My oldest monster, Patrick, has been growing like a mad weed since we moved to Alabama. I’ve been trying to keep a ‘redneck eye’ on it. That is my official way of measuring my son’s height. It goes a little something like this…I have him stand right in front of me and ‘measure’ where his eyeballs are in relation to my eyeballs. Pretty good, eh?

So I’d been ‘keeping an eye’ on him, so I thought. Then the other morning, while getting ready for school, I noticed that Patrick was not just a itsy, bitsy smidge taller than I. No, with shoes on, and myself barefoot - he was FOR SURE taller than I. More redneck measuring skills - itsy, bitsy smidge - or - FOR SURE. Pretty good again, eh? Yeah, so I made him come over to me so I could see close up how FOR SURE it all was. It was definitely FOR SURE. But the little bugger had shoes on - and I didn’t. See - all was right with the world. It was okay. I could deal. Fine - go on to school, boy - Momma’s just fine.

And then it happened. A weekend morning - both of us wandering the Redneck Roberson Castle barefooted…
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Yes, quite literally, I have a pain in my neck! I woke up this morning and my neck was hurting. I have had this sore spot for a while now. Two spots, really - the glands on either side of my neck. I got sick last February - I had a sinus infection, along with a double ear infection. The doctor called in two prescriptions for me, one of which was oral and reasonably priced. The other, however, was eardrops and was so ridiculously high priced that we didn’t have the money for it. And I swear - for real - that the glands in my neck have hurt - off and on - since then! Some mornings I wake up and the one on the right side is really sore and I feel like I’m getting one of my vicious migraines, so I put ActivOn on it. You know, the arthritis cream! Ha!

Sometimes when I wake up and my neck and shoulders are sore and the migraine is trying to sneak in, I put Freeze It on my shoulders and just itsy-bitsy part way up my neck and that helps a lot. But I can’t really get Freeze It too high up on my neck or it burns. It’s really weird - I love that stuff, it’s totally awesome, but, I have to be careful when using it on my neck.

I just accidentally discovered that ActivOn would work for this purpose. I think you could call it a double accident!
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I’ve lost them. They’re gone. I can’t find them anywhere. I wonder if you could help me find them….

I really don’t mean it. I don’t want them back, no way, no how - not a chance in Hell do I want them back. In fact, it would be great if I lost some more 11.3398093 kilograms! Seriously!

You see, with the help of some lovely people online - and with some really strong determination, that came from I don’t know where, I have….
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In the last Save Jenny! post I told you about a poll on the NBC5 website asking where you think Jenny the elephant should spend the rest of her days. I do hope you’ve gone over there and let your voice be heard!

But - check it out:

That is SO AWESOME! If you haven’t voted in the poll - please go do so now! Thank you so much!!

Other ‘Jenny Action’ you can take:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important - when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!

Concrete and bars - what a life, eh?

Robert Wilonsky, the gentleman who writes for the Dallas Observer that I told you about in the post about troubled elephants, spoke with Paul Dyer on Wednesday about the Dallas Zoo’s decision to keep Jenny in Dallas. You can read all about their conversation here: Paul Dyer Explains the Reasons for Keeping Jenny at the Dallas Zoo. Please, no, PRETTY PLEASE - come back when you’re done reading, as I’ve something important I’d like to share with you! Thanks!

….waiting….waiting…..waiting….

Great! You came back! Jenny and I really appreciate it! Ok, NBC5 ran a story on Jenny - there is an article and a video. Here is the link to it: >>>>>>Jenny The Elephant To Remain In Dallas<<<<<<. Toward the end of the video, Angela Hunt is featured speaking her mind about the Dallas Zoo’s plans to build a larger elephant habitat. More importantly than the article or the video, though, in the sidebar underneath the video is a poll. It is a poll asking where YOU think Jenny should live the rest of her life! Please go take the poll and let your voice be heard! Do it for Jenny! Seriously - have you spent any time looking over The Elephant Sanctuary’s website? That place is simply amazing. And I truly believe that we owe it to Jenny, after all that we humans have put her through, to let her live her life out there in peace, where the objective is about her, not about humans visiting her!

Other ‘Jenny Action’ you can take:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important - when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!

As I mentioned in this post about Jenny the elephant, one of the Dallas city council members, Angela Hunt, took a trip to Mexico to see the park in Mexico to which the Dallas Zoo wanted to send Jenny. (She also traveled to Tennessee to see The Elephant Sanctuary.) On her website, AngelaHunt.com, you can read about her experiences and also see the many pictures that she took on her trips.

