ROCKINGHAM COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER

The Rockingham County Animal Shelter is located at 250 Cherokee Camp Road behind the Governmental Center in Wentworth, NC.




Phone: 336-394-0075
Shelter currently open to the public:
Monday-Wednesday-Friday
12:45 pm  to 4:45pm

 Please come out and adopt the dogs and cats available at the shelter!

 

Poke Redux

Remember these? 

A couple of months ago I posted pictures of the little poke army that was trying to take over the flower garden space in front of my house. I declared war on the unwelcome interlopers and proceeded to yank up any pokeweed that dared to spread it green leafy crown. I yanked and I yanked and I yanked...

Every time I went outside to do something, whether it was to take the dogs on their potty breaks or to work in the yard, I stopped long enough to evict yet another poke plant.

But the poke army is relentless.

Granted, I have stemmed the largest invasions, but I have not won the war. Still, I will soldier on. Perhaps, by fall, there will be no more little poke plants to pick. Perhaps. 

What I Remember: Mrs. Cooper's Class

I remember this poem from 4th grade. Mrs. Cooper had a copy of it on a poster in our class.

The Eagle

HE clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

The 1st Day of Summer

*Yawn*

Just another day. 

WHAT is wrong with me????

I let a perfectly good reason to celebrate slide on by like yesterday's news. 


What happened to my "special occasion" skills? Where's my enthusiasm? My creativity?

Stick. Mud. Me.  

Argh.

The Java House----Go There!

The Java House is conveniently located.

 

It has a warm and inviting decor. Not to mention a conference room, porch rockers, and wifi. On the weekends you can enjoy live music, all kinds! Bluegrass, jazz, acoustic, folk, country, pop, rock, blues, gospel, something for everyone. Or you can come to simply enjoy some quiet time, catch up with friends, or hold a group meeting. The staff is friendly and always helpful. The owner really cares about his customers.

  

Oh yeah. They serve coffee.

A mind-boggling array of coffee creations: espressos, iced coffees, French press, lattes, macchiatos, cappuccinos, mochas, frappuccinos,  and  cups of steaming hot specialty java, regular and decaf.

Or, if you crave something besides coffee, you can have:
hot chocolates, smoothies, floats, iced lemonade, hot and iced teas,  apple ciders,sodas, juices, bottled water AND
cookies, danish,  Carvel ice cream cakes, doughnuts, frozen concoctions, chips, and a wide variety of baked goods and light breakfast/lunch items

So, bring your friend, bring your book, or bring your dog, but

GO THERE!

The Great Pizza Debacle...

started off as the great pizza lunch. Last week Food Lion  had an excellent sale on Tombstone pizzas-- 4 for $10--so of course I bought four. Today as we drove home from church my daughter asked me the question, "What's for lunch?" A question, I might add, that I dread every single time. Why? Because the entire extent of my lunch planning generally goes something like this: Lunch time. What do we have? Peanut butter. Jelly. Bread. Ugh.

But wait! Down in the freezer a Tombstone pizza is just sitting around, waiting to be cooked. I know! We'll have pizza!

And so we did. Well, sort of. I slapped that bad boy in the oven thinking about how great it was that we could have a lunch for $2.50 and still have food left over. I pulled the bubbling pie out while congratulating myself on buying such a good deal. I continued to be happy about my cheap Tombstone pizza as I proceeded to slice it with my pizza cutter, until....

I created a pizza catapult. That's right, I flipped the darned thing! In my rental home I have almost no counter space and the counter top I do have is currently warped. My shiny pizza pan was resting on an uneven counter surface. When I enthusiastically rolled the cutter over the pizza, I was pushing down hard, and the pizza pan obeyed the laws of Newton and Murphy.  The pan rocked and freshly-cut hot steaming slices of pizza flew everywhere. On the counter. On the floor. On me.

At that point, I wasn't too concerned about the pizza on the counter or the floor because of the pizza on me. The 400 degree cheese and sauce splatted on bare skin and remained plastered there, burning, burning, burning.....

The skin on my left hand was being toasted! I needed to immediately run cold water on the burn.   Fortunately for me I was standing adjacent to the kitchen sink.Unfortunately for me, our dogs had heard the sound of food hitting the floor and, with Superman-like speed (faster than a speeding bullet, remember?) they had converged on the food/floor location.Normally I appreciate their enthusiasm and focus when it comes to cleaning up organic messes in my kitchen, but today wasn't a normal day. My hand was sizzling and I needed to get to the sink right then.  A Dane the size of a pony stood between me and cold watery relief while two little terriers scrabbled around my feet, threatening to trip me if I moved. So I resorted to that time-tested canine training technique---I bellowed.

