Beating the Heat

In the summer when it is hot and muggy, the animals try to stay cool by dozing in any spot of shade they happen to find. This little rabbit is sprawled-out and cooling himself off with his hot belly on the cool ground. 

I was sitting on the swing about five feet from him and he knew I was there but trusted me enough to lay down, sprawl out and cool off. His mother was here to give birth to the baby rabbits and as soon as they began eating some of the clover in our yard, she took off and left them on their own.

They soon ate any tender plants that were coming up and that is OK with me. They are learning what to eat and what not to eat. It just happened that this flower is one of their favorites and eating the tops is a great way to propagate them.

I thought it was neat how they can stand up to get their favorite parts of the flowers.

The Way it Was

Sometimes I either dream or fall into a kind of stupor and seem to exist in a different time. I am able to see and hear whatever is around me. I also remember sitting up against an old oak tree at the speedway south of Greenville and remembered when I walked in and stood at the guard rail and imagined racing cars roaring around the dirt track. And I saw, as plain as day, one car hit the guard rail where I was standing, flew over me and landed on parked cars some 20 feet below where I stood. The south end of the old grandstand seemed to moan when it happened as if it knew the driver was going to either die or be seriously injured.
 
I was hunting once and walked down this long lane that went down a steep hill and over a small creek and up the hill on the other side. Down there in the middle at the lowest place I could hear what sounded like a million bees swarming in the dark woods on my left. I looked but it was so dense that I couldn't see a thing but something made the hair on the back of my neck curl up and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I had a shotgun with me but whatever it was made me more afraid than my shotgun bothered it. I kept looking back and ended up walking way around that spot when I went back to get in my car. I never even saw a rabbit. I never heard of Sasquatch back then but maybe that's what it was.

I was sitting on a Greyhound bus on my way from Tucson, Arizona to Palm Springs, California where all the movie stars go to get away from Hollywood. I was told to go there if I ever had time by a lady from Massachusetts--a school teacher who took her summer vacations in Palm Springs. She said she made more money in tips than she made teaching for a whole year back home in Massachusetts and she was just a waitress at the Hotel Desert Air Parkway in Palm Springs. So when I had enough money saved, I bought a bus ticket and rode the bus from Tucson to Palm Springs and along the way, in several places, one could see the original stage coach road off to the side of the highway. In Palm Springs her and her giant glass water jugs in her bedroom filled with half dollars, quarters, rolled up bills and lots of loose change. She said they were too heavy to move and she wasn't worried about somebody walking out with a jug of her tips.

In those days I had no reason to live in the real world when I could live among the Stars in Palm Spring and taste the same cup of coffee they drank. I could eat a hotdog just like they were eating. I could set on the stone slab around the flowers right beside a star reading his mail from his post office box. I often wondered what it would be like to be a movie star and here I was living the same kind of life in their world on next to nothing.

Honeybees

Centaurea Cyanus Cornflower

The American Honeybee is being killed by hive mites for sure but millions more are killed by pesticides and the residual effect of chemicals used on everything from flowers to grass in lawns. The Bumblebees had taken over a great deal of the work honeybees do and pollinated crops that ends up as food on our tables. Without bees pollinating food crops and everything else our diets would change in a drastic way and there would be mass starvation around the world. Don't believe it? Look it up.

You can help and so can I by planting a multitude of flowers–not all the same species but a different blend of flowers–that helps keep the bees in your area interested and healthy. Wallmart sells packs of wildflower seeds and wildflowers are much better than those hybrid flowers most people love to look at and plant.

Which one is the Buddha?

Me in 1954 in Kamakura, Japan in front of The Great Buddha. A huge bronze figure made with sheets of bronze held together by iron straps on the inside. There is a back door and you could pay a tiny amount and walk inside and look around. I never went inside. I just wish I still had a stomach like this today. But, back in 1954 I never even thought about 2015 or me being alive to experience my 80th birthday – now going to be 82 this coming October 25th.

Family, minus Chris

The family, minus Christopher Patrick Lincoln, who lives in Florida and doesn't come to visit very often.

Pepper Jax

Pepper Jax doing what he loves to do—he waits for somebody to come outside and then he runs or chases things and ends up being the center of attention. We love him a lot and he likes all of us but he really like any female or girl. I don't know what he would do if he ever saw a female dog up close. Patty had him fixed, and I didn't think he deserved that, but he is like a eunuch among the rest of the animals in the family.

Benji Lincoln

We got "Benji"  from the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in Dayton, Ohio.

Benji Lincoln

© By Abraham Lincoln

Benji Lincoln had to be put to sleep yesterday, the 12^th of October 1994. He has had a bad heart, which we knew about, and he had lost nearly all of his teeth. He could no longer hear and had some real problems in seeing. His heart caused him to have a cough for the past year or two. It got worse on Tuesday, and he coughed nearly all day and all night. Becky, myself and mom (Patty) held him during the day and at night. He was having difficulty in breathing and on Wednesday we called the vet and made an appointment to have him put to sleep.

Mom took him over and went in with him to comfort him while the vet put him asleep. Then he came back after a few minutes and finished the task. Pat brought him back home and we buried him close to the garden in a place where he used to run in circles around the yard; and he is laying next to Cuddles.

We all told him “good-bye” before he went, and he was in so much discomfort that I knew he wanted to get some relief. I have no idea if there is a place for animals in the hereafter, but I am comforted in believing that Benji is with Cuddles, Puppy and finally met are Toy Fox Terrier, Autumn Eve Lincoln.

Benji was an excellent dog all the time we had him. He made some messes on the floor now and then but all dogs do that. He was a poor little puppy that Pat picked out at the animal shelter in Dayton. He was a mess, in a cage, with long legs that wobbled when we stood him on the floor. Pat said she wanted “this dog” even if the rest of us didn’t. The attendant came out and said, “Oh, you picked, ‘Smiley’.” It is true, for years afterward, he would smile, like a person smiles and show his front teeth.

Benji had a bouncing walk like no other dog I have seen before or since. This bouncing walk was especially prominent just after he used the bathroom outside. He knew he would get a treat when he came inside, and he bounced all the way into the house. He was happy indeed!

Benji was 16 years old when he was put to sleep. He was our friend and we loved him dearly.  His new friend and our newest dog, Autumn, misses him too. Since Autumn is now gone too, we have another animal shelter dog, Pepper Jax, that we got from the Darke County Animal Shelter.

Now, these many years later, it is time to remember Autumn Eve, the Toy Fox Terrier that we got just before Benji died. They did get to know each other and they played together before Benji was put down. It was a sad day when Autumn came to the end of the road and had to be put down, and I cried like a baby.

Now we have Pepper Jax, a Jack Russell Terrier, and another animal shelter dog — he is a great addition to our family.  It is hard to image that one of these days we may have to have him put to sleep.