BigDog Speaks

Once again I am considering raised bed gardening. I'm not talking the little mound of dirt you don't walk on kind, I'm talking bordered in concrete block, two or three rows high, easy on your back kind. There is nothing that says I will have any better luck with this than I have with any of the other gardens in my past but it will LOOK good.

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You know how you see things out of the corner of your eye and you aren't sure they are real? You try to ignore it unless whatever it is moves again. I walked past the kitchen and saw movement. Knowing I am here alone, I dismissed the movement until I saw it again. Seeing those funny shadow things twice in a row deserves some investigation. There at the toe kick under the cabinet was a frog. This was no ordinary frog, this was a frog with attitude!

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Being multi-talented or at the very least having a wide range of interest, can present real problems. A designated backroom, set aside for hobbies is a blessing, unless your hobbies are bigger than your space. Trying to fit 25 pounds of hobby stuff into a 5 pound hobby bag is a complete nightmare. That's where I'm at. Dabbling in art, as in painting and sketching is not to difficult to fit in. Dabbling in tattooing can also be fit in but takes more creativity. Add in restoring old tube radios, mechanical clocks, and stained glass...you WILL have a problem unless your room is the size of a barn.

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I can vaguely remember a time when all I wanted to be was all grown up. I didn't want anybody telling me what to do, no bedtime, no limits on sweets, total an absolute freedom. This was a time when I was just as happy to be out in the rain as I was for the sun to shine. The two were just variations of things to do for fun. In the rain, it was a kick to just play in the rain. In the sunshine it was a kick to roll in the grass and feel the warmth of the sun. Back then, waiting to be all grown up, life was fun.

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Thanks to idiots releasing their oversize 'pets', Florida now has a python problem. Unfortunately, this problem may ultimately become a problem for a third of the U.S. since these pythons are so adaptable. They are thriving here and it is just a matter of time before people become food too. OK, I'm not especially fond of snakes in the first place. I'm REALLY not too keen on snakes big enough to eat me. Obviously, I fall into the school of thought that says animals that fit the bill of "exotic" should not be kept by Joe Average and ALL of them should have a chip so they can be found when they inevitably get away.

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OK, so maybe the musical never went anywhere, I'm just not a musical kind of guy. I saw OKLAHOMA! and hope I never have to again. Me and the musical are just not compatible. I don't like them, I avoid them, and given a choice I will outright refuse to watch them.

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I fit somewhere in between computer user and geek. You know the place, I can do some things that make me look really smart then turn around and do something really stupid. Yup, we've all been there at some point. When I'm not complaining about windooz, I'm usually running it just fine. Occasionally, I get my back up when it takes control of my machine, usually when updating itself, and refuses to do so in a timely manner. Anything approaching an hour of updating is NOT timely in my mind. Yes, I am running that incredible, faster than a speeding tortoise, Vista and MOST of the time, I actually like it. However, I really don't like it running things in the background and playing with itself. It usually does this first thing in the morning when I am trying to check email and such. Even the old faithful standby of control-alt-delete has a hard time controlling it.

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America has a history of outstanding presidents. Unfortunately, they are all in the past. What happened to candidates with integrity and solid values? You know the kind I mean, ones that don't sidestep and sashay away from addressing problems that face the nation. The ones that can look you square in the eye and give honest answers? Have we really sunk so low that what is running now is the best we have to offer?

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One day you look down and realize you can't see your shoes. Somebody has slipped a bunch of extra padding around your middle. You have to flatten out the wrinkles in order to shave or you resemble a deformed bottle brush. Looking in the mirror you notice the wrinkles are making inroads to your eye socket, what's up with baggy skin wrinkles you can see on your own face without a mirror?

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It continually amazes me how some very smart people can be so dumb. Studying the black death from olden times is one thing. Trying to salvage the DNA from the bacteria that caused it is quite another. Knowing how many people died from it, why do we want it again?

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Bike riding brings back a lot of memories. The biggest one is riding for miles and miles, never getting tired or sore. Now one quick pass around my yard or down the street and I have aches and pains in places I don't care to talk about. I am amazed at how far technology has come on bicycles. Even the cheap ones have all the bells and whistles. OK, bells and whistles that I may never use but, they have them just the same.

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As we blunder about pissing and moaning over the cost of gas for our cars, we need to realize it is our own fault. Yes, our own attitudes and desires have allowed us to become our own worst enemies. We were the ones that wanted bigger, more powerful, faster cars. WE were the ones that allowed the profits to the auto makers to be from gas guzzlers instead of gas sippers. WE did it, now we need to fix it.

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Quality in manufactured goods has gotten away from us on a lot of things. Somehow, we have allowed this and are accepting it. Two bicycles, different models and manufacturers, off the shelf with flat tires. Not only were the tires flat, the tubes in them were unrepairable. Mutter, mutter, grouse, grouse, more tubes were bought and the tires were fixed.

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Allow yourself to spend entirely too much time on the computer and little or no time being active is a sure fired way to feel old when you finally do something. Yes, we are all aware of all the reports that we need to be physically active. We know we are inclined to being over-weight. We know, we just don't change.

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I watched an interesting show this morning that discussed the possibility of extending human life for years and years. The show was most interesting and raised a number of questions in my mind and the biggest one was shown at the end of the show. Given the chance to drink from the a bottle containing the elixir of life, would you?

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Here in Florida we see a LOT of folks. These folks range from the headless drivers in the big cars, to the bearded bikers on beer runs, and EVERYTHING in-between. When you venture to any place that draws a crowd, you will encounter three types of folks, normal, tourists, and idiots. The last two can be interchangeable.

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OK all you UFOites or whatever you want to be called. It is time to admit you have rode this horse into the ground. Believing in UFO's is one thing, believing in the Roswell UFO is another thing altogether. In a sane world, with a sane mind, and applying sane logic, you cannot continue to believe that what happened in Roswell was anything other than a top secret balloon and a radar reflector.

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Having a computer desk tends to mean you work on a computer. This only applies if you aren't like me. My computer desk is a large 'L' shape and normally holds two desktops and one laptop. Too many computers is only part of the problem. It also holds a couple of souvenir mugs full of pens and pencils, stapler, paper clips and all the other assorted paraphernalia that normal desk have, and then there is the junk.

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Looking in the mirror to shave, I got to studying the face looking back at me. Me and this old face have shared many mirrors, razors, whiskers, mustaches, and the old stand-by, clean shaved. That face in the mirror is mine, every inch, every knick, scar, and wrinkle. I've worked hard for that face and it has served me well. While I was admiring all my road miles written on that face, I glanced at the eyes. Eyes are the mirror to the soul so they say. Looking at mine, I realize they are right.

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Fences make good neighbors. Yup, I've heard that all my life and never could make up my mind just what it meant. When a fence goes up, it keeps some folks in and others out. EITHER side could claim the benefit. The way I look at it, whichever side didn't do the PAYING, got the most benefit.

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