September 2006 Archives
Ugh. I am tired. It doesn't help that I was awakened several times throughout the night by my noisy ass neighbors next door that still think they are teenagers or something. They are in their fifties, for heaven's sake and I feel like we live next door to a freaking frat house. My God, they are sooooooo loud! Their cackles and hoots and laughter goes right through the walls and into my room where they wake me regularly. I even have one of those white noise machines, but nothing covers up their inconsiderate yelling. And it went on until 5:30 this morning, believe it or not. I literally cannot fathom how they are able to stay up like that; I would be a zombie. This morning when we got up, Andy said that he wished the lawn needed mowing so he would have an excuse to make noise that would bother them while they are trying to sleep.
Okay so the war is only the war on fleas, but it is a big one and right now the fleas are winning. I picked up Annabel last night off the rug and her cute sweet little belly was just crawling with the nasty little vermin, and this after I have been spraying them and treating them regularly with Frontline/Advantage. I guess they need treatment more often than every month even. I put Anna immediately in the bathtub, and scrubbed her down thoroughly to get rid of the fleas that were on her at the time. Then I re-treated her and a couple of the others with what little Frontline Spray I had left. I picked up some more of the Frontline Spray this afternoon and doused them all in it and rubbed it in to their skin well. Andy has been treating the yard for fleas, but the next great frontier for us is to treat the house. We have regular indoor pest control, but it is only the crack/crevice dusting type deal and apparently that is not enough. I have been hesitant to spray because of Charley, our parrot, as birds are very sensitive to chemicals, but we have got to do something.
Today I picked up some diatomaceous earth that we can dust into the carpets and furniture and it is supposed be very safe for our pets but also kill fleas and other vermin in no more than 48 hours by drying them out. I am going to keep looking for other better stuff to treat with and we are going to vacuum the area rug in the living room and the carpet in the bedrooms pretty much daily to get rid of any nasty little flea carcasses and eggs. Ick. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Harsh chemicals or foggers are not an option due to the bird. I don't want to lose this battle!
I recently picked up a book at the health food store called Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia & Lyme Disease. Sounds kind of dull, huh? It is actually fascinating and I am learning a lot of things that kind of horrify me. See, I never knew that "silver" fillings in teeth are actually mercury amalgam fillings. It just so happens that the mercury in those fillings is many many times the amount you could ever ingest through eating fish and the fillings are associated with a whole host of diseases and disorders including Alzheimers, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, Parkinson's. This is some scary stuff. A quick search on google turns up all kinds of information with little evidence against it. In the words of one dentist "I don't feel comfortable using a substance designated by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a waste-disposal hazard. I can't throw it in the trash, bury it in the ground, or put it in a landfill, but they say it's okay to put it in people's mouths. That doesn't make sense." - Richard D. Fischer D.D.S.
Here are a few facts about mercury amalgam fillings:
Causes Damage to Brain in Children
In February, 1998, a group of the world's top mercury researchers announced that mercury from amalgam fillings can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and immune system of children.
Amalgam Fillings Linked to Neurological Problems, Gastrointestinal Problems
The first large-scale epidemiological study of mercury and adverse reactions was recently completed and showed that of the symptoms looked at, there was a link seen to gastrointestinal problems, sleep disturbances, concentration problems, memory disturbances, lack of initiative, restlessness, bleeding gums and other mouth disorders.
Mercury / Alzheimer's Disease Connection Found
A study related to mercury and Alzheimer's Disease was recently completed by a team of scientists led by well-respected researcher Dr. Boyd Haley. They exposed rats to levels of mercury vapor diluted to account for size differences between humans and rats. The rats developed tissue damage "indistinguishable" from that of Alzheimer's Disease. Repeating the experiment showed the same results. Dr. Haley is quoted as saying "I'm getting the rest of my fillings taken out right now, and I've asked my wife to have hers replaced too."
Amalgam Fillings Since 1970s Unstable
The type of mercury fillings that began to be used during the last couple of decades, non-gamma-2 (high copper), releases many times more mercury than the older style of amalgam fillings.
