Found on the road...

All of my pets have been rescued in one way or another. I guess the bloggity world likes to post pictures of dogs on Fridays, but I've never been very good at following rules so here she is, in all her spoiled rotteness, my little hundred pound girl, Her Tailness, Miss Lucy Lu.



Miss Lu was found 9 years ago by a former housemate on I-69. For you non-Michiganders, that's a four lane highway, i.e. a very dangerous place for a doggy to be. You can't tell from this picture but she's missing her left ear flap. She came to us that way and we often wonder how that happened, but not for too long because whatever it is, it must have been unpleasant and we just can't bear to think of anyone hurting our precious Lu! We are big softies that way.

She is very sensitive to high pitched noises, thunder, sirens and fireworks. When she's outside and a siren sounds in the distance, she can often be heard howling along in tune! In Michigan we have tornados so they test the tornado sirens monthly. At noon on the first Friday of every month from April through September Lu can be found at my elbow, whining and crying at me to please make it stop, Mommy!

I often refer to Lucy as my Nana dog. She has always been so good with the babies and small children. As they get older she seems to understand that they should know better and is decidedly less patient. If only she were nicer to the cat, she would be the perfect dog!

This is not my best picture of her, but I will have to figure out how to use my scanner to post the one that shows her true personality. That will be the one where she's carrying her security dish and her tail is wagging so fast you can't even see it.

For extra credit? Find the fork in this picture! Yup, that's the usual state of my family room. What can I say? I'm surrounded by handsome young slobs who ignore me!

Reasons for Living

My favorite from about 4 years ago...


Last summer...


Chicago hotel room last February...

Intoxicating

The scent of crab apple blossoms on the breeze can send me into a reverie that can only be satiated by a full embrace of the tree, head sunk deep within it's delicate branches, followed by several deep inhalations in a vain effort to capture their fleeting essence and commit it to memory.

This olfactory memory is so deeply ingrained that one whif can send me reeling back to middle school, to the first time I really remember noticing how incredibly intoxicating they are.


I was walking home from the bus stop in a foul mood when the smell hit me and suddenly it was a gorgeous spring day. It was my first experience with aromatherapy. Two weeks later, I discovered lilacs.

Non Michiganders might be interested to note that the crab apple blossom is the official State Flower of Michigan.

Grandma fans should draw their attention to the new Toyota Highlander just to the left of the crab apple tree. Normally I would have cropped that out, but I'm so proud of her for buying a hybrid! I just had to leave it in.

Trying to add photos and so on...

As my dear old friend "She" mentioned, it's looking a little gray around here. In the interest of adding some color, I'm attempting to upload some photos but I'm having a heck of a time with it! This is why you have no wonderful new post for Mother's Day, I am lame! Or maybe it's Blogger that's lame, who can tell at this point?

I've tried resizing the photo I want to add to my profile because it's already been rejected once for being too large, but now I'm getting a time out when I try to upload it so, I guess that's not working. Sigh. It's no wonder so many people give up on this as soon as they start, it's not for the faint of heart!

Dragging and dropping from the web is the only thing that's worked for me so far. The tool they have provided keeps timing out, so I tried one more time, hopefully this will work!

Edited to add that this painting is called Raven's Dream, it was a birthday gift from my husband several years ago. :)

In other news and future photo ops (she said hopefully) my delightful kindergartner brought me flowers in bed yesterday. Yes, two marigolds in a styrofoam cup, (be still my heart!) along with the requisite construction paper card and a refrigerator magnet that he drew himself. What a sweetie, I am blessed! Someday when I figure out how to add topics to my posts I will create a topic called "surrounded by handsome young men who adore me" just for posts like this one!

Hope this finds you blessed as well, more later!

Look for me on Mother's Day

Hello, Imaginary Readers!

