A Year has Passed

Makayla Memory Corner

A year has passed since Makayla, my faithful friend, passed.  

I think of her every day and sometimes wonder whether I should get another dog? But I know it would not be fair to whatever dog might join our family; he or she could never measure up to Makayla. Finnegan is trying his best to be the big dog in the house.

I created a memory book for Makayla, and I recently made one for Riordin. In that book on the last page is a letter that I wrote to her shortly after she passed. It still brings me to tears, but on this one year anniversary I decided to publish it.

Makayla
(November 8, 2008 - October 10, 2022)

Dear Makayla, 

I miss you. I do not want to forget the 14 years we were together and wish I could say the following to you.

I don’t think I said “good dog” enough, but you were.

You were a great dog and companion. I never realized how much I loved you and appreciated your even temper until you passed. I hope I never forget your special love for not only me but everyone you met.

Why is there such a big hole in my heart? Big enough to drive a train through? Because your heart was bigger than mine and you loved me unconditionally.

You were the best part of me.

I miss sharing my sandwich and toast with you. You always got the last corner. And my eggs and other small scraps. You could eat corn right off the cob and I loved the way you enjoyed eating it. 

I miss saying, “OK kid, let’s go out”

I’m sorry I called you “old woman” as you slowed down, but it was out of respect

I miss your greeting each time I came in the house

I miss the way you used to lay right behind the door—so you could be the first one to greet us as we arrived.

I miss the clacking of your nails on the stairs, and the floors.

I listened for you to come up the stairs last night. 

I miss your piercing look—the look that just effused love and trust. You always seemed to be asking, what do you want to do next?

I miss the way you used to gobble down your morning treat before I served breakfast. 

I want to remember the last time I held you and you relaxed from your labored breathing and then crossed the Rainbow Bridge. 

I want to remember that you were always there. Sometimes underfoot, but definitely my dog. 

I hope I did not let you down at the end. That I was there for you like you were always there for me. 

I miss your fluff.

I miss your dark piercing eyes. 

I miss watching the sun come up while you did your business in the yard.

I miss searching for your poop in the darkness. 

I miss the way you wandered off to the side yard to do your business and sometimes you just seemed to say, "don’t hurry me, we are on my time."

I miss the way you loved the snow. I always laughed at your youthful antics digging and enjoying the cold white stuff.

I miss the the way you snuck around to eat Finnegan’s food when he was through. 

I remember how you loved to walk on the pool cover and pee. It makes me laugh to think of it now, although I did not find it funny then.

Some days when I was working in the garage or around the house, you would just lay in the driveway in the sun and keep a watchful eye on me.

You used to love to go on “road trips.”

I wish I could hold you and scratch your head just one more time. And smell your fur.

We were together almost 14 years and yet, it seems to have passed too quickly. 

Rest in peace my faithful friend and companion. 

Love

Dad

--Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Monday Musings - October 9, 2023

 

1. October continues moving forward. Today is the second Monday of the month. There are 11 Mondays remaining in the year. Christmas decorations are already adorning the stores. 

2. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, formerly Columbus Day, celebrated. For those of you so blessed, enjoy the holiday. 

Halloween Display
Tequesta, FL
October 8, 2023

3. The Halloween season is upon us. Chris and I found a very extensive display during our bike ride yesterday. It was too much to attempt to show all of it, but we did note a new addition for a recent departed singer. 

4. It was a tough day for the birds of Baltimore yesterday. The Ravens blew the game in Pittsburgh and the Orioles got their wings clipped in Baltimore. It was the first Ravens game of the season that I could actually watch on TV. I wanted to turn it off. The Orioles game was also ugly, but the Birds made it respectable at the end. Hopefully, their late inning success will carry forward as the best of 5 series moves to Texas with the Orioles in an 0-2 hole. 

5. Family NFL report. It was a tough weekend in the NFL for the family teams. 

Commanders (2-3) gave first win to Bears (1-4), 20-40

Cowboys (3-2) failed to show for 49ers (5-0), 10-42

Steelers (3-2) clipped Ravens (3-2), 17-10

Dolphins (4-1) drowned Giants (1-4), 31-16

6. This Monday finds the world in complete crisis. Putin believes that Ukraine can be defeated in a week and our attention has been diverted from there to the attacks on Israel. In the U.S. the forces of chaos and repression appear to be gaining strength and power to potentially destroy the economy and remove our country as a stabilizing force in the world. 

