My Friend Summer....

People come into our lives for a specific reason or reasons.  Some times it's years later before we realize the reason(s).  I also believe that animals come into our life for several reasons.  That is what this blog post is dedicated to, those animals that come into our lives.  More narrowly, dogs that come into our life, whether we are the pet owner, friend or just merely passing by for the moment.  

A dog is a little sneaky and maybe God planned it that way......  What I mean is who among us can resist a puppy, right?  They are so cute, cuddly and full of excitement that they just suck you in from the very beginning.  Then as they grow and mature they help us with all sorts of things, some of which we had no idea that they could actually help with.  Some things that are totally unforeseen events.  While others, we would have called you crazy, if you told us in advance "that your dog can help with that?"  It's true though, most every dog makes any situation better.  They are happy to see you, sniff you, go places with you at a moments notice.  They protect us, love us and even cherish the time they have to spend with us.. The joy and laughter produced by a dog just being there can't be imagined by anyone that has never experienced it.  

Today has been a rough day (March 5, 2016).  I lost a dear friend.  She was a beautiful yellow Labrador Retriever, named Summer.  Although, her name could have been "Shadow", lol.  

My girlfriend introduced me to Summer in July of 2015.  It was obvious right away that she was one of the sweetest dogs I had ever met.  She would come up, look at you right square in the eye and just adore her time with you.  As my relationship progressed with my girlfriend, so did my relationship with Summer.  After moving in with the both of them, I gladly took on and shared the responsibilities of feeding, loving on and walking her.  Some of my best times with Summer were on our walks together.  I always described her as the opposite of a "barn sour horse".  She was always excited to go on a walk, would even run down the street going out.  When the first sign of returning home would reveal itself, she would start pouting like the big dog she was!  Hanging her head low and walking noticably slower.....lol. Then we would have the one way conversation like a dad talking to his pouting child...you know like "Now you can't pout." "No one is going to want to take you on walks if you pout".  She was frustrating at times, like we all can be, but she was always a source of joy and happiness for all that knew her.  If I was kicking back watching tv she would always either come up and put her chin on my leg or especially if my legs were crossed, she would walk under my leg and lift it off of the other so that it would be resting on her when she laid down.  

Her excitement for the things she loved was obvious until the very end.  She loved people.  She wanted everyone to know that she loved them.  Even in her last hours, she had several around her loving her, but if you weren't there, she would come find you.  She would always do a quick little spin to the left just before you put her food down for her and just when she realized she was going for a W A L K.  Lol. She was a gamer though.  That dog was so smart and she would game with a person and they'd never know it.  My poor girlfriend would have to struggle to put her collar and leash on her for her walk.  I made it clear to this adorable four legged little girl right away that we weren't playing that game....lol. I would sit down, hold the collar all the way open with my hands and she would walk up and place her head through it.  We would go for our walk sometimes short and sometimes pretty long, it just depended on how she seemed to be doing on the walk(and the level of pouting, of course). 

Summer, you were an amazing lover, caretaker and friend.  I only knew you a short time, but you touched my heart so deeply!  I love you little girl, you'll always be in my heart and on my mind for all that you gave me!  I miss you already.  Have a wonderful time always, tell Kona I said hi, he was a great puppy too!

Easyrider Show - Long Beach CA 2016

Well this is the recap on the Easyrider show in Long Beach.  I took a vacation day to go to the show......paid my 20 dollars per person to go and what a disappointment!!!!  Never again.  A waste of time and money.  One vendor with apparel, one with gloves and yes the timeshare dude.....So I won't be returning to any of these Easyrider shows again.

Confidence vs Arrogance

So I am writing because I think there is a confusion about the meaning of these two words. 

The following courtesy of 

www.Merriam-Webster.com

Arrogance

 Simple Definition:

: an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter or more important than other people.

Confidence

Simple Definition:

:  the quality or state of being certain

Simply put I think that being confident is walking into a crowded room without feeling the need to compare yourself to anyone.  Just knowing yourself well enough to be yourself.  Society gets lost with the "keeping up with the Jones" mentality.  Which is all competition of material items.  Who cares?  If you have what is important to you and your family what more do you need?  So really, what we should all be doing is becoming more comfortable in our own skin.  Instead there is this overwhelming need to become more and more arrogant.  I guess its like the over abundance of the "Real Housewives" shows, reality tv and all the drama that comes with that.  It all started with Springer and everyone has followed in his footsteps.  There is always someone that wants to be famous that will do ridiculous stuff for minimum compensation. Just to say look at me, I'm better than you........