Amalgam Fillings Release Highly Toxic Elemental Mercury
Mercury is one of the most toxic substances known. The mercury release from fillings is absorbed primarily as highly toxic elemental mercury vapor.
Amalgam Fillings Largest Source of Mercury By Far
Based on a number of studies in Sweden, the World Health Organization review of inorganic mercury in 1991 determined that mercury absorption is estimated to be approximately four times higher from amalgam fillings than from fish consumption. Recent studies have confirmed this estimate. The amount absorbed can vary considerably from person to person.
Cumulative Poison and Builds Up in Organs
Mercury released from fillings builds up in the brain, kidneys, liver, pituitary, adrenals, and other parts of the body.
Mercury Amalgam Fillings Effect Porphyrins
Preliminary results from the first detailed biochemical analysis of patients who removed mercury amalgam fillings showed a significant drop in the excretion of porphyrins (important to heme synthesis -- heme carries oxygen to red blood cells), as well as a number of other key biochemical changes.
Potential Contribuatory Factor in Other Diseases
Mercury from amalgam fillings has been implicated as a possible contribuatory factor in some cases of Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, IBS, reproductive disorders, allergies, and a variety of other illnesses.
Mercury Build Up in Brain, Organs and Breast Milk of Fetuses of Mothers With Amalgam Fillings
Mercury from fillings in pregnant women has been shown to cause mercury accumulation in brain, kidneys and liver of human fetuses (all of the areas tested). Studies have shown that mercury can be passed to infants from breast milk.
Proper Removal of Fillings Produces Eventual Health Improvement
A recent survey in Sweden showed that of 268 patients who removed amalgam fillings, 80% showed permanent health improvement. Three-fourths of those that improved did so within 6 months while one-fourth of those who improved did not show improvement until after 6 months. There were no signs of the positive effects disappearing as might be expected with a placebo effect.
World-reknowned Experts Agree About Potential Danger
In contrast to statements from dental trade organizations, toxicologists and medical researchers are often quite concerned about the use of mercury. Lars Friberg, the lead toxicologist on the World Health Organization team looking at inorganic mercury and health effects recently stated that he believes that mercury is unsuitable for dental materials because of safety concerns.
Canadian Class Action Lawsuit
Canadians are in the process of beginning a major class action lawsuit based on the fact that the government knew of but did not warn the public about mercury dangers from amalgam fillings.
In addition to all this, the use of mercury almagam fillings is banned or severely restricted in many European countires, and Sweden is even paying for its citizens to have them removed. Why are we the last to get in on this stuff? I am calling around tomorrow to see about getting the three amalgam fillings I have replaced. Sheesh!
I feel sorry for the pizza delivery people, especially if they have to deliver to people like our across the street neighbor. The delivery people are always on a pretty tight schedule, and the people across the street will order a pizza and then not come to the door for almost ten minutes. Now, when you call to order pizza, aren't you kind of on the lookout for it? They sure aren't. i have seen the pizza guy give up and leave a few times. I know they must get extremely annoyed.
My purse drives me crazy. It is like a small bucket tote bag thing and it is very roll-y. I sit it on the passenger seat of my Jeep and every time I drive around a good corner it tips over and spills half the contents between the seat and the door. It is starting to be a pain in the ass.
We are hoping to get little Cody's stitches out tomorrow. He is tired of wearing the cone collar and his whole head stinks like smelly ears. He is getting a bath ASAP.
Andy has finally gotten on MySpace and found all two of his classmates from rural BFE Ohio that are on there. He is all into it and trying to learn the html to fix up his page. I have been trying to get him to learn that kind of stuff forever, and now he has pulled out my html books and everything. Nerd.
Tomorrow morning, I have a doctors appointment at 8:30. No make that 8:15. Actually, the appointment is at 8:30 but they want me there at 8:15. It is not to fill out paperwork or anything; it is not a new doctor, they just want me there early "because." So then, doesn't that mean that my appointment is really at 8:15, if that is when they want me there? I think that they want me there early in case for some reason they are not busy they can see me then. But then if they are busy, they can just see me at 8:30 (or later) and they are still right on schedule. This way it gives them the option, while giving me the impression that they are more prompt than they are. Except I am on to them. We'll see.
