Change in plans

Well peeps.... if you didn't notice, I was trying to do this story thing on here. But my lack of consistency to the story I was working on caused other stuff to go by the wayside. So I decided to start another blog page just for my stories. Once I figure out how to do it, I will post a link to it from this page. But for now... the address is http://scrollinggest.blogspot.com/

I copied the 4 parts to the story to the new blog. This way I can continue with the story-telling at my leisure and not leave this blog unattended for such long periods of time. There have been some developments in my life that have been left unblogged. So let's see if I can do a brief bulleted list to get you caught up... (these are in no particular order)

• Our boys & girls wrestling team won districts
• My mother is visiting
• My sister has a new job. Well, same job, new school. She loves it!
• I have grass in my back yard now
• I just returned from a fun-filled weekend in Lake Harmony, PA for a cigar festival
• I have a new skill, shoveling horse s*!t
• I have been working on a new habitat for one of my snakes
• Talbot got a hair cut
• My friend Lilo bought a house
• My friend John rented a house
• My friend Joy moved into a bigger apartment
• I helped all three of them move
• I helped all three of them move
• I helped all three of them move
• My back hurts :-)
• I'm still funny

That ought to about sum it up.

I am planning on returning to the annual VHPA reunion this year. Its in Philadelphia. I haven't finalized the plans yet, but within the next week or so I should have it all figured out.

I'm keeping this one short. I have some more things to do tonight, so I'm gonna call it a blog!

Be sure to check out my other page. I hope it becomes a regular page for you to visit. Hopefully, over time I will have a variety of stories and poems on there. I'll try to hit different genres. My family isn't too big on the fantasy stories, so maybe my next one will be something they will like. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for visiting!

Be well

Yeah, I know. Its been a while. Ok, a loooong while.
Generally saying that I've been busy is just a euphemism for saying that I was too lazy. Honestly, there is truth to both. Don't you just love honesty? :-)
I can't help it. Its a product of my high moral standards. Or is it.......????

How did you like the way I segued into my topic tonight? Pretty cute, eh? :-)
So here I go on honesty... something that I hold sacred. To me, honesty is one of the pillars of ...
well... not humanity. Can I say animality?

You can see where I'm going with this, can't you?

No, I haven't had a recent breach of trust. I didn't get swindled. (unless you know something I don't) My integrity hasn't been scrutinized. So where is this coming from?
Honestly (there I go again) it just popped into my head right after I said there was some truth to being busy and lazy. But right as I started on this topic, the question of the origin of honesty sprang to mind. When did honesty become a moral obligation? Who ever deemed dishonesty as as bad?

I'm shooting from the hip here, folks, so just go with me on this.

In my exploration of this topic I have to consider different applications of honesty and how it is beneficial to the one who commits honesty. Or how about the recipient of honesty. Who really benefits from honesty? As I'm pondering the possible threads to this chain of thinking I realize that people have probably written 200 page dissertations on this stuff. I hope I'm not getting in over my head here. After all, can honesty really be explored objectively?

So, let's dig in. As good a place to start as any is with the origin of the word. At least in its English form. I did a little checking and there are no mysterious origins to honor. According to The Barhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology it is derived from Latin honestus which expectantly means respected, truthful, or fair. No news bulletin there.

Something occurs to me, though. Respected, truthful, and fair are human values. People decide what is fair. Respect is a little less easy to attribute solely to humans, but still workable. And truthful implies an acknowledgement of fact. So does this mean that humans also decide what is honest? If this is true, then honesty can't really be explored objectively.

To twist this thought a little, lets look at this more philosophically. Was there honor before man? This reminds me of something Nietzsche pondered... "Did God create man or did man create God? I'm not well versed enough with Nietzsche to know if he ever proffered an answer to his own query, but I think the application of the question fits.

In order to explore this I have to view this matter from a more biological angle. More specifically, evolution. This ties back into my earlier question about who benefits from honesty.
I'm certainly not the first to pose this question. Robert Wright, who authored The Moral Animal: Pantheon Books 1994, discusses Charles Darwin and evolution in a number of places. He wrote, "Truth and honesty are never favored by natural selection in and of themselves. Natural selection neither 'prefers' honesty nor 'prefers' dishonesty. It just doesn't care."
So does honesty really matter when survival is at stake? What about altruism? Can someone do something dishonest in order to procure a greater justice? Robin Hood would say "Absolutely!"

