I recieved a link to this video in my email today along with the following explaination:

"This is an amazing video of one of the homeless in Santa Barbara and his pets. They work State Street every week for donations. The animals are pretty well fed and are mellow. They are a family. The man who owns them rigged a harness up for his cat so she wouldn't have to walk so much (like the dog and himself). At some juncture the rat came along, and so no one wanted to eat anyone else, the rat started riding with the cat and often, on the cat. The dog will stand all day and let you talk to him and admire him for a few chin scratches. The mayor of Santa Barbara filmed this clip and sent it out as a Christmas card."

I think it's wonderful.

If any of you have seen me walking around dressed totally in black, I'm not trying to impersonate Johnny Cash. Nor am I trying to look like Elvira (As If ). The truth is, I am in mourning. Yes, this is my widow's garb.

I usually wear it about four months out of the year. From September to January. You see, I'm a "Deer Hunter's Widow".

Now, if any of you wives out there have deer hunting husbands, you know what I'm talking about. They start fading away toward the end of August, spending all their time either out looking for deer signs, browsing the outdoor clothing stores or looking at guns and cross bows. Either that or they're on the phone with their buddies talking about deer signs, outdoor clothing and guns and cross bows.

Something strange happens to these normally sane men whenever the deer go into rut. They turn into maniacs with guns. And neither rain nor snow nor dark of night, nor tears, nor threats, nor quadruple bypass surgery can keep them from their appointed tree stands. It's like they go all postal on us. They leave the house before daylight, come home at dark, fall asleep, sometimes with their face in the mashed potatoes, then around four o'clock in the morning we hear the pitter-patter of little hunting boots going out the door. I've heard tell that a couple of these men have  even brought a deer home with them on occasion.

And don't you just hate to think about these animals being killed. I feel sad about them shooting the deer. A deer is such a beautiful animal, with those big soft brown eyes and all. Of course they're equally beautiful when they're sizzling on the grill, or when  they're on a plate with a side of potatoes and carrots...

I talked Hubby into taking me deer hunting with him once. I'm not a pampered house wife. I know how to handle a gun, (which is very, very carefully) and I also know how to dress for the cold which involves four pairs of socks, fifty pounds of goose down and a pair of insulated unmentionables. I just don't know a whole lot about hunting big game or being a crazed maniac.

On the morning of the hunt, we got out of bed about five minutes after I closed my eyes. We got dressed and headed off to the mountains.  After much walking and severe frostbite Hubby stopped and began climbing the tree where his tree stand awaited.

"I think I'll go hunt on the other side of the ridge," I told him.

"Are you sure you'll be okay," he asked, "There are bears and mountain lions out there and it's still dark."

I gave him a withering look which of course he couldn't see. "Honey, you forget that I go shopping at the mall during a shoe sale. I'm certainly not worried about a few wild animals."

He didn't answer and I wasn't sure if he even heard me. I turned and waddled off toward the other side of the ridge, then I remembered. "Honey," I yelled.

"What now," he hissed, reminding me of a cat that had encountered a strange dog. If I didn't know better I would think he was trying to get rid of me.

"How do you hunt deer?"

By now it was beginning to get daylight and I thought I saw the whites of his eyes glaring at me from the top of the tree.

"Honey," he said in the same tone of voice he uses to talk to our little grandson, "Just look around on the ground as you walk. Be real quiet and see if you can spot some tracks. If you find some keep following them and you're bound to run upon a deer. Then when you do, just shoot it." He snuggled back into his tree stand and I kind of got the impression that he wanted me to stop talking to him so I waddled on, searching for a sign of tracks in the frozen ground.

I had walked about half a mile when I spotted them. Big tracks! I smiled to myself imagining how I was going to rub it in when I killed me a big twelve point. So I followed the tracks up to the top of a hill and that's when I almost got hit by the train. That's the last time he let me go with him.

Now I stay home and wait until it's over, wearing my black widow's garb and counting the days until I have a husband again. I guess in one way I'm kind of lucky though.

He could be one of those men who loves football.

Childhood can get so confusing sometimes. Especially when the adults keep changing the rules in mid-stream. Often our demands can be contradictory to a child. For instance:

PARENT: “Look at me when I talk to you…don’t give me that look…answer me when I  speak to you…don’t you talk back to me, Young Man…go to your room this instant…don’t you dare walk away when I am talking to you…speak up, I can’t hear you…don’t you raise your voice to me, Young Lady…”

Is it any wonder that our youth of today walk around with that blank look on their faces, holes in their jeans and safety pins in their noses, (although to be quite frank, I’ve never seen a kid’s nose with a split seam or a torn place in it, so I don’t really see the need there.) But that’s not the point. The point here is that we need to find a better way of disciplining our kids.
 
It is a scientifically proven fact that a child will do the exact opposite of whatever he is told to do. Perhaps it’s time to employ the old reverse psycology technique.

PARENT: “If you’re going to play outside take off that coat and cap. It’s cold out there.”
The kid will answer, “Okay,” while continuing to button the coat around his neck and will probably add a pair of warm gloves along with the cap and a scarf.

PARENT: “Get in the house and stop wiping your feet on the door mat, you’re going to clean every bit of the mud off your shoes.”
The kid will stand there wiping his feet for at least the next five minutes until the soles of his shoes are cleaner than the bottoms of your own bare feet.

PARENT:”Will you do me a favor, please? Will you break this lamp? It’s a priceless family   hierloom, and it needs to be knocked onto the floor and totally destroyed.”
The kid will ignore lamp and probably go outside to play ball.

PARENT: “If you’re going to throw that ball around then go into the living room where you can break something. You know better than to throw a ball outside.”

PARENT: “Here -  eat these cookies, I almost have supper ready and you need to spoil your appetite, and if you’re going to jump on the couch, at least put your shoes on. Stop brushing your teeth. Where are you going with that food? You know you aren’t supposed to eat in the kitchen. Take it to the living room where it belongs and don’t let me see you carry another dirty dish to the sink. And don’t put your clothes in the hamper. They belong on the floor in your room. When are you going to learn that we live in a barn?”

Once all of these demands from you - the parents - have been totally ignored by the kids, your life can return to a more normal state. And even if things don’t improve, you can at least say that your kids do exactly what you tell them to do.

However, while this method of child rearing may work well for some parents it might not be good for others. Especially if your child is one of the rare ones who actually listens and does what they are told to do. Perhaps you could start with something small like threatening to call their teacher and have their homework privilege’s taken away. Say, for each time the child disobeys, he or she will not be allowed to do homework for at least one day.

If that doesn’t work try grounding them. Tell them they are not allowed to go to their room for a whole week and that they must sit in front of the TV and play video games, or go next door to their friend’s house.

If that fails, the only thing left to do is to take them, along with twenty of their friends, out for pizza and a skating party. That ought to get their attention…show them who’s boss. You can’t be too lenient with kids. They need strict discipline. They need to know who is in charge of this run-away train called “growing up”.