Mass Extinction anyone?

Recently I wrote speculatively that something was coming to get us. Well here's one thing for sure, and it isn't wasting any time.

Of course, it's probably just a plot by Al Gore liberals, but you never know.

At the risk of sounding French and gay, we better wake the fuck up and get on this, or our grandchildren will be facing starvation.

Swine but not swine

Every now and again you run into a situation where you encounter a person who's appealing on some level, but reprehensible on another. I know just such a person now. They are a colleague whom I'd like to see disappear as soon as possible, but oddly, I don't mind helping them find a new spot and not entirely to hurry the process of getting them out of here. Strangely, when they request that I help them go over possible interview scenarios, I experience this urge to help them out. Perhaps I just feel guilty way down deep for wishing this person would just go away. Perhaps I feel some weird gratitude for their being here to help out so I didn't have to do two jobs. The trouble is that it went from light to dark in short order. They went from getting a rave review to the edge of being damned with faint praise. Perhaps its just that nearly everyone has a good side and part of me sees it even though my inner curmudgeon grumbles and swears under its breath.

I can honestly say that they are a good worker, really smart, and could probably do the job fairly well after about a year. They are also pushy, don't follow directions and are a pain in the ass. Perhaps I just want to have a good constructive exchange with them. Most of us want to do positive things, and have a situation end on a positive note. That could be it.

Shit man, they're leaving, so let's not slam the door too quickly after they leave. We can wave and smile and quietly click shut just the screen door, instead of scowling and and waving the back of the hand and slamming both doors shut and locking them. It's the decent thing to do after all. Ain't it?

Springheel Jack RIP

The world's greatest dog (well, don't we all feel that way about our own?) has spun off the mortal coil after 14 years of a life well-lived.

The old boy was afflicted with laryngeal paralysis and we had to put him out of it. Man, oh man, what a rotten day last Friday was. We took him to the vet to see about his rock eating habit, and he was hit with a crisis of this paralysis and there was nothing else for it but to send him off. He was trying to breathe through a passage of about 1/8 of an inch, this after all the drugs possible to take down swelling and ease his stress. He couldn't cool himself off and his tongue was turning blue.

He killed many vermin in his time, and chased away a burglar. He scared gangbangers and caused them to go to the other side of the street. He was also as mellow as the day is long and in the classic way that big dogs have, tolerated the loving "attention" of two little kids, while making sure that no one who shouldn't come near them ever did.

He 86 pounds of love, and power and total peculiarity, and we had him for two more years than we thought we would; a testament to the hardiness of mutts. We all miss him, but all dogs go to heaven, right? He certainly should.