pkg12's Blog

Or, A Story of an SOB

A dog gave birth to a lot of puppies year after year. The dog owner probably sold the puppies or gave away to his or her friends. As time went by, the dog got old and died. The owner was so sad. She was with him or her for a long time. The end of a story, in a perfect world!

But unfortunately my story does not end here; rather it starts right after giving birth of some puppies at age approximately five! She gave birth and was kicked out of home because she became old. She became a “Stray Dog” and ended up in a shelter on July 17, 2007.

On July 19, 2007 I took my two kids to that shelter to see some dogs. They have been asking for a dog for a while so I thought we get one from the shelter to give one a home. As we were seeing many dogs, someone was telling us something about them. That person told us about this particular dog that she was kicked out from home after she gave birth. My kids then started calculating – she has double sadness because she got kicked out of home and she can’t have her puppies. All the dogs were sad, but since she was “double sad,” we decided to adopt her. We took her for a walk. Oh boy was she good with us! If you saw her with us, you would think that she grew up with us! She was that good with us. So, we applied for her that is we started the process as someone at that office explained the procedure. The next day I took my wife to fulfill the requirement of meeting the dog with every family member. My wife saw her and instantly fell for her as well. She also said the same thing that how sad she looked. We took her for a walk again on that day as it was required. We spent about half an hour with her. My wife spoke to her in her language and she was listening to her. My kids were telling us that she would not understand that. I told them that she has to deal with our accent (my wife’s and mine) and like that’s not enough punishment for her, now she has to listen to another language! We all were having fun with her as she was with us I truly believe.

We were told that someone will visit our home on 24th or after to approve us or not. They also told us that they could not do this before because they have to keep her for one week (until July 23rd) to see if the “owner” claims her. After the visit, they will determine and will call us in next two or three days to make an appointment to bring her home if we are approved.

Someone came to visit us on July 24th and explained a few things. She said that she saw her the day before and she looked good, it’s a family dog, and we would like her. Then she started talking about kennel cough and how the dogs get this in the shelter. She also told us if we could pick her up on that day that is she had already approved us. I told her that I could not because I didn’t buy anything for her as I was told before that it would take a couple of days for us to know if we could adopt her. I agreed to pick her up on July 26th so I could get a day to buy food, toys, etc. for her. The next day we all went to shop for her at Pets Mart and we bought two types of food, a bag of treats, some toys, etc. for her. I also made an appointment with a vet for her as I was suggested by the shelter.

On July 26th, my son and I went to bring her home. We went to the office and did some paper work. They asked for $107.00 for spaying, etc. and I paid. When they brought her in the office, we saw that she was coughing. I asked about this and the lady told me that she started coughing on July 22nd and they are giving her antibiotic since that day and not to worry because it will go away. She gave me a bag some pills inside and dates written on it.

We took her to the vet. The vet was shocked that she was still coughing even though she was given the medicine for four days. She gave her some more antibiotics and some other medicine as well. The vet also did blood check. I paid few hundred dollars to the vet and took her home where my wife and daughter were waiting for her anxiously and called us a few times to know why we were taking so long!

I wish I could end the story here because in a few years, as I grew old, I would die and she (the dog) would cry for me with my other family members!

But the story took another turn. On July 26th, the day she came home, we spend the whole afternoon with her. She was coughing, but she was very playful. We had hard time giving her the medicine as she would not want to eat anything. She would play with us, come to us when we call her, and do anything but eating. Finally she ate very little and drank some water with some medicine. The whole night she coughed and I was up with her the whole night and petted her. I felt so bad for her that I could not just live her alone. I have pollen allergy and I developed allergy from that, thus I know how painful it is to cough and not being able to breathe properly! 

The next day she was still coughing and eating very less, but drank a lot of water with the medicine in it. At night time she was coughing more we noticed. On Saturday, July 28th, she was really feeling good I guess because she ate a good amount of food and played a lot with the kids. She also was coughing much less than before. We thought she became well, but on Sunday she started coughing a lot and would not want to eat anything. We became scared again. Our kids were sleeping. My wife and I spent the whole night with her as she coughed a lot. We got scared of the law, which we don’t know of. What if she dies with us and the shelter finds us responsible for her death.