The two vehicles that Andy and I own are not exactly very good "grocery getters." Mine is a Jeep and while you can cram groceries in there, it is far from an ideal setup, and Andy drives a full-size truck with an extended cab. It has one of those little suicide doors to the backseat area and when we go to get groceries, we go in that door to load them up. Now, if anyone parks in the spot next to us, that becomes increasingly difficult. We can't get the cart in close enough and it requires a lot of unnnatural reaching around the stupid little door, and it just a real pain in the ass. We always try to go grocery shopping early on Saturday or Sunday mornings when it is not very busy, and we always park a good ways out in the parking lot to decrease the possibility that somone will want to park next to us, but somehow it never fails. We go out to the truck, and someone will have parked in the one spot that makes loading the groceries more difficult for us.
I finally thought of a good idea, though. I say we go buy a non descript orange traffic cone, and when we get out of the truck, we will place it in the spot next to us. No one will know why it is there, but they won't park there either, especially because they would have to get out and move the cone to do so. And there are always tons of other parking spaces available, so it isn't really putting anyone out or anything. Andy says we should stencil "possible sinkhole" on the cone, but I think just the plain cone will be good enough for our purposes. You may think I am kidding, but I am dead serious; I am really about to go shop for a cone. What do you think?
So yesterday Space Shuttle Atlantis safely returned home to us at Kennedy Space Center early in the morning. I heard the double sonic boom of its arrival while on my way to work in the dark of morning. If you are not aware of what was accomplished on this mission you must watch this video. Massive solar arrays were attached to the International Space station and carefully unfurled and it is a pretty interesting sight to see. I am going to leave you this Friday evening with this to watch and see a bit of my world and what we work towards all year. Enjoy!
This has been one busy week. All the extra dog maintenance has kept us, especially Andy, really running around. Annabel is going in to be groomed tomorrow morning, at that completes the last of it for a while.
Today Denny went to get groomed while Louie was knocked out getting his teeth cleaned. Andy picked Denny up before he left for work and brought him back home. He called me when he got home to let me know that Denny was fine and his haircut looked good. They were out in the backyard when he called. I left my office at work and was doing things elsewhere in the building for a few minutes, and when I got back to my office I saw there was a message on my phone. It was Andy, who had called to tell me "I saw him poop! He must've had to go real bad!" If you remember about a week or so ago, I wrote about how Denny is a very secretive pooper and that I have only seen him poop twice in the nearly five months we have had him. I mean we know he does poop, because he eats and he doesn't explode, so it must go somewhere, but he is very private about it. Andy had NEVER seen him poop, and today was the first time. It is amazing the things that one feels necessary to calls one's spouse at work to discuss, but he was just shocked to finally bear witness to such an event.
I went to pick Lou up and he was so happy to see me he almost wiggled right out of the vet tech's arms. His teeth are all white and pearly now. We had them look at the little patch of dermatitis on his arm that we have already taken him in to the vet twice for, and now they decided it has become a "lick granuloma" and they injected medicine right into the site on his arm.
When we got home, we went in the backyard and he peed and pooped real quick, and he must have been hot, because before I even knew what had happened he had run into the beach area of the pool and got himself wet up to the belly. he likes to do that to cool off. I think he was just so nervous from being at the vet that he got hot and pant-y. Well he messed up the bandage on his arm that was supposed to stay on there for a couple of days, it was soaked through and I had to put a new one on him. Kids. What can you do?
Tomorrow morning my little Louie pup has to go under anesthesia to get his teeth cleaned, so I will be worried about him all morning until I hear that he is back awake afterwards. Lou is an incredible baby; he is such a little pansy that he will be scared. I am glad Andy is taking him in the morning because it breaks my heart to leave him or any of them at the vet. I just get to be the one that picks him up afterward when he is all kinds of happy to see me. Lucky me.