7. Today in History. On October 9, 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerrilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 while battling his band of guerrillas in Bolivia and executed him the following day. His hands were cut off as proof of death and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1997, Guevara’s remains were found and sent back to Cuba, where they were reburied in a ceremony attended by President Fidel Castro and thousands of Cubans.

Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna was born to a well-off family in Argentina in 1928. While studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, he took time off to travel around South America on a motorcycle; during this time, he witnessed the poverty and oppression of the lower classes. He received a medical degree in 1953 and continued his travels around Latin America, becoming involved with left-wing organizations. In the mid 1950s, Guevara met up with Fidel Castro and his group of exiled revolutionaries in Mexico. Guevara played a key role in Castro’s seizure of power from Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and later served as Castro’s right-hand man and minister of industry. Guevara strongly opposed U.S. domination in Latin America and advocated peasant-based revolutions to combat social injustice in Third World countries.

Israel defense minister orders 'complete closure' of Gaza - CNN

 ‘Everything will be over in a week’: Putin is counting on the Western alliance that backs Ukraine to fracture - CNN

Inside Asia's arms race: China near 'breakthroughs' with nuclear-armed submarines, report says - Reuters

Death toll from flash floods in Indian Himalayan climbs to 74, scores missing - Reuters

Russian parliament bosses to discuss revoking ratification of nuclear test ban treaty - Reuters

Home Depot Tracked a Crime Ring and Found an Unusual Suspect - The Wall Street Journal

Can Lawmakers Boost Ukraine Aid by $50 Billion—or Even More? - The Wall Street Journal

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

We Need a Rainbow

Rainbow over the Atlantic
Carlin Park, Jupiter, FL
October 5, 2023

 The rhetoric spewing from a subset of Republicans is scary. 

Some of the ideas they profess can be found in the history of despotic authoritarian leaders.

The disinformation is deafening being generated is attempting to drown out fact.

The fate of our Republic hangs in the balance.

I have to begin starting with the leading candidate for the Republican nomination who paraphrased Hitler when he suggested that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." As if that is not a frightening statement on its own, that it echos one of the most cruel and evil leaders in the history of the world is even more appalling. 

But the other disinformation continues without consideration for fact, for instance:

We are suffering runaway inflation. Nope, inflation is under control. The annual inflation rate has been below 4 percent and headed for below 3 percent for the past four months. (Inflation Rate Calculator)

Democrats are responsible for runaway government spending. Not true! But a major culprit for the US’s soaring debt is George W Bush’s and Donald Trump’s huge tax cuts that mostly benefited the wealthy and big corporations – and that will have added $8tn and $1.7tn, respectively, to the debt by the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

House Republicans are even proposing to cut funding for the IRS, which would make it harder for the tax agency to go after rich tax cheats and thereby reduce the debt. (The Guardian)

We need a rainbow. Rainbows call us to pause, for a moment, and consider something other than ourselves. Something larger than the mess we've made in our lives. Rainbows are a symbol of hope and a promise. 

The other day, I saw many rainbows. They were beautiful and at the same time mesmerizing. Maybe if we took a timeout to consider a rainbow we might figure out a way to stop seeing those with opposing views as enemies or adversaries and realize that we are all stuck together in this place and that competing opinions are the substance of a strong and healthy society.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Closing out the Week

Looking out to the Intracoastal Waterway
Tiki 52, Tequesta, FL
October 6. 2023

Finding a great happy hour location is one of the great ways to place the exclamation point on the end of the week.

Last evening we visited Tiki 52, which is located in a marina very close to home, to end the week and prepare for the weekend. 

The staff at Tiki 52 scared us a bit by suggesting that the snow-birds were beginning to return as some vehicle transports have begun arriving in the area. 

Despite the threat of the restaurants and highways being filled with northern visitors for the winter, it was a great afternoon under blue sunny skies. We had not had an afternoon so clear in a very long time. The ocean breeze kept the temperature in the middle of the comfortable range, which was nice although docking at the marina was difficult as the wind kept complicating the situation by moving the boats in undesired directions. 

We did not stay long, because we were just having happy hour and there was a band setting up to play and it always seems that the bands play their music too loudly and that stifles conversation. 

A great happy hour followed by a nice dinner at home. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Hanging Ten

Falling into the Wave
Carlin Park, Jupiter, FL
October 5, 2023

 It was back to the beach for Happy Hour yesterday. The surf was high and that meant that the surfers were out in force. At one point we noted about three dozen men, women, girls, and boys out on their boards trying not to kill each other while catching a wave. 