But I'm not going to get into the parameters of honesty here. Or honor for that matter. Honor has become so twisted these days its almost impossible to convince someone that defending their perception of honor is misplaced. See what I mean.... there is that man-made concept again.... perception.

When a person's honor and integrity is threatened, they are likely to lose objectivity and act on a moral imperative to act on their perceived threat. The key, once again, being the perception of a threat.

Any person engaging in a discourse on honor would be remiss to omit discussing the religious implications here. People live in the constant fear of being cast into eternal damnation if they so much as even conceive dishonest thought, let alone act dishonestly. So how is honor served when your instinct and biological imperative are in conflict with your religious imperative?
That, my friends, is what we call a dilemma.

Suppose you are lost in the desert. Its been two days since you had any water. You are already suffering the effects of dehydration. You encounter a well equipped stranger setting up camp. You ask for water and he refuses to share any and he tells you to keep going and not to bother him. Later he falls asleep and he has water all over the place. Knowing there is no risk of being caught, do you steal some water?

Of course this scenario is highly unlikely and unreasonable. It is supposed to be. It illustrates a conflict. It pits a biological imperative against a moral imperative. My first thought would be to take some water. My justification is that morality does me no good if I'm dead. Of course there are those that will argue about tainting of the soul and it was a test that I failed therefore I'm damned. So there never will be an answer acceptable to everyone.

This brings me to my concluding point. Despite some clear universal ideas of honor, there will always be varying perceptions because people simply have different value systems.
I think George Carlin did a great job of boiling the 10 commandments down to 2 basic commandments....

"Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie & Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you."

All of the other commandments address honor in one form or another anyway. So why not keep it simple? Keep it honest. Here he is....
Enjoy!

Life Is Precious

That seems to be a message that is all too easily forgotten, despite the frequent reminders in our pop culture. There are many opportunities to be reminded of this.... every day.

Do you ever find yourself just watching people? Not even deliberately. You just catch yourself staring. Do you ever ask yourself why? Do you answer? I do. Frequently. I try to find connections between me and everyone else. I observe... I listen... I watch... and sometimes I stare. I'm the weird seclusive bald guy down the street that kids are warned to avoid. hehe
Almost everything about me is unconventional... at least for where I live. Don't get me wrong...
I love my neighborhood. I have good neighbors. But I'm the odd one out. I'm not married with kids. I live with a bunch of animals (and no I don't live in a frat house). I'm Pagan. I like to run around the house naked. I smoke pipes and cigars. I listen to weird music. I have weird books. There is really nothing obvious about me. By looking at me you can't discern my origin. By listening to me you can't tell where I was raised. By talking with me you might not be able to guess if I'm educated. You can't tell if I'm a sports fan. I have a ubiquitous look about me. I blend well. Either that or I have about 18 brothers that look like me. (Poor bastards) :-)
In short, I'm an anomaly.

So what does all this have to do with the title of this post? Well, my friends, I'll tell you...
Let's see if I can make sense of my train of thought so that I don't sound like some babbling fool stuck on the 7th floor somewhere:

One of my most prominent missions in life is to decipher the mystery of being. That is to figure out what motivates people to be who they are. Oh yeah, this gets deep. So hold on. (Feel free to bail out at any time) It is for this reason that I am so observant. That is why I study people's behavior, their mannerisms, their attire, etc. I try to figure them out in hopes of figuring out what the hell we (as a people) are doing here. I want to know. My mantra is "Seek knowledge. Wisdom follows."

