What has civilization come to??

Progress. Sometimes I wonder exactly what that means? The opposite of congress? Hey, you think I'm kidding?? Seriously...

Have we, as individuals, become so wrapped up in our 'me me me' lives that we can't see the world in front of our noses without the input from a self-appointed, glory-seeking, seemingly-concerned-as-long-as-it-makes-us-money groups?? Can we not see for OURSELVES what we do to the earth around us?? What gives the ever powerful 'concerned' groups the RIGHT to act on our behalf? WHO exactly appointed them the movers and shakers of the decision world?

What am I ranting about this time, you ask?

I'll tell you. No matter what newspaper I pick up, no matter what magazine I read an article in, there is always someone with a voice as a spokesman for the 'betterment of society' or 'betterment of the world'. The articles are written with a particular view in mind, be it ecology, environmental concerns, animal rights, human rights, etc.

It's understandable why they're written. The word MUST be gotten out to the general public so that they will be informed. I give them that, it's a valuable tool to reach the public. But...

.... what do WE as citizens do with the information??

Like most people locally, I'm lucky to have a job. I have two kids in school, a husband and a father to worry about. I don't always have time to THINK about what is going on in the world around me. I spend most of my day just trying to figure out which end is up between running kids to school, to work, to the store, and working myself. Not to mention the household chores, IF by chance they don't fall by the wayside because I just can't do it all myself! I don't have TIME to think about my OWN health and well being much less that of the world....

and if I'm like that... well, I just can't believe that I'm the only in America, the world even, that doesn't take the extra time to be concerned about our planet.

How do these people that write these articles find the time to sit down and do so?? I've been working on a book for nearly ten years, and I don't have time to write on it, much less publish article after article in magazine spouting how concerned we should be about bovine bowel gases collapsing the ozone layer!

The only answer I can come up with is that they have the money and time that I don't. And in a way, that makes me resent what they do. Yes, I might agree with their message that we need to take care of our planet, but don't spout Ten Ways to Go Green when I have less than ten minutes to change my clothes between work and basketball practice!!

And where do we read these articles. Dare I say that the last time I read one I was in the bathroom? The time before that was in the dentist office. And before that, probably a doctor's office or some such place where I spent more time waiting than I would in the actual appointment!

The general public, or at least the working class that I'm a member of, simply does NOT have the luxury of time to spend reading the 'message' they send out. And so we remain the 'uninformed majority' that doesn't know any better than to spray our hair with ozone depleting aerosols, eat meat from beef and pork treated with antibiotics and hormones, and drive gas guzzling Tahoes less than a mile from work to home. (even if one way is a steep mountain we'd have a heart attack climbing to get home!!)

And so, we the uninformed are criticized for what we do because we don't 'know any better' and there becomes a need to form a 'non-profit' (I raise my eyebrows at this because I've seen the so-called non-profit tax returns from some of these groups!!... three words... nonprofit my ass!!)

And so they form a non-profit group to hold meetings and deliberate the public welfare and the public good and then they make signs and hold rally's to demonstrate against something that the 'uninformed public' should be aware of in the first place. They write articles that the uninformed only get to read when an unscheduled pause occurs in their daily schedule.

And then the uninformed people bitch because they 'didn't know' what was going on before an action from the government gets everyone up in arms.

And the government says... "But we told you...." And then we can only look around and wonder what the hell happened.

Yeah, we're so caught up in our own little day to day lives that the big picture is fast passing us by and the sad part is that we're pretty much helpless to do anything about it unless we make major changes in our lives.

Maybe those are changes we should seriously consider.... just so the world doesn't end with us in it wondering what the hell happened...

and the government says... "But we told you...."

Thoughtful in the mountains

Dragonlady

Is it love?

Wow, I have to say that things have changed!

Long distance relationships are now made simple thanks to the invention of internet and cell phones. But sometimes I wonder if we havent' taken it a bit too far!?

Sure the internet helps to broaden our social base. It lets us befriend people who we might never have a chance to come in contact with. It opens up doors and opportunities that might never have existed when our network of friends was limited by the time it took to deliver a letter or make a drive for a visit.

