Nala's starting to show a little bit of grey in her muzzle these days.
I always love hearing from the people that adopted dogs I fostered. This was sent in for a Happy Tail entry from the people that adopted Barkley earlier this year.
Imagine that after years, you've decided to expand your household pack to include a companion for your 9-year old Lab, Maggie. Given Maggie's small size, you search the Lab rescues for another small one so as not to daunt Maggie. Having learned of Barkley, a 60-lb lab who was rescued from a shelter, the pack drives 8-hours to meet him at the Wild Heir South Carolina lab rescue.
You haven't taken into consideration that he was 60-lbs when you learned about him, i.e. a few months prior when he was only 9-months old. You arrive to find a 75-lb giant of a Lab who leaps over couches in one bound. ("He's not 60 pounds anymore...") He puts his paws on your shoulders and looks you in the eyes. But Maggie, whom you feared would be quite displeased with a year-old clumsy brother, is delighted with him, and you can't help but be either.
Barkley appears to have no qualms about leaving South Carolina with unfamiliar people and dog, in an unfamiliar SUV - leaping in the back (momentarily). He merely views the back seat as an exercise hurdle to get to the front. ("uhm, he's in your seat." ) You open the door, take him around to the back. By the time you're back in the car, he's back in the front. Repeat two more times.
He never appears confused or anxious about arriving in a new home. He paces the bed every night ("Did we get an insomniac?") until you realize he just wants on the bed. After that, you - and Maggie - are pillows for him to lay across while he sleeps. When it comes to sleeping, he never applies "lay down" but rather falls across you from a standing position. He buries his nose in your neck for the entire night.
All dogs are friends, all squirrels are foes, and moles are to be to be carried carefully in one cheek. ("What's in Barkley's mouth?) Leashes and Maggie's collar are edibles ("Why isn't Maggie's collar on? Why are her ID plates on the floor?") His Nylabone and tennis balls are pacifiers. Water is for slobbering across the kitchen, requiring you to put a rug down. Maggie's head is for drooling on. Vacuums are a terror, causing you to have to replace the Plexiglas door he broke through to escape one. (He wasn't injured.) Couches are for you to sit on - with Barkley's entire self on your lap. Maggie is his most beloved big sister and best friend whose side he won't leave.
Maggie, now 10-years old, is a pup again. Post-breakfast is Labrador wrestlemania, as indicated by the joyous sounds of thunder throughout the house and by every rug accordionned against a wall. She loves an ambush - hiding under a desk or chair and leaping out at him with a playful "snap snap" of her ferocious fangs. Every play session begins with each giving each other nose licks, and then pandemonium ensues. She lets him chase her just long enough to gain momentum and turn on him - the chased becomes the chaser - and he seems as delighted as she. She has taught him that the first thing to do every morning is check the tomato plant for new green tomatoes, thus ensuring we never get to eat a ripe one.
Such is our life with our beloved rescue Lab, Barkley. If you rescue a Lab, you will be blessed to have the same love, affection, fun and frivolity as we do.
Thanks to some misalignment in Google Maps, it took me a little bit of driving around Park West before I could find the dog park.
Located in the Mt. Pleasant Recreation Center in Park West, the dog park is a small fenced in area next to the tennis court. It's dominated by the retention pond in the center of the park, so there's not a lot of open field for dogs to run. However, if you've got a dog that loves water, that's not really going to matter much.
There are plenty of tennis balls around for dogs to run around and fetch, although most of them are in the pond so they'll need to be fished out.
One thing the dog park could use is a water hose to wash the pond water off the dogs when you're finished. There's also no water fountain for the dogs, so it's probably a good idea to bring your own water and bowl.
A picture from within a
very simple picture --
not that simplicity
is always the answer.
It is necessary that some things
grow complicated and various,
although the roots are simple.
Beginnings are within us.
There, they had best be simple
figures in quick sure strokes.
from: wood s lot
The Weather Within
Theodore Enslin
In Memory In Homage
George Oppen
1908-1984*
The Weather
John Newlove
1938 - 2003I'd like to live a slower life.
The weather gets in my words
and I want them dry. Line after line
writes itself on my face, not a grace
of age but wrinkled humour. I laugh
more than I should or more
than anyone should. This is good.But guess again. Everyone leans, each
on each other. This is a life
without an image. But only
because nothing does much more
than just resemble. Do the shamans
do what they say they do, dancing?
This is epistemology.This is guesswork, this is love,
this is giving up gorgeousness to please you,
you beautiful dead to be. God bless
the weather and the words. Any words. Any weather.
And where or whom. I'd never taken count before.
I wish I had. And then
I did. And here
the weather wrote again.
Macho is staying with us for the next couple of weeks. He's become a pretty big boy since the last time I saw him. It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but Macho is about 5-6 cm taller than Nala or Simba and probably has at least 10kg on both of them. He's having a good time playing with the other dogs.
Nala, Macho and Simba
Thanks to Auntie Sandi, the dogs have some new duds to sport around town.
Nala in her new bright yellow no-stink collar
and Simba in his blue and black no-stink collar
Don't they look sharp?
***
"There must be a time of day when the man who
makes plans forgets his plans,
and acts as if he had no plans at all.
There must be a time of day when the man who has
to speak falls very silent.
And his mind forms no more propositions,
and he asks himself:
Did they have a meaning?
There must be a time
When the man of prayer goes to pray
as if it were the first time in his life
he had ever prayed,
when the man of resolutions puts his
resolutions aside
as if they had all been broken,
and he learns a different wisdom:
distinguishing the sun from the moon,
the stars from the darkness,
the sea from the dry land,
and the night sky from the shoulder of a hill.
