93 posts tagged “dogs”
Michigan weather is simply amazing. Yesterday saw a heat wave reaching 40 degrees that melted much of the several inches of snow on the ground, but 40+ mph winds this morning will plummet the thermometer below 20 degrees later today. The weatherman called it a "flash freeze", which I guess means that we had a "flash thaw" over the weekend?
Recently we picked up Jan, our 54th foster dog, and she's been such a great dog that Amanda keeps saying stuff like "if we ever want 3 dogs, Jan should be the 3rd one". :)
To me she's not a "Jan" - she's too sweet and spunky for that calm-sounding name, so I've been calling her JJ. Not "J.J." but "JJ" because there's no initials - that second "J" doesn't stand for anything.
Taking advantage of the balmy weather yesterday, I loaded the entire pack - Haven, Beacon, JJ - into the car and all 14 of our feet embarked on a hike in warm, wet snow along the Flat River. JJ has been good enough that I let her run off leash; she's only the 3rd or 4th foster dog to earn such freedom! She wasn't perfect and tended to ignore my whistles occasionally, but she kept us in sight. Of course to her, "us" can mean just Haven and Beacon so sometimes the three of them were a few hundred yards away chasing some intriguing scent!
Eventually we slipped and slid our way up and over the steep hill that leads to "Beacon's Landing" - his favorite fetching spot on the river, a small sandy delta where a foot-wide stream drains into the 200-foot wide river. Immediately downstream of Beacon's Landing is "Haven's Cove", a backwater area of eddy flow caused by the delta. Lots of flotsam and other debris collects here and Haven loves to explore it at low water levels in hopes of finding a stinky fish carcass to eather eat or roll in.
In the winter Haven's Cove freezes over due to the still water and during this hike the ice was 2 inches thick, extending 15 feet into the river and running 60 feet along the shore. Standing at Beacon's Landing and waiting for JJ to catch up to us, Beacon began insisting that I throw him something to retrieve. I was scanning the ground for a stick when I heard a splash...
Looking up I saw JJ had fallen through the ice! She was at the far end of the ice shelf on Haven's Cove - she had walked too close to the edge and a 2-foot hemicircle of ice had broken away. JJ was in that hemicircle trying to climb back on to the ice with no success. Her front paws were hanging on with her rear in the water; occassionally a hind paw would appear on the ice edge but the river was about 3 feet deep there, so she had nothing to push off of.
At first I tried to coax JJ to exit the hemicircle and swim upstream around the ice shelf - there's almost zero current in Haven's Cove - but JJ apparently doesn't have enough labrador retriever in her genes to give her such instincts. She wasn't panicked but she was intent on climbing out, which she couldn't do without help.
Haven seemed to realize this - as soon as we saw JJ in the water, Haven went running out onto the ice right up to JJ, putting her nose right next to JJ's. How kind! If only Haven had thought to grab JJ's collar and haul her out, but Haven apparently was only intending to provide moral support. :)
JJ was about 12 feet from shore, a shoreline that's steep and covered in woody shrubs so I wasn't going to reach her from dry land. I also didn't want to wade through a waist-deep, ice-cold river along the entire 60-foot ice shelf to get there. I decided to press my luck by walking out onto the ice shelf.
It was pretty solid, but obviously thinning out toward it's edge. Beacon joined me when I set foot onto the ice, and Haven got excited and ran over to Beacon... and slid right past him! Yes Haven, ice is slippery. The two of them must've figured I had things under control as they ran back to Beacon's Landing.
I managed to get about 6 feet away from JJ before my weight pushed the outer edge of the ice just below the surface and water began to flow onto the ice. Rats, I couldn't get any closer! How was I going to help JJ out of the water? I pulled the leash out of my pocket - I could make a "lasso" and toss it over her head, giving enough of a pull that her back paws could push her out.
As I was preparing to toss the leash, Haven and Beacon came running out onto the ice to see what I was up to, coming all the way out right next to me. I weigh almost 200 lbs and the ice barely supported me, but add in 140 pounds of pooch and guess what? The ice breaks!
