Bonnie Of Mice And Men

          Many of us experience a devastation after an automobile accident.  We may lose sleep over replaying the situation in our mind.  We are more cautious when we return to driving.  After a while we return normal sleeping habits and may become a little more lax in our driving habits – or whatever it may be.  Automobile accidents is just one of many scenarios.  I picked that analogy as I think more people may be able to identify with it than to pitbulls or the learning impaired.

         Last month Jaime and I had decided to take Bonnie to Millsite just for a change of scenery.  Unfortunately our day did not end well.  I lost a tremendous amount of sleep over the events that took place.  But it’s been a month and I have started sleeping better but not have completely relaxed nor do I expect I ever will.

         Jaime and I were sitting on a bench and Bonnie was exploring.  Jaime had let go of the leash and Bonnie spotted a dog in the distance – and I do mean distance.  The other dog and her walker had to have been a good football field distance away.  I don’t know why Bonnie felt the need to attack. For a fat dog she is fast and strong.

         Jaime went running after her and lost her shoe in the process.  I cannot run that fast and was slow to trail after.  I saw the other owner running and calling after her dog.  Jaime and I both felt bad and were crying about it.  My concern was more about Jaime than either of the dogs.

Not wishing to encounter anymore problems we decided to cross the field and head towards the car so that we could return home.  Just before we approached another bench Jaime realized that she had left her backpack behind and went to retrieve it.  We both continued to pray about the situation at hand and expressed our concern about the other dog and her owner.

The dog and her owner were reunited but there was conflict. Evidently Bonnie had bit the neck of the other dog and there were threats made but also opportunity for us to leave the park – which we did.  Still there were many sleepless nights and thoughts of animal control stepping in to remove Bonnie from our household and put her down.

Bonnie is a sweet dog overall – if you’re human.  But not to female dogs regardless of size.  We are no longer welcome at the park – not that Bonnie ever was.  Reminds me of Lenny from Mice and Men or any situation of one who may be slower that his/her peers and acts up – perhaps causes harm to a child and the parent of the victimized student may petition to “not allow that retard in the same school”.  It has happened before.  It will happen again. 

We love Bonnie but she is a threat to other animals and that is too bad.  We need to find someone who lives in the country in which Bonnie is the only female dog.  Jaime does not wish to give her up.  She loves Bonnie possibly more than the other owner loves her dog - though I don't know.  It was a bad experience and situation for all of us.

 

         

Different Variations of Frightful

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful . . . “

My sister recently posted this picture on her facebook page.

retrieved from facebook

My comment was that even though we live further up north than she does, the residents in Douglas County are more inclined to be like the first picture than the second.

I DON’T miss snow.  I don’t miss driving in it.  I don’t miss waiting in the cold snowbanks and blizzards.  I don’t miss the horrible traffic.  I don’t miss this:

retrieved from KSL NOVEMBER 27, 2019 AT 5:14 AM

 Retrieved from Salt Lake Tribune
 NOVEMBER 27, 2019 

retrieved from NBC news December 8, 2019

 The weather was quite beautiful on Christmas morning

and continued into the next day.  Jenna put on her Elf costume and we went to Millsite park ao she could pass out candy canes.

I had to take another picture after we returned home so that the socks could be seen (as they were hidden by the shoes)

Friday’s weather was “stay in your pajamas and stay inside and read a book” type weather.  Nothing as frightful as the first four pictures of snow.  The skies were overcast and everything was wet by rain. 

The last two mornings have given us lingering fog which has cleared about 10:30 or so. It rained quite a bit yesterday.

Ward Service and updates

            Myrtle Creek has a summer festival at the end of July or the weekend closest to July 25th.  We learned that our first year here when Roland had asked one of the members about Pioneer Days - a holiday celebrating the movement of the pioneers to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Our ward here does a service project the Saturday prior to the Saturday of summer fest.  The first year we had moved in, we had gone to Riddle to clean up the cemetery here.  I took several pictures though I was not yet familiar with the majority of members who appeared in each photo. 

            The following year we had painted the shed and spruced up the track and bleacher area at the high school.  I must have forgotten my camera that day.  I don't recall having taken any photographs.  I was hoping that my sister's family would be in town that afternoon or evening, but a fire alarm had disturbed their sleep and put them behind schedule (see here).  So they were not there for service project or pool party afterward.