I got this letter today, from my health insurance company, that stated the following:
"Flu season runs from December through April. Since you have a health condition, you are at greater risk for complications if you get the flu. A flu shot minimizes thoserisks. The best time to get your shot is between early October and mid-November. You should have a flu shot every year."
Now for those of you who don't know, the "health condition" I have that they are referring to is fibromyalgia. But it is managed just fine thankyouverymuch. I have never in my life gotten a flu shot, and have also never gotten the flu. I have had any number of other weird diseases, but never the flu. I know people that have had very bad reactions to flu shots such as my father-in-law who got one that caused him to not be able to lift his arm for MONTHS. Apparently they hit a nerve with the vaccination or something. They don't tell you about THAT stuff. That the flu shot itself can have complications.
Because of the risks, I have no inclination to run out and get a flu shot even if the bean counters at my insurance company think I should. What do you think of flu shots? Do you think they are a good idea or think they are not worth messing with?
Andy took our baby Cody to the vet this morning to get his teeth cleaned and a cyst removed. He had this big icky bump of a cyst between his eyes, and it needed to come out, and still I worried all morning, especially since it was a little more complicated to put him under anesthesia due to his diabetes. But he did very well, and I got to pick him up from the vet on my way home from work. When I got there, the girls up front said they were just discussing which one of them had to go get my baby for me. They didn't want to have to be the one to present him to me because he looks so horrible after being shaved and cut open and stitched up. They were all sad about it. I was mentally prepared for what he was going to look like, so it really didn't shock me that much. Besides, he is my little sweetie no matter what he looks like. He will heal and his fur will grow back before we know it.
The poor bear has to wear one of those rotten elizabethan collars, at least when I can't watch him closely, because he is wanting to scratch at his wound. He has had to wear one once before when he had a growth removed from his little foot and he absolutely hated it. We called it his "little hat." As in, "Cody! Leave that foot alone or we'll have to put on your little hat!"
Are you ready? Here's what they did to my poor little baby. But don't worry, he will be as good as new in no time.
I am bored with my food. And it pretty much sucks because I am not really doing anything about it. I am perpetually on some stage of the South Beach diet, and right now I am back to square one with phase one, which doesn't give me a whole heck of a lot of options in the first place, so it is tough. I was so very disappointed this weekend at the grocery store when I found that I couldn't even buy any fresh spinach due to an e coli scare. I love spinach in my salads and they are going to be boring and bland with out it. Ugh.
And then I thought that maybe I'd make chili again. When I went through the produce section of the smaller of the two grocery stores we normally frequent, I found that we should have gone to the larger one, because there were no Anaheim Chilis, no serrano peppers, no orange or yellow tomatoes, and so I scrapped that idea. I was not willing to settle for a substandard chili, no way.
During the week I am really bad with cooking because Andy isn't here for dinner. He is on second shift still, and I just can't be bothered to work up a decent meal for only just me, so I end up haing a bag of steamed vegetables almost every night for dinner. They have tose frozen veggies that steam right in the bag when cooked in the microwave, so that is my main staple. Still, it leaves me wanting something better.
I love to watch Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals on Food Network and I always find myself wishing she would come and cook for me. The food she makes always looks so delicious. I have a few of her cookbooks and have tried a couple of recipes, but still I just can't get into all that for just me. Lazy, I guess.
What do you eat for dinner? A nice sit down meal every night or just some crap thrown together like me? Are there any easy meals you swear by? And more importantly what are some favorites that are healthy and low/good carb?
This has been a busy week for me with tons of meetings at work, training sessions and all the dog maintenance we have accomplished after work. So I am glad to be finally nearing the weekend. Still, even though I have been very busy, at the back of my mind I have been seriously considering going back to school. I haven't been to any kind of school except work training school in nearly seven years. Still, I have always been a naturally good student and a great test taker.