I fell through the ice and verified that the water was indeed waist deep. Yow, was it cold! Haven fell in right next to me but Beacon was on the safe side of the crack, still standing up on the ice. JJ was now in front of me in the water so I picked her up and placed her on the ice and she ran for shore. Then I turned and helped Haven climb back onto the shelf - she's a pretty good swimmer and comfortable in the river, but she wasn't too thrilled to be dog-paddling in icy water!
As I helped Haven I heard a splash behind me... Beacon! The silly boy had jumped into the river and was swimming back to me with a large chunk of ice in his mouth! He saw pieces of ice from my fall-through floating in the river and he leapt in to retrieve them. However, he couldn't climb out so I then had to help him back onto the ice shelf but he never let go of his prize.
Naturally if I fall through the ice with three dogs, I'm the last one out! They're back on shore at Beacon's Landing, shaking off some of the chilly water while I'm forced to make that trek that I opted against earlier - a long wade in chilling, waist-deep water to circumnavigate the ice shelf at Haven's Cove.
Back near shore I stepped on the ice edge trying to break off a chunk, but lo and behold nearly the entire shelf cracked free! A huge 10x50 foot island of ice floated out into the river, but rather than heading downstream is simply spun. The backwater eddys were evident as the upstream end of the ice floe rotated out into the river and downstream, while the downstream end actually moved upstream. It did this twice before I left, so who knows if it ever drifted downstream or just kept spinning there! Pretty cool stuff for a nature and science geek.
By the time I stepped on to dry land my feet were almost numb, but otherwise I felt pretty good. The dogs were noticeably cold from their bouncy behavior, but they weren't shivering or stressed out; in fact they were already exploring the woods while awaiting my return. Once I arrived, however, Beacon began trying to lead us back to the car - he was ready to go home. He was right, of course - we'd been out for half an hour and had a 15 minute hike back to the parking area so no need to hang around in wet clothes (or fur) when there's snow on the ground, even in a Michigan heat wave.
I wish I'd thought to get some photos of the ice shelf, but perhaps it was all the best that I had the camera and my cell phone stashed away in double ziploc bags. They both survived the dunking - luckily I took such precautions despite no intention of getting wet. Running in the woods with three dogs? Anything can happen! What a blast.
A few days ago Lisa wrote about choosing her "voting outfit", explaining a desire to dress according to the significance of her vote and the election. It was a new and interesting thought and in part, it inspired me to be conscious of my outfit this morning.
Imagine this: it's Michigan, it's November, it's pitch dark outside, and it's 50 degrees!
Taking advantage of the weather I decided to run to Lowell city hall to vote! In my own way, I dressed for the occasion wearing the same outfit that I wore for Bailey's Doggie Dash, minus the hat and gloves (and the dog!)
City hall is only half a mile from home but I took a slight scenic detour to enjoy the weather and the remaining brown shades of fall leaves. After voting I ran home for a total of 2.1 miles. Considering that I arrived at about 06:50 Eastern Time, I may well have been the country's first voter who ran to and from the polling booth!
Lowell has always conducted smooth elections, one of the benefits of small town living. In past elections I've arrived at 7:15 and was the 15th or so voter in my precinct. Today when Amanda and I got in line (Amanda drove and met me at city hall) I remarked to her that I estimated about 50 people in line in front of us.
Only 20 minutes later I was sliding my ballot into the machine, which reported back to me that I was voter #51... Am I good or what? My estimate was right on! :)
The coolest thing about voting this morning was that despite 50 folks crowded into a small hallway, everyone was friendly, helpful, and cheerful. There we were, roughly half of us about to "officially disagree" with the other half via our ballots, yet we were all neighbors first and Democrats or Republicans somewhere further down the priority list.
My dad has boasted of (and subsequently often playfully ridiculed for) his high school strategy for popularity: tell jokes. He discovered that even if only 1 in 10 jokes are actually funny, people will consider you a fun person to be around. Whenever someone tells a bad joke, we say "that was one of dad's other nine". :)
The relevance of this is that standing in line waiting to enter the doorway into the room full of voting booths, it reminded me of elementary school when some rooms were converted into "haunted houses" for Halloween - we were all standing there eagerly waiting our turn to enter this mysterious and magical area.
