Endings, beginings, and whatever comes between

You know that saying about it is always darkest before the dawn? I hope dawn gets here soon.

So far this week, all but one of our fish died. I really don't know what happened to cause the heater to fail, but when I went into the family room early Sunday morning, our tropical tank was all fogged up, and the water temp had dropped to room temperature, 65 degrees. We had three floaters, and Bob the Algae Blennie died about four hours later. Only our Blue Damsel survived. As did all the crabs and snails. I guess they are more tolerant to the temperature drop than the fish were. As of tonight, our blue Damsel is actively swimming all over the place, looking for her friends. We think she is lonely.
I immediately started checking everything, and I reset the heater. Now the temperature is back where it belongs. I don't know if we had a power surge or what, but I am bummed. I found the fish soothing to look at when I was writing.

Sunday wasn't done with me with just the fish. I had to go to Redners for some vegetables, and when I came out, my right front tire was almost flat. I only live five minutes from Redners and sometimes I ride my bike there if I am only getting a couple of things. So I drove the car home the half mile on the back road, and changed the tire in my driveway. I rotated all of them while I was at it, and repaired the tire in my garage. The Army gave me many skills of which tire repair is one of them. I drove the 80 mile round trip to work today, and the tire held up, so I must have got that right.

But then I got home today, Monday, and opened my mailbox.

Two more rejection letters of my manuscript came.

This just further verifies for me what I originally believed, that a person acting as my editor was giving me B.S. Her interest only lay in eventually making money off me, whether I was published or not. I put a lot of heart and soul into that manuscript, and I didn't agree with some of the direction I was being urged to take.

I like to think the best of people and take them at their word, but I let this drag on too far. I haven't been this discouraged in a long time, but I will get over it. It isn't the result that makes life what it is, it is the journey we take along the way, and all the twists and turns that entails.
Just because you hit a dead end doesn't mean it is all over. I just have to back up, turn around and try another route, that's all.

So now I am working on a new query letter and assembling my own list of agents to approach.

Like the fish who ended up floating in the tank unexpectedly, I have to flush the past away and start anew. So off I go. Wish me luck?

Thank God election day is over

I take great pride in being a "Super" voter. But voting in every election, while an exercise in civic duty, has a heavy price. You get robocalls and mail. Lots of both. And it is all spoon fed blather that either paints one candidate as a saint or the other as the Antichrist.

We have one of those phones that announces the name of the caller with a robot voice.

"Call from Unavailable was a constant echo in our home during daylight hours the last few weeks.

The best thing to do is to answer and immediately hang up. Then it doesn't call back 4,532 times until you answer. I cleared eight messages of the phone one afternoon when I got home from work.

Sometimes I wondered if our three dogs were bothered by some of the messages, which went on for several minutes. The dogs couldn't escape the blather, but at least they were informed, should they be allowed to vote. God knows they probably knew more about the candidates than most Allentown voters did.

Then there was the mailers.

Isn't there some irony that a candidate that preaches conservation of natural resources and protecting parks and green space would level a forest to get out that message? I looked at them, did a critique for later use over at the political blogs, and piled them by the door.

Now I have a lot of scrap paper. One candidate in particular has some of the weekly bills tallied across his face, but he was not the one in favor of recycling.

So now we have at least 6 months until the next cycle of primaries. Almost makes me pray for a black hole to suck the Earth in and bring time to a standstill.

A bad day for Rabbits Do you think that Roadkill has regrets right before it dies?

This is crazy Sally. We love Sally, but she does the damnedest things that makes me crazy and irritates the heck out of me.

We have invisible fence, but we still have to put Sally on a long leash because no matter how high we turn the shock up, she just ignores it.

So today I come home from work, and I let Sally, and our two other dogs, Lucy and Ethel, out in the yard. While they are out, I decided to sweep and mop our foyer and kitchen floors. When I finished that, I decided to sweep the porch. I finished up and called the dogs to come in.

Lucy and Ethel come right away, but Sally? She is out of sight, and her line runs towards the back deck. I go back there, and she is stuck. She has ran under the deck, jumped over some beams, and ran back out, wedging her line under there.

Do you know how much rain we have had? Do you know how muddy it was back there?

I had to get down and crawl under the deck to untangle her line. As I crawled under the deck, I thought I put my right hand in the mud. amongst the leaves.

