4 Months

Its been 4 since I’ve posted anything. I just have not had the time or inclination to put effort into anything written for others to read.

As far as things go, work is getting better with more orders and hitting budget equaling more time spent at work instead of being part time. I look forward to the day when I can work a full week on a regular basis again.

Lauren is ten and a half weeks out from her ACL reconstruction and is doing well. She is at or a little ahead of schedule in her recovery and gets to start running as soon as soon as her new brace comes in. This is the time where she will determine how long before she can start playing ball again. The effort she puts into her workouts starting in about 2 weeks can get her back on the field sooner then expected…as long as she doesn’t overdo her therapy. It’s a fine line she will have to walk for the next month or so as she regains her strength but has to limit what she does. We want to avoid a set back that will cause a delay but also want to help her be ready to play by the beginning of May if possible. She still has a long way to go to reach that goal.

On the down side, the poker league I played in for the last couple of years is ending its run. Its to bad because the group of players, 30 plus most nights, are fun to play with for the most part and had enough good players to make every tournament interesting. There is another league that I could jump into but I’m thinking I’ll take some time off before finding something new.

I have been playing online again, not a lot but enough to remind me why I took the year off. I’ll still join an occasional tourney or play the random micro limit cash game but I think my nights of grinding might be over. We’ll have to see.

I’m finding this return to writing harder then I thought it would be.

Time to Push Back

I feel so beaten down by life right now. I could go on and on about all the things that suck right now and point fingers at the decimation that is my life but the reality of it all is that I have probably caused most of it if I actually took the time to go over everything.

I’m unmotivated.

Maybe its me going through a mid-life crisis, feeling self absorbed and rejecting criticism because I don’t want to look into the mirror for fear of what I might see…I know that much of this comes from trying to deal with the burdens of balancing my personal desires with my responsibilities. But the weight of financial hardship, trying to work through nine months of partial pay and feeling like a red-headed step child has left me bitter with tinges of surly.

Its time to work out of the rut.

Knock Knock...

Is there anyone out there?

Life has gotten in the way of this here blog.

I could write about it but it would be at least a long short story.

I hope everyone out there in the blog world is doing well.

That was fun

Well I did it...I played online poker for the first time in over 3 months. My buddy waffles sent me a little scratch so I could give it a try and what do you know...I had fun. The best part of it all was cashing in two out of the three MTTs that I played in which included a final table appearance in the PLO tourney I played in. I played weak tight for part of the hold'em tourney I cash but turned it around when I needed to do so and took 23rd out of just under 1000 low limit morons. Turbos take such skill.

This whole pandemic thing is driving me crazy. I understand that this flu is going to spread across the world but it is a flu and as such we will require bed rest and liquids to help us through the illness if we happen to get sick with this swine variety.

I'm meeting a blogger tonight. OSU is flying into Chicago for work and his Brother's graduation from college so we are going to get together for a beverage or something after my son's ballgame. It should be a good time.

Do We Have a Pandemic?

Since the Swine Flu is basically a regular flu that may just spread a little fast, I offer this.

Pandemic 2

Like Riding a Bike?

What can I say, my two fans have spoken up so I must move this thing along.

I have played no poker since the last time I posted so lets not even pretend that this here post has anything to do with the game. But what I can do is catch you up with a few things in life.

Since I’m learning how to write again, I think we will do this in a few short bullets and let it go at that.

1) Work still sucks and the part time thing because of our great economy is still kicking my butt.
2) Softball E. is having a very good season for her high school team with an ERA of just over 1 and averaging about 12 Ks per game.
3) Baseball E. is starting his season and has tryouts for his first travel team on Sunday.
4) Speedy E. living life and driving dad crazy.
5) Mrs. PE keeps me from losing it almost every day.
6) I have very little desire to play poker right now.
7) Well, I would like to play but cannot justify the use of the money since I had to spend my bankroll just to pay some bills.
8) I’m sure there are more things but like I said…I am learning to write again.