It must've been dad's genes - for some reason I expressed my observation aloud. To my surprise, everyone around me in line busted out into laughter! I hadn't thought it was that funny of a comment, but maybe it helped alleviate some of the inherent tension of the voting process by evoking a sub-consciously uncanny parody of our situation.
After all, there's an element of spookiness because the whole process is necessarily secretive. Yet we all are eager to participate, sneaking into our walled-off booth, inscribing our coded opinions, stealing glances at friendly strangers who may or may not agree with each other, and walking out into the real world to start a regular day at the office.
Boo! :)
...is what Vox and I have in common! *
Haven and I ran our fourth Bailey's Doggie Dash 5K a couple weekends ago, finishing with our slowest time ever. Don't worry, we had a lot of fun - the slowness was expected since I've done barely any running lately. The hamstring is feeling much better - and caused no problems at the Doggie Dash - so I've been limiting my running frequency to "just enough to keep me sane" levels.
The race report is over on my other blog. Long ago I wrote about wanting to combine my article-type posts onto one blog rather than a few, which I've done there on Blogger but I've been rather lazy about getting the archives updated. I'm continuing to use Vox as my "personal" blog (not that my other one is "professional" by any means) for fun stories, opinions, family stuff, etc.
The photo above is one of my favorites from this year's Doggie Dash but which I didn't include on the other blog. It seems to have a more calm, reflective tone to it compared to the other shots of Haven and I during the race. Of course if you like great photos of dogs and fall colors, check out Amanda's Flickr album of the Doggie Dash.
* Seriously, is it just me or has Vox been occasionally going retro - as in dial-up speed - in the past few weeks?
As far anyone who respects animals is concerned, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin could not be more different...
Really, this isn't a political blog despite my recent silliness. In fact, I'm just waiting for enough daylight so I can go for a long bike ride. You know what's the toughest aspect about cycling long distance? Da' BUTT. My legs are fine, my lungs are fine, my head is as good as it's gonna get, but holy cow does my butt ever get sore on a bike! I'm trying out another seat on this ride that I swapped from my old bike to see if that helps.
Seriously though, did you really want to hear about my butt or about the VP candidates? Just like Bush claiming that global warming - something I was cognizant of in 1989 when I was 13 - is a myth, Palin believes that polar bears are not endangered. Why? Because she wants hunters to be able to shoot them from airplanes. Any middle school kid could tell you that when an animal depends on the icepack for survival and the north pole was actually liquid this summer, that species is in trouble. So let's put the polar bears out of their misery, eh? And let's kill some wolves, too, while we're at it.
Biden, on the other hand, has tried to keep misery away from the polar regions, specifically the annual harp seal massacre. Until I read this detailed VP comparision from the HSUS (a blog worth subscribing well worth subscribing to) I hadn't realized the extent of how different two polititians could be regarding animal welfare. Except for Mike Huckabee thinking it was OK for his son to torture a dog to death...
Time to go trade one pain in the butt for another! ;)
Michael Phelps is the new "Mike" and one of my favorite moments was his interview aired this morning on NBC when they asked Phelps about his plans. He said "I miss my dog! I want to go home and see my dog."
While Phelps has a good excuse for not seeing his dog, I don't have a good one for not writing. I've been in a prolonged writer's block in a way - not for a lack of ideas and topics as I have several half-written articles laying around, but in the evening when I have the most time to write, I have the least energy to do so. I can't figure out why, but one possibility is a lack of running has messed with my energy/metabolism/something in my system?
Anyway, for those who are curious, a chronological rundown of some highlights lately:
- 23 July - My last run; since then have only skated twice and cycled twice.
- 26-27 July - Along with Amanda, my parents, my uncle, and my cousins and aunt, we helped said aunt build her new deck. Two long days in clear-sky sun were pretty tiring and somehow my hamstring got sore doing this work, which prompted the break from running.
- 02 August - Amanda and I watched some of the Ada Criterium inbetween reorganizing the Critter Cottage. We moved literally 1-2 tons of food plus shelving, etc. That evening we drove to Kalamazoo to attend a party with one of Amanda's friends.
- 03 August - Amanda's parents drove out to help us finish up at the Critter Cottage, which looks amazing now that we've taken lots of products off of the floor and put them up onto the walls.
