i saw an interview on cnn-- i forget the author... but i immediately went and bought his book "tribe" -- i think his assumption is absolutely correct.. i copied the blurb from the book flap here..... he is intent on explaining ptsd... but i think it goes way beyond war situations.
Tribe---We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding - "tribes". This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival.
Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians - but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today.
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that is my profound thought for the day...
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now----- about setting our SDP army to work.......since i mentioned the 100k cummings grant, 2 people have started reading grant proposals and sending me possibilities of grants for which we might apply... this is a marvelous concept-- and anne is due back from ?spain?..anne writes in perfect english-- why shouldn't she-- she learned it in denmark. there are soooo many possibilities- and sooo much reading...
it is "free money" but alot of suffering over split infinitives goes into it. anne and i are a great pair... she undangles the participles i dangle.
with great enthusiasm i clicked to the costco foundation grant proposal.. many $100,000 grants.. and a list of what they do NOT give money to/for. having read that, it is a challange to figure out exactly what they do donate to. i am sure ... with work we can figure out something... we do have a heck of a story, we are doing great things for people, and the "we" is nearly world wide. part of any grant is always "who else is supporting you" - and explore.org is right up there looking good....... but do i dare then say we are totally dependent on a bunch of people world wide for $10 donations for chicken bricks -to become a shatupon member???? i am afraid they would toss us in the looney bin...
so that leaves anne and i trying to describe the support of crazy acres in more business like terms.. it ain't easy. we have to eat alot of lunches in the process.
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things for noticing
noel's ultrasound showed 2 heartbeats in one frame-- so we know she has -- at the moment --- 2 live pups in her. he thought he saw a third-- but an ultrasound is not all that easy to read.. there could be 13 more or the 3rd was one of the first 2 at a different angle.
i believe george told me that at 25 days the fetus is about the size of a walnut-- and that is a big dog- so they can hide.
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katherine goforth--- i washed that wonderful bedspread you made---- it survived beautifully--
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now about dryer sheets and mosquitos. that may work i have not experimented with it yet-- i have heard bad things about dryer sheets that i can't remember... and then i got this email...
i send this unfortune results in the hopes that other dog parents don't make the same mistake that we did. We had heard the same thing, "use a dryer sheet tucked in your pocket to repel mosquitoes", from several people. While sitting outisde one summer evening several years ago, we slipped a dryer sheet under the collar of our Golden Retriever, Abby, as the mosquitoes seemed to "like" her. After about 15 minutes she began panting more than normal so we removed the dryer sheet & took her into the house. Then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed. We made an emergency trip to the vet and he determined that she was in anaphylactic shock. He was able to treat her and together we determined that the dryer sheet was the cause. We had used the dryer sheets ourselves with mediocre success as a bug repellant. We naively thought that the dryer sheet would work for Abby. Needless to say, fabric softener dryer sheets are no longer allowed in our home.
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i did google it an d there is some discussion about dogs alergic reaction- we do use dryer sheets... and don't seem to have a major problem... but we do have unexplained minor events around here-- so with that in mind.. i went out to amaozon wish list and put the unscented non alergic dryer sheets out there. course they are talking abou human alergies..could be a different story about dogs alergies.-- i am sorry to doo that... because the dryer venting into the arena is like a giant air freshner as it is under the deck of the house.. ---- both places are in dire need of freshening.....we can try for a while and see what happens. or just add some fabreese to the dryer.
when the internet was new....... there was a rumor tossed around that fabreeze killed dogs- and that friend in new york was always convinced that EARL was killed by fabreeze ---( EARL is related to nearly all SDP....back 8 generations siring my second ltter of dane pups)
SO... if you watch the ads for fabreeze today, they always have a dog in them.
THAT STORY WAS KIND OF MY INTRODUCTION TO The capabilities of the internet/facebook.
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the 25th of the month-- 30 days hath september so may has 31.. luckily so.. i always begin to panic about selling out the chicken bricks- but so far you all seem to do that !!! thank you.