Have a great day.

ZZZZZZZZZ....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I've been asleep at the wheel for a while. So much going on with the family that I just have not taken time to update this part of my life. I'm not sure anyone is interested anymore since I left the blog-world a couple of months ago...Lets see if I can get back in the groove.

My Addiction

Having an addictive personality can cause issues with anyone. The fact that I know I have this issue helps me to look at the warning signs that mean I’m taking things to serious and thus, allow me to step away from things from time to time. But I’m not sure Facebook will allow me to step away.

I created my account to get in contact with my cousin. It had been about 20 years since I had talked to him and a conversation with my mom gave me the idea to see if he had a page. He did and we have had a couple of conversations with him since the first connection. Rob, I know I still owe you a story and I will get it to you eventually. But, what happened is a test of my resolve.

I find that I open up my home page and leave it open on my laptop. I will check for updates on a regular basis throughout the day. I will chat with friends that didn’t have my IM and make random comments to their updates. I am a Facebookoholic.

There…I have that off my chest…I feel better.

Life Goes On

No, I have not died…No I have not been playing poker online. I have had an interesting month since the last time I thought it was important to write.

Let’s start with life…

I was sitting in my chair a couple of weeks ago, watching TV and chatting on the girly box when my oldest daughter reminded me that I needed to take her to a friend’s house to take care of their dog. So I get up from my chair and my hand has fallen asleep. I have a slight tingling sensation but why worry about something like that. I probably just leaned on it wrong.

So we head to the house and I wait in the car for her to let the dog out and give it some food when I realize that my hand still feels asleep. Not like it was but kind of dead. This worried me a bit and I hurried home to contact a friend who’s girlfriend is an EMT or something like that anyway. She tells me to call the ER and talk to a nurse to see what they think I should do. By this time I feel the sensation in my forearm and a little in my bicep. So I give the ER a call and they say call my doctor because they will not give any recommendations without seeing me in person.

I call my doctor…I surly dude who doesn’t like the fact that it is almost 11:30 at night when I call. I tell him what is going on and he relieves my feels by saying it doesn’t appear to be a heart attack based on the fact that my chest doesn’t hurt and I’m not feeling sick. Then the hammer drops when he says it sounds like a stroke.

Iwalk into the other room and kindly as my wife if she could give me a ride. I think it would be a stupid move to get behind the wheel of a car if there was any chance of a stroke or heart attack happening so we head to the ER. I new I’d get in fast because they really don’t want dying in their waiting area and we get to the area where they check blood pressure. 178/143 is not a good thing and they sent me into a room and hooked me up to some machines.

They did an EKG and my heart came back strong. No issues there so the next best thing was to do a CAT scan. I was a little worried about this because of the feeling numbness in my hand but it came back OK. So they gave me a little pill and walked out of the room for about an hour. When they came back my blood pressure was back to normal and I checked out.

The lesson I learned from this is to make sure not to skip taking your medication…for a week.

Everything else in life has been solid. Mrs. PE is going back to school, Softball E is getting ready for her first high school season, Speedy E can’t wait for the summer because she has a job lined up and will be able to buy her own computer with the money she earns, and Baseball E is just finishing up with basketball.

On the poker front, I have played a few live tourneys and have final tabled two of them. No big monetary gains but solid play from me overall. Have been doing pretty well in the cash games I’ve played which seems to get handed over to my wife for bills but that’s OK.

I’m glad to be returning to the spring…life always seems to be better when the sun shines longer and the air is warmer.

Playing Poker and a Fundraiser

Man it was so cold last week.

Anyway, not much happening that’s new or different. Its seems my/our life revolves around driving whichever child has event on any given day.

I did play a home game since the last time I wrote here and it was much the same as last time. Get deep and miss the money…again. I can’t complain to much as I felt I was playing my A game for the most part. I didn’t have the chance to run my stack up like last time but instead slowly increased my stack by winning smaller pots.

