for the love a dog, part II

These pictures are of my first dog, Forrest. I got him at a PetsMart in Beavercreek, Ohio. He was nine weeks old, and of course, adorable. I brought him home, and managed to housebreak him, using a playpen, a crate, and lots of positive reinforcement.

That dog was a chewer! He destroyed three pair of my glasses. But we were close. He was so well crate trained that all I had to do was start brushing my teeth and he would get in the crate. He was so smart that he knew the difference between "speak loud" and "speak soft." I would point my finger at him and say "bang," and he would roll over and play dead. He was a dominant dog, and I could never get him to roll over completely. I had to "alpha hold" him at times. But he was affectionate with me, and willing to learn. One day he got away from me and took off in the neighborhood. I went around calling him, but I lost him. I went home dejected, thinking he was gone. And there he was, in the house, looking out the front door at me, like, "where you been?"

He was aggressive at times, and one day in Oct of 2004, he got away from me and ran out at an elderly woman neighbor. He knocked her over. That night the lady's daughter called. I had to euthanize my "Forrest the Mutt."

I have my Laika now, and she's better pet than Forrest, but I miss him. I miss him, I miss him. The first few weeks after his death, I went around the house crying, "Where's my doggy?"

I still miss Forrest.

For the love of a dog

I have a beautiful dog named Laika. I adopted her from the municiple pound in Leavenworth, Kansas on December 30, 2004. She's a border collie mix. About the size of a border collie, perhaps a little larger with a border collie face. She's long haired, mostly black, with white on her feet, and a splash on her chest, so she's marked like a border collie. She has one white foot that is speckled with black - very cute. But she's larger, and stockier, and calmer. She loves to retrieve, and to chase her tennis balls and frizbee. She's quite the acrobat. I suspect that she has some golden retriever in her. She is extremely sweet, and she is so happy when one comes home. Makes you feel good.

I named her for the first animal in outer space, in the old Soviet Union's "muttnik" program.

Here are some pictures of her, both in her full coat, and shaved down for the Kansas winter. I love her so much.

A place I used to live

I've been trying to find and come in contact with people I knew back in my early 20s, with whom I served in the US Army. I haven't found anyone, nor has anyone responded to me. But googling around, I did find pictures of the city in Germany in which my unit, the 533rd MI (CEWI) BN. Beautiful town, a suburb of Frankfurt, along the Maine river, known for its little schloss (castle) and a porcelain factory of old. Here are some pictures

Funny stuff from Hollywood Squares

From my friend Ernie.

If you remember the Original Hollywood Squares and its comics, this may bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when "Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous and clever not scripted and (often) dull, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q. Do female frogs croak?

A. Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water long enough.

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?

A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years.

A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q. You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?

A. Don Knotts: That's what's been keeping me awake.

Q. According to Cosmopolitain, if you meet a stranger at a party and youthink that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he'smarried?

A. Rose Marie: No; wait until morning.

Q. Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?

A. Charley Weaver: My sense of decency.

Q. In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say "I Love You"?

A. Vincent Price: No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty.

Q. What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?

A. George Gobel: I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?

A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?

A. Paul Lynde: Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?

A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. In bowling, what's a perfect score?

A. Rose Marie: Ralph, the pin boy.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?

A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?

A. Rose Marie: Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?

A. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?

A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?

A. Paul Lynde: Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark.

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?

A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?

A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Back in the old days, when Great Grandpa put horseradish on his head,what was he trying to do?

A. George Gobel: Get it in his mouth.

Q. Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?

A. Paul Lynde: Who told you about my elephant?

Q. When a couple have a baby, who is responsible for its sex?

A. Charley Weaver: I'll lend him the car, the rest is up to him.

Q. Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occasions. What are they?

A. Charley Weaver: His feet.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?

A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh.

What am I looking for?

Not for the first time, I find myself obsessed with my past, and trying to find it, or at least parts of it, on the Internet. I've spent (wasted?) hours doing this. Why? What am I looking for?

I am a Reagan Era vet, or you could say a late Cold War vet. After I graduated from high school (1979) I went into the Ohio National Guard. I went to Basic Training that summer, and then trained as a medic until January. Then I went back home, terribly depressed, worked at several nursing home jobs, got fired from one. I worked at Camp Perry Ohio as active duty NG, where I horribly sexually harassed, and didn't even know it. Then I tried college, and after a quarter, even with good grades, I quit and went regular Army. I became an o5C, and went to 533rd MI BN in Hoechst Germany in 1981. I left there to go to DLI in 1983, 964 1/2 days later. I ETSed in 1986 and went to college.

