Seeing Eye Dogs for Seeing Eye Dogs

A man with a visual impairment lives somewhere along one of the major streets I travel daily. I see him from time to time with his seeing-eye-dog, so have grown accustomed to them and always watch out when they are on the side of the street should he take a mis-step (not supposed to happen, but better safe than sorry).

A couple nights ago I watched Everything is Illuminated starring Elijah Wood as a collector of artifacts of family members. It is just what he does as one of the characters explains. While he conducts the search for a person in a picture with his grandfather, he comes across a rather eccentric family who has made a living for years by taking Jews on tours in search of heritage that was lost during the Holocaust. Grandfather has a “seeing eye bitch” because he went blind after grandmother died. The dog is truly demented and nothing more than a dog rescued from the shelter because grandfather is not really blind and everyone knows.

The morning after watching Illuminated, I was making my usual way to work and noticed the man with the visual impairment up ahead of me. I paid extra close attention because he was at an intersection waiting to cross as the cars zipped past. He stood there patiently with a grip on the handle attached to the dog’s harness.

As the car in front of me passed, the dog darted into the street with the man in tow.

I managed to slam on the brakes and stop before hitting them. The last thing I wanted to do was hit a blind man, though it would clearly not be my fault, but it would be so hard to pin it on a dead seeing-eye dog. Seeing-eye dogs are Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, and Benji wrapped into one.

I think this seeing-eye-dog is either as demented as the one in the movie or else he needs his own seeing-eye-bitch.

Bjork...why?

Ok…I know Bjork is coming to town in September as one of the headliners for the Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival – but there I just don’t think I can make it. I can’t listen to more than two of her songs in a row without having to switch to a different playlist.

Sorry, Bjork fans…but why? Gimme Joss Stone anyday!

Kentucky (Derby) Favorites

It is certainly a time of high stress and high energy at work and so I suppose I’m susceptible to an occasional misreading. This afternoon I came across a news story about Queen Elizabeth’s upcoming visit to the United States with a stop at the Kentucky Derby. In the article there was a lengthy description of the meal to be served in the clubhouse from which the Queen will have her vantage to watch the race.

The paragraph began with a comment about the menu filled with Kentucky favorites.

In an article about the Kentucky Derby, the usual favorites are horses.

So of course I started giggling.

And then there were a couple guffaws.

And then I had to leave the office for a few minutes to regain my composure.

Of course my mind immediately went to the thought of serving the Queen, the world’s most famous horse lover, a well-aged equine steak – probably from one of the last year’s losers.

The article comes on the heels of a great debate about horse slaughter for export to Europe and other places where horse meat is a regular food. Because we in the United States don’t regularly eat it (never say never – you probably eat some fast food) and have such icons as Silver (Hi Ho!), Trigger (always found the happy trail and found himself stuffed in a museum), Secretariat, and most recently Barbado, the thought of eating horse repulses many. With that in mind, horse lovers actually introduced legislation that would close the slaughterhouses that specializes in exporting edible horse meat.

They didn’t address the issue of dog food or glue!

Really – would you rather have Flicka go on a gourmet plate or some kindergartener’s finger?

Can you imagine what Paula Deen would do with the Black Stallion? I’m thinking chicken fried withers. Maybe a forelock gumbo. She would probably offer a “Blue Gate” special for those equine treats!

The Queen did not have to face any of those possibilities. Her dinner at Churchill Downs consisted of largely beef and seafood. We’ll just watch for the menu the next time she goes to France.

Business of Busy-ness

For over a month, I have totally neglected blog writing and my (lack of) entries for the month of May indicates such. I have not forgotten – and in fact have regularly been reminded by certain regular readers. Despite ignoring writing here, I’ve had one of the most productive and prolific months of writing at work that I’ve had in the last year.

One of the frequently frustrating aspects to my job is that I can spend a month or six weeks being incredibly productive and writing tons of material – and it is still in draft format. I have another month of continued work to get the final products to the point that I want them. The work is exciting, but exhausting.

I’ve come home every day and managed to scrape something together to eat – mostly slim fast as I’m trying to slim up a bit to look good in swimsuits at the lake (clothing optional beach actually – but I wear a swimsuit – just can’t bring myself to the point of public nakedness). I’ve watched more television than I usually do, but it is so much more fun with a 50” HD television than one would imagine otherwise. Mostly, though, I’ve gotten my money out of my Netflix subscription.

While I’ve generally been too tired to write in the evenings, I have sketched out a few observations that I will try to edit to my satisfaction and get published soon.

Too bad my creative efforts at work do not lend to online publication – until I open up my personal website and start selling my products online. Then samples will be available.