Toys, untouched now, scattered across the floor. Bowl, crusty with dried, uneaten food. Leash hangs, unused — yesterday, today, tomorrow. A deathlike grip on silence fills this place that is no longer a home. The little life I fed, walked, played and cuddled with for 12 years Took a different path, a journey where life is forever snuffed.
This goodbye is the worst — the pain is excruciating, much worse than losing a human Will it ever end? This pain of losing the one thing that gives true, pure unconditional love and happiness, expecting nothing in return.
Addendum
I have lost many pets in my life, and the pain never gets easier. I grieve for each and every one of them. Right now, a good friend of mine is facing the potential loss of a beloved pet, and her pain ignites the grief I feel for each and every one of my bygone babies.
If you are not a pet person, you may not understand the horrific pain that comes with the loss of a beloved fur friend. I provide this link which may help you, as well as all pet lovers, understand why this grief is so passionate.
Remember when you were a kid and all the old people in your life said, “Back when I was a kid…”?
Back When
I swore I would never say that, but here goes – I believe my childhood was about as good as it gets and far better than that of today’s kids – for myriad reasons,
I was a child in the latter 1950s and the 1960s. Life was simple compared to life today. Phones back then had no dials or pushbuttons. They were plain, black, boxes and required you to pick up the receiver and tell an operator what number you wanted. I only used this kind of phone once, when I was 5 y/o, and it was scary talking to a black thing that talked back. Later phones evolved to have rotary dials, still black, and later into phones with pushbuttons that were available in several models.
An old TV with a monochrome kinescope on wooden table. 3d
Television sets were also smallish, usually black-framed, with rabbit ears used to fine-tune the pictures, which, of course, were in black and white. When color came along it was like mana from heaven! I’ll never forget seeing the Wizard of Oz in sparkling, dazzling color.
Play
As kids we played. We KNEW HOW to play! We played outdoors in all seasons, all weather. We played school, we played with Matchbox toys in the dirt pile behind my best friend’s house, we played Barbies, trading outfits and making up stories where our dolls were the actors. We played with jacks, and paper-dolls; we rode our bikes, and pretended they were horses. We walked everywhere and there was never a fear of being kidnapped.
On summer days, we waited in anticipation for the ice cream man. Nickels and dimes were clutched tight in grubby little hands and handed over for icy prizes. My choice was always Hidden Treasure – a plop of orange ice cream hiding a plastic figure that was basically useless except for the thrill it gave me to discover it.
Remember Fizzies? That’s a long gone treat of small disks dropped into water to create a bubbling liquid. They came in different flavors and colors and were highly coveted among the childhood gang.
We also played impromptu group games including kickball, red rover, and tag. We laughed, we argued, and we had an exhausting, fun-filled time, all designed without the interference of any adults.
Playtime Today
Lately I have had a delirious desire to play. The other day we went into an old-time toy and craft store. It was like strolling into a time warp of wonder and want where the toys, games, and puzzles called out to the child in me. What was completely missing were electronic games, phones, or today’s “toys” that are anything but.
There’s so much more to say about my childhood and the play options it is inspiring in me today. I could go on and on, regaling about other toys and games, and maybe I’ll drop a note or two along the way. And if you have any childhood play memories to share, I would love to learn about them.
You know those little plastic things you have to pull off of milk and other cartons to open them? Everytime I pull off one of those things, I get angry thinking of all the harm just that little piece of plastic can potentially do to both domestic pets and wildlife.
And then there are the myriad other plastic hazards that are part of our everyday life! I feel guilty that I do not stop using the products that present danger, but the issue is, they are everywhere! I know I cannot directly affect the huge piles of plastic-based garbage that suffocate our oceans, but I can do something about the plastic hazards that threaten my dogs.
Following are a number of hazards that arise from the use of plastic and plastic packaging.
Choking
Everytime I pull off one of those small plastic pieces on cartons of milk or juice, I think about the potential danger should one of my dogs get ahold of it.
Intestinal Blockage
An intestinal blockage is serious and can be fatal if not treated quickly. I once had a pug who ingested something that almost killed him. Fortunately, a good animal surgeon removed a pinecone from his intestines.
Chemicals
Plastic packaging often contains chemicals that can affect a pet’s hormones causing growth, development and reproductive health issues.
Entrapment
Imagine: you are out for the afternoon, and you have left your normally trustworthy dog alone in the house. You come home to find his nose had found its way into one of the holes in the plastic packaging used to hold 6-packs of your favorite beverage together. Although he is panting, both from having his breathing restricted and his anxiety of being trapped, it turns out that after lots of cuddles and a few treats, he is okay. You are lucky.
What Can You Do?
Short of forever refusing to purchase products packaged in plastic, here are a few more practical things you can do:
Look for products packaged from recyled materials or cardboard.
Use airtight containers to store foods.
Be mindful of how you dispose of plastic: cut up any packaging that can strangle or choke wildlife.