I was wrong. Instead I put my hand into the corpse of a half eaten, freshly killed, headless rabbit.

YAY!

Meanwhile, Lucy and Ethel have come off the porch to see what is going on. Lucy is watching from the walk, but Ethel has headed over to the bird feeders, and is now eating something.

I get Sally untangled, but now Ethel won't come. I get up, wipe my entrails soaked hand on the grass, and I head over to the bird feeder. Lo and behold, Ethel is enjoying a meal of fresh rabbit, also without a head.

You ever try to take meat from a dog? I am getting smarter, I picked her up from behind and took her from the meat. After I get the three dogs back in the house, I retrieved a shovel from the garage, and I bagged both bodies and deposited them in the big green bin for our garbage man. If I bury them in the swamp across the railroad behind the house, something will just dig them up.

I know in our community we have foxes, skunks, deer, and there have been BEAR sightings over on the mountain. I am not complaining about living so close too nature. But I do wonder sometimes, if nature ever complains about us living too close to it?

I think leaving half eaten rabbits in my yard are just nature's way of saying HI! So tell me, how has nature said HI! to you lately?

One more thing: I would rather nature say HI! with half eaten Squirrats, but after the Hawk left that squirrat on the deck with his head half eaten, I will take the headless rabbits over that any day. I hate seeing those dead looks on the creatures' faces after the food chain has been yanked.

There always seems to be a "Why Me?" expression on their face. Especially the roadkill, as if they are looking back at the car that hit them, and their last thought was, "Damn, I looked both ways, where did that one come from?"

So that's my rant for today.

I have a short story for Halloween I may or may not post. we will see how I feel Saturday.

Sunday morning Book review: The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King

I love dogs, everybody who knows me knows that. Dogs are Central characters in just about everything I have ever written, and I am naturally drawn to books about dogs.

My first thought on hearing the title was that it was about 100 dogs. Well that was just some pretty unoriginal thinking on my part.
The story, according to the back cover, is this:

In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morissey was on the cusp of escaping Pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with the dust of one hundred dogs, dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body - with her memories intact.

Now she is a contemporary American teenager and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica

I read this book yesterday afternoon, all 330 pages. Once I started, I couldn't put it down.

If you have ever read the Outlander books series by Diana Gabaldon, and you liked that, then you will enjoy this. As a guy of Irish descent, I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks of the main character to Oliver Cromwell's brutal genocidal war against the Irish in the 17th century. Because the main character has kept her memories over 350 years through two human lives and that of 100 dogs, relating the cruel events of her first life makes it easier to understand her cynicism of humanity in her second human incarnation. Throw in her casual observations from numerous dog life's at historical moments of note, ( i.e. one master was killed at Gettysburg) and you have a seasoned world wise mind in the body of a teenager, giving you an unexpected, and yes, enjoyable take on how humanity has evolved in 350 years. Or Not.

As I read this, I couldn't help thinking how civilization, for all the technological advances, keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, especially at the personal level. We still kill each other over the stupidest issues, and the authors occasional observations from a dogs point of view had me thinking that maybe dogs are smarter than us after all. A short interlude concerning two dogs named Spanky and Rico and a dogs view of homosexuality will give you something to think about.

I don't give away plot points or spoilers, but this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend for young adults on up. Hell, I am 47 and I am going to get another copy. I am going to ask the author to autograph so I can give it to my soon to be seventeen year old niece for her birthday. She has been on trips to the Island of St. Thomas, and sailed in the Caribbean with her Uncle, so I am sure she will appreciate it.

The author, Amy King, or A.S. King, was born and raised in nearby Berks County, and after living a decade in Ireland returned here a few years back and lives there now with her husband and children. They install kitchens and she does electrical work. Not all writers are millionaires, most of us have real jobs!

I always say we should support our local authors, and I give this book a big thumbs up.

The Dust of 100 Dogs is available on Amazon and through Barnes and Noble bookstores. The cost is $9.95 U.S. $11.95 Canadian. Enjoy!

Muppets on Pot!

You have got to see this to believe it. Muppets, a spoof of a famous Charlie Daniels band song, and Pot. Absolutely Priceless! You will not see this on Sesame Street!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUBwfMj9rV8