Ellie: Always in our heart.

So this is probably going to be a little more serious than my last entry. Reason for this, is because it is something that happen recently to my family and I. On Friday, October 17^th, I was about to leave work. I checked my phone as usual before I left and there was a text message. The message stated “Bye Bye Ellie.” My first thought was Ellie our youngest dog, had run off. I wasn't fearful, worried yes, at least a little, but not fearful. Ellie had been living with us for a year permanently.

See, Ellie was a rescued dog. When my wife was rescuing dogs, she wanted to be able to give them to families who had a special needs child or were special needs themselves. But if others were interested in the dogs, then they could take them. The last trip that was made to rescue, there was a litter of pups that had arrived but weren't supposed to be. The litter was of five pups, four girls and one boy. Ellie was one of them. When Ellie arrived she was about six weeks old, and malnourished. We got all five of those puppies back into good health, and saw them get great homes.

Our other dog, Lilly we have had for over seven years, so we knew she was getting up there in age. So Ellie was the last one to receive a permanent home. She ended up getting a bit bigger than our Lilly did, but Lilly seem to have a renewed sense of vigor with Ellie around. They got along great unless Ellie did something Lilly knew that she wasn't supposed to do. Ellie love to like faces of my grandchildren and my nieces. But Ellie didn't like unknown animals wandering near the property where ever we lived, this include wild turkeys and deer.

So when I got that text message, it was just as I stated. I was going to head home and start looking for her. My wife had also texted me that the backdoor of our residence was somewhat open. She had left that morning after I did for work. So only the dogs were home. The doors were locked, so someone had to have come and try to get in. As I was making my way home, I kept an eye out for Ellie, but with the rain we were getting and sun starting to set much earlier now, it was hard to look for her especially on the road we live on. What I didn't know at the time was that two law enforcement officers had arrived on the scene. Also my landlord was at the house too. She should have been at the rehearsal dinner that night with her daughter who was getting married the next day. I finally managed to park the car, got out and put my stuff away from work, and grabbed a bite to eat.

That is when I was told that I needed to help my son pick up Ellie from the side of the road. She had been hit, either by a car or a blunt object. My heart sank. The control I had over my emotions was starting to fade. I walked outside to get a pair of gloves to go and help pick up our Ellie. I broke down. I couldn't hold it in anymore. Ellie was a part of this family, even if she was a dog. The law enforcement officials say that they can’t do anything about the murder of a dog because there is no way to prove it with the incident happening out at the road. But what I do hope is that Ellie did her job in protecting our residence and chase whoever it was away. Our dogs aren't vicious but they aren't pushovers either.

On Saturday morning, our landlord’s boys came down and put Ellie in her final resting spot. She out by one of the big tree’s in our front yard. She will always be our dog, and there is no replacing her. Now, I could be mad, in which I am. This incident not only disrupted our family life on a permanent level, but it disrupted the life of our landlord on a weekend that was supposed to be special for her daughter. But see, God already knew the results of what was going to happen, but it is how we react and deal with the results is what determines our character. The person who did this, if ever caught will be charged with trespassing, they will go on and pay for their crime, and be able to live the rest of their life. Ellie, she lived her life, and God gave us her to have for a time. We could go on and continue to be mad, or we can go on and be thankful for the memories that we have had with her. Thank you Lord for the memories that we were able to create with Ellie.

Readers if you know any of the people in this story other than me and my family, I ask that you keep this to yourself. It is why I haven't mention any names other than my dog. This blog is meant for me to get things off of my chest. As sad and serious as this may be, there were a lot of great memories and things that Ellie gave us and taught us about herself.

Voter ID Law, why is this a no-brainer.

We all know that we live in a crazy mixed up world. Some take it seriously and live by every word that is spoken. Some don’t care at all, and the opinion of others, is not something to live by. Others use a common sense approach, based on facts, as well as the opinions of others as long as they are backed by facts that can be proven. Others seek spiritual knowledge of enlightenment of one following or another. Well this blog-er, does seek spiritual knowledge from God. I acknowledge Him as my Lord and Creator. I believed He loved this world so much and His creation that He knew before Adam and Eve were created that He was going to have to have a plan of salvation. But this is not all about Christ and what He has done for me lately. But I also consider myself a conservative. I believe in capitalism, in sarcasm, and having a good laugh.

