Really?! One in Five??

Saw this blurb in this morning's paper. Not sure how authoritative it is. Only identifiable source is that the article originated in New York, whatever that means. Could be from the New York Chamber of Commerce or the Occupy Wall Street gathering for all I know. But documented or not, true or false, black or white or gray all over, someone seems to think the statistics are important enough to be newsworthy.

Also in this morning's paper was an article entitled, House Approves Concealed Gun Bill.  I'm not posting this because of any argument I want to make, pro or con, regarding gun control.  I admit, I DO wonder why people feel the need to carry concealed weapons but that's a subject to ponder in another place and time. My real question is just this...how many of those one in five anxious and/or depressed American adults are carrying concealed weapons this morning?  And did they remember to take their meds?

I don't expect an answer.

Lucy's Eyes



Here's lookin' at you, kid!



Is this my good side?

These aren't the best pics of Lucy.  I must have had the focus on manual instead of automatic. People have commented that Lucy has very "expressive" eyes, almost like you can see human expressions in them. She'll never win a staring contest but, I swear, there sure are times when I think I can understand what she's thinking just by looking into her eyes.  (Geeez, I've gotta' get a life!) Lucy is spending the night in the doggy hotel tonight.  She so would win a staring contest with either of us tonight...and the expression in her eyes would be like daggers!  Sorry, Luce...we'll rescue you soon!

Canine Cousins

We are "watching" our grandsons while Rob and Mandy take a long weekend together.  They went to see a Pitt game (if you can call a 34 to 10 shellacking by Rutgers a game) in New Joisey. The boys more or less just take care of themselves with a few intermittent episodes of drama now and then but we enjoy spending time with them now that they're old enough to keep their sibling rivalry on a less than lethal level. Our real concern heading over here Thursday was how would the dogs behave together.  Lucy, the American Bulldog we inherited from Cathie (too big at 65 Lbs for her apartment complex) and the boisterous Coco, the Labradoodle, would be meeting for the first time. A close encounter of canine cousins.  Despite just being a few years old, Coco thinks she's a puppy. And a lapdog. I'm not sure what she weighs but it must be close to 40 Lbs or so and when she jumps up on you the inertia factor makes her a flying missile of 140 Lbs!  Lucy, at 10 years + is a little calmer.  She likes frequent naps, snores like a buzz saw, and had lived in the same house with two Dachshunds a few years ago but lacks exposure to dogs closer to her own size. I worried for days beforehand that Coco, beautiful, sweet, and always hyper Coco would drive Lucy nuts. Or worse yet, Lucy would react like a wild cornered beast with snapping jaws and drooling Cujo-like ferocity. We just didn't know but hoped for the best as we put together our game plan for introducing the furry four-legged cousins to each other.

We decided that Sandi should arrive first and let Coco get some of her exuberance out of her system before we shocked her with the arrival of another four-legged house guest. Coco has a greeting ritual she has patented that includes finding a gift for visitors (her choice of stuffed animals, pull toys, or anything handy), frantically whining her vocal joy with the "gift" clenched in her jaws, and a full aft body tail wag/prance routine that is charming but (we feared) waaaay over the top for quiet, sleepy, mild mannered Lucy. So get that out of her system and then bring in Lucy. That was the plan.

I followed a respectful few minutes later.  With preplanned efficiency we introduced them still tethered; Sandi in the family room restraining Coco from her ritualistic greeting and me holding Lucy with the short leash. I swear they sensed each other before I ever got Lucy out of the car. When I entered the hallway Lucy was snorting like a bull and I could see and hear Coco whining and straining to meet (or attack, I didn't know which) the 65 Lbs of quivering white fur whose all four legs were skating in place on tile surfaced foyer in a desperate attempt to meet (or attack, I didn't know which) as I held on for dear life. It was all Sandi could do to restrain Coco and it was all I could do to keep Lucy back from charging into the family room. I advanced with Lucy as slowly as I could keeping a watchful eye in both dogs for rabies induced foaming at the mouth that seemed to be the imminent next stage of this clash of the Titans. Neither Coco nor Lucy cared for this dangerous game. They both growled and whined and displayed obvious (to us, at least) distaste for each other. They both wanted to smell the other but neither wanted the other to smell them in the area where dogs like to sniff each other. Sensitive for their personal space, I suppose. But the good sign was that both of their tails were wagging. We took that to be an optimistic sign that they did not have homicidal intentions. But it still was a scene of jousting like thrusts at each other with growls and snapping jaws when either one tried to sniff at the other's tail. I was beginning to think that I was going to have to take Lucy home and leave Sandi and Coco behind because the two of them were never going to reconcile to each other.

