Sophie's Story

   I get comments on columns I have written and I read every one of them. I got one recently that made me think. It was a comment about the column I wrote about retail stores opening on Thanksgiving Day. The reader liked the column but called it a lost cause. Money talks.   Obviously,the reader is right. The purpose of a retail business is to sell goods at a profit. It is unreasonable to expect a retailer to pass up a chance for sales.     The question is, why am I tilting at this windmill? Why did I see fit to criticize something that is going to go on and most likely grow? Why did I spend the time thinking and writing about something over which I have no control?   Then the light bulb came on. I had stumbled upon the magic word. Control. According to the American Heritage Dictionary it means,"To exercise authority or dominating influence over;direct; regulate. 2 To hold in restraint; check."   One of the things I have tried to do thr...

     When you first join a Toastmaster's club, you get a Competent Communicator manual. It contains the first  ten speech projects. These projects all deal with parts of a speech, organization, movement, language, props and so forth. Once you have finished this manual, you are considered a "Competent Communicator".    Once you have the CC designation, you can go on to advanced manuals that deal with different types of speaking. There are technical presentations, speaking for TV or radio and many others.    Once I was awarded my CC, I picked out two manuals so I could get to the next level. One of them was about storytelling. I enjoyed it and finished all five projects in the manual. I wasn't sure what to do next. I didn't really feel like doing the entertaining speech manual. I looked at technical speeches, too much work. Nothing looked good to me.   I went back and reviewed some of the projects in the first manual. There was a long...

   Thanksgiving is coming, isn't it? I checked the calendar. Thanksgiving is still listed as a holiday in the United States. There is a sign in the pharmacy that says that the pharmacy will be closed on Thursday.   If it weren't for those things, I wouldn't know it was coming up. There is Christmas, excuse me holiday, music being advertised on cable TV and on the radio. I look in stores and I see Christmas trees and Christmas decorations. Stores are holding "Holiday Sales Events". Even the Internet is full of stories about "Black Friday."   I think Thanksgiving needs to be put on an endangered list. It used to be that people looked forward to it and celebrated it. You remember, don't you? There was turkey, stuffing (or dressing) and potatoes of some sort. There's always one dish that no one likes, but is made anyway. There is always one dish that everyone likes and is gone before the meal is over. Families would gather and spend time together...

   Hi! This is Scamp. Colby and I had a really busy week this week. Sophie, our human, took some vacation time and was home. Colby and I were expecting a week of relaxing grooming sessions, window watching and using our exercise equipment. (They are NOT toys.)    That wasn't what happened. We thought she would sleep in, but every morning at 5:30 she would get up, put on her exercise clothes and go downstairs to that odd contraption that she calls an elliptical. That means,of course, that we also have to go downstairs to supervise. We always supervise all of her exercise sessions.   Monday,she took all her clothes off the shelves and put them in boxes. Then she went downstairs and got different clothes and put them on the shelves. Humans do really strange things sometimes. I checked out the new clothes before she put them on the shelves. Colby and I had to make sure that there was nothing hiding in them. Some of them were very soft. I hope she takes them...

   I got some unexpected time off and am using it to take care of a few things. One of those things is my yearly eye exam. I hate going to the eye doctor. My biggest fear is going completely blind and it seems that every year I get closer and closer to that happening.   I've had some bad experiences with some of the tests that they have to do, especially to me because I'm so near sighted. Every year I'm supposed to have my eyes dilated. I really really dislike that. I have to find someone to drive me to and from. I also have to take an entire day off work as it takes eight hours or more before I can see again. (Even when they put those drops in to make it better.) I also don't like the nasty puff of air test for glaucoma.   Fortunately I found an eye doctor that takes a picture of my eye so I don't have to dilate and uses a much better way to measure eye pressure. I tell all health care professionals that I deal with that I am a pharmacist. I prefer that the...

   As I expected,no one is happy about the outcome of the recent election. I can't remember when I've seen more rage, anger and malice over the reelection of a President.    To those of you who have been posting pictures of tombstones announcing the death of the United States, crying uncontrollably because your candidate did not win and telling everyone that that the United States is fallen and will never rise again I have one word for you.   Leave.      That's right. You heard me. Leave. Pack up your things and go. Go to Canada, go to Mexico. Go to South America, Asia, Australia, I don't care, just leave.    If things are that bad here, if you are so convinced that all hope is gone and that all opportunity is forfeited because Barack Obama got a second term, you should go someplace else.   Unless I missed something the election was conducted in a legal fashion. The President was re-elected by a majority of th...

   At 7 am, C and I drove to our polling place. I sighed in relief as I watched my ballot get sucked into the machine. I was grateful that campaign season is over.   I am tired of the attack ads. There are no other kind of political ads anymore. For the last two weeks, I've been listening to an automated radio station to try and avoid all the ads.   It bothers me that this is what we do these days. I'm embarrassed and ashamed. I think of all the children that look at this and wonder why adults tell them it's not OK to say bad things about other people when adults do it all the time.   I read in the online news the the two major campaigns have retained lawyers in the event that there will be recounts. Instead of having to go through the same mess that we went through a few years ago I have another solution.  I think that the person who got the most votes before any recounts are instituted should be the President. The person with the second most vo...