You Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog

Bo is doing well with his allergies. However, he has a new problem called coprophagia. Let's just say he is taking recycling to its extreme. I always thought it was a sign of schizophrenia in dogs. I work with schizophrenics all week so I thought this could Bo's ticket to the Welsh Terrier Rescue website.  

Well I researched it and it has a few causes and schizophrenia is not one of them. Basically, it comes down to dogs like to eat pooh and sniff butt. It might be his new hypoallergenic dog food that looks that looks the same coming out as going in. No dog would ever do this after eating Old Roy from Wal-Mart.

The Vet sort of pooh-poohed it and said try putting meat tenderizer on his food and that should stop the little salad-shooter from recycling. I bought a big container from Adolph's Meat Tenderizer at Sam's and he continued to recycle. I think it just gave it a mellow piquant after dinner taste. This morning I mentioned it to his groomer. We both agreed that Bo just has a borderline personality disorder and not schizophrenia. She suggested I try the PetSmart medicine called "For-Bid". As I usually do I came home to order it on Amazon-Prime and found out the active ingredient is MSG. Now the reason the Adolph's didn't work was because the fun-suckers and the food-police got the MSG taken out of the meat tenderizer (they replaced it with salt). To the rest of the world MSG is to food what DDT was to Malaria; it saves lives. Here some yuppie gets a headache after going to the Chinese Buffet and we create a health crisis. We blame everything from cold sores to lombago on it.

I've ordered a pound of pure MSG right from China on Amazon. It cost less than 1% of what it cost in PetSMart. I read that after a month he should be cured. If he's not though, I have enough MSG to last until he starts barking in Mandarin.

Well he's not very handsome to look at 
Oh he's shaggy and he eats like a hog 
And he's always killin' my chickens 
That dirty old egg-suckin' dog 

Johnny Cash

Giovanna Part Deau

More Pix

"World Class" Hospital

God bless all the people at Magee-Womens Hospital who took care of Giovanna.

Enough With The Rain Already

We have had twenty inches of rain in July. Since June we have had two days without measurable rainfall. About twenty miles from here six inches fell in one afternoon last week. So far only two Drum Circles  have been cut short by thunderstorms. The poor children haven't had any summer at all and school starts in another week. The crops are underwater, it's just a big old mess.

I'm Too Old For Retro

I had a chance to go full retro this week. I had a chance to drive a 2003 Ford Thunderbird.  It was the top of the line model with a 280 hp V8 and all the bells and whistles.  I was looking foward to this since my usual ride is a 2004 Honda Element (aka bread truck). A $47,000 280hp luxury two seater  versus a $18,000 160hp utility vehicle.  A nurse from work needed the Element to move since a pizza wouldn't fit in the T-Bird.

The T-Bird only had 60K miles on it yet it rode like the 58 Chevy Impala with 160K miles I had. It was like the old Chevy X frame Flexible-Flyer's I owned. I think it needed some front end work and tires but that couldn't be responsible for the stiff bouncy horrible ride.  The slightest pavement seams caused the back to do this little bunny-hop like my 92 Ram pickup.  The cabin was luxurious although I doubt anyone over 5'9" could fit in it.

Now the good part was the V8 engine that took up every square inch under the hood. In Sport Mode it would leave rubber in second gear.  It was like a jet engine strapped to a go-kart, too bad the frame and suspension came from the Edsel.  The car also is a great looker.  The styling does turn heads and get smiles; I'm sure it would drive the ladies in the assisted-living facility crazy.

It's not completely retro, it does lack the failing brakes, flat tires, flooded carburetor, overheating, stalling and sloppy steering of a true 50's car.  The nurse wants to sell it to me for 10K (that's 9k below Blue Book).  Then I would lose the luxury feel of an Element.  I would no longer blend in with the Carolla's and Accords.  When my neighbor saw it in my driveway she asked if I got a promotion at work. Like many things our desire for retro isn't based in reality.  Still the idea of my old 1961 Ford Falcon with a 4.3 liter V8 makes me tremble. Someone please stop me before I  write the check!

Five Months In The Wilderness With Larry Crabb

Since Feb. CP and I have been teaching Sunday School and using the book "Sixty-Six Love Letters From God".  Five months of surveying the Old Testament hasn't been a rollicking good time, not to mention the horrendous body count and genealogies. 

Today we went over the intro to the New Testament, which was actually a summation of the hard lessons we were supposed to learn in the previous thirty-nine "love letters".  Like Moses leading the multitude I felt it appropriate to summarize our five months in the Sinai.

I said, "These five months have been like going to a psychiatrist. We laid on the couch and rattled on and got impatient and discouraged. Like a patient we asked the doctor, how long would he take to find out what's our problem is.  The shrink says, "I knew what your problem was after ten minutes, I was waiting for you to figure it out".  That's where we've been for five months, mired in the blood the guts and the beer, learning what the problem is.  Five months is better than five thousand years, and instead of losing people we gained a couple.  It was some tough stuff but I think we at least see our problem.