Every so often I try to find out about people and places I knew for those short years, esp. the time I spent in Germany. It can become an obsession. Somehow, those years, while only few, loom large in my life, larger in many ways than college and grad school. I was 20 when I got there, and 23 when I left. The picture at the left is of me (center) around that age, in the barracks with some people I knew. I remember their names, but I won't post them here. I don't know if I can call them friends; I know we partied together. But I was immature, fragile, stupid, ridiculous, foolish, and I really did some f**cked up things, and I am sure that people don't have fond memories of me. Part of my quest to find people, I think, is to acknowledge my insanity, apologize, and show them that I have gone on to accomplish some good things in my life.

A couple of years ago I did find my old platoon leader, and it turns out that he lived in the same town my mother does. We got together, and it was a good lunch. It was so gratifying to find out what he had been doing with his life. On the sad side, I learned that one man I knew back in the 533rd MI BN (CEWI) had died of lung cancer at 52. He must of have been in his late 20s when I knew him.

I'd like to make some contact with people, even those I dated (loaded word) in those years. I assure anyone out there, I am not on the make! I just need to connect the dots in my life. I am curious as to what others are doing.

If anyone from the 856 ASA, 533d MI BN (CEWI), or 312th MI BN (1985-1986), or was a Polish 98G around that time. Here are some names:

SSG Peavey
1SG Jack D. Rife
Tom Staff
Donny Gruber
Elvis (David) Costillo
Millie Nagy Bright
Two guys nick named Butch (Mark Farris?)

In addition I remember a Polish national in the 1st Cav at Ft Hood, who was loaned to the 312th to help with language study. His name was Zbigniew Welewski, and I am sorry I can't add the diacritics to spell his name in proper Polish.

Ten reasons I am going to hell

1. Somebody, somewhere, thinks I am an infidel
2. I believe that people have the right to know and worship God according to the practices, images, and values of their own culture.
3. While I believe that abortion is never a good thing, I do believe that women have the right to control their own sexuality and fertility.
4. I am a feminist, and I don't hate gays and lesbians (Gasp!) In fact, I don't even disapprove.
5. I agree with John Paul II when it comes to the truth in all faiths. God's face is everywhere, and ecumenism is a good, not an evil
6. I agree with Churchill - Democracy is a lousy system of government, but it is the best system we got.
7. I accept that marriage, family, gender, and religion are culturally patterned; our goal ought to be to understand the many ways of solving human problems, not to judge that which is different.
8. I take Matthew 25 to be a political as well as a moral statement
9. I believe that we (all fo the world's peoples) are trly responsible for each other, and we are gailing miserably at the task.
10. We are made in the image of God, yet are part of the natural world and a product of evolution.

Thoughts on Abu Ghraib

The book I mentioned in my last post is by Thomas E. Ricks, not Hicks. The book is Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. It is comprehensive, engaging, biting. The book's leit motif is the administration's hubris and shortsightedness in not preparing for the insurgency. Army units, esp. Guard and Reserve, have been sent to Iraq inadequately trained and armed. The Abu Ghraib scandal, while reprehensibile, is understandable once you know the situation the soldiers were in, how overworked and under-prepared they were, how little supervision there was. It's not necessarily bad people that abuse prisoners, the situation they are shapes behavior. One need only to look at Zimbardo's 1970 Stanford Prison Experiment to see how a prison environment can effect both prisoners' and guards' behavior, leading the abuse of detainees.

And I see Lynddie England as a victim as well as a perpetrator. I know something about the gender dynamics of enlisted people in the Army. Females are outnumbered and face prejudice for just being there. They labor under the "whore/lesbian" dichotomy - you are either a slut for doing a "man's job," or you are a dyke. That opens the door to sexual acting out. Moreover, she wanted to please her male comrades, probably wanted their affection, and wanted to belong. What better way than to whole heartedly endorse and adopt their "entertainment?" I don't think she was able to not participate in the abuse of detainees

But the bottom line is this: The effect of prison environments on people's behavior has been known for a long time. COMMANDERS SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING! But then, the powers that be didn't see any of this coming.

This is the last day of the year, and I am already tired of resolutions and "best of 2006" lists. Let's take the Christmas decorations down now, PLEASE, and get back to work. I am frustrated by the fact that I can't get into my office to work until Tuesday, and the YMCA is closed until Tuesday as well. I am tired of rich, fattening holiday food. But I hope '07 will be better than '06.