You can have too many friends

I was recently friended by somebody on Facebook that I had worked with briefly about a year and a half ago give or take .I realized after her first post chances were pretty good we would not continue to be Facebook friends or friends anywhere else for that matter. The first post I read was her and her friends posting they would not be going to Starbucks because Starbucks serves gay people  - of course God would be smiting them too but hopefully after they got their Mocha latte. This for me doesn't work on several different levels. First of all that's not very Christian or very human for that matter. I mean I honestly I cannot believe that there is a God sitting around proclaiming things like that. And second of all really - why would God even care who's getting some Starbucks coffee . Does he not have anything better to do like save starving orphans are quietly get rid of Obama? And then we get into the hell thing, for some reason religious people seem to want me to go to hell. A LOT. They mentioned it in general conversation and sometimes more than once. I don't mind them thinking I should go to hell - after all I don't believe in it nor do I believe in God but to me it's sort of like if your friend brought a dress and called the color forest and you actually thought it was the color of vomit. Or you thought have made her but look extra fat - it's okay to think it but you probably shouldn't say it out loud. First of all,  that's just your opinion and second of all, you don't even know if it's really true. Maybe only you're the one that thinks it's the color  of vomit. The bottom line is this is  a bunch of people telling you what God thinks. Why would God think about me going to hell or  spend any time thinking about how gay people shouldn't get Starbucks coffee. I'm personally glad that gay people can go to Starbucks for coffee and I don't have to boycott it. it would be pretty awkward for me. I would either have to give up drinking Starbucks coffee or send David in to get it for me. See that's technically okay because David isn't drinking the coffee and I wouldn't be going in but that's neither here nor there Starbucks lets everyone have coffee.  I very politely told that woman maybe  we were not friend material and quietly unfriended her. No one is going to change their mind and I can keep going to Starbucks winner winner chicken dinner!!

Winds Of Change

We took the dogs to the game lands this morning, Reuben as usual ran like the wind - back and forth, up and down. Anyone that wants to outlaw electric collars has to take him for a week  without it and let me know how you made out. We usually just beep him and he comes right back but today he was very excited and it took awhile to reign him in. David was grousing, according to him all the Dogs Past behaved perfectly, yadda, yadda, yadda. I just laughed and said the dogs haven't changed - we have. Maybe it's because we're older, the kids are gone (Adam moved out a month ago and now lives in Kentucky), who knows. I reminded him of Lady, one of his first Vizslas he owned that the pound would cheerfully scoop up every time they saw her and wait for us to call. She would get snagged  as far as 10 miles from our house, sometimes be gone for a day or two. The only reason we got her back on a regular basis was the breed is very distinctive  and easy to describe, they knew who she belonged to.  The other reason was the fine was increased for each offense and she was a sure bet. The last time they caught her I said Maybe I Won't Come Get Her. The dog catcher laughed and said, Well, Maybe I'll Have A New Gun Dog This Year. I swore all the way there and all the way back, Lady of course could have given a rat's ass - she just wanted her dinner. We had one dog that ran off and after the 3rd time said the hell with you - we saw her happily riding shotgun in someone else's car and decided then and there to stop looking for her. We had cats disappear, reappear and then disappear - I don't remember getting too worked up about it. My grandmother Carter had Mama cat who procreated on a weekly schedule, she kept them in the lilac grove and you could play with them until they went crazy and feral. Then they'd run off and a new batch would take their place. But that was then and this is now - we get all of our cats fixed and vaccinated, they come in at night and we go looking for them if they're not. Vincent has lived with us for about 10 years and has spent exactly two nights outside. Scout, the newest addition has not been out at all since we rescued him from the garage. Molly and Reuben are taken out with collars on. I love to read so I've cleared paths in our woods and placed chairs around the whole place. They snuffle and hunt while I read - I can read outside just as easily as inside and I love being out in our woods so it works for all of us. But I think we get carried away sometimes about the pets - and I don't think we're alone in that boat, are we? Can you imagine what your great grandparents would say if they were told you take your dogs and cats for their annual shots and physical? That some of us drop them off in doggie daycare - or that I had a dog walker come to the house each day that we worked late when Pearl was alive? Or the stray kitten I adopted is not allowed outside until he's neutered and has all of his shots? But with our busier schedules, shrinking families and everyone moving away from each other, we depend on our pets more and more for social interaction and family. We socialize with Molly and Reuben on the weekends, with all my driving and working the idea of going anywhere just wears me out. I see people all week, my pets are my downtime.But I have said to David we need to be realistic about them, they will not outlive us, they might run off, you never know. He agreed - but that didn't change things, we are still going to worry on them, aren't we?