Notes From A Bear's Journey

   First off, I have cats.  Four of them if you must know, although at one time ages ago my wife and I had seven.  All of them are rescues (one was a kitten pulled from a drain pipe in a parking lot) and all live peacefully with our two German Shepherds.  I mention all of this because my wife is heavily involved in taking care of feral cats, her daily visits meaning a stop at five locations, changing the frozen water for fresh, refilling their food dishes and making sure that the shelters provided haven't been disturbed (a local agency creates straw-filled foam shelters with an accompanying label identifying it as a humane shelter not to be disturbed).  She has also been active in the CNR or Catch-And-Release program which several agencies support by providing the traps and vouchers to have the feral cats fixed and then released back into the same location once healed.  It takes close to two hours of her day each and every day, and it is what can classically be described as a passi

   More often than not it would appear to be a small world when you bump into a friend or acquaintance (or even a stranger) in the oddest of places.  It can be while entering a store or walking along a path or even in being in another country and your surprise and joy at the chance meeting soon turns to a period of catching up, a quick "so what have you been doing" series of questions that causes both of you to walk away some five minutes later with the realization that years of your lives --or sometimes much longer than that-- have been summed up rather quickly.  It's a good time to reflect back at that moment, to think of what were the important points of your life that you felt needed to be brought out, as if on a television game show and being asked "so tell us about yourself"...in 30 seconds.  Sorted, filtered, prioritized, of course, just as the other person you've just met is doing.  And often you're left with a puzzle in your head of how these ch

   The snow came and went almost as quickly as the celebrations of the holidays and one could almost hear that fabled sigh of relief.  For us, getting back to our ritual of dropping off turkeys and hams and other items to the homeless (we go weekly to a year-round outdoor facility that serves an average of about 500 homeless people each Sunday) was delayed a bit as we struggled just to dig out from the snow, even the snow blower struggling to send all the powdery fluff to another spot away from all the walkways.  By the time noon arrived, we were able to navigate the icy roadways and make our way down, the crowds now mostly gone and the remaining packaged meals all waiting for delivery (another 300 or so meals were headed out to those unable to make it to the cold outdoor lineup located under a viaduct).  Despite tired arms and sore backs we were happy to just make it out and be able to marvel at the massive snow plows on the roads shooting fountains of snow as they drove through the s

   It's busy and squeezing this in to read, well, there's just no time at least not at this moment.  So here's a quick bit of cheer from our local animal shelter .  It's a reminder of so many out there just waiting for a home, waiting for a smile, waiting for shelter and perhaps a nice meal...and yet so full of hope.  There's so much good out there, so many of us filled with good cheer and ready to bring joy to others...you can see it and feel it, can't you?  Sure, the parking lots are full and the traffic is crazy, and the news is less than festive as tragedy makes more airplay than necessary.  There is good and there is bad out there, and it happens not only now but at all times of the year.  So it seems that especially now, a 3-minute video such as above can help cheer us up and show us the possibility...    To all of you, of all faiths and all beliefs, thank you for taking the time and for making the effort to make right the world, to do good and bring smi

   Lately I have found myself eating way too much sugar, too much rich food and exercising being the reverse, doing it much too little.  Certainly with each chomp of a home-made sweet there is a tinge of guilt, almost as if that giving in to that temptation to break out of our normal routine is later met with our inner voice chiding us with a "why did I do that?"  Guilty pleasures is the term, I believe.  It's almost unavoidable at this time of year as all sorts of religions and holidays come together to emphasize their message of gathering and renewal and to celebrate something greater and to think about those less fortunate than ourselves.  It is also a time when we can see the approach of a new year, a fresh start, and to promise ourselves that this time for certain we will change our ways.   But in the meantime, we cook those large dinners and attend yet another big gathering of familiar faces...and perhaps have just one more bite of that lemon bar.     Something

   The early mornings are my "allotted" time periods, so said without malice for it is a time when my wife still sleeps and I can browse the computer or write or read or pay bills.  And yet even with that piece of time, there seems to be a piling up of stuff, a revealing quip coming from my friend who --after many years-- peeked into my office area, saw the mess, and said "nothing's changed there."  Was that a good thing or a bad thing?  (likely the latter)  But we all have those periods of time that we set aside each day.  Perhaps it is a period at night when we put aside those last 20 or 30 minutes for a bit of reading; or a piece of time to plop down on the couch after a day of work and dinner to catch a bit of the tellie; or ideally a chunk of time we set aside for just talking and being with the wife and family (and animals).  Whatever and whenever it is we usually have a period sectioned out, a routine.  For some of us this is a period to look forward to w