So far, I've learned that there is wisdom in simplicity. There are so many movies and songs and stories that remind us to enjoy life. But we don't always live the way those stories tell us. In fact, in our western culture, we go out of our way to prove to ourselves, and those around us, that we are somehow more special... more deserving than everything else. We have forgotten that life, in of itself, is precious.
After teaching middle school science I learned a thing or two about just how fragile life is. If everyone had an inkling on an idea of how narrowly we survive... it is by a thread of the universe's web that we cling to life. And yet we thrive. As a result of this, we try to live in opulence to prove to ourselves that we belong. Its as though there is some unconscious drive to maintain our constant state of denial.
Its the simple things that make life possible in the first place. And hence, we take these simple things for granted. Just ask the farmer that hasn't seen rain in two years. Ask the fisherman whose lake dried up. Ask the Inuit who can't feed his family because the caribou left. You get the point.
This thread by which we live weaves and turns through the universe. And no one knows when this thread will break. But it will. So we ought to live as though we know this. We ought to live as though we are thankful. We ought to live as though we are fortunate, not deserving. This thread goes by many names. For people to make sense of the worlds around and within us we have to apply terms to them. This thread is known by many names: God, Allah, Goddess, Yahweh, Luck, Providence, Brahma, Elohim, Jehovah, Gaea, Verdandi, Great Spirit, and many others, I'm sure. Call it what you will, but we all live by a hairs breath.
And what a rich breath it is. It is fantastic. It is miraculous. It is fortuitous. It is beautiful. It is terrible. It is grand. It is awe-inspiring. It is what I call life.

We ought to live by the golden rule which is predominate in all belief systems. We ought to make the world a better place while we are here. This message is everywhere. We need to choose to hear it. In this age of communication and entertainment this message is delivered. These messages are delivered to us through modern day bards. People write stories and tell them in many forms. Through movies and song. Through books and stories. Someone wrote these. Someone sings these. Someone reads these. These are the bards and minstrels of today.
But they are easily dismissed as entertainers. They are more than that... (with some exceptions I'm sure.) But the message remains true. Some have delivered this message in celebrated fashion such as great books. Take the time to look a little deeper. Listen a little closer. You can hear it.

Life is precious. Live as though you know this.

Be well.

If There Is Such A Thing As Luck...

... then I've experienced it.
I came home yesterday. I was in NC for Xmas and then spent a few days in Atlanta with my sister and her daughter. It was a good trip. We all had a good time. We went to the Georgia Aquarium and Stone Mountain. We zipped through the Atlanta Underground and Centennial Olympic Park.
I'll provide more detail on these in another post, but I just wanted to share the brief story of the luck that I experienced.
When I came home, I was very happy to see my critters... the dogs, the cat, the fish, the hermit crab, and of course my ..... 2(?) snakes....??? Wait a minute....
I double checked my blog to be sure that I didn't dream about the new snake.
I was no dream. And now Hiberna was gone.
What the hell....????
Apparently I didn't do a good job of securing the cover to the little enclosure I had and she got out. I don't know if I was more pissed off or sad. I called my friends (those that watched the house and kids) to ask if they knew anything or if they ever opened the enclosure. They didn't.
So I came to terms with the loss of a little young snake. For a snake as small as she is, there are a million places she could hide. I pretty much precluded any thoughts of even searching for fear of even greater disappointment. After about an hour I settled down a bit and got to thinking... it isn't likely that she went far. So if she was still here, then it would be close. It isn't as though she would make a bee line for the nearest exit. As far as she knows, this is a new and potentially dangerous world. So she would be careful and meticulously slow in her exploration. Ok, so a littler glimmer of hope was restored.
I proceeded to start at the place where her enclosure was and started looking under cushions and behind stuff. Then I thought she would likely stay in dark places. That would likely mean near edges of stuff. I worked my way behind the couch over toward the closet. Why not, its dark in there. So I opened the closet door and wouldn't you know it.... there she was. In plain sight right at eye level no less! Literally hanging around amidst a collection of unused clothes hangers.
That has to rank at the top of my list of pleasant surprises! So I put this question to you....
Is there luck? Is there karma? Or is there just circumstance? hmmm...
So my year ended on a very positive note. I've said before that 2008 was a good year for me. My 40th year on Earth was probably the best one. And since I turned 41 a couple weeks ago, my luck, as it were, seems to continue to be good. :-)
Maybe I should start playing the lotto!
Nah, why do anything differently now? I'm just happy that Hiberna wasn't lost forever. I happy that my household is filled with happy dogs, a content cat, a few well fed snakes and a hermit crab that probably could use a couple friends. Oh yeah.... and a happy master of the home that has friends and family that care about him. I'm getting all fuzzy inside!
My home truly is my castle. And my subjects are well!

