Please think first about securing pets--and skipping fireworks

The Lexington Humane Society shared this sad but important story from the Bowling Green/Warren County Humane Society on Facebook. Please put your pets up during the upcoming holiday. And rather than fireworks, celebrate the Fourth of July by donating to a shelter. Fireworks are over in minutes, but go on all night (and other ones too) with pets assailed by large, scary sounds. And like Moose, many get out and run at the sound, sometimes to be found, often not. This family found Moose, but it was too late.

"Hi friends. As some of you know, my name is Moose. It was around this time last year that my mom and dad went to hang out with their friends one Sunday night. They knew how much I loved playing outside, so they let me and my brothers stay outside in the fenced-in yard while they were gone because we were cool big boys like that. We were having the best time running and playing with each other. My mom would probably croak if she knew how many holes we dug. I was definitely going to blame that on my brothers though. As we were outside, we started to hear these loud booms, and loud noises usually didn’t bother me because I’m a cool pup like that. I thought they would stop, but they didn’t. I kept hearing the booms and saw big flashing lights in the sky. That started to really scare me. That was different than the other loud noises I had heard before. I couldn’t seem to get away from them so I jumped over our fence and took off running. I kept running but when I looked up after the booms had stopped, I didn’t know where I was. I tried for 7 days to find my way back home as my mom and dad and so many kind people looked for me. After so many days of trying to find my way back home, I got so tired and I just couldn’t go any longer. I laid down and went to sleep. When I woke up, I had crossed the rainbow bridge. It was the prettiest place I had ever seen. There were so many other dogs there for me to play with. I can still see my mom and dad and all the people that loved me, just from a different angle now. I really wish those booms didn’t scare me. If they hadn’t, I would still be there playing with my new human brother. He would have loved me, because who didn’t? I just wanted to remind you guys that fireworks (I think that’s what Mom called them) are really cool to you guys, but very scary for us. Please keep that in mind and keep your furry, 4-legged babies inside as much as you can for the next few weeks. When the booms are gone, they can go outside and play as much as they want. If you promise to watch over your furry friends down there, I promise to watch over them from up here. Love and miss you guys.

-Moose

“Most of y’all remember my baby Moose. We had him since he was 5 days old. We bottle-fed him and he immediately became a crucial part of my family. He was the best snuggler and best brother to our other pups. He was so loyal and committed to protecting and loving his family hard, including his newborn human brother. We miss Moose terribly and it still seems so unfair. I still blame myself for thinking it was okay to leave him outside because loud noises didn’t bother him. Never in a million years would I have ever have thought we would lose him so soon. We came home one night and he was gone. We found him a week later in a field, and the only way we could identify him was by his collar which had his name tag and his microchip tag on it. I would give anything to go back and redo that night. I will never leave my dogs outside during this time of year ever again. Please trust me, and keep your sweet babies inside during these weeks and use a leash while taking them out to potty, even if they have never needed one before. I don’t want anyone to go through what we went through. We will never be able to thank you all enough for helping us look for our sweet Moose. We love you guys.”

-Maddie, Moose’s Mom

Thank you for reading this small part of Moose and Maddie's story. They're very special to us and when we asked Maddie to share this story, she said that it was hard to write and share, but if it prevented even one other pet and pet parent from going through this, it will be so worth it. Please share this post, keep your animals inside as much as you can these next few weeks, and take them out on a leash. We'll share some additional tips this afternoon to help you keep your pets safe during this time. ❤

Hope

In light of the Supreme Court decision, some hope. I was on both the IDR and PSLF programmes (you have to be on an income-driven plan before or at least while you're in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programme]. I was on the IDR programmes for most of my adult life, being underemployed as I have always been [as I librarian I was always part-time and had to get 1-2 additional jobs to make ends meet, and my current job, while I love it, only requires a high school education and I have bachelor's and master's degrees, but the master's was in a field difficult to get a job in within my area, something I did not know when I took out the loans, and I had obligations to stay here.] I was able to get my loans forgiven under the expanded PLSF requirements during the pandemic due to my work in non-profits. I would urge you to see if you qualify for either of these plans or the Teacher Forgiveness one. IDR has fewer qualifications but takes decades. PSLF is back to normal in terms of qualifications, but they've taken a lot of steps to 'fix' it as an NPR article a few years ago exposed it as a sham at the time (people were paying for years without their payments being counted, for example, with very few loans forgiven--that has been rectified, and it's part of the reason the programme was temporarily expanded.} Anyway, even with the decision by the Court, there is hope.

