Month: May 2021

Memorial Day 2021

On May 31, 2021

Today is Memorial Day, May 31, 2021. It is a day set aside to honor those who gave their lives defending our freedom. I am incredibly grateful to every veteran that served and died as well as all of those who served and survived. I am reminded of the excellent book The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw. Most of my generation can relate to the people in the book because they were our fathers. My father enlisted in the Navy at seventeen. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the war ended before his service began. He was a radar operator on an aircraft carrier, the USS Boxer. He served between WWII and the Korean conflict. He left the Navy to marry my mother before the ship sailed to Korea.

Like many of those profiled in the book, he rarely spoke about his service to his kids. He told of being on a reconnaissance flight in a two-man plane and looking down at the carrier from the plane before landing. He said it was like trying to land on a postage stamp; the carrier was so small in the vast ocean. He also had a tattoo of an eagle on his bicep. This is not unusual for sailors at the time or for anyone today, but my father discouraged his boys from getting any. He said he knew it would be a mistake to go on liberty with one of his shipmates, but he did and ended up with a tattoo.

My father was an honest, hardworking man who did the best he could to support his family financially and emotionally. He coached little league baseball, helped with cub scouts, and took us fishing and camping. Though my dad did not give his life or serve in the military during wartime, his enlistment showed his willingness to die for our freedoms. That is why I think of him on this Memorial Day, and I know there are countless others whose willingness is the key to our freedom, even if they did not serve during wartime.

Wiley Coyote

By doesbuck

On May 24, 2021

In Uncategorized

One thing I looked forward to doing when I retired was going fishing in the middle of the week. However, in the seven weeks since I retired, I have only gone fishing once. I do not know if this says more about my priorities or about how busy I am. It is probably both. My priority when I retired was to write, hoping to finish my novel. I am making progress, but I have also been extremely busy with other things. One of the other things was having cataract surgery. This consumed two to three weeks with the surgery and time for my vision to clear. Then it was time to put in the garden. I had to replace two of my raised beds and hoped to add a third. I replaced the two beds, but I did not have enough dirt to fill the third, though I placed it. I finished planting last week. Now that those things are complete, I should have time to go fishing. But I promised another Bailey story.

After Bailey broke my wife’s leg, I walked her, and took her to obedience classes. Bailey usually gets at least two walks each day, morning, and afternoon. While I worked from home, this was easy to do much like my current routine. I would take her to a park a few blocks from the house where we would walk around it. When I went back to work, I needed to walk her before I left the house at 6:30 in the morning. This meant I was walking her at around 5:30 AM. During the summer this is not an issue because it is light out. But later in the year it is dark.

The park is next to a floodway that runs North of our house. To the East, the floodway runs by a large open space, Austin Bluffs. It runs down and empties into Monument creek. This is a highway for wildlife like deer and coyotes, and occasionally a bear or moose.

The lower parking lot is next to the floodway. There is a city owned swimming pool next to the lot. Above the pool is a large open field with a baseball field on one end and playground on the other. Up a hill from the field, are tennis courts and another parking lot. One fall morning I was walking Bailey at the park just before sunrise. It was just light enough to see large objects. Bailey was off leash and we were crossing the field. Suddenly, Bailey took off running, and I saw a coyote chasing her. I called Bailey, but she did not stop or come. I tried to run after them, but they were too fast. All I thought was, I have lost our dog. If the coyote did not get her, I would never find her in the dark. I continued to call for her as I walked back to the parking lot, but she did not respond. When I got to the lot, Bailey was at the car and the coyote was not in sight. Though thrilled to see me, she could hardly wait to get in the car and go home. Since then, we do not walk in that park early in the mornings. We go to a park with more lights, or we walk around the neighborhood.

It surprises me when I think about how smart Bailey was to go to the car and wait for me. She is highly intelligent. She is also very fast and just like the Roadrunner, she avoided the Wiley Coyote. If you enjoy stories about Bailey, leave a comment and sign up to receive updates on new posts.

Like an Old Man In a High School English Class

By Charles Jones

On May 17, 2021

In Uncategorized

Before I retired, several people at work said I would miss working and become bored. In my mind, I agreed with them. I told them I had a plan, that I was writing a book and would spend my time writing. It has been six weeks since I retired, and I honestly have not missed going to work. I have a daily routine that wrote about in a previous blog.

Writing new material is often easier than editing existing material. The advice I received from various books and articles said do not worry about mistakes when I write, so I correct a lot of mistakes in the editing process. Plus, I am learning about things I did not know. I feel like a 70-year-old man in a high school AP English class trying to catch up. I did not know about “sticky” sentences or glue words. It makes me wonder if I can really write.

