Originally uploaded by ausurfer.
This photo reminds me that it will soon be time for the residents of Madison Avenue to retrieve the snow shovels from the garage and get ready for some decent snowfall. That kind of weather is Lou Lou’s favourite, a time when she gets out and romps in the snowdrifts. Ya gotta love seeing a low to the ground basset hound doing that. 🙂
Well here it is close on the end of September and I am writing this post from the other side of the world, having left the USA on August 24, and arriving in Australia on August 26. I suppose I should have posted before I left, but there was too much going on to – so my apologies to anyone who has been taken surprise by the contents of this post.
The months leading up to the move were quite traumatic, for various reasons, most of which I won’t go into here. Suffice to say that I had mixed feelings about leaving, and whilst the destination was going to be Australia, it was difficult to move back having been immersed in the culture of the USA for just over 8 years. Sure, there were things about the culture that I struggled with (or perhaps it was more the political situation that impacted me), but this had been my home for a long period of time, and I was going to be missing a lot.
Relecting back to the years spent there — so much runs through my mind:
Wow, I just realised that I haven’t posted here in some time. It’s not like I haven’t had anything to write about, but more that I’ve not had a lot of time. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true, because I have spent an enormous amount of time lately reading some my fav blogs, not to mention finding a lot more to add to the ever-growing list of fav ones.
Those who know me would not be surprised to learn that the majority of the new blogs are ones created by interesting, often times quirky people. Funny, when I was at highschool I never dreamed I’d be hanging out with quirky people; now I’m happy to do so, because there’s something to be said for people who aren’t afraid to be themselves, regardless of the “norm”.
It’s like having my Mac…the people I work with think I’m a little strange because I don’t use a PC, and that I don’t spend all of my waking time playing XBox or some other form of online games. But I just take their jibes on the chin and move on, in the knowledge that I am happy to be who I am regardless of the peer pressures around me.
There are a number of things I could write about here, and yet I don’t see any standout item — well, perhaps I do. I went to a small town that is close to Pittsburgh (PA) (it could really be a suburb of the city) called Millvale. The reason for this trip was to see one of my fav artists, Beth Orton, in concert. Interestingly, not one person I work with has ever heard of Beth Orton, though I shouldn’t be surprised I guess because they aren’t really into her flavour of music. Acttualy, right now I am listening to some of her songs — as I write this line I’m enjoying “Paris Train”, from her highly successful recording “Daybreaker”.
The concert was at a place called Mr Smalls — an old church that these days is used for performances such as the Berth Orton concert. In its day, this church most likely saw some inspiring orations from the pulpit — now it is witness to performances from a small stage raised above the audience, much in the same manner as the pulpit. The church’s interior has been renovated very tastefully — the pews have been removed and replaced by small tables and chairs, giving those in attendance comfortable viewing opportunities. Great concert!
Well…getting late so off to bed for me…till next time take care all.
It seems appropriate that I would make my next posting about community, given my last comment was related to a community of soccer players and their followers. My post today relates to my local community, and the way in which it comes together when a situation cries out for help.
The situation I refer to is the realisation that some evil humans mistreated a large number of animals (cats & dogs) to the extent that at least 100 of them had to be put down, and the remainder put under 24 hour care at various isolation places located aound the city and outlying areas. The story of how this whole horrendous situation occurred is long and tedious and at some point I’ll probably relate some of it. For now I concentrate on the survivors, in particular the 20 or so dogs which I have been going out to help care for this weekend.
The community has been wonderful. Support has come from all kinds of places, including local vets who have donated their time and services; landowners who have provided places for shelter and care; local businesses who have come forward with food and supplies; and everyday people like myself and my friends, all of us pet owners and all equally horrified and dismayed at the manner in which these animals were treated. Another outcome as I see it has been the increased interest in organisations like that which rescued the animals from the squallor. Hopefully that interest and support will not wane once this situation is wound down. There will always be situations where mean people are taking advantage of those less fortunate.
