My bird is a pig!!!

Guess I shouldn't complain too much, as I have some very slovenly tendencies myself...but Edgar has managed to inundate half my computer desk with birdseed, sprayed out of his cage when he pokes his beak into the seed dish and stirs things around looking for the best bits. He also spent about two and a half hours drifting around my living room tonight...started on my shoulder, decided that was boring, so he landed on top of one of my speakers...and started a landslide of loose items piled up there, so he landed on the entertainment center and almost knocked my antenna off and down behind the cabinet.

I think he did about five laps of the couch...not flying, hopping. Tried flying around some more, then ended up landing on the cross-piece of the rapier I've got hanging on my wall. He liked that, stayed up there for most of an hour...then flew across the room, landed on the fan...flew back across the room and landed on the back of my chair--or tried to, he slid down the chair behind me. Pretty good for a bird that, according to the vet, would likely never fly again and would re-injure his wing every time he did. I'll have to take the blanket down from one of the kitchen doorways so he can fly laps or something (I'll also have to stop leaving empty pans on top of the stove...the thought of him landing and pooping in one of my food-preparation containers just ISN'T appetizing at all.)

But we appear to be a good match...neither one of us can seem to stay focused on one thing for very long, and neither of us appears to be terribly tidy. And, seen in the right conditions, apparently, we're both pretty striking.

I'm still hoping, and a little more hopeful that it will prove to be true, that he manages to get me to clean up my place more effectively. Watching him launch into the air when stuff slides out from beneath his feet, even though it's just a small pile, is a great incentive. Yeah, it was funny... but I also felt bad for him.

Four more years...

Torino is officially history. I'm going on the record as stating that the Closing Ceremonies were really odd...not sure what the deal was with the successive waves of clowns, and while the several hundred girls in wedding dresses were very striking, I don't know why they were specifically in wedding gowns. But, hey...we did some stuff at Salt Lake that didn't make much sense to anyone else, so I guess it's only fair.

So I lapse back into my post-Olympic coma, on some level--ever since working at the SLC Games, there's a part of me that is even more excited and intrigued by the Games whenever they come around...but I will admit to being much more fond of the Winter Games. I guess it's just because I didn't know that many people who did the kinds of sports they celebrate in the Summer Games (definitely don't know anyone who did rowing like that...or bicycling. I knew a few people who did diving or swimming, knew of some people who were gymnasts...but I've always felt a little further removed from the events, somehow.

So, to borrow their symbolism, the flame has flickered out again...it will flicker to life, at a much lower level, in two and a half years; but it will take four years for it to really come back to life at full intensity. Too bad, in a way, that Annette's plans didn't come together for being in British Columbia...we could all have had a reunion and caught the Olympics at the same time. *grin*

In other news, Edgar's back. Brought him home from Marla's place tonight, he's sitting in a cage right beside my monitor as I type. He was fluttering around Marla's home earlier tonight--I'm going to leave him in his cage for a day or two before I let him start flying around my apartment. Things could get a little exciting, once he does. If he lands in the wrong place, stuff will get broken...but it's nice to not be the only living thing in the place for a change (well, there were the spiders...but they weren't very sociable--not that I left that as much of an option).

Maybe this will become the incentive I've been lacking to keep things tidied up...

Looking back on the Torino Games...

Yeah, I know, it's premature. But the Games will soon be over, and the last big event that I'm really interested in is over tonight (I already know who won, too, even though I'm still watching the skating...stumbled across a headline on Yahoo that ruined the suspense for me). There are a few things about the Olympics this year that will stick with me, I'm sure. Some favorites--

Emily Hughes--The epitome of the underdog coming through in a clinch. Utterly lacking in experience at this level, with minimal preparation...and she came in and got the job done. No, she didn't win gold...but I'm willing to bet she's a big threat for it in four years. (Maybe Sarah will come back for the next Games, and we'll have the Hughes Sisters Skateoff...)

The Italian Gold Medal in the 4x10k cross country relay--for the past several Games, there's been a very intense rivalry between Norway and Italy for this victory. The last three times, they have been first and second, and there has been a margin of only hundredths of a second between them. This year, in front of a home crowd, Italy blew the lid off the race. If you're going to make a big show out of winning, doing it at home is the best.

Mens' Snowboard Cross--I really didn't care who won. It was fast, it was intense, it was exciting, and pretty much everybody that competed seemed to be having a good time, no matter who won. At the bottom of the hill, after each heat, the racers were congratulating each other. Hope that kind of spirit stays with the sport--too many times, it becomes all about who wins, and not about enjoying the competition for what it can be...a chance to showcase to the world what the best can be.

Chad Hedrick winning the first Gold for the US--cynics will (and did) say it was a contrived story to make him more appealing in the heartland...but the fact that he won the day on the anniversary of his grandmother's death was pretty awesome, I thought (besides, he IS from the heartland...)

Belbin and Agosto taking the bronze--I would have been happier if it had been another metal, but the fact that they finally broke through a barrier that US skaters have been bucking for 30 years...I'm just happy for them.

Ted Ligety saves the day--I wish he could have carried that kind of performance through to all the other events--but I'm just thrilled for the guy.

And some less-than-favorites--

Shani Davis' whinefest at the press conference--It was an appalling lack of class, putting Chad Hedrick on the spot in front of the world's press...and then walking out. If he was so damn worried about being treated like a member of the team, why didn't he act like one? He's been practicing on his own the entire time they were over there...you want camaraderie, you build it... in advance.

The absolutely dismal showing by the US Mens Hockey team--a columnist wrote a scathing editorial about this, and the fact that the US team failed, utterly, to play AS A TEAM. I've got nothing against NHL players taking spots on the Olympic Squad...but if you're going to represent your country on a team, then you should take the time to MAKE IT A TEAM. Don't just show up the day the group is flying over to the Games. If the NHL can't get by without these guys for a few weeks, every four years, then either the players need to decide what's going to take priority, or else we need to start recruiting younger/older players that have time to practice and develop a sense of being a team.

Michelle Kwan's departure--Nothing against Michelle. I can appreciate the intense desire to make a last shot at the Gold. It is, as the press repeatedly pointed out, the one milestone of her career that was notable in its absence. But given the nature of the injury, combined with the intense level of competition at the Olympic level, she really should have had the good sense (and sportsmanship) to bow out when she couldn't skate at the Olympic Trials.

Being inundated with Bode Miller commercials--what happened to the days where you got your promotional deal AFTER you proved yourself to be an Olympic champion?

The Austrian Cross-Country Team doping scandal--AGAIN. (That's all I've got to say...)

And a few other miscellaneous disappointments--Lindsay Kildow's crash...I would have liked to have seen how she would have done at full strength, given what she managed skiing with a big bruise on her hip--The notorious wipeout in the gold-medal race of the womens snowboard cross...I just hate seeing people lose their medal because of a silly mistake--Sasha Cohen's long program...I knew about the results before I saw it, but I still winced when I saw her fall.

All things considered, though, it's an Olympics I'll recall fondly. Of course, there are things about each of the Olympics that I recall fondly, so that isn't saying much. But there was a lot of young talent hitting the field this year, and a lot of older talent stepping down...and I'll be looking forward to the Vancouver Games in four years. (I just hope that the skaters have moved beyond that ridiculous grab-the-skate move that everyone is doing! C'mon people, have some originality!)

I'm getting lazy...

Yeah, so, I've not been doing so well at that 'writing every day' thing, lately. Which is too bad, because I have an idea for a book...an honest-to-goodness memoir, that deals with the questions of just how far family loyalty should go. Yeah, just after I stopped going to USU, my family had a meltdown, and I suddenly discovered that we were just as dysfunctional as everyone else. But it seems to be getting better--slowly.