3 ways federal student loan borrowers can have their debt forgiven—without the Supreme Court

I sometimes struggle with my faith in humanity

You know, people have been saying this since the 1970s and even before that, that climate change is real, and that human lives are at great risk unless we make changes. Now we have all the climate change deniers who want to keep their heads in the sand as tornadoes, droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, and all sorts of extreme weather hit those in vulnerable areas. It's not an 'act of God' anymore. It's a direct result of humankind's unmitigated destruction of key oecosystems, reliance on fossil fuels, and more. (And that's not counting forever chemicals or plastics). And let me tell you, when people die, and it will be in great numbers, 'thoughts and prayers' will do nothing as the seas rise and the grain belts become deserts. And then, after all our hubris, as poor 'stewards of the Earth', we [as a species] will deserve everything we get. Those who sounded the alarm decades ago to now are trying; others are listening, and one action can lead to great things, but one of the greatest threats to our civilisation isn't aliens, or an asteroid, or even nuclear war (although that's stepping up to the plate). It's denying that our actions have very real effects on the very home we live in, and the flora and fauna and all the other parts of our habitat.) Those effects can be for good or ill, but the very first thing is to recognise the problem and educate ourselves about it...and so many people are rejecting education itself (that's a whole other rant).

Oh, and read it to the end.

Climate Crisis Is on Track to Push One-Third of Humanity Out of Its Most Livable Environment

Sigh

I've felt off today, not depressed or blah even, just kind of blunted and quiet and unmotivated. It was an okay day. I'm taking my meds regularly. I haven't gotten much sleep this weekend and I haven't eaten the best, but other than that things have gone pretty well. A coworker rubbed my shoulders earlier and she said I was really tense, but that's not unusual. My stomach and head hurt a bit and I'm one of those people who carry a lot tension in the body a lot, so that's telling. I don't know what's going on. I'm going to go to bed early and see if tomorrow is any better. I've been pretty happy and relaxed lately, but who knows what's going on with my neurotransmitters. This is why I keep a mood diary and try to stay aware of how I feel. Today I knew things were off but I can't figure how or why. It's frustrating living in my head sometimes.

Still sick, but getting better

I haven't blogged in awhile, partly because I've been pretty much working, coming home, eating dinner, and then going to sleep. I missed two days of work due to my cold, one righ after my last post and one this week. I finally went to the Little Clinic at Kroger Saturday (a friend I work with made me promise). The cold is mostly gone but I'm coughing and having asthma issues. I have bronchitis, and was prescribed albuterol through my nebuliser every 6 hours, with the hopes of doing better with that. She said if I didn't feel better in a couple of weeks I should follow up with my primary care provider and have an x-ray of my lungs to make sure I don't have pneumonia, but that my lungs sounded fine, it was just hard to breathe deeply without coughing. And I'm not coughing anything up; it's a dry cough. My associated sinus infection is doing much better (I've gone from green gunk to mostly clear), but she said she could give me Augmenten if needed. It's got amoxicillin in it, and that concerned me, as I am allergic to penicillin and clindamycin, so I decided to hold off since it seems better. Mainly my nose goes a lot despite Claritin. Here's hoping everything improves. I hate spring colds, as they're always worse for me.

It was a slow day

We'd cancelled the game for other reasons, but it's good that we did. The weather's messed with my fibromyalgia, so everything from neck muscles down to the soles of my feet hurt, and I have what I think is a light cold I seem to have caught from a friend, so I've slept so much today and could sleep all night, too, I'm sure. I did about half of my chores, the ones that were most important, and went and got something from Captain D's (and actually got fried fish; we'll find out if my gall bladder will react badly--it's been almost a year since I was brave enough to eat it, but I was craving it). We watched an episode of 'Sister Boniface's Mysteries (an excellent show, a spinoff of 'Father Brown' but with a character that was not in the GK Chesterton stories.) I've listened to the new album by Ed Sheeran, - (Subtract), which came from came from Amazon yesterday. Because of the cold, I couldn't sing along with the car radio. I did test for Covid, but it's negative. My sore throat started Friday night, and it would be just my luck to finally catch it on the day the WHO said it was no longer a pandemic emergency. But no, it seems to be just a normal cold. That's about it. But some days it's good to have a slow day. And our coming week has high clinic numbers, so it's good to get some rest now.

