manlypoodlekip

It’s Friday night and I am watching PBS. Many years ago I would be getting ready to go out and have fun. Now just sitting here is fun. And it’s certainly cheaper. Anyway have taken my walks with Manly poodle Kip. We never discuss politics and he walks a bit slower but really enjoys marking his territory. What a week. I missed Lance on Oprah and the new American Idol. But did read that poop can be used to cure a certain intestinal infection if it healthy poop. And who would have guessed that the dingo was probably introduce to Australia by recent visitors ( 4,000 years ago) from India. Then the great news that the first creatures to crawl out of the oceans used their front feet rather than their back feet which changes the way some people think. I still really enjoy the 1.50 hot dog from Costco.

Am writing this on my new iPad using the WordPress app. Am really entering high tech world. Does this make me a better person? I have a Nike fuel band and a new iPhone and yet have not  achieved total happiness or oneness with the universe but it’s fun. And all that on top of finding that poop can cure diseases. Have just completed my first blog for a long time. As you read this may the bird of happiness be building it’s nest in your hair even if you’re bald. Maybe fecal matter can restore hair.

Fifty years ago I was going to Weapons Controller school in Florida. It wouldn’t have been as exciting had not the Soviets place missiles in Cuba. Which brings me to the scarey brain-eating ameobas that have killed nine in Karachi, Pakistan. By the way this comes from BBC News thus the spelling. Would it be not be discouraging but very lucky if the ameobas died of malnutrition rather than killing the  host. What a great discovery! A very early dinosaur that seems to have been wide spread has been found, It was small, had sharp teeth, ate vegetables and may have had spike hair, like the quills of a porcupine. I think we should clone them and have great herds roaming the plains of America. They could be with the cloned wooly mammoths. What a tourist attraction!

Now for the warp drive. Scientist have been actually working on the development of faster than light speed. We could visit other star system and I could visit my people. Speaking of that, are you ready for the vice presidential debates? You should get some Dr Pepper, microwavable popcorn (but don’t spend too much time smelling newly open bag) and sit back and enjoy. Who will win? Will it get down and dirty? Do the Democrats really really need to win. Will the President have on his game face for the next presidential debate? A lost of questions that can only be answered by the unfolding events.

I have really had another great day in retirementville. Walked with my faithful companion, the manly miniature poodle, Kip, We took our favorite journey to Eagle Rock Park watching for the rain that may come some day. There were no little dinosaurs and hopefully no brain eating ameobas. Came home and worked in the back yard, then watched an episode of the cult science fiction series, FarScape. Netflix described it as a cult science fiction. Does that mean that I am a member of a cult?

Just learned that the Big 12 which has 10 teams signed a lucrative deal with Fox. Both new teams in the PAC 12 have lost to their “state” rivals. Well that’s enough football except to say I do not pick Texas Tech to finish in the top four. After I write this will see what the Red Raiders did against the powerful Texas State. Now for my views on the rest of the week. Am happy to see that one of the Voyagers is headed into outer space. members of my extended family will be there to greet it. Many of you are  waiting for my analysis of the Democratic Convention. I will say this,  they lost the falling balloon contest. Will this be a factor that turns the election to the GOP? Could balloon lovers in rural Ohio make this the seminal event that decides the future of our nation? Wives of both  candidates gave probably better speeches than their husbands. And how about Clinton? Almost everybody love him now. Was it always so?

In addition to the Convention, Amazon has introduced a whole bunch of tablets and new e-readers. Talk about American innovation. We need to keep it going!! How to do this? Invest in the future of education by raising the pensions of retired teachers. I have run an exhaustive  study that finds this would puts us in the top of something in the world of education. Even better for the people that putting pure cane sugar back into our sugary drinks. Speaking of studies they have found that exercise is good for you unless you do too much and injure yourselves.

Have just finished mopping our floors after walking my manly poodle Kip to Eagle Rock Park. Kip is just over 14 so we don’t walk too fast since I also am quite some time away from 14. We have little conversation since he enjoys sniffing and peeing all along the way and is almost deaf. Now this brings me to the gopher. Our camping group was camping at a state beach camp ground and for some strange reason I was awake before the others. I was just staring at the ground when a gopher stuck his/her head out of it burrow and started pushing up dirt. This very act made me think of the political ads this year so I started a conversation with the creature.

