When I first snatched the smartphone from dad's incapable hands almost three years ago, my initial purpose was to update my fledgling family on my recovery from my time in the crate. It wasn't until shortly thereafter that I realized I had a message and a purpose; to do my part to counteract the mindless negativity and division that assaults us daily. There's no better feeling in the world than to feel needed, but at…

At the critical juncture where spine, legs, and tail meet, most dogs have "butts"; Ajax, Marco, Mia and I have DDU's, pronounced "doodoos", Dad Detection Units. These highly sensitive sensors are utilized to detect any motion in the land mass that is dad; we utilize them by pressing them firmly against the pater familius while we sleep to ensure that no egress from the bed is possible without our notification. That is, all except Marco,…

Charlie posted this some time back, and it seems especially appropriate again today, so at the risk of letting her see herself repeated in print and becoming insufferably big-headed(too late for THAT), here we go, from 2016. "Why then do you live, if you do not care to live well?" Diogenes was a philosopher of ancient Greece; one of his best known eccentricies was to wander the countryside with a lantern, looking for the last…

Dad here; it was August 29,1994 when I first walked into the Red Cross to give blood. One of the first things I remember was a bulletin board featurong Polaroid pictures of old men who had reached certain milestones in giving, 1 gallon, 5 gallons, even 10 gallons! I remember thinking, "these guys are old! I will never reach that level of giving!" We recently received word that the local branch of the Red Cross…

FINALLY! When dad and I travel, we live by the Rule of Threes, the first being that you can cross the country with three pairs of socks and underwear: one pair to wear, one pair to wash and by drying, and one pair for emergencies. The Rule also applies to events; we can go for days without a mechanical mishap, but once you have one, you can pretty much count on having two more in…

The young talk about the future because they have no appreciation of the past; the old talk about the past because they dread the future. What do the gawky adolescent, the lonely elderly, the mid-life crisis man, the post menopausal woman, the deserted dog in the crate, all have in common?  the pervasive fear that life has passed us by, that we were doing the speed limit, obeying the rules, when somehow our window of…

Dad here; I came in from work tonight, tired(but not the good kind) from putting out fires at work; and not even the satisfying type of fires, where you get covered with a manly layer of soot and ashes. No, just the run of the mill type where no actual energy is produced and the only burn involved is to the heart. So I came home, let the dogs out to do as much damage…