Hey hey Uploaded because there is no live version so far … Enjoy I do not own this song or it's lyrics, nor do I claim ownership of this song or it's lyrics. Porcupine Tree – Open Car, live in Chicago, published in 2005 Somewhere Porcupine Tree Taken from the DVD "Arriving …", in 2007. Enjoy! -Joel

Thanks To : home truckcar.wordpress.com motorcycle.blogs.thaihealth.net

What a great night last night! Turtle Bay had a “Winter Wonderland” event, and brought some animal friends out to play: Cricket the Barn Owl, Nikita the Skreech Owl, and Spike the Porcupine!

Tail stinger + quills =

Porcuray

Well, that whole orchid kick got a little away with me. I hadn’t really intended to turn it into four posts when I found the helleborine stalks in the woods. And I cut myself short: I’m sure I could have rambled for a week on the subject if I’d wanted to. But I’m moving on now, to other things I’ve seen recently. On the same outing as I found the helleborines, I came across this tree trunk that had been gnawed away at by something. As I was stepping back to take a photo, Raven came over to check it out. She’s never one to pass up a photo op, whether invited or not. It does give you a sense of scale (she’s a 45lb dog). The damage extended about two feet (60cm) up the tree. It’s the work of a porcupine, which switch to bark as a primary staple in the colder winter months, when there aren’t green foods available.

The tree itself is a beech, so told by the smoothish gray bark, and it’s an oldish one. Judging from the diameter I’d guess it to be 60-80 years. It stands along an old fenceline, presumably the original fences from when the land used to be clear, and the forest has grown in around it again. I’ve noticed a few such trees in the forest. Damage like this on a smaller, younger tree might kill it, but this mature individual will likely just seal over the wound and keep on truckin’. Just like when you’re feeling stressed out, though, it will weaken the tree while it pulls through and make it more susceptible to diseases or other stressors such as caterpillar outbreaks.

It’s interesting to note that there are two colours to the damaged area. The upper part, a small band across the top, is a lighter, brighter colour than the lower part. This suggests that the damage was done in two stages: the lower part was the porcupine’s first visit, and then it came back a day or two later, after the first part had already started to dry out, and chewed off a bit more.

The porcupine would have chewed off the outer bark, which is tough and not very nutritionally useful, to get to the softer inner bark. The inner bark also contains some of the tree’s network of food transport tubes, called xylem and phloem, which like our veins move nutrients and oxygen throughout our body, contained within our blood. The outer bark acts like the tree’s skin, protecting the inner tissue. The damage exacted here by the porcupine is not dissimilar to if we fell and scraped our knee. The skin is peeled back to expose the soft tissue underneath, which then bleeds because the network of blood vessels has been torn. Before the tubes “clot” shut, some sap is lost, making the wound feel tacky, just like a scraped knee would be as it clots. It was a moderately warm day out, by mid-November standards, and a few flies had been attracted to the sweet sap on the recently-damaged part.

Of all the items I have collected over the years, I have to confess that it is my galavanized pieces that give me the greatest pleasure.  I am particularly fond of the elegant French flower shop containers and have them in an array of sizes from short to very tall.  Galvanized pieces look really great when massed together as I have done here on this antique Swedish dining table in my shop.  Years of use have given all these pieces great patina and mottling – from the palest silver to dark grey. 

At this time of year it’s very effective to fill the French flower containers with bare tree branches.  Delicate birch twigs are very RC in these type of vessels but so are the briar-laden stems with pods I call Porcupine Eggs shown in my photo at the top.  I actually do not know the proper name for them.  Being from the South, they look like cockelburs on steroids to me.  But I thought they were very rustic chic in themselves and a bit unexpected for a “floral arrangement”.

I actually found a group of the Porcupine Eggs growing (dried out, is more accurate) on the side of a dirt road.  I slammed on the brakes and ran over to grab one.  A few Band-Aids later (they’re extremely prickly) and a return trip with clippers and garden gloves and they were mine for the taking.  

As they were arranged in one of the French flower containers, the Porcupine Eggs took on a very appealing, very sculptural quality.  They were ready for their close up when I placed them against the antique Duke of Devonshire sepia prints and the palette of silver to grey to brown appeared very hushed and autumnal.

It’s also interesting to mix different types of galvanized pieces together - like the egg basket shown in the shot below (which makes a great wood basket for the fireplace) with the galvanized tub (which makes a terrific magazine holder). 

A spark of orange, in this case linen upholstery on a painted bench, gives a bit of unexpected punch.  I think the bench has quite a galvanizing effect that is also rustic chic, no? 

All photos by Joel Woodard

I am writing this from my bedroom.   I have no idea whether I am going to be able to upload this online – so far my attempts to upload using the password “hotel1” have failed, so it may well have to wait for my return.  Funny to have connections problems when the research says that Pakistan has the biggest WiMax network in the world.  I guess no-one has switched it on yet.  It’s the communicators wet dream – the big red switch that opens up global communications…TURN THE WIMAX ON.