*
"Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not calculating and thinking. Childlikeness has to be restored with long years of training in the art of self-forgetfulness. When this is attained, man thinks yet he does not think. He thinks like the showers coming down from the sky; he thinks like the waves rolling on the ocean; he thinks like the stars illuminating the nightly heavens; he thinks like the green foliage shooting forth in the relaxing spring breeze. Indeed, he is the showers, the ocean, the stars, the foliage. When a man reaches this stage of spiritual development, he is a Zen artist of life."
- D. T. Suzuki
*****
"There is tremendous power in unearthing, in recognizing distracted, scattered mind, the mind which would rather be anywhere but here, and spending some time there, with that mind. Rather than being an anonymous voice from the dark bossing you around, scattered mind is someone you can sit down and hang out with."
- Jusan Ed Brown
*
Wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God."
~ Quran, II.115
*
"In youth we believe what the young believe, that life is all choice. We stand before a hundred doors, choose to enter one, where we're faced with a hundred more and then choose again. We choose not just what we'll do, but who we'll be. Perhaps the sound of all those doors swinging
shut behind us each time we select this one or that one should trouble us, but it doesn't. Nor does the fact that the doors often are identical and even lead in some cases to the exact same place. Occasionally a door is locked, but no matter, since so many others remain available. The distinct possibility that choice itself may be an illusion is something we disregard, because we're curious to know what's behind that next door, the one we hope will lead us to the very heart of the mystery. Even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary we remain confident that when we emerge, with all our choosing done, we'll have found not just our true destination but also its meaning."
from Bridge of Sighs
by Richard Russo
*
"When Moses conversed with God, he asked, "Lord where shall I seek you?"
God answered, "Among the brokenhearted."
Moses continued, "But, Lord, no heart could be more despairing than mine."
And God replied, "Then I am where you are."
-Abu'l Fayd Al-Misri
*
The 'guinea-pigging' of vast swathes of the population has, up till now, solved two problems: the 'time' problem (namely, how to avoid addressing the underlying reasons for mental health problems), and how to create new markets amidst the flourishing of generic drug production, particularly outside of the US and Europe. Clearly the interiorisation of unhappiness is far more profitable than the outward realisation that perhaps misery has nothing to do with you personally and everything to do with the world in which you live.
- infinite thØught
***Coverage and commentary of the Iran 'revolution' via
Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic
The President's Statement
The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
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Tick Tock, Motherfuckers
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Quote For The Day
PermalinkThe Jpost also got an e-mail from Iran:
Girls are extremely active in all these rallies (a little less in night riots where patches of young men are more visible). They courageously charge anti-riot police, chant slogans in front of them, lead the crowd, etc., but they are equally beaten too. The police seem to have no limit in the use of force. They are disproportionately violent. They don't use fire weapons, but they don't go easy on you with their clubs. They literally beat up protesters to death if they don't get rescued by fellow protesters or somehow break away and run. The level of brutality is exceptional, but it is amazing to see how people stand up to them. I heard from many witnesses that thugs were brought by bus from smaller cities to assist police in the crackdown...
This photographic slideshow, with many pictures I haven't yet seen, is well worth your time.
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*
Confirming The Basij Murder Of Neda
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*
Poem For The Day II
A day of ominous decision has now dawned on this free nation. Save us
then from our obsessions! Open our eyes, dissipate our confusions,
teach us to understand ourselves and our adversary.
Let us never forget that sins against the law of love
are punishable by loss of faith, and those without faith
stop at no crime to achieve their ends!Help us to be masters of the weapons that threaten to master us.
Help us to use our science for peace and plenty, not for war and destruction.
Save us from the compulsion to follow our adversaries in all that we most hate,
confirming them in their hatred and suspicion of us.Resolve our inner contradictions,
which now grow beyond belief and beyond bearing.
They are at once a torment and a blessing:
for if you had not left us the light of conscience,
we would not have to endure them.Teach us to wait and trust.
Grant light, grant strength and patience to all who work for peace.
But grant us above all to see that our ways are not necessarily your ways,
that we cannot fully penetrate the mystery of your designs
and that the very storm of power now raging on this earth
reveals your hidden will and your inscrutable decision.Grant us to see your face in the lightning of this cosmic storm
- Thomas Merton, Prayer For Peace.
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*
The Women
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The Most Staggering Footage Yet
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*
[cross posted to Alive on All Channels]
A Charley Horse in Bed
Q. Why does one get muscle cramps while sleeping or resting?
A. In most cases, there is no apparent cause for hard knots in the muscles, usually in the calves, that are not associated with vigorous exercise, medical authorities say. Nighttime attacks of leg cramps are quite common, especially in older people, and can be very painful though usually not dangerous.
Most night cramps are not associated with serious underlying diseases, but diabetes and circulatory problems are among the conditions that should be ruled out by a doctor, especially if the cramps are frequent and severe. Cramping can also be a side effect of some prescription drugs.
One popular suggested explanation for the involuntary contractions involves overactive nerve networks in the large leg muscles, but there is no conclusive evidence as to whether this is true or what the cause may be.
Other researchers suggest that cramps are an effect of dehydration, which is known to be involved in spasms after exercise. Common sense suggests drinking enough water through the day and before going to bed, as well as avoiding heavy bed covers that keep the toes from pointing up. Gentle stretching exercises may help.
If you develop a cramp, you can help relax the knotted muscle with gentle stretching and massage; walking or standing if you can manage it; and perhaps a warm bath or shower.
C. CLAIBORNE RAY
Readers may submit questions by mail to Question, Science Times, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, or by e-mail to question@nytimes.com.There aren't too many things that are more fun than spending a morning watching a bunch of labs frolic around in a pond.