If I go back to school I want to study web design, computer graphics and that kind of thing, because I think it would be useful, fun and i think I would be good at it once I mastered all the technical details, because I have been through all kinds of art training and design is design, whether it is a work of art or a computer screen. Maybe I will have to look into taking some classes. I already have my AA so I wouldn't be bogged down taking a bunch of core classes. And my company pays for every bit of it including books, so I really have no excuse as long as I can find the time to go. What do you think? Would you go back to school?
We are handling a larger than usual amount of dog maintenance lately. Cody and Louie need their teeth cleaned so I had to take Cody in for blood work prior to them knocking him out because he is an older dog (eleven) and they have to make sure everything is working right before they will put him under. I took him in yesterday for his full bloodwork and the vet called today. His bloodwork was good but his glucose was very high so Andy had to bring him back in this morning to have him checked again. He is now scheduled for his teeth cleaning on Monday, and they are going to remove a large cyst from between his eys while he is knocked out. He is going to look frightening when we get him back; they always shave so much fur away when they cut on him, but it needs to be done.
Louie is scheduled to have his teeth done next Thursday but he is young and healthy so he didn't need bloodwork. He is STILL gnawing on his arm where he had dermatitis even after two trips to the vet for it, so I guess we will be treating that again too. He and Michaela are getting haircuts tomorrow as well, and the other kids are due for them as soon as possible. Annabel and Cody get their last doses of worm medicine tomorrow and I need to get more flea stuff for Denny. It sure takes a lot of work to maintain a pack of happy healthy poodles!
Andy went to the utility company engineer today to show him the plans for the road we are building to our new house. The news was good. We do not have to have the four utility poles that are positioned along the roadway even though they are very close to the road. This is fantastic news, because moving these poles could have cost more than twenty thousand dollars and would have seriously burdened our budget. So we are quite pleased. It is about time we got a break!
With all the media coverage and memorials of 9/11 it is hard not to remember the day from my perspective. I was on second shift at the time and was up getting ready for the day when I first found out about it. I had CNN on upstairs in the bedroom and saw when they showed right after the first plane hit. At the time the newscasters were stunned and were speculating that there was some sort of problem with the air traffic control signals, but being involved in aviation, I knew that could not be the case. Despite any problems with signals, I knew that no pilot would fly straight into a building on a beautiful clear sunny day like that- that the pilot could see where they were going even with the loss of all air traffic control.
Anyway, the scene continued to unfold and I had to leave to take one of the dogs to the vet. I don't know why I remember that, but I do. I remember discussing it with the girl at the front desk there, Heather. I remember feeling like the world was falling apart.
Amazingly, even though I worked at Orlando International Airport at the time, I still had to go in to work that day. I was working for a service center of a business jet manufacturer, Cessna Citation, at a small FAA repair station there. We were all in a funk. The strangest part was the silence. There we were right next to the runway of an international airport and the silence was deafening- no planes.
In the following weeks things returned somewhat to normal, but it was an altered normal. I know that is true for everyone. This whole country will never be the same as before 9/11. I hope we won't ever forget.
This tribute to Robert Speisman is part of a large project of 2,996 bloggers that have gotten together to each honor one of the victims of September 11th on the five year anniversary of the tragedy. Click on the link "2996" in my sidebar to find the home of the project and visit some of the other tribute posts.
The person that I am honoring today is Robert Speisman, a husband and father from Irvington, New York. Robert was among the 64 people who died aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon after being hijacked by terrorists. He left behind his wife Rena, his parents Jack and Joyce, and his three daughters, Tara, Brittany, and Hayley. I know they miss him terribly. My heart goes out to his family, who has had to suffer his loss these last five years. I cannot even imagine the pain they must have felt and the loss they still feel to this day. I am so sorry for your loss, Speismans, if you are reading this. This world is a little less special without him. I wish I had the opportunity to know him.
I have found a ton of information on Bob Speisman in my quest to complete this tribute, and it is obvious that this man, who was an executive with the diamond company Lazare Kaplan was well loved by all who knew him. Many fond stories of him were shared such as playing frisbee with 45s and LPs when he was in the record business and his early Sunday morning basketball games that took place for at least a decade.