            Last year we had gone to the American Legion on Old Pacific to spruce up grounds and add stars to the building (it is actually pretty cool looking) 

Before picture taken from Google maps

same building after: taken July 22, 2017 ward activity

I took more pictures of our service project there than I had at Riddle but does not appear that I posted anything - not even on facebook.

            Yesterday's project was at Millsite Park.  I would have taken pictures had I had a camera, but I don't.  And as you can see from my blackberry pics (a few posts back) my cell phone does not take great pictures and would not have been worth the effort.  Mulch was dumped between the walking path and ballpark and looks really nice.  I will have to add pictures at a later date.

            As always, we had a barbeque and pool party later in the evening.  I had not been feeling well but had chosen to go for the barbeque - which may have not been the wisest decision.  I was there for only forty minutes or so before I had Roland bring me back home.

            I aced both of my classes.  My accounting teacher praised me for including Hershey's code of Ethics on my report.  Truth be known, I wasn't including it because I thought it should be part of my report or because I found it interesting.  I needed over 1,200 words and had included whatever I could for the sake of word count.

            I also introduced my Ethics instructor to a made-up place of work based on an actual family owned business that I would guess does not use an auditor, which I had chosen as it has been the subject of my other class.  For the sake of my report (PowerPoint) I had to use my major as a profession for a place of business - not that I will ever specialize in auditing unless it is for nonprofit - which is the point of view I took for my PowerPoint.  All done.  Both classes complete.  I will start another accounting class tomorrow.

Transformation at Millsite

So many times Jenna and I have gone to Millsite, I feel like I am seeing it for the first time.  The elements change and often causes a new feel.  But there has been reconstruction.  A new fence was added.  Trees were removed and new ones planted.  This is Millsite last year, this year in October and on Veteran's Day

Dec 22, 2016

Dec 22, 2016

Perhaps you will recognize some of these pictures from this site    

October 10, 2017

When we returned to the park on Veteran's Day, I took even more pictures

What price do we pay for the choices we make?

           Each of us has the opportunity to make choices.  We choose to leave the house, transportation, destination, what we eat and so forth.  Often we are presented with obstacles as a result of our choices.  For example, we may have a variety of ways to get from point A to point B - do we want to take the scenic route or something faster.  If we had stayed in one lane could we have avoided the car crash that happens in the next?  What about those that we encounter.  How do our choices effect them?  And what about those things we can't control like the weather or health?  Often the result of our choices makes no difference.  Other times even the smallest decision may change our entire lives.

          I think "The Mountain Between Us" gives us some great illustrations of what our choices may cost.  

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.

wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54196569

The movie opens with Alex, a journalist, at an airport in Idaho anxious to get to her fiancé in Colorado as her wedding day is near.  Ben, a neurosurgeon, is anxious to return to Baltimore as there is a ten-year-old boy in need of his service.

          All flights have been cancelled due to the weather.  Alex believes that she can overcome this obstacle by hiring a private charter flight.  She gambles on a pilot she's never met.  And while the weather is not a challenge for him personally, there is another factor that neither had even thought to consider.

          Alex, not knowing anything about Ben in addition to not knowing the pilot, asks Ben if he would like to join her on the charter plane to Colorado.  I would think if Ben is unable to get a flight to Baltimore from Idaho due to the weather, it would be likely that Colorado's weather would be similar - but whatever.  No one thinks about that.

          During the course of the movie, Ben and Alex are faced with more obstacles as they climb the snow covered hills of the Unitah Mountains in search of salvation, I thought about what the choice made had cost them - or changed them - because without the experience that only they shared - they would not have evolved from who they were prior to the movie starting to who they became afterward.

          I think the story itself was fictionalized, but I really enjoyed watching the movie and discovering another demonstration of just how much impact our choices may have not just on our lives but those around us.  I'm grateful that the unwise choice Jenna and I had made recently about crossing a fenced path didn't have such a dramatic result.  Funny thing is if we had started the other direction, I wouldn't have crossed it.

 So often when I go to Millsite, it's like I'm seeing it for the first time.