At this point I don’t know what was more in our minds – our fear or our feelings for her?

I guess fear took over and my wife and I decided to take her back to the shelter the next day to avoid any problem in the future. So I did. On July 30th, I took her to the shelter as my wife and kids were crying. And as I started feeling like an SOB!

Thus, the name of the blog could easily be “A Story of an SOB.”

You, my fellow bloggers, please address me by “SOB” when you write if you decide to help me out to find some answers. I don’t understand why did the shelter give me the dog when they knew she was sick and they are better equipped to take care of her? The vet asked the same question. Especially, after I mentioned in the application that I don’t have any experience in the States with pet. When I was a child I had a few pets, but in another country. Totally in different settings and different time; I barely did anything for them except for playing and having company. My parents, elder siblings, and our housekeeper took care of them. I said everything to the lady as well who came to visit our home before approval. I also don’t understand why she hid this information (her cough) to me. She said that she saw her the day before, which was the second day of her sickness.

I don’t know. I just don’t know what to say or what to do. My kids still cry for her. We all want her back. But we don’t know how we could bring her home again. The people at the shelter said they won’t give her back when she gets better even though we gave them her medicine, 70 Lbs. of food, etc.

I don’t even know that I did the right thing or not by giving her back to the shelter. But I do know that if I didn’t give her up and she died in front of us because we could not care for her properly, I would have felt guilty because I could not take care of her. On the other hand, I still feel guilty simply because I gave her up. Either way, I feel like I am an SOB! Probably I am!

Please help me. Should I try to bring her home? How? What should I do?

Magic, what I need! I wish someone could do some magic and fix everything so she could live with us for the rest of her life. We die normally as we age and no one kicks out anyone!

A Peruvian chicken place in Wheaton (El Pollo Rico) has been raided yesterday and six illegal workers were found in the restaurant. More interestingly, the owner was found in money laundering (?), which I think was meant for tax evasion. The amount was $7,000,000.00. No, I didn’t put any extra zero here. Can you imagine the amount? I didn’t understand about the amount – is it the total amount that was not taxed or is it the tax amount that was not paid?

 I know this restaurant since 2000. I don’t exactly know when it started. I have gone there a couple of times. I have seen the restaurant many times from the street. It’s always packed. The line goes outside on the road to buy their food. They only take cash if I remember correctly.  

Two different incidents took place yesterday. The raid was to catch illegal workers. The other, money laundering part just came up, I guess. Otherwise, IRS does not really care much about illegal workers as long as they pay taxes. (They provide anyone with a Tax Identification Number (TIN) for tax purposes.)   

Now, my question is about the money laundering part. Why it took so long for the IRS to find out about the tax evasion? Where are there auditors? The business must have filed tax returns for last ten years. Why didn’t they suspect anything wrong? Nothing? All this time?

Secretary Michael Chertoff’s (read Shirt-off) “gut feeling” may not elevate the security code in the nation, but it sure has given us the “code” to think about our “destination” as a developed nation in the world! I can’t imagine what the world press would say tomorrow about this comment! WOW!

One of my friends sent me some pictures. I loved this particular picture and I thought I would share this one with you. I started seeing some good things in this picture. Here are the things I see in this picture:

1. Two people sitting on the top are representing the GOP and the Democrats.
2. The blue shell is the infrastructure our forefathers built; we are just carrying the shell! (Apparently, we broke it!)
3. The guy in the driver’s seat is representing us…the people of the US (and supposedly he is smiling, probably for carrying them and realizing his stupidity!)
4. The cow represents the US economy today; it’s alive and looks good, but very slow. (Very ‘unlike’ USA, not even a horse!)

I hope you like the picture!

How do you add a picture from your computer with the text? I tried cutting/copying and pasting; it didn't work. Starrman, I know you add pictures, can you help me? Thanks.

Have a good weekend.