However, I have had this book idea in my mind for over six years. I do not know if God has given me the idea, but I feel like it is His will for me to continue writing. I do not expect to make money doing it. In a recent workshop I attended virtually, the leader said that I would have to spend over $5000.00 to self-publish my book and that I should not expect sales to cover the cost. Regardless, I intend to press on with the writing despite the financial obstacles and my age. After all, Abram was 75 years old when God called him to leave his family and journey to Canaan. (Gen. 12:1-5) If his faith allowed him to live as a stranger in a strange land, my faith should help me endure learning to write. Like Bailey had to learn to trust me through the training process, I have to trust process to learn to write.

I apologize if you wanted more about Bailey. The next blog will have another Bailey story. Please comment and sign up to receive notifications when new blogs are posted. Thank you.

Bailey Becomes My Dog

By doesbuck

On May 10, 2021

In Uncategorized

I would like to thank everyone who commented on my last post “Bring Home Bailey.” As a rescue dog, she was a challenge when we first brought her home. Especially, as I noted, house training her. But also in other interactions. She was afraid of everything. Initially, when we wanted to go to the park, we carried her to the car. She wouldn’t go out the door, and when she finally did, she wouldn’t jump into or out of the car. We spent a lot of time and money training her. She needed to behave on the leash so my wife to take her on walks. A few months after we brought her home that plan suffered a major setback. I got a call from my wife while I was at work. She told me she had fallen in the park and couldn’t walk. When I asked if we needed to call an ambulance, she said no that I needed to come to get her. So, I left work, went to the park, and took her and Bailey home. We called our orthopedic surgeon for an appointment. The x-ray showed she had a tibial plateau fracture. (The flat portion at the top of the tibia on the knee joint had a vertical fracture.) It didn’t require surgery, but she could not put any weight on her leg for weeks to allow it to heal. During their walk at the park, they met a man with another dog. When she tried to introduce Bailey to the other dog, Bailey shied hitting the outside of her knee forcing it in, and her femur down onto the tibial plateau causing the fracture. It turns out pets are a major cause of injuries for older adults.

As a result of my wife’s injury, I worked from home and took care of her, and Bailey became my dog. I took for walks at least twice a day and training classes. Though she is still skittish especially with dogs or people that approach too quickly, she is much better. She has learned to trust me and if she is uncomfortable, will often lean against me for reassurance. She is by far the most affectionate dog we have owned. Today my wife walks her on occasion, though it took a while for her to overcome her fear of falling.

If you like hearing about Bailey, please comment and signup to receive notifications of new blog posts.

Bringing Home Bailey

By doesbuck

On May 4, 2021

In Uncategorized

Writing a blog turns out to be a lot of work. My original thought was to post every week to ten days, but I have actually posted about every two to four weeks. Everything gets in the way. In the last post, I talked about getting into a routine. Unfortunately, writing the blog is not yet part of that routine. I think I need to focus on a more specific topic. The original topic being my writing journey. I am progressing in that journey but I am not generating much interest in the blog. Even my family shows little interest, and they are the only ones who currently receive notifications of new posts. If you are reading this, I need help developing a focus until I actually become a published author. The comments I received indicate the two most popular posts are “Old Dogs” and the “Adventure Begins”. When I asked my wife what would be a good topic for this blog, she said to write about Bailey.

Bailey after we first brought her home in April 2017.

She is a German Shepherd and Australian Cattle Dog mix and looks like a miniature German Shepherd. We got her shortly after we put down our previous dog, Lizzie. We were out and my wife said, “Let’s go to Petco and see if they have any puppies.” I reluctantly agreed. I didn’t want a puppy, I wanted a two-year-old dog that was already housebroken and possibly trained. When we arrived at Petco, they had this litter of puppies. They told us the dogs were feral when they found them. My wife wanted a female, and when they showed Bailey to us, she fell in love. As soon as she held Bambi (as she was called at that time), I knew we were going to get her. We took her for a short walk and sat at a picnic table behind the store. We talked about the forgone decision that we would take her home. ‘Bambi’ was a very frightened puppy. When we walked her behind Petco, all she wanted was to get back to her littermates. When we brought her home with us, she was so frightened she would not go outside by herself. This made her house training a long and patience-building ordeal. Even after four years, she still wants one of us to go outside with her.

If you like hearing about Bailey, leave a comment and sign up to receive notifications when new blogs are posted.