It started off well when I won the first hand dealt when I saw a flop with AQ suited and had a free look at the turn. I caught the nut flush draw and re-raised a small bet from a middle position player who likes to take stabs and he called. The river filled my straight and my opponent check folded. This seemed to be the way my night went…I one a bunch of hands without having to show my cards.

A little later I chopped a big pot when I flopped two pair and turn the nut boat. He held the same J9 for the chop. That was the hand I needed to win to start running over the table. Eventually we got down to two tables and I had a super donkey on my left. He wasn’t afraid to call with any two cards and won a number of hands with crap. I was hoping for a double up through him and he gave it to me on an AK3 flop when I had AK and he had A5.

I busted a player when I was in the BB. I announced I was calling blind, mainly because the guy on my right would have pushed ATC. The button pushed the remainder of his small stack in the middle and it was folded to me. I called getting about 6-1 on my money and we turn them over…I had no idea I would have AQ and ran over his AJ.

At the final table I made a few moves by stealing some blinds and ran into the hand that would define my night. I’m in the SB and bets are at 750/1500 and I have 5800 behind. UTG limps leaving 6K behind. Middle position player pushes to 2600 and super donkey calls from late middle position. I turn up my cards and see QQ. I go all in.

I think this is a no brainer. I don’t really care about the short stack…I want super donkey heads up and isolated. If I beat him and lose to the shorty I still have a net gain.

Anyway, BB folds and UTG tanks. Now when he didn’t push I felt I was safe. In my opinion, you can only call here with one or two hands…AA or KK. I mean if you hand wasn’t good enough to raise with preflop then it can’t be good now. But if you look at the odds he was getting, maybe calling is the right move. We he eventually he only called and super donk came for the ride. The flop came 983 and UTG shoves about 1K into the middle and super donkey folds. UTG’s set of 9s is golden and I miss the money by a couple spots.

I think what we see here is a guy who probably miss played his 99 and then felt he had to call…which I’m not sure I agree with but I can argue both ways. I think a better move from him is to raise/shove preflop since he only had an M of about 3 anyway. I really think limping with that hand is the wrong play most time but it was a good move for him that time as it really didn’t matter how he played it…I was going to get knocked out regardless. That is unless there are three players all in, in front of me…then I can fold QQ. Doesn’t really matter…I had a good time and won a few bounties to break about even.

*******************

This weekend we are throwing a fundraiser tourney together for my daughters softball team. It is a $20 re-buy with basically $5 going to the team and the rest to the prize pool. If anyone would like to make a donation of a re-buy, I will be donating anything I win back to the team as well as any unused re-buy funds I have left. You can contact me by email through my profile to make arrangements through paypal or a funds transfer on full tilt.

Regardless, it will be a fun time and hopefully I can either win some money for the team or at least help them out with many buy-ins.

Have a great day.

Searching and Searching

Found a couple of jobs that might fit. The best looking one is about 5 minutes from home. It is for a major company we all know so chew on that for a while.

I have started playing Ikariam with a group of people from work. This caused me to get Waffles, IT and Riggs involved. Anyone else wanting to give it a try jump in at let me know. We have an alliance that kicks butt...wellkicks a little butt. We are growing and will offer protection and advice. You can go to our external alliance page here.

Have a great day.

Monday

Since the demise of my life as I knew it, I have actually play a small amount of poker. Nothing amazing but with the limited amount of bankroll I have, anything in the positive direction is a big thing.

We’ll start with the Poker Stars blogger thing.

I played in two events, one of the hold’em events and the 8 game rotation. The hold’em event was going well until I had an issue with one of my children. I lost focus and made a play at the big stack on the BB. I was the SB and it was folded to so I raised it up. I had not played a hand in about three orbits so I figured a little steal would work. I had 94 suited so when he re-popped me I should have folded. But I make a comment in the chat about me not playing a hand in a while and then push my stack in the middle. It could have been a re-steal by him so I though he could fold. He felt AT was good enough to call off 2/3 of his stack but I hit a 4 on the flop…it was good until he caught a T on the river. I’m not sure I could call a re-shove with AT but he did and he won.