May the new year bring you as much good fortune and happiness as it did for me last year.

Be well

Vrem...Vrem - Chop...Chop...Whack...Chop...Chop...Whack- Timberrrrrrrr... Crash.... Oops!

It could have been worse, but hardly more memorable.
Xmas Eve and my Brother-In-Law & I decide to chop down a tree. But it wasn't for the sake of our manhoods... rather out of perceived necessity.

You see, I'm in NC. If you have been paying attention, then you knew this already. And if you passed middle school Social Studies, then you can surmise that there are lots of pine trees in NC. Then you can take it one step further and infer that people would be living in close proximity to at least one pine tree.

In this case.... there were 3 in the back yard. One was struck by lightening. Ali, my Brother-in-law, said the tree was dead and had to be cut down. Naturally, me being a wood chopping kind of guy, was all too happy to help. So I go through the list of things we need to do this safely and successfully.

• Chain saw ....................check
• Goggles .........................no...?? Ok then... moving on
• Gloves ..........................no...?? Of course not. What was I thinking? Because I really love bubbles under my epidermis!
• Wedge ..........................check (at least something)
• Rope ............................What... no rope? Am I really surprised?
• Axe ............................ A camp axe...? Are you serious? (sigh)
• Mallet .........................Finally... a manly tool!

Ok then. Lets get started. We plan the demise of the ill-fated, Zeus-targeted pine tree. Yeah, it should fall right about here.

Ali heads to the garage to bring out the chain saw. Now we are in business! I start clearing the yard for the felling path. There's something about cutting wood that makes me feel all manly! (Oh shut-up!)

Ali is on his way back and pulls the chain saw out of the box.... uh.... dude.... "You're kidding, right?" I thought. The first thing I see is a plug. Bad sign. Next emerges the grip and trigger followed by a 16" bar with a dull chain. This ain't a chain saw, man..... its a glorified hedge trimmer! I foresee manual labor.

Ali is rather proud of this chain saw. Ok... if he insists. So he starts cutting into the tree. I whistle trying to stop him. I thought I might tell him to start cutting from the back first so if the tree should fall prematurely, it would fall the way we wanted to. But he was quite into the cutting so I just watched. He worked his way about half way through. He pulled out the saw (if you want to call it that) and started on the angle for the wedge. About a quarter of the way through the chain saw quits. Oh dear... I never saw that coming!

After about an hour of tinkering w/ it, Ali discovered that the teeth (plastic, mind you) were all stripped away from the fly wheel. So the gears (metal) were spinning freely. I was afraid to look to see where the chain saw was made. You're probably thinking it too.

While he was messing with that I proceeded to start cutting with a hand saw. Imaging this for a second.... Ali is a carpenter and didn't even have a reciprocating saw. (well, not available, anyway) Sheesh. And I can really see myself cutting down a 40 foot pine tree w/ a camp axe!
So I used the axe as a wedge and started whacking it with the maul. The axe was fully embedded but the tree wasn't moving.

So Ali starts plans to cut some more wedges so we can hammer them in one at a time and force the tree over. So while he's getting that ready I continue with the hand saw. It was right about this time that the Wind Gods decide to amuse themselves with a little game of Let's see what happens when ....."
Ok, so I'm sawing away and making good progress. I figure the tree will fall after the 1st wedge or two are driven in. But, I was wrong....
The tree started falling before Ali even plugged the saw in to cut out the fargon wedges! Small problem, though..... um.... Ali....

Timberrrrrrrrr......Crash....... Oops!

Ok... it could have been worse. At least it didn't fall on Our house.
Or anyone else's for that matter. But it did take out a fence & crashed about 3 feet short of the neighbors patio. Whew!

Before we even started I told my sister and niece to be recording this on video. This could have been a classic blunder that might have landed us a spot on one of those funny video shows. You Tube for sure!
Of all the wrong ways for this thing to fall, it picked the path of least destruction. Seriously. A couple degrees either way, there would have been more undesirable collateral damage. If my brain would have been running even at half capacity, I would have taken a few pictures. But I didn't even think to. Maybe I can still take a shot tomorrow of the fence and the size of the tree to give you an idea. But the drama will be poorly represented. Oh well. Sorry!

