and the coroner comes to get you. This guy had been under the guardrail for at least 6 hours and then thrown on a gurney by guys who didn't seem to have any respect. If the victim's loved ones knew of the apparent disrespect I think they would be mortified.

Ok, I'm through and I promise to avoid being maudlin in the future.

Wow, it's been since June 2. I'm a slacker. The real situation is that I've become addicted to Facebook. It's Lela's fault. And Andrea DeCarlo's. And Mary Lynne's. Oh heck, it's everybody who talks to me there. I've decided to slow my participation, mostly to see if I can. Gentle withdrawal. I hope I don't get the shakes.

It's coming on winter. I think I may have mentioned a time or two that I hate snow. I don't hate winter, I just hate snow. And bitter cold. We've already had some frigid temps. On the way to work this morning the computer in the car said 13 degrees. Let me reiterate; 13 freaking degrees. Too cold to ride The Beast. Some of the folk on Facebook from Phoenix are just getting their bikes out of storage for the riding season. Shouldn't I live there? Yes. But not if I want to live with Linda. And I want to live with Linda. But now if I want to ride I'll have to scrape the frost off the seat. Maybe we could compromise; Linda can have June, July and August in Flagstaff and I get the rest of the time in Phoenix. Yeah, sounds good to me.

Lots happened this summer. I'm feeling the need to expound on it. Of course a good deal of it involved wheels; two and four at a time. Next post will be in a day or two.

I've got this thing that I do that may seem a little odd, but it works for me. I have a cordless razor which I keep in the car. On my way home I shave. That way if Linda wants to make out I'm ready. No stubble to scratch her lovely face. I don't shave in the morning because I don't care if the reprobates I work with see me with stubble. Linda matters way more than they do. One flaw in the system is that because the razor is in the car I usually don't shave on Sunday mornings before church. Not a big deal. I've probably gone somewhere on Saturday and taken that opportunity to shave. But on the way to church I've got on a tie which makes shaving difficult.

Last Saturday, Lela went to Sakura, the local Teppanyaki style restaurant. She came back raving about the sushi. Yes, Lela, who doesn't like using the same deep fryer I use because I've cooked fish in it, was raving about the sushi. Goes to show, you never know. Well, it was nothing doing except we all had to go to Sakura for dinner last night. We invited Ron, Karla and Aaron Brewster to join us.

The flaw in my shaving on the way home plan is that sometimes the razor quits in the middle of a shave. No warning; just quits. So, I get one side of the face whisker free but the other side has little tiny hairs. By Monday afternoon it can be a bit unsightly. Of course it happened yesterday, a Monday, the evening of our Sakura adventure. Left side clean; right side hairy. So, to keep everyone from noticing my whiskers I knocked my water glass over, spilling water all over myself and breaking the glass in the process. No one saw the whiskers because of the scramble to get away from the rapidly spreading water. I was wearing white jeans which got soaked, but it could have been worse; it could have been Coke. By the time we got all that cleaned up it was time for the Teppanyaki chef to come and do his thing, flipping shrimp, making onion volcanoes and such. When that happens they turn the lights down making my whiskers unnoticeable. Life is good. The sushi was good too.

Buffett, not buffet

Thursday, May 14 was a lucky day for me. It was 777 days left 'til retirement and also the day that my kids took me to the Jimmy Buffett concert in Phoenix. Absolutely great concert. It was the four of us and it's nice to be together. The weather started out a bit warm, too warm for Linda, but by the time the sun set it was really nice. Jimmy played many of the songs I'd hoped for. The band played for over two hours but there are so many good Buffett songs that he just didn't have time for them all. One of the interesting things was the diversity of the crowd. We had lawn seats so we were amongst a large group of folk who were standing and sitting on the lawn. There were many people my age, most of whom were dressed in Hawaiian style shirts. Then there were the younger people, some of whom couldn't afford shirts. That's ok for the guys but not so good for the girls. Right in front of us were several girls who came to the concert despite their lack of upper attire. I think they were trying to get money for new clothes because they kept rubbing up against the guys, probably trying to pry the guy's wallets out of their pants. Or something. Anyway, it was a great show from right in front of us all the way to the stage.

Today is Saturday. I spent much of the day under Linda's van with Lela. We worked hard to change out the O2 sensors. One came out right quick but the second one took us literally two hours. There just wasn't much room for wrench twisting. We were able to cut wires off and make the removal SLIGHTLY easier, but when installing the new one we didn't have that option. We had to put the wrench on the nut, twist as best we could, turn the wrench over, twist a little, turn the wrench over, twist as best we could. It took us forty-five minutes to turn about 1/2 inch of threads into the fitting. I just could NOT have done it without Lela. She keeps right up with me and in most cases is ahead of me. She can anticipate what needs to be done next and help prepare, but best of all, she can see how it works and therefore figure how it comes apart and goes back together. She gets greasy with me and doesn't seem to mind. The real difference is that she looks better than me when she cleans up. We are both sore and I've taken some hard drugs for the pain in my shoulder.

Linda, Mary Lynne and Brandon got some good stuff done around the yard. The most visible thing was that they replaced the carpeting on the entrance to the playhouse. It looks good. They did a nice job.

The hard drugs are kicking in and I'm off to sleep.