The mixed game went well until the bets started getting huge and then it became a matter of getting hands at the right time. I didn’t. I do know that I really like triple draw and made most of my chips during that part of the rotation. The part that killed me was having a nullified while holding the nut flush draw and nut straight draw. I caught none of it with my numerous outs and left silently.

So, I have been playing a little on Lock Poker and forgot there was another level of terrible play. Players calling big re-raises out of position with T8 off suit…things like that. Anyway, I took advantage and won a small MTT, about 350 players. Its nice to win but I find my self distracted. I really need to stay away for a while more. To much life getting in the way of smart play.

So being Monday, the only day I work this week, I want to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Moving On

We had an ice/sleet storm during the night but other then that it was just another Monday. But it wasn’t just another Monday…I was now a part time employee and on some levels I felt a sense of betrayal. Considering the hoops I have jumped through for the company, I think my feelings were justified. Anyway, traffic sucked and I arrived about 30 minutes late to work…not a great start.

I checked my emails and headed to the production meeting like every other Monday morning…it is not every other Monday.

I doodled on my notebook and took some notes. This meeting took longer then most and when it was through, I had to write a couple of emails and get some information put together. I went for a walk around the plant and walked with an unfocused gait. I’m wasn’t sure why I was even there.

I worked my way through the day and prepared to leave when I got a call I was waiting for. It was one of our sales guys from the east coast…near waffles…So I told him I couldn’t talk because I’m now an hourly employee and I’m off the clock…25 minutes later I hung up the phone and headed home. Giving away time for free…that will get me somewhere, someday.

Tuesday I went to city hall and the county health department to see what kind of programs they had for underemployed, overweight, thin haired men and their families. Pretty much a waste of time for now. I also called the mortgage company…because we are in good standing there isn’t anything they could do at this time. But if we start having problems they can come up with a plan to help us work through it. They took note I called and said it was a smart move…If we had waited until after we had problems it would have been harder to do anything. I guess having a credit score in the 800s has advantages?

Yesterday I ran a conference call with a customer in New Mexico. The General Manager was actually at the customer’s facility while I sat in the conference room by my self…I wasn’t actually alone…I had waffles on IM.

I’m struggling with the concept of managing a department as a part time employee. I have no initiative. I’d rather sit at my desk and play Ikariam.

Well...

Working through the myriad of issues in your life is a large part of what defines you as a person. The reactions, both good and bad, at the point that the issue becomes real is a moment of truth and our experiences in life move us down a path that is often sloped and strewn with obstacles. Then it is just a matter of keeping our balance or stumbling on the impediments in our way.

My problems are my own and I sometimes spill them on the canvas of this blog. Sympathy is not needed and though empathy fits, it doesn’t bring a solution in most cases.

It started on Thursday morning last week. It was a typical day at work except for closed door meetings with employees on an individual basis. And being a small company, work got out fast that one of the customer service people was getting let go. Them it was a production employee followed by some job responsibilities being moved around. It looked like everyone was meeting with the bosses and everyone was on edge.

I went into the office with the General Manager and the President like I have a million times before. The conversation started with what had happened to this point and what some of the changes meant to me. Then they let me know I was going to be moved to part time starting the next Monday…two days ago.

I took it about as well as I could. I don’t really understand how I can be a manager and be part time but whatever. It wasn’t a total surprise that things were happening but it was a surprise that it hit me. They gave me the rest of the day off to think about the offer, ironic considering they are trying to save money, and I left a little while later to think about my options.

I basically got fucked. I lost my insurance and 40% of my pay. I am expected to do everything I did before and I might have made more money on unemployment when you look at the gas savings. I write this today as two other employees fly to a customers place for a meeting which pisses me off even more.

So that’s my life in a nut shell right now.

Merry Fucking Christmas.

