It Ain't Always Easy to Be Green

Only a mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf. ~ Aldo Leopold

Being Green isn't as easy as some folks make it out to be. For example, yesterday I tried four times to post the following to Facebook without success:

America's wolves were nearly eradicated in the 20th century. Now, after a remarkable recovery in parts of the country, our wolves are once again in serious danger. Wolf hunting seasons started today in Idaho and will begin in Montana September 15th. Please help save our wolves.

At first I thought it was a normal screw-up on the part of Facebook; however, after being able to make two other posts with links, I have come to believe that Facebook is blocking the link to the Campaign to Save America's Wolves.

Admittedly, this greenish campaign is politically charged. As I understand some of the politics...

• On March 6th, 2009, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the Bush Administration's plan to eliminate Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Idaho and Montana -- a decision that could lead to the deaths of more than 1,000 wolves.
• In Alaska, actions by former governor Sarah Palin have led to more than 1,000 wolves being killed by aerial gunning since 2003; state officials are pushing to kill even more wolves this year using aerial gunning, poison gas and snares.
• In the Southwest, misinformation and anti-wolf sentiment runs high, with the few remaining wolves in Arizona and New Mexico at risk of extinction. With only four breeding pairs of Mexican wolves left in the wild, we need sensible, science-based wolf management to ensure the “lobo” will survive -- and thrive -- in the wilds of the Southwest.

I admit that I have only recently joined the Save the Wolves campaign. I was initially drawn to the wonderful creatures by programs I saw on TV. After some rather extensive Internet research, I made the decision to become personally involved. The impact of video below had on me was important in my decision:

If you are will to take action to save America's wolves, you may begin my clicking HERE.

Thanks.

Wednesday Stuff

My uncle, John Adam Hertle, is 87 years old. He, like, me requires additional oxygen to breath. At the moment he is hospitalized in serious condition. Please keep Uncle John in your thoughts and prayers.

Uncle John speaking at the service celebrating my ministry at St. John United Church of Christ, Cannelton, Indiana, 1987

The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi has reconvened. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Clay Gorton, the son of Major General Charles E. Gorton, one of my close college friends, has been wounded in Afghanistan. Please keep Clay in your thoughts and prayers.

Major General Charles E. Gorton

Alex and I found Blind Dogs.Net some time ago. It is dedicated to dogs who have lost or ar loosing their sight. The is quite a bit of information there regarding how dog0s who are blind can live a wonderful and fulfilling life. There are also lots a inspiring stories about dogs who have lost there sight. Alex and I really recommend that you take a look. (Alex says: "OK?")

http://www.blinddogs.net/

Merlin

Speaking of Alex, he is quite happy with no thunderstorms for a while and has been spending quite a bit of time (when he isn't harassing me) sunning himself on our deck.

I really like the flag widget! Besides what you see on the sidebar, clicking it will give the number of visitors from each of the nations from which I have had visitors and clicking the flag of a nation will provide historical, geographic, demographic, economic, transportation. communications. and military data regarding the nation. I think that is neat.

http://s05.flagcounter.com/more/ATK

Mishmash & Updates

Our delightful little rabbit guest has hopped out the door and is hopefully enjoying all the joys of spring. I rather miss seeing him dash through a room to one of his many bolt holes.

I have made no progress on fixing my computer although I have learned volumes about programs, the registry, and drivers.  I still have no audio, Windows refuses to shut down, and  I am told my one program (Windows One Care) that I have no firewall and by another (Windows Control Panel) that I do have a firewall. It would be nice if I could get them to agree.


I have completed the series of steroid pills and my sleep is returning to what it was. I now have returned to taking an average to three naps a day.


This month of sticking my finger twice a day (for a month) to determine if I have diabetes is a literal pain. It’s taking me about three jabs each time in order to draw enough blood. Yuck!

Alex is teaching me new tricks. The latest is how to know what cat food he wants to eat. If he jumps on the table, then Alex wants dry food with a side of treats; if he leaps up on the counter, then I am to give him a packet of wet food with grave and, of course, a side of treats. Also, if he jumps up on a kitchen chair but does not jump up on the table, then I am to pick him up and cuddle him.

Chirp, Chirp

TASHA: Mr. Temple! There's a bird in here! In the kitchen!

ME: How do you know?

TASHA: I hear it chirping.

ME: Oh, Tasha, it's probably just the rabbit. [Really: the sound the scared bunny makes sounds, to me, like the chirping of a bird. Of course, I realize that my hearing ain't too good]

TASHA: NO! It's a little bird and I see it!