The gopher did not find me a threat and for several minutes we had an one sided talk. I just asked how was the dirt and how the gopher was faring. It did not answer. I think perhaps it wanted to talk about the Mars rover, Curiosity. Maybe it longed to dig in the red Martin soil. Would it have answered if I had spoken of the Russian Rock Group or the adventures of Prince Harry. Could the unseen girl be one of the members of the group that fled Russia? Alas as has happen often in my life I think of wonderful, witty, and engaging quips some time down the road from the event.

I also wanted to take this moment to wish all those who are working and back to school or getting ready to go back to school a wonderful year. I am trying to remember back to the time when I needed a watch or was waiting for my favorite day of the week, Thursday. Now every day is Thursday. Retirement has been good for me. Now it is you time. Remember enjoy each day and pet cute little kitties and puppies but not ten foot Burmese Pythons.

Have just returned from Colorado Springs to find Los Angeles hot. Some kind of high pressure area that won’t leave. Is it global warming or is it related to finding a whole new species of cave spider? This spider is the size of a half dollar. When was the last time you saw a half dollar? Maybe they are just baby cave spiders that grow up to be like the ones in Harry Potter. If we are attacked by giant flies maybe the spiders will save us. There was some other really positive news. A species of fresh water snail thought to be extinct has reappeared. Wouldn’t it be great if they found a Dodo bird in the marshes near Eagle Rock? Just when all the news seems overwhelmingly bad there are rays of hope and renewal.

What an election year! Colorado is a swing state a large portion of the ads were political. Needless to say the candidates were not making nice. But on the bright side the TV stations are making a lot of money. Perhaps out of all the negativism there will be some jobs created or saved. And this is just August. They will really be flinging the fecal matter as we get closer to the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November. In the books I have read about the history of politics in American I find that being in the political arena has always been like bare fist boxing with eye gouging allowed. But this year there is so much more money and access to all sorts of media venues. When Mr Rustchman ran there were only stone newspapers.

It seems that there is a new aspect to the Syrian conflict. The Kurds have taken over a few towns. This makes a number of the area players upset. The Kurds are the largest nation in the world not to have a state. Since there are a sizable number of Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and even in Iran even the thought of a greater Kurdistan brings a fear of chaos in the region, This makes our little political squabbles seem petty. Now many of you are waiting to see which candidate I will endorse so that you can pick the opposite. You can look for my announcement not on MSNBC nor Fox but Entertainment Tonight and if not there on manlypoodlekip. Be calmed for the election will pass and politicians will start preparing for the next one as soon as this one is over. And remember no president can do much of what they promise in the campaign. As far me, am waiting for the filming and  release of Catching Fire. Stay as cool as you can and have a great late summer.

Am excited and hopeful for the success of the Mars rover project. Maybe they will find some trace of Mr, Rutschman’s early life as a vagabond on the red planet. Perhaps even an early Dr Pepper bottle cap. If not that the some sign of life or perhaps a little stream of water. I will be watching tonight. Have finally been watching the series Battle Star Galactica on Netflix. Am thinking of a series about teachers in a faculty meeting suddenly being placed in space hunting for that illusive perfect school. Of course there would have to be all kinds of conflict and disappointment as they search using the standards  as their guide for the utopian institution. I am going to have to tweak that idea a bit before it hits the silver screen. As  for Beasts of the Southern Wild, thought it was a great movie but want to deny the rumors that it was filmed in my home town. We didn’t have that much water.

That brings me to the Virgin River Narrows which are located in Zion National Park. I believe it was a Sunday that some members of our group decided to hike a few miles up the Virgin River. Many years ago this would have been a lark, a walk in the park but now it became an epic like the movie The River. At least I think that was the title. An aging body makes the once simple act of crossing the river with an endless number of uneven rocks a great life defining feat. It was beautiful and I  just wanted to get home alive so I could write about the scenery. There were two young men, four women. including my wife . Maybe we could turn that into a mini series. I’m sure many of you had great adventures this summer. Speaking of that for LA teachers and students the excitement and anticipation of the new school year must be overwhelming. No longer do they have to wait  until September. That is another good reason to be retired.