In my research for this tribute I found this fascinating piece written three years ago by Robert's niece, Juliet Spiesman, and I just had to reproduce it here because it is a great bit of writing and deserves to be shared. I hope she doesn't mind that I share it with you here. She called this piece "The Laughing, the Burping, and the Love."
"Every family has that relative, the person who breeds life into routine family get-togethers by saying outrageous things at inappropriate times and teasing everyone relentlessly about whatever it is they are most embarrassed about.
For myself - and without doubt anyone who even remotely knows my family - this character is my late 'Uncle Bobby,' who passed away on September 11, 2001 when his flight out of Dulles Airport was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon.
I will always remember the seat I had in Professor Niles' Civil Procedure class my first year, for it was there that a classmate of mine first announced the terrorist attacks to my class. I will always remember calling my father to tell him his only brother and best friend was dead, and I will always be grateful to the teachers and classmates I had during my first weeks of law school, for they held me up as I tried to help my family.
Thus, as the anniversary of this date comes near, I wanted to write something to the WCL community, and really to the entire AU campus.
I considered writing about my father and how, after losing his brother, he will never be the same. Or about my cousins who no longer have a dad. I thought about my grandparents who will never hear their son's voice again, and my aunt who has lost the father of her children, her husband and soulmate.
But instead of writing a dramatic and sad piece, I chose to write something my uncle would actually want to read: an article about the laughter, the burping and, most importantly, the love.
A lot has happened in the two years since our nation was attacked. Broadly speaking, we have gone to war and are now in a time of 'peace' where it is routine to see international bombing and the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. Additionally, it is now a two-hour process to go through controversial airline security measures, and our entire nation functions on a color-coded terror alert system.
On a more personal note, in memory of my uncle's love of sports and community: a basketball court was built in his name in Irvington, NY; a charity organization known as 'Bobbies Buddies' was formed to help with various childrens' causes; scholarships have been given out at his daughters' schools and at his childhood YMCA in Littleneck, NY; and an entire basketball league has been funded by donations to the Robert Speisman Foundation.
Still I think what is really worth writing about are the reasons these efforts have been made. For me, every time I take a photograph, I remember how my uncle would yell 'sex' instead of 'cheese' whenever my family would take a picture. My grandmother remembers how my uncle would burp when she answered the phone instead of saying hello. My sister remembers being in grade school and having my uncle call and say he was the cute boy who sat behind her in math class. His daughters remember being embarrassed by their proud father who would brag about them to no end any chance he could. My father remembers calling his brother when I was born, and my uncle flying from Los Angeles to New York just so he could see his brother's first child.
When my uncle's first daughter (my cousin) found out that she got into Georgetown, the first person she called was her father, who put her on speakerphone for the entire office to hear. When my aunt was young and was going through the awkward phase of losing baby teeth and wearing braces, my uncle would call his sister the 'toothless dumbbell.' He also would drink the soda my grandmother bought for her and throw the tennis shoes of female classmates up on telephone wires. In middle school, when the professor asked who wanted a demerit, my uncle proudly raised his hand.
For those of you who are thinking, 'who the hell was this guy?' let me reassure you ... he left college because he was bored, and in the sixties he had very long hair, protested against the Vietnam War, loved Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead and was what one might call a soldier of peace. He loved sports, and if he has any pull the NY Mets will win a World Series soon. In fact, as a huge AZ Diamondback fan, my father attributes the 2001 World Series to my uncle. He loved music and in fact was so excited to get on his flight so that he could listen to a CD of Jerry Garcia that my father burned for him.
But mostly, he loved people, and he loved to make them laugh - especially with humor relating to bathrooms and sex.
Interestingly enough, within minutes of my father finding out about his brother, our toilet broke. Likewise, on her way home to New York after bringing my cousin to Georgetown, my aunt got mysteriously locked in the bathroom of the train she was on.