Remember when the 'emergency of the day' had to wait until you got home and found the message on the answering machine? Now it's only moments away, and what we call emergencies are simple what used to be a matter of convenience. Remember when you forgot your gym clothes at home and couldn't reach mom or dad because they were at work? You had to do without! You had to either sit out the class on the bench, or spend time in the health room watching a movie while the rest of the kids played volleyball! OH the travesty of it all!

How did we live with the inconvience of it all?? (please note the dripping sarcasm here! ;) )

But I think that the most unusual thing I've seen is the fact that through internet and cell phones we can carry on long distance relationships just like they were with the boy/girl next door!

However, I have to put my foot down and say that I have seen the most rediculous thing that I've ever seen in my life. I'm privvy to the ins and outs of a long distance relations between my daughter and a nice young man that lives some distance away. Bear in mind, they met on the internet, they talk on the internet, they talk via cell phone and they talk A LOT... and they have never met in person...

But... just so that they can 'spend time together' they sleep together. Not literally of course since they have never met in person... they leave an open cell call between them WHILE THEY SLEEP!!

I repeat... both parties are ASLEEP...

What are they doing? Listening to each other snore??

And if they lose connection, one or the other will call back just so they can hear each other...

once again....

SLEEP!!

I'm at a loss... Am I that far behind the times that I just don't get it??

Someone please enlighten me!!

Very confused in the mountains!

DragonLady

Arrested???

Can you believe it? I got up this morning thinking I'd spend a nice day playing Warcraft and the next thing you know there's a confrontation with my idiot brother-in-law and both my husband and I ended up arrested.

It's a bunch of he said, she said b.s. if you ask me, but evidently I said that I'd shoot him through the window in the eye. Wow, I wish I'd been conscious to remember that! LMAO and in that terminology too? For heaven's sake, I use better grammer than that!! Who the heck is he kidding???

But... as with any threat of violence, the court system must take it seriously, and I applaud them for their unbiased treatement of the situation. It situation was totally stupid and got completely out of hand, but in the end, I have no doubts that it will sort itself out because I NEVER said any such thing to him. Hell, I never even implied it for that matter.

The extent of what I told him was to leave my property and don't come back. I don't want him dead, just gone. That's all. He has no respect for anyone, and I'm not about to let him run over me, especially not on my own property!

Yes, this is a soapbox, and I'd love to rant and rave about how "hoppin' mad" he's made me, but I have to be honest, I don't care to air that dirty laundry and I'm sure y'all don't care to hear about it. If you do, call me... and I'll tell you in person.

Actually the whole process of being arrested was quite interesting. I actually got handcuffs put on me! Not that I'm exactly thrilled about it, but considering that my educational persuit is Criminal Justice... it's ironic! I was even patted down by a female officer to make sure I wasn't carrying any weapons into the jail! Quite an experience, if I do say so myself.

Most of you know this, but I've never been arrested in my life. The most trouble I've ever gotten into is a speeding ticket here and there! So this 'communicating threats' was quite a change for me, and even moreso when I am charged with saying something so obtusely out of character and composition for me!!

Just goes to show how trumped up charges can be put on the record by a lying individual bent on being vindictive.

Falsely accused in the mountains,

Dragon

"hoppin' mad"

You know, I used to wonder what my mom was describing when she said she was 'hoppin' mad' about something, what was really her emotional state at the time.... But now that I've taken some time and gone back to re-read the blogs that I've posted over the past year or so, I realized that I have in fact experienced that 'Hopping Mad' feeling more than once, and most of the time it prompted an entry to this blog.

Although now as I think back, I realize that I missed a few tales of 'Hoppin' Mad"...

Like the one a couple of weeks ago at my favorite grocery store....

I drive a little yellow 1992 Geo Storm. A small car... a semi-sports car... that needs body work and a new muffler, but it runs...(Hey it was a trade of two non-running vehicles for one that runs, so who am I to complain!!)