He just stood still with a big smile - no crying - no drama! He saw the trophy, touched it, and posed for pictures calmly. Math and music are his favorites, not spelling words! He killed me when he said he integrated the number with the music notes! Here we go, he thought of stupid people like me! I really liked that. I don’t know how to read music notes. I am a number person. I always thought if someone could write the notes in numbers for dumb people like me! He knows his notes (he is a great piano player), yet he somehow integrated the numbers with the notes! How cool is that?

I saw the whole program yesterday and enjoyed the whole program wholeheartedly - a bunch of kids spelling words. And most of the words (about 90%), I didn’t even know, let alone spell them! Well, how fun can that be? No lights, no Simon, no singing, no voting!

He just stood still with a big smile - no crying - no drama! (Probably he knew that not many TV stations would contact him for an interview. Not many people will write blogs about him. People will not go crazy about him!)

He just stood still! A perfect picture to reflect our society today!

I know . . . I know . . . I am bragging about a little boy, who just spelled some words, which is nothing but memorization in his own words, still I thought it’s worth mentioning this little guy. I also know kids will not run to take pictures with him like they would with Jordin, still I thought I write something about him since I really liked him!

A pallet gun (!) is sold for about $60.00. I just found that out. Thanks to some school kids. What a way to reach there . . . protection, defend mechanism, or simple collaboration, whatever that is!

Not far from an intellectually bankrupt society!

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

Happy Mother’s Day to ALL the Moms in the world, especially to those Moms who lost their children in the war with a heartfelt thanks for bringing those brave souls for our country.

We all know that Exxon made a whoopee profit of $9.3b in the first quarter. Did they make the same amount of profit a year ago? I don’t think so. If not, I have some questions.

If the gas price has increased as a result of the increase in price of crude oil, how is it possible to make more profit when the cost has increased as well?

Cost UP = price UP = > The Same Amount of Profit or Loss

(Cost = Price of Crude Oil, Processing, etc.)

But, more profit only means that, oil company increased the price more than the cost has increased!

Bob, I saw the report you showed. You mentioned that high demand is another factor of the increase in price. But, if demand is adequate to the supply, why should the price increase? I don’t see any shortage of supply! I see an abundant supply of gas. And we also know that to create an artificial shortage of supply is illegal in the US. I also don’t see that people are driving more (because of the price increase) to say that demand has increased tremendously over the past year! So what is it?

Can we say that oil companies are increasing the price unnecessarily? Or, is it the time to adjust the gas price by increasing it to the normal inflation rate of last ten years? Or, is it just simple greediness to make money? Is there any tie between Cheney, Bush, and the oil companies? Hmmm . . . did I just open a can of worms?

Any answer for me? Bob? Anyone?

Where is the connection in two incidents? What can we learn about ourselves from these two incidents? Can we say that we have failed as human being to show our intelligence?

An eighty-year-old man gets fired from his job for saying "Nappy headed BLEEP" in the air. The whole world gets crazy over it! To some people, it seemed like the end of the world!

No, I never thought and said that Imus must have been an angel to say this! But, my question is where are those people now who were offended by that statement? Where are those people who thought it was disgusting and insulting to say to the women? Where is the respect for womanhood now?

Vanished!

The criminal will have decent meals, watch TV, and exercise - all at my tax dollars!

(A talker vs. a doer, the criminal! Talk about poetic justice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Can I conclude that people are more excited about "Black & White World" in America than actually destroying a childhood, two lives (the girl and her future baby), and the victim’s family members’ sanity?

priveye, where the hell are you man? I need you. Please bring some mirrors! Distribute them accordingly!

I didn’t know until yesterday afternoon what happened in VT. I was terrified. I remembered my school days and how much I enjoyed my school life here. I am glad and feel lucky that I didn’t witness anything like that. I also remembered that my kids will go to college in few years. I will be worrying for them every day. I can’t imagine what the family members and the friends of the victims are going through right now. In my mind, I spent an hour and half with those thirty-two students and wrote this poem as a friend, who did not get a chance to laugh over a few things, as a parent who was waiting for the summer to go to places with his son or daughter, and as a lover, who never took the time to say ‘I love you!’