In my defense, it's hard to remain excited about writing when you're stressed about how you're going to recover from a string of bounced checks (all because someone DIDN'T mail a paycheck when they said they would...)--including the rent check for this month. It's the last one hanging over my head...and it doesn't help that the new complex owners are NOT very understanding about such things (I hope the manager IS actually doing all the stuff he tells me he is, and not just trying to make himself sound like the good guy, or I could be looking at finding another apartment in a couple of weeks.) I have a hard time feeling sympathetic when I'm still piece-meal patching stuff in my apartment that was supposed to be fixed when I moved in. It also doesn't improve my attitude any to be stuck with a furnace that's so old and ineffectual that it's cheaper to heat my apartment with space heaters (notoriously inefficient devices, but they do a helluva lot better job than the furnace, which has NEVER blown hot air, in the entire time I've lived here. Sometimes it manages to get to lukewarm...) and insulation so poor that the plastic I put over my windows is warmer than the walls it's stapled onto.

Life isn't as bad as I make it sound. I just get grumpy like this when I've got a stress headache that won't go away. I have been having some fun at work, doing some touch-up and reconstruction work on some of the Halloween 'stalkabout' characters that they have roaming the park...I don't know just how effective a couple of my repairs are going to be; but I got the job because nobody else knew anything better. So we'll see how long my repairs hold up. I'll have to post some pics of the characters, when I'm done with them all...it's a joke with a couple of my friends that those were my Valentines Day dates (and you thought YOUR date was creepy, Nick...at least it was real flesh and blood...)

Yeah, on that note...I think I'm done. I'm going to grab a snack, and fall asleep in front of the Olympics again. I'd skip it tonight, but I missed the earlier broadcast because I was watching the Monty Python Personal Best specials on PBS (I think that group would have been SUCH a kick to work with...)

Oh, yeah, that does remind me...one thing I did want to comment on, regarding the Olympics. Some may snicker at this, but I love watching the figure skating. And as I was watching the short program last night, I couldn't help but be struck by the fact that EVERY SINGLE skater did some kind of arched-back-reach-up-and-pull-my-skate-blade-down-to-my-head move. Some of them were kind of cool, some of them were kind of awkward...

I don't remember that being a particularly common move. In fact, I remember when Oksana Baiul was in the Olympics, it was a big deal because she COULD do that. Has this become some kind of required move, now? Part of the checklist?--"Triple jump, triple-double combination, grab your skate, serpentine footwork sequence, combination spin..." It was pretty neat to see, when it was an uncommon thing...it's still interesting to see, if they can find some fluid means to get into the grab. But it just DOESN'T work when people just grab to do it. Y'know, play to your strengths...if you can't make it look good, please don't try it. We want to see skaters looking fluid and superhumanly graceful--that's the whole appeal of the sport, if you don't know how to skate (like me).

And I do have to say, I was excited to see Emily Hughes do so well. In a way, she's in a perfect situation...she was an alternate, got there late, never competed on this level before...there's no pressure, no expectations on her, really. She had every excuse imaginable to have a rough night--but she was solid. Not polished--but solid. Think we're gonna be hearing her name again. It made me happy to see all three American skaters qualified for the free skate. Can't wait to see that.

The Road to Hell...

Well, in yet another well-intentioned, poorly thought-out piece of legislation, our government has banned the slaughter of horses for meat. I'm not real familiar with the legislation--I was informed about it by my friend, Marla...so I really don't understand what the logic was behind the concept in the first place. I do know that groups like PETA and ALF were major players in getting it passed.

The backwash of consequences has already begun. Marla had a brand inspector out at her place the other day, preparing ownership transfer papers on some animals she's bought or sold, as well as the foals from the past couple of years that are now getting old enough to get ownership papers finalized (they don't like to do transfer papers on young horses, because one of the details on the paper is the size of the horse...which can change in a couple of weeks on a growing foal).

The Inspector told her, since the legislation passed, he has had six horses mysteriously appear at the auction area managed by the state--horses which would likely have gone to slaughter, but their owners could no longer afford to keep them and couldn't find anyone to buy them. It will only get worse.

Now, before anyone jumps on my back about this--I own horses. I would, and have, gone without on multiple occasions in order to provide for them. I spent most of a winter driving from Logan to Hyrum, twice a day, because that was where I could afford to pasture my horse. Every time I was there, I had to chip the ice off her water tank, and stick my hands in freezing cold water on numerous occasions to pull out large chunks of ice so the tank wouldn't freeze over as quickly. I've suffered for my horses, sacrificed for them...and the last thing in the world I want is to get rid of them.

But if left with a choice between simply disposing of them, or having them serve SOME purpose, I'd like to think that they continued to serve SOME purpose once their life was done. I don't think it's the government's business to tell me I can't sell them for slaughter, any more than it's the government's business to tell laboratories that they can no longer use rats for research. I would rather sell off everything I own and live out of my friend's basement than send them to slaughter--but not every horse owner has the kind of friends and support that I do.

The Bureau of Land Management cannot, currently, find homes for all of the mustangs they round up each year. Most horse owners, in this area, are only a step or two ahead of being completely broke, themselves. In the past five years, two major breeding stables in Utah have gone out of business. These are people who had extra money to raise horses...the exception to the rule around here. Many of us, as owners, devote a fair amount of our work and income to providing for the horses--it is an incredible few that manage to get their horses to make money for them. An unstable job market and economy doesn't provide much security for those that are staying only a few hundred dollars ahead of their collective bills, between feeding themselves, their families, and their animals.

Marla had a 'rescue horse' in her herd, an old gelding that her cousin had owned for years. Her cousin could no longer afford to feed and board him, and debated what to do with him (this was before the ban). Finally, she gave him to Marla, not willing to have him put down yet (despite the fact that he was chronically lame). Marla had him for most of a year. In that year, she spent, in vet bills alone, as much on that horse as she spent on feed for the other ten, combined. That doesn't include the special feed she got for him, or the extra time she spent working with him to try and find a solution for his lameness. When he finally got to the point where he couldn't even walk anymore, she called the vet and had him put down. Then she had to find someone to come take the carcass away, or get a permit and find someone with a backhoe to bury him in the pasture. Between putting him down and getting the body removed (which was cheaper than burial), he cost her an additional $300--enough to feed her family for two months.

The intention of the legislation may have been to prevent suffering among horses...and thousands of horses a year will no longer meet their end at a meat-packing plant, to become glue, dog food, and other products. Among those thousands, many will instead suffer a slow, wasting death, too old to move around enough to eat, or trapped in a pasture with insufficient feed, owned by people who had to choose between feeding themselves or feeding the horses. I don't know if any of you have ever been around old, crippled, suffering horses...but you can see it, in their motion, their body language...in their deep sighs of pain and their eyes.

In very much the same way that a few radical neoconservatives manufactured an imminent threat to the well-being of the world in Iraq, a few radical animal-rights-activists have manufactured an image of an industry dedicated to cruel treatment and slow starvation of animals waiting to die (never mind the fact that starving the horses means less flesh per animal, resulting in less product--it just doesn't make economic sense, even). And a bunch of soft-living fat-cats, totally removed from the reality of the situation, have again supported the lie. Lives will be lost, suffering will ensue...

I hope that sits well with those who've claimed the moral high ground.

The Tragic Hero...

Y'know, it's a story that's almost worthy of the great Greek tragedians. Four years ago, he almost fell, pulled himself together, and went on to win a medal no one expected him to claim. Now, after being cast in the role of the great hero, Bode Miller is only a factor in terms of how many news stories have been about him.

