Browsing: Commentary

Spring has finally arrived, and while my soul rejoices, allergies are wreaking havoc on the Lashley household. My sweet flower has it the worst. Her skin literally reacts to pollen, and she is covered in eczema from head to toe. Her poor eyes have a raccoon mask of dry, flaky skin around them, and she is on a very strict regimen of antihistamines, creams, oils, bath concoctions, and eye drops. Thankfully, the rainy, cold weather we are having this week is improving her condition. I began noticing little red bumps appearing in the crooks of her elbows and knees. They…

Spring has sprung. With temperatures on the rise, plants are blooming and leaves are coming out. Another thing that comes out are the fertilizers, lime, insecticides, and pesticides. To control weeds, grow greener and thicker lawns and control things like ants, we resort to chemical agents. The problem is that most of us are not chemists. It is important that we read the labels on the stuff that we are using. We want to ensure that we are applying whatever we are using, properly. One piece of that might mean that we need to wear some type of protective clothing.…

Hello and welcome back to the healthy world of the Dogpound. I hope you are all in good health…I think I am as well since I just came back from my annual “poke and prod” session with my doctor. That is what I call our annual “wellness” check provided free by my insurance company. Not sure how “well” this visit is since I spent more time in the reception room than I did in the doctor’s office. I like my doctor but he was like…you have five minutes…start the clock “Now!” The nurse took my blood pressure and updated all…

Traveling around central VA the last two weeks has reminded me just how beautiful spring is. Trees and shrubs are bursting with color, lawns are greening up, and birds serenade us at sunrise. One tree in particular has been especially brilliant this year. The flowering dogwood, or Cornus florida for those who prefer the scientific name, is the state tree and the state flower of Virginia. The four white “flowers” of the flowering dogwood are actually bracts that surround the true yellow flowers in the center of the cluster. The flowering dogwood is known as an understory tree, meaning it…

I read in the Village News, March 22, 2017 XIX No.32 issue, the front page editorial titled “Cat lovers concerned over new ordinance amendment” by Mark Fausz, Managing Editor. Cat lovers concern was not on the Board meeting agenda. A better title for a front-page news article would have been “the Board passes ordinance amendment limiting feral cat ownership.” In the first paragraph, Mr. Fausz sourced Psychology Today as to the percentage of pet owners who like dogs and those who like cats. I do not think that came up in the hearing on the ordinance amendment. Later in the…

Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I hope you had a nice Easter…as usual I am writing this ahead of schedule [to keep the Master semi-happy], so my Easter is yet to come. We do not get Good Friday off at work, so I took a vacation day…it was going to be a slow day anyway and I have things to get done. First thing on today’s agenda…sleep in. Now, when I was younger, way younger, I did not sleep in on a vacation day…why you ask???…. because there were a ton of things that…

After three years, a prayer has been answered for Ray Spivey. She wanted to use her basement for a Christian ministry, and it has grown in her words “like wildfire.” Four volunteers came together in 2014 to fulfill a request from a local church that wanted 300 dolls for a mission trip to Nicaragua. These dolls were just not any dolls; they were hand-made salvation dolls. After the 300 were made, they were told they did not need them anymore for the mission trip. Not letting the news disappoint them, they found an alternate. “The Lord had a different plan…

For years, the fire service, the medical community, and insurance companies have stressed the importance of having carbon monoxide detectors in homes and businesses. A fact about carbon monoxide is that our bodies have a 200 times greater affinity for CO than it does for oxygen. In other words, our bodies desire carbon monoxide (not to be confused with carbon dioxide) over oxygen, but carbon monoxide can kill us. There are two lethal situations with carbon monoxide, the acute and the cumulative exposures. An acute exposure is an immediate high dose, and the cumulative effect occurs at a lower dose…

Walter Wilson Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. This is going to be a very busy time of the year…with Easter and Tax Day all so close together. This is where one event gives life and the other event takes it away. Anyway, I have been noticing a lot of advertising of late, prompting the new female plus size. You know, where they are showing more women that are less than Victoria model types. More power to them, as long as they make sure they focus on being healthy and not just push accepting yourself no…

COMMENTARY By Rick Gray I couldn’t possibly catch my old readers up on over a year of my life, so if you’ll permit me, I’ll narrow it down to the first nine days of March, which I might call “Training Days.” On March 1, I flew to Denver, where I joined a thousand other volunteers from 32 countries for three days of training by Al Gore and his Climate Reality team. As soon as we “graduated,” I caught a red-eye to West Palm Beach to see my St. Louis Cardinals play three spring training games. A bucket list thing. Then,…

1 44 45 46 47 48 85