I don’t know if any of you out there remember who Fred Rogers was. For me, he was my television hero when I was raising my young sons. They loved watching “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood” on PBS, which followed “Sesame Street.” Since I was off in the summer from my teaching job, I had the boys into a routine. After breakfast, I would sit them in front of the television to watch these two shows while I did household chores. In the afternoon’s we would head to the pool where I taught them how to swim. I would sometimes pack a lunch, and if it wasn’t too hot, we’d stay there for a bit of time.
Frequently, as I was cleaning up messes or doing whatever, and “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” was on, I would find myself drawn into the gentleness and kindness of the show. The program was calm and authentic, moving at an unhurried pace. The tempo never bored my sons, they were always fascinated with what was happening. I remember one episode where his goldfish died, and the lesson was on how to understand and deal with grief. I recall that I was folding laundry and was drawn into the way he was talking to his audience. My sons both had tears in their eyes and I was thankful that Fred Rogers was able to relay to kids how it was okay to feel grief, and that it was okay to cry. I remember the opening song, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”, with my sons singing along.
I came across this video yesterday about someone who loved Fred Rogers, and actually visited him in Pittsburgh when he was in college. The video is about 8 minutes long, but it really demonstrates what an amazing person he was. In a world of cruelty, Fred Rogers was a hero.
I found the video below from 1969 showcasing Fred Rogers speaking at a Congressional hearing asking that the 20 million in funding for public broadcasting not be cut. I like how the Congressman was skeptical at first, but in the end, he came to realize the validity of Rogers’s argument. If you have time, watch it.
In a world now where we hear of all of the awful things that adults have done to children (such as “les dossiers Epstein”) it is helpful for me to be reminded of the good and kind adults out there. When I was teaching, in the winter, I used to wear a cardigan sweater to keep warm. When the classroom temperature became comfortable, I would take off my sweater and I would sing to my students, “Won’t you be my neighbor”. They would look at me as if I had just popped a few screws, until I explained to them all about Mr. Rogers. He truly was my hero, and he still is.
The quote above is one of my favorite quotes of his. I need to think of this quote more often as the news nowadays can be quite scary.
Today has been a down day. I went to the pharmacy yesterday and got a shingles shot and a pneumonia shot. I had a physical last week, and my physician suggested that I get these vaccines. If you recall, I had shingles last June/July and it was a hellacious four weeks. I certainly don’t want to go down that road again. I was told to wait six months until I got my vaccine, so I did.
And today I am paying for it. Aches and a slight fever. My headache is horrible, but it is a small price to pay to avoid getting sick. On my drive home from the pharmacy, I decided to stop my car and take a photo out of the front window. I cannot believe that the streets are still not cleared from the sleet storm that happened 10 days ago! Part of the problem is that we haven’t been above freezing for 10 days. The schools in the metro area are still closed.
We haven’t gotten any mail delivery for 10 days, so yesterday I also went by the post office to pick up our mail. As to be expected, it was a zoo in there. No one knew which line to get in. Fortunately, there were customers that were already there who explained the process to people walking through the door.
Once I got up to the counter, I had to write my address on a slip of paper, and then show them my ID. Then I had to go and stand off to the side and wait for my address to be called. It took quite a while. From my vantage point, I could see back into the mailroom where employees were seemingly tossing mail across the room into big boxes. I wondered to myself how many pieces of mail will get lost. We have “informed delivery” where we get an email every morning letting us know what is coming that day. About a week ago, a saw a reimbursement check from the school division, which helps to defray the cost of prescription drugs. The check comes out quarterly. Alas, it wasn’t in the pile of mail that I picked up yesterday. I am going to try and go back tomorrow when I feel better, and hopefully I will get that check!
I have always loved dogs. From the time that I was a little boy to now as a man who has lived more years than I want to say, they have given me a sense of contentment. I truly don’t know why I have this love, but every time I see a dog, my heart melts. As I write this post, both of my dogs are huddled near my feet. They follow me around wherever I go, with a look on their faces that seem to say, “Hey Dad, what are we gonna do next?”
