Why do we hate flags and statues enough to destroy them?

Antietam Memorial Monument in PA courtesy Wikipedia

What’s going on today is really upsetting.  And police are standing by and watching throngs of stirred-up people destroying pieces of our history.  This makes no sense at all to me.  You can’t change history by getting rid of all these things, as if they never existed.  How foolish.

People harbor way too much hatred toward each other in our country.  Destroying all these statues make none of these vandals any better than the terrorist group, ISIS.  You cannot undo the Civil War.  Maybe we don’t all agree about what happened there, but it did happen.  We can’t throw temper tantrums over it.  That time is behind us.  We can move forward and try to live side-by-side and as equals regardless of skin color, religion, political views, opinions, etc.  Way too many people have been killed in wars, or murdered just because these things.  Killing and throwing tantrums won’t solve any problems.  I don’t know if the human race will ever learn this lesson.

 Confederate Monument in Alabama courtesy of Wikipedia

 

The confederate flag and statues of our forefathers and some war figures from the Civil War have stood proudly for over a hundred years in places around the south.  It’s very disturbing to see groups of haters forming for the sole purpose of destroying all these things.  No, it wasn’t right to enslave black people, or to deny rights to women, but all that has changed now.  I don’t see our monuments as racist.  I see them as reminders of our past and hopefully we’ve learned a lot since the Civil War days.  Although when I look around at all the hatred in our country, I don’t think all the blood that has been shed in all the wars has been enough to get through to some people who are bent on destroying our history just because they don’t agree with it.

I don’t know how you all feel about this, but it makes me sick.  Why can’t we all get along with each other?  Life is what you make it.  You can still have your views, opinions, religion, beliefs, etc., but let others have theirs as well.  It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them, but let’s stop all the killing and vandalism.

Entertainment and other things from the desert

Living in the desert brings a ton of wildlife to the backyard because we have desert behind us and no neighbors.  Our lawn has died long ago.  We’ll replace it with rock once the weather cools off.  You don’t have to water rock and it won’t be a constant struggle to keep it alive.  This summer has been very hard on all the plants and trees.

 Quail and other birds

A quail family

But the birds are having a blast in the dirt that was once home to our lawn.  They peck away out there and take dirt baths.  I have no idea why they like to roll in it while flapping their wings.  We’ve also seen lots of baby quail this month.  Everything seems to be off schedule.  This is also true for us, as work has become a full time job this month.  Usually August is slower for us.  At least it’s cooled off to the low 100’s, or the upper 90’s, so this is a good thing.

 Here's a baby roadrunner

As you can see the baby roadrunners are still alive so they must be catching enough food to survive.  I don’t know if you can tell this is a young one or not, but he’s about half grown.  The day I took this we had four roadrunners in the yard.  I’m not sure if the parents were here with the “kids,” but I think that must have been the case.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get all four of them in one picture.  In years past we’ve never seen this many at one time.

 Laser cat toy

Koki and Raven waiting for the laser

About a month or so ago, I bought a laser for the cats at Walmart.  It was the best $1.98 I’ve ever spent on them.  But I suspect it’ll cost me a lot in batteries to keep this thing going.  It did come with a spare set, which I had to install already.  Raven cries waiting for me to get it going.  He and Koki will chase it all over the place.  My hands seem to wear out before they do, but I play with them about fifteen minutes a night with this thing.  Raven will bat it all over the place, or knock it off the counter trying to tell us it’s time for laser play.  I imagine he’d turn it on if he knew how.

I want to apologize for my erratic posting.  I’m so beat when I get home from work that getting on the computer is the last thing on my mind.  I do good to get dinner ready and the kitchen cleaned up.  There isn’t a lot of time left before bed.  I still have to soak my feet every night and put on my ointment.  I go back to the foot doctor next Wednesday.  By then my orthopedic shoes should be here.  People sure do have to put up with a lot of crap when they get older.  I never think I’m that old, but it seems to be one ailment after another.  Thank goodness I have a positive outlook and try to keep a happy attitude about all this stuff.

 Beautiful clouds we've had lately with thunderstorms at night

On another note, I’m excited for the solar eclipse that’s coming on Monday.  I imagine I’ll be inside working though, so won’t even get to see it.  That’s a bummer.  This is the first time in 99 years that it will be seen by all of the US.  This probably won’t happen again in our lifetimes.  Total darkness will envelop a path throughout the US while the rest of us will see a dusky sunlight for a full two minutes.  When this happened centuries ago, it’s no wonder people used to think the world was ending.

I still have some vacation posts to write and pictures to share from my time in Texas in May.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that soon.