Be vigilant about the potential dangers of plastic packaging for your pets.
I had a disturbing “thing” happen the other day. Now, first, a caveat. I have a smartphone, I use it, but I really don’t like it. My digital dinosaur preference is my laptop.
The smartphone is a necessity, I admit, but when it comes to long text conversations, or other cellphone input requirements, I’m off to my laptop.
Now, a few notes about me. I have trouble keeping my fingers from “dancing” (they shake), my eyesight sucks, and I’m not one to be permanently attached to my phone. In fact, I often leave it at home or in another room and when I’m out communing with nature, it is nowhere to be found.
So, admittedly, I am in the “senior” society, which doesn’t mean I’m a technology washout, but does have some other characteristics. In my early career days, I was trained on the most advanced computer technology of that time, and I was good at it. I am still good at it as I am the computer guru in our household. I also taught business communications in college for 15 years which necessitated using and teaching students various digital tools.
But here’s the rub – I do not like using cellphones for anything long and involved. In fact, I’m not a cellphone fan in general. Tablet is about as low as I prefer to go.
Another issue here is the type of request. Prior to my recent dentist appointment, I received a request to complete a form that was sent to me via text. Right off the bat I was annoyed by this intrusion into my privacy, which became outrage when I got to the part where they wanted my photo and a picture of the front and back of my driver’s license? Huh?? No way! To make matters worse, you could not advance in the form unless you filled in all areas. Fool that I was, I didn’t just close off. Instead, my Catholic school good girl thing took over and I uploaded a photo of my dog and a random UPC code for the driver’s license. .
Okay, so the thing is, different strokes for different folks. I cannot pretend to claim I am the spokesperson for the senior crowd, but I can espouse the need to recognize that all things digital, especially things like involved medical forms, should not be distributed by text especially in this day of rampant fraudulent activity.
I had lunch the other day with a very dear friend who I’ve not seen for a while – silly me for not partaking in such rich conversation and astute observations (hers). We had worked in several corporate environments together many moons ago, none of which we espoused with great joy and enthusiasm.
So, we reminisced and groused about our past professional gigs, and grumbled about the many toxic work environments that existed then, and perhaps even more, today.
And then my friend said something that perhaps should seem obvious about workplaces, but never has in my many, many moons working in many, many different places.
“It only takes one person,” she said. “Only one toxic person can pollute an entire organization.”
Well, do pardon me for perhaps stating the obvious, but this seeming innocuous comment lit a lightbulb of “Wow” for my old and humble self.
It happened again today. My spitfire puppy, Rosie, and I were off for a pre-rain walk when my foot suddenly slid as I took a step into something gross and squishy. Instantly I knew. The pooper-scooper had not found its way to this part of the block – an all-too-frequent occurrence in this, our quiet suburban neighborhood. What’s worse, there are multiple pooping culprits here based on the variations in size and color of the many poops scattered about. Let’s face it, most dogs poop when they’re on the beloved leash for a walk, and there are those owners who religiously clean up after them. I am one of those owners. However, there are those owners who simply don’t. Are they lazy? Careless? Believe in the ultimate “let nature be nature” approach?
Ugh, I for one am sick of hopping home and having to turn on the outdoor spigot to remove the by then the malodorous crap (literally) from my shoe. What’s a step-in-poop soul supposed to do?
One answer I came up with is to be hyper-vigilant about every footfall I take on a walk. This is not ideal for me because I’ll miss much of the enjoyment I get from walking my precious pups. On the other hand, looking down might help control my other walking issue which is the frequent trips taken by one who is not graceful.
Another idea is to call the local animal control folks and complain. Scratch that thought.
Educate by example? Unfortunately, it is a rare occurrence that one of my dogs’ poops within close proximity of one of the offenders, so scratch that one, too.
The one I think about often is this: I know the worst offenders who, get this, have two dogs they take on two miles-long treks each day. Their pups’ poops now adorn the entire town. What I am thinking of is catching up with them one day with one of my dogs, a blue poop bag in hand, and asking them what brand of poop-scoop bag they use for their dogs! And of course, I’ll go on to tsk-tsk about all the unpicked-up poops ( not to mention those of their dogs, of course) scattered about, and what a terrible nuisance, not to mention health hazard, they are. <grin>
Result? Will I succeed in shaming these two into picking up the poop or piss them off so they make sure their dogs always poop on my lawn. Oops – never thought of this.
Perhaps it’s back to the pooper-scooping drawing board.
So, I’m having my morning coffee and going through my usual digital news stuff, and I come across the Humanizer! Just consider the name!! It sounds like some sort of evil, human-destroying thing. It is!
I can’t express enough here my total revulsion for what this thing is. It’s a tool that goes through AI generated material (another dehumanizing technology) and makes it “human.” In other words, it replaces the “real” human being in the writing process. Now the companies that sell these things don’t say that, not at all. Here is what one site says proudly about their product:
“Our platform uses advanced algorithms to analyze content and produce output that mimics the way human (sic) write.”
