Thursday, August 21, 2008

Possums Really Do Play Possum

When I went out to give the dogs their morning water and dog biscuits I noticed a furry something in one of the indoor kennels. This is not something I'm thrilled to find.

When I looked more closely the furry thing turned out to be a young 'possum. At first I thought it was dead, but on closer inspection realized it was still alive. The dogs kept coming over to sniff at it and I made them go to their own kennels while I got the big scoop I use to clean their yard and tossed the unwelcomed guest over the fence. I am far more use to opposums attacking than playing dead so this was interesting. When I checked later there was no sign of it so I suppose it was unharmed.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Full Mail Box

Wow, I got back from vacation to find my email inbox was stuffed full. Some was junk mail, of course, BUT there were also some emails offering me writing jobs, including one from a British editor.



She wanted to know if I would be interested in writing a HILO, High Interest-Low vocabulary, book. Since improving reading skills has been a subject near and dear to my heart for over thirty years now naturally I leaped at the chance. I am especially interested in creating reading material for the older reader.



On our mini-vacation we found a really choice museum in Clint, Oklahoma. It is the Route 66 museum. It has a wonderful layout beginning with the conception of the "Mother Road" and continuing up to the point it ceased to be a conduit from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA. It is worth the tour if you are at all interested in the subject.



Well, I'd better get back to work on all those articles etc. that were in my in-box, as well as the book.



Lazy Trainer Tip

Take time to enjoy yourself. As far as we know we only go 'round once in this life.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Work and Play

I was working a crossword puzzle and got to thinking about semetics, which led to the folloing musings about work and play.

Humans like to make a big deal of work and consign second place to play. Work is important. Play is not. Yet, if you look at the subject carefully, you'll see that work is acturally far in second place to play.

Consider the following. Anything we do beyond what is necessary to acquire the day's food is play. I base this statement on the fact that all life has to do something to acquire enough food to continue living. That can be considered work. Once a person has enough food to insure their continued existence for another day they have done all the work they actually need to do.

What about shelter? What about it? Many animals live all their lives without shelter. From birth to death they are completely at the mercy of the elements. There are places in this world where humans can survive without any artificial shelter. The fact we've learned to create such things allows us to move into enviroments that are hostile to us, but even there the effort to have shelter beyond that needed to allow us to survive has to be considered play.

What about clothing? Well, are there any other animals that we know of who create artifical colthing? Again clothing is something that allows us to move into and survive in hostile enviroments, but beyond the necessary clothing to achieve that? I say again it is play.

I am going to define play as anything that involves keeping score in some fashion. And the fact is almost everything humans do is to rack up points on some scoreboard to prove to other humans they are winning the game. Therefore almost everything we do is really play.

Lazy Trainer Tip

If you are getting stressed because of the current economic conditions ask yourself these questions. Do I have enough to feed myself and my family? Can I provide them with shelter from the elements of this enviroments? Do all of us have clothing to further protect us?

If your answers to these questions is yes then you need to step back and look at just how much the rest of it is scorekeeping on a giant playboard.