How much better would we all have it if we focused on our own confidence and and just stop competing for top "goofball"?  Doesn't it make sense to just like where we each are individually?  If we don't like it then we are the "only" ones that can change it, right?  So get on with it if that is the case.  Sometimes it's not easy, but it is soooo worth it!

Top That!

What could possibly top a day of riding to Oceanside in gale force winds?  Well let me tell you....taking a nice hot shower to warm up after fixing the shower one more time.  Then having the power go out.  That would have been the best as a kid!  You know "Sorry Mom, but I can't see".  So now that the power has been out for 2 hours and all the batteries in the electronic devices are dying.....

Now my amazing girl gets home and we light some more candles, as she jumps in the shower the lights come back on!!  Yeah!  So I'm sticking with the story that Southern California Edison has gender preferencing.....lol. Then of course I was tasked with blowing out all of the candles just in time to get my girl a towel and help dry off her beautiful body. Once again, proof that there is a God!  Just thought I would share.....

Merry Christmas 2015 recap.......

Let me just say WOW!  As most of you know I am an only child which makes for an interesting birth order....  So when my wonderfully amazing girlfriend tells me that she is 1 of 7, I try to understand that dynamic....I did watch a little of that with my own three children, so I wasn't completely oblivious.  My first introduction to the family was not really overwhelming but quite complex I'd say.  You see the oldest of the 7 children hosted a Thanksgiving Day dinner.  The oldest is married to a very nice man that is 1 of 5 children in his family.  Now you have to understand that they all have known each other for years and brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins have all grown up together.  It's like all of the households from the original 12 children of 2 families, come together under one roof for a holiday, just like they were all raised in just one house.  It's like any "family" get together is like the party of the decade!  Most only children would be overwhelmed I think.  As for me though, I always wanted a big family because from the outside in, it looked fun.  Maybe it was that grass is greener thing......  Turns out though, other than me still learning names a month later, it was fantastic!  This family is just as I imagined a big family would always be.  Grandma and Grandpa, enjoying their adult children, grandchildren and all of the laughter and joy of the stories of events that everyone remembers.  The "open arms" hospitality that can only come from a family that loves each and every member and extended member.  

Christmas was just as wonderful to experience.  My name to faces ratio was a little better at this event.  Lol. We did the Christmas Eve event at the same sister's house as Thanksgiving, I was happy to see one of my girl's Aunt and Uncle and Cousin.  They are amazing people that I just love how they are.  I'm really looking to have more one on one time with them tomorrow when the come for a more intimate visit with us and the beach.  So after our evening of family and food, lots and lots of food, we went home and got all rested for our own Christmas morning. 

We awoke around 8am, I wanted to get an early start in the kitchen so I got up right away.  The plan was to cook breakfast for the girls that were coming at 10am to open presents.  We had a strict timeline to keep on Christmas Day.  A timeline that I agreed to keep with the family the night before...Uh oh.  So around 8:30, we get a call from one of the girls in a panic that says she is running late and not going to make it by 10am.  We said no problem, we still had one girl MIA.  So I started cooking with an expected eat time of 10:30ish. Mistake!  10:30 ish actually turned out to be 12:00pm ish.  It was all good though, at times a bit stressful and others just laughing  and enjoying it all.  Everyone showed up and we had a great time, good food and wonderful company!  We finished eating about 6min, before we were suppose to leave for Grandma and Grandpa's house....that's the "uh oh" part.  You see, we still had to open all of those presents.....so it was Christmas and that's one of the joys of the day.  Seeing the ones you love open the gifts that you acquired for them because you know they would love them.  The 7 hours of wrapping that my girl did, got destroyed in a matter of 1 hour.  The couch was full of 4 people, their gifts and a sea of torn paper and ribbon on the floor.  With absolutely no time to clean anything we all grabbed what we needed for our next stop and hit the road to Grandma's House!

Surprisingly, no one said a word when we arrived 1 hour late.  Again we had a house full of people but several from the night before didn't make this visit.  So my name to faces ratio got even better!  It was a wonderful time, we did the presents thing again and had some food.  It was nice to see the "kids", all adult kids, hanging together and having their time just like they had never grown up.  The laughter, love and happiness that can be seen in a family of this size is wonderful. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for all of these people that I was able to enjoy for my holiday!  The missed timelines and pitfalls are just part of the joy in a family this size and enjoyed just the same as everything else!  In fact when someone that has struggled to get there finally arrives it seems as though you actually enjoy seeing them all the more!

Zombie Apocalypse is real!

