What is your favorite season and why?
This turned out to be a much harder question than I expected. I can find delights in every season. I was tempted to say Winter and I certainly like how the world looks in winter, so austere and minimalistic. But there are two main problems. One is that at this time of year I catch colds or the 'flu and the other (perhaps not entirely unrelated with the first) is that I can't convince people (or even my dogs) to go on walks with me in this time of year due to the wind, rain, fog, snow, cold, and so forth.
So, I think the time of year I like best is probably around the first third of Autumn. The trees are beautiful, it's good walking weather with a light sweater, and all of the holiday season is in front of me. It's a bit like that "moment before you eat the honey" which is better than actually eating the honey, to paraphrase a stuffed animal in a children's book. Also, I am "an autumn" in the fashion sense. My complexion works best with fall colors.
Unless we're talking about Vivaldi, in which case Winter is, in fact, my favorite season.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Garden Grove, California (in Palm Harbor Hospital which is now a low income senior apartment complex), which is about a 15 minute drive from Disneyland and a 15 minute drive in another direction from the beach (when there's no traffic... which is never.) My parents were the folk music types in the 1960s, Quakers, and my father was a conscientious objector. My father was also a psychology major and one of the earliest computer technicians, back when computers were the size of my house. He still is a computer technician. He built and runs the computer network for LA County Fire. My mother was a stay at home Mom and then a secretary for the Quaker church and then an administrator for a Quaker retirement home. They are still married. My brother and I grew up in a remarkably stable environment at least where home-life was concerned (at school, turns out nerds get bullied.)
I lived with my folks until a brief stint in a college in Oregon, then I moved back and went to Chapman University, a private, top-tier university with all of the prestige and debt associated with such a thing. After I graduated I moved to Long Beach for a time and waited for my then-fiance to finish college. When she finished college she dumped me. After an aimless year or two I moved to Chico where my brother and his family live. After a few years I fell in love with and married Laurie.
Why do you have a pitbull? Don't you know they are dangerous, evil creatures brought straight from the fires of hell?
In defense of the anonymous person who asked this, this is a valid question as everyone knows that the thinking man's dog is the Schipperke-Chihuahua mix. So, why then did I get an American Staffordshire Terrier before I got a Schipperke-Chihauhau?
Also, this question is the first (and how about we make it the last) instance on this blog of Paul Baiting. Which, as you know, was a very popular sport during the reign of Elizabeth. It involved chaining a Paul by the neck to a post, removing his teeth with pliers, and letting dogs attack him to see which would win. Naturally, the dogs would always win as they were pit bulls which are Nature's own evidence of the existence of the Infernal!
Actually, in all seriousness, Ginger was found by my step-daughter Gina through the Butte County Humane Society when Ginger was five months old. As with all pit bulls, they are not any more aggressive than any other dogs, very sweet and loyal, trusting and seeking to please their masters which, yes, if you're putting this together with the dog fighting ring stories you hear tell about on the sensationalistic television newsfotainment shows, it quickly becomes apparent that mankind is the evil, wicked, violent, dangerous, monstrous species to be capable of betraying the trust of such wonderful animals. I am way more worried about Schubert going nuts and attacking someone someday than I am with Ginger. So, the answer to your question is that we love her and she loves us. She's the best dog I've ever had and the second best dog Laurie's ever had.
Although I do play with the media-fueled hysteria myself, I have to admit. Clearly the person asking the question has never seen the neighborhood in which I live. I think we all sleep easier knowing that the people who wander the streets at all hours can see a pit bull in our window looking out at them. Little do they know, the only bull she behaves anything like is Ferdinand.
If you want to send a question anonymously for me to answer in future postings of this kind on this blog, here's the place to do it: http://www.formspring.com/forms/?805682-tVpvj8P8KQ
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