When I was younger one of the most dreaded events was the first back to school ads. It was like the Titanic hitting an iceberg. It was a wake up call that was so unwelcome. I think I sort of wanted an endless summer though I did not really mind school when it started. Perhaps I really miss Monday mornings, faculty meetings, ISIS and getting letters from the Selective Service. But maybe not. Still I felt a chill when I saw the first ad sort of like pain in a phantom limb. One last thing to brighten your lives, there is a termite in French Guiana that can as it ages and is attach, explode and secrete a liquid that is toxic to the attacker.

There is probably no direct connection between the almost discovery of the God Particle and my mother’s 104th birthday. Anyway it has been an eventful week. I’m not sure my mother would really care about the Higgs boson but she still loves her Diet Dr. Pepper. What changes she has seen in the world. I keep telling her she needs a  computer and a large screen 3D tv and she just smiles and sometimes laughs. What I really appreciate is that she had put up with me all these years. And after reading that pets and dirt in your first year make you healthier, we had dogs, cats, cows, pigs, rabbits and probably they tracked in lots of healthy stuff. It didn’t kill us so maybe it made us stronger.

Just saw Spiderman and wonder how different the story may have been if Peter Parker had been bitten by a dung beetle. Can you picture the lizard man being stopped by a giant  ball of dung? And I heard that in Australia there is an overage of foxes and feral cats and there was a suggestion that the Tasmanian Devil be reintroduced to the mainland. Though I have read that there is a real decline of the creatures on Tasmania.  On the weird animal section of I think the Huffington Post there was a fish found in a northern US lake  that reportedly bites off part of the male anatomy that most males don’t want bitten off. Experts in the US say it isn’t true.  And the Great White sited in New York and in Santa  Cruz. That one bite off part of a kayak Maybe all this is related to the Higgs boson, global warming or the political polarization in the nation.

On the brighter side, three of the house finches that were hatched  on our back balcony left the nest and flew into the trees around our house. One little one was less developed and was fed by his father for a few more days but tried to leave the nest but couldn’t fly. My daughter found it it the back yard and put it back in the nest. It left a bit later and we did not see it in the yard. I hope it survived. Well,  we are getting ready to go to Costco to buy a few things and eat the $1.50 hot dog with a drink. These are the things that make America great. And may your day be great.

Just had a new idea for a semi-horror semi-hero. Our main character is attacked by a pack of radiated coyotes as he takes out his trash in his foothills community of Southern California. Later when he is driven by emotions to aid someone in distress he morphs into a wereote. As everybody knows not even a silver bullet can kill a wereote. The only downside is that he occasionally wakes up in the morning with cat hair in his mouth. A wereote could wonder the streets and never cause the panic that a were wolf or a vampire would. I can see a whole series of made for cable episodes. Now for a few hints about a safe 4th. Don’t use illegal fireworks purchased in Mexico or eat way too much and never do both at the same time. Oh, another thing. I just read another article about Brown Widow Spiders. Apparently they are everywhere outside and love to dangle from the bottoms of chairs and table and even barbeques. This article says that their venom is less toxic than a Black Widow’s. And don’t worry the Brown Widow is not replacing the Black Widow.

What does it say about a nation and its educational system when Brave garners many times the audience than a movie about Lincoln? I, alas, am part of the problem. I have seen Brave but not the Lincoln story. I think the problem is that the vampires were not really cute men thus loosing the young female fan base. But how can they love vampires when they killed the president’s mother. And most of the world’s other major problems remain unsolved. But there was the great news that Sharp has introduced a 90 inch LED television set. Wow!! Think of what that can mean to the nation. It could cause a housing boom to make them big enough to hold the device. And remember that new house construction would contribute significantly to our economic recovery. Now if only it had a retina screen whatever that is.

Glad to read on Facebook that many of you are off for the summer, have found new employment, are in far away place, taking care of loved ones etc. And what about the Supreme Court’s decision.  I never expected Chief Justice Roberts would be the swing vote on this issue. And since most of you know the importance of the Commerce Clause in the expansion of Congressional power it is also surprising that the majority did not allow the individual mandate to be based on that clause. It is based on the right of Congress to pass a tax bill or something like that. Now we are going to see some very interesting political strategies from now until the election. I really enjoy watching the race unfold. Grasshopper, remember that there in no definitive answer to anything. It’s like eating right, working out both mind and body and then being hit by a meteorite on your foot causing you to fall backwards into a volcano. So don’t sweat the small stuff and there is no big stuff or that is what a drunken major once said in an officer’s club in Japan in the 1960’s.