Along with photos, Ms. Hunt also took videos of the elephants in Mexico. In her videos, the elephants are seen almost constantly swaying back and forth. This is one of her videos:

Soon after this, Robert Wilonsky, who writes at Unfair Park - The Dallas Observer Blog asked Joyce Poole, the world’s foremost authority on elephants, to watch Ms. Hunt’s videos. She is currently working on a study that proves that elephants suffer from PTSD. That is so not surprising - the torment humans have put elephants through over the years is just awful! Here is her response to Robert after seeing the videos:

Dear Robert,

The music is hauntingly beautiful and, put to the swaying of confined elephants, brought tears to my eyes. Why do we humans feel such a need to confine and control other animals? Is our pleasure in seeing them worth the cruelty that we inflict on them? Elephants are intelligent, socially complex individuals who have the same basic needs that we have: Freedom and autonomy, companionship and affection, just to name a few.

The first elephant in the video looks very unhealthy; she is too thin. All of the elephants in the video are swaying — a behavior only seen in confined elephants. Like so many captive elephants they are bored and frustrated with nowhere to go and no one to see, no new smells to investigate and nothing to strive for. The result is standing in one place and rocking, slowly losing their mind. Well, wouldn’t we do the same given similar circumstances?

I often try to put myself in the elephants’ shoes, so to speak. Ever had to stand for hours and hours alone waiting for that bus that never comes? Feet and back aching? I, too, start to step from one foot to the other. I, too, rock back and forth; I sway. But I don’t wait for a bus for days, for weeks, for months, for years. I have the freedom to choose to go.

We need to wake up to the reality of what we are doing to other creatures and stop hiding behind a lot of constructed arguments for keeping elephants in this way.

Jenny should go to a sanctuary.

Regards,
Joyce Poole

And now we see the VERY SAME BEHAVIORS in Jenny! I’m quite sure that after all she has been through in her life, at the hands of humans, Jenny must have PTSD, as well! A member of Concerned Citizens for Jenny went to the zoo just days ago and took this video:

Jenny is definitely not happy there - nor would any elephant be! The elephant ‘habitats’ at The Dallas Zoo have long been a complaint of mine. I’ve taken great joy in mocking the boardroom meeting I imagine in my head 30-40 years ago/whenever the heck it was! I imagine it was something like this:

“You guys! I have the BEST idea! Seriously! This is gonna be great! Let’s make a tiny enclosure, make it out of concrete and maybe put in a little dirt - and put some elephants in it! It’ll be fabulous! I’m sure the elephants will be happy there!”

Yes, folks, I’ve haughtily and sarcastically shared this scenario with many people over the years. Hey, I never claimed to be mature! Just ask my ninth grade algebra teacher! She’ll be happy to tell you, “Lisa has the potential, she’s just too immature to live up to it!” Haha!

Ok, back to the subject at hand, you guys quit getting me off track! Hrmph! I think I’ve given you enough information in this post, I’d just like to repeat the actions that YOU can take now:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important - when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!

I started this post on July 29th and never finished fleshing it out, because, I would alternately become overwhelmed with sadness/despair and the great amount of information involved.

The bottom line is that there is an elephant at the Dallas Zoo that needs all of us to help her. You can read her whole story here: Concerned Citizens for Jenny - but, then make sure you come back here, because, I’ve got lots more to share with you!

Those of us who are rallying for Jenny would like to see her go to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. The place is nothing short of amazing! I spent hours looking over their website, reading all about them and I was brought to tears more than once! This is just such a wonderful place - a true sanctuary - for elephants who’ve lived their lives in ‘habitats’ that are way too small with nothing but dirt and concrete. Of all the reading I did about The Elephant Sanctuary, one thing really got me and really, if I read nothing else about them, this would tell me so much about them and who they are and what they believe:

It is heartening to see attitudes begin to shift, with more
and more people realizing that “seeing” an elephant has
clearly not been successful in either public education or
species conservation in the wild. Our challenge with
the Education Gallery & Welcome Center is to create
an experience where visitors and supporters will walk
away with a greater understanding and respect for
elephants, without having compromised the freedom of
one single elephant.

This quote was taken from page 7 of The Elephant Sanctuary’s 2007 Annual Report

Help Elephants in Zoos - Dallas Zoo is another site on which you can read information about Jenny, including action steps you can take to help Jenny!

As Promised, Angela Hunt’s Video from Her Trip to Mexico is an article on the Dallas Observer blog with information about the trip that Councilwoman Angela Hunt took to the park in Mexico where the Dallas Zoo had originally intended to send Jenny. This is no longer relevant, as the zoo has decided not to send her there, but, I wanted to let you see all the information that you could about the case.