I think the great story of the 2006 Winter Games is going to be hubris. Bode Miller has utterly failed to be the Great American Ski Hero that was being touted going into the Games. In fact, he's even taken pot shots at the press and the fans, complaining that the pressure professional athletes are exposed to by the expectant fans and eager press pushes them into doping and crumbling under pressure. Funny, I didn't hear him complaining when he was winning.

Lindsay Jacobellis had the Gold Medal in her pocket, for all intents and purposes, in the Snowboard Cross event...and dropped it on a hot-dog move on the last jump (no matter whether she thought she was hot-dogging or not, her jump was not a racing-style jump). Her nearest competitor wasn't even in view when she did it...but that changed in the blink of an eye. (I do have to give her credit for owning up to what she did. Hers is a sport that was built on style as much as speed, and she's remained unapologetic about it. Doesn't change the fact, though, that this WAS a speed event--there are no style points.)

Even the Womens Hockey Team hasn't been immune. Bad blood was sparked between the U.S and Canadian teams when U.S. players accused Canada of running up the score in some of their preliminary games. Now, after having taken the moral high-ground, the U.S. has found themselves to be mere mortals again, after the Swedish team out-gunned them.

I applaud Chris Hedrick. Much has been made in the press of his chances at tying the record of five Gold Medals--and when that chance died in the team pursuit, he didn't fire off accusations at teammate Shani Davis. In fact, he defended Davis' decision to skip the event in favor of focusing on an individual event (which, incidentally, Davis won). I also applaud ALL of the athletes I saw racing in the Mens Snowboard Cross. My faith in the Olympic spirit was reinforced as I saw, at the end of each heat, competitors more interested in congratulating each other on a great race than in shucking their snowboards and getting back to the waiting area.

That's what the Olympics SHOULD be about. This is supposed to be a celebration of the universal human spirit of competition. It's not supposed to be a game of one-upsmanship. While I feel bad, on some level, for the frustration of athletes like Miller, who will have to live for years with the stigma of being unable to deliver the expected results, I can't help but compare their antics to the likes of Ted Ligety--who just sat back and did his thing, almost completely unheralded. Or Shaun White, who seemed more interested in discussing whether a Gold Medal would attract more girls than he was in discussing what he did that won him the Medal, or what his fellow boarders failed to do in their losses.

They get it. They are the people who deserve these Medals, the people we all truly love to see win them. I'm glad that poetic justice has held true again.

Lessons learned the hard way...

One of these days, I intend to sit down and write a list of life lessons I've learned the hard way...things like, don't second-guess someone who knows what they're doing, which I learned when I got dumped off a horse who spooked after stepping on a downed fence I didn't see (she didn't want to take the step, I pushed her into doing it...and I paid the price.)

But, for now, I've got a new one--the futility of losing your temper with someone for doing what they're supposed to do. I went to Marla's place today, to help haul some more hay for the horses (7 tons...if you do that every day, 7 tons isn't much...but if you do it maybe twice or three times a year, 7 tons is Herculean...)

Because of road conditions, they left to start loading the truck before I got there; so, while I was waiting, I went over to say hello to the horses. Two of them are mine, after all.

But Marla's llama, Squeakers, was rather forceful about staying between me and the horses, at the gate. Every time one of them would walk over, he'd step in the way.

Now, to really explain my lack of patience with Squeakers, I have to tell another story. Several months ago, in early November, Marla's mare had just foaled, and we had a nasty storm blowing in. Horses can handle cold fairly well...they can tolerate being wet. They don't particularly like wind, but they can deal with it. But, like any other mammal, when you combine all three, you can end up with a very serious problem. And this was one of those storms. So Marla and I went out to catch the baby, Beowulf...he'd only been born a couple of weeks earlier (very much a surprise baby, Marla had been intending to keep her mare separated from the stud but misjudged the timing).

Now, windy weather makes a lot of horses very 'spooky' and high-strung...and Beowulf was no different. On top of that, he's a very big-boned warmblood, which means that he's extremely large for his age (at two weeks, he was the size my foal had been at four weeks). So, armed with two different sizes of blankets, we went out into the storm, intending to get one of them strapped onto him...this, complicated by the fact that he'd never seen a foal blanket before, and horses notoriously don't like new objects in their proximity, especially very large ones.

Things weren't helped, either, by the fact that his dam, Adee, was worked up over the storm, and wouldn't stand still for us to get anywhere near her...and he was right by her side. As it continued raining, we kept chasing them around, until, finally, we got Adee to stand in one spot, while we succeeded, after another few minutes, in catching Beo. We toweled him off, then got the smaller foal blanket on. It fit pretty snugly...so Marla decided to try the medium.

That was way too big, large enough that he could tangle his legs up in the straps and hurt himself, so we decided too tight was better than too loose, and went to take the blanket back off. I was holding him, while Marla worked with the blanket. She undid the straps, and began lifting the blanket, while I let go of his neck so the blanket could go up and over his head.

He bolted, and instinctively, I grabbed the blanket, using my body weight as a drag to try and slow him down. I had the presence of mind to realize that planting my feet would be a big mistake, so I tried to keep moving...I succeeded in keeping them off the ground, mostly, while Beo's motion pulled me forward faster than I'd ever run across that paddock in my life. My eyes started getting a little wide, and I had visions of a painful end of the run, as I realized he was heading straight for the corner, and potentially into one of the most solid sections of the fence out there.

Apparently, at that moment, he realized the same thing, because he suddenly tried to change directions, shifting right in front of me as he tried to spin around. I slammed into him, throwing him off balance, and my grip on the blanket dragged me down on top of him.

I found myself a little disoriented, aware of a wet spot soaking into the hip of my jeans, and tried to get up...but couldn't, for some reason. Then I became aware of Marla yelling something, and heard something flopping overhead. And I realized something was on top of me, though I couldn't imagine what in the world it was.

Finally, it moved...and as I got up, I saw Marla chasing Squeakers off, with the hat that had been yanked right off my head by Beo's launch forward. Yes, I may be one of the few people you'll ever hear of who's been attacked by a llama.

So, you can imagine, as I was standing there, wanting to scratch either of my horses' heads, that a pushy llama did nothing to improve my mood, especially with a certain degree of bad blood in place between us. Yeah, I know llamas are guard animals. I know they perceive the animals they are fenced in with to be their flock, regardless of what those animals may be. Squeakers is good at it...he's even managed to alert Marla and her husband to raccoons that were sneaking in to raid the chicken coop on several occasions.

So, acting as a floating barrier between the horses and me was only natural for him (I don't think he's ever forgiven me for knocking Beo down...and I'm quite certain he hasn't forgotten the several minutes I spent chasing him around the paddock, in the rain, kicking him in the butt any time he slowed down long enough for me to reach him, just to teach him to keep his distance from me...the lesson was OBVIOUSLY highly effective, right?)

But I was still irritated. So, after trying to shoo him away a couple of times unsuccessfully, when he stuck his nose in my face again, I took an open-handed swing at him, thinking maybe that would encourage him to move away.

Ever seen a llama? They've got a neck that can flop around like a wet spaghetti noodle one minute, and be as unyielding as a tree stump the next. He saw the swing coming, did some funky twist with his neck, and completely side-stepped the swing...and my hand smacked into the fence, led by the tip of my thumb.

It hurt...a lot...and it didn't stop hurting. So I took off my glove (last time something like that happened, I put a big bruise under my fingernail, which has only just finished fading out, two months later), to assess the damage.

I split my thumbnail...in THREE PLACES. I caught the fence at JUST the right angle, folded the nail over, and split it down into the quick. My thumb was bleeding, it was cold, and I felt like Squeakers was just standing there, mocking me.

