Rudy Houdini

I won't always double up my posts here and on Facebook, but since I only have one follower (thank you Rob!), I am putting them on Facebook, too...

Rudy was my dog…for all of 2 minutes. He is a short sweet beagle who enjoyed licking my hands and craved head pets. But, I lost him…and only minutes (literally) after we met. Perhaps it is for the best that I never had children.

Upon arriving home this evening, I walked across the street to check my mailbox. On the return, I noticed that my back gate was open and figured I should go ahead and close it while outside. After I latched the gate and turned to walk away, I heard the jingling of dog tags behind me. And, there, in my back yard was Rudy. I checked his tags and learned his name. They had no address, but a phone number I could call, however my phone was in the car.

I locked him in the back yard and went to ask the tween and teen kids playing across the street about him. While most of them gave me the nervous stare always reserved for the neighborhood crazy old cat lady, at least one spoke up to say he didn’t know Rudy or his owner.

I got my phone from the car and went inside to my cats, one of whom was crying out in hunger and desperation. After quickly handling their feeding, I took my phone out back to call Rudy’s other parents. He was gone. The back gate was open and there was no trace of him.

The kids didn’t see anyone enter my yard or Rudy slipping away. I hope he’s OK. I kind of miss him.

Let’s Hope I Don’t Lose My Job Over This Post

This is a duplicate of a Facebook post I just made. It really had to go on Facebook or there would be no irony.

Quote from the attached AP Story:

“Meanwhile, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer accepted the resignation of Lee Landor, his deputy press secretary, after she called Gates a racist and referred to President Barack Obama as "O-dumb-a." Landor's comments on the social networking site Facebook were inappropriate, Stringer said in a statement. Landor defended her entries, but added: "It is understandable that a black man encountering police will be suspicious of racial profiling, based on the long history of racism in this country."

Seriously, you can now be fired (or, as they claim, “asked to resign”) for calling the president dumb or for stating that a person is a reverse racist? Isn’t that the very basis of free speech? The woman didn’t use any racial slurs or foul language, things that I would understand an employer being upset about. But political opinions?

Criticizing the president should be the MOST protected of ALL speech.

And yes, you can say that our speech is only protected from the government’s reaction; but for God’s sake, the woman worked for a local government and they fired her for speaking her mind on politics in her free time!

And, yes, I also find it offensive how the police tricked Henry Louis Gates Jr. into his “disorderly conduct” by luring him to a “public place” (his own front porch) so they could have grounds to arrest him. After all, yelling and screaming at police is only an arrestable offense if it takes place in public. If it is in the privacy of your kitchen, it is protected free speech.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090729/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_slurs_3

Too Wordy for THE Facebook

I just signed up for Facebook over the weekend and now, days later, I am jumping feet first into my own blog. I think I am personally advancing at 100 times the rate of the common man. If I’m not careful, I might actually join the 21st century one day!

As it turns out Facebook is not the ideal location for five paragraph long rants about my random thoughts, hence the birth of “Random Thoughts About Nothing,” an apparently quite popular blog title as I couldn’t get the domain name.

Suddenly I have found myself uninspired. So to repeat my day 3 Facebook post:
“I was around people all day and was able share my thoughts out loud, so I don’t have that same pressing desire to talk to someone, and I mean anyone, even on the Internet, as I did when I was up to my waist in cats during a slow weekend.

So, Janice, let me tell you something, missy. Inspiration is not a one-eyed dog who comes when you call her (and occasionally pees on your friend’s feet). Inspiration is like a cat. No, it’s not soft and fluffy like a fabric-softened towel. It only comes to you when you are busy with other things and don’t have time to sit down and stroke it.”

I’ll have much more to say on the weekend after a couple glasses of wine or when I’ve been trapped in the house with pets all day and am desperate for the sound of a human voice, even if it just the voice inside my head as I type.