Oh High Oh

My cousin forwarded this me this and I thought I'd share:

A guy from Ohio dies and goes to Hell. He had been a horrible man all his life. The devil puts him to work breaking up rocks with a sledgehammer. To make it even worse, he cranks up the temperature and humidity.

After a couple of days, the devil checks in on his victim to see if he is suffering adequately. The devil is aghast as the Ohioan is happily swinging his hammer and whistling a happy tune. The devil walks up to him and says "I don't understand this! I've turned the heat way up, it's
humid and you're crushing rocks. Why are you so happy?" The Ohioan, with a big smile, looks at the devil and replies, "This is great! It reminds me of August in Cleveland . Hot, humid and a good place to work. It reminds me of home. This is fantastic!"

The devil, extremely perplexed, walks away to ponder the Ohioan's remarks. He then decides to drop the temperature, send down a driving rain and torrential winds. Soon, Hell is a wet, muddy mess. Walking in mud up to his knees with dust blowing in his eyes, the Ohioan is happily slogging through the mud pushing a wheelbarrow full of crushed rocks.

Again, the devil asks how he can be so happy in such awful conditions. The Ohioan, with a big smile, looks at the devil and replies, "This is great! It's just like April in Cleveland. It reminds me of working out in the yard with spring planting. It reminds me of home. This is fantastic!"

Now the devil is completely baffled. He is more determined than ever to make the Ohioan suffer. He then makes the temperature plummet. Suddenly, Hell is blanketed in ten feet of snow and ice.

Confident that this will finally make the Ohioan unhappy, he checks in on him again. He is again aghast at what he sees! The Ohioan is dancing, singing, and twirling his sledgehammer as he cavorts in utter glee. "How can you be so happy? Don't you know it's 40 below zero?" screams the devil. Jumping up and down the Ohioan throws a snowball at the devil and yells "Hell is frozen over!! This means the Browns won the Super Bowl!! The Browns won the Super Bowl!!"

Missing Sonny

It's going on 5 a.m. and I have been up with my girl, Kelsey for about a half an hour. Her timing sucks considering I woke up at 2:30 and only began to fall asleep when she decided to start whimpering to go outside. But I smiled at her as she barked by her food dish in anticipation for her midnight (Or in this case, early morning) snack. She's officially old and her clock is off. She has to go out more than usual and that means some inconveniences for me, but I can't get upset with her. I'm cherishing every moment I have with her. So, my MO -- While Kelsey wanders around with a full belly making herself tired again, I sit at my computer and catch up on work or whatever outstanding email I have in my inbox.

Tonight (or now this morning) I was looking for a particular piece of clip art for our monthly newsletter (Due pretty much now.) when I came across a photo of Sonny. Sonny is our family dog, adopted by my mom not long after Kelsey came into my life (Which was 14 years ago). Sadly, we lost Sonny (aka Frupe-a-roon, Froopdy, and Sun-Bun) about two weeks ago. He was as much a part of the family as any of my siblings. Loved and pampered to the point of being spoiled, but still very much adored and obviously very missed. It's hard not to get choked up when looking at this face and remembering how he'd paw at you while making this funny little cuh-cuh-cuh noise when he wanted to play.



It's amazing how these little buggers worm their way into your heart and how hard it is to let them go or even imagine life without them. Mom swears she'll never adopt another - that she can't go through the loss. I tend to think differently. Faced with Kelsey's old age I know that I could never replace her anymore than we could replace Sonny. But it's not about replacement is it. It's about opening your heart to the unconditional love of an animal and giving as much to them as they give to you in return. For me, life without an animal would be incomplete, much like making a decision not to have a permanent human mate. For some that's a fitting choice. For me it's a lonely existence. I realize it's hard to get passed the pain, and believe me I'm still dealing with the loss of Sonny in my own way. Tears still fall frequently and probably always will when I think about him. But none of that overpowers the cherished memories and the experience of that reciprocal love.

Sirius-ly Not

After long contemplation, I've decided to nix Sirus radio. Much of the content I've found while at first blush was "different", the repetitive nature left the same-old-radio-format feeling in my mouth. I want variety! There are enough artists out there, with enough different songs that you don't have to play the same artists and the same songs over and over again. Further, the fact that you want to charge me 13.00 (or more) a month when you're giving large bonuses to morons like Howard Stern tells me that you really don't need my business. I may consider trying XM in the future, but honestly, based on what I see on my DirecTV, it has the same repetitive, pick the hits from whatever artist nature and I just don't think it's worth the money. So goodbye Sirus. Maybe if you're lucky I'll renew for a month here and there if I'm going to take a long trip and wish to have more channels to flip through than standard radio (Flipping and not finding anything substantial to listen to is the problem however).

Few Days in Review

Got a flat tire, shelled out close to $400.00 for new tires. Found out my co-pay on my medication is now $22.00 and I’ll be paying $22 per month. I realized I'm late at getting cards out to my Grandfather and Niece for their birthdays. The dog peed her bed last night and woke me up at 5:30 a.m. And now I have a sore throat and stuffy nose. And it’s only Tuesday!!!