Milestones

When I was 13, I could not wait for the day I would turn 16 and procure a driver’s license. Driving a car would show the world that I was on my way to adulthood. Every red blooded American boy dreamed of the day he could take the keys to the family car and drive around the block, the envy of all his friends. When that day came, I saw it as a milestone, one of many in the life unfolding before me.


When I turned 18, I was required to register for the draft. The Vietnam War was raging and so was the anti war protest fever. I could be drafted and called upon to give my life for my country in a war that was becoming both confusing and unpopular. I could not legally buy a beer. I could not even buy a car without my parent’s signature, but I could be sent to war. To make things fairer, a new federal law allowed me to vote as if I was a full adult. I realized that another milestone was upon me, another marker in my quest for adulthood.

When I turned 21, I could not wait to try out my new public status. I had finally arrived. The law said I was now an adult. I could sign a contract and I could buy liquor. “Can I see some identification please?” was music to my ears when I was checking out at the grocery store. Yes, you may. Here, check my date of birth, if you please.

Turning 21 was an important milestone to be sure, but there were others, less age specific milestones, that followed. Life was marching on. There was my first professional job, marriage, the birth of my children, my first house and painfully divorce. Each milestone was a testament that life was unfolding just as it had for my own parents and their parents before them. My children’s graduation from college, marriage and grandchildren kind of snuck up on me, but still I failed to note that each successive milestone was also a passing of time. When you are 13, time seems forever. You are eternally young, healthy and full of yourself. Time is an inexhaustible commodity.

When I was checking out at the grocery store today, the young cashier asked me if I needed help getting my groceries in my car.

Food for THOUGHT…

Volunteering for Cats and Dogs



Babs & Cali enjoying smell-a vision.

 Last week Lisa and I went to a volunteer orientation meeting and became part of a legion of humans who care about homeless cats and dogs and volunteer their spare time so that loving homes can be found for these wonderful animals. We joined the Animal Defense League of Texas. They operate a no-kill shelter here in San Antonio and they depend on volunteers to help care for and socialize the shelter’s cats and dogs so they can be adopted.

The shelter operates a thrift shop and relies on public donations and adoption fees for funding. All pets are spayed, neutered, microchipped and vaccinated before they are placed in the adoption kennels. The shelter also has a veterinary hospital on the grounds to meet the needs of its resident animals. There are plenty of opportunities from administrative to hands-on positions for people who wish to get involved and volunteer their time and love for animals.

Lisa and I took in two homeless kittens from our neighborhood and each one was taken to our vet, checked out, spayed and vaccinated, so we are well aware of the need for such a shelter. In our own neighborhood we see stray cats and dogs aplenty. Some of them may in fact have homes, but many owners fail to spay or neuter their pets, which of course generate even more stray animals. Many of these homeless cats and dogs get hit by cars, die of illnesses and disease or succumb to predators like owls and hawks. Many more wind up in the city pound or shelters that kill animals that don’t get adopted by a certain time. To help stem the tide of so many strays, the Animal Defense League of Texas sponsors a low-cost spay and neuter program for the public. It is so sad to think how many of these animals die before they can find loving homes like our Cali and Babs. We just love our foundling cats and they have added so much to our lives.

For Lisa and I there was no question that we would be hands on volunteers. Lisa loves cats, so she chose to work with the cats in the “Cattery.” There is a real need to socialize many of the animals that come into the shelter so they will have a better chance of adoption. It also gives volunteers a chance to know their personalities to better match the cat with the adoptee. The cats can roam free in different rooms furnished with cat tree houses, carpeted perches and an enclosed porch. It’s a good environment to observe the different cats and their many behaviors. Some are very friendly and demand your attention while others are more aloof and want to be left alone. With only a few visits under belt, Lisa can already tell you all their names and describe their personalities. She loves getting her “kitty fix.” The only problem will be in not wanting to take them all home with us.

I love cats too, but I was also raised around dogs on our farm when I was growing up, so I have decided to split my time between the cats and the dogs. Today was my first time walking the shelter dogs. I didn’t have a leash yet so one of the animal care-givers gave me a leash and introduced me to my first dog. His name was Corey. Corey was recovering from surgery and had a bit of a limp and a wound on top of his head. I’m guessing he may have been hit by a car. It is suggested that we take dogs on 20 minute walks. The walks are very important when it comes to socializing the dogs. They get so excited and love humans to take them to the dog park on the grounds behind the kennels. The dog park is an open area with plenty of trees and benches. The dogs have to stay on their leash while in the park, but there are pens to one side where you can take off the leash and let them run. The pens have dog toys and plastic water pools and they have a great time. I walked three other dogs before it was time to leave and met some of the other volunteer dog walkers in the process. One of the “old timers” asked me to help walk a pair of Deer Hounds who need to be adopted together. They are in the same pen and also get walked together. They are too much dog for one volunteer so I agreed to help. In the process, I got a lot of insight on the dogs.

