Personal
Personal reflections, comments about things I've been doing, etc.
Arwen's Journey
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/19/2010 - 21:03This morning, Arwen left us on the next step of her journey. I don't know a lot about where she came from or where she is going, but I've managed to put together several pieces of the story.
Arwen is a Great Pyrenees puppy; a Big Fluffy Dog. She's somewhere around twelve to fourteen weeks old. She came up from Tennessee and spent a week with us, before heading up to New Hampshire. Big Fluffy Dog rescued a few litters late this summer, and she seems to have been one of these litters. She may have come from a family where there was domestic abuse, but I'm not sure about that.
I've been trying to help with rescues here in Connecticut and am especially committed to helping dogs from Connecticut shelters find their forever homes. I've been interested in fostering for a while. Yet we had an Barley, our old chocolate labrador. It didn't seem to fit for us to start fostering.
Then, Barley developed bone cancer, and after fourteen years of being our family dog, we had to put her down. We spent the rest of the summer without a dog, and agreed to start looking for a new dog in the fall.
I suggested considering fostering and prevailed. So we contacted a couple rescue organizations about fostering. Since we rent, we can't have 'bully breed' dogs, as much as I would like to. Some of the bully breed dogs are some of the sweetest dogs I've ever met.
One rescue I had spoken earlier with was the folks at Big Fluffy Dogs. We had talked about rescues and fosters in Connecticut. I expressed my concern about bringing dogs in from out of state. Connecticut shelters kills between two and three thousand impounded dogs each year. While that isn't as bad as Georgia, which I believe kills over 100,000 impounded dogs each year, it is still a problem, and just as I like to 'Buy Local', I encourage people look towards 'Adopting Local' whenever possible.
Currently, there are around a dozen Great Pyrenees mixes listed on Petfinder in Connecticut. Some are dogs that were surrendered by their owners for one reason or another. Some are dogs that have been brought up from the south. The story of some of the others is hard to tell. I don't want these dogs languishing in shelters in Connecticut while other dogs get shipped up from the South.
Another concern for me is the health of dogs brought up from the south. Have they been properly treated by vets? Have they been spayed or neutered? Are they up to date on their shots? Do they have heartworm or parvo? Massachusetts has come up with strict rules about what dogs can come up.
Big Fluffy Dog Rescue is in Tennessee and in Massachusetts. The dogs are properly cared for before they come up north. Then, they stay with foster families until they can find their forever home. Prada was one dog that came up from Big Fluffy Dogs, and we almost ended up fostering her. However, she ended up going straight to her forever home, so we didn't end up seeing her.
A couple weeks later, Arwen came up from Tennessee. The company transporting the dogs did not seem particularly good. They were five hours late and the dogs were a mess getting off the transport. We were supposed to pick up Arwen and perhaps another puppy.
When the transport arrived, a puppy was given to my wife along with Arwen's papers. Kim played with the dog and we talked a little about her. The problem was, the puppy wasn't a her. It was a him. Also, it wasn't a Great Pyrenees. It probably had some Great Pyrenees in him, but also probably some lab, or other breed. We ended up eventually getting Arwen. The problem is that the papers for the other dog were not around. It looked like the transport had randomly given out dogs and papers. So, this male Great Pyrenees, Labrador mix, had no papers and no one to pick him up. Since we were prepared to pick up two dogs, Arwen, and the dog, whom Fiona started calling Wesley, came home with us. Big Fluffy Dogs straightened things out and found that we have 'Gus' and that Gus' papers are with another foster family.
The next bit of confusion came when two people contacted us about picking up Arwen. The folks at Big Fluffy Dogs did a little more leg work and confirmed who was getting Arwen.
You can see the video that Fiona and I made of Fiona talking about the dogs here:
So, this morning, we got up early, and spent a bit of time playing with Arwen and Wesley (or Gus). By the time Arwen's forever family showed up, she was all tuckered out. We spoke with the folks adopting Arwen. They live in New Hampshire, fairly close to Portsmouth. They had had a cat for sixteen years who passed away a while ago. After the appropriate grieving period, they sought out a new pet and settled on Arwen.
We all had a great chat as Arwen got ready for her trip to New Hampshire. We were happy to see her head off to what sounds like a great life ahead. At the same time, there was sadness as we watched a wonderful dog leave our yard.
Wesley, or Gus, remains with us. I took Fiona up to a fair and it took our minds off of Arwen's departure. Kim stayed home, rested, baked, and looked after Wesley/Gus. It was a successful first fostering. We'll see what happens with Wesley/Gus and what lies ahead of us for other fostering adventures.
Waiting For Hoyle
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/12/2010 - 17:53Last night, I had a curious dream. My two older daughters were starting the school year, and I gave the eldest a copy of According To Hoyle. When I was young, I used to play a lot of solitaire and studied many of the games in Hoyle. As I thought about it, the phrase "Waiting For Hoyle" came to mind; playing solitaire card games while waiting for Godot.