So Ali & I cut the trunk to more manageable sized chunks and cleared the neighbor's yard. He patched the hole in the fence until he can replace the broken part. The fence was ours anyway. The only casualties the neighbor suffered were a couple small branches from one of their trees. Disaster averted!

So it was a mildly eventful Xmas Eve. I hope your Xmas went a little more according to plan!

Be well
... and too all a good night!

Exspectata Hiberna

...which means Welcome Winter in Latin.... in case you're wondering! :-)

And what a welcome it is! December 21st ushered in, not only a new season, but weather befitting the first day of Winter! Yesterday evening my friend & I were hanging out in my patio enjoying a fire. I was wearing a kilt. That's all. Well, until later when it got a little chilly so I donned a hoodie. But still! Of course, yesterday it was still autumn. :-)


But I have more than one reason to commemorate today. I added a new member to my family today. And her name is rather fitting, I should think...


Meet Hiberna:



She (at least I believe its a she) is a California King Snake. She is maybe 3 months old. I have been wanting a King snake for a while now. And no.... it has nothing to do with my teaching at King High School! Although its still kind of funny how this all worked out! I've had Max, my Rat Snake for about 3 years now and Kaa, my Boa for about half that time. And since I've had Max, I've wanted a King Snake. So, there you go!

For those that believe in providence, here is an arguement for you! Here's the brief story....

I am leaving for NC tomorrow. I had some last minute things to wrap up so I had to make a run to Petsmart to get a few things. A snake was not on my shopping list. Out of habit I always make a pit stop at the birds and reptiles to see what they have to offer. I've walked in there for the past few years and never came out with a snake... until today. I guess you could qualify this as an impulse buy, but since I have been waiting for the opportunity for a while, and it came, does that still make it an impulse buy? But that really doesn't matter now anyway. Here's the cool part... I knew that today is the Winter Solstice. But I didn't know exactly at what time. As it turned out it occured at 6:04 PM CST. The time of purchase on my receipt was 5:49PM. So the way I figure it... I made it home in roughly 15 minutes. Ok, maybe I'm stretching a little, but I can't be off more than 3 minutes give or take. Either way... its still pretty damn cool that I walked in the door right around the Solstice with my new little friend.

For once, naming a animal came easily for me.... Hiberna. That's Latin for winter. And it fits. I like it. And in case you are wondering.... yes, that is where we get the term hibernate.

But don't worry, Kaa is the snake boss in the house. Here is a nice recent shot of him.

I don't recall ever telling the story of how Kaa came to me in the first place.

There really isn't much of a story. But its still worth mentioning:

I'm a teacher. And a colleague of mine has a husband who is a herpatologist. Well, he is friends with the Kennel Master (the head guy at the City's Animal Control). Anyway, his department had to confiscate 2 Red Tail Boas. Well, Jaime, the Kennel Master, doesn't like to euthanize animals. So he tries very hard to find homes. Yes, even for large snakes. So that is where I came in. My colleague put me in touch with Jaime and since I was a teacher I could have the snake with the condition that I use it for educational purposes. Which I do. Hence, the relevance of my statement about being a teacher.

Now there were 2 Boas. At the time I was leary about taking both. I had never had a snake that large before. So I just took one. I really didn't like the idea of breaking them up, but I couldn't take the chance that they might be a breeding pair. And with my inexperience with Boas, I thought it best that I took one. Besides, I didn't know how it would go with one, let alone two. Since then I built a nice enclosure that could easily house 2 or even three of them. Now I could handle two. But I wasn't sure at the time. Anyway, as I learned later, Jaime did find another home for the other one. That makes me happy! see --> :-)







If snakes can actually be happy, then I like to think that this guy is.

He's been a real hit at school. He's about 7 and a half feet long now. He eats well and is a good shedder, which is cool because I can take his molting to school.

In my class we have talking about South America, so I'm able to bring a little (well, maybe not so little) piece from that part of the world into the class room.

And so today the Winter Solstice ushered a new era into my home... the era of 3 dogs, a cat, a hermit crab, an aquarium, and now 3 snakes.

