So I am off to garden a bit (and fling slugs) then spend some time volunteering at the shelter, and maybe after Joy gets off work we can sit out on the patio, watch the hummingbirds at the feeder and not think about oil slicks, wars, ecological destruction, the economy, genetic engineering, the decline of our culture, corruption, greed, corporatocracy, and things like that for just a few hours.

But here are the lyrics anyway… Just substitute “modern society” for LA.

From the lyrics page on Tool’s official site

Ænema Some say the end is near. Some say we’ll see armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will. I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three ring circus sideshow of Freaks here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time. Any fucking day. Learn to swim, I’ll see you down in Arizona bay. Fret for your figure and Fret for your latte and Fret for your hairpiece and Fret for your lawsuit and Fret for your prozac and Fret for your pilot and Fret for your contract and Fret for your car. It’s a bullshit three ring circus sideshow of freaks here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time. Any fucking day. Learn to swim, I’ll see you down in Arizona bay. Some say a comet will fall from the sky. Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves. Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still. Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits. Some say the end is near. Some say we’ll see armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will cuz I sure could use a vacation from this Silly shit, stupid shit… One great big festering neon distraction, I’ve a suggestion to keep you all occupied. Learn to swim. Mom’s gonna fix it all soon. Mom’s comin’ round to put it back the way it ought to be. Learn to swim. Fuck L Ron Hubbard and Fuck all his clones. Fuck all those gun-toting Hip gangster wannabes. Learn to swim. Fuck retro anything. Fuck your tattoos. Fuck all you junkies and Fuck your short memory. Learn to swim. Fuck smiley glad-hands With hidden agendas. Fuck these dysfunctional, Insecure actresses. Learn to swim. Cuz I’m praying for rain and I’m praying for tidal waves I wanna see the ground give way. I wanna watch it all go down. Mom please flush it all away. I wanna watch it go right in and down. I wanna watch it go right in. Watch you flush it all away. Time to bring it down again. Don’t just call me pessimist. Try and read between the lines. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t Welcome any change, my friend. I wanna see it all come down. suck it down. flush it down.

I heard about the story I am posting here on one of my podcasts, and did some Googling this morning trying to find the original source. I suppose if all the oddball podcasts I listen to hasn’t  already put me on some government watch list, linking to a Russian news site probably will…

…or was, for one day this week. I had stopped off at an I-40 rest stop in Catawba county on my way to Mocksville, NC, and noticed a man walk from his car with a loose dog bounding alongside him. I gave him the ’shame on you for not having your dog on a leash’ hairy eyeball as I went inside, but it turned out to be ’shame on me for jumping to conclusions,” because when I came back out I saw that the dog, a really emaciated beagle, was following everyone back and forth and was clearly lost.

I got back in the van and started it up, telling myself that someone else would step forward and help, but I just couldn’t leave. I see so many animals flattened on the highway every day; this was such a situation in the making – and I could prevent it. I turned the van back off.

Sometimes I see dogs running loose and it’s clear that either (a) they are local dogs that know where they are going (not that this makes it a good idea for them to be loose) and/or (b) they are very uninterested in being ‘rescued’ and will possibly bolt into traffic or go on the offensive if approached. This was NOT such a situation. The poor dog was wandering back and forth, approaching anyone who got out of a car.  I got out of the van, crouched down, and called to him; when he heard me and saw me there, he let out a series of yelps like someone was beating him (for a beagle, I think that is actually happiness) and bounded over to me.

After leaving my name and number with the rest area attendants just in case (though I’d place bets he was abandoned there on purpose) I was off to Mocksville with a skinny, smelly, very mangy beagle in the back of the van. I stopped at a vet clinic and had him scanned for a microchip – no luck. We stopped at a dollar store for some chewies, some canned food, and a collar; the canned food was wolfed down hungrily, and the chewies (I hoped) would keep him from eating other things in the van while I attended to my service calls. The dollar store didn’t have any leashes so I made do with a USB cable tied to the collar.  I have to say that he behaved very well while I went to my service calls in Mocksville and Mooresville, only occasionally letting out earsplitting beagle yelps from the back seat.

After all my work for the day was done, it was time to figure out what to do with Mr. Beagle.  The mange, which was probably noncontagious demodex but might also be contagious sarcoptic mange/scabies, made me wary of bringing him home, and the last thing we need is an adult unneutered beagle with generalized mange and probably heartworms. He was going to have to go to a shelter, and his best hope if someone was missing him and trying to find him was a shelter in the county I found him in. With no microchip, tattoo, or ID tags, and the horrible condition he was in, I doubted anyone was looking for him – but what if I was wrong and the poor condition was because he had been missing for a long time?