Movies and shows with dogs make me tear up, stories of their heroism give me wonderment, and the look in their eyes when they gaze at you directly fills my heart with something that I really cannot put words to. Maybe that is one of the myriad of reasons why I am no fan of Kristi Noem. For someone to publish in a book that she shot their dog because he wasn’t behaving as he should says a lot about her character I think.
My Life With Dogs, Part I
(I am going to put this post into two parts as I don’t have the energy nor the time to write that much in one sitting.)
My first dog was a German Shepherd named Fritz. My parents got him when I was a toddler. They had gotten me a cat before that, but after the cat was in the house for a few minutes, I began to wheeze. That was my first and last cat…it lasted about 30 minutes from what my mother tells me. There’s a photo of the cat with me that my mother still has. The cat was black and white.
Fritz was very protective of me. I have a vague recollection of him grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the house when I got too close to the street. My dad always said that he was one of the smartest dogs that he’d ever known. I think I was in the fifth or sixth grade when my parents had him put down. He had that thing that German Shepherds get, hip dysplasia.
There was a long lull between Fritz and the next dog. I tried my hardest to get my father to get us another dog, but he wouldn’t. One summer night between my junior and senior years of high school, my parents and my siblings went to a party on the lake. I remember very little about the party except that we had to take a row boat to get there from the shore. The party must have been on an island. My father got drunk at the party and on the way back across the lake to our car, he was quite belligerent. I can remember feeling very uneasy, and I can also remember wanting that boat ride to end. I don’t remember the drive home at all, but I am guessing (and hoping) that my mother was the one that was behind the wheel.
The next morning, when I came down to breakfast, my father, out of the blue, said that we were going to get a dog. I remember my 17 year old self disbelieving the entire scene. I think he had guilt from the night before. My father’s one stipulation was that we get a German Shepherd. So we did. I remember driving to the place to get him with a giant box to house him for the ride home. My father decided (there was no discussion) that his name was to be Schultz.
After all of those years of begging to get a dog, we got a dog one year before I was off to college, but I was just so excited that I would have a dog. Schultz became my dog, as I would spend a lot of time with him. We’d go for walks in the woods behind my family’s house, and I taught him all kinds of tricks. He was very intelligent and learned things quite quickly. I remember one night I taught him to fetch my mother’s slippers when she was out grocery shopping. It only took about an hour or so, and I got him to go upstairs, into my parent’s bedroom, find the slippers, and bring them back down stairs. If he brought one of them, I would tell him to go back and get the other one. And he would. My mother got home from shopping, and I showed her what he could do. I remember her laughing in amazement.
Something happened to Schultz mentally when I was in college. When I’d come home for break, he would give me a look that was menacing. It upset me because he had always been “my” dog. I remember one night coming home from a date and going upstairs to bed. He was on my bed and when I tried to get under the covers to go to sleep, he growled at me. It was a low guttural kind of growl that made me really nervous. I pushed him gently off of the bed, but I was spooked. I went back to school after that break, and my parents soon let me know that he had bitten the paper boy. He began to snarl and growl at people walking by the house. My parents decided to put him down as they were afraid that he’d hurt someone. I was home from college when the decision was made. It is the only time in my life that I ever saw my dad cry. I can remember I went with him to the vet. I stayed in the truck when he took Schultz in. When he came back and got in, I looked over at him and saw a single tear slowly drop down his face. I had never seen him cry before, and I would never see him cry again.