To my credit, all I did was swear at him a little bit...swore more at myself...and went inside to get a bandaid. It was already going to be a long afternoon--but it just got longer with the throbbing in my thumb reminding me that losing my patience, once again, accomplished absolutely nothing.

So, this post is taking half again as long to type, because my thumb doesn't feel right, both because of the tender tip and because I can't feel the keyboard through the bandaid. It's nothing serious...but it will serve as another one of those little physical reminders...just like the scar on my cheek reminds me to not get too caught up with looking at where I've been in life (because when I was too busy looking over my shoulder one time, I ran right into a bus timetable and dug a little furrow in my cheek.)

Some people can learn these lessons the easy way. Some need a little more physical reminder. I hope I don't forget this one...because it hurt. I don't want to imagine what the next reminder will feel like.

I have brilliant friends...

Okay, I'm taking the easy way out tonight. I'm just quoting, in its entirety, an email I got from a friend of mine this evening. I'm quoting it, because I think it's very well-said. And, quite frankly, I'm surprised to get it from him (not the message itself, I find that part quite understandable--I just didn't expect him to be this profound!)

So, here it is--

"Educatio est omnium efficacissima forma rebellionis"   by
Thorin

"Education is the most effective form of rebellion".

The moral of Thorin's quote is that much more can be
accomplished with a book rather than a bat. The system itself
cannot be beaten by simply dropping out and having a middle
finger attitude. To truly make a difference, you need not
only angst, but also a firm foundation on what makes the
system what it is. Past revolutionaries (Che, King Jr,
Gandhi....) all knew how to use the system to their advantage and
bring about change. Society loves stupid people because they
are so easy to control. To truly make a difference organize
with the tools that truly bring about change: Education and
Unity. The sheep (people in general) are force fed crap
everyday via the media. Unfortunately, they take it all in
with their mouths open wide. The uneducated cannot tell the
difference between truth and lie, instead they tend to
believe everything that is broadcasted without even questioning
it. Everyday the system is unjust and unfair. Without
education, and unity, this massive corporate lobbied tax hijacked
machine can never be re-tooled. It is up to YOU to make the
changes needed to improve YOUR society. It is time to stand
for what you believe in, and be heard. Ignorance is the
single greatest tool of oppression.

Amen, brother...

The Most Dangerous Game...

Some of you will recognize the title of the short story...but considering what the focus of this post is going to be, it seemed appropriate. Once again, as I was browsing news stories (I don't get the newspaper...there's so much less waste when I find my news online), I found a story that just made me go, "What the hell?"

We've all heard, by now, the story about the Vice President shooting one of his fellow hunting party members by accident. Well, the plot thickens a bit--

This is the official version, in a nutshell--

Ranch owner Katharine Armstrong, a witness, told The Associated Press the accident occurred when Cheney's 78-year-old companion came up behind him "and didn't signal or indicate ... or announce himself. ... The vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."

The gun fired a spray of small lead pellets that struck Whittington in the face and neck. He was said to be in "very stable" condition after the incident, looking like he had chicken pox.

Then, just minutes ago, THIS was released on the web--

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a "minor heart attack," a hospital official said Tuesday. Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.

HOW do you go from being 'peppered pretty good' to having birdshot LODGED IN YOUR HEART? That sounds a whole lot more grievous than looking like the chicken pox!!!

I know hunters. I know accidents happen. I can accept that. But it's looking like my government is lying to me YET AGAIN. If he nearly killed the guy, then SAY SO...we're adults, we can handle it.

The 'serious press' aren't the only ones working this, though...I got this from a friend--

"Late Show with David Letterman," CBS

· "Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: It's Dick Cheney."

· "But here is the sad part -- before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armor."

· "We can't get Bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."

· "The guy who got gunned down, he is a Republican lawyer and a big Republican donor and fortunately the buck shot was deflected by wads of laundered cash. So he's fine. He took a little in the wallet."

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," NBC

· "Although it is beautiful here in California, the weather back East has been atrocious. There was so much snow in Washington, D.C., Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fat guy thinking it was a polar bear."

· "That's the big story over the weekend. ... Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 percent."

· "I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?' "

· "Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine's Day. It's the new Dick Cheney cologne. It's called Duck!"

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Comedy Central

· The show's segment titles included "Cheney's Got a Gun," "No. 2 With a Bullet" and "Dead-Eye Dick."

· "Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt ... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, (was) shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird."

· "Now, this story certainly has its humorous aspects. ... But it also raises a serious issue, one which I feel very strongly about. ... Moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: Do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted -- it's just not worth it."

"Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," CBS

· "He is a lawyer and he got shot in the face. But he's a lawyer, he can use his other face. He'll be all right."

· "You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down, because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, 'If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.' "

· "The big scandal apparently is that they didn't release the news for 18 hours. I don't think that's a scandal at all. I'm quite pleased about that. Finally there's a secret the vice president's office can keep."

· "Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past."

Normally, I kind of resent late-night hosts who ride people about dumb mistakes. In this case, I'm MORE than willing to make an exception.

And, while I'm writing (and to put a brighter spin on my day before I go to work), a little housecleaning of sorts--

Kevin--Yep, it's the Egyptian...I agree, while they use professional actors, I would qualify them as a semi-professional theater, as a whole (and I think everyone that's worked with them on the tech side of things would agree...they have a very proficient tech crew in spite of the way they treat them...things just haven't been the same up there since Ray Carlson died.)

And my post about policing the world...well, yeah, y'know, I do agree with you. Darfur is where we should be, if anywhere in the world. I just get sick of being vilified one moment, and the next moment having the world expecting us to bail them out. Bad as this may sound, you can't train an animal to behave a certain way if you aren't consistent in reinforcing the behavior...punish it for being good, or reward it for being bad, and you just have to start the whole process over again. People aren't much different, even on a national scale (perhaps, even, ESPECIALLY on a national scale).

And, finally, since I'm going on and on and on...Annette's questionnaire--

What is your favourite word: Tenacious

What is your least favourite word: bigot

What turns you on: Oh, that could be several posts, all by itself...ummmmm...intelligent interaction.

What turns you off: Blind anger

What sound do you love: The nicker of my horse, the murmur of a mountain stream, the whisper of a gentle breeze through trees...I don't have time to type out the full list (I don't have time to compile the full list in my head, even...)

What sound do you hate: angry arguments, traffic jams, that CLICK followed by dead silence when my battery cable has vibrated loose again on my car so it won't start...

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt: Writing, or being a DJ. I would have loved to have been a rock-singer...but I can barely sing as it is.

What profession would you not like to participate in: Tobacco, politics, drug dealer, or the porn industry

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates:
"So, you finally DID make it...we were starting to have our doubts..."

Peace, all. I'm off to work.

Make Up Your Minds...

Once again, this is inspired by a news article I found. Apparently, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is planning to appeal to President Bush to provide rapid-deployment troops as part of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Darfur, Sudan. I find this troubling.

I don't mind the world coming to the U.S. for assistance. It's actually fairly logical. We've got the largest economy, the largest military, and some of the best-trained forces in the world. The range of resources we can throw into a mission like that, theoretically, is outside the scope of any other nation in the world.

The thing that troubles me is the double-standard of the international community. They have spent years, if not decades, decrying the U.S. tendency to play 'policeman' to the rest of the world. But when the need arises, we are the first ones they come to. It puts us in a lose-lose scenario. If we send in help, we're meddling where we shouldn't be (it doesn't matter that the U.N. invited us, five years down the road, when people are citing U.S. involvement in global affairs, they aren't going to distinguish which were at the behest of the U.N. versus direct U.S. intervention...it will all be U.S. troops on foreign soil.) If we DON'T send help, we are turning a callous shoulder to the plight of the Sudanese refugees suffering in the Darfur region.

