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July 27, 2006

Shakespeare

Wow, but it has been hard getting back to writing in this blog. I took Shakespeare back to Heritage Humane Society two weekends ago. I hated doing it as I love him very much. I also feel guilty that I did not do everything to try to keep him. But I gave in to the inevitable and took him back. The good news is that he was adopted almost immediately. I had posted info about him on MySpace, emailed all my friends, and took out an ad in the local paper. But the first people who looked at him wanted him. That tells you how great a dog he was. So the good news is that he is hopefully in a good home and is happy. The bad news is that I miss him terribly and I know I will never see him again or get to pet him or hug him or love him again, except in my dreams and in my mind. Goodbye Shakespeare, I wish you a long and happy life. Who knows, in this crazy life maybe we will meet again.

Posted by Michael at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)

July 8, 2006

Not a good Weekend

We have a new care provider for our autistic son Kirk. For some reason she is terrified of our dog Shakespeare and is quitting unless we get rid of the dog. Shakespeare is a large 88 pound mixed breed brindle. Shakespeare is also a baby and completely harmless. Our previous care provider loved him as did her two children. The new provider said that Shakespeare growled at her but our boarder, Michelle, said that Skakespeare had s sneaker in his mouth and was trying to get Chevelle (yes that's her name) to play. Apparently this woman is afraid of dogs in general and not just Shakespeare. So now Teresa wants me to get rid of Shakespeare. It is not just this incident, Shakespeare does chew up a lot of things (including doors and my books and electronic gadgets) and sheds a lot. But I love him very much and do not want to have to take him back to Heritage Animal Shelter in Williamsburg where I had rescued him. So I am in a quandry as to what to do. A lot of things come to mind. I actually took Shakespeare to Heritage and was ready to surrender him when they told me they could not guarantee that he would not be euthanized. So I brought him back home with me. I can try to keep him outside all the time, I have a large fenced in back yard and a large dog house, but he is an inside dog. He will go out for a while, but he always wants to come back in. And he will litterally chew through a door to get back in. Or he can hit the door and force it open. I think in the end I will have to take him back to Heritage for surrender. They told me he has an excellent chance of being adopted as he is only two years old. But it is going to break my heart to have to do it. I have always had a dog, they are an essential part of my life and my well being. Having lost my beloved Ginger just slightly over a year ago will make it that much harder to do. Why do things have to turn out like this? More to follow tomorrow.

Posted by Michael at 6:59 PM | Comments (0)

July 4, 2006

Space Shuttle and NASA

I have spent a lot of this long 4th of July weekend watching NASA try to launch the space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-121. So far there have been two aborts due to weather. I have my fingers crossed today that they will finally get off the ground. I grew up wathcing NASA and the manned space program. I remember vividly watching first the Mercury program followed by Gemini, Apollo, and finally the landings on the moon. The space program has shaped who I am and provided me with some of the most exciting moments of my life. But ever since the last manned landing on the moon in 1972 the space program has lost a lot of its excitement. To think that for the last 34 years the only other manned space program has been the space shuttle is simply unbelievable to me. Yes there was the Space Lab and then the international space station, but it seems the pace of development and exploration via manned spacecraft has declined dramatically.

The space shuttle has only a few missions left before it is retired and yet NASA has no replacement program in the forseable future. NASA has plans for manned exploration of the Moon and Mars but the timetable for those is stretched to far for my liking. It seems to me that private industry has done more for manned space exploration in the last few years than NASA has. A lot of the problem stems from public apathy towards space exploration, political fighting, as well as budgetary constraints. I don't have 35 more years left to me in which to wait for manned exploration on the scale that I witnessed as a child and growing up. NASA needs to find a way to re-invent themselves and start developing and implementing a manned space program of the same scale and grandeur of the 60's and 70's. I just hope that I am still around when we finally get around to landing men on Mars. I only hope that it happens sooner than expected and that I will live to see other planets besides Mars explored by man.

 

Posted by Michael at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)