I thought  I would share with you some glimpses of my ride back from the airport in Rawalpindi.  Just a couple of average street scenes.  No dramas, no speeding, no jams.  Although I do love the image of the guy using his mobile phone on the road side as he tries to mitigate for the breakdown of his rather ornate vehicle.

The drive back was fairly dull – and try as I might to capture the dramas of the city out the window of the rather imposing bus I was travelling in, the dramas didn’t exist, and it was a fairly mundane event.  I blogged briefly before on my feelings that Islamabad is not the heart beat of the nation.  As every day goes by I am more inclined to believe this.  It’s more of a dull pulse. I did go a to two separate French restaurants two days in a row – which unsurprisingly still produced  no dramatic revelations.  French food was certainly not my choice – oh to ramble alone – but Nomadic has company this time.

The climate is sunny but tepid, still and fresh.  The streets are laden with security guards exercising their biceps by lifting ropey barriers.  Eagles circle and crows murder, but nothing really seems to happen.

The most exciting development was discovering that the streets are edged with wild marijuana. Begs the question why everyone isn’t more stoned.  And very late last night I spotted a rather brusque looking porcupine.  It looked like a character from “The Village”, and was the size of a Labrador, and merrily ambled on during closer inspection.

I really hope to report more next time, but one thing is clear in my mind – I want to come back.  To explore this nation beyond the bland capital, come mountain or valley (both plentiful), come rain or shine – I want to know more.

1. “Deadwing (feat. Adrian Belew, Mikael Åkerfeldt)”
2. “Shallow”
3. “Lazarus (feat. Mikael Åkerfeldt)”
4. “Halo (feat. Adrian Belew)”
5. “Arriving Somewhere but Not Here (feat. Mikael Åkerfeldt)”
6. “Mellotron Scratch”
7. “Open Car”
8. “The Start of Something Beautiful”
9. “Glass Arm Shattering”

More @ Wikipedia

Even if you were a million miles away
I could still feel you in my bed
Near me, touch me, feel me
And even in the bottom of the sea
I can still hear inside my head
Telling me, touch me, feel me
And all the time you were telling me lies

So tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you
Tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you
I’m gonna hold onto the times that we had
Tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you

Have you ever tried sleeping with a broken heart
Well you can try sleeping in my bed
Lonely, only, nobody ever shut it down like you
You wore the crown, you make my body feel heaven-bound
Why don’t you hold me, need me, I thought you told me
You’d never leave me

Looking in the sky I can see your face
And i knew right where I’d fit in
Take me, make me
You know that I’ll always be in love with you
Right til the end

So tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you
Tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you
I’m gonna hold onto the times that we had
Tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you

Anybody could have told you right from the start
It’s bout fall apart
So rather than hold onto a broken dream
Or just hold onto love
And I could find a way to make it
Don’t hold on too tight
I’ll make it without you tonight

So tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you
Tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you
I’m gonna hold onto the times that we had
Tonight I’m gonna find a way to make it without you

-alicia keys-

the saddest part is, till tonight, i cant and i found myself not gonna find a way to make it without you. am i just that into you, dear porcupine?

PS: suddenly this song title appear on my twitdeck from Mr. Darren Hayes. He said it’s the best song for this year. and yes.. it’s soooooooo good.

another songs heard: cemburu menguras hati by vidi aldiano, as lovers go by dashboard confessional

In the late-’70s and early-’80s, following hot on the trails of punk rock, a new musical movement developed on both coasts of the Atlantic. The artists and bands associated with it shunned punk’s noise for a more layered, introverted songwriting and instrumentality. The movement brought with it synthesizers, Krautrock influences, as well as a more complex and experimental approach to music-making. In doing so, they set the wheels in motion for the eventual surge in ’80s and ’90s alternative rock. History has labeled this movement post-punk.

So what’s the very best of post-punk? 20 Watts’ CHRIS PARKER has the answer in our seventh 20 installment. Watch for new 20s each Thursday, only on 20 Watts, and check out our previous 20s below!

LEISURE
During the interregnum, between retirement and re-employment, I got a chance to live in the country side and learn about rural life and customs.
The Kannadigas, as the people of Karnataka are called, are a lovable, emotional people, very friendly to strangers,courteous and polite. Once I asked something in Hindi, to a group of school going children. They looked at me silently, as if they are deaf. I forgot it and moved on. When they were at some distance, I heard their leader shout from behind: Hindi Nahi Atha.