Love This Movie

Stupid comedy at moronic level.

The Season is Here

Christmas time is here and we started the yearly routine on Friday night as we brought up the numerous containers of holiday cheer. One of the girls had a friend over so we had an additional able-bodied person to help work through the minefield of ornaments, light stings and nutcrackers strewn about the house. By bedtime, we had the tree up and most of the cursory items in place. The only things we didn’t have in place were the outside decorations.

Saturday came and as usual, I was out of the house with Softball Enthusiast around 10:00 and headed to pitching lessons. It was a good day because she has moved onto a couple of new pitches and worked on the proper way to throw them without killing her self. She has a long way to go but she has been working really hard at improving her game and wants to put her self in a position to play varsity as a sophomore. She isn’t there yet but I think it is a possibility if she continues to work they way she has been over the last couple of months. She is to the point where throwing strikes with her fastball just happen because her mechanics are tight. This allows us to work harder on her other pitches and should speed up the progress with she will need to achieve her varsity goal.

So in the afternoon I started to put up the outside lights. Started means I was to cold to stand on the ladder with the wind pulling any warm I had in my body. I did get the light bulbs changed to red and green but the ones hanging from the gutters will have to wait a couple of days.

Sunday I took Lauren to practice in the morning and returned home just after the start of the Bears’ game. I was glad to be inside watching the game instead of outside…except that I had to go hang green stuff outside after half time. I also put up a few of the lights but I really didn’t want to climb the ladder. I am a puss. I made it back inside for part of the 2nd half and got ready to leave for Softball E.’s game. Yes I know it is winter time but her team is playing a winter league in a huge building in towards the city. She didn’t pitch and was 0-2 hitting but drove in a run and smoked the ball both times in their 3-2 victory.

We arrived home around 7:30 and watched one of the Harry Potter movies as we ate our late dinner. Another weekend flew by as we move closer to the end of another year. It has been a tough year but I am thankful to have a family to spend time and do things with.

Have You Met Ralph?

It started out as a typical Friday night except for one thing…I was the first night of my drinking career. To say it was the first night isn’t truly correct. I had imbibed beers before and just the week before I was on my way to a my first over indulgence when I have the fortunate experience of going to McDonald’s for a Cheeseburger instead of staying at the road party that was busted 10 minutes after we left. That was a sobering moment. Anyway, this the story boy meets drunkenness.

Bill and I had two 15 packs of Stroh’s, one for each of us and since he was driving I had a head start. It wasn’t long before half mine was gone and we had only been out about an hour. We drove around and finally met up with some friends on Green Acre Road. It is one of those roads that is a few miles long with only one or two farmhouses sprinkled along the side of the road. It was a great place for us to hang out and I don’t remember ever being busted there.

So it is still early, maybe 8:30 pm…the sun had gone down and it was a nice evening in early October. I had a good buzz going and pushed it until the point of being stupid drunk. I can recall closing the back door of one of my friend’s car while his hand was there…you know how hard it is to open a car door when someone has their hand stuck in it? Anyway, I probably drank about 10 beers in the span of an hour and a half or so and it was catching up to me fast. Bill said it was time to go home but I rejected his plea. This was fun, my mind was muddled and I needed another beer. After some protesting, I finally gave in and jumped into the car to get a ride home. About 300 yards down the road I insisted on stopping so I could take a leak. My real intention was to run back to the party and have some more fun. He pulled the car over and I did my best to act coy…easy to do when you are drunk…and turned to start my jog back to the party. Within two steps, I was face first into the ground. I had my pants unzipped as part of my plan and I may have peed on my self…don’t remember for sure because I was laughing so hard.

Bill drove me home.

I walked in the door and my mom was watching something on the tube. She commented on how early it was as I sat down in the chair across the room from her. I was hammered out of my gourd. She asked if I was drinking and I admitted to having a couple of beers. As we talked, I propped my elbow onto the left armrest to try to steady my misbalanced body. I tried to follow the conversation but my mind and body was having an issue with maintaining focus. As I sat in the chair, leaning on the left armrest, I started to fall to the right. Nevertheless, my expert instincts held up as I deftly caught my self and smoothly switched to leaning on the right. I was in complete control…there is know way she knew I was hammered. A few minutes later, I excused my self and went to bed.

