Neanderpundit

I began this blog in the beginning of 2004. I had previously written an AOHell nanoblog called ‘the love blog”, which lasted a couple of months, but in January, with the help of some very nice people, I managed to start Neanderpundit, my first real, actual blog.

I’m not into design. I mean, I like cool looking websites, but I didn’t want one. I didn’t want the design to detract from what I had to say- in fact, while I don’t often have anything incredibly important to say, I want my words to stand completely on my own. I’m gratified that one of the bloggers I like the most, Velociman, has been doing a blog for several years which is as simple as mine, sans the huge blogroll.

Of course, this morning, he posts that he’s gonna change the design.

I sometimes write about things I find humorous, I sometimes write about things I find disturbing, I sometimes write just to hear myself yap.

I have been lucky enough to attract the notice of folks like Baldilocks, a real power blogger and one of my favorite humans, Francis Poretto, who still baffles me with his wisdom, and Kim Du Toit, whose passion about firearms I share.

Lots of other bloggers have been kind enough to link to me, and I have linked to them in return, and make a point of visiting their blogs every day. All of them contain some fine writing.

One in particular, “region broad” writes a moderate left blog which is more personal than political; while we disagree on many things we can disagree without being disagreeable.

I’ve tried to run a couple of Postal matches, and been met with mixed success. I hope to resume this practice and develop it further, but it seems I must do so in summer, because the last one, around thanksgiving, I only had one actual respondent.

I love dogs. I love stories about dogs. I like reading Rachel’s blog because of her dogs. I miss Porretto’s old site because it had pictures of his dogs.

This year has seen the death of some of my inlaws; my wife had to make the drive to Canada a couple of times to bury a well-loved relative, while I stayed home, worked, cared for the oglet. I ached for the wife’s return and shared her pain, and wrote about it here.

This year has seen the vilification by the press of a lot of people I find beyond reproach. That there is a solid opposition in the press to anyone with conservative ideals is a foregone conclusion, and this year has seen a community of people willing to take those members of the press to task Impressively, that worked. Worked better than one might expect. That sort of thing is the subject of a series of essays Mr Porretto has up on his site, and on which he is taking me to school in private conversation.

This year saw the re-election of a man who is best suited to do the job at hand. A lot of people have buyers remorse about him, but the bottom line is this: Had John Kerry been elected, it would have diminished this great country, and I am pleased that did not happen.

The country has been sharply divided by this election, and in the next four years, I do not expect that division to heal. I look for the next election to be far more contentious, and only vigilance on the part of those who worked so hard in the past will keep that from becoming a big problem.

I have enjoyed the work here, the wonderful commentors, the people nice enough to link to me, the people who came here to say hello. I’ve enjoyed banning the few morons who have wandered this way, and cragerizing their comments to make them seem fools. (though that was hardly ever necessary)

I look forward to a year of personal growth and the increase of my circle of friends- there can hardly be a better way to meet like minded people than to write a blog.

Thanks for coming here, folks. Merry Christmas.

This is a design for a tree stand given to me by a guy I met hunting.

This sucker is easy to build; requires only the following materials:

6 8′ 2×4’s
1 6′ 2×6
50 3″ galvanized deck screws

Anyway, here it is:Click and drag to move it around. It’s butt simple to buld and modify to suit your purposes This will require you to install a simple edrawings viewer, but I promise it’s not a bug. At least, I’ve never had any trouble with it.

This control contains an eDrawing2 file. The eDrawing ActiveX control cannot be used from a Netscape browser. Please use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view this model.

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend and colleague of mine told me a story I didn’t want to hear. A story about a hole in a fence, a story about two missing dogs.

Others in our community sought to cast aspersions, told her to “get over it and move on”, told her “Sooner or later you gotta stop pining and move on with your life”, that kind of thing. All, in my mind, pretty fucking rude.

Me, I sympathised. You see, Thomas, on the left, came to my friend an orphan, with twisted limbs from a condition known as Hypertrophic osteodystrophy, a disease which causes swelling and unspeakable pain in the joints. My friend worked with Thomas every day and made sure he had the meds and nutrition he needed to outgrow his sore paws and become the big healthy mutt you see there. Buster, the other dog, is the son of my friends black lab, a second generation beloved companion.

I understand what it’s like to lose a family pet, for reasons I’d rather just not discuss. Whatever the case, I got the pain, I got the fear, I got the sorrow, I understood.Unfortunately, a dog lost a week is usually a goner, if it doesn’t find it’s way home in a couple of days they’re usually dead.

My friend lives several hundred miles away, and there’s not a damned thing I can do to help, but pray. Pray I do, because I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone.

You see, I got this theory about prayer. I always figure, the Creator listens to billions of prayers a day. A lot of them are from devout, decent people.

I figure my prayers hit harder, work better, because I’m such a right bastard that when God hears me, he listens up: “Wonder what THIS jerk wants?” If it’s not for me, and it’s a reasonable request, I think he sometiomes comes across.

No, this theory probably isn’t right, but it gives me comfort in the small hours when people I care about are hurting.

On the other hand, the dogs are home. After a couple of weeks of searching, and nearly despairing, my friend woke in the night to hear a familiar bark at the front door. The boys came home, skinny and tired, but alive and healthy. They spend a lot of time sleeping and eating now, but they’re home. I’m almost as happy they’re home as they are.

Miracles happen, folks. Merry Christmas!

Update: I don’t want to make it sound like I did this; I did not. Believe me, my friends yearning to have these dogs at home again would have drawn them back home on it’s own, like the relentless drag an Oklahoma trailer park has for a force 4 twister. But still: I will waste NO opportunity to say, once again, Miracles DO happen. Merry Christmas!!!!