- 04 August - We took Haven and Beacon to the beach on Lake Michigan and had a blast. The dogs tried out our new Ruff Wear float coat and the liked how it keeps their head a bit higher above the water, especially with all the big waves. Haven joined me on the ankle-deep sandbar about 70 yards out and I learned that I'm no Michael Phelps - I raced Haven back to shore and she kept up with my freestyle!
- 12-13 August - Two all-day off-site meetings for my new project at work, which looks like it will be a lot of fun.
- 13 August - Attended a city council public work session with 50 other residents for a highly contentious issue about money, of course. When it was clear that nobody was moving towards a resolution I spontaneously stepped to the podium... Apparently I rambled a bit in my speech but it seemed to help everyone refocus and someone even suggested I run for city coucil!
- 15 August - Went inline skating with Haven! Using a new Ruff Wear roamer leash helped and Haven loved the fast running, but boy did she ever get tired! We managed 4 miles at about 8 mph average so she's been resting this weekend.
What can I say... It's been eons since I last posted here and this will only be a "here's what I've been doing" update, but I figured it's better than remaining off the radar.
I'm still setting up my "new" blog. With Amanda and I moving our old Why Dogs? blog to 2 Feet 4 Paws, I was left with just Why Run? and Vox. One problem with Vox is that it's more of a "social" service than a "publishing" one, and Facebook works better as the former. Vox is still cool as a personal blog for stuff like I'm doing right here, so I'm going to re-start my original havybeaks blog on Blogger as a platform for my "articles" on various topics like running, flying, etc. Problem is, I'm having trouble finding time to write good articles...
Last week I went on a business trip to Cincinnati on short notice and I still don't have a company laptop yet so during my three days in Cincy I had no email access. Ten years ago that would be no big deal but next time I'm sent somewhere, I better be connected with more than a pad of paper! Not only did it limit my contributions during the meetings, it also prevented me from keeping pace with my outside-of-work life...
Mach League, the fantasy baseball league that I run, is way behind schedule. Three weeks ago was our monthly stat update that happens every four weeks, so I'm close to getting lapped by my own procrastination. Unfortunately, my title of "League President" is by definition a *fantasy* job, which means that my real jobs of "engineer" and "pet store owner" take precedence...
2 Feet 4 Paws is still chugging along thanks to Amanda and we're *still* trying to re-arrange the store layout to fit more products. Finding a means to display items that a) is attractive, b) is cheap, and c) can use the odd-shaped and small space that we have has been a challenge. I think we know what to do now, though...
However, I don't know what to do about running, specifically my long-time goal of running the 100K in early August. Believe it or not my right hamstring is STILL not 100% and I'm having doubts that a) I can put in enough training to do more than hike 100K, or b) my hamstring can last for 100K. It's not that I can't run on it, in fact I can maintain a 9:00 pace without problems, but going under 8:00 per mile is too fast for the hammy. Running on back-to-back days is not feasible yet so my training consists of a weekend long run plus one mid-week short run; that's it. Plus, the long runs tend to wear out the hamstring so I've replaced a couple long runs with long bike rides...
Cycling is a lot more fun with a bike computer - simply having a way to track distance and time is such a luxury! It's better than using mapmyrun every time, especially when my two long rides were 37 and 40 miles each. Ever since middle school I've wanted a pair of inline skates and I may have convinced Amanda to finally let me buy some. Now I'm going to hear more of her begging for a new digital SLR but I've still got that kayak up my sleeve that I've been pining for so I can match her beg-for-beg. :) Right now I'm leaning towards the K2 Moto 90...
My hope is that they'll be an effective cross-training tool. Cycling is great but it's hard to get my HR above 150 without burning out the quads in short order. One odd thing about the hamstring is that heavy impact makes it sore, e.g. stomping on a shovel to dig dirt. Running downhill also stresses the hammy, perhaps due to impact, perhaps due to higher turnover? I don't get it, but hopefully skating falls aerobically between cycling and running...
Viruses can affect aerobic performance; after my bad case of the flu in February I somehow caught a fever in April - rarely have I ever been sick twice a year. Both times my resting HR went up to around 64 from it's usual 54; in fact it had only gone back to 58 by the time I got sick a second time. Right now I'm at 59...
