I Paint What I See

OK here are a few more Owen stories, those these aren’t as humorous as the last batch but they are good glimpse into the Owen of September 2004. (16 months)

Hitting – Much to our chagrin, Owen has recently started hitting things with his hands including us, the dogs, the cats, his toys.. just about everything at times. He’s pretty strong and should he get you at the right angle it can hurt, though most of the time it’s just surprising and mildly annoying. We’re doing our best to try to stop him from doing this without getting angry, or worse laughing, but seeing as we cant really communicate with him much yet, it’s difficult to get the point across that this isn’t something we appreciate. Yesterday when he was hitting Emily she tried telling him exactly what we tell him when he starts hitting our cat Goblin; ‘Gentle’. He immediately stopped hitting her and started petting her arm lightly (just like we’ve shown him you’re supposed to do with the cat). Of course 5 seconds later he started trying to hit Emily again, but it’s progress.

Trash Can – Right now our kitchen trash can is just a tall plastic one. We’re realizing the benefits of the type of can that has a more complex release to open it as Owen has taken to throwing lots of objects from around the house into it. This morning I had just changed the garbage bag (luckily) when Owen took several of the pots, pans and lids he had so helpfully emptied from the kitchen cabinets and tossed them in there. Who knows what other items he’s put in recently that we didn’t know about. I know on several occasions we’ve found cables to my computer, books, magazines, his toys etc. in various cans around the house. Of course, he is also very good at removing things from the trash that should be in there, like dog hair, wrappers. Oh and our recycling bins have to be kept glass free, since they are emptied often. Large 1 liter soda bottles are particularly fun to take out, hit things with and then stuff into the garbage. I guess Owen doesn’t believe in recycling, just reduce and reuse.. then toss.

Graham Crackers – Owen LOVES graham crackers. He regularly goes over to the cabinet we keep them in and points at it and grunts, jumps up and down, flails in the direction of the cabinet and does anything else he can think of to get our attention pointed in that direction. He jumps up and down and giggles when we give him one. However, once he gets them he doesn’t eat them right away, he’ll carry it around with him for a while, eating it slowly… savoring the moment I guess. This works fine except when he passes within range of a dog (often one that for all intents and purposes appears fast asleep), at which point he is prompty disarmed by a fast snout and greedy tongue. This of course infuriates him but makes the dogs very happy. Thus we give him another graham cracker, now with the dogs actively sniffing him and do our best to defend him and escort him into his fenced off dog-free play area, affectionately referred to as the ‘O Zone’. I think he’s getting better at keeping the crackers off the dogs radar but still occasionally forgets.

That’s all for now.

-Matt

I just received the following in an e-mail collection of ‘jokes’ I subscribed to years ago. This isn’t so much a joke more than a mildy humorous history lesson / story to make a political point. It’s a bit hamfisted and it goes a bit overboard, but I like the general feel of it and wanted to save it/share it. I think perhaps with a little polishing it could make for a good song some day.

No idea who the original author is though in googling this I found one source that attributed it to John Gray of Cincinnati, Ohio (jgray7@cinci.rr.com…). I e-mailed that address to verify but not sure if it’s correct. [Update - He confirmed he is the author]

Anyways.. without further ado..
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Letter I sent at : http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml

Dear CBS News;

I’ve heard from multiple sources in the past few days that CBS has decided to delay the broadcast of a piece on the president’s reliance on bad information that led to the war in Iraq. What’s worse, I’ve heard you’ve delayed this broadcast because it might be “political”. HEAVEN FORBID our NEWS might actually be topical and help us make a decision about the election of our president.

Yes you screwed up with the forged documents thing in the past few weeks, and no doubt you got lots of nasty press and phone calls, e-mails over that. But does that mean you have to self-censor yourself and cow-tow to the folks who were upset about that broadcast?

Catch your breath, brush the tears out of your eyes, stand tall, triple your check your facts… and air the piece on the Iraq war. What better way can you rebuild your credibility than ’speaking truth to power’ at a time where it can make a difference. Delaying this broadcast until after the election is just ridiculous, since after the election it will either result in feelings of regret (“Oh god.. and I voted for him, if I had only known the truth.”) or relief (“Phew, good thing we got him out of there”). Either way, while it’s still news, it’s ‘after the fact’ and thus only a fraction as relevant as it could have been.

Take a chance, dare to be relevant.

-Matthew Baya
Ellsworth, ME