As the temperatures dipped towards zero this week, I found myself clicking into the Maggie cam a lot more often and wishing I was there with her where no parkas, gloves, boots and ice grippers are needed for something as simple as a walk.
It must be my age
When I lived in Barrow, I walked my dog until the weather got below 30 below and thought it was invigorating. The temperature dipped to almost zero this week in Anchorage and all I could do was add more clothes to my body and explain to my dogs that they did not have a snowball’s chance in hell that I was going to walk them. Age has made me a complete wimp.
Why dogs have nervous breakdowns
Blue, my food addicted diabetic pooch, found a piece of dried, frozen apple in our very frozen yard. Apparently under the impression that this piece of food stood between her and winter starvation, she frantically tried to bury it. Only the ground is frozen and no amount of nose pushing was working to cover the apple. I watched her frantically push it all over the yard with her nose trying to cover it up, all the time watching out of the corner of her eye for Blondie, the non-food addicted dog, to make sure she didn’t try to sneak in
Unlike snow
Unlike snow, ice is a bitch to walk the dogs in. If Anchorage doesn’t get snow soon, I may just lose all interest in walking since it has become such a treacherous adventure. Are you listening, God? Do you really want me to stop exercising and end up dying young and having to put up with me in the hereafter sooner rather than later? If not, let’s get with the snow.
Why newspapers lose readers
The Anchorage Daily News has once again redone its comic page and the choices it has made boggle the mind unless they were made based solely on how cheap the new strips and features are. And so I turn even more to my computer and less to my paper to find Pooch Cafe and Mutts and Opus and all the really good strips as opposed to the trash that is now being run in the ADN’s Sunday comics section. If it weren’t for Get Fuzzy, there would be scant reason to ever check out that section.
It’s hard to not feel hateful sometimes
In the Sudan, Muslims are demanding a woman be put to death for allowing her class to name a stuffed toy Mohammed. In Saudi Arabia, a woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes because she was raped by seven men and her lawyer dared to appeal the original sentence of 90 lashes. Oh yeah, and the lawyer was stripped of his right to practice law. I hear this, and precious little full scale outrage from supposedly moderate Islamic groups who claim these fanatics do not represent true Islam, and I think, “Really?” Because from where I’m sitting, sign me up
In my world
Today is the first day I believe anyone should officially be allowed to start playing Christmas songs on the radio. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shut off all my radios.
And just what would the point be?
A guide for being organized during the holidays appeared in the paper the other day. Among other suggestions was one that said to contract with a firm that will sign, address and mail your Christmas cards to everyone on your mailing list. And I must ask, exactly what would be the point of that? To waste paper? To increase the profit line of card companies? To let friends and family know you have so much money and so little time that you can hire someone else to send your love to them? If you can’t find the time to send
For those who think….
For those who think that yesterday’s shopping suggestion was a bit Bah Humbugish for the holiday season, I can only say, DUHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christmas shopping suggestion
Send a donation to your favorite charity and then e-mail everyone you know and tell them you gave all you could already but thought of them as you did.