After taking more time then usual to take off my cloths, I slid into bed feeling the weight of to many drinks. I knew I was going to crash quick and I was ready for the slumber. But, a strange thing happened. When I laid my head down I was greeted with a feeling of unbalance. I wasn’t sure how to cope with a room that seemed to be falling, or tilting or maybe both at the same time. I rolled over on my side hoping that getting comfortable would help me get through this strange affliction that had attacked me…but I was wrong.

I’m not sure if my mom heard me heaving but I let loose with everything right there on my bed and on the floor. When I was finished I rolled over the other direction and fell asleep. At some point I was woken by my mother dragging me into the bathroom…maybe I walked/crawled…don’t remember. She threw a towel at me and I wiped off the puke off my face and curled up into a ball on the cold tile floor in my bathroom. I think I used the towel for a pillow.

When I woke up to day light, I went back into my room to see that everything had been cleaned up. I can’t imagine that it was fun cleaning up alcohol induced vomit off of a carpet but there was no way I could have done it that night. I grabbed a blanket and crawled as deep under it as is possible to try and drive the throbbing heartbeat out of my head. I can remember think that I was never going to drink again.

Sometime later I grabbed my mattress and took it outside to air out. It took me 45 minutes to get it from my room out into the late morning breeze. I had 20 minutes to get some food and head to the high school for my soccer game. It was time to move on.

I Smell Something

Independence is a major milestone in the life of a child. Being able to dress ones self and be responsible for various small tasks builds a child’s self-esteem and pushes them towards dependability. But there are flaws in the process as they grow into their role in their growing responsibility.

Being in a household that has both parents working, my son (7) and middle daughter (12) have one day a week where they have to be home by them selves for about 20 minutes or so. This isn’t a big deal, they know the rules and follow them pretty well. So yesterday, they get home and Speedy E. goes up to her room as normal and Baseball E. goes to get a snack. He has a slice of pizza left over and decides to warm it up in the microwave, something he has never really done on his own. He goes upstairs and asks his sister how long to let it cook and she said 30 seconds. He heads back downstairs and fires up the machine. Apparently, 30 minutes is not the same as 30 seconds because he turned it off when he saw some smoke starting to come out of the microwave. We think it ran about 5 minutes before it started smoking but we are not sure.

House smells like smoke a bit but we opened some windows and it seemed to so the trick. We talked Speedy about not being a couch potato and to actually act like a baby sitter. No blood, no foul.

So I was home for about 15 minutes before I had to head back out the door. I saw there was a letter from my high school so I opened it up to check out the news.

Back in the day when my gut wasn’t the size of a basketball, I use to play basketball. I was ok but nothing great…I just had some mad jumping skills. Yes, white men can jump. Anyway, during my junior year we went to the state finals and eventually, our team became kind of an icon in our town. Well that was 25 years ago and the school is going to honor the team in a ceremony before the varsity game on January 30th, 2009. I guess I will get to see how bad my body has broken down in comparison to the rest of the guys I played with back then. They are also having an alumni tourney the following day. There is now way I will play that because I will probably have a heart attack the second time running down the court. I wonder if I can still dunk?

@&#%*&% Morons

Well things seem to be moving forward a little in regards to my dad’s estate. But let me back up a little and walk you through the process.

My father passed away back in February.

My sister is executor.

I have two stepbrothers and two stepsisters.

One stepsister was given $1 as her part of the inheritance.

My stepmother died 13 and a half years ago.

Stepbrother 1 had not seen or talked to my father since his mother’s death.

Stepbrother 2 talked to my dad at random intervals totaling maybe 12 times or so since his mother’s death.