Personally, I don't mind extending a helping hand. But I get a little tentative about it when people keep trying to bite it. If the world wants the U.S. to mind it's own business, they need to stop dragging us back into the hotspots. If they're going to use us to put out their fires, then they better have a little more understanding when we try to put out our own. (No, I'm not using this to justify Iraq...but that's not the only place where U.S. forces are operating in the world.)

If the world doesn't like us playing policeman, they need to stop handing us the badge.

More on the Mohammed Cartoons...

I found an article talking about a recent protest in Lebanon, and saw a quote in it that actually did a lot to quell the sympathy I have for the Muslim standpoint on this.

On the street, the riot began to take a more sectarian turn. Throwing the metal barriers and barbed wire aside they chased the police up into the narrow alleys of Achrafieh, well beyond the embassy and deep into the Christian quarter. They smashed dozens of parked cars and tossed bricks through the windows of the furniture boutiques and hair salons. Others overturned two police cars and threw rocks through the windows of the St Maron church.

"What is the guilt of the citizens of Achrafieh for caricatures published in Denmark?" said Charles Rizk, the justice minister and a Christian. "This sabotage should stop."

Asad Harmoush, a leader of Jamaía Islamiya, the conservative Sunni Muslim group that had helped organise the protest, tried to deflect the blame. "We can't control tens of thousands of people. We tried to limit the harm and we extend our excuses to our brothers in Achrafieh and to the security forces. There has to be an investigation. Obviously there were infiltrators."

Okay--a government has to be held responsible for the disrespectful-but-physically-harmless publishing of a blasphemous cartoon (by a paper which they are, by their own laws, not allowed control over)...but when protestors destroy thousands if not millions of dollars of property, of people who had NOTHING to do with the cartoons (people that have been neighbors for years!), suddenly it's time to shift the blame and find excuses?

The initial publishing of the cartoons was deplorable...and the boycott of Danish goods in the Middle East is having an economic impact that will be felt for years if not decades in Denmark (one of the largest dairy producers in Denmark is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in business DAILY because no one in the Middle East is buying their products anymore). It was ill-advised, short-sighted, and incredibly disrespectful...not to mention in very poor taste.

The REPEATED publication of them was just crude...you can show your support for another press entity without having to throw gas on the fire...that's what editorial pages are for, and editors can always choose to move their editorial to the front page if they really want to emphasize their point.

But I wish the Islamic world would wake up to the hypocrisy they are propagating. The violent protests are only justifying the biased nature of the cartoons. Yes, they're a different culture, and they have different ways of dealing with these kinds of problems. But this isn't just a Muslim problem, it's a worldwide problem...and if they want a worldwide response to it, they need to take a more temperate approach. It's human nature to respond more honestly to earnest requests, not angry demands.

The More Things Change...

So...I watched or listened to pretty much all of the Opening Ceremonies for the Torino Games. Some of it was really cool. Some of it was really weird. It was all pretty moving, especially having been involved with it once before.

But it was both reassuring and annoying that they still have Bob Costas doing some of the stupidest commentary during the Ceremonies. In Salt Lake, it was giving the TV audience an in-depth description of what was going to happen for the next ten minutes of the ceremony, and muse aloud about the meaning or intent of something when it was pretty well explained in the programs.

Tonight, the obnoxious gaffe was mis-identifying the music. One of Torino's 'gimmicks' was playing disco and dance music, a different song for each country (it seemed, I was busy writing email at the time so I wasn't paying too much attention to the correlation between music changes and countries). What got me was how our dear Mr. Costas commented on the 'odd, seemingly random assortment of songs' being played in the background, which he labeled as 'a collection of 80's pop songs.'

Come on, Bob...there were MAYBE four or five songs out of that collection that came from the 80's. The OVERWHELMING majority of them were from the 70's--they were DISCO, fer cryin' out...

Am I being excessively nit-picky? Perhaps. But it seems to me that the network providing coverage of the Games for the nation would want to avoid stupid mistakes like that. I don't know if Bob writes his own copy, or if someone prepares it for him...but there's no excuse for it. I know the Ceremonies are rehearsed, for several nights, before the actual opening. You can't tell me NBC couldn't get someone to research where the music came from, chronologically speaking. It's another one of those things that makes everyone else in the world think all Americans are idiots, and I resent being represented that way.

Now, the single BEST thing that I saw out of the evening (although the Ferrari doing burnouts was pretty cool...I admit it, I'm a closet testosterone junkie) wasn't even on NBC. Jimmy Kimmel's late night show (which I don't watch often enough to even remember the name) was celebrating the Winter Games by having their very own 'Superhero Olympics' (they did the same thing for the Summer Games a couple of years ago). How it works is this--on the street across from Kimmel's studio (whoever actually owns it), there's a group of people who dress up in superhero costumes. So, since they (Kimmel's producers) couldn't get anyone to the Olympics, they made their own--with the neighborhood 'superheroes' as athletes.

Tonight's event--cross-country skiing. Lemme tell ya...nothing looks quite so ludicrous as Superman flying through the air--backwards--and landing on his ass with his skis going every which way. I didn't stick around to see who the final medalist was, but the winners of the heats were Catwoman, Spongebob Squarepants, Robin, and Spiderman.

And just when you thought things were getting too serious in the world...

Burning Bridges...and why I'm glad I don't have any--

So, ironic that this should all happen a day after musing on all the memories I have from the Olympics. I was at the Egyptian Theatre, in Park City, earlier tonight. It was preview night, for The Full Monty. And it was like some bizarre kind of homecoming.

The two places that have the strongest influence on my theater background, as of this moment in time, are Utah State University, and Lagoon. I have friends from both that are in the show. And a friend from Lagoon is the TD (which is why I was there...they called me up to ask if I would give them a hand finishing the set painting. Apparently I made a good impression with my work on Seussical.)

I actually showed up last night, initially...Seth (the TD) called me just after noon on Wednesday to see if I 'wanted to come up and help do some touchups on the set after rehearsal'. My response, basically, was, "Want to? Not especially...Am I willing to? Yeah...I'll be there."

I'm glad I said yes. I got to the theater just as people were leaving...and ran into Arika Schokmel at the back door! That was, in and of itself, opening a floodgate of fond memories. And then Danny Tarasevich came out (I know him from Lagoon, though he hasn't worked there in years). I even got an unintentional ego-stroking when they started play-bickering over just 'whose Curtis' I really was.

So, when I went back up to finish up with touchups today, I was fully expecting to see some familiar faces. Brooklyn Pulver, from USU, was also in the cast...and so was Erin Fair, from Lagoon. But the big surprise happened when people started showing up for the preview.

Actually, that's not accurate. The big surprise was at intermission, because I was so tired (I'd had just over 4 hours sleep since 9:30 the day before) that I didn't pay any attention to who was coming in. But the Coca-Cola I had with dinner was doing its work, and the show was lively (and, I've got to say, pretty well done...from an acting and music standpoint, I think this may be the best show I've seen the Egyptian put together--although the kid who plays Nathan is a glaring weak spot in the cast). So, when the lights came up, and people started mingling, I started looking around.

Well, Phil Lowe was there (he designed the costumes, that was no surprise to see him)...Jeremy Botelho and his wife were there (I actually recognized Mandy first, I could nearly have walked right past Jeremy and missed him because he's put on a few pounds and is wearing his facial hair differently). Danny's wife was there...after the show, I ran into Patrick Rozier, of all people... looking as rakish as ever.

And as I basked in the glow of all the joyful memories throughout the rest of the night (thus far), I thanked the Powers That Be that I had always been on good terms with all of these people. We laugh and say that the theater community in Utah is too small to make enemies...but it's been my experience that faces and names seem to circle around and run past you second, third, even fourth times. And the experience is so much more enjoyable if you're happy to see the face or hear the name.

