Arizona, Heat, Summer And Death

All of them go together here. Every year, people come here without a clue as to how to survive living in the AZ sun and heat, have heat strokes and die. Every year, kids are left unattended by swimming pools or find their way into the back yard, fall into the pool and drown. The massacre has begun.
A 2 year old was left in the back of a car after a family coming home in 2 separate vehicles from church on Sunday. One thought the other had the baby. Dad went out to go to the store, put the car in reverse and yes, saw his 2 year old baby slumped over in the back seat. Dead. Man is going to be charged with - I think they said involuntary homicide.

Today, the owner of a large chain of movie theatres in these parts left his dog in his car, outside of course, while he went in to watch a movie. Okay, the dog didn't die. He left the windows open and allegedly came out several times to make sure the dog was okay. But, somebody flagged down police and he was cited anyway. Sometime sooner or later, somebody is going to see either a child left in a car at supermarket, bar or casino and somebody's going to see a dog left in a car at same said places and they are going to bust a window out of the car to save the child or dog's life.

It happens EVERY single year. A car can get up to 140 degrees inside with windows closed. I have only left my dogs in the car unattended a couple of times. In those cases, the car was left running, the emergeny brake was applied (heavily in case a dog accidently hit the shift lever) and the AC was cranking away. I was always within 50 feet of the car. Sounds crazy, well, the other folks around me at the time were commenting on the large dogs, not on me leaving them in the car unattended.

I won't do that now that my car's AC is not working. I won't even take them with me anywhere right now because they are large dogs and they get hot quickly. They are not left outside during the day now, either. I put them out in the morning before anyone gets up, but after that I call here and ask that they be let in. IF by some chance they were not to be let in, I have shade and a LOT of cool water for them to drink. They will survive - uncomfortably - and it's not against the law. Still, I do not like leaving giant dogs out in this heat.

The point is that this is all common sense, and the further point is that these people that engage in such must not have very much common sense. The family that just lost the 2 year old? An unimaginable price they are now paying for that man's forgetfulness, I don't wonder if that is sentence enough - he will never forget it, it will haunt him, he is probably having thoughts of suicide, he is in a hell that none of us can understand and none of us ever want to experience. The fires that are licking at his feet and coursing through his very being are more than any prison sentence will ever be able to attain in terms of punishment given.

Don't get me wrong from above statement: I am not saying the man is going to hell, rather, the man is already IN hell, an earthly version of it. These people LOVED that baby, this is apparent from the news stories. I don't wonder when the man gets to court if a jury wouldn't find against any prison time. He is already sentenced to a life of regret, hate towards himself, misery, grief - a list of adjectives combined together to make this man's life a walking hell, that's all there is to it.

But, how can you forget your own baby in the back seat of your car? To me, this unfathomable. It happened last year here, but - after hospital care and stay, the baby survived and is healthy. It happens EVERY year here, that's my point: where do these people come from? Still, instead of punishing him with prison time, the judge could make him serve thousands of hours of community time with the theme of going around talking to groups about the "importance" of making sure all of your kids are accounted for.

Well, whatever. I grieve in my own small way with this family. The throes of anguish right now in that family and extended family members is unimaginable.

The dog, however, survived. Is the dog as important as a human life? NO WAY. In fact, I thought about that baby's last - 30 minutes, hour. Can you imagine sitting in what is the same as an oven, roasting to death? No, I can't - I can't imagine the suffering that baby went through. But, is a dog's life important? Well, I love dogs, I can easily answer that: yes, to me, a dog's life is important, if nothing else, to the owners of that dog. It just doesn't equate to the life of a human being. You can easily get over the death of a dog compared to human death. There IS no easy way to get over the death of a loved one - human loved one - and especially in a circumstance such as this.

Moving on. Heat related. I had returned from doing a delivery early this afternoon and decided to go ahead and continue work on sweeping the asphalt. It was hot at the time - 105. When you are standing on asphalt, the sun bakes you from above. The asphalt is absorbing the heat and radiating it back up. After some 45 minutes of this, I started feeling funny. I had plenty of water, yes, but I was in the full sunlight.

I got out of the sunlight - got a lot done but I wasn't about to cook myself for the sake of keeping busy and having something to do. It became evident that I am still not quite acclimated to the heat yet. I CAN take that kind of abuse - but it takes a while.

Moving on. 6 of the 10 koi are dead. Since I have living goldfish in that pond that are in excellent condition, I am going to contact the seller and tell him these fish have died, please replace them. I had aquariums for years and years as a kid, I am accustomed to the care of fish. No, the trip those Koi had from NC to here, the water getting hot, that is what killed them. I do expect the man to replace them - if not - live and learn. I am not even sure any of the rest of them are still alive, only that their bodies aren't floating on the top of the water.

That's it for this one.

ben

Monday

There are times when Monday comes rolling around - Monday morning that is - and I absolutely do not feel like getting out of bed, much less going to work. Today is definitely one of those mornings. I dunno if it is just because I have been doing it for decades, but something automatic within turns on and forces me to go through the motions without thinking about it. In my situation, not going to work is not an option. Calling in sick when you're not sick? I don't think I've ever done that once in my entire life. Not about to start now.

News: North Korea is going to bolster nuke capacity. Just what, exactly, are they going to do with nuclear weapons? Bomb South Korea? Won't that destroy the environment on both sides of the "border" between them? Just curious. They spout off rhetoric to anyone that will listen, which apparently is enough for the news to report about it.

Funny that the BP oil disaster is falling off the main headlines - yet, the last time I heard anything, there is still a LOT of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, it's still there, it just isn't main headlines anyomre for some reason. The virtual destruction of pristine shorelines is guaranteed at this point. How do you clean that junk out of the sand? Perhaps they can - but - they will be doing it for a long, long time. No, this is a catastrophe at best.

Our Governor Brewer definitely made a gaffe this time in her statements that most illegals coming over here are drug runners. Gonnnnnnnnng!!! Remember the Gong Show? I used to love that show! They're coming over here to find jobs, earn money and either send it back to families in Mexico or bring them all up here and live. I was reading a story yesterday - it was the story of a family of illegals that decided to move to Pennsylvania after this new immigration bill was past.

Amazing that the story tried to invoke sentiment for people that don't belong here. I read the entire story, some reporter had followed their plight from the beginning where they were throwing all their belongings away excepting what they could carry with them in their vehicle - to the trip to the ending in Pennsylvania. It was a "heartbreaking" type of story - I felt nothing. I didn't feel sorry for them, their words didn't evoke any anguish in my soul. If they don't want to feel like they are always on the run or that they may get caught at any time, all the time, I have 2 words for them: GO HOME.

These people continue to stay in the states and apparently feel they have some sort of right to stay here. It's truly amazing not only how these illegals think, but also the bleeding hearts that want to just allow all 11 million of them complete, free amnesty. Just let them have citizenship, notwithstanding the fact that there are a LOT of people from all over the world that would love to move to our country - legally - and are trying to do just that.

Whatever. When this week is over, I have a full week off. I haven't done that in ages. I am looking forward to getting up late. Doing nothing. Or doing something, who cares, it's staycation. I think I'll spend the week getting the house really clean - dun't want a dirty house for vacation, not that it is dirty now, but I want it sparkling and smelling nice just. Yes, that's the ticket, mind now filling with "wonderful" cleaning projects that I can start doing after work every day. Lol.

Work day is here, g'day.
ben