Archive for January, 2016

Eulogy for Boomer

January 8, 2016

Goodbye old pal, we’ll miss you, big time!

Blogger’s postscript: Just wanted to add some important details that I left out yesterday.

Boomer started out as a southern California dog, roaming the streets of Sun City and eventually becoming the property of my mother-in-law, Eileen. She brought him along when she moved up to live with us in Oregon. Boomer was her pal and companion for years until she died. Then he lived with us after her passing, and he became our pal and companion.

DSC_0331

Boomer wearing his snow jacket.

Circle of Life (from the Lion King soundtrack)

Seeing that big, open-mouthed grin with that wonderful tongue with black spots (were you part chow?) was always a joy.

Your response to my touch when I scratched your back side, moving that leg back and forth. It made me feel good too.

  • Scientists say that dogs (not sure about cats) are beneficial to humans because there is a chemical response that actually lowers the blood pressure and relaxes both the animal and the human when they interact. Pretty cool, eh!

Boomer, I hope you reconnect with your old friend Eileen, and I hope you and Morty (our other dog that died in 2013) meet up and have a great time running around together.

A couple more pictures – the tongue with the spots and his “summer” buzz cut.

Quote: I learned the roots of any relationship (from working with dogs) – honesty, integrity, loyalty. It’s hard to find a human to give you all three. But every dog, that’s all they know. Humans are the only species that follows unstable pack leaders. Animals don’t . . . why would they? (Cesar Millan, dog whisperer, in Men’s Journal)

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in People and Places | Leave a Comment »

It’s a New Year – 2016 (Woohoo!)

January 3, 2016

We made it through another one, eh! Just some thoughts to make you think about the year ahead.

Quote: Be kind to even unkind people; they need it the most. (Quoted from a friend I see at the gym)

Steely Dan – Do It Again (live version)
Picture: it’s just for shock value, yes, it is someone’s hand. (unknown source)

file000

One of my daily rituals is reading Daily Word (a Unity publication). The reading for January 1 in the January/February 2016 booklet is titled: “Fresh Start: I behold and delight in a fresh start.” The daily readings always have a Bible verse at the bottom of the page. For January 1, the verse was from Exodus 12:2, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” In this passage, the Lord is addressing Moses and Aaron in Egypt.

Quoting from the same January 1 reading, “The new year stretches before me like a blank canvas. What kind of life shall I paint this year?”

Anyway, here’s the link if you want to subscribe to the magazine. It’s a good way to start your day.

Daily Word web site

In parting, a few word pictures to describe a calendar, one of the many that nonprofits send to me because I’ve donated money to them, or they want me to donate money to them. The calendar I’m looking at is from the Nature Conservancy. The photos and layout are impressive.

Picture a zebra with those wonderful black and white stripes – is it a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes? The zebra is standing in a field surrounded by pink flowers that are in soft focus. There is a white bird perched on the animal’s back, a cattle egret. This is the photo for April. It was taken in South Africa.

March and September are photos taken in Oregon, my favorite state. Colors in the March photo are predominantly green with the tree foliage and the moss growing on the rocks in and around the waterfall which is bright white. It’s a very peaceful picture. The picture was taken in Silver Falls State Park not far from Portland. September’s photo was taken in central Oregon and shows a cliff mesa in the background with yellow wildflowers in the foreground. The pictures and descriptions in the calendar serve to remind us of how wonderful nature is and that we are a part of nature.

I’ll finish with a few Rufous pictures, not taken by me, but they’re good ones.

Rufous-sided towhee
Next: Not sure yet, but I’m working on some things.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Beginnings, People and Places, Things to Think About | Leave a Comment »