There's been a lot of that happening to me, lately (the circling). I'm curious who's next, and where I'll catch them. But I'm pleased to say that I'll be happy to see them.

Flashbacks...

I was walking across the park today (always a somewhat odd sensation, to be out on an amusement park in the off-season. I actually prefer it that way, but without all the patrons, I don't get a paycheck, so I tolerate the summer crowds), and I realized that the Olympics are starting this weekend.

It's been four years since the Salt Lake Games...and that seems like both yesterday and a lifetime ago. It was one of the most memorable things that has ever happened to me...and I don't know that I'll ever top it. I mean, once you've worked on a show for a world-wide audience, what do you do for an encore?

I love the Olympics. The worst part of working on them, in 2002, was that I never had time to watch anything (sometimes I'd get lucky and catch part of a hockey game when I got home...but my schedule during the Games didn't allow much time for enjoying the broadcasts...I was at work by 8 am and getting off work for the night around midnight...for three weeks straight. But there were other rewards.

I'll never forget being at the medals plaza when the U.S. had their first sweep of an event. We were busy putting a bunch of costumes back in the wardrobe trailer, and I was the only one who had a view of the flag-poles. I knew we'd done well, because there were two American flags up...but I couldn't see the third flag. And then they started the anthem, and hoisted the flags, and the third US flag came into view. Literally, standing there, I said, 'Holy shit...we swept the category!' (I think it was freestyle skiing, but I don't recall that detail). Everyone else on the wardrobe crew dropped what they were doing and ran up onto the trailer steps so they could see the flags. It was a beautifully patriotic moment...

But I also recall being equally touched when the Swiss team managed the same feat in a different event, a few days later. It was incredible to be there, to see the immense pride and satisfaction on the faces of the medalists. I love the fact that, for a few days every couple of years, the entire world can find ONE positive thing to focus on for a few days.

Too bad it never seems to last.

The Cure for the Short Attention Span...

I'm laughing at myself today, because I'm looking at what all I've done in the past week. I know I have diverse tastes and interests, but sometimes even I look at it all and go, whoa...that's kinda crazy. (Bear with me, I'm going to be talking a lot about myself here...it's not to boast, I'm trying to illustrate a point.)

Yesterday, I didn't go to work at Lagoon. I went to work at Park City, the Egyptian Theater. Their technical director has been our lighting designer at Lagoon for ages, and I've gotten to know him pretty well. When I first started doing stuff up there, it was always just helping him with lights...hanging, focusing, or striking them. Then he called on the off chance I'd be interested in running sound (this was a couple of years ago)...I had a good time, but I'll be happy if I never see Oliver! again in my life after that show run...

I helped build and paint Seussical for them before Christmas. And this time, instead of helping Seth with lighting stuff, I was again helping with the set (they're doing The Full Monty...and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun...) I was reminded, several times, of my earlier post about designers and their excesses, though (it was shades of Dennis...their set designer has been adding and adding bits and pieces to the set, stuff that had initially been cut from the design because of time or budget considerations that he really wanted to add back in...and as a result, there's a whole section of the deck that HASN'T been painted yet, and they were building and painting stuff right up until I left yesterday...about half an hour before the cast was supposed to show up for rehearsal. Hope they got it all out of the way in time...)

Then I left Park City to drive to Clearfield, because a friend of mine hooked me up with a makeup design job for a show there (it's I Do! I Do! Have to admit, this has been changing my opinion of the show, because my only exposure to it prior to this was when UFOC did it in '98... and Ryan's a lot more fun to watch on stage than Michael Ballam.) It's a community theater production...but they're paying me pretty well to come in and teach Ryan and Sally how to do their old-age makeup. It was one of those jobs that I wasn't even looking for...just kind of landed in my lap. I have been having a lot of those lately.

I spent my weekend taking care of horses and working on armor (I'm getting ready to try 'heavy fighting' in the SCA...I've been doing fencing for years, and have actually gotten pretty good. I was glad I had the experience with that when I choreographed the duel for Dangerous Liaisons...which, by the way, I'm not sure I've ever thanked Kevin for suggesting my name. So if I haven't, thanks, Kevin...I had a REALLY good time (for a change, considering it was a Linford/Hassan show), and I got a lot of positive feedback from people about how the duel went.)

I've been building storage shelves at Lagoon (the park carpenters are swamped with projects, I figured things would get done faster if I did it myself.) That, on top of repairing costumes, and rebuilding props, and organizing all the wardrobe spaces...at auditions, when our director was introducing the staff, he'd introduce me and say, "Curtis is in charge of wardrobe...and does a lot of other stuff for us..." (my take on it is, I'm the guy they turn to with the jobs nobody else wants/knows how to do.) That's one of the things I love about that job...it's always changing.

And I'm trying to put together a prop-building team for a film someone's going to be making, here in the state...a comedy with a Mad-Max feel (we get to trick out some motorcycles!)

I admit it...I'm a variety junkie. There are some areas that I'm more inclined to show interest for...but routine kills me. I'd never survive in a 9-5 world (for one thing, I'm natural prone to waking up at 10...) I've tried having 'regular' jobs, and I was struggling to keep myself involved in my work within months. It's a good thing I found theater for a career...because I don't know if I could make a living doing anything else, and still live with myself.

Yeah, forgive the cliche...but Variety IS the spice of life. And mine is Extra Zesty.

It's the simple things...

So my weekend was wonderful...and I really didn't do anything spectacular to make it that way. It was all a result of simple pleasures out of life, doing or seeing things that are pretty basic, but which I don't get a chance to do in my own daily life.

We'll start with the animal update. Edgar is doing well...he's actually starting to move, stretch, and flap his broken wing, and I suspect he may have been grounded for a while before I found him, because that's a LOT of healing to do in a week (of course, birds DO have very high metabolic rates, so his recovery may not be as spectacular as I'm thinking it is.) Marla told me that, given the progress he's already made, she thinks I could probably bring him back home any time I'm ready (which means I need to clear some space for a cage!) She also has a good-sized parrot cage that she's willing to let me use for the duration, until Edgar shuffles off this mortal coil or heals up enough to fly to his old home, whichever comes first. So there's a rather large concern off my shoulders. And, for those curious...

He's getting feisty, too...at least, until you get him out of the cage. Luckily, pigeons do not bite particularly hard. They are also not particularly violent when beating you with their wings. Ed's a pretty territorial bird...first it was the box, now it's the animal carrier...soon enough, it will be a cage. But it's good to see him moving (and he's kinda getting fat, too...all that food and no exercise!)

Initially, he wouldn't climb off my hand onto my shoulder...but when Marla went to pet him, he pretty much dashed up my arm and parked on my shoulder...Marla chased him on up there, and once he realized she wasn't going to hurt him, it was all good. He's a funny bird, and I think he's going to make a good roommate. (He still grunts if you get too close to his home...but he's started to coo again, occasionally...so I'm pretty sure he's feeling better.)

The other great thing to see this weekend was my foal. Faith was born at the end of last March, just after my birthday. And, initially, we were really excited. Marla's had foals born at her place before...but thus far, Faith is the only filly--the others have all been colts. And she looked beautiful when she was born...long straight legs, sharp eyes, and just a generally promising conformation.

A couple of months later, she managed to injure herself somehow...we're not sure if she slid on the grass while running, or got kicked by another horse, or whatever...but she started limping. And it didn't go away. This was the first major problem we'd had with her (there were a few minor ones, like some chronic muscle fatigue which we learned was due to poor selenium in her feed...added a mineral salt block and she perked right back up...or the umbilical hernia...and some other odds and ends that foals always seem to have...) We had an equine specialist vet come take a look at her, and he diagnosed her as having a broken pelvis...something which we really couldn't do anything to treat, it would just have to heal over time.