Just a quick post to say, sorry I haven't posted this week! I'm crazy busy with work and of course Traveling Grandma is here so I have no privacy to speak of. Yes, I know, she's wonderful and generous and delightful but she's also a fairly demanding house guest who does not seem to understand why I can't get my work done when she's chattering at me all day. (Sigh.) She leaves Sunday for the land of red coated mounties and hot maple syrup at which point I'll post something of greater substance. Until then, Happy Friday to all!

Oh, and here's my fitness meditation for the day from Newton's first law of Motion: An object in motion tends to stay in motion, an object at rest tends to stay at rest.

Mayday!

When searching for blog fodder, it would seem that I need look no further then my own email!

Submitted for your consideration: my dear friend DC sent the following (rather alarmist) email regarding a meeting this past January between Hugo Chavez and Cindy Sheehan with the usual admonition that we should all boycott Citgo and all things Venezuelan.

Venezuela Dictator Vows To Bring Down U.S. Government

Venezuela government is sole owner of Citgo gasoline company

Venezuela Dictator Hugo Chavez has vowed to bring down the U.S. government. Chavez, president of Venezuela, told a TV audience: "Enough of imperialist aggression; we must tell the world: down with the U.S. empire. We have to bury imperialism this century."

The guest on his television program, beamed across Venezuela, was Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist. Chavez recently had as his guest Harry Belafonte, who called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world."

Chavez is pushing a socialist revolution and has a close alliance with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Regardless of your feelings about the war in Iraq, the issue here is that we have a socialist dictator vowing to bring down the government of the U.S. And he is using our money to achieve his goal!

The Venezuela government, run by dictator Chavez, is the sole owner of Citgo gas company. Sales of products at Citgo stations send money back to Chavez to help him in his vow to bring down our government.

Take Action

Please decide that you will not be shopping at a Citgo station. Why should U.S. citizens who love freedom be financing a dictator who has vowed to take down our government?

A link within the email takes us to this report at Ms NBC which includes the following photo accredited to Miraflores Palace via Reuters.

Meanwhile, back at the progressive press we have an opposing viewpoint from Common Dreams, essentially stating that we should support the (ahem) democratically elected president of Venezuela by boycotting everyone else (read Exxon/Mobil, i.e. Middle Eastern oil) and only buying our fuel from Citgo.

As I said to DC, we actually threatened Chavez first because our government didn't like his progressive policies. However, I intensely dislike his macho posturing, almost as much as I dislike it in my own government officials.

So, even though I'm usually a person of strong opinions, I'm really quite torn on this one. It's highly unlikely that tiny Venezuela could make so much as a dent in the US, but threatening us does more harm then good! I wish Chavez would make it easier by taking the high road but I guess he's just a typical male after all. Too bad, I'd like to see the end of US imperialism too.

What do you think? Who should we boycott, if anyone? Do boycotts really do any good? Or do they just make things more inconvenient for the boycotters?

Talk amongst yourselves!

In other news, today is May Day! AKA International Workers Day! The following link will take you to a hot blast of rhetoric from the Anarchist Library describing the history and origins of International Workers Day.

It might be appropriate at this juncture to let everyone know I have deep labor roots. It seems my Italian great-grandfather was a union organizer in the Virginia coal mines back in the day, as the kids say. Unfortunately, as the story goes, he was killed in a motorcycle accident on his way to a violin lesson when my grandma was just 5 years old. A sad story to be sure, but the scary part for me is that nobody knows if it was really an accident or if he was the victim of something more nefarious.

Today, immigrants all over the country will be marching in solidarity, to call attention to immigration reform. A worthy cause, to be sure, especially since I tend to fall on the side of the workers. But…

…what I want to know is, whatever happened to International Outdoor Intercourse Day, aka Beltane? For my money? That’s a much more enjoyable way to spend the day! Thus, I entreat you, if you can’t march today, for whatever reason, (ironically, I have to work, heh…) At least go outside with your favorite scrump buddy, light a bonfire and spread a little joy amongst the flowers of spring.

Disclaimer: If zoning or fire prevention ordinances forbid the lighting of bonfires in your backyard, I’m sure the Goddess will understand if you only light a candle. J