Hogwash, Balderdash & Shitake Mushrooms!

I yelled at God today. I do that from time to time. Makes me feel like I'm being heard above all the other folks yelling. I yell when things happen that shouldn't happen. I yell when it's obvious someone is going through a hell that wasn't necessary. When I'm feeling charitable toward God I ask that someone I know comes home from deployment alive, in one piece and emotionally able to live a normal life. Sometimes I ask that someone be able to recuperate from an illness, helacious disease and if that's not possible, to allow that person to go peacefully. My yelling hasn't done a lot of good as far as I can tell but sometimes that's the only I can do – a prayer, a positive healing thought, maybe just wishful thinking that got loud and vocal and yes, sometimes I curse. The giant squid doesn't say much when I start yelling. He's a good Catholic – goes to mass regularly. Tells me he always asks God to watch out for me; lights a candle to that saint who's supposed to be responsible for hopeless souls. I know he's thinking of me when he does that but he never says so. I'm not really hopeless, just cynical.

I'm not hyped up about organized religion; it's enough that I believe there's a "something" greater than I am. Two of my dearest friends are believers – one a Buddhist, the other a rabbinical scholar. When the three of us get together, we generally spend a lot of energy eating fried Twinkies and drinking root beer floats. We curse politicians and pedophiles, toast warriors and strong women and usually fall asleep on the deck coming down from a sugar high. Cowboy says I'm a bad influence on them. If he thinks that's bad, I'm not letting him know what I used to do to nuns when I was a grade school kid. If there's another life after this one, I'd like to skip childhood, thank you very much.

My Bull is recuperating nicely. I make him run with me and I ride his back when he does pushups. He's still getting physical therapy for his shoulders and I don't know what else but every day he looks more like his old self. He's off to DC in a few weeks for a follow-up visit with the docs that saved his life. David will go with him; give both of them a chance to spend some time without me badgering them. He misses the Corps; he misses his unit and he misses fighting for his country. I keep telling him he's done more than most, time to do other things, get back to civilian life. I might have to break down and invite a bunch of pretty ladies over to keep him occupied. Hope they can cook… he's back to eating like it was going out of style.

Max had a "port" inserted into his clavicle; he's decided to go through chemo. I'm hoping it will relieve some pain and give him more time on earth. We're going to be totally insane when the time comes to say goodbye.

I agreed to rescue a Neapolitan Mastiff. His name is Sweetie and he's a gigantic monster of a dog that's been neglected. He had to be anesthetized to cut his nails; they were extra long and horribly deformed. Had his teeth cleaned at the same time as well as his ears irrigated. Neos have lots of wrinkles and a really pugnacious face but the critter lives up to his name – extraordinarily sweet. The cats adore him and groom him; he eats anything including my t-shirts. He might be part goat… I made mac & cheese for the first time in a long time; he slurped it up and looked for more. It won't be too much longer before he's back to fighting weight. Slowly but surely the animal is learning to follow commands and like my Rott, SweetPea used to do, is sleeping outside the bedroom door. Yesterday, the giant squid raised his voice…. yelling that I'd be sleeping on my belly if I went running in the rain. Tsk. Sweetie let him know that wasn't something he wanted to hear. I noticed the squid waited until we were behind closed doors to give me a swat. I yelled for Sweetie and the animal charged into the bedroom and aimed a "stink-eye" in the squid's direction, showed a little teeth, too.

I laughed. It made me feel good.

The giant squid's still mumbling about that.

~Sar~