Random 5 for September 29 – Notices, obits, memory, dogs, fall

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Our yard will look like this in another month!

I could use those – A friend of ours works for a printer. He was telling us about a batch of “door knob hangers” he made for a local town. They were notices letting residents know they were out of compliance. They had different blocks to check like “grass too tall” and “no parking cars on lawn.” We all decided that we needed those with different things to check off. “You are annoying.” “Back off and no one gets hurt.” Those sorts of things. I bet with a drink or two (or maybe none) I could come up with a lot of check-offs. #takethatneighbor

How did I miss that? – This week the mother of a friend from many years ago died. As I read the obituary, I looked at the survivors for my friend and didn’t find her. She was listed under the “predeceased by” section. That sent me on a mission to find out what happened. She died three years ago in hospice. That means she was ill for a while. I don’t know how it missed it. #don’tmissobitsincaseyouarethere

Dang I did it again – I keep notes all week for my Random 5. I have learned to make them “robust” because a single word won’t do it. (There must be a collection of dead brain cells in there!) I know this yet I did it again. #whenwillIeverlearn?

Vicktory – I’m a big fan of Best Friends, an animal rescue that has done major work collaborating with rescues across the country to encourage “no kill” shelters. This week they sent a link to an article the Washington Post published on the Vicktory dogs. Those were the fighting dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s kennel. Best Friends and a few other rescues stepped up to save and rehabilitate them for adoption. The article lists each dog rescued with the ultimate outcome. The bust was 12 years ago. That’s getting old for a dog so many are gone. They had a second chance for a great life whether they were adopted or stayed at Best Friends. It’s a very uplifting story. The link is here but the Post, like many other newspapers only allows a limited number of “free” looks. If you can’t see it, maybe you have already been reading free articles there. I’m not sure how else to access. I was all blubbery reading it (I have a soft spot for animals) but it’s not sad nor does it describe any atrocities. Just the good stuff. With happy dog pictures. #amazinghappydogs

Season changes – Locally it’s been unusually warm. The only sign of fall is the lower nighttime temperatures. That hasn’t stopped my maple tree from showing just a slight glimpse of color. Not much. Just enough to show you it’s coming. #fallisontheway

So how was your week?

 

66 thoughts on “Random 5 for September 29 – Notices, obits, memory, dogs, fall”

  1. You have fall – the good kind, not the trip and crash kind. Sigh. The days are shorter and a fee degrees cooler, but still tank tops here. There are hints in occasional odd breezes though. And today I saw another V flock of ducks heading over the house. So fingers crossed for potential next week.
    Thanks for the rescue group name. I was trying to remember it recently as it’s such a solid group. You want to donate where it will actually do the most good. Pets Alive has become very active here with a shelter since Hurricane Ike and the floods. One of the Astros and his wife are big supporters and able to do a lot of “awareness” things as well as actually showing up to work when needed.
    Dog fighting is so inhumane and cruel – those people are like roaches sneaking around – it’s a constant battle here where it is legal to raise dogs (Molly escaped from one such place – the rescues watch those areas and grab any dog that manages to get free), but not legal to fight them, have kids at fights, have fighting arenas or equipment – and yet, they do not disappear. Something is wrong with people who can stand there and watch living things tear each other apart. Vick – I don’t care if it’s a “cut;tural thing” he was raised with., The nerve of him whining to the courts that it was unfair he wasn’t allowed dogs which deprived his child of having a dog. Thanks for the update

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      • At one point he had to go before a judge (and SPCA, I think) to get permission – saying it was unfair to punish his kids….quite the show and controversy – SPCA said it would show he learned his lesson? Seriously?
        Rescue groups need to watch that situation well, like a dog.
        Some dogs won’t drop a bone…

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  2. We’re having an early fall. Usually September is beautiful and sunny. This year it was off and on. Now we’re getting temperatures in the 50s. Yesterday it snowed in the mountains.

    I don’t miss many obits–at least not among certain groups of friends. For some reason, one of my high school classmates has taken it upon himself to arrange parties and get-togethers and keep us up-to-date on all kinds of things, including deaths. Asian Development Bank, where my husband worked, has an association of former employees (and their spouses). And then there is Facebook that keeps us up-to-date on all manner of things.

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    • They do a lot of good work. I’m always amazed at how much a relatively new rescue has grown. They’ve been around since the 80s or so. Locally our county shelter has connected with them too.

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  6. It must have been hard-hitting to see your friend’s name included in the obituary for her mother, and realizing you hadn’t known of her illness and death. As I get older, I wonder about some of my friends across the country. Will anyone in their family, some have almost no one, contact me if they are very ill or pass? I have a couple of friends in mind and have wondered how I could broach this conversation without making them too uncomfortable. I might need to.

    And Best Friends sounds like a fantastic organization. I understand the ‘blubbery” response. 🙂

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    • Since you are on the west coast I’m surprised you weren’t familiar with Best Friends. They are very active in CA. There are some friends I many know about at all as they have moved out of state long ago. I try to be vigilant with the obits (creepy isn’t it?). I used to laugh at my mom as she scoured them for people she knew. Now I am her.