Riding the Wave
Carlin Park, Jupiter, FL
October 5, 2023

I love watching them. It provides some great entertainment. I am also amazed at how young some of them are. One girl, who was very good, could not have been more than 8 years old.

It was a very enjoyable evening and we stayed until just past sunset.

I am amazed at how they seem to avoid colliding with each other. 

The water was warm, but rough. I walked out about waist deep to take some images. The breeze off the water was also warm, which kept the beach at a comfortable temperature as the sun began to sink behind the dunes. 

Catching a Wave
Carlin Park, Jupiter, FL
October 5, 2023

I wish that I had learned to surf. 

But, it was a great evening to be out on the beach. This time of year is the best in South Florida. The water is still warm and the humidity is falling to a comfortable level.

Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world. (The Beach Boys)

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL 

Rainbows on the Day

Rainbow over the Marina
Tequesta, FL
October 4, 2023

 It was a boat day. 

And we took out a boat from a different marina, one that is very close to our home. It is less than a mile away and we would walk to it except that we take chairs, coolers, and other items with us on the boat. 

Rainbow and the Jupiter Lighthouse
Jupiter, FL
October 4, 2023

It turned out to be a great morning on the water. We were treated to rainbows as we motored the intracoastal waterway (ICW). The morning was bright, but by early afternoon the clouds thickened, the wind rose, the water got choppy and we made a timely decision to head back to the marina.

Setting up on the Beach
Jupiter, FL
October, 4, 2023

We spent our time on the water exploring areas that we had not yet visited due to the distance from our Port Salerno marina. We traveled south on the ICW all the way to the northern portion of Lake Worth. It was an enjoyable trip, most of which at slow speed, minimum wake meaning for my boat about 6 mph. It provides us a lot of time to sightsee. And there are a lot of sights--huge houses, some mansion size, fill the shores along the ICW.

We stopped for a bit at a beach along the ICW south of Jupiter. It is a park which appears to be accessible by only boat. I love finding these spots because I otherwise would not be able to enjoy these locations. The small beach is only on the ICW and it happens to be along an area of the ICW where the speed limit is 25 MPH during this time of year and so the waves can get a bit high. As the tide was also rising, we only spent about 45 minutes exploring the area and filing it away for another time. There is a nature area connected to the beach and so it is more than a "one-trick pony."

The closeness of the Jupiter marina means that we can shave about an hour off of our to-and-from travel time. Convenience is the key. Boating wise there is a huge sandbar just off shore that must be navigated once we get onto the water, but that is doable. 

While Tide Runner, the boat we had yesterday, is the same year and model as my favorite boat, Sea Bean, they "cheaped" out a bit on the outfitting. Tide Runner does not have trim tabs and the GPS is a very basic position only model. I was happy that I had my own chart program running on my phone because the northern end of Lake Worth is a bit confusing for someone who has not been there before. 

All-in-all, another fantastic day on the water. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Train Wreck

 The train wreck that is the Republican-controlled House of Representatives continues!

That the Speaker of the House was vacated and then a one week recess was announced just show how little the Republicans appreciate the duties they have been elected to execute. 

The country cannot stop for a week in the middle for budget battles because of in-house fighting! 

Great--the made history yesterday by being the first House in history that could not solve it problems internally and while keeping the needs of the country center stage. 

And on top of that, the sideshow continued as the new temporary speaker of the house, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, showed an incredible amount of pettiness, one of McHenry’s first official acts was to order former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to vacate her private Capitol office by tomorrow, announcing that he was having the room rekeyed. Pelosi was not even there for today’s votes; she is in California for the memorial services for the late Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). (Letters from an American)

Really? I believe there are far more important things to do than having office-envy and picking on someone who was not even at the disaster. 

And the train wreck continued.

The all need to go back to pre-school and learn how to play nicely in the sandbox.

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Checking out the new Starbuck's

Finnegan with Pup-cup
Tequesta, FL
October 2, 2023

We were supposed to be on a plane this morning headed to Baltimore. 

We're not!

It's a long story that needn't be told, except to say that complications arose at the last minute forcing me to reschedule the reason for the early October trip. We will miss seeing the family and friends with whom we had planned to visit. 

Yesterday, Chris and I enjoyed our first visit to the brand new Starbuck's Coffee, which is located all of about 500 feet from our home. 

