The Reeds Lake Monster and Tucker the water dog…

      This evening I took Tucker to the lake. We saw the Reeds Lake Monster. (The Lock Ness monster Reed’s Lake Version.) It was kind of scary. However, it was not as scary as the motorcycle. That was really scary, right Tuck?

     Well, actually I took him to the lake on the 5th of July as well, and that is when we had the motorcycle incident. I sometimes forget that even though he is nearly as large as Browndog, he is still a baby. And it showed when that big, bad motorcycle fired up and he nearly took my arm off running to hide.

      It took me nearly five minutes to stop his shaking and to get him to walk back to the car. This is the puppy that fearlessly hunts fireflies, barks at butterflies, the silly goat thing in the neighbor’s yard, doorbell on television, my wife’s text alarm which sounds eerily like the doorbell and every little noise he may or may not hear… And the same puppy that hid under the car the first time a plane flew over. He sounds tough, but he isn’t.

     I almost had to carry him back to the parking garage in Gaslight Village but he eventually decided he could walk on his own. You know the one I am talking about with the entrance that looks kind of like a large Va-Jay-Jay as you look at it from Wealthy Street.I guess it is supposed to be some abstract sailing thing, but it looks like a vaginaart to me…Jus’ sayin’…

     He could not wait to jump into the safety of the truck.      After all that excitement we came home and took a nap so I did not blog this yesterday. Thankfully, because I may not have seen the Reed’s Lake Monster and I cannot see any point in blogging about the same thing two days in a row. They do not all sound the same, I hope?

      However, until I perfect the napblogging –interface-device, which BTW I am feverishly working on in my spare time, you will have to wait for blogs. When I figure it out; watch out world, it will be blogs-a-poppin’. (Gratuitous 70’s show reference, Jugs- a Poppin’)

     I will share with you that I am having a bit of difficulty with a couple of the complex equations, way too long an complex to share in one blog, so suffice to say they are not just your averagebear type math. They are not just a+ b= c. They are not Chicago Math either. They are Goodwill Hunting and Contact type equations; I will not bore you with the math issues.

     I have also come up against some flux capacitor ionic compliance and differential ratios that are an m-fer and that damn muffler bearing problem. Without the muffler bearing I am sure the blog will be too loud. My blogs are never loud or obnoxious, so a muffler bearing is not necessarily a must but I am the Last Boy Scout. taking into account the possibilities…

     Unfortunately, I cannot do both a nap and a blog. And I cannot do without the occasional nap. I have to get in shape for the Lions football season, when a nap is a necessity or you will suffer a stroke or heart attack. I can think about what to blog, but I am typing challenged enough without trying to type while lying down.

      While I have yet to find a volunteer to do my edits, and hence I do my own, it would be most difficult reading line after line of jdfklahgoiqhfglnvlkdg; and then… jkagjlikajf a m-fer……….jfglkajgiahjgrhjtrpp Jus’ sayin’…vnlkn ajg;ovm Blah, blah, blah iajfakrakv;lsfbna….ldvmzkl v’alkjv’oiaj;lMc;dkgtjoigh;amv;l I know the case could be made that the previous lines were no different the typical bloggerish I spew out about 3 times per week…Jus’ sayin’…

     So all rambling digression aside we went to the lake. Tucker is A WATER DOG!!!

Whew!!! We can all take a deep sigh of relief. As some of you know, both Browndog and Whitedog were NOT swimmers. Yes, they were labs, but they were both waterchickens.

     We tried to get them engaged with the theory that Labs love water, but they were slightly dogtarded. This is not Dogtucky, but they were the progeny of a brother and a sister. There is a certain degree of inbreeding in purebred dogs. There was more than a bit of it with those two. Their lablessness was disappointing.