We decided to see if they would behave better if unrestrained and outdoors. Sort of outdoors being the pool and pool deck area. If they were going to fight to the death, at least we'd have them in an enclosed arena with the screened pool area. Off with the leashes! Out to the pool! The two of them scrambled outside and immediately transformed themselves into model canine citizens. Lucy exploring. Coco watching. Lucy following Coco. Coco following Lucy. They were actually playing together! And when they got bored or tired they were tolerating each other.  And eventually they were ignoring each other. Except when one got a treat (going outside to relieve themselves is rewarded with a treat) the other made sure they got one too. Same with affection. They both like their chins scratched. They both like their bellies rubbed. They both like to go for walks. The only thing they don't like is for the other to sniff around their butt. But a growl and display of fangs seems to discourage this act quickly and surely. Seems to be a no no, even for canine cousins.

Doctor, Doctor, Gave Me The News!

Consulted with new oncologist this week for what's turning out to be a quarterly blood test to monitor my MDS. My previous oncologist had to relocate out of the area. The new one was recommended by Sandi as she was very satisfied with his medical management of her chemotherapy. I liked him so we'll see how it goes with his diagnosis and treatment recommendations. The good news is my blood counts are relatively stable so he recommended we continue watching it every three months. No restrictions on my wild and crazy life style so that was nice to hear. Actually, my numbers were improved a bit from what they had been in June, just a little bit in each case but still lower than the ranges for normal counts of white blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets. Nevertheless, it looks like my "slowly emerging myelodysplasia" is still on the slow track and that's more than OK with me. It appears my decision to change from a Medicare Advantage plan to a Supplemental plan was premature.  I made the change anticipating chemo might be required this year and, had that been the case, it would have been a good economic decision to do that.  But I'm not disappointed.  I'd rather pay the Supplemental premiums even if I don't have to go through chemotherapy. Life's a crap shoot anyway so you just have to make the best decisions you can and stick with them. Until they turn out to be dumb decisions, in which case you adjust as quickly as you can. Make a new plan, Stan!  I could switch back during the upcoming enrollment period but I'll probably just stay with the same program. Premiums of $170 per month are nothing compared to the $1800 a month we paid for both of us two years ago.

Anyway, everything is cool so far and hope it stays that way for a long time.

Book Of Scrap Delayed By Book Of Paver

I don't know if there's an official terminology to describe someone who produces a scrap book. A "SCRAPBOOKER" perhaps? One who prepares scrap books of cherished memories based on the old Latin verb, scrapolli, I suspect,  meaning to piece together documents and relics for the purpose of retaining visions of glories past. But here I am, deep into scrap booking or whatever you want to call it to record for posterity our trip to Alaska last June. That almost makes it more palatable, "recording for posterity" because when you say it that way it sort of sounds like genealogy. So some as yet to be identified heir of mine can come across said scrapbook a hundred years from now and see that his ancestors visited Alaska way back in 2011.  That sort of makes it worthwhile.  I have some mementos of my ancestors' trips, the most noteworthy being keepsakes my parents kept from their honeymoon. Hotel receipts and fliers and notes of expenses like cab fare and meals. Not exactly scrapbookish but sort of and I'm grateful to have them for my family history files. The problem with me, as in I, the scrapbooker extraordinaire,  is that I took too many photos. Now I've got to try to condense approximately 1800 photos into scrapbook proportions. Not an easy task, especially for a wuss like me who thinks every photo he takes is worthy of a Pulitzer prize and should be on the front page of National Geographic magazine (or at the very least, on the cover of SCRAPBOOK ILLUSTRATED).

So I've been slowly plugging away at this project for a few weeks now, ignoring my genealogy research for the most part except for occasional diversionary forays into Ancestry.com just to keep the ancestry search juices flowing, and trying to make sense of, or I should say, trying to construct a scrap book of sorts that makes some sense in coordination with the chronological/geographical elements of our trip. When I'm finally done with it and if you ever get a chance to look at it be prepared to be confronted with, nay, overwhelmed  with lots of photographs of mountains! Keep in mind I've lived in Florida for the past 22 years so mountains are not an every day thing for me. So when I saw mountains, I took pictures of mountains. Lots of 'em.  But not all, just a lot. Here's a few pages of what I've got so far.

I added text to some pages that I call "header" pages like this one. When we drove from Valdez to Fairbanks we started off in a place called Keystone Canyon. So the page identifies the beginning in the scrap book of things we saw in Keystone Canyon.  Then, after a "header" page I grouped photos together in various formats like this:

I'm so darn creative I'm sure they are preparing to carve my name into the granite wall of honor in the Scrapbook Hall of Fame. But I'll have to admit, after a while of doing this it gets a little tedious. It's my own fault after taking so many freaking mountain pictures but it just starts to become boring. Beauteous? Yes, absolutely and especially in this case but boring nevertheless.    