One of the sad realities of shelter life is that black animals, both cats and dogs are the first to be euthanized since they are less likely to be adopted. Even when they come into our no kill shelter, adopters are less likely to choose the black animals. Sadly, they are too often overlooked, even when it comes to attention and walking by volunteers. The shelter is trying to make everyone aware of this strange phenomenon and post reminders around the kennels. Some older animals are never adopted and spend the rest of their lives in the shelter, but they are well cared for. Thankfully, most of the animals move in and out of the shelter to new homes fairly quickly. By helping to socialize these animals, we help insure a successful adoption.

Lisa and I had a great morning with our new pals.

Food for THOUGHT…

Cut or Tax?

The Problem: We have a huge national debt that’s growing and no political will to fix it.


Solution #1: Cut education funding. Privatize healthcare. Do away with Social Security. Shrink the size of government and what government is responsible for providing its citizens. Cut taxes and federal regulations on small business and large corporations. Leave the free market alone to create jobs and put Americans back to work. Everything will trickle down to the neediest in society.

Solution #2: Increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans, large corporations, and big banks. Initiate tax reform to make sure everyone is paying their fair share of taxes. This may mean things like cutting federal subsidies paid to large oil companies raking in huge profits from the bogus rise in the price of oil. Enforce new financial reforms, regulations and safeguards on Wall Street and recover federal bailout money with interest. Look for ways to streamline and operate programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security more efficiently using the latest in modern technology. Take the extra tax revenue, the savings from improved efficiency and recovered bailout money and use it to pay down the debt. Invest some of this increased revenue to create jobs and put people back to work (IN THIS COUNTRY…PLEASE!) so they can get off unemployment, retrain, if needed, and begin paying taxes with the rest of us. If we can increase revenue and reduce waste and inefficiency, we can not only save, but improve those federal social programs that sustain the elderly, the poor, women, children, students and the disadvantaged in America.

I may have overlooked some things, but we need to look at the two solutions being proposed by the political partisans in Washington and decide as a nation…which one is going to help the most Americans. Which solution works? Which solution is the most moral? Or do any of them work? Is there another solution that no one is talking about? Does it have to be one or the other “come hell or high water?”

Give me your ideas, please.

Food for THOUGHT…

Finding Childhood Friends on Facebook

Several weeks ago I decided to search Facebook for an old child hood friend. I remembered that his family had a TV back in the 50’s when television was just coming on the scene. Not every household in America had one so it was a real treat when my mother and I were invited over to watch this strange new gadget. My friend and I would watch The Mickey Mouse Club, The Adventures of Davy Crockett, Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger. My mother and his mother enjoyed the Perry Como Show when our programs were over. I became enthralled with this glowing box that brought music, cowboys and adventure into American living rooms each week.


I have this memory of me, my friend Jimmy and his older brother, Bobby. We were at the back of their dad’s restaurant in the alley that sloped down toward the next street over. The brothers had devised a red, Radio Flyer wagon with a cage of wooden coke bottle crates wired together on top. The idea was that one of us was going to climb inside and have the other two push the contraption down the alley toward the street without crashing, but that is where my memory fails me. I can’t remember what happened next! I think it crashed, but we all survived somehow to be stupid another day.

Jimmy was one of my earliest friends that I can remember. We were like Mutt and Jeff. I was the smaller one of the duo. He could always make me laugh. Train tracks ran just behind Jimmy’s backyard and when a train passed through town the ground would rumble and the blare of the horn was deafening. This was great fun, especially when my friend would pump his arm to see if the engineer would blow the horn an extra time or two.

When my mother remarried, we moved to a farm some distance away. My friend Jimmy and I didn’t get to see each other that often, but when he got to come out for a visit, we had a great time running around the farm and playing like old times. Jimmy’s mom was offered a job out in California, so they moved away when I was around 9 or10, I think. We never saw each other again and soon I lost track of him for almost 50 years until we reconnected on Facebook a few weeks ago.

It was amazing how our lives tended to parallel one another once we began to catch up and compare notes. We both had married and divorced and had children, but the strangest thing was realizing that when we had parted, we were just young kids and now we were talking about our…grandkids. Almost 60 years of life has left big gaps in the space-time continuum. We were supposed to be 10 years old, but now we are grandpas. I found this picture of Jimmy and me as I began working on my “60 Years Project” (whatever that turns out to be).