Anyway, me and my little Storm had just dropped off my daughter to college and was stopping by to pick something up to take to lunch with me... or something... I can't rightly remember at the moment what brought me to the store... but I digress...

I come into the parking lot in my Storm and most people turn and look. I can't help it... it's loud... it needs a new muffler, but at over $100.00 for the part, I find I have other priorities (like food, insurance and necessary bills) before I worry with a hole in the 'sound suppressor' on my car.

A woman was just getting into her Escalade in the parking space in front of me and grimmaced at my car, annoyed with the noise as I soon found out... and being the sarcastic soul I am I gave her a grin and a shrug. (Heck, I figured she was grimmacing with that snobby grimace of 'how can you stand to show your face driving THAT?' look... )

and she says to me... "How can you drive that thing in good conscience with all the pollution it puts off?"

I stopped and stared at her open mouthed for about half a second before I flew mad.

"My catalytic converter works, thank you very much." I retored, not bothering to hide my ire.

"Doesn't sound like it. You must burn a lot of gas with no exhaust." she sneered.

I gave her the "oh please" look and shrugged. "Compared to your gas guzzling SUV, mine's a little sipper. I'll bet you don't get ten miles per gallon in that gas hog, do you?"

"I get 26, if it's any of your business." she replied opening her door. (She clearly didn't want to continue the argument now that she found someone that would fight back!)

I laughed... (literally out loud!! Guffawed if you will..)

"What's so funny?" she demanded.

"Given that you get 26 and probably have at least a 30 gallon tank, you run though about $100 bucks a week. (That was a statement, not a question... I know because I have a Chevy Tahoe too... lol... why do you think I drive the Storm??) I put $19.00 in mine and it lasts three weeks on a ten gallon tank. I get 40 miles per gallon. Now who do you think really does more damage to the environment? My sipper or your guzzler?" And I flounced off into the store hearing her slam her Escalade door behind me.

Yeah, I was hoppin mad then too... but not quite as much as with PETA (from my last blog), but at least this time I had a vent for my anger...

By the way... thanks mom... Now I know what hoppin' mad really means!

Retrospective in the mountains,

Lady Dragon

At it again... maybe...

Well, I'm at it again, this time maybe with better results than last year. I promised myself that I'd find one thing each week to write on. Whether it be to bash it or brag on it, it doesn't matter. But my goal is to try to get myself up to speed with my writing outside the normal arena of which I write. (i.e. an online RPG based on Star Trek.)

and so, I write... and today I found something that just got my dander up as my grandpa used to say...

A 140 year old lobster was released from a New York seafood restaurant to live out his days in 'freedom and peace' according to Yahoo news.

Ok, that wouldn't be so bad really... except that me and my bright ideas had to see the name PETA in there and as much as I hated myself for doing it, I had to investigate the blogs that went with it. Big mistake.

OH MY GOD... I have never seen so many people pissed off because of a lobster release in my life. But it wasn't the release that had them pissed, it was the pro and con argument on PETA that got them riled.

And that got me to thinking.... (hey.. you came to hear it... let me finish... LOL... then you can comment... )

Why in the world do these people think that animals are on the planet in the first place? I mean, maybe they weren't raised like I was, and they might not have the same religious beliefs and such... but even if they don't, they are still missing the point.

Animal cruelty is one thing, yes. I abhor it. I see you kick a dog, mistreat a cat, kill some creature without necessity and I will be one of the first to hop up and kick your tail back to the hole you crawled out of! I share the idea that animals were not put on this planet to be abused for human gain.

HOWEVER... and this is a big butt... I don't think that we need people out there to tell us the common sense things about animal treatment. Is animal testing in laboratory science wrong? Not when it's done with humane efforts. Is it worth the risk to give up vaccines and drugs that benefit mankind just so a lab rat won't suffer from a migraine? I think not.

I've had my run in with PETA and they pissed me off. A cop hit one of my Siberian Huskies with his car as he was on the way home from work. My husband and I weren't home at the time, but my oldest daughter got him to the vet that the cop said the police department used and he survived. A bit banged up, and yes it was touch and go for awhile, but with love and care and devotion he's lived. And didn't even lose his tail like the vet said he would!

