“The amen of nature is always a flower.” O. W. Holmes When I first arrived in Virginia, I had the chance to meet a lady who is an avid gardener. She proudly showed me her garden and handed me a remarkable beauty called the passiflora, more commonly known as the passion flower. While admiring it I meditated upon the lessons flowers can teach us about focusing on the self and living each day mindfully. You might think focusing on yourself is selfish. After all, narcissism has become so prevalent nowadays. Yet what I’m referring to is different from self-absorption or…
Browsing: Commentary
More and more of you are decorating your homes for Christmas earlier and earlier. A big part of those decorations is your Christmas tree, whether live or artificial. Now, do not get me wrong, I am no Scrooge, but I am rather passionate about preventing your house from catching on fire. Although the artificial tree can cause a fire due to an electrical fault, I am going to spend most of my time talking about the live/dead tree that you choose to bring into your home. I called it a live/dead tree because the moment that it was cut, the…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I hope you had a wonderful, blessed, and socially distanced Thanksgiving. Well, actually, forget the last thing. We need some normalcy these days, and wearing masks while carving the turkey just doesn’t seem to be something Norman Rockwell would have painted. So, anyway, my Dogpound world has been a bit crazy, as I have reiterated over the past few months. I have mice that are trying to turn my house into an Airbub project, but I think I have that now under control. One, I finally sent mommy to…
A couple of days ago, I met with a good friend and we chatted on about life, love and family. We talked about the joys and difficulties of relationships, and about how difficult it can be when those dreaded moments arrive, moments that take you out of your comfort zone. The upcoming holidays this year will certainly take the majority of people out of their comfort zone. One may even feel one’s loyalty towards family is tested. Questions such as … ”Is it safe to gather as we do every year? “ “Will Grandma feel offended if we don’t invite…
My wife had noticed that the kitchen light seemed a little dimmer than normal. I will cut to the chase and tell you that yesterday, in the torrential rains, the lights, from the kitchen to the back bathroom, were not working well. One example was when you turned the switch on in the front bathroom, one bulb came on very dimly, while the other two bulbs did not come on at all. I called an electrician and he believed that the problem was on the outside of our house. I contacted Dominion, and they sent a technician to check the…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Is it Thanksgiving yet? Is 2020 over yet? To the first, almost, and to the second, not yet! Bummer! Anyway, the day is almost here that we stop for a whole day – at least most of the day – and give thanks for all the blessings we have received, and will receive. I know we focus on the big blessings, but we need to be mindful of all of the blessings we receive every day. We get up and flip the switch, there is electricity. We turn the…
Fall has always been my favorite time of year, a season with unparalleled beauty. Ironically, the splendor I see, the variety of shapes and textures combined with a spectrum of warm colors, leads unforgivingly to death. Yes, as my husband bluntly says “the leaves are dying.” But what causes the leaves to change color and form, or as my husband says, to die? During this process, chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down, which causes the green colors to disappear, and yellow and red to become visible. Chlorophyll is an important molecule in plants. In fact, natural medicine enthusiasts tout the…
As much as I do not like this time change, our clocks were turned back one hour Sunday morning. The cliche is, Change your clocks, Change your batteries. In other words, for those of you who have battery-operated or battery-backup smoke alarms, it is important to ensure that you have working batteries. The bottom line is that you need to at least check your smoke alarms by pushing the test button. Smoke alarms should be tested monthly. If your smoke alarms have yellowed or are more than 10 years old, then you need to replace them. The ultimate goal is…
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. As I mentioned in my last article, I was in a battle of wits with a wily mouse that had escaped several traps. I nicknamed him the “fox.” Like all good stories, this must come to an end. I put peanut butter on the trap – figured that would be a lot harder to get it off – and I set up a tunnel-like entrance to give him less room maneuver to get at the bait. So short story to a longer story, I came home the other day…
To the Editor: In our Chester neighborhood, there were three Trump signs and three Biden signs. Within two days the Trump signs were destroyed, yet the Biden signs remain. What type of followers would destroy anyone or anything that didn’t agree with their philosophy? Are these the same people who have burned our cities while the politicians kept quiet? Chester, we may have a problem. Rick Court Chester