Z - ZOO

Today is the final blog post for the 2014 A to Z Blog Challenge. My “Z” word is ZOO.

I am a big fan of Zoo’s. My absolute favorite Zoo has got to be the San Diego Zoo. My beloved wife and I have travelled to the city of San Diego, CA, a few times over the years. Our son and his family, especially our grandsons, live in San Diego. We cannot take a trip out there without including a visit to the zoo in our itinerary.

There is so much to see at the San Diego Zoo. One of the things I love to visit is their amazing collection of snakes and reptiles from around the globe. They have many specimens ranging from the largest snakes to the tiniest frogs. They also have many poisonous snakes which do not look lethal but according to the information posted by their habitat, many are deadly.

    Another favorite exhibit is the Polar Bear Habitat. They have a habitat that is viewable both on land and below the water. Sometimes the polar bears become very animated and put on quite a show.

There is an aerial tramway that gives a spectacular view of the entire park from the air as you glide overhead. 

  There are elephants, giraffes, many kinds of deer, big cats and many other animals that make a trip to the zoo a memorable, if not life changing, event.

Should you have occasion to visit the city of San Diego, do yourself a favor and make a visit to the San Diego Zoo a part of your trip. You will not be sorry that you did. Enjoy your day!  

POST A TO Z BLOG CHALLENGE HODGEPODGE!

1. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes. Are you blooming where you're planted as we begin the month of May?
     There are flowers blooming in our yard thanks to my beloved SWMBO. Flowers, blooming or otherwise, don't take up too much of my conscious thinking time though.

2. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being no big deal, and 10 being full scale panic, rank your fear of spiders.
     Normal household spiders do not bother me, so I'd have to say I'm a 1. They do scare the bejesus out of SWMBO and many a spider has died for frightening her so. Now if the spider is one of those humongus gargantuan sized spider then I'm a 6 and I break out the shotgun and go tactical on the intruding arachnid.

3. May is National Salad Month (who knew???)...besides lettuce, what are two must-have ingredients in your favorite salad?
     I live a good garden salad. There absolutely must be onions and tomatoes in any salad I consume.

4. I mentioned on my blog last week that my Daughter1 will be moving to Washington State after she is married. Of the following sites in the Northwest, which would you most like to see in person-Crater Lake (Oregon), Seattle (Washington), Vancouver (British Columbia), San Juan Islands (Washington),  Mt. Rainer (Washington) Oregon Coast (Oregon), Mt. St. Helens (Washington), or Olympic National Park (Washington)
     I would not object to going to see any of the locations that you mentioned. If I have to pick a favorite I think I'd go to Crater Lake in Oregon.

5. This coming weekend marks the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby...when did you last race (literally or figuratively) to cross a finish line?
     I cannot recall the last time that I raced in any way, shape or form. I have chased my granddaughters around the back yard but they always win.

6. What is something little you love?
     SWMBO and I have a Chinese Crested dog. He is abut 13 pounds. He is a love...except for those times that he is not. 
     
7. Would you say you are more of a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? Elaborate.
     All of the above depending on the subject matter. For example, when I learned how to shoot a firearm I had to listen to the instructions carefully. I had to watch the instructor demonstrate the physical aspects of shooting. I then practiced what I was taught and what I saw the instructors do. 
     In an academic environment I use auditory and visual. I don't know which one I absolutely need to use.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
     This month I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge where participants had to write a blog entry every day of the month except sundays. The subject of the blog entry had to begin with the letter of the day. Tomorrow I will be posting the last blog of the challenge. I still haven't decided which word beginning with "Z" I'll write about. So if you're interested, please stop by, see what I wrote about and leave a comment. 

Y - YAHOO

The A to Z Blogging Challenge has been an interesting exercise in writing. It has certainly been a challenge to write something for each letter of the alphabet. Today's letter is "Y." My subject is the word "YAHOO!"

Most people recognize Yahoo as an internet search engine. Yahoo is also a descriptive of a person who says or does something that is considered to be really stupid. Three examples follow of what I mean. Two involve racism which at it's core is stupid, not to mention morally wrong. The third involves something that's just wrong.

Have you been watching the news or reading the papers? Cliven Bundy is a cattle rancher in Nevada who is involved in a dispute with the U.S. Government over grazing rights on public land and the payment of grazing fee's for cattle grazing on federally owned land.
Well, Mr. Bundy had tons of support in his dispute against the government. People went to Nevada and stood with him against armed federal rangers. However, Mr. Bundy was interviewed by the media and during the course of this interview showed himself to be a real "Yahoo!" He said... "Negroes were better off under slavery."
Anyone who has a nodding acquaintance with the history of slavery in America knows how stupid a statement this is. Mr. Bundy is a bona fide YAHOO!

My next example of Yahoo-ness is Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball team. Mr. Sterling was recorded on tape orally chastising his girlfriend for publishing pictures of her with black men on Instagram. He told her during his diatribe that he did not want her to bring these black men to "his" games. Mr. Sterling has shown himself to be a bona fide YAHOO!

Another Yahoo in the pantheon of Yahoo's is former New York City Mayor, Michael Blumberg. While he was mayor, Mr. Blumberg wanted to ass an ordinance that restricted the size of soft drinks that were sold to the public. He wanted to outlaw the 7-Eleven "Big Gulp" soda's. A New York Court ruled that such an ordinance as passed by Mr. Blumberg was unconstitutional.
This crack down on soft drinks is just one of a host of stupid ideas put forth by Mr. Blumberg but this is supposed to be a relatively brief blog installment. That said, Mr. Blumberg is a bona fide YAHOO!