Although Hiberna is a mere 17 grams today, she's still a snake. Therefore she still raises the population by one!

So my friends. Say hello to Hiberna. I'll keep you posted!




Be well

A Good Start Today

Did You See That Moon...

...last night! Wow.
For some mysterious cosmic reason, my head coach cut pratice short yesterday. As a result we got out early enough for me to zip down to Ocean Drive and watch the moonrise from Swatner Park. I arrived just in time to see the crimson colored orb crown over the horizon. What a sight! It was especially cool because the horizon was the water! Nice!
I'll get back to the moon in a while.

I stuck around for about 20 minutes before heading home to spend some time with my mom before she went back to NC. We played a round of rummy and she finally let me win one! She had been kicking my butt since she arrived. :-)
She was pretty well packed and ready to go by the time I got home. So I reheated some leftovers and put some things away before sitting down to play cards. It was an early night for the both of us, esp. since she was leaving so early n the morning. She didn't have a set time. She just wanted to get an early start.

And she did. I woke up around 5:20 this morning to the sounds of my mother tinkering in the kitchen. By 6:00 she was out the door.

So there I was, trying to get back to sleep. I couldn't. I'm so used to getting up close to 6:00 anyway. Why fight it?
So I made some breakfast and watched a movie. After the movie it was time to take Talbot to the vet.

When Negative Is A Good Thing

For almost as long as I've had Talbot, I had trouble maintaining compliance with his heart worm prevention. Well, all dogs actually. I was always missing months or running out of the tablets before buying more. I was trying to juggle the doses between 3 dogs while trying to avoid a hundred bucks at a time to get each of them a 6 month supply at a time. Invariably, I would end up shorting one or two of them. As a result I always had to get the heartworm blood test once or twice per year. You, know, just to make sure. So I finally decided to just get a 6 month supply for each dog at the same time. Much easier to track this way. You'd think a college educated guy would have done this a loooong time ago. But alas... I'm stubborn!
But I'm finally on track. Each dog has its own box and now there are no more questions about when the last dose was administered.

So I walked with Talbot over to the vet this morning for the quick blood test. Its kind of funny how dogs know whats coming. The vet office is along the path we usually take when we go walking anyway. So as far as Talbot was concerned we were just going for a walk. Yay for the dog! That is until I take a left at a place where we usually go straight. Suddenly his tail drops and he gets nervous. There is no doubt that he knows (as do the others) where we are headed.
Fortunately, he doesn't give me a hard time, he just gets nervous.
The nice thing about a 9:00 appointment is that the lobby is usually empty. There might be one other pet there, but not today. We were in and out in 15 minutes with a negative test result. Not that I was worried, but its still nice to have the confirmation. :-)

As we got back home there was a message on my answering machine from my mother. I missed her call by about 5 minutes (if even that). Her message was amusing... "Are you home? I need you. Ok bye." She probably forgot where to exit in Houston.... again. So I called her back. Yup... she missed an exit... in Houston... again. :-) But she got back on track by the time I called her back so all was good.

As I'm writing this she's probably nearing Mississipi. It would be kind of cool to have a lojack or something so I could track her progress on the computer. You know, there is this feature on Google Earth that allows you to see the current position of a commercial flight. You just need the airline and flight number. That is way cool.... in a spooky kind of way. I'm sure there about 50 million parents of teenagers that would love that feature! As sure as the parents might salivate at the prospect to assert more control over their child, there are just as many teens cringing at the thought of that possibility. Yeah, that's what we need, another technology tool to compensate for inadequate parenting. But who am I to judge? I'm not a parent. But I was a teen. And I am a high school teacher, so I have a pretty good idea of the teenage mind. But that is neither here nor there right now. This is not a "soap box" post today. :-)
Besides, there a lot of teens that are just fine.

I was going to go on to write a little more about the moon from last night and how inspiting it was to watch, but I need to get back to work on my chores. I have a lot of school work to do as well. I am trying to get all things wrapped up before we leave for the xmas break so I won't have to worry about anything over the holiday. We'll see how that goes. It usually doesn't! hehe

Ok friends... until the next inspiring moon (tonight perhaps)!

Be well.