West of the Mind

In 1992, as my family was preparing for our Air Force directed move from Arkansas to Colorado Springs, my two sons decided that it was a perfect time for us to adopt a dog. It had been several years since we had owned one, and they thought that nothing would be better than to add to the family just before driving across the country. “He can keep us safe on the trip!” was one of their favorite attempts at a justification. Since I really didn’t want to deal with a new dog on the trip, I promised the boys that as soon as we were settled in Colorado we could go to the local shelter and see what they had. This seemed to satisfy them, since they then spent the entire 3-day trip talking about what kind of dog they wanted,and what they wanted to name it. It worked so well that there was no complaining or whining “Are we there yet?” the whole trip. Once we arrived, we quickly purchased a house and got settled in to our new life in the mountains. Life was so interesting at that point that I

On a recent Facebook post, my son said "Just took a nap with a pug. Name something better". I laughed when I first read it, but then got to thinking about the reason he said it. You see, a few years ago our older son came home one day with a little surprise. He had gone to the pet store and bought what I considered then to be the ugliest dog I had ever seen. If you've never seen a pug puppy, then you have no idea what I'm talking about. There is simply nothing about them that you would find even remotely attractive. Bulging eyes, no neck, squatty body, and a smashed in face. I certainly wasn't in any mood to welcome another dog into the house either. We already had Bo, who was well over 10 years old at the time. Why in the world would we want another poop machine in the house. Well, it seems that my vote wasn't counted in this election. Valerie took one look at the rat and proclaimed it to be the cutiest thing she had ever seen. (Yeah, it made me

If I was perfectly honest, I'd tell you I hate my job. Not because it is difficult (it isn't), but more because it is boring. I fell into this line of work a long time ago, and I simply can't escape it. I tried when I retired from the Air Force, but a simple call saying "Hey Jim, want to travel the world for way too much money?" couldn't be ignored. I did that for five years, but after two I was ready to quit. You can only see so much of the world, one week at a time, before you realize that a Sheraton is a Sheraton, regardless of the face on the bill you used to pay for it. My oldest son is in the Navy, and is doing amazing well at it....but I can't help thinking he'd still rather be playing bass in a band. My wife is about to retire from the Air Force, and will probably accept the best playing job offer rather than the one that she would truly love. Then again, there aren't too many high paying "rock my baby all day" jobs out ther