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|  Anyone who has known me, knows that I have never really been a "dog person". I never disliked them, I like them ok. But I have been at best, indifferent about them. My wife fixed all that for me. She has always had dogs, all her life, for all their lives. And so, when I married her, dogs became a fact of life for me. It occurred to me that after 46 years of life on this old world, that this is the first time I have ever had an old dog. Chrissie was less than a year old when she entered our lives. It was a slow process, but over the years, she got to me. That's why when she finally died on Feb. 11, 2009, It left hollow spot I did not really expect. She was half pit bull, half dalmatian, and all sweetheart. She never so much as growled at anyone. She survived two toddlers without so much as even nipping at one of them. Chrissie was as close to the "perfect dog" as any I've ever seen. We really could leave her to guard the food! If ever the boys would leave food out, even on the floor, she would NOT touch it, til someone would tell her 'ok'.  One of the most endearing things about her was her grin. She would grin from ear to goofy ear, and at all the right times. She had been with us for so long we would swear she had a vocabulary of words she could understand. She was extremely smart, well behaved, and eager to please. A little over a year ago we discovered that she had a tumor. After discussing it with the vet, we decided to forego the risk and expense of the operation. Due to her age, there was at greater than average risk that she would not survive surgery. We knew her days were short, but we were still not completely prepared when the day came. We already knew she was getting older. Her face had turned completely white, and a lot of her spryness had dissipated. After much discussion we decided to get a puppy. We had two reasons: First to perhaps give old Chrissie another lease on life, and second, so the new pup could learn good manners from the senior dog. That's when we rescued Bethany from the pound.   "Beffy" as we call her, is a Shar-Pei/Mystery mix. We suspect some German Shepherd, but we're not really sure, due her somewhat diminutive size. We adopted her at 7 weeks, and within the first week, she was completely housebroken. She was an apt pupil, and she did seem to give Chrissie another good year or better. She hadn't romped and played for quite some time prior to getting her a puppy. Within a few short weeks however, we faced a grim crisis. Beth was stricken with a severe case of Demodex, a parasite that lives in the hair follicles. It can be fatal in extreme cases, as was hers. The vet didn't give her a very good prognosis. But we know a God who cares about the things that we care about. She is just fine now.  At any rate, she captured all of our hearts, with her wrinkly forehead and long, donkey ears. She has her routine and has every bit the personality of her mommy dog. Different yet distinct. For a time, all seemed well. Chrissie had revived notably, and Beth fell right into her place in the family. But the day came that we all dreaded. Chrissie's sickness worsened to the point where we had to, for her sake, have her put to sleep. It was a sad, heart wrenching experience. Her last act was to grin at Rhenda. For several weeks, we debated over whether we should get a new dog. We wanted to, knew we would, also knew Bethy needed companionship. But the hurt was still there. We didn't want that to color any decisions we made.  During that time, we became aware of a puppy that was in need of a new home. His people had good things to say about him, how good a dog he was, how smart he was, and how sweet he was. "Just come see him," they kept telling us. Well, we knew what that would mean, so we stalled, not wanting to make too precipitous a decision. However, today March the 5th, we took the plunge and went to 'meet' Nash. He truly is a sweet, gentle dog. He is a Lab/Queensland Healer mix. We imediately formed a bond with him. We decided to go home and think on it for a while. When Rhenda suggested we take the boys to meet him, I pretty much knew it was a done-deal. I went and dug out the extra leash and stuck it in my pocket. Sure enough, the boys were quite taken with him. To keep a long story short, Nash went home with us. We were a little apprehensive about how Beth would deal with it. After all she was now THE dog.  After the initial circling and butt-sniffing, things normalized very quickly. Soon the two were playing as if they were old buddies. In retrospect, it kind of shows us that we need to value the things in our life, while we have them. We will miss old Chrissie, and always remember her with fondness. But we also look forward to the days and years in the future of enjoyment of these two knotheads. Time to enjoy life! Sometimes it's just the simple, cycle of life. | |
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| What the folds of the flag represent?  1. A symbol of life. 2. A symbol of our belief in eternal life. 3. In Honor and remembrance of a veteran departing our ranks who gave a portion of his life for the defense of our country and to attain peace throughout the world. 4. Represents our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in times of war for His divine guidance. 5. A tribute to our country, for in the words of Steven Decatur, "Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still out country, right or wrong." 6. For where our hearts lie. It is with our hearts that we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Of America, and to the republic for which it stands, on nation under God, indivisible , with liberty and justice for all. 7. A tribute to our Armed Forces, for it is the Armed Forces that protect our country and our flag from all her enemies whether they be within or without the boundaries of our republic. 8. A tribute to the one who entered the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor mother, for whom it flies on Mother's Day. 9. A tribute to womanhood; for it has been through their faith, love, loyalty, and devotion that the character of the men and women who have made this country great have been molded. 10. A tribute to the father, for he too, has given his sons and daughters for the defense of this country since they were first born. 11. In the eyes of a Hebrew citizen, represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 12. In the eyes of a Christian citizen, represents and emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. When the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, "In God we trust." After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington and the sailors and marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for us the rights, privileges, and freedoms we enjoy today. | |
