Sorry, Mr. Snake!

Spring has come to the Sonoran desert and that means you'll start to see more lizards coming out and running around. Also, this means the snakes start to move around more.

Late October I wrote about the rattlesnakes (note: plural) my wife killed. http://sonoranstories.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_sonoranstories_archive.html

With these previous events in mind, I saw a rather large snake the other afternoon when I was driving up to the house. Believe it or not, my first instinct was to avoid killing a living thing. Then it occurred to me that if I killed a poisonous snake it would less likely to get to our dogs and maybe even my wife or I.

So, I ran it over and in my rear view mirror I saw it buckle and writhe. Although killing an innocent creature may be bad karma for me I still said a short prayer for the snake.

When I walked up to it the snake started to slither away. Problem was it was a bull snake and not a poisonous at all. It crawled under a creosote bush and died. Hissing in pain as it twisted it finally quit moving.

Maybe a hawk or something will pick it up for food. I felt bad about it since it was a beautiful creature. I'll have to be more careful next time.

Mine & Dillon's Wish

A couple months ago after I put the dogs inside for the night, I was outside talking with our pony, Dillon. It was late and the moon was rising nearly full. The moon reflected off his mane and shone in his eye. He came over to me and lowered his nose to mine. We shared a few slow breaths. He backed off an inch or so and made direct eye contact with me. I don't know how long that lasted but looking into his eyes was like looking into forever.

For some reason, he looked off and glanced into the dark desert behind him. When he broke his gaze and looked off I looked into the desert also. Just then over the north eastern sky I saw a shooting star flash by.

He looked back. He had such a lonesome look in his eye. He didn't have a buddy is his corral. The nights (let alone the days) must be pretty long for him out there. Coyotes and the occasional free range cow can't be expected to offer too much company for a pony.

We looked at each other and thinking about that falling star I said,

"I'll make a wish for you. I wish you get a buddy. I wish you get some company to share the days and nights with. Someone to play and nuzzle with. Maybe we'll get a friend for you soon."

I don't know...there was something in the look of his eye that told me he liked that wish.

Sure, you may have heard that you should keep falling star wishes secret to yourself or they won't come true. That is only true if you tell a human. Anyone that knows anything about horses knows that if you tell a horse a wish it is more likely to come true.

Fast forward a month or so. Turns out that my wife had been contacted by a lady that my wife met last year in regards to purchasing Dillon. She has a equine carriage ride and therapeutic services business. She already had a mini-horse that she brings to the infirm and children and was wanting to expand her herd.

Evidently she talked to my wife about Dillon and couldn't get him off her mind. And why not? He is inquisitive, sweet, and patient. Besides that...he is a really, really, really ridiculously good looking pony.

On Easter the deal went through. This lady brought over her mini to meet Dillon. They got along real well and Dillon went to a new home. He now has a few new buddies! A mini, a Clydesdale and an Arabian horse! Not to mention he will be the light of so many people's lives.

And for those who don't know about horses, I happen to know a secret: he'll help a few more other wishes come true.

Sometimes I Just Don't "Get it"

So, my wife had gone out of town for a few days. When she is gone I find it a good time to get certain projects done. Guys know what I am talking about: things you can really dive into and steep yourself in without interruption. It was time to replace the spark plugs and wires on my car. I had done this before on other cars and it had always been an easy job: just being out there with the wind, some tools, my car and the parts I had.

It happened to be that the plugs on this Ford engine were all over the place. I am sure this masterpiece made sense to the engineers. Three of them were on the back side of the engine in front of the fire-wall. It was a nightmare getting my hands on even the front ones. The job ended up taking more scrapes, stretching, straining, time and cussing than I thought it would.

Why is it these things never seem to go smoothly?

Immigration Reform & The Loss of Common Sense

Immigration reform is a pretty hot topic where I live here in southern Arizona. Some folks compare this current uproar to the civil rights movement of African Americans that started in the 60's or so. But that movement was based on trying to protect and equalize the rights of citizens and not people that have entered the country illegally. There is no comparison.

Down here in Arizona we do hear too many stories of American citizens that have had to do without, with less or pay more because these resources were consumed previously by illegal immigrants. It is a dire human right issue from one perspective.

I don't think the guest worker program would work. The reason illegal immigrants work jobs no one else will is because of the illegality of their status. Do you really expect me to believe that any "guest worker" that can work in U.S. legally will settle for picking lettuce at less than minimum wage if offered a choice? Will any employer pay more to their current workers if they can pay less for a highly replaceable, expendable and more cost effective "guest worker"?

It's odd how we react sometimes. If you were waiting in line at the grocery store, a government office or even Disneyland and someone just walked up and cut into the line in front of you, your wife and kids and your grandparents, you would probably have this sense that they did something wrong. But if someone enters the country illegally, there is somehow a moral gray area?

If you saw someone shoplifting some food would and the security guard stopped them, would you feel some sense of indignation and protest for their civil rights to be able to steal food just because they are hungry? No. Would you rush to them and offer to pay their attorney fees and supplement their future grocery bills? No. Of course not.

Let's quit kidding ourselves and just stick to some common sense.

Kitty Weed

Since our new cat loves scratching the carpet way too much my wife got a new scratch pad for them. This new scratch pad is just strips of neatly sliced cardboard tucked into a cardboard frame. It looks more like a 3rd grader's school project than something I would pay money for.

But the entire product packaging, however humble, is ingenious. Within the ripples of corrugated strips one sprinkles a cats favorite herb: catnip.

They love this thing it seems. It's hard too say if it truly love. They will sniff and scratch and scratch and then crash on it. The reaction is probably less than tender affections and more like "sleeping it off" after being jacked-up on kitty-weed.

Still, they do look really, really cute when they take turns crashing on the scratch pad. I try not to think of it as a kitty "huffing house" too much.

Music & Prayer

Song writing now reminds me of prayer. There is this balance to between action and surrender I have yet to find with song writing. And as far as being a living prayer 100% of the time, I have even farther to go!

Although I have mentioned this before, Bono of the group U2 said one time that the songs are already out there waiting to be written. I also heard him comment that there is so much music that is not getting written because people are too scared to write it.

How true. How many stories are there that God wishes to write that are denied simply because I am too scared to dwell in hope?

The ear to listen. The conviction to act. The knowledge to execute.

God grant me the serenity to accept....

I Buy Therefore I Am!

I work in a pretty diverse environment when it comes to people. A nice amount of these people are in their early twenties. Having been around for approximately forty years it is funny to see fashions come and go. For the readers of this that are older than I it must be even more hilarious.

When I was in high school back in the early 70's/ late 80's when the new music forms coming to the fore were new-wave, rap and hip-hop. It was the early days of these music forms when the music was rising from the streets. Mostly, this can attributed to the proliferation of existing technologies (e.g. the keyboard synthesizer) and new use of existing technologies (i.e. the turn table).

But the "fads" we see today were once expressions of something new and not re-packaged nostalgia. These days I have this gut feeling that too many people are listening to, wearing, watching, buying and listening because they were convinced in a subtle way that these things are cool and/or necessary. It's a bit sad to think that some people may think they are buying into their sense of individuality when they are just following the Pied Piper's of Madison Avenue.

That is to say, is it, "I think therefore I am." or "I have been successfully marketed to and therefore I am."?

Pretty scary stuff. Even more scary if you don't know what I mean by "Pied Piper" or "Madison Avenue". If you don't know then I suggest you Google yourself some freedom!