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      • I really don’t think I have heard of Best Friends, but I have a few friends who are true animal activists. I get a lot of my information directly through them, and perhaps that’s made me a little lazy in doing my own research. I will be onboard now, however. I’m pretty impressed!

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        • They are a great organization. What I love best is that all their notices — newsletters, emails or Facebook, have positive happy upbeat stories rather. I’d like to know that my contributions make for at least some happy endings.

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  7. Like you and other commenters here I’m sure I could create a bunch of useful + direct door hangers that’d be popular. I’d start with one that said: what the heck were you thinking when you painted your front door this color?

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    • I am in no way defending him but he has done some work in the Philadelphia area (at least when he was playing in Philly) for animal abuse. I still don’t like him. I was angry when the Philadelphia Eagles hired him way back. I am saddened to think that anyone is raised to believe that treating animals like that is ok.

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  10. The hangers – excellent idea!
    Prompted by a fellow blogger in my Patch blogging group to “renew a friendship with an old friend” … I went looking for my old boss and mentor … he had tried to get me from an administrative position and my feet on the first rung of the ladder to a junior copywriter at an ad agency in the late 70s – then we lost our major account (Chrysler) and he moved on. I Googled around and discovered he had passed away just two weeks before – I was beside myself, though I’d not seen him in years.
    https://lindaschaubblog.net/2015/03/25/not-all-ad-men-are-mad-men/

    His art director that he worked with I located now living in California amd with a production company and teaching part time at U of Berkly I think it was. I asked if he knew and he had just found out. He was also an artist- I told Larry about my blog and asked if I could use paintings for artwork – he said “go ahead” … I went to use a painting of a soldier a year later for Veteran’s Day and discovered that Larry had also passed away suddenly – I was sad for that asI liked him a lot and I feel funny using the picture now. No more exploring my past friends – it was painful.

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    • I know what you mean. Around the time of my class reunion (which I didn’t go to) I checked around for some of my classmates. We were school friendships that didn’t sustain after we graduated. Most are still around. It’s always a shock when your peers pass away.

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      • It sure is – they still report deaths/illnesses in our Facebook Reunion Group. One guy two weeks ago was at a car event and his heart stopped. They brought him bad with paddles while his wife watched. He has had a pacemaker put in. We’ve had many heart attacks resulting in death. I graduate in 1973 from high school. I am sure heart attacks are what took these two guys at the ad agency – both died quickly and two other art directors had fatal heart attacks while I was still working there. Mighty scary.

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  12. Thank you very much for sharing the ‘Vicktory’ story. I cried as I read each dog’s profile. I remember watching Best Friends episodes about the Vick dogs and feeling so incredibly heartbroken at all that they endured. John Garcia is a god in my mind for his amazing work and for the love he bestowed on those dogs.

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    • I feel much as you do. I loved the endurance and perseverance of the trainers. I would be a blubbery mess. I love all animals and truly believe that how we treat animals reflects on the type of person we are. You do not need to “want a pet” to be good to other species. It’s just kindness.

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  14. Lots of diverse (random) things to think about this week. With the abundance of information flowing through our news sites, I, too feel bad when I miss how someone was ill and is no longer with us:( We were in a camping spot on the true West Coast (Long Beach) these past two weeks. The Fall colours were VERY evident when we were driving home. A lot of changes in two weeks. Your gorgeous Fall photo reminded me of this, Kate:)

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  16. Door Hangers = Report Cards For Adults

    I am sure that more than a few friends from HS (in NJ) are gone without me being any the wiser ~ in part because I don’t subscribe to or check NJ obits. I know of 3. One electrocuted on a farm in his late teens. One dead of a brain aneurysm in her early 30’s. And another died a couple of years ago after moving to Florida. It’s always a surprise to hear of the demise of peers.

    Happy for the happy dogs. People who intentionally mistreat animals should be annihilated.

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  17. Shared pictures of the beauty of your yard is the only way I am going to see Fall. Lovely, at first I thought that was what it looked like now. Fall is here but nothing is falling and it’s HOT, we need rain. The door hanger thing is brilliant! I am going to follow your link and check out Best Friends.

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  19. I love the idea of the hangers.
    Fall? Not sure if I remember it. We had a cool day last week, first in two weeks, the heat index actually never made 100F that day. 102F yesterday.

    People like Vick, should do solid time for atrocities like that. I’m glad the survivors learned what love was.

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    • I did too and almost all of them were adopted. Of the ones that weren’t (and it’s a very small number like maybe 3), the court (in all it’s infinite wisdom) determined they couldn’t be adopted. I was most surprised that the USHS and PETA wanted the dogs put down. Seriously? Some of the never fought.

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  22. Ditto on our maples – some reds/oranges/yellows finally. We had rain yesterday – the first rain in two weeks so that will help with color I hope. I remember when Michael Vick’s kennel was raided and those poor dogs were rescued – things like that always upset me…..for a long time – so glad that was a mostly happy ending kind of story. Love the door hanger idea – just THINK of the possibilities! HAHA

    Hugs, Pam

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