Viruses also afflict computers and I spent countless hours the past two nights fixing Amanda's computer. Some kind of spyware got on board and fooled SBC/Yahoo/AT&T/insert-dot-com-merger-name-here (they provide our DSL service which includes anti-spy and anti-virus). The anti-spy found most of the evil files but not all (yes, the definitions were up to date) and one would remain hidden and re-install the malware just minutes after deleting it. I finally killed it by downloading Microsoft's "malicious software tool" which found just one file, but it was that pesky installer that the others couldn't nab. So far so good...
I didn't want to end on a sickly note so I saved the best for last. While in Cincinnati I got to visit our friends Kim and Tony who live just minutes from the hotel where I stayed. They treated me to a home-grilled dinner and even some fancy ice cream (it's a famous Cincinnati brand but I forgot the name). I got to meet their new daughter Kate for the first time, who only likes wearing winter boots inside the house during summer. :) After Kate went to bed we shared some great conversation about baseball, airplanes, and of course dogs...
I also met for the first time their two golden retrievers, Zeke and Nellie, who are apparently cut from the same nutty cloth as Haven and Beacon. Nellie is the boss and likes to play-fight with Zeke by literally sitting on his head! I brought a couple toys for them from our store and Nellie promptly stole Zeke's toy but once he got it back he didn't set it down again, not for one second! By the time I left a few hours later he was falling asleep with the plush salamander still safely in his mouth.
The death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby was not unexpected. It has nothing to do with her being a filly racing among colts, but everything to do with horse racing being a sport that risks the lives of its competitors. With Barbaro's protracted fatal injury in recent memory I decided it was worth looking for some answers. Why did these animals die?
Obviously broken legs led to their euthanization, which brings up one sad truth about horses: an injury as simple as a broken leg is often fatal. While Barbaro's shattered right hind leg was far from "simple", his leg did in fact heal but he and his veterinarians were unable to overcome the laminitis that developed as a result of the injury. Barbaro at least had a slim chance to recover since only one leg was broken, but Eight Belles broke two legs and had virtually zero chance for survival.
Much was made of the fact that the injury occurred during the gallop out after the finish, essentially a "cool down jog". The forces on the legs during that phase are much less than when racing at full speed, but are still significant enough to cause injury. It's possible that Eight Belles had a pre-existing stress fracture or suffered a non-displaced fracture during the race. During the gallop out phase the horse was decelerating, imparting forces in a "backwards" direction that might have had enough leverage to displace the fracture in a way that "forward" forces could not.
Another source of consternation is that Eight Belles broke both of her front legs but my guess is that just one leg that broke initially, and this structural failure immediately doubled the load on the remaining good leg causing it to break in quick succession. It happened so fast that it appeared as though both ankles broke at the same time. Although the Derby veterinarian said he'd never seen such an injury before, it's happened as recently as two years ago. Perhaps Eight Belles had pre-existing stress fractures in both legs; after all, she had competed in more races than any other 2008 Derby starter.
Regardless of how Eight Belles or any other horse suffered their fatal injuries, the fact remains that horses die from racing. A recent survey found that there are approximately two deaths for every 1000 starts in horse racing; given the 20-horse starting field at Churchill Downs this year, there was a 1-in-25 chance that the Kentucky Derby would be a killer. Eight Belles came up short on those odds and is one of almost 1000 horses who die from racing annually. Eight Belles' trainer Larry Jones said afterward "Losing animals like this isn't fun", causing me to wonder just how many more of his horses have died from training and racing.
To be fair, any racing sport is dangerous. Human runners frequently deal with injury - myself included - yet luckily for us a leg injury is rarely fatal. Most other animals can also endure leg injuries without putting their lives in danger. As much as I love running races, if I knew that a leg injury would kill me you can bet I'd find another hobby! Which brings up a key point - I have that choice.
Horses are born to run, they love to run, but they are forced to train and race to such a degree that their lives are at stake. Years of selective breeding have engineered thoroughbreds into racing machines so fragile that broken bones are deadly. Yet we race them for our own amusement. As Big Brown's jockey Kent Desormeaux put it, "...Eight Belles showed you her life for our enjoyment today".