It is an interesting contrast. Godot never comes, and Gogo and Didi do things to pass the time. If the two of them were not together, I could easily have seen one of them playing solitaire. Perhaps solitaire is the ultimate existentialist's game. Yet Hoyle has very clear rules to play by. It seems as if Gogo and Didi were unsure of the rules to play by as they waited for Godot.
One form of solitaire that I never played was Idiot's Delight. It was also title of a famous play by Robert Sherwood which was adopted into a movie. I did see a production of the play many years ago. I greatly enjoyed many aspects of the play. However, there was one line from the play that I especially liked, it was something like:
"We met, like two ships passing in the night, or perhaps more like two drunks sideswiping one another." The play Idiot's Delight also casts an interesting light on an existentialist view of politics.
I believe the Idiot's Delight solitaire game is played with a single deck. However, I liked some of the double deck games. In particular, Forty Thieves, or Napoleon at St. Helena was a favorite of mine. I found the double deck games more challenging. Supposedly this is the form of solitaire that Napoleon played while he was imprisoned by the British on St. Helena. While the Napoleonic wars predate the wars of Idiot's Delight, it seems, somehow, an appropriate follow on to Idiot's Delight.
As I awoke from my dream, my mind wandered, and I thought of the lyrics to Flowers On The Wall:
Counting flowers on the wall
That don't bother me at all
Playing solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo
Now don't tell me I've nothing to do
From the existential and political, to the personal, we are all passing the time in one way or another. Yet are we passing the time, or are we killing it? The great quote from Thoreau comes to mind, "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity."
As I write this, my mind also wanders to the myth of Sisyphus. That too, was a form of solitaire; a more strenuous one. The rock rolling back to the bottom of the hill was like the deck being shuffled again.
Yet playing solitaire can be a way of keeping one's mind sharp. Sisyphus' workout probably kept his body in better shape than any modern day Sisyphusian torture like the treadmills at the gym. Meanwhile, I wonder about what people do while waiting these days. Whether they are waiting for Godot or simply a better job, people spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, reading and writing blogs, and so on. Like solitaire, when done well, it can keep the mind sharp. It can pass the time, although as Beckett points out, it would have passed anyway. Is your social networking and blog reading sharpening your mind or injuring eternity?
Perhaps all of this can weave together into some sort of online Glass Bead Game, but that should probably be a different blog post.
Random Stuff
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 09/11/2010 - 21:19Well, we didn't make it to the firemen's muster or the CT Folk Festival today. Instead, we picked up two foster dogs from Big Fluffy Dogs. One is a Great Pyrenees and the other is a Great Pyrenees/Labrador Retriever mix. They are both young puppies, each around eleven weeks old. They will both most likely only be staying with us a short while until their forever families are found.
Yesterday, I read that Bloglines was shutting down on October 1st. I had copied most of my RSS subscriptions over to Google Reader quite a while ago, but really haven't been using RSS readers much at all. Mostly, I visit blogs through various blog networks and find specific posts when they are recommended by friends on Facebook or Twitter. As an aside, this morning I took a Zogby survey that was asking about blog reading preferences and asked about things like RSS, Facebook and Twitter.
Anyway, I exported my feeds from Bloglines and imported them into Google Reader. I did a little bit of cleaning up, deleting blogs that have disappeared, fixing categories, and moving feeds for blogs that have moved. One thing that I like about Google Reader is that if you join a blog with a Google Friend Connect widget, it gets added to your subscriptions. It becomes a good way of seeing which blogs on various blog sharing networks have been updated.
One blog that I read regularly a few years ago was Gotta keep on keepin' on........ The top says,
Cancer again...that's 3 times in 2 years. This time it’s not breast cancer, but a new one called squamous cell carcinoma. New cancer, same old fighting spirit! My blog is still named for one of many songs that kept me going the first time around. Driving home from an upsetting appointment, I turned on the radio just as this line from Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner was playing: "I've got to keep on keepin' on"....so I did just that. And I'll do it again.
When a friend of mine was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer, I had her get in touch with KT. KT had a great spirit. I saw that the blog was updated on September 3rd.
This is John. I just wanted to post a note on this, the first anniversary of Kate's passing. I am posting the same note on her Facebook page, so sorry to be redundant for those who see it both places.
September 3rd: my wife's birthday, and the anniversary of my wife's mothers passing from cancer. Today is September 11th. As I take a moment to remember friends who died in the World Trade Centers, I also remember Kate and Janice.
On a happier note, I stumbled across Barbara Ann Radnofsky's website. She is currently running for Attorney General in Texas. It 2006, she ran for U.S. Senate. In 2005, we met Barbara Ann at DemocracyFest in Austin, TX. Here is Barbara Ann, Kim and Fiona:
I also stumbled across a listing of an event at the Old State House in Connecticut: Does Media Bias Impact Elections? Join the Discussion. A panel moderated by CT-N Elections Coordinator Diane Smith will start at the Old State House at noon on September 15th. Sounds like a great event.