I screeched, I hollered, I cursed. I howled invective at all my canines as I lunged for the sink, shoving dog bodies out of my way. Of course, faithful and sensitive companions that they are, the dogs just kept hoovering the pizza scraps, mostly oblivious to my pain and suffering.

So that is how my great pizza delight turned into the great pizza debacle. The dogs enjoyed their unexpected bounty, my daughter was able to salvage a couple slices for lunch, and I limped off to the bathroom to de-pizza pie pizzafy myself.

All that for only $2.50!

Hanging Rock State Park

We like.

http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/haro/main.php

NC

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/15/north-carolina-becomes-third-state-to-de-fund-planned-parenthood/

Susie's Law: Justice Served

 Meet Susie. In August of 2009, Susie, a pitbull/shepherd mix puppy, was beaten so badly her jaw was shattered, then she was doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. Somehow Susie managed to run away from LaShawn Whitehead, the person who had horrifically abused her. Two weeks later, a man walking his dogs in a local park discovered Susie. She was deeply burned over half her body, her ears had been torched off, and she was covered in maggots. She was barely alive.

Susie was rescued from the park and received top notch medical treatment while in the care of the Guilford County Animal Shelter. Amazingly, she survived her ordeal and was nursed back to health. Susie was eventually adopted by a Donna Lawrence, a wonderful woman. But what happened to Susie's abuser?

Nothing. Lashawn Whitehead eventually was found guilty of burning personal property--Susie--and because of the laws on the books at the time, he was given a suspended sentence and probation. That was the extent of punishment an animal abuser could receive.

A tidal wave of outrage spread across North Carolina, where Susie had been tortured, and spread across the region. Backed by concerned citizens, Donna Lawrence and Susie became the focal point of a campaign to change animal cruelty laws in North Carolina. Their efforts were rewarded when a  law was passed that addressed both animal abuse and neglect. The malicious abuse, torture, or killing of an animal became a Class H felony and a stiffer penalty for intentional starvation of an animal was enacted.

In June 2010  Donna Lawrence and Susie were  present when the new law, dubbed "Susie's Law" was signed by the governor. The penalties attached to Susie's Law went into effect in December 2010.

Susie was one of the lucky ones; she survived and is thriving under the loving care of  her owner. Across North Carolina countless animals have silently suffered and died due to cruelty, neglect, torture, starvation, and dehydration. Now and finally, their torment has a face and their plight has been witnessed.

And now, justice will be served: 
http://triad.news14.com/content/top_stories/642391/judge-hands-down-tough-sentence-in-first-susie-s-law-case?r=7409876707

When Science and Art Intersect...

http://www.livescience.com/14574-stunning-fish-xray-images.html

Death of a House

It's so sad to witness the slow demise of an old home.

James 1:27

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."


http://vimeo.com/17611953

I never get tired of...

bunny rabbits
beautiful sunsets

2 Corinthians

For we have this treasure in jars of clay...

What to say today

what to see today

Exactly 3 Months

Today, June 8th, marks exactly 3 months until my 52nd birthday.

"It's never too late to be what you might have been."

"It's never too late to become who you might have been."

George Eliot?
Probably not.

uMove...

What else is there to say? He captures the irony perfectly~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYjz-cjVR3k

Birches

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
As ice storms do. Often you must have seen them 5
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells 10
Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed 15
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. 20
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter of fact about the ice storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, 25
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them, 30
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise 35
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. 40
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs 45
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May not fate willfully misunderstand me 50
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk 55
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Robert Frost 

George Gray

  I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me --
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire --
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid. 

Edgar Lee Masters
Spoon River Anthology

Thoughts

Insert thought here. Don't have any.

Gluttony

One of the seven deadly sins.

June

So we have entered the sixth month of 2011.

My daughter's 16th birthday is a little over one month away.

(she wants a cheesecake birthday cake)

My 19 year old son will soon be guiding white water rafts at the U.S. National Whitewater Center:

And I will be trying to get my life together, as always.

*sigh*

Pray for me...