Now you all think I'm crazy, right?   Well think about this...... how many homeless do you see wandering the streets?  Now that isn't the zombie portion.  Kind of like the standard infommercial "wait there's more! ".  So as you see these people,  sitting in the shopping centers, hanging outside of the gas stations and fast food joints saying things like "hey we're out of gas" or "I'm just hungry", know that it's probably the line of bs they chose for the day. Not all but more than half of these people are dealing with some type of addiction problem that you about to finance. In my neighborhood alone there is 20-30 of these types within a four block radius. Sure they move around a bit, but they are everywhere. The ghetto isn't the only place you see them. They hang out in a lot of places, business areas, residential, churches, stop lights and any place that there might be people with money. 

Now the zombie part is where you see them in their drug or alcohol induced stuper repeatedly looking like the zombies from all the bad movies of the 70's. Like in the movies,  they may not be eating us working folk yet,  but they are stealing from us. Items taken from our homes, money panhandled in person under the guise of hungry or homeless.   How many of you would give money if the sign or the "sales track" went like this "hey I just need another fix to get me by" or "looking for a 40 for the night"?  Then the they steal from the businesses they hit. Those losses will be passed onto the consumer.  The meth addicts steal liquor or food to trade for meth, they all steal somewhere, somehow.  If the society ever crumbles to the point that food is scarce, they will start to eat people for survival.

The social programs do not have enough funding to get them off of the street. We worry about immigration and the weight on the tax roll, what about the problem born and raised right here. Most of the illegals get jobs and become productive. I see caucasians asking for money not hispanics. I see caucasians not being productive, even for their own wellness.  Then using excuses like my childhood was bad, my dad is an ass, my mom doesn't care about me and the list goes on and on.  Guess what?  None of us had a perfect childhood.  My dad was an ass, which I apparently got some of and left my own mom's house at sixteen.  That wasn't easy, but I had some family that helped me until I finished highschool. Then I put myself through vocational school and became a productive member of society.  So it can be done without being stuck in your own baggage, violating the law and destroying yourself and those that care the most about you. 

These are the people on the street more than not. The addicts that only live and steal to feed their addiction. You can't believe a word they say, any act of kindness is temporary and only to gain a step towards the next high, trip or drunk. If you want to help them anyway, buy them something that can be eaten, not resold or returned for money, traded for drugs, etc.  I'm sure you get the picture......my position is not to forget about these people, but also not to enable the cycle to perpetuate itself.

Social Media - communication medium or maturity test

So in an era that almost everyone has a computer with Internet access and a smart phone with the same, most of those have social media on some level.   The old MySpace to Facebook to Google Circles and all the ones in between. You can tweet your lunch choice or better yet post a pic of it on Instagram!  

Everyone uses their own social media for what's important to them.  Some, usually the more responsible group, posts things of a positive or humor driven nature. They want to share their life moments with the people in their sphere of influence. Even pass on the wisdom of themselves or someone else's wisdom that they understand and appreciate. 

Then there is the group that just blurts out whatever they are doing and wherever they are. Sometimes appropriate and yet other times over the top!  While they are somewhat immature they are still adults and know the difference between right and wrong. 

The worst group I've seen yet communicates just how immature they are in life, regardless of age, with their usage of social media. They are the ones that have coined the new buzz phrase "cyber bulling". They're not just satisfied posting some negative comment about someone, they have to get their buddies to do the same thing. Or all delete someone because they were honest with one of them how they felt about one thing or two. Bullies are usually insecure people, male or female, that feel the need to lash out in anger to make themselves feel superior. When they have a poor case, they need the similar actions from other people to validate that they did the right thing. The friends of the bully do it because they aren't mature either. Then, and I love this part, they say they do it out of respect for the bully. Which is really so far from the truth. It's disrespectful to all, most of all themselves. If they had self respect they would stand up to their bully friend and tell him or her that it is wrong for them to even ask. It's disrespectful to the bully because the so called friend should be telling the bully it's wrong and just grow up. And of course it's disrespectful to the recipient of the negative behavior because they didn't do anything to the friend of the bully and usually nothing to the bully.  

I have people from all of these categories on my friends list. The ones that post great positive stuff, the ones that vent what they need too and most certainly the last group. If you're wondering if I'm talking about you in the last group I probably am. The ones in the other two groups won't be offended by this article. The others, let me just say "shame on you". Growup and get a life worthwhile of saying you lived it with gusto and gave it your best. We are all capable of just that. It's a choice to be a bully or thug as the case may be. It's also a choice to be responsible and contribute something positive. Which choice will you make today?

Having said all of that I think social media is both. It's a Maturity Level Communication Tool.  What's your maturity level?