[Sound of furniture moving as I hobble toward the kitchen]

TASHA [standing on a chair by the kitchen table]: There it is! Get it. It scares me!

[A small bird, moving too fast for me to see what kind, swoops over my head toward the door to the back hallway and freedom. It misses the door, hits the wall, and drops down beside the wine cellar]

ME: Tasha, I think it hurt itself.

TASHA [climbing down from chair]: You're going to have to catch it because I won't. 

The above took place about 11:00 a.m. Monday. I did not catch the bird; it moved behind the wine cellar and stayed there.

Tasha had said the same thing (You're going to have to catch it because I won't) about the rabbit; but now, after numerous sightings*, she says that the the rabbit is cute and she has a broom and dust pan (see the first photo, below) ready for capture the rabbit and place him in one of the empty boxes I have strategically located around the house.

I love the outdoors. I really enjoy being surrounded by nature. However, sharing my house with a wild bird and a wild rabbit is too much indoor nature for me! They serve no purpose inside my house (except, perhaps, to give Alex exercise chasing them).

Tuesday afternoon the bird left us. When Tasha and I returned from an appointment at the VA hospital, she spotted the bird in the back hallway near the door that leads to the deck. She opened the door and the bird flew outside to freedom! Thank God! Now, if the rabbit would just hop out I'll be very happy.

*Speaking of the rabbit, he was last sighted this morning (Wednesday) being chased by Alex from the library into the kitchen. The bunny ran beneath the microwave stand. Alex hung around, pawing at the thing for a thirty seconds. Then the furball gave up, clawed me, and demanded dinner and desert.

As for me, I am enjoying the warm weather to no end:

[Tasha, who snapped this photo, says that I "look sexy." HA!]

A Strange Holy Week

Dali's Last Supper

(I have a personal story about this marvelous painting that I shall share tomorrow)

This is perhaps the strangest Holy Week I have ever had. For more than a quarter century I would spend special time during Holy Week in prayer and mediation, even more than I did earlier in Lent. This year I have set aside time to do that  and have been practicing Vipassana mediation as well as rereading and meditating on St. John of the Cross' The Dark Night of the Soul.

I am also continuing to read the theological history book that I have been rereading the past week or so, When Jesus Became God. It's a excellent book that I highly recommend. I shall write more about it after Easter.

Those pursuits are fairly normal for me during Holy Week. What's not normal is that I am still dealing with the computer. I've re-installed four more programs that I had lost. I've tried and failed to re-install Microsoft Office  and Corel Painter Elements 4. Both programs say that the code I need to install and activate them are on stickers on the boxes. There are stickers on both boxes, but neither contains the needed codes! 'Tis a quandary!

I still have no sound! I have followed every procedure I can find to fix that. The computer tells me that I have installed sound devices and all are working and that each has the correct, signed driver.

But then the computer also tells me I have no sound devices! Another quandary!

Perhaps my (Alex helped) grandest accomplishment was rescuing Alex's blog! Alexicon is now back under our control and the bad dudes have been banished!

Also what isn't normal about this Holy Week is sharing my house with a baby rabbit. I have seen the little fellow several times; the last was early this morning. Each time he has been entering the living room and scurrying behind a big chair in the corner. I have placed water and some of Alex's dry cat food toward the back of the chair and someone--I assume the rabbit--has been dining on it. 

Very early this morning I took the picture below of the rabbit scurrying across the the living room floor. When I pushed the camera shutter button, the rabbit was in the center of the view finder. As you can see, this quick-hopping bunny was out of the frame by the time the photo was taken. (And I wonder why a can't catch him!)

Today is Tasha's birthday.

I was going to take her out for dinner to celebrate her birthday, but Greg, the father of her baby, was hanging around my house and I couldn't afford restaurant meals for both of them. So, I gave Tasha some cash for her birthday (she and the kids are badly in need of clothes at the moment) and some more money to purchase fast food for the three of us.

After we ate and while Tasha was cleaning up, I noticed that Greg had fallen asleep in my living room. Sooooo, since I had the camera in my pocket in case the bunny came into view, I snapped the photo below. The flash didn't disturb Greg at all!

When  I showed Tasha the photograph of Greg she laughed and laughed and said it was one of the best birthday gifts she has ever received! 