In other words, what this is all about is to “hide” material that comes from an AI tool. I used to write for a company that just sent out an email to its writers, and this is what it says:
“As many of you know, our team is launching a Humanizer tool for writers to polish and fact-check AI-generated content at the end of this week. It is not replacing our human-written content process, which is still our top priority, focus, and core offering. However, we recognize that times have changed, and as with every organization in our industry, we are adapting and evolving with the available technology. We still believe that human-written content leads to the best performance.”
Read through the lines and you’ll see that this company is looking to eventually replace its humans with a humanizer.
In yet another aspect of the impending doom of the humanizer tool, an article by MIT researchers discusses the allocation of blame potentially associated with the output of humanized AI:
“The way we allocate responsibility is complicated when AI is involved. AI is simply a tool created and used by humans, but when we describe it with human characteristics, people tend to view it very differently. It can be seen more as an agent with independent thought and the ability to create.”
Besides being sickened, I am also terrified. We are not dummies, and we can think ahead as to what this means: digitally generated material where the tool is charged with the responsibility for what’s in the content, content that will not be created by talented, experienced writers. So, in other words, who, or what, is responsible for what?
Sigh.
So much for the little newsletter I wrote and crafted by hand when I was a kid. Today’s kids will press a few keys and voila! No brains. No creativity. No life….
Ever since the controversy surrounding colleges and universities in the US about verbiage used in some classrooms. Professors have been accused of prejudice, bias, and bigotry for the use of certain material, and even the use of certain words!
As a former college professor, I am keenly aware of and sensitive to how things have changed in my years in the classroom, and how the margin for “error” in all things communicative, has narrowed to a mere sliver.
The word that most describes the critical aspect of communication is context. As I humbly see it, the inclusion of clear context today rarely exists.
So, along with a little research I did on the word context, I poked around a reputable dictionary and compared its results with that of an AI tool. The results scared me.
What do you think?
Britannica Dictionary definition of CONTEXT
1 : the words that are used with a certain word or phrase and that help to explain its meaning
To really know a word, you must be able to use it in context. [=in a sentence with other words]
◊ If the words that someone has said are taken or quoted out of context, they are repeated without explaining the situation in which they were said so that their meaning is changed.
When taken out of context, his comments sound cruel, but he was really only joking.
The actor claimed he’d been quoted out of context.
2 : the situation in which something happens : the group of conditions that exist where and when something happens
We need to look at the event within the larger/broader context of world history.
The book puts these events in their proper historical and social contexts.
We need to consider these events in context.
The above, as noted, is from the Britannica Dictionary, and the formatting was exactly as shown here.
In contrast, here is the definition of context from the AI tool:
Context refers to the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, statement, or piece of information. It provides the framework or background that helps in understanding and interpreting the meaning of something. Context can include various elements such as the time, place, people involved, historical background, cultural nuances, and other relevant factors that contribute to the overall understanding of a situation.
In communication, understanding the context is crucial for accurately interpreting messages, as the meaning of words or actions can vary depending on the context in which they occur. Context helps to clarify ambiguity, resolve potential misunderstandings, and provide a more complete picture of the information being conveyed.
Many moons ago, I wrote about my rabid quest to find the perfect pen. Not a surprising thing for a writer who grew up from a kid who luxuriated in books, notepads, and all things literary and written. Would you believe I still have 6 books from my 6th grade Scholastic Books summer reading list? I remember my anticipation of the arrival of my order, and how I would immediately set about smelling the pages to determine which book I would read first.
Yes, I still smell books, and am drawn to the thicker and smellier ones! And I write every day in my journal, and read, usually 2 or three books at a time. I have a house full of books (a bitch to dust), some of which I even use as side tables in my living room.
Back to pens. The quest has ended! Can you believe it?
First, about the future of pens. It is numbered. And this I lament for all the kids who will never have the luxury of feeling a pen on paper, smelling its ink, and trying to always improve their handwriting. (Handwriting? What’s that you say?) The world of AI and smart devices is, and probably mostly has, replaced the writing tools I grew up with. I feel truly sorry for them.
For me? Pens will never go away. Nor will my notepads or my paper books (Red faced and truth be told, I do succumb to reading on my Kindle when I’m on my elliptical machine).
And now, I feel like I need a drum-roll here: After years of searching, and buying fountain pens, gel pens, roller balls, markers, and even pencils, I have come back to the pen that gave me thrills and comfort when I was a grammar school kid: The BIC Crystal stick pen! How ironic is that?
The story of Diane Schuler and her murder of 8 people while driving under the influence of alcohol and pot continues to haunt many of us. I regularly get comments about the earlier posts I’ve written about it.
So, today, I scanned the internet to see if there were any recent articles.
It happened again today. My spitfire puppy, Rosie, and I were off for a pre-rain walk when my foot suddenly slid as I took a step into something gross and squishy. Instantly I knew. The 
madmuser 