This hits home

My mom constantly dieted. She was on Atkins back in the 70s at one point and was so skinny she looked anorexic. I remember desserts of sugar-free jello powder whipped into sugar-free Cool Whip. She was worried about my weight and put me on Tab and Fresca (sugar-free sodas) at age 8. I grew up with an unhealthy relationship with food. I can still remember stealing leftovers and hiding my eating, and I thought I was the fattest thing ever. I binged on apples and bread as a teen. I really just needed a growth spurt here and there and looking at old pictures, it's obvious that while bigger than some, I was not really fat, and I was pretty active. I biked across the desert for two miles, for example, just to go swimming in the base pool. I walked or biked everywhere, after all. But I grew up fatphobic and still struggle with that, even though I am fat now, and I have to catch myself judging others and especially myself. We never really came to terms with our shared experience with food, though, and with her death, never will.

My mother judged my body as a girl. Years later, we finally understand each other

A good memoir regarding generational dieting and negative weight stereotypes and the harm it does, check out The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl by Shauna Reid.

Someone hire this man

Video shows man rush to stop runaway stroller with baby right before it rolls into busy street

This does not serve teen patrons or their families, and is largely a waste of time

Why an Indiana library is pulling books from its shelves

I guess the bright thing here is that books deemed against board policy are not being removed from the whole library collection, but merely being relocated to the adult section, where they can still be checked out by teens.  But, the sheer amount of money and staff time involved ($114,000-$300,000 in terms of financial costs, a year and over 8,000 estimated staff hours in terms of time) will detract from the acquisition of new materials and presenting library programmes, and that's a shame.  All because of the current cultural war on libraries.  I was a medical librarian, not a public librarian.  But this is all very disheartening and against the training of most librarians.  I do wonder if fewer of us want to work in libraries, especially in red states.  While censorship comes from both the right and the left, this sort of thing seems to be the latter.  Teens are learning about life and will deal with all sorts of decisions regarding sex, relationships, menstruation, drinking/drug use, reckless behaviours and the like. Why can't we have books to start a discussion on those topics so they can think and be prepared for what happens in real life rather than keeping them in the dark till they're 18 and then letting them loose in the world?

I'm glad he took a stand, and won

 

Ed Sheeran’s court victory reveals the paradox of putting creativity on trial | Alexis Petridis

Beyond merely being an interesting copyright case, the lawsuit alleging infringement by Ed Sheeran's 'Thinking Out Loud' of Marvin Gaye's 'Let's Get It On' threatened artistic creativity and sought to tarnish the singer-songwriter's professional reputation. This was a big case, and Sheeran's taking a stand (and winning) was good for musicians everywhere. Outright theft is one thing. And I'm no expert--I can't even read music, although as a librarian I know a bit about copyright and licensing. Still, even I can figure out you've got eight notes to our music scale and about 338 commonly used guitar chords [possible ones are much greater, but most popular songs use a limited amount of chords, or so a quick Internet search tells me. Like I said, I'm not versed in music.] My point is, when songs are in the same key, there can be some overlap. You know what I do know about music? I listen to it, and a lot of it. I hear similarities all the time, usually fleeting. That doesn't mean the other song was ripped off in any way. This opinion piece outlines the effects of music copyright cases--and their arbitrary nature--has potentially on music creativity. Give it a look.

Lastly, it's true, I've always liked Ed Sheeran.  His latest album will be delivered to my door today. I like his (admittedly public) self-effacing personality.  I love his music.  I have not heard one of his songs I didn't like, and that's something I can say about only a few musical artists, and those could fit on one hand.  I've read that this suit was primarily brought not by the family of the co-writer, but by those who purchased the music catalogue. For them, it is all about money, not creativity. I hope we never get to the point where Money trumps Music.  There are already too many people who sell out, put out music that just sounds the same, use auto-tune to make it sound pleasing, and then stick the singer's name on the writing credits like they really did something for it.  It's interesting that a singer who obviously writes so much of his (and other people's) music, who incorporates different genres into his own catalogue, and who essentially produces 'real' popular music, is the one who got sued (twice now that I know of), given all that other same-sounding music out there.  The author of the Guardian piece is right, it's all very haphazard.

PS I've also read that Sheeran missed his grandmother's funeral in Ireland for this trial.  That's really a shame.