We are not Starbuck's fans, but we needed to check the place out. Finnegan had already visited the new coffee shop while we were on our Alaskan adventure. He definitely enjoyed the pup-cup they provided for him. 

We enjoyed the visit, but it will likely not be a regular thing. 

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Monday Musings - October 2, 2023

 

1. It is the first Monday of October. There are 5 Mondays this month and there are but 12 Mondays remaining in the year. 

2. Congratulations to the Orioles for completing a magical season and having the best record in the American League (101-61). I was not too amused by the Spring Training quality of the game yesterday, but they are now off for 5 days. 

3. Retiring Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made one of the most eloquent statements ever made about the motivation and allegiance of the U.S. military when he said the following at his retirement ceremony: 

“You see, we in uniform are unique…among the world's armies. We are unique among the world’s militaries. We don’t take an oath to a country. We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual. 

“We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.… (Letters from an American)

Rain at the Market
Palm Beach Gardens, FL
October 1, 2023

4. Chris and I went to the first open air market of the season yesterday. The only problem was that the rain also accompanied us. We had only been there a short time when a driving rain began. We huddled under one of the vendors' tents for a while, hoping the rain would end, but it did not and we finally decided to call it a rainout and departed. 

5. Family NFL Football report. It was another mixed day for the family teams with two winning and two losing. The Dolphins are included since they preclude me from watching the Ravens on TV most Sundays and so I am forced to enjoy, or not, their games.  

     Ravens (3-1) smoked the Browns (2-2), 28-3

    Commanders (2-2) narrowly lost to Eagles (4-0), 31-34

    Cowboys (3-1) rode past Patriots (1-3), 38-3

    Steelers (2-2) got roped by Texans (2-2), 6-30

    Dolphins (3-1) were trampled by Bills (3-1), 20-48

6. Today in History. 

On October 2, 1985, actor Rock Hudson, 59, becomes the first major U.S. celebrity to die of complications from AIDS. Hudson’s death raised public awareness of the epidemic, which until that time had been ignored by many in the mainstream as a “gay plague.”

Hudson, born Leroy Harold Scherer Jr., on November 17, 1925, in Winnetka, Illinois, was a Hollywood heartthrob whose career in movies and TV spanned nearly three decades. With leading-man good looks, Hudson starred in numerous dramas and romantic comedies in the 1950s and 60s, including Magnificent Obsession, Giant and Pillow Talk. In the 1970s, he found success on the small screen with such series as McMillan and Wife. To protect his macho image, Hudson’s off-screen life as a gay man was kept secret from the public.

 McCarthy's plight presents Democrats with a dilemma and an opportunity - CNN

Russian forces target Kherson with heavy shelling - CNN

Japan puts the brakes on lucrative used-car trade with Russia - Reuters

Attacked by Trump, New York judge to weigh ex-president's fraud case - Reuters

Temperatures in Spain shatter records as October kicks off with heatwave - Reuters

North Korea blames US for 'grave terrorist' act against Cuban embassy - Reuters

Americans Still Spend Like There’s No Tomorrow - The Wall Street Journal

How Ukraine Tricks Russia Into Wasting Ammunition - The Wall Street Journal

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL

Happy New Fiscal Year!

For the Federal Government it is the beginning of the new fiscal year AND another government shutdown was narrowly avoided. 

So it is a Happy New Year!

Well, for at least 45 days until the continuing resolution (CR) expires. 

I remember the government shutdown and furlough planning that I was involved in while I was a government employee. I always felt that it was unnecessarily wasteful and demonstrated that the congress had failed to accomplish one of their most basic constitutional duties: to fund the government. 

I was happy to see the bipartisan support for the resolution both in the House and Senate. 

I was disturbed by the stripping out of Ukraine funding to attempt to appease the MAGA Republicans. It is clear that the Republican Party is no longer the Party of Reagan. A vote against Ukraine funding is a vote for Russian aggression and for Putin. It is that simple.

I have written my Representative, Brian Mast, who voted against the CR and does not approve Ukraine funding to express my displeasure on both issues.

The issue of funding for Ukraine is not a small one. Former Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) noted that it was on September 30, 1938, that British prime minister Neville Chamberlain announced he would not stand in the way of Adolf Hitler’s annexation of the Sudentenland, a key move in Hitler’s rise. “Members of the House and Senate who are voting to deny Ukraine assistance on the 85th anniversary of Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 “peace in our time” speech should read some history,” she wrote. “Appeasement didn’t work then. It won’t work now.” (Letters from an American)

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL