The Berlin Wall Fell

The Berlin Wall fell, and the Patriot Act arose.

I had thought this a profound phrase, but it disappears as the Middle East goes up in flames. The world is changing quickly. Google the news and watch Venezuela make arms deals with Russia, the World Trade processes falling apart, typhoons in China, and, well, you've heard the war news.

I am making progress at work, and the world is falling apart. I may be able to retire in 15 years and three-storey buildings are reduced to rubble.

The donkeys are very sweet even though the bridles don't quite fit right and I don't know how to cinch up the saddle. Maybe a friend will help me get the cinch on right! I just need to keep trying! We will be looking for a teacher to show us how to "ground drive." This is what you do before you get a cart!

The Journal of Wishful Thinking

I am collecting wishful thinking, since that is what I seem to do almost all day, every day. I wish I had more energy. I wish I could sleep for two weeks straight. I wish I felt like riding my bike more. I wish I had sooooo much money, I could quit my job and think great thoughts and go hiking and riding.

Aren't self-absorbed people boring?

Then I got to thinking about what other people would wish for. Maybe the impoverished mother would wish for a stable middle-class home life with time and resources for her children. Maybe a prisoner would wish for kind treatment. Maybe the tortured would wish that it would all stop and the nightmare would go away. Maybe the soldier would wish the war would end. Maybe a father of a missing child would wish his child home safe and sound.

I cannot bear the knowledge of so much suffering, so I stuff it into the recesses of my mind and go back to thinking about global warming ... and Sudoku.

Maybe the politician would wish for more votes and more campaign funds. Maybe the shareholder would wish for greater profits. Maybe companies like Enron would wish for more deregulation and companies like Nike would wish for greater freedom to exploit workers to make shoes cheaply overseas so that Americans can buy really expensive tennies.

Maybe church people would wish other people would straighten up and fly right and that their guy got elected so all those immoral people out there somewhere could be prosecuted. There oughtta be a law!

Maybe the readers of this blog would wish I would just shut up and be quiet and be grateful I am not in Lebanon or Gaza right now. I wish I could stop the war.

I am sorry I am not so interesting tonight.

- Auriel Ragmon

Zoo Two!

More from the Woodland Park Zoo. If one picture = 1,000 words, I ought to have the blog covered for a day or two!

Woodland Park Zoo!

I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for 15 years and had never gone to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Your resident unfamous author has been on vacation from the day job and so went to the zoo. We also went to the Bridle Trails State Park, at the corner of Kirkland and Bellevue.

- Auriel Ragmon