God took the strength of a mountain, The majesty of a tree, The warmth of a summer sun, The calm of a quiet sea, The generous soul of nature, The comforting arm of night, The wisdom of the ages, The power of the eagle’s flight, The joy of a morning in spring, The faith of a mustard seed, The patience of eternity, The depth of a family need, Then God combined these qualities, When there was nothing more to add, He knew His masterpiece was complete, And so,

He called it Dad

(by: Anonymous)

Combined with the bad economy, there has been a sharp intake of abandoned pets to area shelters. Families who have had pets for years are turning them in because they can no longer afford to feed and care for them. Oftentimes people do not realize the responsibilities and costs that go with adopting or buying a pet. It is especially bad to buy a pet as a Christmas present for another person when it is not know if that person can responsibly care for the pet.

Shelter manager Suzanne Swims of the Norfolk SPCA says that staff won’t allow animals to be adopted as gifts for other people. Sharon Adams, executive director of the Virginia Beach SPC says that families have to understand what they are getting into, their new puppy is not an accessory, and no, they can’t necessarily get it in black.

This is not merchandise, she said. This is adding a companion to your family.

Most responsible animal shelters have a set of minimum requirements that must be met by anyone wanting to adopt a pet. Some shelters are more strict about the requirements for a prospective adopting family. An example of such requirements are the ones that must be met if you are to adopt a pet from Animal Rescue of Tidewater. In addition to the requirements the shelter asks many questions about your circumstances and  expectations as well as trying to raise awareness of potential problems and the responsibilities that come with caring for a pet.

Unfortunately the only requirement that most pet stores have is that you can pay for the pet. They don’t care whether you are aware of the responsibilities that come with buying a pet or whether you will be able to take proper care of the pet. They only want to be paid. I personally will never buy a pet from a pet store. Unless you are a professional breeder looking for a champion dog or cat you should always adopt from a shelter. Every time I have visited a shelter it has broken my heart to think that as many as 50 % of the pets that are at the shelter will eventually be euthanized. So much of that could be avoided if people were better educated about what is needed to responsibly own a pet.

Even if you encounter unexpected problems with your new pet there are many resources available, many of them free, that can help you correct the problem instead of just turning the pet into a shelter. For me owning a pet is almost like being married. It should be “till death do us part.” Pets deserve the very best we can provide for them. I don’t know of a better deal than the undying loyalty, love, joy and comfort that a pet can provide. Just make sure that it is a two way street. Little Cocoa deserves it.

1. I am a Navy brat and one of six brothers. While my Dad was in the Navy we lived in Texas, Florida, Virginia and  Rhode Island. My two youngest brothers also lived in Japan but I joined the Army instead.

2. I am a Vietnam veteran, having served with the Army Security Agency in Chu Lai. I am one of the fortunate ones who made it home more or less intact.

3. I used to work as a nuclear technician at Surry, Virginia and have been inside a running nuclear reactor.

4. I have jumped out of an airplane from 14,000 feet more than once and am still here to tell about it.

5. I love animals and as a kid raised everything from chickens to  possums.

6. Some of my first jobs were as a newspaper boy, grocery bagger, and construction worker.

7. I proudly worked as a civilian for 28 years for both the Navy and the Army and love my country.

That’s about it. Now here are the seven people I tag to do the same.

1. Scott White.  – blog

2. Paul McCord – blog

3. Enga71429 – blog

4. Benedict Hudson – blog

5. I.C. Jackson – blog

6. Larry Huffman – blog

7. Nick Uva – blog

The rules to follow are:

• Link your original tagger, and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or on Twitter.

Time to let the world know a little more about you. Have Fun!

On Thanksgiving Day we will be having our Thanksgiving meal at the Smithfield Station in Smithfield, Virginia. We had Thanksgiving dinner there last year and everyone had a great time. This time my son Jason will join us so it will be that much better this year. We have a new President who will hopefully safely steer our country ahead for the next four years. He has my support and prayers even though he was not the candidate I voted for.

While everyone is crying doom and gloom over the economy we are fortunate that we have not had to change our lifestyle too much. I was worried that now that I was retired I would not be able to travel as much as I wanted but now that the price of gas has plummeted that fear has vanished for now. I am really enjoying my new shotgun and have had fun shooting it with my brother Jon. I  plan on getting Jason and Teresa to go with me some day and shoot it.

So all things considered this has been a great year and I see good things ahead for myself and my loved ones. So this Thanksgiving Day when I am surrounded by friends, family and good food I can be thankful that life has been so kind to us. I hope life will be equally kind to you and yours. Happy Thanksgiving to you.

This usually takes me up to lunch, after which I go for a swim in our pool. After the pool I will take care of stuff like paying bills and the other mundane tasks that even a retired person must do. Then it is back to the computer for a check of news and the weather, then some more time on Twitter and Friendfeed. Actually Twitter and Friendfeed have started to take up a big chunk of the day. Next to reading, my social media fix takes up a good part of the day. I usually also find time to watch any shows that I recorded on my DVR from the day before. If the weather is good I will take my dog Max for a walk or maybe go to the mall for a while.

This takes me up to supper, which we (Teresa and I) usually have around 6 pm. Then it is back to the computer where I will try to write something for my blog or my online journal. If there is anything good on television I will watch for a while, then go back to the book I am reading. That is one great benefit of being retired, being able to read more books. I have probably tripled the number of books I read before I retired. You really can do so much more when you have that extra 10 hours that was taken from you for all those years you worked.

I have also been able to stay up a lot later which allows me to watch the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O’Brien. I don’t always make it to Conan but I try to as I really enjoy his show. So that is about it, that is my typical day as a retiree. I have to say that I am really enjoying this new life. It was worth working 45 years for, counting working as a paperboy up until the day I retired. I have also found that it is much easier to plan vacations, not that vacations have the same meaning as they did while I was working. I am driving down to Florida in October to see STS-125 launch from Cape Canaveral. Watching the shuttle launch will be the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and love affair with NASA and the manned space program.

If you get nothing else out of this post I hope you leave with the idea that all those years of hard work that lead up to being able to retire are well worth it. The joys and pleasures of retirement are not to be underestimated. Now back to doing whatever the hell I feel like doing. I love it.

I feel that if a child is being disruptive and infringing on the rights of others to enjoy whatever it is that they are doing, it is not discriminating against a child with autism to ask the parent and child to leave if they cannot control the behavior of the child. It is accepted social practice, or at least it should be, to remove a disruptive child from a social event if they continue to be disruptive. If a child is crying in a theater or a church it should make no difference if the child is autistic or not. Just because a child is autistic does not give the child special license to be disruptive in public. I know it is often difficult to control the behavior of an autistic child but when the child’s behavior is disruptive the child should be removed from the scene until the child’s behavior is acceptable. People should no more have to tolerate the disruptive behavior of an autistic child than the disruptive behavior of a child having a temper tantrum.

My autistic son has vocal mannerisms and physical movements that could possibly be disruptive in a setting like a church or a restaurant. Usually this is not a problem but in the rare instances when it was, especially when he was younger, I did not take offense when someone complained that it was disturbing them. I would either try to calm him down or failing that I would leave. I would do the same thing with my daughter, who is not autistic, if someone had a legitimate complaint about her behavior. Having an autistic child is a very challenging thing and it requires much more of the parent. And one of those things is to know when your child’s behavior is being disruptive to others and dealing with it in a gracious and courteous manner.