Doppler - 1

We had the good fortune to have a friend with us for 14 years.  He was that houseguest that arrived and never left, eating our food, and sleeping in comfort while we lay awake from his snoring.

Yes, he was our dog.  And he wasn't our dog because we found him at the pet store, or a breeder or an animal shelter.  He was our dog because he chose us to be his people.

We were working odd jobs for friends in Colorado during the summer of 1995.  They owned a bed and breakfast and we were deciding whether it was a business we wanted to go into ourselves so we cooked and cleaned and did minor maintenance and generally got to know the basics.

One day, as I was taking laundry out the front door (while some late rising guests were having breakfast in the dining room) I was greeted by a skinny black and white stray.  I managed to get a hand free from the laundry so I scritched him under the chin and he gave me a loving look that soon would become familiar.  I trundled the laundry around to the back of the house to the washing machines and the skinny stray followed me around back and looked in the door as I left him behind.  I got busy with the usual day to day chores and forgot about him.

Later that day, I took a spare muffin out to my husband who was working on a truck we'd just bought at a farm auction and noticed the stray curled up under the tree next to the truck.  I probably made some comment on how cute he was.

He ended up staying with us that night because he obviously didn't want to go anywhere else.  To be honest, I don't think I wanted him to leave either.

 

Leap into the new frontier

I have coffee or other connecting times with fellow unemployees and we kibitz about all the various and sundry things that bubble up during the course of our lives.  And it is true, that during these kinds of life tests, that you really find out who are, for lack of a better term, genuine people.  There are the pretend people who go around with their heads in a haze and are totally clueless about what is going on in the world.  And then there are the people that have engaged.  These are curious people who want to learn in order to figure why things tick along the way they do.

I recently met a person who accosted me and called me, funnily enough, a communist, because I dared to give voice to all of the evidence supporting global climate change.  I had a couple other people take a similar aggressive stance towards me because I stepped up to take on a challenge that, well, challenged me in somewhat a public setting.   In thinking back on these events, I realize that I launched into each endeavor with a big breath and a sense of...Well, here goes nothing...Nothing ventured, nothing gained...What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger...Add your own adage.

In one circumstance, I got a heavy negative response from select individuals amongst my acquaintance and at first I was confused.  But then, one of those genuine people told me to ignore them because they were jealous.  I was floored.  People were jealous of me for essentially being willing to make a fool of myself.  Wow.  Brings to mind some other adages:  Deer in the headlights...Scared of their own shadow...the blind leading the blind...

So, you blogospherians, in hopes of building a new cadre of genuine people in the world, stride forth, engage, learn, and eat haggis.*



* By the way, the canned haggis I referred to in my earlier blog is:  Caledonian Kitchen Haggis With Sirloin Beef, 14.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 3) and Caledonian Kitchen Haggis With Lamb, 14.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 3).

Blatant nepotism

Yes, well, you know....sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.  Here's a great new book, particularly for science fiction fans but folks interested in biographies would do well to take a look:

C.M. Kornbluth:  The life and works of a science fiction visionary by Mark Rich

Hope amongst the haggis

I encountered a nice fellow at the celtic society festival this summer who was giving out samples of haggis to try and, after trying it, I thought it was pretty good. (I suppose I should preface my story by saying that I was raised eating liverwurst and actually enjoying it.)  I bought two cans: one was beef based, the other, lamb. Not too long after the festival I made a nice breakfast hash using the beef version* with potatoes, onions and home grown eggs. I thought it was pretty darn tasty - scotch/swedish hubby ate it and declared it tasty as well. Resident 10-year old objected to the frog eggs (barley) and the taste (strong liver). Left large pile of said frog eggs on the plate and picked out all the potatoes and eggs. The precision was amazing.

Today, a couple months later, I made the second haggis hash, the lamb version**. Resident 10-year old walks in the kitchen, points at the frog eggs and says, "I don't like that stuff." Pause. "Much." I said, "This is lamb, the other was beef." Small glimmer of hope springs in a mom's heart.

As I serve up the glop I put a tiny portion of frog eggs on said 10-year old's plate. Didn't bother mixing it into the potatoes. As she walked away, she declared, "This is better than the other stuff." The little glimmer of hope becomes a small flame, like a candle. Braunschweiger, here we come!

Hubby snarfs his breakfast down and declares, "I like this one much better."

Resident 10-year old leaves the pile of frog eggs on the plate and disappears to hide peanuts in the tree for the resident squirrel to find.

Hope is extinguished, spiraling wistfully towards the ceiling.



* Caledonian Kitchen Haggis With Sirloin Beef, 14.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 3)
** Caledonian Kitchen Haggis With Lamb, 14.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 3)

Hello Blogosphere!

Six months into unemployment and the view is interesting.  I realized this morning as I e-mailed a friend that while I was lamenting to her that I had no time to write, I could start a blog and force myself to write.  And people can read it...or not...so here goes.