Do you agree? Who would you add to the list? Enjoy your day!  

X - XEROTHERMIC

Today is "X" day at the A to Z Blog Challenge. You know there are not an abundance of words that begin with the letter "X." So my word for the day is "XEROTHERMIC."

I am NOT xerothermic. That is one reason why I live in New Hampshire. My wife, on the other hand, is very xerothermic. She would much prefer to live in the southwest. She absolutely loved living in Albuquerque, N.M, while we were stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base in the early 1970's. It was hot and it was dry.

Xerothermic means "adapted to, or thriving in a hot and dry environment." 

Tolerance to heat or cold is not the only area in which my beloved spouse and I are polar opposites. My wife is very neat, tidy and organized. I am not any of those things. I thrive in an environment of organized chaos.
My wife is an enthusiastically cheerful morning person. I am a "grumpy cat" morning person. I'm that guy in the popular joke "Do you wake up grumpy in the morning? No, sometimes I let him sleep."
My wife loves working out in the yard, planting flowers and vegetables. I do not like, much less love, working out in the yard. I do it only because I love my wife and it brings her joy to do those things.

Are you xerothermic or do you prefer the moderately cool temperatures of the Spring and Fall or maybe even the bone chilling cold of the Winter? 

Thank you for stopping by and reading my thoughts. Enjoy the rest of your day!

W - WTF!

Today is "W" day at the A to Z Blog Challenge. I have chosen WTF for this installment.

Having been in the military, over thirty years ago, I have been exposed to a plethora of acronyms. They are shorthand for longer names used in official letters and other communication. Some examples would be "TAC" for Tactical Air Command; "SAC" for Strategic Air Command" "USAFE" United States Air Forces Europe; and who can forget "FUBAR" Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. That last one unfortunately is used a lot, although not usually in official communications.

If you are the kind of person who spends any amount of time on social media you most likely have seen the three letters that is the subject of this blog post. It is used as shorthand for a statement of surprise, shock or amazement. It is perfectly understandable if the profane use of those three letters came to mind. Still, "SHAME ON YOU!"

I have alternative meanings of the three letters WTF. One use is as a descriptor of something that I've read of witnessed first hand. WTF - Way Too Funny. This descriptor fit very well to my account of the time that my beloved spouse and I got deported from Canada. (See my "T-Travel" post in the A to Z Blog Challenge for further information)

Another use for the letters WTF is as an expression of desire. WTF - Want to Fly. I have been a fan of aviation since my days as a young boy. I have always been fascinated with planes and airports and all thing aeronautical. I love to fly. My wife loves being on terra firma. I would love to learn how to fly if I had both the time and the financial means.

So when you read the letters "WTF" please remember that context is everything! Enjoy your Saturday! 

V - VICISSITUDES

Vicissitudes - successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs: They remained friends through the vicissitudes of 40 years.

Today, my A to Z Blog Challenge word is "VICISSITUDE." This is a wonderful word that describes the one constant in life - Change! 

One of my first object lessons of vicissitude came when I was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force.  I enlisted while still a Senior in high school and reported for induction in August after I had graduated. I went through basic training and tech school. I then reported, with my new wife, to my first duty station, Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

So I went from being a single, wet-behind-the-ears high school graduate to becoming a married wet-behind-the-ears Airman in the beginning of his military service and his married life. 

While stationed in New Mexico my beloved wife and I became parents to a beautiful baby boy. So you can add wet-behind-the-ears father to the list enumerated above.

After a couple of years at Kirtland Air Force Base I was transferred to RAF Sculthorpe in the United Kingdom, that is merry olde England. Unfortunately my beloved wife and son were unable to accompany me. I was a newlywed with a fairly new son who was being separated from his new family living alone in military barracks.

After a year in England, I re-enlisted and with my re-up bonus I was able to bring my wife and son to England. We lived on base in military housing. While there we were blessed with the birth of an adorable baby girl. So now we were a family of four.

Of such are the vicissitudes of life. There have been many more changes over the past forty plus years, some were good and some were not so good. Like I said, the one constant of life is - Change! 

U - UNUSUAL

Today's A to Z Blog Challenge letter is the letter "U." I thought about a number of words to write about such as "Unity" or "Utilitarianism" or "Unforgivable." I selected a word that I often identify with, and that word is "Unusual."

Many of your reading this know that I spent thirty years as a police officer. I have describe being a police officer as having a front row seat to the best show in town. I have seen so many unusual things during my career that now most things that strike others as unusual, I find to be fairly normal.

Sometimes while sitting around the campfire the subject of do you believe in ghosts or UFO's. This always starts an animated conversation.
For the record, I don't believe in either ghosts or extra-terrestrial life. 
These two subjects often elicit passionate, heated discussion and debate on the pro's and cons of each position.

Some people are absolutely convinced that they have either seen ghosts or attribute some inexplicable incident that they witnessed to the activity of ghosts. 
There are some things that happen that cannot be explained, however, I don't believe that these events are the result of the activity of spectral entities.

I believe in UFO's but I don't believe in extra-terrestrial life. If this seems inconsistent let me explain. I have seen things move across the sky that I could not either identify or explain. I just don't know what they were. They are unidentified flying objects.
I am not convinced that we have been visited by interstellar travelers or inter-dimensional travelers.

What do you think? Am I unusual?