     Don’t get me wrong, I loved those dogs, but it is kind of like finding out your kids like country music. It is a bit difficult for a rocker parent to understand. I am a choicist; however, so I find nothing wrong other than the ludicrosity of the perpetual beer cryin and lost my woman stuff with country music but you cannot really grasp why or what unless you are a country fan yourself. Live and let live, I guess…

     We took Browndog and Whitedog to Lime Lake for our first attempt. They were not impressed. They tried to drink the water, but did not attempt to swim. They were young so we just put it down as they were too young. I will say that I was a bit worried.

     Then we took them to the big lake a few months later. I think Chris still is scarred from this debacle. We did get them out in the water. They did swim. Briefly. But at the first opportunity they tried to claw their way up his back and his chest. Panicked, would be the best description. They panicked. It would be funny if it were not so disappointing. And poor Chris. Good thing he was not dating much back then, because how do you really explain the scratches. Blaming it on the dog, does not work. Except when you fart, and blame it on the dog, then it is funny.

     They went for a boat ride a couple of times as well. That was also an exercise in stupidity futility. They did not enjoy it. And, no, they did not tell me. They also did not tell me to kill the neighbors. As a side bar the neighbors may have heard me talking about moving their goat. Get a few beers in me on a holiday weekend and my volume may go up. I do not know. It is no longer staring in into our yard. It may have wondered away on its own volition. I may have hurt its feelings. Who Knows?

     BTW the dogs did not tell me to kill anyone for that matter. They did look miserable. And since I have a degree in Body Language with an emphasis on dog body language, I could tell. Since I am not easily discouraged, I tried again. It is the last time the boat actually moved by motor power. It is also the last time I took Browndog and Whitedog for a boat ride. They may have jinxed the boat. I think they peed in it, but it would be hard to tell because it does have so many smells that musty odor.

      We took Tucker to the big lake over Memorial Day weekend. He had to be lured into the water with a treat. I admit I was worried. My fears were lessened on man/dog weekend, when Tucker swam briefly in the river. Well, he followed his big “brother” Bentley and did not venture in often by himself. I was still not sure.

     I took some pictures. I took a ton of pictures. I used a tripod. It worked very well. I still have to learn how to figure out the zoom. It was kind of difficult to get the camera set up far enough away to avoid the dog shake, and get back to take the shot. The great thing about the digital age is not waiting. No surprise pictures of your foot. You can review each shot. Right then... No surprises. All perfect. Except for the zoom…but still no blurry shots!!!

      There we were fetching sticks and enjoying the water and then I got the shot. The one that may propel me back to mildly famous stature. I saw it and I took the shot. Camera steady on the tripod. No reason for panic, as the monster was still far away from the shore. I am sure tucker would have peed his fur, as he is a baby, and scared of many things, but not water! if he knew it was behind him. “Swim, Tucker! Swim!” I screamed. He made it safely to shore just as I snapped the shot. A Pulitzer for sure!!!

long shot monster

close up monster

We can all sleep a little bit better tonight. Tucker is a water dog. And I will soon be mildly famous once again. I got a shot of the Reed’s Lake Monster. You can say it looks kind of like Tucker, but with a tripod, like I said, there is no way I could have had taken a bad picture. So it really can’t be Tucker. It is the Reeds Lake Monster. Well, it could be Tucker. Doesn’t matter!!! TUCKER IS A WATER DOG!!!

Just another day in paradise

What is the price of freedom?

the following link is a reading of our constitution...http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html%20action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=128242656&m=128260011 (thanks Keith for this link!)

     Our leaders need to listen to this reading. Our political system really needs to change. Or more correctly it needs to remember the roots of our freedom quest. The tyranny of the King is nothing compared to the tyranny of the abject bastardization of the paradigm set forth in this document. The tyranny of the Moneygod. It needs to think about the greater good not just the one issue mentality of the typical voter. It is time to stop sniping at the other guy and placing blame.