Joy found me the info for Catawba County Animal Services, and I dropped him off there with the remains of his chewy. Though the shelter staff treated him kindly as they took him back to the kennel, I still felt really bad, because I am guessing he probably will be put down after his stray hold due to his health. I did as much as I could, and at least he won’t die a horrible death squashed like a pumpkin on I-40, or get torn apart by coyotes, or starve to death. He spent a warm day in the van with a good meal, and will have at least three days of a roof over his head and food. I posted his info on Craigslist lost & found for the Hickory area, just in case.

There was Xena, the little black kitten that I always scooped up and carried around when I first arrived at the shelter each day I volunteered. And Marble, the big torti who watched everything that went on with her big owlish eyes. Jade, who got so sick with the crud and was finally recovering. Sibyl and Sheba, two other girls that were really nice cats but just never seemed to catch the eye of potential adopters. Peter, who just arrived about a week ago and had come down with symptoms of the infection. The baby torti kitten who was a special favorite of mine, but got so sick with the same URI. And others, newer cats who I didn’t really get to know, because my work schedule didn’t give me much time to volunteer this past week.

There were also some favorites of mine in the dog area that have disappeared in the past week or so, most notably a little Pit Bull named Jayce who was basically growing up in the shelter. He had a pretty serious heart murmur and I think this (understandably) scared off potential adopters, and when space ran out, so did Jayce’s time.

Joy and I lit a candle last night for all of the lost ones, with a wish that next time around, they get a better chance in life.

I’m not trying to depress everyone by sharing this information, and I am not sure exactly how to put into words what I am trying to say… except maybe to give a glimpse of some of what shelter employees have to cope with. So many times, in conversations where I tell people (proudly) that Joy works at an animal shelter, the response is, “I love animals too much, I could never do that!” I know it isn’t usually meant the way it sounds, but reverse it and think about how that does sound – like shelter workers can do the job because they don’t love animals, or care as much.

The burnout rate for shelter employees is pretty high, it’s a tough job and I have the utmost respect for anyone who is brave enough to do it. The best thing we can all do to change the situation is to do everything we can to stop the pet overpopulation problem. Most places have low-cost or even free spay & neuter programs, there’s no reason not to fix your pets. Adopt rather than buy; I know a lot of people who will ‘rescue’ a puppy or kitten from a pet shop because they feel sorry for it (I’ve done it myself, years ago) but what it amounts to is rewarding the people selling the animals and helping to ensure they keep doing it. When you adopt, you are saving at least two lives – the one you adopted, and the one the shelter now has room for because of the cage you just emptied.

And lastly, always remember to have compassion and respect for those who have to do the job most of us don’t have the courage to do. If you are thinking of donating blankets or food or toys, remember your county shelter. Most of them have tight budgets and don’t get as many donations as privately funded rescues. I’ve had people say to me “I only support no-kill rescues” – trust me, someone is doing the killing. There are just so many animals getting dumped like discarded trash, more than enough homes could ever be found for, and many of those are sick or psychologically damaged. Rescues are often able to pick the animals they think are most adoptable (our local shelter works with several of them) and this is fine, it helps free up space and saves lives, just don’t blame the shelters for what they have to do.

Anyway, I meant to take the time here simply to remember some of the animal friends who were in our lives all too briefly, and somehow this turned into a soapbox rant. Sorry about that.

I spent over three hours at the shelter today walking dogs, socializing kittens, scrubbing litter pans, and overall having a great time. While I was there, three cats were adopted including two big adult cats named Pumpkin and Lover who had been at the shelter since before Joy worked there, so that was great for them. The picture above was snapped with my cell phone; these are the two scrawny little babies I mentioned in my last post. They are doing so much better! I have to confess I am quite smitten with the red and white girl. She’s super smart and very polite. Her brother is a bit pushy with her and I suspect he gets the lion’s share of the food –you can’t see it in the picture but he looks like an engorged tick his belly is so full.

It’s really interesting getting to know all of the different personalities. Most of the dogs I walked yesterday seemed to recognize me today and the two little red dogs that didn’t seem to have been on leashes yesterday did so much better today. I figured the little Pit Bull babies would not have been on a leash before but the girl picked up on it so fast maybe she has been. Her brother, not quite so much but he didn’t do real bad and it was about 23 degrees at the time.  There was one enormous black lab mix that I walked last, thinking “do I really want my arm jerked out of its socket today by a dog that almost outweighs me?” and he turned out to be a big scaredy-cat. Instead of being dragged around the courtyard I had to coax him along like an eight week old puppy… so much for judging a book by its cover.

