My Dad, the praying mantis or rather the Result of Praying, mantis

First let me veer widely from the title and congratulate Dr. Watson on his publication, "Telithromycin (Ketek) faces obstacles" published in the medical journal Evidence-Based Practice. It is somewhat esoteric as all good journal articles are, but an important contribution to the medical body of knowledge. Good job, Dr. Watson.

Now, I will engage in some esoterica of my own. Remember the first sighting of a praying mantis in August 2004. This, the third summer, has brought some significant sightings. Joe's family, myself, and yesterday Jennica. They seem to appear magically after a certain kind of plea. The above is Jen's. Mine is below.

Way to go, Dad.

For my grandchildren--esoteric means you have to have special knowledge about the subject being discussed in order to fully understand.

Thought for the day

Entropy is a cruel dominatrix.

Diverse Animals, a not so fun account

Yesterday, I wrote about Jaren's instilling a love of diverse animals in his little children. I was referring to his many pictures of the critters he's found and published on his blog: a turtle, a frog, tarantulas, snakes including a rattle snake, Gila monsters, etc. There have been more and I am sure there will continue to be more.
Today, sadly I want to express some raging and some rambling feelings about soft cuddly animals, the kind we love and take care of and miss when they are gone.
This has not been a good year for the Watson family and their pets. Even shortly prior to the last 365 days, Baylee and Kelton lost their water dragon and turtle. Cierra, a bird lover, wanted and worked diligently to earn a unique kind of parakeet shown in the above picture. Baylee and other family members helped her wash cars and tend kids to earn over $200 to purchase her bird. Maybe because she worked so hard to earn the money for "Fiji" and maybe it would have happened anyway but she truly bonded with and loved her bird; it loved her back. Cierra gave her other bird, a parakeet named Sky to Baylee because Baylee had lost her lizard. Baylee only owned Sky for a few days when a neighbor boy ended the little bird's life. Baylee and Cierra both mourned.
A few months ago, I was at the temple intending to do two sessions when I became ill and had to leave after only finishing one session. When I got to my car and turned on my cell phone, there was a message from Charity. I returned the call and was told Cierra was heart-broken--Fiji had gotten hurt in the cage and died. I called Autumn and headed straight for their house. The pain this sweet girl was experiencing ate acid holes in my heart.
In just a few months time, Crystal lost El Tigre, Libby lost a kitty, Grandpa's (Johnny's/Johnny's) Beagel, Smeigle had to be put down. Jaren's King Tito--ahbrrteats--his cat of 13 years also had to be put down because of feline infectious peritonitis.
And last night, Baylee called in tears. Their dog (Joe's dog) Bridget who was a daughter of Smeigle was hit and killed on the road in front of their house.
So, my blog today is to allow me to explore and solidify through expression some of my thoughts.
Several times I have heard people say that when a child loses a beloved pet, it helps prepare them for the later loss of a loved human companion. I say this is bunk. Pain is painful regardless of whether one has or has not experienced pain in the past. I have never known or heard of a person with chronic pain saying because I hurt yesterday, or last week, or last month, or last year, or continuously, my pain is not as bad today. The loss of a pet does not lessen the blow when another pet is lost and it certainly does not prepare one for the loss of a family member.
I remember one week after we lost Joshua, a (if I'm generous, I will say well-meaning) person came to me and told me she knew just what I was going through. Expecting her to tell of a horrid tragedy in her family, I was shocked when she told me their dog had been run over. For thirty minutes, I listened dumbfounded as she compared the feelings she was having to what she erroneously (stupidly?) interpreted as my feelings and the feelings of my family members at losing our treasured son and brother. A lot of people said strange things, but that one was really a gem. (Far many more people were graciously supportive.)
Losing Josh, as heart wrenching as it was and sometimes still is, in no way prepared any of us to lose Johnny. One cannot quantify or qualify or even pitifully attempt to describe the pain involved in those two events.
Yet, I was surprised at how hard it was to have Tito put to sleep. And I miss her jumping on my bed in the middle of the night. I miss her butting my face with her head when she wanted me to get up and feed her.
So, what's the solution? Do we deprive our children and ourselves of the joy and love a pet can bring?
It's trite, but when there is life, there is death. When there is love, there is the potential for loss. Do we give up on life and/or love? After Josh died, I was filled with so much self-pity I felt that every time I got up, I got knocked down. So, for several years, I didn't get up. Bad choice. Bad bad choice.
Two days ago, I talked about the Watson's indomitable spirit. Since Johnny died, while pain may have been ever present, the people in this family have refused to be beaten. Johnny Randall has taken over the reins at JRW and Associates and is establishing the business and himself as a reputable, competent architect/architectural firm and construction management enterprise. Lisa finished her master's program, graduated, and has conquered her nemesis and continues that quest. Dr. Joseph Watson finished his residency program with honors and much acclaim and is a doctor in his own right practicing in Rexburg. Jennica is noted not only for her fierceness on the race course, but also for her culinary skills and her ability to harness her own kids plus several others and climb mountains both literally and figuratively. Jaren graduated from college, spent a year in Kentucky and is now in Tucson in a MFA program. For more on him, see yesterday's post. And I have gotten out of bed every day and fought the battle that needed fighting. As well as being immensely proud of my children, I am also content with my own efforts. Our son and daughters in law are no less deserving; I am also very proud of them.
My answers may not be the solution for anyone else. But the answer for me--taken from a very wise man--is to "alternate feet."

