The dog with no name .... you lookin' at me ??

A "new guy" arrived here on August 18, you might recall. He is fitting in well; is strong and healthy; is the terror of any squirrels who stop by looking for a snack (I still do feed the squirrels, but have become more creative in places and times for doing so); is polite and well-mannered (although altogether untrained .... he was a shelter dog, you might remember, and estimated to be about three years old); is a good watchdog, travels well in a car and has no fear of gunfire; is happy and playful and can run like the wind. But .... he still is "the dog with no name." He and I discuss this regularly, but have not come up with a satisfactory resolution. He evidently has a memory lapse, because he has had no reaction or response to any of the million or so names which I have suggested to him he might have been called in his former life. A friend suggested naming him "Foxy" because of his stealthiness and other fox-like characteristics. Among the dogs in my past, I have had two Golden (not yellow, but golden) Labradors named Hunter and Hunter II. Because this "lad" is an outdoorsman with a propensity toward hunting, I am beginning to really, really lean toward calling him Hunter III. "We" are open to suggestions, but, bear in mind, he is very politically incorrect, conservative in most regards, loves firearms and thinks of himself as a man among men .... hmmmm .... yes, I am laughing, too, but, I am talking about the "new guy" .... who, seriously, has to be a "tough guy" to have made it through what he went through on his way to me ....

By the way, he picked out the music to accompany "his" post. He comes from Oklahoma, so there is a lot of the "old west" history, tradition and legend in him. Hmmmm .... he just pointed out to me that Ennio Morricone is one of three or four "gods" of movie music .... yeh, I guess .... no argument from me ....

The light at the end of the tunnel

The light at the end of the tunnel ....

Do you see it there ??

What is beyond it ??

That is the question ....

"Runnin' when things get too crazy"

Have you ever been falling through a tunnel of whiteness while you have been sleeping ?? I have. I think it almost killed me. I say sleeping, rather than dreaming, because I am not certain exactly what was happening.

Whatever .... The autumnal equinox has arrived and, for reasons I am unsure of, I wanted to make note of it here on my blog. I want to be aware of the season this year, to be acutely aware of it, to be sort of sensually aware of each day of it until when, in December, it ends and winter will come to rule the portion of the world in which I currently reside.

Summer is exiting stage left -- which, unlike its usual definition, on this occasion means furiously just outside my window. A thunderstorm, complete with hail / rain / thunder / lightning / wind, is raging.

You probably will find my blog locked off and on for a while. Interlopers (trying to be polite now) have been intruding, and I need to discourage them. As I have mentioned in the past, should you wish to have access when my blog is closed to the public, all you need do is leave an email address and you will be added to those who have access anytime, all of the time.

I will be gone off and on for a while, too. Nothing like the more extensive trek I had hoped for, but I do need to run a few errands of sorts, each of which will last for a few days.

Time to step out into the patio and watch / sense / absorb the storm for a while ....

"Where the shadows run from themselves"

The Clintons and the Trumps, from happier days .... I assume you are able to figure out who is who and which is which .... sort of looks like one big, happy family, does it not ?? They do sleep in the same bed, figuratively, if not literally. For sure, in hippy talk, it is what it is and you know that is true whether you allow yourself to believe it or not. As for the music, this particular song is here prophetically because I turned on the radio when I finished writing this post and this was the music playing at that exact moment -- "White Room," by Cream:

"I'll wait in this place where the sun never shines
"Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves ....
"Wait here with you
"Where the shadows run from themselves ...."

Who will rule Olympus?

We all have our likes and dislikes. For instance, I have encountered a number of people who instantly like me and, probably, a greater number who instantly dislike me. Fortunately (for me), most I encounter sort of can take me or leave me: No big deal.

Conversely, I feel the same way about other people.  Some I like, some I dislike -- often instinctively -- but, most simply are just there. (Yes, I know, that is neither polite nor politically correct to say; I never have claimed to be perfect.)

This extends, naturally, to musicians, to actors, to visual artists, to novelists and, most definitely, to politicians. In that vein (probably vane and vain, too), I am absolutely dumbfounded that anyone with an ounce of common sense could be enraptured either by Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump -- the only two real choices before us to become the next president of the United States.

She, and her husband, "Wild Bill," are the epitome of everything that is wrong with the existing political system in the United States. Power mongers for the sake of personal power, personal wealth and personal aggrandizement (and, in the case of Bill, lots more sex beyond marriage).

On the other side of the river, figuratively speaking, Trump is the personification of a man you should never rely on to invest your money, never trust to see to it your girlfriend gets home safely, never count on to watch your back in a street fight. He is the opposite side of the counterfeit coin bearing the image of Barack Obama: Both ego-maniacal, narcissistic, power-hungry, pathologically lying individuals cut from the same cloth as would-be / wanna-be dictators throughout the span of recorded history.

Fortunately, the reign of his self-imagined highness Obama is nearly over. And, none too soon.

For the future, Clinton would be the safer bet over Trump. She is more predictable and has a trace yet of "America the Beautiful" inside of her -- barely.

Trump should be the choice of those who play poker hoping to draw the inside straight -- odds are he would turn out to be another Obama-like disaster for the United States (and, for the world). But, but, but -- he might, like the fisherman Simon who became Peter did for Christianity, become the cornerstone of the recovery and the resurgence of this country. Stranger transitions have occurred. (Sorry, about the Christian allusion .... well, not really, I am a historian of sorts, you know.)

Whatever .... those, realistically, are the only two choices.

Unless you believe in miracles.

Do not even ask

And, another half-year fading into the mist

And, never, ever to fade away ....

Happy Anniversary, today: BJN & SLN

And, Happy September Birthdays, to two