Fast Forward: I graduated college, got married, and started a family. As soon as my boys were old enough, I decided that it was time to get a dog. I did lots of research with books from the library (way before the internet) and I found myself drawn to the Westhighland White Terrier. Since I am of Scottish ancestry, this seemed like a perfect breed. Her name was Katie. She was a bit cuckoo though. She had many idiosyncrasies, but we all loved her. By the time my daughter was born, she began to act a bit odd, and became snappy. We were in Vermont vacationing with my sister and her family and I went to pick her up to put in the car to drive home to Virginia. She bit me. Not just a little nip, but a gnawing and painful bite. I had to go to the ER. When we got back home, we made the difficult decision to put her down as her head was at the same level as my 1 year old daughter, and we just couldn’t risk her getting bitten in the face.
As I am writing about these last two dogs, and their mental issues, I guess it would make anyone wonder two things. One, what kind of person I am to have two dogs become psychologically off, and two, why would I even try and get another dog after these two? Well, with Arlo (the dog listed below) and every other dog since, it has been smooth sailing in the psych department.
Katie at a 4th of July Parade
Then there was our Sheltie, Arlo. He was a great dog. His herding instincts were prevalent when we were outside in the yard as he’d circle us as if we were sheep. He was loving and fun. His only downfall is that he was a major shedder. It was always a battle to keep the floors clean. When he got older, his hearing began to fail, but he was still the same Arlo. We had just gotten new neighbors who had a pretty vicious pitbull. He would make me nervous because he was aggressive and would have this really menacing growl. One day when I was at school, my older son was playing with him in the back yard. He threw a frisbee for him to chase, and unfortunately the frisbee ended up in our neighbor’s yard. When Arlo went to retrieve the frisbee, the pitbull came out and snapped his neck. My son witnessed the whole thing. He cried for days and blamed himself. When I got the call that Arlo had been killed, I was still at school. The final bell had rung, but there were still a couple of kids in my room. When they saw that I was visibly upset, I told them that my dog had just died and that I needed to get to the vet. I ushered them to the class next door so that I could leave, and I remember some of them hugged me. Ah, dogs and kids.
Arlo always had a smile on his face
As I am thinking about all of the dogs I’ve had, they resemble chapters of my life. One of the only downfalls of having a dog is the loss that you feel when they pass. Their lives are too short actually.
I will write about the next four chapters, Kali, Murphy, Shirley, and Murray soon.
I wasn’t going to write a post today, but I saw a video on Facebook that warmed my heart. It is always good to realize that there are indeed good humans out there who do make a difference. The key fob story is amazing!
I went to the pool today to swim laps. As I was exiting the gym, I got an alert on my phone that Catherine O’Hara had died. I loved her in anything she did, but especially her role in “Schitt’s Creek.” She will be missed. I think of all of the characters on that show, she was my favorite.
One of her quotes from the show: “Our lives are like little bébé crows, carried upon a curious wind. And all we can wish, for our families, for those we love, is that that wind will eventually place us on solid ground. And I believe it’s done just that for my family here. In this little town. In the middle of nowhere.”
I will close with a photo of Murray with is stuffed lamb. He carries it everywhere he goes. It is kind of disgusting now as the fur is kind of crusty, but he cannot be without it.
As I have written numerous times on this blog, the direction that this country is taking upsets me to the point where I find myself getting teary eyed over things that don’t normally send me to a sad place. I find myself just aimlessly staring out my kitchen window watching the birds twittering about, the cars driving down my street, and the ice coated leaves on the holly tree. When I pull out of the trance, I find myself realizing that I have been gazing out the window for a full five minutes. Sometimes it is mid-chore, like today when I had a broom in my hand and I had forgotten that I was sweeping the kitchen floor.
When I heard about Alex Pretti, I was in the midst of baking my second loaf of bread. I saw the alert on my phone, but had to wait to look at it as it was a crucial part of the bread making process. (The second attempt proved to be much more successful than the first one.) Once the bread was in the oven, I sat down to read the news alert. At this point one would think that my mouth would no longer gape open in disbelief. But gape my mouth did. And then the well of water in my eyes began to form, yet again.
And then I saw this joke of a government calling him a domestic terrorist. More lies. More of the same, treating people like they are stupid, and cannot see with their own eyes what happened. I don’t know when this will end. It’s exhausting, but maybe that’s their plan, just to wear us down.