Stepsister 2 talked to my father often until she divorced and moved away, leaving her children with her ex-husband and giving up her rights to them. This pissed my dad off and he said he would never talk to her again.

My sister and I take care of all funeral arrangements.

We fix up the house, my sister more then I, to get it ready to sell.

We get stuff ready for garage sale.

My sister informs steps to come to the house to get anything they would like to have.

They never come.

My sister, acting as executor pays all the bills, takes care of lawyer stuff.

My sister, as executor asks for 15K compensation for her executor duties plus hours of labor and mileage. I think this is a little high but not to terribly high. My calculations came to about 11.5 but I’m not going to argue over $3500 split between 5 people.

We are ready to disperse money in November. Two of the steps hired a lawyer to argue the executor fee after they hired the lawyer to hurry up with the payouts. There is still one bill outstanding so we will have to hold back 10K in reserve.

A new court date was set for December 4th.

Steps lawyer says they will sign off if my sister lowers her fees to $7500. She counters to $12000. About where I thought it should be.

They prepare an order to have the money released.

My sister makes a deal to send each of us 10K until everything else gets worked out.

Fucking morons fighting about 1K each. They will spend that in there lawyers fees. Fucking idiots.

Have a nice day.

A Little Meat

Happy Hump Day.

My head feels clear again. I am ready to jump back into the waters full of various Pisces. But I will probably abstain for another month just because I need to prove to my self that I can overcome the addiction that has cause many late nights of frustrating results.

I got caught in a virtual argument with a vegan yesterday. Well it wasn’t an argument…It was more of a statement against a letter that was posted. It talked about this person’s life style change to become a vegetarian and the process that was involved. I thought it was a good account of the thought process until this person started to talk about Commandments in the bible and what they did or didn’t say about eating. Now, if I remember correctly, there are 10 Commandments in the bible and none of them has anything to do with food. One of the analogies that the writer used was how there were animal sacrifices but then the lord came down and died on the cross so the sacrifices stopped…and that meant that God didn’t like the animal sacrifices. I think he missed the point about why Jesus died on the cross. Anyway, he also talked about having a dog and couldn’t imagine eating his dog. Now there is no comparison with eating a big juicy steak and eating leg of dog.

Lets start with cows. They are raised to produce products we can eat. They are not a domesticated animal. They are the same as corn that grows in the field. They have no will. They are happy if they have food to eat but don’t have any understanding of anything other then reproducing and eating.

Now dogs are domesticated. But, if you look at the purpose of dogs you will realize they are working animals. Their meaning to us has changed based on centuries use as a companion but there is one thing…Dogs show affection and we respond to that affection. But, do they really love us or do they love the fact that we are the ones who feed them. I love my dog but it would be just as happy with someone else if she was getting a regular meal and some affection.

I left a comment for the vegan blogger who posted this story and she made a comment that did disturb me a little.


Thanks for your comment.

I don't believe that, because an animal was raised to become "meat," it's ok to kill it. Africans were once raised to work for whites. I don't believe that's right. Simply because a group can control another, that doesn't give them the right to do so.

Now I don’t recall anything that every said that Africans were raised to work for whites. I do recall that people were forcibly taken from their homes and made into slaves, but they were not raised to do such. However, using this logic, should we not have used horses to pull carriages…I’m sure the horse would have much rather have sat around eating grass in the field. No, animals have no will…they make all of their decision based on instinct. The horse pulls the wagon because it knows it will get oats and an apple when it is done. Not because it wants to pull it. We as people push the cart because we make the decision to move it from point A to point B.

All of this being said, I don’t like cruelty to animals. I think someone who hurts an animal on purpose should be hurt in a similar fashion. But I think that slaughtering cattle is fine because it is a crop, not unlike corn. As long as they are not being tortured I think it is ok.

I’m not sure why I ended up here…making a statement. I think that standing up for something you believe in is a great thing. But to place burdens on others because of what they believe is wrong. We can all just agree to disagree.