Now, my run in with PETA came from a nosy neighbor who called them and said we wouldn't take care of him. So they called, they called, they called some more and then they sent the cops to my house to check on the dog. Not the cop that hit him, although he came by himself to make sure Niko was ok. They demanded that our law enforcement come by and insure that we took care of him.

I can understand that. I know that there are people out there that don't take care of their animals, but I resent being lumped in that same group with the bear baiters and dog fighters that don't give a rats hind end about their animals as long as they get the money from the bets put down on them!

Did you know that if you have a case with PETA regarding one of your animals, you will not be allowed to purchase papers for your animal? Did you know that if you've already spent the money on the blood tests and other required tests and papers needed to get the pedigree, you will not be refunded your money because of that report to PETA?

How is it that a non profit organization like this can make someone's ligitimate life miserable and yet no one can do anything about it?? What gives them that power? What gives them that right? And why in the hell can't anyone do anything about them except just bitch??

Pissed off in the mountains,

Dragon Lady

Time Passages by Carrie Ives (an original composition)

A blog I follow posed a challenge, and I was unable to resist the urge to follow through... all comments welcome, although this is a far cry from my usual soapbox article! Hope you enjoy!

Time Passages

He stood at the corner of the street watching for the signal to cross. His faded eyes had watched for signals throughout the ages and faithfully bore him safely through the joys of love and the trials of war. They watched the signs as his loved ones travelled down many roads of their own lives. He watched as the signs of the end came in the life of his loving wife. He learned through watching, the peace that comes with age.

Leaning heavily on the gnarled top of his birchwood cane, he waited with the patience of ages written on each line of his face. His shoulders hunched with the weight of the passage of years, but his back remained strong beneath his tattered woolen coat. White hair peeked secretively from beneath a well worn golfer’s cap that had seen many a day on the open green. And yet his hair skittered hesitantly away in the chilly evening breeze, afraid to be caught in the fast moving currents that could ruffle it from it’s impeccable place.

The signal came at last and his step into the street was strong. Committed with a strength that belied his narrow feet, clad in black leather loafers tied tightly to his soles. A snarling wolfish wind whipped his pants about his legs, but never did he falter in his steps. Crossing first one lane and then the other, he moved into the shadow of a building that darkened the street, never fearing the worrisome wind that whipped his coat about him, tearing at the three top buttons securely seated in their holes.

His crossing was unhurried and heedless of the impatient stares of the drivers waiting on his progress. The first he ignored, but to the second, with her impatient beep, he simply smiled a friendly smile and touched the brim of his hat as if to say, “You have a nice day too.”

The parking meter, perched precariously close to the curb signified his arrival at the other side. He reached out to steady his climb on the device for the steps on this side were higher than the rest, posing a final obstacle to his goal. A grace from deep within his aged bones bore him up and over that last hurdle as the cars rushed forward under their own signal to continue the journey.

A single dark green park bench, ornate and gaudy, beckoned him to enjoy it’s meager comforts. Hard though the wooden seat was on his thinly muscled rear, he sat, relieving his legs of the pressure to so hastily across the road. A tiring trek it was, though far shorter than most he’d made in his life. He sighed in reflection as he waited.

Moments passed and the sun slipped below the mountainous horizon and the natural light on the street began to dim. I watched him as he sat, waiting for what I was quite unaware. But slowly he began to fade from sight. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, but as I watched I realized I was seeing the passage of a soul, leaving only his gnarled birchwood cane leaning against the building behind him and the skittering leaves that piled beneath the seat.

From the Mountains...

Dragon Lady

Reading can be a bad habit...

Believe it or not, I am seriously beginning to think that reading can be a bad habit. Of course anything that you don't take in moderation can become an addiction and can eventually lead to the bad habit of letting it take up much more of your productive time than it should.

But reading?

Who'd a thunk it?