I read the statement that Alex Pretti’s parents gave and it broke my heart. The callousness of this regime is beyond belief. What ever happened to common decency and respect for humanity? I know I am preaching to the choir here, but I feel this immense need to write all of this down.
The dire warnings of the ice storm with losing power for days proved to be false. The freezing rain that was supposed to happen all day long on Sunday was sleet instead. We have about four inches of snow, coated by this really tough blanket of ice. I feel very fortunate that we dodged that storm.
I have been trying to keep myself busy as best I can. I cannot take the dogs for a walk, but I have played with them and have let them out a lot. It is funny to watch them run over the crust of the snow. It’s great actually because their paws don’t get all wet and filled with little ice balls. It isn’t supposed to get above freezing all week, so walks are out for now. The side roads are still covered in ice, and school has been cancelled again for tomorrow.
I study French everyday, and I find myself spending more time on that as it keeps my mind active and thinking about things other than what I have mentioned above. I also discovered a show on Apple TV called Ted Lasso. I had heard about it and I knew it had gotten good reviews. I have watched all of the first season, and now I am in the second season. I have found that at least once in every episode I find myself feeling emotional. Good grief! What is wrong with me?
So I googled “Why does Ted Lasso make me emotional?” This is what AI “told me”:
Ted Lasso evokes strong emotions by balancing profound, tender moments with humor, focusing on themes of vulnerability, radical kindness, and mental health. It resonates by portraying healthy, emotional growth in men, featuring heartfelt character arcs, and showcasing the healing power of empathy, forgiveness, and unconditional support among the characters.
So maybe I am emotional watching this show because I don’t see enough empathy in the world right now. I saw that Greg Bovino was removed as the head of ICE in Minneapolis and was replaced by Tom Homan. As I read in a column this morning, “that is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.
Here’s a clip about Ted Lasso below:
My second attempt at bread was much better! And here’s a picture of Mr. Murray after getting groomed today. He was scared of most everything, but he managed to get through it! He always has such a serious look on his face, but in time, I have seen him smile too. Progress.
As I write this, the temperature here is 15°. The huge snowstorm that has been predicted all week now has morphed into a major ice storm. The local news channels are all reporting that we have a high probability of losing power and that the power could be out for days. And the temps aren’t scheduled to warm up above freezing all week. This should prove to be a very interesting couple of days.
When I was in Boston for Christmas, my niece was on a baking bread spree. She made all kinds of bread from focaccia to sourdough. She made it look so easy! I was inspired to bake bread myself, so this week I decided to try my hand at it. I do a lot of cooking but I have never made bread. I found a recipe online that said FOOLPROOF no knead bread. I figured if foolproof was written in all capitals, then it must truly be foolproof. Well, that is until I entered the realm of bread making.
It came out like an oval spaceship that could be used to give someone a concussion. The taste of the bread in itself wasn’t that bad, but it took a major sawing effort just to get the bread cut. So today, before the power most certainly goes out tomorrow, I am going to try a second attempt. My mother sent me a no knead recipe that she has used successfully, so we’ll see how that goes.
Hopefully my next baking endeavor will prove to be more successful.
I simply have no words for the chaos that has been enveloping the world over the toddler-in-chief’s actions. It seems as if I have a pit in my stomach 24/7. I long for the days of the Biden administration when I could get up and face the day without reading about demented tweets and general bat-shit crazy. When the felon won the 2024 election, I was very upset. I knew that his second administration would be quite a bit worse than his first, and sadly I have been proved correct. I don’t know if we can survive another three years of this chaos.
To keep sane, or at least try to, I have been busying myself with mundane tasks to keep my mind off of things of which I have little control. The dogs have been going on a ton of walks, despite the fact that it has been really cold here. I know that “really cold here” is all relative when I think of my friends and family who live north. I guess cold is a relative thing. We are slated to get a huge snowstorm this weekend. One for the record books I think. I took a screenshot of what the weather app on my phone said about how many inches we may get over the weekend.
