{"id":347,"date":"2008-06-19T16:27:48","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T23:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=347"},"modified":"2008-11-30T14:55:16","modified_gmt":"2008-11-30T21:55:16","slug":"my-son-chides-me-for-not-blogging-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=347","title":{"rendered":"My Son Chides Me for Not Blogging Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"

I missed this somehow, but back in February Avedon Carol linked to one of my entries<\/a>.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Mister\u00a0Big Time, that’s me.<\/p>\n

Conversation overheard while drinking coffee after last weekend’s bicycle ride:<\/p>\n

“You know, kids can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance in school any more.”<\/p>\n

“I know.\u00a0 Isn’t it terrible?”<\/p>\n

“Not the Under God part, anyway.”<\/p>\n

“And the things they teach, like evolution.”<\/p>\n

“It’s just unbelievable, isn’t it?”<\/p>\n

As long as I’ve been working there, the empty dirt field on the south side of the VA hospital grounds has been home to a feral dog.\u00a0 I see her\u00a0occasionally, trotting in and out of the Ajo Road entrance gate, reasonably healthy looking,\u00a0savvy about traffic, a survivor.\u00a0 Sometimes her teats hang down and you can tell she recently had a litter.\u00a0 But I have never seen one of her pups, until now.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Feral dog at VA hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This one’s female as well, quite young and already somewhat beat up (the photo’s\u00a0very poor, taken from some distance away, but you can just make out one red ulcerated eye).\u00a0 This one lives on the east side of the hospital, back by the warehouses and maintenance sheds.\u00a0 I believe other VA employees put out food and water for her, but just in case I’ve been carrying a bag of dog food in my van.\u00a0 So far I’ve been unable to convince her to come within a hundred feet of me, and with her bad eye(s?) she doesn’t seem to be able to see what I’m doing when I put\u00a0kibble on the sidewalk.\u00a0 Perhaps she finds it later and snarfs it up.\u00a0 I hope so.\u00a0 Donna wants me to trap her and bring her home.\u00a0 Sounds like an invitation to a series of rabies shots to me.<\/p>\n

Best spam e-mail received to date:<\/p>\n

This is to officially inform you that(ATM Card Number; 4278763100030014) has been accredited with your favor.Your Personal Identification Number is 2900. The ATM Card Value with $6.8MILLION USD. You are advice to contact Mr Charles Brown (mr.charles_brown1@yahoo.it<\/a>) with the following\u00a0 information’s<\/p>\n

Full Name:
\nDelivery Address:
\nPhone Number :
\nCountry:
\nOccupation:
\nSex:
\nAge:<\/p>\n

Regards,
\nSenator James Manager.<\/p>\n

And now another slice’o’life from the driver’s seat.\u00a0 You may recall a previous photo entry<\/a> about a guy who was single-handedly destroying one of the neighborhoods I pick up patients in.\u00a0 This time it’s one of my patients doing the destroying.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tucson yard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I first started picking this gentleman up, he had no wheelchair ramp.\u00a0 Just a front door, an eight-inch concrete sill, and a dirt yard (oh, and a ladder for easy roof access).\u00a0 The VA has programs to help disabled patients with stuff like this, so I talked to my boss and got the ball rolling.\u00a0 Two months later\u00a0\u2014 pretty quick work\u00a0\u2014 the VA put in a wheelchair ramp.\u00a0 But enough about that.\u00a0 Let’s take a closer look.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Wheelchair ramp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within a day of its installation, the wheelchair ramp had become a porch, complete with barbecue grill.\u00a0 He can’t squeeze by the grill in his chair, so he has to leave it out there next to the grill and\u00a0walk to it, using the hand rails to support\u00a0himself.\u00a0 The knapsack lying on the ground is most likely destined for the fire pit.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fire pit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The\u00a0fire pit, filled with blackened rocks, bricks,\u00a0and spray cans.\u00a0 Unburned debris accumulates around it, ready to be put to the torch.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cremated animal? Suitcase?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The\u00a0water gun leaning up against the fence is probably not going in the fire pit.\u00a0 I suspect they let the grandkids put the flames out with it.\u00a0 What appears to be partially-cremated dog is in fact a suitcase, a harbinger of the knapsack’s fate.<\/p>\n

Well, that was fun.\u00a0 Now I’m going to take a shower, then walk up and down my street knocking on doors and thanking my neighbors for being normal.\u00a0 Maybe you should do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I missed this somehow, but back in February Avedon Carol linked to one of my entries.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Mister\u00a0Big Time, that’s me. Conversation overheard while drinking coffee after last weekend’s bicycle ride: “You know, kids can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance in school any more.” “I know.\u00a0 Isn’t it terrible?” “Not the Under God part, anyway.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7,2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class","category-culture","category-personal","category-a-series-of-tubes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}