Yes. And for me, it's getting there. Dear friends of mine know that I love a good book much more than a movie, so instead the newest release of movie, I often receive the newest edition from my favorite author. And I'm NOT complaining!! My bookshelves would be overruning if I ever put all the books I own in one particular spot.

I've been asked, "Who's your favorite author?" and the simple answer to that question would have to be 'All of them."

I would say that a good book is one that pulls me in from the beginning, but that's not always true. I can't think of a single book that I've NOT read simply because it was boring at the beginning. Eventually the plot starts to thicken and the imagination starts and before you know it, I'm as engrossed in it and can't put it down for fear of not knowing what happens next.

And that's it... that's where the obsession begins. I HAVE to know what happens next. The lights have dimmed in the theater in my head and the moving pictures are flowing across my mental screen. I can't just hit pause and walk away for a few hours. I simply cannot bring myself to do it.

Why?

It's like getting up and walking out of the theater just when you're getting into the movie. You don't want to leave because you spent the seven or eight bucks to watch the film and it would be a waste of money. Sure you could rent it later and watch it in the comfort of your home but it just wouldn't be the same. So, unless it's an emergency, most people will sit thorugh some of the most God awful films just because they don't want to admit that they wasted their money.

But a book? It's not exactly like that, now is it? Yeah, you might spend about the same amount on a paperback as you do on a movie, but the words will always be there. Unless of course your dog chews up the book or you drop it in acid or something... the print lasts and will be the same words ten years from now as it was the day you picked it up and read the back thinking it would be an interesting read.

What makes me say that reading is an obsession is just this...

As I said, dear friends often buy me books on holidays and this Christmas is no exception to that rule. YAY!!! And it doesn't matter if it's Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Clive Cussler, Dean Koontz, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Anne Rice, Tom Clancy or Shakespear! Every author I have read rocks! And probably part of that is because I admire all writers and hold onto a threadbare dream that one day I'll see my own works in print. (Which is never going to happen if I don't send them to publishers... I keep telling myself this but I never follow through... sigh...)

Anyway, I digress. I got a new Dean Koonts, a new Stephen King anthology, and another who's name escapes me as I write this. (And I'm too lazy to get up and get the book from the other room.) And I've read them all already.

It's two days after Christmas day and I'VE READ THEM ALL ALREADY!

The concept of that may escape you because you cannot see the books that I'm talking about, but let me explain. I'm a voracious reader. I start a book and simply cannot put it down until I finish it. I've been like this since I was a kid.

Both my parents read when I was a child. Mom would fall asleep with her book, Dad could read a Louis L'Amour, watch a football game and listen to mom and I talk and never miss anything from any venue. And when I was in oh... second grade? They used to do their weekly shopping on Saturday. I was getting too big to put into the cart to ride with them, so they'd drop me at the county library and I'd be happy as a clam while they were gone for an hour or two shopping.

The book limit for a weekly checkout was seven, although I could normally talk the librarian into letting me have an extra one because I'd already almost finished it in the hour I waited for mom and dad to return.

It started with The Black Stallion. And then Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Then it moved to more series from more writers. Each week I got at least seven and by the time Saturday rolled around again, I was often rereading some of the weeks allotment. And this pattern continued for the rest of my life, although I no longer go to the public library, I simply read the books online or find lots of an author that interests me on ebay so that I can continue to read.

Voraciously reading!

Some people read fast and comprehend nothing of what they ingest. But I do. When I start reading, it's like the author is speaking to me from the pages and telling me the story that generates the movie behind my eyes.

And... I'm sidetracked again...

Why is my reading an obsession? *shrugs* I don't know. But I do know this. A new book in my hands will make me stay up until the wee hours of the morning and then sleep until afternoon the next day. That's not particularly healthy. I mean it might be ok if it happened only once in a great while, but that's not the case. And in truth, the only way I can control it is to NOT pick up new books. Or sometimes I substitute my writing for reading, as you can see from this blog...

Strange obsessions these... but obsessions still the same...

Obsessed in the mountains,

Dragon Lady