So as this is the first blog entry of this blog, I feel the need to talk about this: silly season. Yes, silly season is upon us again. Now, before any of you start asking what silly season is, let me define what I am calling silly season. Silly Season is termed by NASCAR in which basically drivers who are in the last year of their contract start talking to other organizations or the organization they currently drive for in getting a new contract or contract extension. Normally this starts in the second half of the season, but not uncommon after the first few races into the current season. Silly season also deals with sponsorship changing too. But I am not referring to NASCAR. I am going to refer to something else: POLITICS.

I know it is a nasty word, and one that we can’t seem to do anything about. Silly season is me referring to this year 2014 being an election year more on the state level, with a few federal races going on. See, silly season in politics starts, I don’t know, let us say a year and a half before the election. See here in Wisconsin, the race for governor is in full swing, with just less than a month away from the actual election. But I am not going to sway you the reader into who you should vote. But I am going to bring up something that I think should be happening, which I believe is more common sense than anything else: proving who you are who you say you are, otherwise known as the now defunct Voter ID Law, in which on Monday October, 6, 2014 the federal appellate circuit court of appeals stated that Wisconsin’s Voter ID Law is constitutional and can be enforced, only in the fastest turn around I have ever seen in the judicial process, be overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States. This was turned down by a vote of 6-3. The bench is 5-4 Republican to Democrat. What this tells me is that two Republicans have decided that they needed to be moderate.

But why was this turned down? What is the problem with identifying yourself when you go and vote? I was involved earlier today with some friends from my early childhood days. Some of the things that were brought up were that you need an ID for is: alcohol purchase, tobacco purchase, car purchase, gun purchase, and in the military you are given an ID to help identify you when you are in civilian clothes on any military base. You even need to identify yourself when you enter into another country and back into our great nation. So why not voting? One of my friends stated that he pulled a fast one on a person at the poll by giving his neighbor’s name instead of his own. The person was just about to cross off that name when he stopped them. Here is just one instance in which an ID requirement would have been useful. I myself, the last few times I have gone to the polls, have presented my ID to make sure it is me that is voting in my place and I am not voting in somebody else’s place or somebody else in mine. In the information technology world, there are ways of identifying yourself when you log on to your home computer, in the case of having multiple users, or at work when logging on to the company’s network. These can become more stringent in the use of biometric enhancements (retina scanning, facial recognition, finger scan, thumb scan, or hand scan). But yet we are told that in Wisconsin, you don’t need an ID to vote, but you need one to get human services help, like food stamps. Heck you need to be able to prove who you are when you get hired for work by a company. Why is voting have to be different? This law isn’t about protecting Republicans, but Democrats as well. It is a way of keeping balance without risking security.

Texas was included in last night’s decision and their law was turned down too. Texas plans on upholding their law despite the decision of the Supreme Court. This is according to conservativetribune.com in a post on Facebook just on October 10, 2014. Now, I don’t know if Wisconsin could be able to do this, but in Texas you go big or you just don’t go. Why? Because according to Texas, everything is bigger in Texas. And that must mean kahunas as well.

So what is going to happen? Well we will go on living day to day, until the cases in up in the hundreds where people haven’t been able to vote only because somebody else has voted in their place, or a serious amount of dead people have suddenly risen from the grave to appear at the polls, to cast their votes only to go back to sleep for two more years. So what is the cost of an ID, very little to free, a trip to the DMV and maybe an hour of your time spent there. But we won’t talk about the DMV. We will save that for another time.

Things happen in our great nation on a day to day basis, some make you go “Thank God, I live in the United States of America” and other times, you are scratching your head and saying “Huh?” But as long as we use common sense then we shouldn’t need a sign to remind us that coffee is hot.