Well, we kept waiting and waiting for it to heal...and she never seemed to get any better. Her conformation started shifting, because she was carrying a lot more weight on her forequarters to ease the pressure on her hips, and sometimes her legs just didn't seem to bend...it was like they'd just seize up in the joints at random. So we took her to the vet again (different vet, this time).

This time, they pronounced that her hip was healed up...but her spine was out of alignment with her pelvis. Apparently, in the whole breaking and healing, the spine and pelvis had separated, and now the spine was sitting almost an inch lower than it should have been. This was pinching the nerves to her hind legs. But, like last time, there was nothing that could be done to treat it.

I agonized a lifetime's worth in those few moments...she'd never be sound, she'd never be safe to ride, and there was a very good chance that as she grew older, the injury would get worse from the pressure of her own body weight. I could put her down there and then, and save her the anguish...but something didn't feel right about that...and Marla, recognizing the look in my eyes, spoke up and said, "Why don't we just take her back home and see how long she holds out...if it gets too bad, we can always decide to put her down in the future." I was more than willing to put off that decision.

Marla and I talked, and decided to try putting Faith on some bute...basically, aspirin for horses. The only problem was that, given how young Faith was, there was a chance the bute would cause severe ulcers, which would hasten her demise. But, we reasoned, it would be better for her to have fewer days, of better quality...if she was in pain, the bute would make it less noticeable. There was also a chance that, if she wasn't feeling the pain, she would do something that would REALLY mess up her spine and pelvis...but, once again, we felt quality of what life she had left was a bigger consideration than extending her life while keeping her in pain. We'd already pretty much resigned ourselves to the question of 'when to put her down'...we weren't thinking any longer about 'if...'

Well, the bute didn't seem to have much effect (which actually didn't surprise me...I never thought she actually acted like she was in pain, just discomfort...like the pieces didn't quite fit together right, and she knew it...) She was still stiff-legging it about and sometimes would barely even move.

And then, one night, as I sat huddled over a space heater, feeling cold muscles relax with the heat, it dawned on me--pinched nerves cause tense muscles...which pinch the nerves more. Add cold weather on top of that, and it was no wonder she wasn't improving. Even if it didn't hurt anymore, the cycle was just perpetuating itself. So I consulted Marla about a simple, but unorthodox idea I had...and while she had her doubts about whether it would work, she didn't see any reason not to try it.

We got her a turnout blanket, waterproof and insulated. And that made all the difference in the world. By the end of her first day with the blanket, she was TROTTING again...not very far, but it was motion we never expected to see from her for the rest of her life. Marla discontinued the bute, because the blanket had done more in one day than the bute had done in two weeks.

Marla would give me little tidbits of updates...Faith was trotting today, she's starting to walk more normally, stuff like that. And when I went to stay with Ross and Marla over the Christmas break, I got a wonderful Christmas present that I'd never been expecting. We turned all the horses out onto one of the small pastures, something that always puts the younger horses in a frisky mood. And when they started roughhousing and playing around, Faith was right in the middle of them, doing her part. I was dumbstruck. I'd already figured the blanket had done what it could, we'd stopped the degeneration of her condition. I never really expected it to improve (I hoped...but didn't expect it). And when we took her blanket off to clean it and do body measurements to check her growth, we also saw that her conformation was shifting again...she was starting to carry more weight on her hindquarters. As nice as Christmas was, that made things even better for me.

Well, there was a storm that blew through on Saturday...and on Sunday, we decided to go out and do body measurements again (Marla does them every 2-3 months, to track how much weight the horses are holding and adjust their feed regime accordingly). Sunday was warm...well, warm for a Cache Valley winter day, and Ross had taken Faith's blanket off because it was filthy (I thought, initially, he was carrying two or three blankets, because it was so dirty that parts of it were totally different colors). While the blanket was off, we decided to brush her down, and get rid of any matted hair that might be building up.

Well, I was almost done with that when Marla turned out the other babies...and they began tearing around like someone had spiked their morning hay. Faith was having a fit in her stall, and Marla called out to just turn her loose, we'd worry about finishing the brushing later.

And, I'll be damned...she was loping along with all the others. This was more than just a trot, or even a canter. It was a slow gallop. And there was no blanket. Granted, ten minutes later she was limping around...but it seems like her good days keep getting better. She's also still gaining weight, something that we weren't sure was going to happen this winter (gotta say, I'm glad it's been fairly mild in the valleys...a really cold winter would probably have been the death of her), and her conformation is becoming more and more normal.

I don't think she'll ever get back to fully sound...that would be asking too much. But if she gets healthy enough, and we can train her to drive a cart (Marla's very good at that), there's a woman who runs an animal-assisted therapy program that is willing to give her a home. Marla thinks driving would be a viable option, because a light horse-cart puts almost no strain on the hindquarters, other than what a horse would normally have from its own weight.

I'm not ready to light the fireworks and have a party for her yet, she's still got a long way to go. But compared to where we expected her to be at this time, she's doing fantastic (we, quite frankly, didn't expect her to be ALIVE by this time).

So, yeah...my weekend was great! I got to spend time with some of my closest friends, I got to play with my 'niece' (she isn't, really...she's Marla's daughter, but Marla's always called me 'Uncle Curtis' in front of Vivian)...And I got to marvel at the simple miracles of two different animals both beating the odds. I don't care what else happened over the weekend--that made it great.

And then I came back home, and had to return to the world of rent-checks and paychecks, of when to get to work and how long to work and what was I doing at work, of reading about Bush's latest folly (okay, I'm glad he's spending more on high school science and math...but, y'know, if you haven't got them geared to think about that BEFORE they get to high school, you're spending the money too late!)

Can I go back to Marla's now?

Taking a break...

Okay, for those of you who have come to expect something new on a daily basis from me (and I've sure been trying to deliver), I'm sorry...

I'm going out of town for the weekend, so there won't be any new posts on here for a day or two. But after that, I'll be back, hashing the question of to union or not to union with Kevin and spouting forth my two bits on whatever it is that catches my attention.

Thanks for the comments, by the way...I'm kind of doing this as an exercise, to get myself back in the habit of writing something daily, because I really want to get back to work on some novels I've had stewing in my head for YEARS, now (one is coming up on two decades, pretty soon!) Making the time to sit down and write has been a big problem, though...and this has been a good way to get back to it.

But it's not nearly as much fun writing stuff if nobody ever reads it. So, once again, thanks. Even if all you're ever saying is, "Well, that was weird," the fact that you bothered to read and leave a comment is heartening. I've got a good feeling about my writing for the coming year...I feel like things are coming together, that it's going to go somewhere.

I'll keep you posted.

Wow...who would ever expect that?

So, I've kind of been following the expanding furor over the repeated publication of anti-Muslim cartoons in several European papers. Personally, while I think both sides are blowing things out of proportion, I do think that the entire idea was pretty much in poor taste and I can see why Muslims are upset. But one article I came across this afternoon stopped me in my tracks for a moment. In the midst of all these quotes from 'the man on the street' in the Middle East, calling for the blood of the people behind the cartoons and their publication, there was a voice of reason calling out from the Muslim world. And it was a voice I would never have expected to hear making this call.

In Iraq, the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, decried the drawings but did not call for protests.

"We strongly denounce and condemn this horrific action," he said in a statement posted on his Web site and dated Tuesday.

Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence over Iraq's majority Shiites, made no call for protests and suggested that militant Muslims were partly to blame for distorting Islam's image.

He referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community and said their actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."

