Bits and Pieces

So much weirdness in the world....  My heart goes out to all those people who lost loved ones in Norway over the weekend.  I had gotten myself pretty calm about accepting the tragic loss of life when I happened to see that Glenn Beck was comparing the Norwegian youth camp to the Nazi Youth groups.  That sent my blood pressure sky-rocketing again. Is he a member of one of the other "cells" the killer claims to have on the loose?  ....  The kids being attacked by a mother grizzly bear in Alaska in Alaska was another odd story.  The teenagers were very lucky.  ....  Lightning struck a broodmare barn at Three Chimneys Farm on Sunday night.  The night watchman and a female groom were able to set the two stabled mares free, and help move other horses in the field next to the barn away from the conflagration.  ....  First Dude, one of four horses to run in all three Triple Crown races this year, finally won a Grade I stakes race a couple of weeks ago.  But in doing so, he ripped a tendon in one of his legs and has now been retired to stud.  ....  And, early this morning, the CSU Equine Reproduction Laboratory in Fort Collins burnt to the ground.  Fire officials were called at 1 a.m., to find flames shooting 20 feet above the top of the roof.  The roof collapsed, and the building is assumed to be a total loss. ....  The heat across our nation has been awe-inspiring this month.  I finally had to break down and purchase another fan for my studio apartment.  The new one now sits on the room divider and blows cooler air onto the desk and living room area.  I was so hot that I couldn't get to sleep until after 4 this morning (and the humidity has been higher than normal for Colorado).  I hope I can survive my trip to Florida in October!

The kits are all fine, and so are all my adopted pets that I care for.  Boo is actually staying with Jim's sister in Fort Collins (she works at CSU) and seems to be doing well, so far, in her radiation therapy.  She is still her bouncy, pulling self.  Jim will bring her home Thursday night and the take her back for another treatment on Friday.  I'll see her over the weekend and give her some loving.  And, if you are a sky watcher, this Friday night, when the moon is almost new, there will be a double meteor shower show (for those of you who live away from city lights).  The annual Perseid meteor shower will start tomorrow night, and the Aquarid meteor shower will join in the display on Friday night.  August 12 is the usual "best date" to see high numbers of meteors in the Perseid group, but this year, there will be a full moon competing with the shooting stars. -  And tomorrow is the 86th Annual Chincoteague Pony Penning Swim.  The mares, stallions and foals will swim the one-eighth mile distance of the Assateague Channel during slack tide.  The latest announcement states that slack tide should occur between 12:15 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.  If you go to the swim area early, please take plenty of liquids, bug spray, sunscreen, and wear old shoes (there will be lots of wonderful, stinky, smelly marsh mud exposed during low tide) and a hat.  Most of the EMT calls on Wednesdays of Pony Penning are for heat stroke and heat exhaustion in the crowd waiting for the ponies to swim - please don't be a statistic!

Odds And Ends

What a weird day in the news....   Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian Antiquities Minister, has been fired because of his ties to the Mubarak government.  I know that he liked to do a bit of grand-standing, but both he and the subjects were deserving of attention (at least, in my poor opinion).  ...  A former News of the World reporter, who first blew the whistle on that newspaper's phone hacking scandal, has been found dead in his apartment.  Police are investigating. ...  The head of New Scotland Yard has resigned due to the phone hacking scandal.  ...  In Coronado, California a six-year-old boy fell down the grand staircase of his father's mansion (two days previous); and has now died.  The father's girlfriend has hung herself at the mansion.  ...  A 77-year-old Congressman was visiting his daughter and grandson on their farm in Iowa, when the daughter was attacked by an armed robber inside the home.  The Congressman fought with the gunman, who ran when the grandson grabbed a shotgun.  ...  A 17-year-old in Florida beat his parents to death with a hammer, covered them with towels, locked their bedroom door, and then invited 40 to 60 friends to come over.  They had an all-night party.  ...  One of my neighbors hung himself in his upstairs apartment because the grocery store where he works fired him and he couldn't pay his rent.  ...  Chokie, my next door neighbor, has been informed that her lease will not be renewed (she was given no explanation as to why, when she asked), and has to find a new place by 15 August.  (Does that mean I should start looking around?  My lease ends on 31 December, and Chokie moved in 18 months after I did....)   ...  At least the two-year-old boy who disappeared into a South Dakota corn field showed up unharmed this morning.  His Mom called his name over a loud speaker, and the boy came out into the open, with no apparent harm done.  ...  And a "new study" shows that brain injuries lead to increased dementia as one grows older. Gee, anyone who knows me knows that I sloshed my brain on a regular basis for years - how am I supposed to tell if I'm getting any stranger?

Lovey, Nedi and Mocha are doing very well.  The heat and humidity has been bad, but not as bad as in Wichita, where my cousin Sarah is.  I have the fan running non-stop in the hallway and that helps create a nice movement of air, without it blowing directly upon us.  The kits are spending their nap times on the tile or in the tub.  I walked the red kids this morning, making certain that most of our route was in the shade - plus stopping three times for them to drink water as we trundled along.  We saw Yoshi and Aiko out walking this morning, and Aiko (the Shih Tzu) attacked Remy, just because I was walking with them.  I have to admit that Remy fell over in surprise, rather than barking or snapping back at Aiko. (It was rather funny, actually.)  So now all I have to do is prepare myself for surgery tomorrow, and tidy up the apartment a bit for Kathy.   Then I'm going to finish Mary Stewart's My Brother Michael  and start reading book two of "The Blending."

Two TV Shows...

Wow. Derek Jacobi was stupendous as Cardinal Orsini in the opening episode of Showtime's The Borgias. Too bad that his weaselly character was poisoned (by his own poisoner) so early in the series. Jeremy Irons was stunning as Rodrigo Borgia, Pope AlexanderVI; and I am really looking forward to the next 9 episodes. - Can you tell what I was doing last night? - And PBS is also showing Ken Burns' The Civil War again. I watched episode 1 of that last night, and thrilled to the sound of John Hartford's voice. And getting to listen to Shelby Foote's commentary, as well as looking at him, was fantastic. Isn't it terrible that my two favorite people on that show are now dead? ... So, Saturday it was almost 80 degrees; yesterday we had hail, rain and snow, and the temperature dropped to 24; this morning I got up to about a half-inch of snow accumulation on the grass and covering cars. Our high was 49. It was also windy all day. The weather guys say we'll be up to the low 60s tomorrow, but with higher winds. ... This does not bode well for the Crystal Fire, as it is still only about 5% contained and still has over 4,500 acres both smoldering and burning. ... Right now, a suicidal man is camped out in the local medical center; the man has a gun; and the SWAT team is there. ... A couple of teen-aged boys opened a suitcase sitting near a park in Denver and found the body of a 17-year-old boy. ... Life around here is getting a little strange....