Probably because they laugh and fart a lot, my uncle loved children. One can bet that as Flight #77 had a large number of children traveling from DC to California on a school trip, my uncle was with them ... telling them fart jokes, promising them McDonald's and making bets with the boys that he could get them a date with Miss America when the plane landed. Needless to say, my uncle was a very successful businessman who worked as vice president of a major international diamond company in New York City. Yes, his good looks, hard work, laughing and farting earned him a spot at the top of the food chain ... it is this same charisma that prompted the entire town of Irvington to wear T-shirts that read 'B.S.'- yes, it stands for Bob Speisman, but also for another phrase he had been known to say on more than one occasion (especially on the basketball court).
Some of you may have stopped reading at the title, assuming it would be too sad for you to go on. Others may have gotten to this point and are now thinking, 'wow, that was way too much information.'
I thought long and hard about whether to share these personal memories of my special uncle, but ultimately was inspired by his daughter - my cousin - Brittany Speisman, who shared a birthday with her father and recently gave a speech about him at her high school graduation.
Her speech focused on turning the pain and anger that flows from these crimes of hate and terrorism into love and understanding.
My uncle was an everyday champion of peace and love and would have been extremely proud. I will share with you just one brief segment, which reads:
'when the person that you love more than life dies,
and the murderer is one with evil and hate in his eyes
and you scream out the most terrible, drowning cries,
and your days are filled with grief, tears and sighs ...
The hate that breeds inside you is hard to disguise.
Take it from me or others who have direct blows of hate in their lives;
you must take these feelings that pierce your heart and mind like knives.
You must kill these feelings so that love survives,
and once the feelings of hatred die, the heart revives.
And although the pain and suffering never dissipate,
you have worked to defeat and stop the growing cycle of hate.
The hatred taken against you is still there,
and no matter how it is seen, it will never be fair.
But by not taking action with anger and fight
in a world of so many wrongs, you have done what is right.
Now hopefully others can see this light,
and slowly the evil will disappear with the night.'
Not surprisingly, my cousin received a standing ovation from the audience, the teachers and the students. Ironically, she gave this speech in a park by the Hudson River where a few days after my uncle's death, some 3,000 people gathered to fill the park, wearing tie-dye, listening to music and sharing funny stories about my uncle. These were not just family and close friends, but secretaries from his office, old friends from college, kids he coached in soccer and everyday people he touched with his generosity and attention to personal detail. After all, how many VPs and CEOs routinely ask the mail clerk of their office, 'how are your kids doing?'
Said another way, let the turnout at his memorial be a testament to the fact that one person - an everyday patriot - can make a difference in this world.
As a favorite poet of mine, 'Flavia,' has written, 'some people leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.'
My uncle traveled the world, leaving footprints on the hearts of everyone he encountered by making each of us feel special. These footprints are not just imprints; they are deep and muddy, smell like farts, make people laugh, and mostly, they breed love into anyone who walks in his footsteps.
On the anniversary of this day, I urge all of you (or at least those brave enough to read up to this point) to remember the laughter and love of each of the victims lost, and in their name make someone smile (or for my uncle, at least give them gas).
To the victims of 9-11-01, we will never forget you.
We love you, Uncle Bobby. Thanks for being unforgettable."- Juliet Speisman 2003
This fabulous tribute gives us only a tiny glimpse into the life of Bob Speisman, but it is enough to know that he was a man that was the life of the party, well loved by all and terribly missed. To his family I would like to say that I am proud to know of such a great individual and hope that I have done their loved one justice in this tribute. Speismans, you truly have something to be proud of and I am really touched by what I have learned through this project.
It has been over four months now since we first met our Denny as a foster poodle, and then he became our very own adopted furry child on July 4th. The funny thing about him though is that he never poops in front of us. In the whole time we've had him, I have only seen him poop twice and Andy never has. We know he does poop, he is just secretive about it for some reason. We have a nice dog door leading outside so he is able to go at his leisure, and that is what he does, apparently. We have taken to calling him "The Secret Pooper." I have never known a dog to care about their audience when pooping before. Denny is truly unique.