The on-again/off-again snow forecast has now been changed to rain, sleet, and ice – and even the Weather Channel has a winter storm warning posted for our area. Nothing has started falling yet, but they are calling for some possibly significant ice accumulation. I hope it isn’t too bad, and we don’t lose power… and I am again very grateful for the gas fireplace our house has. The last time we were living in Hendersonville, we had an ice storm take out our power for four days just before Christmas, with only a wood fireplace that was mostly ornamental and didn’t really put out much heat. It sucked: I still refer to it as ‘the great darkness’ and I think Joy was ready to throttle me by the time we finally got our power back on.

Something I thought was neat and meant to mention sooner, on our way to Joy’s parents for Thanksgiving we saw a Tesla Roadster here in Hendersonville. Not the sort of thing you expect to see here… it just sort of glided past us on Highway 64 heading towards Bat Cave. Pretty cool!

Joy’s new job is going great and it’s awesome having her get home two hours earlier. We’ve even actually been watching our Netflix rentals more often, instead of having the DVDs sit around for weeks before we get to them.

Now that things are finally settling in for us with job schedules (and staying in one place) we’re really going to work at getting more involved in the community around us and maybe making some friends.  It’s been so long that I think I need to re-learn how… it was never one of my strong points to begin with;  I’ve always been shy and intimidated by meeting new people – and with all the long hours of driving on my job I spend a lot of time — too much I guess — inside my own head. I’ve learned to be more outgoing just by nature of the work I do, interacting with a variety of people while visiting several hospitals and clinics in the course of a day, installing and servicing their computers, but I guess I think of that as sort of a hat I put on, and then when I come home I retreat back into my shell.  With the long work hours and assorted mayhem over the past few years, there was never much opportunity to do otherwise, up till now, but since that is no longer the case so much I am making a concerted effort to change my habits.

I started a Qigong class a couple of weeks ago; the class is Wednesdays in the early evening so I don’t always get off work in time but I consider it a major triumph just for me to have gotten past my shyness to go. For those who are scratching their heads and saying “what the heck is Qigong?” while reading this, it’s sort of like Tai Chi, except more of a moving meditation than a martial art. It’s one of the things I started back when I still worked at the computer shop and had a lot of trouble managing stress;  I’ve found it very helpful, but hard to grasp from books and video. I am learning a lot in the class and actually having fun.

I also took off work yesterday to attend a volunteer orientation class at the animal shelter and today I volunteered for the first time. I walked about eight dogs, got to sit and snuggle some scrawny little Pit Bull babies, and spend a bit of time with the cats. Two of the dogs weren’t used to being on leashes at all and I think I helped them along with this, and a couple of the other dogs got lessons from me on not jumping, sitting for treats and taking them gently. I spent a couple of hours there and really enjoyed myself… maybe once I work past being new and shy there I can help out with stuff inside the shelter more but right now just hanging out with the animals is more my comfort level.  It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but never worked my way up to — truthfully, I  still might not have, if it wasn’t for the fact that Joy works there so at least I know someone.

Being out of the veterinary field, I’ve missed working with lots of different animals, and am really looking forward to trying to do some good for the shelter animals. I know it’s going to be hard, there aren’t always happy endings and we can’t step in and save every sad case, but as I’ve said before, it’s a really good place and a lot of them do get adopted. Having Joy there has a good side and a bad side; I feel like I already know all the animals beforehand, but I also know what happens to each one. It can absolutely make your day to see that someone, like the great 11 year old cat someone dumped off a couple of weeks ago, was adopted. For those that aren’t so lucky (like a dog I was especially fond of that had been in the shelter a long time and had to be put down yesterday because they ran out of room) I just try to remember that they were treated well and shown love for the time they had, their lives ended with kindness and as gently as possible,  and maybe in their next life they will get a better break.

The end of this week is Halloween, which originated as Samhain, (usually pronounced SOW-en)  the day celebrated by the ancient Celts as the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. They also believed that this was the one night of the year when the veil between the realms of the living and the dead was the thinnest, allowing ghosts and other supernatural beings to roam. In honor of this spooky time of year, I’ll be putting up a couple of  relevantly themed posts over the next few days; if anyone has a spooky story they would like to share, feel free to send it to me and I’ll put it up as a guest post.