Stuff, Bunny Update, and a Few KATZ

Earth Day Is April 22

Baby Bunny Update
Last night while I was in my living room, I saw the little rabbit scamper across the floor and go behind a large rocking chair in the corner. There is a deep, built-into-wall bookcase behind the chair and bunny has plenty of safe (from Alex) hiding space. I've placed a small dish of water and a bit of lettuce and carrot peelings beside the back of the chair. I hope the little fellow is OK. Perhaps I can coax him outside today.

Goat Rope
If you aren't familiar with the blog The Goat Rope, give yourself a gift and click on over. Today's post deals with "upside to the current economic crisis" and I found it most insightful.

My Computer
The computer is still not functioning OK. Among other problems, I still have no audio! I have been followed numerous suggestions and processes to get the computer to recognize its sound devices without success. No matter what I do, the damned 'puter still says: No Audio Device Selected.

Alex's Blog: Alexicon
For some time I have had others putting posts on Alex's blog. Blogger had been no help in stopping it. I have changed the Blogger ID and password, but it still happens. A reader has suggested that it may be one of the widgets on the sidebar that is the source. Unfortunately (1) for some unknown reason I can no longer access the blog's dashboard, therefore I'm unable to delete the posts or the widgets and (2) now a phishing site has made a post that transports one from Alexicon to the phisher's German web site.

Lots to Do
As you may deduce from the above items, I have lots to do. My energy level has been high the past few days, perhaps because I have been sleeping 12-13 hours a night. That's unusual for me! I was a bit concerned after the second sleep marathon until I remembered what my Uncle Frank would say, "You're sleeping because your body needs it. Listen to your body."

Holy Week
Here it is Tuesday of Holy Week and my clergy friend, Doug, still hasn't orders of worship written for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday! I offered to write them for him: I love writing liturgies and really, really miss doing so.

A Few KATZ

Alex and the Baby Bunny

Last night, after his dinner,Alex asked to go outside. I opened the front door for the furball and left it open while I sat at my computer still trying to get it back up to snuff.

While I was at the computer, Alex came running through the open front door and I heard a squealing sound coming from him. Afraid that the was seriously hurt, I jumped up and followed the furball into the kitchen. There I saw that Alex had a very live baby rabbit in his mouth! It was the rabbit that was squealing, not Alex.

I yelled at Alex, who dropped the rabbit, who ran into the corner and wedged itself between a box and my corner cabinet. Alex, of course, chased after the rabbit. I grabbed Alex and put him in the small bedroom and closed the door on him. Then I returned to the kitchen and tried to catch the baby rabbit.

Have you ever tried to catch a rabbit? I failed. The little rabbit hopped furiously across the kitchen floor from the corner to I don't know where.

After 20 minutes of searching for the rabbit with no success, I decided to let Alex out of his jail. I figured that Alex would find the rabbit for me and then I could rescue it. Alex went to the corner of the kitchen, the last place he had seen the rabbit. Of course, the bunny wasn't there. Alex smelled around the floor, but never found the rabbit. Instead, he demanded to go back outside.

I left the front door open until I went to bed to (1) allow Alex to come in and (2) allow the bunny to get out. Alex came in, but I don't know if the rabbit went out. So. as of this morning, as far as I know, I have a baby bunny someplace in my house! I only hope that I find him before (1) he dies from lack of food/water or (2) Alex finds him.

Damned cat!

Silly rabbit!

Tired me!

Spider and Tree

Post #991

The Spider

Brown Recluse Spider

Yes, I am a peaceful dude; perhaps one could call me a peacemaker. I believe in the intrinsic value of all sentient creatures and seek to harm none. Since I was a child, I have captured creepy/crawly things and carried them outside of my home where I have safely released them.

However, there is such a thing as a defensive war and the damned spider started this one. She bit me first:

She even claimed space, uninvited of course, in the corner of my bedroom:

So, since Ms. Spider began this war, I intend on finishing it:

The Tree

The tree in my neighbor’s yard was huge: it branches hung over both of our houses, decks, and yards like the canapé of a rain forest. More than once in the years that I have lived here, huge limbs have come down in the wake of storms. Thankfully, falling limbs, some of which were the size of a small tree, have done no major damage to living creatures or property. However, it was only a matter of time….

Thus, my neighbor had the ancient tree removed last week. I felt sad at its destruction, but I know that it is for the best: one of those huge limbs could have very easily crushed a little kitty cat like Alex.

Most of the following photographs of the removal of the tree (a three day process) were taken by Tasha.