   When I was younger (which is a ways back) I would work my age in elevens, doubling them as a check to see about where I was in life.  So at 22, I could double that and hit age 44 which was quite reasonable.  At 33 I could still easily picture myself at 66.  And at 44 the possibility was still there (to hit 88).  But when 55 came, well, the odds got a bit more difficult; the oldest woman in the world * just turned 117 so it was possible but in all honesty not probable.  And in case you're wondering, I haven't hit the next multiple but doubling 66 would pretty much send me into the record books so I may as well quit that horrid math exercise.  In a recent interview with Dr. Phil McGraw he mentioned that one of his friends told him to place a tape measure on the floor and have each 12-inch mark represent 10 years of his life with the measure stopping at a point where he would reasonably expect for his lifespan; so if you're doing this, the six-foot point on the measure woul

   Of course if you flip the word desserts around you'll come up with the word "stressed."  My wife tells me that my sleeping patterns are way off, something I'm well aware of as I pop awake around 3 AM and can't seem to fall back asleep until several hours later.  Then the other day, I felt a something like a small bubble move in my back...ouch.  Stress can do that, hit us unconsciously and often in areas that are our "weak" points.  And we all encounter stress at some point, even if its as simple as worrying about not making your flight on time or whether that tooth of yours will need a root canal.  But for many of us, stress isn't something that comes and goes quite so quickly; things never really seem to be so bad that we're sinking into depression or need help, those internal words constantly telling us that we can handle it...but can we?     Today is the day I move my mother (again) this time to a new facility and out of her dementia ward

   Not long after posting about plowing through a batch of months-old magazines, a new batch of current magazines arrived with many of them posting their "year in review" issues or "the best stories of 2016" issues.  Hmmm, perhaps it would have been easier to just purchase those single issues and have a sort of Cliff Notes of magazine articles (Cliff Notes are an age-old series of "study guides" in the U.S. that we students used to call cheat-sheets simply because they summed up a book or subject quickly and concisely).  This is already done of course, with entire series of books putting together the "best of" whatever each year (from travel writing to sports to short fiction, etc.).  But as with any shortcut --even in life-- it is often the details and the small stuff in between that really matters, that fill all the cracks and help you emerge solid and polished (would you want a doctor or engineer using Cliff Notes).  So it was interesting when

   There's a certain calm for me in finally getting to some of my months-old magazines, the news usually long past and the emotional side of the wording now toned down or appearing oddly out of place in its slant.  Some of the articles still manage to remain fresh having caught a concern or story just before the tide of public popularity buried everything and made it a treasure to discover.  But for the most part, the reporting becomes easy to skim and thus provides a greater sense of "catching up," at least one greater than the mounting pile of books also crying out for some attention.  So if you're ready, here are a few quick updates to some of the posts of the past few months (the links are to some of the original posts of the update):    President-Elect Trump :  This dealt with the post-election fallout in the U.S. (the lowest voter turnout in 20 years) and a surprise to much of the world.  What I found more interesting however was a piece in Scientific American

   As a general rule, I turn my cell phone off at night almost as a comfort from unexpected calls; it might be something as simple as someone forgetting the time zone changes (something that even I've occasionally forgotten especially when on vacation, the excitement or loneliness seeming to override my once-clear thinking which comes back rather harshly when I ask the silly question to the person answering, "did I wake you?"); or it could be my mother simply being disoriented with the time (much as in a casino without clocks, such things as night or day can slip away in a room where lights are constantly on and little changes)...or it could be an emergency.  My wife and I have had all three, and nothing is worse than that dreaded call after midnight, the phone ringing with seemingly extra loudness as it pierces the quiet and silence of night and sleep.  That happened last night...but my phone was off.    Somehow I related this to a recent reflection in the London Revie

   The other day my mother had her hair done, her hairdresser telling me about different types of hair that Asians and Hispanics have, generally a coarser hair and hair that holds a softer curl longer (perm too soon --sooner than 4 months since the last one-- and you "over-process" the hair leaving it stringy and wiry, she said, the stuff a male rarely understands).  But more importantly she told me of people who talk to her about their parent or aunt or whomever who no longer needs to have their hair done, all mentioned to her as if that person didn't exist and being told that "she doesn't know the difference anyway" or "it doesn't matter to her."  All of this was usually done while that person being talked about was sitting there, she told me.  At first, I was shocked that someone would do that, until I began thinking about the facility where my mother was staying and the people she was staying with...people I found both engaging and interest