Another thing I have been doing is watching the monologue from Jimmy Kimmel’s show the next morning. I could never stay up that late! I think he is very funny and it helps to laugh when there sure as hell isn’t much to laugh about. The clip below is one that I watched his morning. If you need a break from the chaos, spend 13 minutes watching it, a therapy suggestion from Dr. Michael! The last bit offers a montage of some of the things that have spewed out of his mouth in the last year.
Life can sure have its ups and downs. Just in the span of one day:
Downs: My sister called me last night and told me that our mother had fallen on the ice while she was throwing a ball to my sister’s dogs. She fell hard on her shoulder and broke it. My mother was alone when this happened, and had to wait until my sister got home from work. My mother felt nauseous from the fall and couldn’t muster enough gumption to get in the house. So she managed to get herself to the porch and she rested there until my sister got home. They went to an urgent care where they took x-rays and today she has an appointment with an orthopedic doctor in Boston. The physician’s assistant at the urgent care felt like she will probably need surgery.
Downs: My brother’s wife called me yesterday to tell me that my brother has a kidney stone and has to have surgery today. He’s having the same surgery that I had in May 2024 to get the stone out. The pain was unbearable. Believe me, I can attest to that.
Ups: After my sister-in-law relayed the news about my brother, I decided to make an off-handed comment about RFK Jr. I mimicked his speech (I am getting good at it) and told her that my brother should contact a medical expert for advice, such as RFK. She laughed and then began her tirade about what in hell is going on in this country. I knew that my brother had been a staunch Republican all of his life, and I was interested to see if any of that had changed. After talking for a few minutes, my sister-in-law told me that she was going to tell me something and swore me to secrecy. I thought to myself, “This is odd. My brother is the most strait-laced person in the family. What secret could he possible have?” Her news was that he has left the Republican Party and has joined the Democratic Party. WHAT? My GOP brother? My opinion of him has risen dramatically. She told me that he is disgusted with all of the clowns running the country. He hates Pete Hegseth. My brother was in the Coast Guard for 20 years flying helicopters in the Caribbean picking up refugees in rafts and was also involved in stopping drug smuggling. He is so adamantly against all of what the Pentagon and the “Department of War” is doing. There is hope! I find it amusing that she thinks that this is a big dark secret in joining the Democratic Party.
Downs& Ups: I had to take Michael to work today as he was suffering from dizzy spells. We both think it is his blood pressure, but the cuff we have wasn’t working. I told him that either he should stay home, or that I’d take him to work as he shouldn’t be driving in that condition. I took him to work as Michael isn’t one to like calling in sick. I brought the dogs with me and after I dropped him off, I found a neighborhood near his office to walk. I turned the “down” into an “up” as I love exploring new neighborhoods. This one had good sidewalks and tree-lined streets.
Ups: Shirley and Murray really are good pals to have around. They enjoy playing with one another, and as I am typing this, they are both at my feet! Murray carries around that stuffed animal all day long. At night, he hunts for it before going to sleep. He rests his head on it and he looks so content. I am so glad that we adopted him.
The rapid pace crap that is going with the felon and his minions is simply exhausting. With my brother leaving the GOP, it gives me hope that maybe there will be that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel coming soon. Let’s hope so.
Hi all. I am still here. I just haven’t been able to muster any energy to post or read blogs. To be honest, I think I have been a bit depressed, and I have been working (without a lot of success) to pull myself out of this funk. The melancholy vibe comes from what is going on in my country. I simply don’t recognize it anymore. It certainly isn’t the place that I remember, nor is it a place that gives me pride. It actually breaks my heart.