Anyway, I've been doing this for a few weeks now and, by the way, this book of scrap was delegated to me by my wife because after doing about three pages of photos she got bored with it and suggested I take it over.  Lucky me! So I've been plugging away at it for awhile, some days a little bit, other days a few hours, some days nothing at all. But I keep coming back to it because I'm thinking about that unidentified heir in the year 2111 who comes across ScrapAlaskaBook at the bottom of a steamer trunk in the attic all covered with cobwebs and dust and wipes it off with his sleeve and blows the dust off and in mystery and awe announces, "Hey! Look at the pictures of the mountains.! Aren't they beauteous?!"

Alaska memories and scrapbooking of same had to go on hold recently because of a predicament I call "The Orange Crisis."  We live in a deeded community which requires approval from our homeowners architectural committee before any enhancements are made to the exterior of our homes. We have submitted a request for the committee's approval to put pavers in the alcove front entrance way to our home. Since a portion of our townhouse unit has a brick facade, we thought a paver in a brick-like design would provide a pleasant appearance. When we submitted our request we included printed literature from Home Depot that depicted the selected paver sort of orange in color. We didn't see it in the paver itself but the picture sort of presented the colors as various shades of bright orange. SHOCKING! isn't it?  This is what they saw:

OK, I've got to admit this is pretty orangie.  The literature says it's shades of brown but it definitely looks more orange than brown. This picture was taken in late afternoon sunlight when we get direct sunlight on our front entrance. I had no mountains to photograph so thought I'd get a photo of the sample paver as it would appear in our alcove. Not sure I could convince them it's not orange with this one. So I put this photo in file 13. The committee will not see this photo. I went out this morning and took new photos that did not have direct sunlight and showed how we pictured the paver design and colors blending in with the brick facade:

Hopefully, this gives a kinder and gentler appearance so the committee doesn't have to fear that Home Depot is opening up an annex at our address with a logo like accented entrance way. If it works, I only have my scrapbooking skills to thank.  I guess I could have made a header page for it, something like the bottom photo with the headline, "NOT ORANGE!" but I suppose that would have been pushing it. We'll see what happens when they consider with the new updated application. In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep on scrapping!

The Lost Art of Compromise

Drove 588 miles yesterday from NC to Vero Beach. My travel plan was fairly simple.  I anticipated 600 + miles for the trip but took some routing advice from Sandi's cousin, Bill, and successfully whittled 30 to 40 miles or so off the Yahoo mileage directions. I hoped to average about 60 mph because most of the trip was on interstate.  According to the Sorento's travel computer we averaged 62 mph with 9 hrs 27 mins driving time. We targeted a departure time of 6 am and actual time was 6:17. We hoped for late afternoon arrival considering we would have to stop to eat a couple of times, stop for fuel and a few rest breaks to get out and stretch a little. We arrived at our Vero destination at 5:07 pm so we were pretty close to target. I was also hopeful that I could maintain the posted speed limits + 4 or 5 mph and considering all the travel together, back roads shortcut through a few traffic lights and speed limits ranging from 25 to 50 mph, along with interstate speed limits of 65 to 70 mph with lower levels through construction areas and urban areas, the 62 mph result came out pretty close to the goal.

Driving can be boring. I worked in trucking dispatch for 36 years but never drove over the road. I don't know how road drivers do it. I give them a lot of credit for being able to put up with the bone head drivers that are on the roads these days.  And they have to do it day after day! A 588 mile trip for a road driver is just a day's work. But while I admire their stamina and skill, I don't like to be on the road with them. Simple physics says contact between my 4000 Lb Sorento and a fully loaded 80,000 Lb semi is going to result in semi score = 1, Sorento score = 0. Not good odds in my book. So I try to stay away from them as much as possible. I will speed up, slow down, move over a lane, and do whatever it takes to give them the room to do what they want to do and give me the room to have some peace of mind that neither of us will have any encounters other than passing the other by.  Truckers, of course, aren't the only vehicles to contend with.  All ages, all genders, all races, all whatevers are out there and at times it seems their goals when they set out that morning are to screw up my driving plans. Many of them don't seem to know how to use cruise control. So they speed up, they slow down, they fluctuate at any speed except one consistent level. I go to pass them, they speed up. I pull over to let them pass, they swerve in front of me and slow down. They weave from lane to lane, frequently with a phone stuck to their ear and S-curve their way down the highway like a Nascar driver waiting for a restart at Daytona.