Horses are born, raised, and trained under the illusion that they are loved and cared for, only to find their lives cut short as soon as they stumble or worse yet, they are cast out from their home if they don't bring home enough race winnings. Ever wonder about the fate of the "losers"? Horses in the Triple Crown races are just three years old; with a life expectancy of 20-30 years these creatures are virtually teenagers. Can you imagine Kerri Strug being executed after breaking her ankle on her famous Olympic vault? Such was the fate of Eight Belles.
Luckily it was not the fate of my dog, Beacon. A yellow lab, he was born to retrieve - he loves to fetch so much that he would run and swim until he collapsed from exhaustion if I didn't end the session first. Two years ago while playing frisbee with Beacon he twisted his knee making a catch. He limped back over and sat in front of me, eagerly awaiting another throw! His selectively-bred genes made him willing to continue retrieving despite a partially torn knee ligament. It was my responsibility to end his frisbee session and ensure he was fully recovered before letting him run and swim again. Best of all, his knee injury did not risk his life!
People have the freedom to choose whether they want to put their life on the line. The biggest exception is military conscription, but at least the purpose behind that is more noble than pure entertainment. As I wrote last Memorial Day, we've been "conscripting" our domestic animals to serve us for thousands of years and by genetically breeding them into what they are today, they depend on us and we owe it to them to make their lives worth it.
Yet there are still people out there who enjoy killing horses for their viewing pleasure. In Washington state there is the Omak Stampede, a rodeo that features "The Suicide Race" as its main attraction. Riders drive their horses at full speed en masse down a cliff and then (if the horse is still standing) must ford a deep river. A more appropriate name would be "The Murder Race" since horses die in the event virtually every year.
The Kentucky Derby is not about the horses. It's about getting noticed wearing a big hat and paying $1000 to sip booze from a gold cup for the privilege of watching Eight Belles do everything that was ever asked of her. Her reward was a painful death. Surely humankind can do better.
"...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
-- John Donne, Meditation XVII
Amazingly it was in the mid 40's yesterday - it felt like spring! Don't worry, it won't go to my head - we're supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight.
I took advantage of the spring-like air and brought the dogs along on a mini hiking excursion at our usual spot by the river. There was still plenty of snow on the ground but it was wet and slick; there was also thick ice on the shore extending a bit into the water. Early on Haven and Beacon learned that the edge of the ice might break under their weight, but they didn't seem to mind getting their paws dipped in the icy water.
To my surprise, they didn't even mind swimming! Beacon got so impatient for me to throw something for him to fetch (I wasn't planning to take them swimming) that he did his best to convey his desires by jumping right into the freezing river! He stood there and waited, and when I wasn't able to find a stick fast enough he swam over to an approaching ice floe and bit off a big chunk of ice to bring back to me as his prize. When Haven saw what he had she jumped in to "help" him carry the ice chunk.
If they were going to swim, I decided to hike up and over the big hill, on the backside of which is a nice access point to the river with some shallow areas. Near the top of the hill I heard a loud trill and looked up to see a bald eagle launch from a tree and glide down out of view along the river! Often times when spotting a bald eagle it's hard to be sure - at a distance the long wingspan could be an osprey or even a rough-legged hawk. But this time there was no doubt - it was so close to me that not only were the tell-tale white head and tail evident, but I could see the yellow beak and feet and even distinguish the outlines of feathers!
For some reason it reminded me of the lines from Solsbury Hill: "Climbing up on Solsbury Hill... an eagle flew out of the night... he was something to observe... came in close I heard a voice..." Well, everything but the name of the hill, it was daytime, and I didn't hear any voices. :)
Today I went running for the first time in almost two weeks thanks to my bout with the flu. It was just 2.5 miles on the treadmill but it felt good to run again. Clearly the sickness took a toll - not only was my resting HR unusually high at 63 today, but my HR during the run was 10-20 bpm above normal for the slow 9:30-10:00 pace.
What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't?
Submitted by Janette.
1. Run with my dog in 8" of snow without snowshoes and carry some road trash home. (OK, that was a shameless plug for my latest Why Run? article. Forgive me.)