Our trip to Boston went well. The dogs did fine on the LONG ride up the east coast (12.5 hours both ways), and Shirley and Murray enjoyed playing with their dog cousins. I thought Murray would be overwhelmed by all of the action, but he seemed to adjust and enjoy just being a dog. We even let him off of the leash when we were walking in a town conservation area, which is a series of wooded trails. He stayed with us and smiled a dog’s smile.
I thought I would do my first post of 2026 with pictures from each month of 2025. Even though 2025 began the orange reign of terror, maybe looking back at things that gave me joy and caused me to pull out my phone to snap a photo will give me some sense of normalcy.
As I was compiling these photos, I discovered that I couldn’t load any more as I had reached my media limit. After much consternation, I decided to upgrade a bit to a monthly plan. I am not quite sure I want to go and delete photos just yet. And it is only $4.00 a month.
January
We went up to NYC to visit family. I went to see my son and daughter and Michael wanted to see his cousin who was visiting from Israel. I couldn’t resist snapping this shot of a kid wearing a MAGA hat on a NYC bus. This was the weekend before the inauguration. We also walked through Central Park that weekend. It was magical. And there is something about a slice of New York pizza that just cannot be beat.
February
The month of February proved to be an interesting one involving the weather. We went from a flood along the James River in the first part of the month, to a snow. I took a photo of our street looking up the hill. When it does snow here, things simply stop.
March
Red is the theme here. My Christmas cactus bloomed in March. I am glad I took the photo as it only had about two blooms this December. Maybe it is waiting for March again to go full throttle. I spied this cardinal in one of our trees. I really didn’t capture the red color well with my phone, but I like the photo anyway.
April
April was the first protest that I attended. I have no idea who this woman is, but I asked her if I could photo her sign. The banana sign is from my local supermarket. The bottom photo is me with two of my friends.
May
We went to a convent in the mountains near Charlottesville to buy their famous gouda cheese. The photo on the right is from a spot where I walk. I never tire of looking out over the lake.
June
With the warm June weather, my flowers on the deck really began to show their stuff.
July
Our crepe myrtle tree was beautiful this year, and the blooms lasted quite a long time.
August
In August, Michael and I went to upstate NY to visit my mom. We spent time on the river that runs through the town. My sister gave me a cocktail recipe with Pimm’s in it. I decided to try it out! The drink is a keeper! I made it with ginger beer.
September
We got Murray on September 27. He proved to be quite the work in progress, but I am happy to say that he’s really becoming a great dog, though he still likes to sneak his stuffed animals outside. The photo on the right is of Colonial Williamsburg, which is about a 45 minute drive from my house. I went there in late September with some former colleagues of mine to visit a past student who is a junior there. The photo from the very bottom is from the SPCA’s news letter and Murray was one of the articles. His name was originally Will Farrell.
October
This month was the month for getting used to having another dog. They sure do keep me busy.
November
Northern Arizona!
December
Spending the holiday with my sister’s family (and my mom) was great. No political arguments, just family time and laughter. Two of my nieces are in the top left, and my sister is on the bottom right.
You know what? Just creating this post has put me in a better mood. I need to remind myself sometimes to focus on the small simple things in life that give me peace and contentment. And when I go down the rabbit hole of feeling anxious and worried about the trajectory that the felon and his minions are leading us to, I think I will reread this post and look at the joy that is indeed in my life.
We are all headed up to Boston tomorrow to celebrate the holidays with my sister and her family. My mother will also be there too as she is spending some time with my sister. When I say “we all are” that includes Miss Shirley and Mr. Murray. It should prove to be an adventure with the forecast of 1 to 3 inches of snow in Boston tomorrow afternoon. It is a long journey. On the internet, it says 8 hours and 40 or so minutes, but I know in my heart that it will be at least 10 hours with stopping and with traffic. Getting around NYC and Washington DC is always a nightmare. We could have taken the train or flown up, but I wanted to include the dogs as well. I know that they really don’t understand the holidays, but I didn’t want them in a kennel, I wanted them with us.
However you celebrate, I hope that you have a great week!
My Secret Journey 