Despite all these observations, I try to keep my political views under the dashboard. That is, few of the other vehicles see my middle finger or thumb/first digit LOSER displays because I don't display them high enough above window height for any offenders to see. You never know when one screwball thinks the right to bear arms means he not only can drive like a jerk;  he might also think he can shoot anybody who trips his road rage trigger. I don't want to be his (or her) target. But I do have political views while I'm driving. Especially nowadays when our duly elected politicians in Washington are having such a difficult time coming to an agreement on how to resolve the debt crisis.  I understand it's no simple process and we can't equate our household budget scenarios to the vast and complex economy of the nation, not to mention how our economy can and will affect the global economies. But when I'm driving on Interstate 95 through South Carolina climbing a hill and trying to pass a semi struggling to maintain 60 mph on the incline and some doofus in a Malibu pulls right up on my ass in drafting position and starts flicking his high beams at me, I can't help thinking that whoever this idiot is has obviously lost the art of compromise. My first inclination in this situation is to tap on my brake to shock the beegeezus out of him but I'm not going to do that, I'm just going to fantasize about it for a moment or two. I will frequently just sit there a little bit and let him stew but not for too long a time. I'll give him my right directional just to let him know I will be moving over as soon as I get a safe distance past the truck. But just as often, that's not quick enough for the idiot who will swerve to the right and then pass me on the right in spite of my directional.  So to keep my sense of humor and my own road rage urges in line, I think to myself that Malibu-moron is like the politician who goes to Washington with his goals lined up in a neat little row and refuses to take any body else's view under consideration. He has PRINCIPLES  by golly and he's not going to let some Sorento or semitrailer or Democrat or Republican or anybody else who gets in his way deter him from accomplishing his goals. It's mind over matter...he doesn't mind and the rest don't matter. His way or the highway.

Kind of a simple little analogy, I know, but it keeps me amused while driving down the road while keeping my mind on the driving at the same time. I'm not interested in finding blame against Democrats or Republicans, Congress vs. Senate, President Obama, liberals, conservatives, Tea Party, or whatever. But I'll say this. I drove 588 miles yesterday and compromised my butt off the whole way to accommodate other drivers and people sharing the road with me. If I can do it, the people we've sent to Washington can do it too. I don't expect them to vote on every little thing exactly the way I want them to. They can't please all of us 100 % of the time.  But they better learn to negotiate and compromise and get something done on this debt crisis PDQ and those that don't can kiss my vote goodbye. And they can kiss my road-weary butt while they're at it.

Alaska Tour Picture Tease

Sandi and I recently returned from a 15 day land and cruise tour of Alaska.  In a word, it was AWESOME!  But, of course, a word is not enough to describe the eye candy scenery and sights.  I was tempted to photograph every mountain, every waterfall, every critter, every iceberg, every glacier, every dog sled puppy at every turn. But I'm more disciplined than that.  I only took about 1800 pictures or so. I put them on discs to store and organize (sort of organize) in case anybody wants us to join them in their living room for a narrated slide show.  Come on, don't be bashful...you know you want to see them!

Obviously, some of you live quite a ways from us in Florida so you may think you're out of danger range for us to visit. Keep in mind that Sandi and I love to travel. Especially to places where the room and board is free. HAVE DISCS, READY TO TRAVEL is our slogan. In the meantime, you'll just have to be satisfied with the pictures included in this posting. So sorry to tease you like this but pending your invitation it's the best we can do. First priority for pictures in Alaska? CRITTERS!!  Here's just a few:



Moose birthing two calves



Dahl sheep



Fox on side of road napping



'da bear



Another moose drinking in the river...Daddy moose?

Can't really call sled dog puppies "critters" because they're so darned cute.

We drove 92 miles into Denali National Park on a school bus over a gravel surfaced road with no guard rails. Pretty severe drop offs to get the blood pumping.

This gave a nice view of the road ahead




This is the view from our window on the left side of the bus.




With millions of square miles of wilderness, mosquitoes thrive and are almost big enough to be classified as critters in their own right. We stayed in a lodge in Kantishna, 92 miles inside Denali Park that supplied head nets to each guest for protection.





Sandi in fine Kantishna fashion!





Lots of  woods with lots of standing water = perfect world for mosquitoes



Mountain views



I thought this was a huge mountain...



Until this one peeked through the clouds behind it. Mount McKinley from the ground.

Mount McKinley from the air...it is absolutely astonishing when you see it...20320 feet elevation!!

The rest of these pictures were taken while on the second half of the tour on the cruise portion.



Hubbard glacier as seen from the cruise ship




Hubbard glacier up close and personal



Engines pulling our White Pass Railway trip out of Skagway



The harbor at Skagway in the distance as we climb the mountains into British Columbia



Launching apparatus for the Icy Point Zip Line, longest and fastest zip line in the world!

Sandi after the zip line vertical drop of 1300 ft, 5330 ft long, 60 mph.  After the bus ride into Denali, this was a piece of cake!

Nobody can go to Alaska and not have their picture taken in front of a totem pole.



Me and Sarah. No I did not have my hand on her butt...she was just cardboard!




Our group with JOHN HALL'S ALASKA CRUISES & TOURS.



Yes, got pictures of whales, bald eagles, seals, otters, and other critters but I'm still organizing everything. Hope to have it all ready in time to make a good presentation in your living room.