‘Musing’ Category

  1. The Eve of the Feast of St. Nicholas

    December 5, 2012 by myeye

    When we were children, it was tonight that the Christmas season really began.  Tonight was the beginning of twenty days during which we just could not behave (we were generally pretty good kids).  Before bedtime on December 5th, we would write notes to St. Nicholas detailing what gifts we would like for Christmas.  We would each place a shoe by the front door.  Our note and a handful of oats were in each shoe because on the eve of his feast day, St. Nick would ride his white horse around the world and collect letters from children.  The oats were a snack for the horse.  When we got up in the morning, oats were scattered out the door into the front yard, the letters were gone and we each received a small bag of nonpariels and other chocolates.

    That meant the Christmas season had started.  It would end on Christmas Eve when we went to bed early, were awakened a few hours later to open gifts.  Christmas Day was a religious holiday, so we took care of business on Christmas Eve.

    I definitely have the urge to leave a shoe, a note, and some oats by the front door tonight.  However, since I am dieting, the nonpariels would be a bad (though not unwelcome) thing.  Besides, I would then be required to be good for twenty days — that may not be possible.


  2. We All Won If . . .

    November 7, 2012 by myeye

    I am so happy to welcome the Obama family back to the White House for a second term.  I believe the President is a genuinely good person.  It will all be for naught though if we cannot find a way to reignite Statesmanship in the Congress.  All the sitting individuals must begin looking for ways to move the country forward as a group.  Our tax code needs major revisions, we must stop subsidizing companies that have made their largest ever corporate profits at the expense of the working poor, we must simplify access to the government at the same time we establish safeguards within social programs.  We must take care of our military both during and after their service.  Businesses must find a healthy climate to build and service within the United States.

    So, I’m asking for a great deal — but Christmas draws near.


  3. Debating?

    October 4, 2012 by myeye

    Last night I watched the first presidential debate. One candidate was bombastic and overbearing, the other was polite, natural, and self-effacing. It was difficult to follow what was said because of how it was said. So, in case you really want to know who is promising what to the American people, you might want to read the transcript which is here.  One candidate was long on promises and short on specifics — as it has been for the past six months.  That candidate repeated lies that he has so often spoken that he probably believes them to be true.

    I’m not running for anything so I can criticize and make demands.  I can promise things that cannot be delivered.  THIS is what I want our Congress and the President to accomplish during the next term.

    I want to end the subsidies for the oil companies.  During the past few years of record gas prices, oil companies have set all time profit records — that was at my expense.  It’s doubly at my expense because I pay taxes — some of which goes to the subsidies, and I buy gasoline with after-tax dollars — that goes to the oil companies.

    I want the tax code to no longer take up two shelves in my bookcase.  Let’s eliminate all the deductions except mortgage interest on one home and $2000 per child up to a maximum of $8000.  Let’s set a flat tax rate of 25% on every penny over those deductions.  There should be no tax on unemployment compensation, workers compensation, social security, and pensions withdrawn after age 65.

    Corporations will no longer be persons.  However, they would be subject to the same 25% tax rate as people are.  Their deductions would only be expenditures that increase the probability that people in America will have more jobs available or that meet energy or environmental goals.

    Political PACs get to pay taxes at the same rate as regular people and corporations, and their contributors are not entitled to be anonymous.

    Political contributions (like $50,000 a plate dinners) shall be taxed at 25% — someone’s got to pay for all the security and expense that political campaigns engender.

    The programs for which workers pay — like Medicare and Social Security shall continue and Congress will be prohibited from borrowing from those funds.

    Transportation, clean air and water, child welfare, and health shall continue to be the responsibility of the Federal Government in concert with the States.

    The Postal Service will no longer be required to give Congress a $3 billion dollars a year contribution.

    I’ll bet there are hundreds of other wasteful and/or punitive measures that can be eliminated or revamped if someone was so inclined.  I’d say Congress and the President will be very very pleased that I am not in charge.  Yet.

     


  4. Keeping the Records Straight

    June 14, 2012 by myeye

    As I was preparing the submission documents for Chase’s Register of Merit – Bronze designation, I realized that since the first of January, five of his children have completed their Championships and we added an HT, a High in All Breed Trial, and two RNs, a BN, and a CGC to the list of the children’s accomplishments.  THAT is pretty astonishing.  I am so happy that the people who decided to breed their girls to Chase were rewarded with puppies that are lovely and very smart.  (Most of them have a huge dose of the baddog gene as well, but in my opinion that just makes them more fun.)  Three of his children have been x-rayed for OFA and all three were rated GOOD.  As the puppies turn two, I hope we’ll see more wonderful results from their health testing.

    I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year will bring for us.   Chase and I will go about our training business.  His agility class has been pushed back to June 28th, but we are tracking and brushing up on his obedience commands.  On weekends we keep a phone handy so people can report in on all the grandpuppies.  It’s a lot of fun!

    Now, something serious:  STUD FEES.  Even though Chase is a Grand Champion and has his Bronze Register of Merit designation, I don’t intend to raise his stud fee.  It seems to me that Cardigans are difficult to breed — lots of stuff can go wrong with our little dwarf dogs.  Just to accomplish the breeding costs the breeder in the neighborhood of $1300 to $1400.  To me, that is a lot of money.  Then they have the x-rays when the girl is 8+ weeks along, possibly a C-Section, then feeding and giving appropriate medical care to the brood.  I don’t think that breeding a litter of nice Cardigans should be beyond the means of all but the wealthy.  I also think greed is ugly.  I am personally appalled by the stud fees that people demand for unproven (albeit very nice) young dogs with only adequate health test results.  There’s not much I can do about what other owners decide to do, but I can hold my ground.  I never want money to be the factor that determines whether someone is able to use my dog.  I also reserve the right to just say no if I feel a breeding is not right.  I don’t make my living breeding and raising dogs.  In fact, I have a job so I can afford my dog habit.  Help me stick to my guns.


  5. Happy Birthday, Daddy

    May 5, 2012 by myeye

    If he was alive, my father would be 106 today.  . . . doesn’t sound THAT old anymore.  But he isn’t alive.  He took his own life when I was 14, leaving my mom with seven of us — I was the eldest.   I learned many things from my dad.  He ran away from home and he joined the circus when he was 16 — really — he could ride horse back Roman style, walk a tight rope, and juggle fruit.  In grade school, my friends wanted to come to my house to see my dad do tricks.  He loved dogs.  I was born into German Shepherd Dogs with which he had earned obedience titles.  The dogs kept track of us kids — streets, streams, and strangers were on the list of no-nos.  Dad owned a riding academy.  When I was three (or so), someone smoked in the barn and set it on fire.  An ambulance took us to my grandmother’s home so we didn’t hear the screams of the horses perishing in the fire.  I don’t think Daddy was ever the same.  He suffered from asthma so eventually we moved from the Chicago area to New Mexico where he worked as a cross-country truck driver while studying electronic repair.  That was back in the day when electronic repair meant fixing radios and televisions.  Imagine!  There were no computers yet.

    My mom died of cancer three years following my dad’s death.  Sometimes (like today) I dredge up the faint memories I have and savor them for a little while.  Happy birthday, Daddy.