Are the Voices In My Head Bothering You?

Why is it that our dog, or any dog for that matter will always want 12" more than the leash they're on at the moment. Toby will strain the leash, even after I switch hands to give him more rope, to try and reach the evidently-unreachable, whatever it is. If it was a 20 dollar bill every time, I'd be more than willing to give him as much leash as he wanted.

Usually though, it's poop. Just poop. Sometimes its a bit of discarded food someone had tossed out a car window three weeks ago. Either that or the occasional article of clothing. A few weeks ago there was a massive pair of tighty-whities laying on the terrace that he successfully sought out time after time, walk after walk.

All of this raises the question, if we provide plenty of fresh food and water for our dogs every day, why are they ALWAYS looking for more and/or different food? And why, in lieu of new food will their own vomit suffice? I guess dog food must be pretty bad, if garbage is a close runner up.

One of my New Years resolutions was to try and be more informed or up on the news. Over the years, in part because of my disdain for local newscasters who are the cheesiest bunch of schleps one could never wish for, and part a hatred of the whole media-in-general, I've just kind of checked out. Oh yeah, I read the newspaper, and in every way that is more informative than a 22 minute (20 less 8 min. of commercials) newscast. But newspapers aren't good for the "late breaking news" that society has come to rely on. They haven't perfected that yet.

Anyhow, on Thursday of this week I tell Donna that I'm going to watch the 6:00 news, and I explain to her my reasoning. As she passed me the remote, she gave me the whole "I can't watch it. It's too depressing." speech that I've heard and tended to agree with in the past.

I flick on the news and there's a story of a shooting with a cop car showing and grieving people standing around that I just catch the last part of. Then, without missing a beat, they switch to the &%$#* Presidential campaign. My response is to shut the whole thing off and say, screw that, I'd rather be a bit in the dark, out of touch from it all. I cannot take 11 more months of Presidential campain-ing (sp intentional), let alone the rest of the doom and gloom that the cathode ray brings along with each newscast.

So, it's back to just the newspaper and that's it. Am I a bad person? Am I in denial of some sort? I like to think of myself simply as "discretionary". Cheesy newscasters delivering the news bits just kills me to watch. I'd sooner be swallowed in a cloud of mustard gas than have to watch Kathy Mykleby tell me it was coming before she chuckled about those "amazing Packers" or some other restatement of the obvious or mundane. So, the next time we're slated to get blasted with 14" of snow, don't express surprise when I didn't know it was coming. Hey, all I know is what I read in the papers.

There are moments when I'm walking my dog with my Ipod playing Coldplay that I feel such elation and joy, it's hard to contain it. I keep those dance moves very subtle, because I don't want to unnerve the neighbors.

This is the effect that "new" music does for me. In two years though, the same song will have me switching right past it as annoying. Why is that? That is truly the self-sustaining nature of the music business. They are counting on peoples' continual thirst for new, new, new. I guess it's true of all entertainment really. If any of you will look at your VHS/DVD/CD collection, I think you'll know what I'm talking about.

I really wish I had more time to write. It seems every time I'm inspired, I'm either tied to other commitments, my kids are on the PC, or my mind is so fried by the time I get to writing that I write weakly or can't recall what I was so inspired about. (tonight is the perfect example of this)Tonight is the perfect example of this last point. It's these little voices in my head that I can't seem to tune out, but neither can I clearly hear what they're saying either. Maybe it's because of the new Ipod.

Well, I'm about tapped out and will have to cash it in here. More tomorrow I hope.

Blogging off...

Jim

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