2. Worked my first ever job after college as an internship in Munich, Germany.
3. Completed the solo cross country phase of flight training yet never got a pilot's license (the solo cross country is about two steps away from getting a license).
4. Drove for one solid minute on a freeway in pitch darkness (no streetlights, no moon, no traffic) with my headlights turned off. Nobody said these 10 things had to be smart.
5. Memorized the entire poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.
6. In 2nd grade I associated every letter and number with a personality. "A" is confident, "W" is kind, "4" is friendly, "E" and "6" are mean, "R" is aggressive, "7" is social, etc...
7. Never been drunk, never smoked, and never religious.
8. Never paid for cable/satellite TV (had cable for free one year in college because it was never turned off from the previous tenant; otherwise I've never had more than bunny ears TV).
9. Passed a car on the road while riding my bike more than once (going down a hill around a curve that limited cars to 30 mph but my bicycle was able to maintain more speed in the turn).
10. "Crossed the streams"... my two brothers, two cousins and myself, after watching Ghostbusters, all five of us took a leak in the backyard at the same time and managed to cross the streams to fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. My aunt witnessed this and just about died with laughter!
Discussing the Donkeys - Evaluating the Elephants
I had never realized that there's such a strong disparity between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to concern for the rights of animals. If the Republicans ever want to associate with the term "progress", they had better improve their animal welfare track record. The general public is certainly heading in the direction of improved humane treatment and I'm glad to see the Democrats trying to keep pace.
Here in Michigan, however, I was denied the opportunity to vote for my candidate of choice. You may have heard in the news how our state moved up its primary in order to gain more political traction in the national arena. In a way, it worked - Michigan got some extra campaigning and news coverage that otherwise would've been drowned out.
Yet this attention may have come at a steep cost - both the Democratic and Republican national parties are threatening to penalize Michigan by limiting or even eliminating the number of delegates we send to the party conventions. Our state has placed its bet and is calling the parties' bluff - Michigan is counting on its value as a swing state to prevent the parties from alienating our voters when the conventions finally take place. We're hoping that in the end, the political party committees will forgive us for breaking their rules and allow Michigan the use of all its delegates.
While one doesn't have to register with either party to vote in a Michigan primary, you do have to declare which ballot you'd like to receive upon arrival at the polls. This choice is public knowledge; therefore whichever party's ballot is chosen will result in a deluge of campaign propaganda for that poor voter.
Because the Republican party only threatened to halve their Michigan delegates, there was still value for the candidates to run and campaign here. The Democratic party was a bit more extreme and has threatened to ban all of our state's delegates from the convention. Trying to show party solidarity, Obama and Edwards pulled their names off of the Michigan ballot. Ever the political machine, however, Clinton hedged her bets by staying on the ballot - by being the only major name on the Democratic side she was virtually guaranteed a win. If the party isn't bluffing, then her win is meaningless. If not, then she won a key state without having to campaign.
This no-win situation for Democratic Michigan voters unless you already liked Clinton. Those who preferred someone other than the former First Lady were stuck with picking from the candidate scrapheap, guys so well known that I can't recall their names. Write-in votes are not valid and are thrown out. The only remaining option is to vote "uncommitted". You'd think that voting "uncommitted" would represent a vote for either Obama or Edwards, but that is not true.
Choosing "uncommitted" simply allocates your vote to a delegate, more or less allowing them to vote by proxy on your behalf at the convention. The "uncommitted" delegates can place their support behind any Democratic candidate they choose, which might be Obama or Edwards or it might be Clinton or even one of the other also-rans. The only message that an "uncommitted" vote sends would be to indicate support of Democrats in general.
This is why two days ago during the Michigan primary, I did not go to the polls. Why vote when I've already been disenfranchised? I couldn't vote for Obama, my candidate of choice, and had I voted "uncommitted" there would still be the chance that my vote ends supporting my least-favorite candidate, Clinton. Maybe I should've voted for McCain, my "least of all evils" Republican preference, but do I really want the attention of a party that has so little interest in animal welfare? No way.
Despite being a registered and interested voter, the 2008 presidential candidates will be chosen without my input. My vote has gone to the dogs.
