Arizona...the Grand Canyon State

So earlier this year we had visitors form the east.  (Well, Michigan that is!)  Our oldest son, J his wife Dianna, along with the grand daughters Julia & Sam, all came out to Arizona for a visit.  We all ended up viewing the south rim of the Grand Canyon for our first times.  It is a breathtaking view and the day we were there it was a bit cool and windy, but it did not diminish our expectations of the canyon!

Here is a quick clip of the kids and a view of the Grand Canyon.

Dogs Are Always Winners for TV Commercials

This has got to be the funniest tv commercial I have seen in a long time.  Of course, the fact that it has nearly human Yellow Labs and Golden Retrievers in it, gets your attention.  In the end, not sure if you can remember the product, but you will for sure remember the ad.

Gold Sunset in Arizona

An Arizona sunset from my backyard!

How men and women access their drive up ATM

A LITTLE SOMETHING FUNNY~ How men and women access their drive up ATM.

MALE PROCEDURE: 1. Drive up to the cash machine. 2. Put down your car window. 3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN. 4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw. 5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt. 6. Put window up. 7. Drive off.

FEMALE PROCEDURE: 1. Drive up to cash machine. 2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine. 3. Set parking brake, put the window down. 4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card. 5. Tell person on cell phone you will call them back and hang up. 6. Attempt to insert card into machine. 7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car. 8. Insert card. 9. Re-insert card the right way. 10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page. 11. Enter PIN. 12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN. 13. Enter amount of cash required. 14. Check makeup in rear view mirror. 15. Retrieve cash and receipt. 16. Empty handbag again to locate wallet and place cash inside. 17. Write debit amount in check register and place receipt in back of checkbook. 18. Re-check makeup. 19. Drive forward 2 feet. 20. Reverse back to cash machine. 21. Retrieve card. 22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card holder, and place card into the slot provided. 23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you. 24. Restart stalled engine and pull off. 25. Redial person on cell phone. 26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles. 27. Release Parking Brake.

Dogs don't die; they just sleep in your heart!

This Guy Nails It!

Having recently lost my best friend, Abby, of 13 years, I can certainly relate to this.  Not sure who wrote it, but it hits the nail on the head!

My Abby
"The Best Dog in the World"

Some of you, particularly those who think they have recently lost a dog to “death”, don’t really understand this. I’ve had no desire to explain, but won’t be around forever and must.

Dogs never die. They don’t know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say:” No, no, not a good idea. Let’s not go for a walk.” Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that’s what dogs are. They walk.

It’s not that they dislike your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and the cacaphonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone ( exultation), and you. That’s what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.

However, dogs get very very sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don’t teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics. They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.

When you think your dog has died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging it’s tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest. Ouch! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up. That’s when they say: “Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.”

When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in an hour. Then you come home and it’s a week, well one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)

Anyway, like I was saying, they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.

But don’t get fooled. They are not “dead.” There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart, and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they are.

I feel sorry for people who don’t have dogs sleeping in their heart. You’ve missed so much. Excuse me, I have to go cry now.

Leadership Crises of Obama

David Letterman: 

“Take a look at this: gas under $3 a gallon, Unemployment under 6%, Stock market breaking records every day. No wonder the guy is so unpopular.”

The day before the 2014 Mid Term Elections, there were a lot of political posting going on the internet.  The above post was offered up by one of my "Blue Friends" who will remain nameless in this blog.  In my anticipation of a Republican blowout, I answered the question of "why is this guy so unpopular?"  I think that I pretty much nailed it, as witnessed by the Democrats being neutered in the election.  So, if you are one of those who are in denial, about why Obama and the Democrats are in the predicament that they find themselves in, please read on...

It couldn't be because Obama’s list of leadership crises are formidable?  Like the botched rollout of the healthcare website?  Could it be that Americans now understand that the “Affordable Healthcare Act” is not affordable, and in fact mandates less care for a higher price and it still leaves the country with 30 Million Americans without healthcare?  Are they upset about long waits and horrible care at Veterans Administration hospitals?  Or, possibly Edward Snowden’s disclosures of the NSA secrets?  Surly, not the pileup of foreign children along the southern border of the US, right?  Do you think that Average Americans remember the nearly $1B economic bailout that resulted in no bailout to the shrinking Middle Class Americans?   Or better yet, the billions wasted to promote solar energy only to have those solar companies go bottoms up!  …and what about the lack of action on the Keystone Pipeline, a “no brainer” which everyone agrees would provide 20,000 high paying union jobs, and help reduce our reliance on foreign oil?  Is it possible that Americans asking why he has stood idly by as Iran gets a nuclear weapon and Islamist terrorists marauder across Syria and Iraq beheading foreigners, including Americans?  Is the voting public mad that the President of the US did nothing as the Ebola virus arrived in the United States?   Could any of these situations strike a disgruntled note to the public … Benghazi, Fast-n-Furious and Lois Lerner of the IRS?  Maybe it is the feeling that the Whitehouse Press Secretary and the Attorney General continue to throw roadblocks in the way of the truth?

Gas and the stock market are driven mostly by the international economy.  Unemployment...for most of Obama’s 6 years was at 8% and only recently to 6%.  America has not seen this continued high unemployment numbers since Jimmy Carter was President.  Oh, did I mention the unprecedented number of those who have totally given up on the idea of finding a job...not counted in the 6%!  One more...Obamacare’s  broken promise to “keep your healthcare plan and keep your doctor.”  Obamacare is the one single issue impacting job growth and economic expansion in our country!  …and it needs to be fixed quickly!