"Enemies have exploited this ... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms," he said.

The man has just shot up about fifty rungs in my estimation. Well, that's not true. He's been steadily climbing. For the last year or so, he's actually been one of the more temperate voices coming from Iraq, especially from outside the flegling government ranks. He has called for peaceful resolutions of internal problems, for temperate approaches to external problems... basically, he's tried to eliminate any excuse the West has for maintaining an occupation in Iraq. It's a brilliant strategy, because it will force Western powers to show their true colors. I'm a skeptic, I doubt the West will ever completely extricate itself from Iraq...but as long as Iraqis are flailing to provide some sense of domestic security, the West has an excuse to keep troops there. Once Iraq makes peace with itself, the rest of the world will have to either get out, or reveal their hypocrisy.

If more voices were raised with this kind of tempered insight, I think there's a glimmer of hope for peace in the Middle East.

And now, for something completely different...

(Thanks to Monty Python for creating such a wonderfully versatile lead-in line...)

At the questioning of a few individuals, I want to start with a progress update: Edgar is doing well. He is now at my friend, Marla's, house in Trenton. Marla used to be a vet technician, and probably knows more about caring for sick animals than I will ever hope to learn. She informs me that he is doing well, he is redefining the concept of 'eating like a bird', as he's apparently eating like a very small horse. His current accommodations are an adapted dog carrier, which gives him a lot more room to walk around than the box I had him in. And he has a very devoted 'nurse'--Marla's 3-year-old daughter, Vivian, insists on checking up on him every couple of hours.

He grunts at people when they try to take him out of his home (he did the same thing to me with the box, I never knew pigeons could grunt). His wing seems to be in a good position for healing, though it is quite likely he will never fly again. Short of surgery, only luck will heal it up properly, and neither of us can afford to pay for a pigeon to get pins in his wing. He should be quite healthy after a month, at which time I plan to bring him back here. There are actually two kinds of pets that ARE allowed under my contract: Fish (which I really have no interest in...too much effort for the 'return' I get from them), and birds. So I've got to figure out what kind of facilities he will need (assuming he doesn't heal up completely and fly away the first time he gets a shot at the outdoors), and how to pay for them while keeping all my other bills paid.

I've never had a bird before. The closest I got was taking care of someone else's while they were on vacation. And NOBODY I know has ever kept a pigeon as a housepet. So I really don't know where to start looking for cages/perches/toys/etc. I get the feeling, as the coming month moves further and further along, I'm going to spend more and more time conferring with Marla about what to get.

Now, on to other things--

I just finished watching Blue Man Group's 'Complex Rock Show' concert video. I don't even remember how many times I've seen it already, and it still just blows me away. Had my life gone a little differently, I might have ended up being a Blue Man (I was seriously considering auditioning for them at one point in time...but no more, I haven't picked up a pair of drumsticks to play in years!)

If/when the time comes that I leave Lagoon, I think I'd want to go work for them. I've done a little bit of research into their organization, and I think I'd feel very much at home there. They refuse to hire union personnel, because they believe very much in an integrated approach to the shows...everyone helps out where they are needed, there's none of this, "That's not my union" bullshit. If you're on props and they need a light moved, and you're the closest man, they'll have you move it. And that just makes sense to me.

However, the unions HATE them, because while they don't hire union labor, they DO provide union benefits to their non-union employees. They're a group that takes care of their own. It doesn't surprise me to hear that, looking at their show. They are all about quality and showmanship...but they definitely do NOT think inside the box.

If you ever get the chance to see them perform, live or recorded, take it. It's a kick. I've already promised myself, if it hasn't happened before then, that I'm going to Vegas for my 40th birthday to see their show live. Just a little over two years to go...

Of course, that means I'll need someone to babysit a pigeon for me...any takers? ;)

Well, thanks for nothing...

Yeah, this is going to be another Bush-is-such-a-dick post, so if you don't care for that, move on right now...





Still reading? Okay. I came across an article today, quoting from an interview with our less-than-beloved President after the State of the Union Address. Now, granted, about ninety percent of anything Bush says lately, I just roll my eyes at and remind myself that he's not President for life. But this one REALLY got to me.

He was asked what he thought about Exxon Corp. posting WELL over $10 BILLION for the fourth QUARTER of last year (this is not an annual profit statement...this is just for 3 months!!!), at a time when the nation was wallowing in economic difficulties related to the price of gas at the pump (and heating oil and other petroleum products.)

Bush, a former Texas oilman, said of oil costs, "I think that basically the price is determined by the marketplace and that's the way it should be."

"I believe in a relatively quick period of time, within my lifetime, we'll be able to reduce if not end dependence on Middle Eastern oil by this new technology" of converting corn, wood, grasses and other products into ethanol, he said.

In his address Tuesday night, Bush had set a goal of reducing the nation's Mideast oil imports by 75 percent by 2025.

Yeah, that's all nice and well...but I'm in danger of going bankrupt RIGHT NOW because of the price of gasoline! And I sure as hell can't afford to move closer to work. And there's not enough federal funding to create a commuter transit system that is actually flexible enough to meet my needs. (Oh, wait...I CAN'T go bankrupt because the credit card companies successfully lobbied to make that next to impossible for the man on the street!)

I thought my government was supposed to take care of me, protect me from unethical businessmen (hell, they broke up Bell Telephones in the 70's because the company was doing basically the same thing with phone service that the oil corporations are doing with gasoline). There was a time when they prosecuted people for charging the kind of interest credit card companies are charging...it's called usury, and it is illegal (unless you're a credit card company who can buy laws to protect your indecent and immoral exploitation of people who don't grasp the concept of just what a credit card really is--a lease on your soul for the rest of your natural existence!)

Yes, I'm a believer in the free-market system, and I acknowledge supply-and-demand as basic principles. But when those principles are warped to the tune of $3.3 billion PLUS a month in profits, you're dealing with another principle...extortion! Our entire economy is based on transportation. Especially here in the West, people live sometimes an hour or more away from where they actually work (Why? Because housing prices close to large employment areas are ALSO out of control...I remember, back when they started developing the East Bench above North Logan, that there were quarter acre plots selling for $40,000! With NO road access built yet, NO power in place yet, NO sewer in place yet...five years before that, an EXPENSIVE home in the Logan area was $150,000...and in Northern Utah, Logan is still one of the cheaper places to live...provided you can find work in your career field there.) EVERYBODY drives out here, because NOBODY lives close to all the places they need to be. And, unless you've got hours to spend waiting for the bus, commuter options are non-existent (even if I did have time to wait for the bus, most of the time I wouldn't be able to use it...during the summer, one of my big jobs is to stay on top of the cleaning of costumes, and keeping stuff in good repair. YOU try hauling twenty-five pounds of dry cleaning to and from the park on a bus...or making an emergency run to the cobbler, when you've got an hour to get there, get the repair done, and get back to the park. IT AIN'T HAPPENIN', KIDS...) And the gas companies KNOW that there are thousands of people like me, who can't afford NOT to drive to work (which is where at least eighty percent of my driving has been in the last year)...so they're dipping into our pockets to line theirs, fat bastards that they are.

Sorry, I've been trying to keep some kind of positive spin to my writing (yeah, even my post about George Lucas was, in my mind, intended as a constructive criticism, not just voicing gripes). But right now, I'm feeling pretty damn screwed over...kind of like I'm being gang-raped by the credit card and oil industries, while the government is holding me down for them.

I guess I'm not as passionate as Kevin or Frank, because while I've been disgusted about the same stuff they've mentioned, I haven't been angry. It takes a lot to make me angry, really. Or maybe it doesn't.

It just takes a dick in the White House who doesn't give a damn about the common man he's supposed to be serving.