Yesterday at 7am and again at 5pm we went out and helped the dedicated carers feed, walk, play with and spend quality time with these “lucky” survivors. None of the dogs had names, so now they do: there’s Stinker, a german shepherd cross (not sure what it’s crossed with); Sam, an adorable basset/beagle mix who just loves to walk, walk and walk; Tater, a fluffy and boisterous chow; Angel, a dog of unknown (well, to me anyway) breed, who has this way of observing and learning and then displaying wonderful social skills. There are many others there that are showing signs that they are coming out of what must have a horrendous existence, and becoming more sure of themselves and their surroundings.
Most of our friends have been “spoken for”; because there is a court case pending, the dogs can only be fostered out until the case has concluded. But being fostered is much better than where they were not so long ago, and those foster situations are going to begin tomorrow.
I’ll miss seeing their familiar faces and hearing their welcoming barks, but I know in my heart that they will be going to carefully selected families, each of which is dedicated to providing these guys and gals with a loving environment. At least we get to spend time with them all this afternoon and again tomorrow morning at 7am.
Did I mention I love my MacBook? In fact, any piece of Apple technology is quite welcome in my life. I ventured into this realm about 18 months ago, when my wife suggested I buy an iBook, probably because I wanted to use her PowerBook all the time, not to mention her iPod. The iBook was so easy to use, and making the jump from the world of Microsoft and PCs was no big deal. I still have a DELL, which I use from time to time. The thing that jumps out at me every time is this constant need to be installing patches etc on the DELL, whereas there is little need for that on the Mac.
That's not to say that the DELL doesn't have a place, because there are things that I need it for, but that gap is somewhat less evident now, especially now that Apple has built a new line of desktops & notebooks which have the capability to have both the MAC operating system and Windows XP loaded on the same machine. This effectively means that someone with needs under both platforms should be catered for. Given the increasing market share that Apple is achieving, perhaps in the not too distant future we may see a PC with the same versatility and choice?
Ok, here's post number 2, almost on the same day as the first post. Wonders never cease to amaze. To set the scene, I'm sitting on a deck chair out in the back yard. It's currently 11:30pm, and I'm doing this because Lou Lou, my sleepy old basset hound is not feeling well — and when she is like that, it means lots of visits outside. So, rather than getting up and down, I figured it might be fun to sit outside under the stars with her. It's quite a nice night after a HOT day here, and the stars are putting on a brilliant show. There are a few mossies around as well, so I have some mosquito repellent cones going — seem to be working because I haven't felt any bites. Thankfully Lou Lou has finally started to go off to sleep, evidenced by the snoring coming out of the darkness. 😉
Sitting out here reminded me of how lucky we are to have the technology possible to sit outside with a laptop and communicate to the world, without all the cables etc that one needed not too many years ago. In addition to doing this post I'm listening to one of my favourite internet radio stations (Auralgasms) streaming live music, and occasionally stopping to have a chat with a friend back in Australia. My friend in Australia was telling me about the Australia v Brazil game in the World Cup — we were beaten by Brazil, but only by 2 goals, so one has to take some heart from that, given that they are the favourites to win the Cup outright. That puts us at #2 in the group — not knowing how the group system works, I am hopeful that the top 2 teams from each will advance through to the next round. Time will tell I guess.
Well, Lou Lou is definitely asleep, and my laptop is running down on battery power => so this will be the end of post #2, with the promise of more to come later.
Have a good one.
Well, I decided to find another blog option, and WordPress seemed to be a well used one, so I signed up and here’s my first post. Anyone reading this who knows me, will know that I like to blog, but at times become a little slow in the production of posts. I looked at my current one over at blogger and my most recent post was on March 30 2006. Oh well. Maybe I can be a little more productive on this one. So, in the coming weeks, I’ll be working out how to use WordPress (so far I’ve been very impressed at how easy it is to use), and getting some resources linked. Maybe even a post every now and then. 🙂
The Experience Evolves 