As far as the old year/new year aspect, I totally get the “death of the old year” part, as I already mentioned above. I have more trouble relating to this season as the beginning of a new year, but this seems like a good time to announce that, this year, we really are on the threshold of an ending and a beginning — Joy finally found a job in Hendersonville!

When we moved here, we knew that the commute was going to be hard and that Joy would eventually have to find a job closer to home. The fifty five hour work week has been very hard on her, and she’s hardly had any time to actually enjoy our new home. I am very relieved to have that come to an end, but I also have to say it is going to be strange and sad to see this era of our lives come to an end. For more than four years, the computer shop in Waynesville has been part of our lives. I went to work there in the spring of 2006, then Joy joined me the following summer and continued working there after I moved on. With Joy  working there, it still felt like part of my life even though I left a year and a half ago. Jon and Janice are great people and we’ll miss having them part of our daily lives… we hope that we will be able to stay in touch as friends.

Joy is going to be working at the local animal shelter as of November 9. Yes — that is where she worked when we first moved back to NC, but as I’ve mentioned in previous posts it isn’t really the same place at all any more. The new shelter is bright and clean, the staff really care about animals and do their best for them, and the atmosphere is completely different. She’ll have a chance to be part of something positive this time, to really try and make things better for the animals in this county, but it is still a difficult and often heart-wrenching job, and she has my admiration, respect, and total support for being willing to take it on. It really was a great job opportunity and I am so proud of her for landing the job!

Besides the fact that the job itself is a good one, with great benefits, Joy’s commute will now be two minutes, to go a distance of 1.2 miles. I am so relieved she won’t have to make that trek up the mountains this winter in the ice and snow. The hours will also be better, and we’ll save about forty dollars a week on gas, plus greatly reducing the wear and tear on the car. And she’ll actually get to spend some time here. Of course, with all the vomit, diarrhea, and bloody pus flying around the house these days she might not appreciate that as much as she might otherwise have, but hey – you can’t have everything…

So we are on the threshold of an ending, a beginning, and the last big step towards our getting our lives settled here in Hooterville. For the first time in, well, ever, we’ll both simultaneously have solid jobs and health insurance, we own a home we love in a town we’ve really come to appreciate, and hopefully we’ll even now have a bit of time to enjoy it all!

There are also a lot of businesses sitting empty. One day when we were driving back from Hendersonville up Highway 25, I counted the empty storefronts along the way. By the time we were in Arden I guess my pointing out vacancies with rain man-like thoroughness got a bit old and Joy suggested that I might find something else to occupy my time… but the point here is that there were a frighteningly large number of them. There are several brand new strip malls in Arden that already have restaurants that have closed, and yet developers still are chugging ahead with more of them. I don’t think “if you build it, they will come” applies in this economy. More like, “if you build it, you will lose your ass” but no one seems to be listening.

Last week I had to drive to Tazewell, VA and stopped at one of those big truck stop plazas for a restroom break. I always feel bad using a store’s restroom without at least buying something; as I scoped around for a bag of nuts or something else at least vaguely healthy I noticed that the shelves were strangely empty. Maybe they were restocking? Or the store looked pretty new, maybe they had just opened? I made the mistake of asking about it when I paid for my nuts.

“We’re goin’ bankrupt, hon,” the tired-looking lady at the counter replied.

What do you even say to a statement like that? I floundered a bit and said I was sorry to hear it. She kind of shrugged in a ‘what can you do’ gesture and said they’d get through somehow, and I wished her luck as I left. I noticed that all of the gas pump nozzles were covered with plastic bags. It was very sobering.

A day or two later I went into the West Asheville co-op and noticed that they were out of what I came in for. Then I noticed they were out of a LOT of other things as well. I asked about it and the guy at the counter said that there were some budget problems. Again I was at a loss for words and just kind of wandered out of the store feeling unsettled and perturbed. All of the news reports about businesses going under due to the economy just don’t quite hit home until it, well, hits home.  I hope the co-op isn’t at risk of closing, it’s a really neat place and they’ve worked so hard to make it thrive.

Frightening as it is to watch the economy contract, to a large extent it needs to happen as our current way of life is unsustainable and damaging. Hopefully what emerges on the other side of this mess will be a better society less obsessed with materialism. I have trouble feeling bad for the loss of big box stores selling cheap plastic crap – junk that ends up in a landfill within a few years (or even days) – but watching all the little local businesses that are getting crushed in the carnage is very sad.