Now, Fiona has headed off to bed. The dogs are sleeping. Kim is reading. Barbara Ann is probably speaking somewhere right about now, and John has probably put his kids to bed. My earache prevails. The list of unread emails remains way too long, but it all fits together into something much bigger than any of us. Good night.
May you be inscribed for a sweet and good year, even if we have a double dip recession.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 11:50Today, StrategyOne released a report about a recent survey finding Two Thirds of Americans expect double-dip recession, brace for second hit worse than the first. The report noted
Almost half see America’s ‘best days’ behind us, 7 in 10 concerned country is ‘fundamentally broken and not working’
Soon after I read this, I read a message on a mailing list of psychotherapists where one of the old curmudgeons wrote about the illusion of new beginnings in response to various emails wishing the readers "Leshana Tova Tekatev v'etachetem - May you be inscribed for a sweet and good year!" Besides questioning whether the marking of a new year was new beginning he went on to complain about services resembling fashion shows filled with gossip about adultery.
In response to this, I wrote a message to the group, an edited version of which I am posting here:
I've looked at life from both sides now
from win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all.
To me, the change of the calender is an opportunity for a new beginning. It is a reminder to me to seek what is better. Fortunately, we have the Jewish calendar, the Western calendar, the Lunar calendar, and many other calendars to give us this opportunity. For that matter, each trip to the therapist is an opportunity for a new beginning, a chance to look, yet again, at the patterns of our lives that might be holding us back or making our lives or the lives of those around us less pleasant.
Actually, each morning is also an opportunity for a new beginning. To borrow from the Tao of Pooh: Piglet and Pooh are discussing what they do first thing every morning. Pooh wonders whats for breakfast. Piglet wonders what new and exciting thing is going to happen. Pooh observes that they are the same thing.
Then, I think of great dance and movement teachers who have reminded me that each breath in is an opportunity for a new beginning.
As to services, not being Jewish, I've never been to a Rosh Hashanah service. I suspect they are a bit different than funeral services, but I will use funeral services as a proxy for understanding. I remember years ago I told my daughter, who was about three or four at the time, that we were going to a family reunion. She looked quizzically at me and asked, "Who died?" It was a poignant reminder how important it is to gather with distant friends and extended family for more than just funerals.
While I might not enjoy the fashion show and gossip about adultery at some services, I savor the opportunity to reconnect with people that are important to me. As a side note, we have new neighbors that happen to be Jewish. They asked us for information about the different Synagogues in our neighborhood. All we could do was suggest they talk with some friends of ours who are Jewish and the result is that our neighbors ended up going to dinner at our friends' house last night; another connection established, strengthening our community.
As to the hopes? Well, while I would love to see war cease and health improve, mine is a simpler hope. It is hope that somewhere, sometime, someone will read a few of my words and smile; perhaps even my curmudgeon friend on the mailing list. Of course, I hang on to my idealism and think about Robert Kennedy and his comment about sending out tiny ripples of hope that cross each other and "build a current than can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance"
No, I really don't know life at all, but I do hope that everyone regardless of religious affiliations have a sweet and good year no matter what the economy does.
Sunday Evening
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/05/2010 - 20:09I am almost too tired to write. It is only 8 PM, but I've been kicking around ideas of heading to bed early. Last night, Fiona and I camped out in the backyard of one of Fiona's friends. It was a wonderful time and I posted a picture of the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich preparations over the campfire this morning.
In the afternoon, we all went over to the club for a swim. They have an outdoor pool that will be closing next weekend. Several friends showed up and we had some nice long chats poolside. Back at the house, Fiona and I did her weekly radio show. We were both pretty tired, so it may not have been the best show. This was further complicated by Fiona's calls constantly getting dropped. This is about the third episode where this has been a problem, and we've filed a problem report with BlogTalkRadio. We shall see what they find.
We still need to bake the cake for Kim's birthday. I think it will be best to wait until the morning to do this. I'm just too tired to be able to concentrate properly on making a cake this evening. I am hoping that Fiona will want to help, but she may want to rush over to her papa and nana's house since her cousin's are visiting.
It is getting close to cider making season again, and I've been learning more about aging hard cider and thinking about what I'll try to do this year. I hope to have a blog post up soon about this. Also, Kim got a Nook for her birthday. I've been spending time looking more closely at the nook, as well as using the N900 as an ereader and various sources for ebooks online. This is another blog post that I hope to get up soon.
I never did get my first of the month blog post up, so that remains in the queue and I also need to think about my music monday post for Labor day, a couple days after the notification date for my SonicBids request.
Yet all of these will have to wait until I am better rested. I hope readers from the States are having a great three day weekend. More soon...