My next friend, Kyria, turned the tables and tracked ME down on Facebook. I remember her as the cute little girl who lived up the alley and across the street from the apartment where my mom and I lived. The apartment was situated over the bakery of Jimmy’s dad’s restaurant. To this day, I have wonderful memories of the days cinnamon rolls were baked below and the sweet smell drifted up the stairs to our place. Anyway, Kyria and I were playmates as far back as I can remember. She had curly blond hair in ringlets and a sunny smile and I had a crush on her at the age of 5. I remember a sandbox near a church behind the minister’s house. He had two older daughters, perhaps they were teenagers, but they treated us very well, as I recall. We had great times playing in the sand and the dirt of that backyard.

There is one memory that just will not go away, but I don’t know if it actually happened or not. I had just gotten cleaned up and changed into my nice clothes. My mother and I were walking down the alley heading for Kyria’s house. I think we were going to a party there. It had rained and there was this big puddle in the street in front of her house. I got it in my head to sit down in the puddle. It seemed so inviting. So I did to the shrieks and laughter of Kyria and her mom. My poor mother was mortified, but I was happy.

Again, when my mother remarried and we moved out to our farm, those carefree days of play with Kyria came to an end. I don’t remember seeing her after the move and like Jimmy, I lost track of her. When we connected again on Facebook that “old time-warp thing” happened again where we were discussing our grandchildren before I knew it. The years have been very kind to my friend and when I looked at her Facebook photos, I could still see that little girl with the curly hair and the sunny smile. I scrambled through my old pictures to see if I still had that one picture of us playing in the dirt almost 50 years ago. Well, I found it here it is.

It seems like time flies by the older I get and memories of my early childhood and the friends I had back then are fading with each passing year. That’s why this is such a gift to be able to find and catch up on the lives of my two oldest childhood friends, but then life is full of surprises as I approach the big 60.

Food for THOUGHT…

The Middle East…Close to Home?

This has been an interesting year in the Middle East with revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Somalia, Libya and now Syria. Why are so many Middle Eastern countries rising up against their governments? What is going on? What do they have in common?


1) Wealthy, out of touch and politically elite governments?

2) Wide economic disparity between the haves and have nots?

3) Repressive leaders and political parties in power for years?

4) Poorly educated citizens?

5) High unemployment?

6) Controlled media full of propaganda?

7) Violence?

Could America be headed down the same path or are we perhaps already there? I wonder. Would Americans rise up here in this country like those other Middle Eastern countries now in violent revolt?

Well, just because we have wealthy, out of touch politicians in Washington, many owing their campaign funds to large corporations, banks and lobbyists, that is no indicator that America is going down the same path…is it? Sure, there are a lot of people out of work and losing their homes to foreclosure (thanks to many of those same powerful people), but every economy has its up and downs and people, corporations and big banks have a right to make a buck however they can, right? The wealthiest among us need to make obscene profits so they can run things for the rest of us, don’t they? It’s all about money, power and let’s not forget…control, right?

As far as repressive leaders and political parties…PLEASE! We live in a free and open society as Americans, don’t we? Political parties would never propose laws that would limit our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, would they? Don’t women have the freedom to choose matters related to their reproduction and health? I mean like the IRS isn’t going to one day call them in and ask them how they paid for an abortion, are they? Librarians can lend any kind of books to anyone and not have to worry about some scary government agency looking over their shoulders, don’t you think? And as far as freedom of speech, can’t we talk about anything we want without being labeled a “terrorist” or “anti-American?” I mean nothing would happen to us if we decided to protest OUR government loudly in the streets, would it? We can travel anywhere in the world we want, as long as our names are not on the “No Fly List.” And while we are at it, our unions are still there to protect hard-won rights for American workers without any government threats at all, correct?

And then there is education in America. What’s the big deal if we have to make some cuts in education to solve our budget crisis? We have been falling behind other nations for years now when it comes to education. We don’t need well educated citizens in order to watch FOX (fair & balanced) News, attend Tea Party rallies or even get elected to office, do we? Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have all the news and opinions these folks need to know to get by in the New Republican Tea Party World, don’t they? And besides, don’t you think that only the sons and daughters of the wealthy and the elite need to go to college anyway, since they will be running things in the future? Higher education should only be for those in charge of things, right?

There have also been a lot of shorts tied in knots over the cost of American healthcare and Social Security. Here’s the deal. We need to cut the deficit, right? When these programs are eliminated, the old and the sick will just die off when they cannot afford medical care or retirement, don’t you think? Perhaps this will do two things. It will save tons of money that will help pay off our national debt. There won’t be anyone around to stage violent protests calling for the downfall of our government since the leeches on our society will be sick, starving or dead. Problem solved…don’t you think?

And I was worried. LOL.

Food for THOUGHT…