(picture drawn by my daughter "the flag in sidewalk chalk" 

     If it were so simple, it would not be such a mess. Money and power have infected and corrupted a great ideal. It is not too late to make things right. The sides divided need to work together to accomplish this task! Our founding fathers would be appalled at the liberty we have taken with the interpretations of the system they devised. I listened to this link and heard nothing about the place of lobbyists and special interest groups being part of the political concept they laid out. They have twisted the ideal of freedom into a freak show of whining and sniveling rich spoiled brats… *Bruce Johnson for President 2012*

        I was walking thru the local Grocery store recently and was looking at all the food and consumables. All the choices! The freedom to buy with abandon, because it is so plentiful! What do I want to grill for the fourth? I wandered aimlessly and end up with nothing…

    There is always tomorrow to decide. At least we all think there will be a tomorrow. But what if there is not? What if we are so ambivalent and apathy so great that we allow our all our freedoms to disappear?

     We all wear a seatbelt or should wear a seatbelt, but why should it be a legal issue? Did the passing of this law really lower our insurance cost across the board like it was purported? *I think not* When we allow others to make decisions for us, we are surrendering our freedoms.

     Good or bad, this law is in affect and now is used as a REASON for selective enforcement zones. It was never sold to us on that pretense. It is a safety issue, first and foremost, now it is a money generator and a step on the slippery slope of BigBrotherism. Hopefully, we will learn form this…

     There is a price for freedom. There is a cost for the pursuit of happiness. There is a mortgage on our future and it crosses the lines of right and left. It affects us all particularly if we do nothing. Sometimes our society forgets that the laws of physics apply to every aspect of our existence. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And an object at rest will remain at rest.

     The void left by doing nothing is easily filled by those that whish to impose their beliefs and morality or immorality upon the motionless majority that believes it will all be ok, even if they stand idly by and allow others to think and act for us. An object in motion wants to stay in motion. I know I am guilty as charged, at times.

     Freedom is the choice to live and make rational *sometimes totally irrational WTF were they thinking* choices that affect us all. It is the right to chose to be left or right on the political spectrum. I am not condoning either side. we all know where I stand I am condoning the right to chose, support and voice our opinions. This freedom does not come cheap. The price is heavy and the load is born by all of us as citizens of this great country.

     You may not want a gun in your house. You may not be pro guns. I am not a gun toting guy, but I do not want the only people that have guns to be the police, the crazies, and the criminals. But there is more to this than a few hand guns. There are killing machines that can kill you fifty times in one clip. There only purpose is to kill in quantity. I have a problem with those kinds of guns.

     That is a choice. Allow freedom and pay the price with needless deaths, or deny freedom and pay the price with the possibility of psuedogestapoism. But the price is steep. The price of freedom of choice,  often an emotional response to the intellectual question muddy the waters and blur the lines. As our society becomes more fearful of difference, we seem to invent bigger, badder, and better ways to kill those that may not agree with OUR ideas of what freedoms are.

     For as long as I can remember we have had the paradigm of *This is America and I am American mentality of the 70’s the luxury of cheap fossil fuels.* While the rest of the world uses less that we do and pays more we still get a volume discount. And I think we take it for granted. Because we want to drive a gas guzzling SUV at any time we please we all pay a price for this freedom. There is plenty of blame to go around. We can all take a slice of the BlamePie. (Except for Cookie, he gets a pass; he walks or rides a bike more than anyone I know, and drives gas sipping vehicles…he is almost a tree hugger not that there is anything wrong with that…)

     Crank the air! The temperature is approaching 90 or so! Live in comfort! Freedom allows us to make this choice. The cause and affect is a motherf-er. It leads to many issues that affect us all. Contribute to escalating green house gases and depleting the ozone or endure the sweltering heat and discomfiture. We are free to chose, but it is not free. And the cost is global.

     Although I may ruffle a few feathers, the situation that is henceforth to be called the BP Debacle or BPD, is not just the fault of the oil magnates. It belongs, in some small way, to each of us that have driven when we could have walked, had the air on when we could have had a window open, warmed the car up for longer than needed and any number of FF wasting things we all do sometimes without thinking of the cost.