Maybe Americans now realize that Obama has a jaded worldview of the greatness of America, and that he is incompetent and a rank armature, who has failed to lead all Americans.

Faithful Freind

Today we lost our "Faithful Friend,"  her name was Abby.  For 13 years, ever since she was 6 weeks old, she has been a regular member of our family.  Together we have been though thick & thin and all she ever wanted to be was close to me, or any other human being in my absence.  

I would tell her every single day that, "You are the best dog in the world!"  ...and she was!  She could speak & understand perfect English.  Abby loved to have you pay attention to her.  Pats on the back, rub her belly, talk to her and, well, love her unconditionally.  

A few years ago, before she lost her eyesight to cataracts, she would play fetch forever as long as you could stand it.  When the popcorn maker came out, watch out.  She wanted to enjoy it too.  Throw her a kernel and she hardly ever let it land on the floor before nabbing it out of the air.  Last week was our last time to have popcorn together; she would use her "hunting skills" with her nose to track down the popcorn conveniently placed for her to get. 

Abby also could tell time.  She knew when it was time to get up, eat, for us to go to work, for our dog walker to come and take her to the dog park everyday.  She knew when to ask to go out for that short walk before coming to bed. In the mornings is when she really expressed herself and her ability to tell time.  Many times coming to my side of the bed, standing 6 inches from my face...and bark!  Not a little, "hey, think you want to get up?"  No, not Abby.  It was a kind of bark like, "Get your ass out of bed, NOW, and take me out.  It is time...You've been sleeping all night already!"  Only Abby could get away with that and have Heidi & I laugh so early in the morning!

Most of her adult life, Abby would sleep on the bed between us.  73 pounds of pure love and sometimes she would even scoot up and place her head on our pillows.  Who says, "threes a crowd, anyway?"  We would wake up, depending on which direction her face was turned, breathing hot air in your face and she would be looking at you with those dark brown eyes, almost to say, "Gee I love the fact that you guys decided to live in my house with me and share my things!"

Now Abby was "our baby."  You see, I brought 2 boys to the relationship, as I had full custody of my sons.  Heidi & I thought we might try to have at least 1 child together. Well, nature has different ideas sometimes, so when we understood that another human being was not coming from us, my Wife decided that she wanted to nurturer a different kind of God's living things.  Thus, Abby.

Abby blessed us with 12 full breed English Labrador Retrievers; when she was 2 years old. Chocolates and Black Labs but no yellow ones!  What a time that was and we were excited as Grandparents to witness the process and to share the love of Labs with 12 other loving families, who made homes for the pups.

Don't get me wrong...Abby was not always the "perfect dog!"  There was a time when she was "hell on wheels."  If we didn't have her on a leash, that nose went straight to the ground, her hunting instincts kicked in and her hearing went blank to any verbal commands to, "Stop...Come Here Now!"  

There was that annual July 4th canoe trip down the Au Sable River when, against all objections from her husband, parents and kids, Heidi insisted that it was the year for Abby to experience the "annual family ritual."  Yes, it was a disaster as Abby would not stay still enough to keep from rocking the canoe and tipping us over.  Needless to say, we didn't take her canoeing ever again!  Enough said about that!

We look back on that and laugh, now...but, "a lot of water had to pass over the dam," pun intended!

Eventually Abby settled down.  After coming to Arizona 6 years ago, she learned to walk by our side, without a leash.  Was much calmer and less rambunctious. Simply to be close to us at every opportunity.  To love and be loved.  After all, we live in an active retirement community so Abby learned to "take it easy and enjoy every minute of it."  And, she fit right in.  Everyone called her a "sweetheart."  She got along with people and other dogs, big and small alike.  She never really grew out of being the "greeter" as she thought every person and every dog she came in contact with was there to see her.  

Abby was met with a peaceful end of a full loving life.  We already miss her and the house is very quiet.  Coming home; we can't help ourselves to look for her, somehow expecting her to magically be there.  She is there in our memories and in our heart.  

So, to our Faithful Friend Abby, this is not goodbye forever, it's so long for a while, and let's plan to meet at the Rainbow Bridge.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....  Author unknown...

On the Pontoon 2014

Our 2nd annual pontoon trip on Lake Powell, Utah 2014
Enjoy!!!

The Valley of the Sun....ah...er...Rain!

Remembering J.P. McCarthy

Remembering the "Great voice of the Great Lakes" ... J. P. McCarthy.

For over 35 years he was the morning personality of  clear channel "WJR Radio 76 Detroit."

He had the #1 rated radio program every year he was the morning man in Detroit.  If you were somebody in Detroit or Michigan; you wanted to be interviewed by JP.  Talk about contacts...his black book of "Who's Who" contacts was enormous!

In July of 1995 he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a condition that frequently develops into leukemia.

McCarthy continued to host his show for a short time, but he became more absent, until he left the air completely at the end of July. His plight became public, and soon bone marrow drives were held all over the Detroit area where thousands of people took tests in hope that their bone marrow would help McCarthy recover. In August, McCarthy flew to New York City where he was supposed to meet with doctors at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, but his illness had become so severe that he was admitted.

His voice was silenced on this day 19 years ago, J.P. McCarthy died of pneumonia in his sleep on the afternoon of August 16, 1995, with his entire family at his bedside. He was 62.  Michigan Radio has never been the same since.

This video is a tribute to the late and great "Voice" of J.P. McCarthy...