I’ll Remember You, I Will

Earned Income Credit is given mostly to encourage people who have children to work. It is given to the people with income of $1 to $38,300 and a bell-shaped curve is used to determine the amount given as credit. That is people who earn somewhere in the middle get the most amounts of credit. While single people receive the lowest amount of credit, people with two or more children receive the most amounts, which I think encourage people to have children.

So does EIC encourage people to go to work or does it encourage some people to have more children? I used to prepare taxes for others and I saw many single mothers with children were so glad that they received a huge amount from the IRS during the tax time. Many of them came back with more children the following year, which led me believe that they were some how encouraged to have children.

EIC is a great tool to encourage people to have kids, but currently do we have shortage of people in this country to continue having EIC to encourage that?

What do you think?

If you were given a blank page what would you write about Human Race? What comes to your mind first without thinking much about other people’s behavior in the society? Do you think it’s a human nature just to look down (or up) at others’ race? Or, is it just taught behavior, which starts from the family and shapes up eventually as the person grows up by the influence of the society?

We have seen Hurricane Katrina and its destruction was not even spared from the racism issue. We vigorously fought with each other about this when someone brought the issue of "race" in the levy factor. All it took one word - "racism," and we started blogging vigorously, but when Brian Botler started a wonderful blog named, "Mardi Gras in the Big Uneasy," only three people made comments. I was shocked that no one from the minority group felt the urge to make comments on that particular blog, which by the way was very true to my understanding in terms of "economic factor." Yet, no one felt the compassion as Brian felt when he was there. I wonder why! Is it because Brian didn’t bring the issue of racism? I would request to read the blog when you have some time to see what I am talking about.

Let us discuss and argue with each other about the topic (race), but let us not fight as we have seen in this board frequently. Someone (sorry, I forgot the name) mentioned beautifully that the elevator does not go all the way up in this board! I agree. Let us see if we can achieve that this time. So, no personal attack please! Let us see if we can be serious about this issue and yet joke about it at the same time.

I truly believe that we can do it if we want to!

Thank you everyone.

For those Bloggers, who think blogging is journalism and those journalists, who are threatened by the Bloggers’ "journalism," I have come up with a list of differences of blogging and journalism to console both parties.

1. Telling an incident or fact. No opinion should be added since it does not add any extra value.

2. Journalists get paid for their work, thus use their time wisely since it’s valuable to them.

3. There is no room for applying PSYC101, MATH101, SCIN101, PHIL101, MEDC101, etc. when casting news.

4. Journalists just cast the facts, do not present any solution to anything since they are not in a position to provide the listeners/readers/viewers with any solutions.

5. When journalists try to give their opinions about a certain matter, they could easily look stupid for doing so.

6. Journalists do not and should not talk such a way, which could give the readers/viewers a chance to form an opinion about them such as biased.

7. Journalists may be pressured or at least told to post blogs against their will.

8. Journalists working together have to get along with each other, whether they like it or not.

9. Journalists have to say or write according to some standard, usually set by their boss or producers.

10. Journalists have to be scared and watch what they say; otherwise they can be told to pack up and go home.

11. Journalists are compared with whores.

 Blogging:

1. Posting opinion - only opinion - may not be of any value at all!

2. Bloggers have no value of time, thus waste time blogging - posting their opinions, like the world would fall apart without their opinion!

3. Blogging is applying . . . and most of the time only applying PSYC101, MATH101, SCIN101, PHIL101, MEDC101, etc.

4. Bloggers have all the solutions in the world; you name a problem, a blogger will come up with a solution for you!

5. Bloggers never look stupid for giving their opinions; they already start with that point!

6. A lot of Bloggers boldly post their opinions with such biases to begin with.

7. Bloggers wake up to post a blog - whether it makes sense or not, they can’t wait to post a comment or a blog. (Just like I am doing now!)

8. Bloggers don’t and they don’t have to. They usually fight over a comma (,) if they can’t find anything to fight with or about!

9. Bloggers have no standard to begin with.

10. The bloggers are FREE FREE FREE...

11. A blogger CAN be a BLEEP to begin with!

So, what do you think?

Please feel free to add any more point. If you can’t add any, debate with any point. Of course, you may do both as well!