     This does not EXCUSE the idiots in charge! This does not condone the malfeasance that ensued. This does not forgive the horrific events that will continue to haunt the people of the gulf and our society for YEARS! And cost us billions.

     Those of you that never complained about $4.00 plus gas prices may be excused. But I really doubt you can be honest that you did not utter at least one or two WTF is up with this gas prices during this period of recent history. I just stopped looking at the price per gallon, and just looked at the total dollars, paid and went on my merry way. I chose to ignore it. I did nothing. That is a price I paid. I paid with apathy.

     Magically, the price came back to a MORE REASONABLE level. One price we all pay for this is increased localized production and the inherent risk of drilling off our shores. This does not excuse the complete absurdity of the situation, and the lack of any plan “B” by the BPD. It will never happen just is not good enough.

     As a side bar, I have a penchant for bungee cords and ratchet straps. I make sure everything is tied, bungeed and ratcheted to the extreme, and it can be frustrating if you are going on a trip with me, because I have the plan “b” and plan “c” all the way to plan ‘z’ of bungees and straps.

     However, I did not always think that way; I had to have about 15 sheets of plywood fly out of the back of the truck to learn that securing is a much better idea than taking your chances. It was only plywood, and no one got hurt or died, it was not an ecological disaster, but I learned my lesson. It is minuscule compared to the BPD, but this is not the first time the oil companies have had leaks, groundings or disasters. They force us to pay for the freedom to be apathetic to the environment while catering to the moneygod.

     WTF were they thinking. I’ll tell you what they were thinking. They weren’t. THEY WEREN”T!!! Well, at least not about the possibility of the disaster, they WERE thinking about the PROFITABLITY and the RESPONSIBILITY to the shareholders. Well, that price is one we will pay for YEARS. Ask Alaska about the Exxon Valdez. But, the oil companies were making BILIONS IN PROFIT PER QUARTER! Not per year, not per decade, but every three months. *12/4=3*

     The bill for the freedom to drive with impunity for the past several decades is due. And I believe this will not be the first disaster of this kind. Hopefully the oil companies have FINALLY learned that they should have a plan “b” and a plan “c”…Hell they should have every plan all the way to “Z” with the moola they made…take it from Bungee Bruce…jus’ sayin’

     Moreover, the price has been paid by the valiant men and women serving our country here and abroad in the other Gulf in the Middle East and the surrounding oil reserves in countries like Iraq and Iran. Our youth has paid this price for us in loss of life-blood and limb. This is a debt we can never re-pay. Anyone that think the “war” does not have a rather large to do with oil is fooling themselves. It may have been sold to us a WMD’s and a repressive regime, but there is also the not so hidden agenda of vast reserves of oil.

     And yes I know it is not the largest oil reserve in the world and I know it has much more than just oil at stake. But it is a factor. If you think it isn’t then I really want what you have been taking to delude yourself that it was just about WMD’s and terrorist threats. We will pay this price for decades. A debt for the generations…

     Our country has turned a nearly a blind eye to many a repressive regime that did not have the American Dream or preserving the American way of life as a major or even minor component in the strife. We may have sent some token aid, but the impetus was simply not there to affect a change thru war. The FFF *fossil fuel factor* was simply not an issue. We ignored the plight and set our focus on the oilfields.

     We pay for freedom. Everyday. It is not all negative, this payment. It is not just paying taxes and living here. It is much more. It is involvement in the processes of our government, thru voting and being heard, volunteerism, donations to our favorite charities and speaking our mind to all that will listen on the injustices we see. We CAN make change, and we SHOULD hope for a better future for our kids and their kids.

     Regardless of your political beliefs or your allegiance to a party, the cost is there. It really starts with all of us. We all pay the price for freedom. God Bless America!

Just another day in paradise