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| Ok, if this is bugging anyone… here’s what I’ve been doing: I have a nifty little plugin for FireFox that is basically an RTF word processor, pops up from the status bar right in the browser. From there you can add your favorite blog accts and upload directly from the app. Most blogs have an RSS feed that you can import into your FaceBook profile. Sooo.. I’ve been setting that up.. hence all the “Testing” messages. Hopefully, if I can get this set up, so I can understand how it all works, maybe I’ll pick up the ole blogging pen again… | |
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| As the title implies, we took a trip to the Hualapai Mountains in Northwest Arizona. We just went for a few hours, let the boys rip and run while we 'grown-ups' relaxed and took in some fresh air, and peace and quiet. I decided to see how creative I could be with our little Fuji Finepix A101. It has been a while. As I remember from my old days in high school photography class, it's more about the photographer than the camera. Still, it will be nice to get a nicer camera with a few more features. Another thing I remember about my heyday as a 'photographer', you take a LOT of shots and maybe get one or two good ones. I think I managed to get a couple today. You can click the backlink to flickr where I have them stored and check the rest out. At any rate there will be other days and better equipment. Maybe I can someday gain some REAL bragging rights. Till then, I just keep clicking away. At least with digital photography you can take lots of pics without the burdensome cost of film development. Ah well, onward and upward! - Mood:chipper
 - Music:Live365.com ~ Celtic Moon
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| Ok, not that I feel really feel the need to blog other people's pics. I am still getting used to Flickr, and I found this sorta cool blog feature. There is a list of blogs it will work with and LiveJournal was one of them. So off we go. As for the pic, I don't know the photographer. But I'm sure you can click on the pic in order to view her flickr page. The pic itself appeals to me, as I like stonework and castles. The fact that it's on a craggy promontory by the sea, adds to it's appeal. The cloudy sky probably appeals more to my wife LOL! | |
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| So, after living in our house for 14 miserable summers, we now have central air conditioning. Just today, the installation was more or less complete. What we had considered far beyond our means is now in our possession. Due to the kindness of a friend an his employer in the business, we were able to get it installed at a fraction of the going rate. What a gift from God! Now come what may, we can be comfy in the summer. Thanks Chris, and Nate, and Tim! You are our heroes! - Mood:ecstatic
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| I am now sensing the need to clarify the opinions stated in my last post.
Facebook has turned out to be a bit more useable than I had originally thought. Despite the plain featureless- and yes, boring- look, it provides many of the features that has apparently made MySpace such a success. The Wall, as it's called in Facebook is analagous to the comment section of Myspace and is a bit easier to use. You don't have to use much code to use it and it updates almost instantaneously. You can send pics and attachments. with the wall as well. No media player option that I can see, nor can I figure out what the mini feeds are for... If they would make it more customzable, it would be more interesting.
Live Journal seems so far to be the most promising for me as far as blogging goes. After tinkering around for a bit, I was able to figure out some of the customization features. On the whole it seems to be a fairly nice tool for someone to play around the ole wordsmithy in. It remains to be seen how secure it is. The main problem I had with Blogger (Formerly, Blogspot), is that it frequently gets hit by spambots. Once they have jammed up the comments section, there is no way to delete their posts. We shall see if LJ is any better.
MySpace is the only one of these type of things I have become completely frustrated with and deleted my account. As for the rest, hey they are free! It's not hurting anything to leave them there. MySpace however, IMO is complete crap. It is not in the least bit user friendly and full of bugs. They never seem to have enough bandwidth to keep things humming along smoothly. If ever too many comments accumulate with graphics it takes forever to load (even though I have high speed internet). Also certain themes sould cause my browser to crash completely.
Yahoo 360 seemed like a nice thing at first, but Yahoo seems to have forgotten all about it while still in beta testing. Buggy, and no support, limited ability to customize, as well as it's seeming reluctanct to update whenever you add groups or friends, causes it to score low in my book. Too much bother. I'll keep it around as a Yahoo profile, but will probably not use it much.
MSN Spaces is one I can't really speak to, as I haven't really messed with it much since I first set it up. To me, it seemed very much like Yahoo 360. Again, too much bother.
Anyways, I'll add more of my findings as I think of them. Maybe there is something better than anything I've tried out there. I'm sure I'll find out. | |
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| Well, in my search for a networking/blog/etc site, I have found LiveJournal. I have had Yahoo 360 and MSN Spaces for some time now, and both leave me feeling somewhat empty. MySpace absolutely sucks! It is so code-heavy that it is nearly unmanageable. Facebook is completely boring. So far this one seems to offer the most options without being arcane in it's usage. Time will tell. As I knock around in here trying to figure out what everything does, entries might be few and far between. Of course, if I find something better, this one will join a growing list of cast-offs. At any rate this is mor or less a test run, just to see how it's going to look. What do ya think? - Mood:cynical
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sir_alain's journal
