Renting sheep is nothing new.  Airports have been doing that for years in a effort to keep the grass under control.  But now, everyday people are renting sheep.  Why?  They rent them to entertain their Border Collies.

It seems that when people get a Border Collie, they forget that these dogs have a urge to herd.  So, to satisfy that need, they rent some sheep.

Of course, if you are going to rent sheep, you need some land for grazing.  And the next thing that you know, you have a sheep farm.

The things that people do for their pets.

Every now and then, the flora and fauna at the Hartford nuclear facilities comes in contact with radioactive material.  When that happens, there is a team in charge of tracking them down.

A pile of radioactive rabbit dung means that there is a radioactive rabbit in the area.  It is the teams’ job to locate and capture that bunny.

But, their work is not just limited to animals.  On occasion, even the vegetation comes in contact with the material.  The team has to make sure that no vegetation leaves the area.  After all, a radioactive tumble weed could contaminate an entire neighborhood.

The work is not without its’ challenges but it is very much needed.

I recently started receiving Harper’s Magazine.  It was a free trial so I thought that I would give it a try.

Now, I have always considered Harper’s Magazine to be a conservative upscale literary publication.  It is like Reader’s Digest but geared for more of the intellectual crowd.

And, like most upscale publications, the ads in it are few and tasteful.  But, I was surprised when I read the classifieds.

The first ad that caught my attention was from a prisoner who was looking for a pen pal.  Well, OK.  I usually don’t associate prisoners with Harper’s but I guess that it just my stereo typing.

Next was an ad for organic skin food.  I don’t know what that was all about but it did catch my attention.

Then, there was the ad for the permanent burial of ashes.  I don’t know why someone would be concerned about this but hey, it’s a free country.

But, the ad that really caught my attention was the video of spanking, both clothed and nude.

I guess that some of the people who read Harper’s Magazine have a kinky side to them.  What ever.

Kathy, my beautiful and loving wife for the past 37 years, pass away today.  I loved her so much and will miss her very very much.

Well, it is that time of the year again.  Christmas and Christmas songs.  And, every year that golden oldie, White Christmas, gets played to death.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do like the song.  But some how, I don’t think it represents everyones Christmas dream.

For some people, a white Christmas would spell disaster.  After all, snow in LA or Miami would be a nightmare.

I guess if you live in the north, snow at Christmas is a holiday tradition.  As for the folks in the south, well, they can just enjoy our tradition on the nightly news.

This may not be PC but Merry Christmas!

I guess you could say that my grandmother Swift was one of the original “re-gifters”.  Every year at Christmas, my parents and my aunts and uncles would receive gifts from my grandmother.  Unfortunately, these were not gifts that she had made or purchased, these were gifts that she had taken from our houses.

For example, she might find a pickle dish buried in that back of my mothers cupboard.  And, since it hadn’t been used in awhile, she would take it.  Then at Christmas, she would wrap up the dish and give to my aunt.

It wasn’t until we had a family gathering at my aunts that the truth would come out.  My mother would look at the pickle dish and comment that she has one just like it.  Then, everyone would get a funny look on their faces and the gift would be returned to their rightful owner.

Eventually, it became a Christmas tradition.  My parents and aunts and uncles would get together after Christmas to return the gifts that grandma had given them.

Every now and then, grandma would forget whose house she had taken the item from and would give it back to the original owner as a gift.  This, of course, was a dead give away as the owner of the gift would recognize it right away.

But, after a few years, she was giving gifts that nobody could claim.  So, we had to wonder where she was getting them from.  The neighbors perhaps?  She traveled a lot visiting distant relatives so it was hard to say.

My grandmother Swift was a very generous person.

Meijer’s (regional grocery chain) likes to hang items off of their shelves.  And, usually, these items coincide with the items on the shelves.

For example, the fruit juice sections usually has funny straws hanging off the shelves.  And the alcohol section has fancy cocktail napkins and colored tooth picks.  But, I was a bit surprised to see vegetable steamers hang in the shelves next to the adult diapers.

I am not sure about that relationship.  I could see vegetable steamers hanging in the produce section.  After all, if you are buying produce, you might want to steam it.  But the relationship between adult diapers and vegetable steamers escapes me.

Oh well, I am sure that they have marketing research to back up their location choices.

Every now and then, I get a request to be someones friend on Facebook but I don’t really want them as a friend.  While I don’t want to seem rude, I know these people by name only.  We were not friends in the past nor are we friends now.

And yes, I suppose we could end up at best friends.  But it is not very likely since they don’t even live in the area.   So, I guess that I am suspicious of their motives.

Facebook presents a whole new set of social challenges.

After you join Facebook, you get constant requests to be “friends”.

At first, I thought that every “friend” request was submitted by the “friend”.  But, then I came to realize that it was Facebook sending out the requests and not the actual person.  I guess that would explain why some people wanted to be my friend.

Now, since I didn’t want to offend anyone, I accepted every and all “friend” requests even if I didn’t know them.  Then, I accepted a request from some kid, whom I didn’t know.  All he did was write about eating feces.  And even though I thought sure he was the son of someone I knew, I deleted him.

Then, I started getting “friend” requests from women who were exposing their breasts in their profile pictures.  That is when  I decided that not everyone who wanted to be my “friend” actually knew me.