Much That Is Hidden

When is it going to stop being so hot? It has made me a complete slug as far as doing anything besides just my job. The indoor chores are about all I can muster motivation for. I stepped outside on Saturday at 11:00 and was like CRIPES how can you do anything in this heat ! !

If I'm going somewhere that will require being outdoors for a time, I make sure to turn off the A/C and go windows down just before I get there so as to acclimate to the swelterosity. It's gotten to where I can honestly say I dislike summer. Some people think I'm crazy for saying that, but they all live in Minnesota and Vermont.

The dogs are like, "Get serious" (oh bad pun, bad pun - no cookie!) when I try to coax them outside. I think sometimes Ballou has secretly learned to use the toilet, because she hardly ever goes out. And if the grass is wet, forget it, she's not putting her dainty paws on THAT, thank you.

Oh well, hopefully just another month of this and then the reward of my favorite season.

I got the opportunity to interview a prominent federal politician today. Part of me is excited and engaged by politics but lately most of me is like screw it, nothing's gonna change. The trend lately is to accuse one's opposition of holding up the status quo. Funny thing is, there's so much ass-kissing of the status quo on both sides that old status' butt is looking pretty trim.

I'm reminded when speaking to persons of this ilk of the incredible amount of BS that it takes to achieve such a station in life. While they may be highly intelligent, there is this unassailable heap of crap that they ALL stand on; Democrat, conservative, Republican, liberal - it makes little difference. By the time one takes office in Washington, they have prostituted themselves to the point of tragedy.

One polite media way to refer to a politician is to say "lawmaker", which reveals a sad truth about our current representative government. Every day there are tens of thousands of these lawmakers and staff running about trying to figure out how to add their personal touch to the mountain of laws that already exist. In complete understanding of such no single person could possibly be. It's shocking and depressing all at once.

The only solution I can think of is to start requiring that elected officials spend a certain portion of each legislative session UNmaking laws. That way in about 100 years our great grandkids can live in a bureaucracy-free republic. WHACK! Wake up, dumbass ! ! Ain't never gonna happen! Too many livelihoods dependent on that stuff.

Here comes my sweetie to tell me to put on my fucking happy face.

This photo proves several things: that my dog is a crazy grass backscratchin' sun soakin' mongrel, I need to cut my grass and I need to cut my grass. I hate cutting grass, and if you saw our yard you'd give me the lawnboy award for the hill it's on.

As for the dog (his name's Brisbane), you say the title of this post repeatedly in a low gravelly tone for the duration of this activity, after which he pants and gives you a very self-satisfied stare. This dog has been my world for more than fourteen years. In my adulthood the longest I ever had a dog before him was about a year and a half. His adopted sister we've had for about eight years, and she has served her initial purpose very well (besides being a stray saved) - to keep Brisbane young.

I'm lamenting his loss of agility (and eyesight and hearing) even more markedly since he was attacked horribly by the neighbor's dog in April. Before that you would never have guessed he was fourteen. And so you can probably see where this goes. His sun is setting, and it tears me up thinking about it. I try not to do that often, and while I don't pray often, many times when I do it's about him. Just for a few more times to roll in the long grass. WOHOHOHOHHHH !

Here is Roddy Reynolds of Lookout Mountain with Star, one of the Dixie Dock Dogs. These dogs, mostly Labs and Chesapeakes, are trained to jump as far as they can off a dock after whatever toy you can entice them with.

It is an awesome sight, and the sport has organized and grown to national caliber competitions that have been on ESPN. The elite class dogs can jump more than 23 feet! They use digital video technology developed for the Olympic ski jumps to get the "photo finish" for measuring.

Here Roddy is just demonstrating a training exercise used for new dock dogs. He is a master dog trainer - those dogs hang on his every command. He breeds and trains hunting dogs, mostly Chocolate Labs, and has two that consistently compete in national competitions including Jack, his dog sponsored by Rock City. I've got a few other good pics of Star and her brother Hoss that I may post on my Flickr (link to left).

I love dogs (there are two in particular) and I love to watch them perform skills like agility, disc catching and fly ball. Recently they added a competition to the dock jumps called extreme vertical. It is a jump for a fixed chew bar that is a real audience crowd pleaser because of the instant gratification in whether the dog can grab the bar. Kind of like watching a field goal being kicked, I guess.

The group will have a fun jump at the Show & Sell in Rock Spring, Ga. on September 24, and then will be hosting a sanctioned trial at the Rock City Barn in Flintstone on October 15.

.
William A. Rusher's column Sunday was on the Democrats' glee over Bush and Iraq's falling approval ratings. But hey, Rusher says, "The economy is in good shape, and despite all the predictions of disaster ahead, President Bush is certainly entitled to the lion's share of the credit."

Well a bad place to be politically on the economy is to have a bunch of numbers say it's raining and the bulk of the public feel like the government's pissing in its ear. George Will continued the conservative's three-card monty game by saying things like with inflation adjustments, gas prices aren't higher compared to this year and that year. He of course didn't go into detail on how middle class wages have stagnated, and the cost of living is out of whack with this year and that year.

Also, higher gas prices chip away much harder on the income of the poor. I can say they're definitely killing me and the S.O. We drive 122 miles round trip per day for work. Add to that me making little more than half the money I was making a year ago, insurance going up, and a ridiculous $.15 a mile from my company for on-the-job mileage. It adds up and we're jacked up - stuck at home a lot now because its too expensive to drive to Ocoee or Asheville or other places we like to go.

Good thing we started that war.

Do a blog! Do a blog! Everybody tells me this, and I have resisted to date. Realizing the futility, and wanting to post comments other than "anonymous" (which to me amounts to "anonymASS"), I've caved to the pressure from co-workers, friends, family, and even complete strangers (on the web).

So what will I write here? Probably not a whole lot since I write for a living and as general rule prefer to be paid (stop that laughing). That and I'm pretty lazy. Part of me is like, "Why would people want to read this?" and then part of me says, "Why would I want to tell them this?"

But don't be discouraged lil' buckaroos, 'cuz I spend a lot of lazy time posting to various forums which is about as lame as doing a blog if not more so, so perhaps I will parlay my lazy time winnings into a more focused method of blogging.