Here is a news video about Jenny, from a few weeks ago:

I have some more posts about Jenny coming up, for now, though, here are some actions YOU can take to help Jenny:

Contact the Dallas Mayor
Call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas. (This really is so important - when this hit the national stage is when the council really started listening and deciding to slow odwn the whole decision-making process. So even if you don’t live in Dallas, like I no longer do, please feel free to let your voice be heard.) Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@ dallascityhall. com

If you’d rather use the contact form on the city’s website, it’s right here: Contact Mayor Tom Leppert

Thank you so much!

Smart People was one of those movies that I just did not want to end. It really would, I think, do well as a television series. I really enjoyed my time in the lives of the characters, and I would definitely want to spend more with them.

With a title like SMART PEOPLE, I figured it was going to be a movie that I really liked. And I was not wrong. I have spent my whole life living amongst very smart family members, and they are very endearing to me. They are such complex creatures. Yes, now we’re at the ‘Smart People Zoo’, kids. Ha! Really, though, they are such intense individuals, often so tormented by whatever demons that haunt the intellectually advanced. But they are also fascinating, usually funny, and often quite warm, generous people at heart.

This movie encompassed all of these things. The dad and the daughter were absolutely adorable in their wickedly dumb smartness. And those of you who’ve ever lived with a smart person know exactly what I mean!

I admit that I was at first thinking I just was not going to like the love interest’s character, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. I’ve kind of had a resentment towards her for a while since she left all of us dorks behind (a la SQUARE PEGS) and wandered into the fancy froufrou zone of SEX IN THE CITY. I was quite wrong, though! I loved her character in this movie and I think she just erased my resentment, seeing that she can, in fact, play more than a high-heels-and-man-obsessed New York frou frou doll.

It really was an enjoyable movie and I hope, if not a TV show, that there is at least a sequel or two. Watching these intelligent creatures is addictive!

My brother, David, just called this afternoon to tell me that his dog, Zeus, has passed on. Damn, ya’ll, I loved that freakin’ dog! It’s crazy - I haven’t even seen Zeus in over five years (it was May 2003, when my niece, Alex, was born) and yet, I canNOT stop crying! Can’t. Just can’t. I just loved that damn dog.

He was a German Shepherd. I was afraid of German Shepherds, pre-Zeus. Hell, I was afraid of big dogs before I started going out to Liberty Hill to stay with my brother. Those were the good ‘ol days - when my brother lived outside of Austin, TX and I lived in Dallas, TX and I would drive down there, with the kids and spend a few days. And sometimes I went without the kids! Woohoo! Par-tay! Well, if you consider hanging around the house and taking walks on the property a party, that is. And I, for one, totally consider it a PAR-TAY!

He had a neighbor across the road (highway) named Chigger and it was all just so …Country Texas! And I loved it! Then my brother did a dumb thing - he moved to Colorado. Then I did a dumb thing - I moved to Alabama. Now we are TWENTY-FOUR hours apart!! (By car, that is, which is how we normally travel. Hmm… wonder how long the flight is?)

So yeah, see, my brother is an emergency vet with a wicked soft spot for animals. A lot of the animals that are brought into emergency care are surrendered for one reason or another. Sometimes people cannot afford the needed medical care, sometimes people just find animals that aren’t theirs that have been hit by cars, etc. Well, my silly brother and his wife wind up falling in love with a lot of these surrendered animals, who, they know, will meet their untimely passing if not rescued and brought home to live with them.
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So yeah, uh, I’m surfing the net yesterday afternoon, and I went here and I went there and I went everywebwhere… and I landed on a blog of a fellow Alabamian who had taken this lovely test, The 1930’s Marital Scale. I thought to myself, ‘Well, self, that right there is gonna be right up your irreverent, slobby, foul-mouthed alley!’

And wouldn’t ya know it? I was right!

6 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

Just so we’re clear as mud, here’s how the scoring goes:

Scoring:

0-24 - Very Poor (Failure)
25-41 - Poor
42-58 - Average
59-75 - Superior
76+ - Very Superior

By far, I have to say - I mean, by FAR, this was my favorite line of the test:

Reacts with pleasure and delight to marital congress.

I’m no brainiac (My dad’s in Mensa - does that count for anything? No? Didn’t think so, darn…), but, I can tell what they’re talking about! The thing I don’t get is how in the holy hell does ‘congress’ mean sex?!

Do you react with pleasure and delight? Huh, now, do you? Hahaha!

Here’s a confusing one for you:

Wears red nail polish.

I think they’re saying that’s a bad thing, aren’t they? Sounds like it to me. Now, that’s some funny chit right there!

“Ooh, did you hear that Buck’s wife wears red nail polish?!” Oh the shame!