Loving Lucy

Yet another week of nice weather.  I was surprised to find one-way traffic twice this week while road crews cleared up more landslides and fallen trees.  Looking at some of the ridges above the roads one can see exposed roots of large trees.  It appears they could fall at any time.  So while the rains have stopped, the dangers remain.

I find myself more and more looking at old photographs of a younger Lucy.  She was such an active and competitive dog.  Independent and somewhat difficult to train, and acting more like a puppy or adolescent far into her adulthood.  She loved to run and we were fortunate to have several places in which our dogs could run freely off leash.  Lucy routinely ran until she was exhausted.  No such thing as pacing oneself, it was all about going.

Lucy, the eight-year-old puppy

On the one hand, it's sad to see her so much less active.  She rarely runs and then only for a few feet.  But on the other hand, she seems to enjoy life.  She isn't having pain and she still approaches us for extra hugs.  She enjoys her food and snacks and loves sitting on the deck.  She really loves the sunshine and will find a sunbeam if there is one to find.  Best of all is that she is still with us and still enjoys life.  What more can anyone ask?

Snoozing in the sun once again

Hard to imagine, but our Violet will be two years old this month.  Our daughter sent her Neil Gaiman's set of books about Chu, a sneezing Panda.  She included a stuffed Panda as well.  When it arrived, Violet decided it must be hungry after the trip so she fed it a toy cracker.  She is very serious about caring for her animals.  (She learned a sad lesson about feeding stuffed animals real food like blueberries.  That didn't turn out so well.)   Her little kitchen, complete with microwave is behind her.  She does a lot of cooking there.

Feeding her new panda

Oh, and she's learning to do duck lips

It is fitting that today's quotes involve the environment.  The first is from Gaylord Nelson:

"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."

The other quote is from Mohandis Ghandi:

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs,
But not every man's greeds."

As proof that the fox is not a good guardian of the henhouse, the head of the Interior Department has announced a relaxation of the rules for deep water oil drilling.  These rules were put in place after the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and will put the oceans in danger of more.  The new rules allow the oil companies to do their own safety inspections and will not be required to report the results.  Does it make you feel better that this will save the oil companies money?  Me neither.

The "leaders" of the United States do not seem to be willing to sacrifice anything for future generations.  They seem to think the entire earth belongs to Americans and that we are free to make terrible decisions that affect the other people inhabiting this planet.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK

DO SOMETHING TO HELP THE ENVIRONMENT FOR THE FUTURE