The Sage

I suppose it is somewhat inverse to refer to someone, who is your junior and someone whose diapers you changed, as a sage but it is appropriate in this setting. Jaren is my inspiration and the reason I decided to start a blog. A few months ago, I didn't know what a "blog" was. I was first introduced to the concept by my daughter, Jennica's, blog. But I didn't want one of my own because I am a private person and don't really want to share myself with just "anyone." Then I learned that unless you give someone your blog address, just "anyone" can't find it. Soon Jaren started a blog and the concept became multi-dimensional. The final selling point however, was Jaren's saying he did not write his blog for anyone but himself. It gave him a venue for writing each day. He didn't care if anyone read it or not. Of course, the people who read his blog care because he is informative, funny, sometimes crass, and always a delightful writer.

Aha. I have latent tendencies toward writing. When I'm alone, I form thoughts and then often "rewrite" them for clarity on a page. Though this is totally cerebral, on some level I'm always writing. In reality, the only creative writing I've done for the last three years is in my notes on clients. My profession is psychosocial rehabilitation (glorified baby sitter.) Because one cannot write that they took their client swimming two times this week because that was the only way to get that client to take a shower. And at forty degrees below, it's hard to justify to one's client why you're driving with the windows down. So the creativeness comes in wording your note to say "PRS taught client social/hygiene skills."

Now I have a fun and novel was to vent via posts on a blog. Thanks Jaren.

Additionally, Jaren inspires me in countless other ways. Just before his moving with his family to Louisville, Ky. we were able to share with other family members the opportunity to do the temple work that Johnny so desired to have completed. While Jaren was in Kentucky, we visited cemeteries and found the graves of great and great-great grandparents as well as aunts and uncles and cousins. We went to the library in Leitchfield, where Johnny spent some years as a boy, and found many family names whose graves we were then able to find. We visited a distant cousin, Kathy Kolle, and received from her generosity many many more names. Driving into her driveway and watching her walk to meet us was like driving into the Watson gene pool.

Jaren took me to a theatre in the round where we had to traverse through small mouse tunnels to get to the theatre. We shared in my fascination for Chaim Potok and watched "The Chosen." And Jaren became intrigued. We viewed tall buildings from a roof top parking garage at night and laughed about the mouse tunnels. Jaren introduced me to a friend and told said friend that someday he would like to co-author a book with me. We went to an aquarium, and on another day, we spontaneously left a pool party at Marshall Hawkes and drove his little family to spend two nights in a tent on a beach in Florida where Jaren and Claire periodically went crab hunting (successfully). Charity and Claire were both converted to our love of watching and playing in the waves. I love the excitement he has instilled in his small children for diverse animal life. Jaren taught me how to make a book and we searched for paper until we found Lokta paper (hand made in Nepal) at a store named Sitori.

In Tucson, he took me atop a mountain to take pictures of the sunset and his lovely little Claire. He verbalizes without embarrassment his great love for his wife, Charity. He plays with his children in tender and stimulating ways, while constantly teaching them and expanding their horizons.

And where else would you find a daddy who would sleep outside because his kids pet kitty has disappeared and he wants to be there in case in comes home in the middle of the night.

As you can see I still have things to learn about placement of pictures in my blog making, but I can just ask Jaren, my son, my mentor, my friend.

The 2007 Rush Triathlon

I intended to start my blog days ago, but technical problems prevailed. Thus my first published post will be a tribute to my two daughters who yesterday proved (once again) that Watsons still have the indomitable spirit that has been a trademark for decades. They dominated the field at the 2007 Rush Triathlon. Jennica (Hirrlinger) placed 2nd overall in the female division and 7th place total overall. She took over 6 minutes off her time of last year. Forgive my diversion to give some helpful information to provide some additional perspective. After the race last year, several people complained that the run portion of the race was not challenging enough. The result--a change in the course to include a difficult off-road uphill section on loose dirt. Additionally last year a woman, Barbara Lindquist, an Olympic marathoner handed out the awards and promised to be back this year to do the Olympic Distance. She was true to her promise and she destroyed the entire field in that distance. She also brought a friend with her, a woman who trains with Barb and is specialized in trail racing. She is the woman who beat Jen by just seconds. Now, I'm not including that portion to give Jen an excuse, but rather to express my amazement that someone as rigourously trained as this woman only inched by Jennica on the uphill run. I have watched both Jen and Lisa train--during our week in Cabo and for the last 10 days in Rexburg. They push and pull and support each other and love each other as no two other sisters I know.
Lisa collapsed on a training run just after we got home from Cabo. She did not know she had an ulcer. It perforated and she landed in the E.R. and later in surgery. In spite of all worry and concern from her mother (what's new) she was determined she would still do the Rush. She said she just wanted to finish and she didn't care if she had to walk. Sure, Lisa. Lisa took over a minute off her time from last year--finished third in her age division and 24th overall. Six weeks after major surgery and sporting a 5-6 inch incision on her abdomen, she still out-performed over 170 people.
I am so proud of these two friends. They deserve emulation on many fronts.
And so next time I will address my inspiration for starting a blog, my son Jaren.