Bits and Pieces

Just a bunch of odds and ends today. It's in the mid-30s here and the sun is shining. The kits have been running in and out for the past 90 minutes, but since Lovey is back in bed and Nedi is in the cat tree, I shut the door. I have placed nuts and shredded wheat out for the squirrels and birds, and have already been treated to a squirrel underside, as it ran sideways across the window screen... My brother-in-law called yesterday evening and said we'll be going to the 7 p.m. show of the Rocky Mountain Revels, and that Kathy will call and let me know when and where I need to arrive.
  Rumors in the thoroughbred racing world had Gary Stevens returning to the irons after seven years of retirement. It's not true. (Rats!) Gary has been getting back in shape exercising horses at a friends' training farm in Washington state, and is back down to 122 pounds. Turning 50 on March 6, he said he'll be behind the microphone and not on the back of a horse this coming year. .... Retired trainer Mel Stute, now 85, is still hospitalized after a fall in his home earlier this month. His son, trainer Gary Stute, says they hope Mel will be released from the assisted living facility soon after Christmas. Mel can't tell them what day of the week it is, but he can tell them where there's live racing, and who the top trainers are. (Why should a horseman/trainer know what day it is, unless he has a horse running?) .... Danedream, who won the 2011 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, is now retired. The 4-year-old German-bred filly who missed this year's Arc because of a swamp fever outbreak at her Cologne training base, is scheduled to ship to England in January to be bred to Frankel, who is entering stud at Banstead Manor. Once in foal, Danedream is scheduled to be shipped to Japan.
  I am still in shock over the stance the NRA (National Rifle Association) has taken regarding the deaths of the innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School a week ago. I agree that our society seems to delight in violence, and that when more blasting gun-battles and tremendous explosions are included, today's movies seem to make more money. I have had training in the use of fire arms, both the pistol and the rifle. I do not own a gun. I do not want to own a gun. I believe in the Second Amendment right, that people in our nation have the right to bear arms - for hunting, for sport and marksmanship, and for self-defense. I do not believe that the answer to the mass shooting at an elementary school is to have a trained, armed sharpshooting security guard in every single school in this country. A single armed person cannot protect the perimeter of an entire school. It's ludicrous. I support the banning of semi-automatic and automatic weapons, the limiting of ammunition sales, and reducing clip size. There have always been discontented people, people with mental illness, people with a grudge, and there always will be (unfortunately). We need to regulate the machines that make it easy to kill others; not set up more armed humans within the educational system. Last Friday, and all the other days we have had violence perpetrated upon innocent children and innocent adults, should be erased from history. Remember the dead, not the killer. This is a very sad time in history.