Raven can be very destructive

He chews on us all the time, but he loves to chew on everything and reminds me of a puppy sometimes instead of a cat.  My arm isn’t a bone.  But he seems to think so.

 The new toy started out like this

This is what the toy looks like now

 

I ordered him a new cat toy and he tore the thing up in about 30 minutes.  It didn’t take him long at all to dismantle it.  I thought I might try to glue it together for a while, but its way beyond that now.  I still haven’t thrown it away.  I put it on the floor in the pantry and tucked the little yellow ball back in there too.  He loves to go in there and dig that yellow ball out every night.  He knows I’m playing a game with him because he’s so smart.  If I don’t put the ball back in there, he leaves it alone.  He has fun so I really don’t care what he does to his toys.

Sometimes he’s too smart for his own good.  I got a new laser pointer at Walmart and he knows where the red dot comes from because he brings the thing over and wants you to shine it so he can chase it.  I’m sure he’d turn it on himself if he could.

He’s really something else.  He still flops over at my feet in the kitchen when it’s dinner time.  Somehow he never hurts himself.  I love watching him and Koki after a tiring day.

Is there such a thing as too much thinking?

My mind has been all over the place lately.  Thinking has to be good, right?  But it can be distracting too.  Some crazy questions come to mind all the time.  Among them are “Why do lizards do pushups?”  And “What is the difference between regular shoes and orthopedic shoes?”

I’ve been off work a few days due to bad blisters on my feet caused by my shoes.  I’m not one to go to the doctor for every little scratch and am most likely to look up a way to treat myself over the internet.  This foot condition escalated fast.  When I got home from work last week and got my shoes off, I knew I had to call in sick and make a doctor’s appointment.  Lucky for me, they had a cancellation and I was able to get in the next morning.

Now, I’m on foot soaks, medicated ointment three times a day and some antibiotic tablets.  I was instructed not to wear any closed-toed shoes for a week.  That was music to my ears because I hate closed-in toes, especially in the summer.  I went and talked to my boss and offered to come in, if I could wear sandals with socks for the week.  Of course the answer to that was no.  I hated missing the hours, but I figured it was best to follow the doctor’s orders.  The first four or five day I couldn’t have gotten my feet into a sneaker anyway.  They were too sore for that.

 Orthopedic shoes go here

The doctor also wrote me a prescription for orthopedic shoes.  Oh my.  Am I that old already?  I always thought this type of shoe was for old people. 

I went to a place in town I’d never been to before because I had to do my research and find out how much extra all this was going to cost me.  I also called my Medicare provider to see if it was covered.  It sounds like it’ll be a 20/80 kind of deal, but only if the right codes are used when ordering the shoes.  Hmmm…I guess I’m about to find out pretty quickly what that is.  I have to see a foot doctor on Wednesday the ninth.  He wants to x-ray my feet.  I hope I’m not in for all sorts of ailments now that I’m old enough for Medicare.  I’m thankful I’ve been healthy most of my life except for a few strange things that have happened.  Luckily, I had enough sense to go to the doctor for those.  I usually ignore the situation and think it’ll get better on it’s on, or with my help from some natural remedies I come up with.

My research told me that orthopedic shoes can be worn by people of any age and they give more support than regular shoes.  The support is geared to the problem each person is facing, so the shoes make walking and standing easier without the wear and tear on the feet, ankles and legs.  They provide more support.  The toes on these shoes are wider than most footwear and the heels are lower and sturdier.  I sure couldn’t tell that by the wall of shoes he had in the store.  They measure your feet for the right shoe.  That makes me feel better that they won’t be too darn ugly and medical looking.  I’m not too old to not care what I look like.

 Lizard goes here

As far as the lizard doing pushups, they always do that here.  We see them all over the place.  They have to stop and do pushups every few feet.  I’ve always wondered about this so I looked it up too.  My research told me that lizards do this to show strength to others in their territory.  They likened it to going to the gym to keep in shape.  This behavior is supposed to avert physical confrontations between male lizards.  They are showing any other competitors that they’re superior.  They can also do pushups to increase their body temperature.  Very interesting, huh?

I’m also very worried about a friend who had a motorcycle accident a couple of weeks ago.  He’s still in ICU.  Things look good and then they go downhill again.  I’ll be devastated if he doesn’t make it out of this.  I’ve known him too long.  He’s a good guy.  I’m so glad I got to visit with him while in Texas in May.  Right now he has a brain bleed they’re working on.  All prayers would be appreciated.

Aside from that, the weather has dipped down into the upper 90’s, so it’s a lot more pleasant than our triple digits.  We’ll take the break.

I'm posting without pictures because that area doesn't seem to be working right now.  Sorry about that.