So we finally launched STS-115 after much suspense. You may not realize that this is the first launch of Atlantis since 2002. It was in the Vehicle Assembly building being stacked for launch at the time of the Columbia accident, so afterwards it was destacked and went through a major modification down period. Yay Atlantis!
These photos were taken just outside the press site at the space center. It is the best place I have found to get a good view unless you are some kind of VIP, and I don't qualify; I just put the durned things together!
Ugh. I am tired and should be sleeping right now. I am sitting on my bed, so at least I am almost there. Anyway, I am working on a new blogging project unrelated to this site and it has had me very busy coming up with ideas. It is still top secret, but if you want to be let in on it when it is revealed- leave me a comment and I will send you the info. Very cryptic of me, huh?
So after all the craziness that has gone on this "flow" as we call the preparation for a space shuttle mission, it looks like we actually have a decent shot at launching tomorrow, at 12:29. It will be really good to see another one launch, and get back to some sense of normalcy with regular missions again. The next mission after this one is scheduled for mid December, which is right around the corner.
I don't kow how much of it will be televised, but this mission should be a really interesting one. Several HUGE solar arrays are being delivered to the International Space Station where they will be carefully unfolded to their full glory. These will give the station much needed electrical power, and it is pretty impressive to see the way they managed to get the enormous panels to fold up so small. I saw it on TV actually. The Discovery channel, you know, they have all kinds of neat space related shows. It is weird sometimes when they air programs about space shuttle processing and I see a bunch of people on there that I know from work. Anyway, everyone please keep their firngers crossed or pray or whatever you do for a successful launch tomorrow and safe mission thereafter. Godspeed Atlantis!
I just want to say that Andy has to be the slowest ice cream eater on the planet. I keep telling him that it is not supposed to be a soup. That is all.
Poor little diabetic Cody's cataracts have gotten very bad. One of his eyes has what they call a "mature" cataract and the other one is not far behind. We have noticed that he is starting to have trouble navigating and that his vision is getting worse and worse. Cataracts are a problem in most diabetic dogs. It is finally time for us to investigate cataract surgery for him, even though it is terribly expensive.
Besides being expensive, there are no vets here that do the procedure, but we can go about and hour and a half to two hours drive away to a vet that does. The poodle rescue group we work with has taken several dogs there for the procedure, and there is even a rescue member that lives in the area that will probably put us up for the night if I have to take him down there. Usually t requires an overnight stay in the area because the dog must be brought in first thing in the morning. Fortunately, the vet comes to a clinic in a city much nearer to us for consultations and post surgery visits; it is only the surgery that must be performed down at his regular office because of the equipment needed.
Another drawback to the surgery is that there are risks and potential complications as well, so this is something we will have to research and carefully consider. I know he would love to be able to see clearly again, but we don't want to put him at too much risk in the process.
So Andy and I are full up on dogs, after rescuing three poodles within the last year. But we are major animal lovers. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I have always had a soft spot in my heart for turtles. Maybe it is the hermit in me but I have always thought it was so cool they way they can just retreat back into their shells when they don't want to deal with life. I wish I could do that sometimes. When we finish building our new house next year on all that acreage, we have talked about building a nice enclosure and rescuing some large tortoises. Apparently there are a lot of large tortoises out there that need homes because people buy them when they are little not realizing how big they will get and they quickly outgrow their homes. Large tortoises need to have a roomy enclosure with space to roam and need to be able to stay warm year round. Being that we are in Florida, they should be warm most of the time and then we will build them a big "turtle garage" with heat lamps and such for cool winter nights. I think we will be able to really help a couple of them and give them happy lives.
I have been researching the different turtle & tortoise rescue groups and most of them are just like the poodle rescue in that they want references and for the applicant to have found a vet that deals with turtles already. They also require photos or video of the turtle enclosure, but I think that all of this is quite reasonable. It is something for us to explore once we get moved and prepare ourselves- then we can entertain the idea of rescuing tortoises. We are interested in helping one of the larger species- I think the Leopard Tortoise sounds perfect for us. It gets to about 100 pounds. What do you think, are we nuts?