 
There are two roads from Karwar to the Plant Site. One is along the left side, the route we went in project vehicles, as it is more convenient. The other route on the right bank(when viewed from Karwar) is more grand, as the road is closer to the river, which inundates a large area of the adjoining plain, being low lying and marshy. The villages are small and far from each other. Once I saw the thorns of a porcupine which must have been shot by men . I collected the colourful, smooth thorns, sharp at one end, but my wife threw it awy as something unlucky to keep.
I had heard of Yakshagana.
Then, I actually saw the tent etc. though I was reluctant to go inside. The language cannot be understood. I t is somewhat similar to Ramleela of the north. The tickets are costly. Ramleela is free. There was good response from the public.

Another notable event was a festival in which the lady of the house comes out, with a lighted earthen lamp, duly escorted by the family members. Near our hut, was an improvised temple, for which the base platform is made of concrete, entirely manned by children, during  these days. Once, myself and wife attended the arti and received prasad, very tasty. We gave  money by placing it near the deity. I was indifferent, or else, I could have collected all details about such festivals.
Work in the office was really back breaking. For the first time in my life, I did real work.
In the audit offices, there was hardly three day’s work, when I was a clerk, except when we go on inspections. After becoming audior, it was only supervision. (Now, these terms have been changed. We were ashamed to be called upper division clerk. So  our association took up the matter with  the Controller and Auditor General, who graciously now calls UDC as Auditor, auditor  as Section Officer, Chief Auditor as Director Of Adit etc.)
After becoming Accouts Officer, my main work was signing of letters, notes, initialling of papers received in the office etc. My table was always clear and I used to sit idle or read some book, as I did not know how to be busy without any work!
Now, in Konkan railway, I had to check and pass all cotractors’ bills received every day. I am a workaholic and I enjoyed my new assignment. I became famialiar with all the works going on in Karwar section, icluding earth work, bridges and tunnels
.
There is a Hanuman temple near our office at Karwar, before we shifted to Shirwad, now the railway station, and I used to pray there as soos a I got down from th bus. Afterwards I saw the big, ancient temple of Lord  Ram opposite. The former was very small, and devotees had to stand in rain during monsoon. I gave Rs. 500 to our works supervisor and requested him to do the needful to initiate action by the poojari, for construction of a small shelter, by collecting money.
After several years, I saw a fairly big hall there! I felt gratified.
Each division has a Chief Engineer and Raju, a Keralite, was our chief. He approves payments, which we have to honour. My Accounts Officer told me to forget”audit”. I forgot it then and there!

 We used to make payment of bills, for which there is no agreement, at least about rates.
Sreedharan’s word is the law. He is a workaholic, with a mania about target dates. He believed that Accounts is interested in delaying payments and considered them as enemies. So he clipped our wings.
Explosives were being purchased on a large scale for blasting rocks for tunnelling works. We were concerned only with recovery of the cost from contractors. Now, it comes to my mind, that some technical check regarding the quantity required for the works, were also reqired, as these are not available in the open market without licence. They could easily draw more and sell it at black market rates. Now there is the added risks of the material going into the hands of terrorists. I wonder if Audit is aware of  it.

An Engineer in charge of tunnel survey, for which they have to cross the mountan, used to come to me. He offered to take me along, during his mountaineering trip, but it never became a reality.
I did climb the mountain,which is near our office at Shirwad. As the tunnel was yet to be completed, we went around in a bus, and then by walk, till we reached the base. The villagers pointed out a way up, as they used to go there, probably for wood. When we reached the top, it was like an embankment of pure rock, through which a stream flows in the rainy season. Now it was dry. Going upstream, we came across some thing like a steep wall of rock. In the rainy season it was a water fall.
We proceeded further, in spite of protests by my wife. After some time, we came across a pond in the midle of the river, all rock only here, and it was the most beautiful pond I have ever seen. The water, some ten feet deep, was clear as ladies’ tears. I coud see a small pebble at the bottom. I waned to jump into it; but all others dissuaded me as it was getting dark. My friend was afraid that pythons may be around, which was quite a possibility. So we hurried back home.

Messenger bags by Rainbow Swirlz ;o)

This little porcupine has been wandering around our yard lately. Our dog Jake has chased after him a couple of times but luckly we’ve been able intervene before Jake got himself poked.  I got about 5 feet away for this picture.

Hereunder is an article published in the Boston Globe:

Former diplomat denies oil dealings influenced views

Galbraith helped Iraqi Kurds keep rights to fields

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/10/15/former_diplomat_denies_iraqi_oil_dealings_influenced_views/?page=full

By Farah Stockman

Globe Staff / October 15, 2009

WASHINGTON – Peter Galbraith, a former American diplomat who has been among the most forceful advocates for Iraqi Kurds to retain control over the oil in their region, acknowledged yesterday that he has had business dealings involving oil companies in Iraqi Kurdistan since 2004.

But Galbraith, a key adviser to Iraqi Kurdish politicians who also helped shape US public opinion on Iraq with his writings, said his business relationships did not drive his support for the Kurdish cause, or present a conflict of interest, because he was working as a private citizen at the time.

“The business interest, including my investment into Kurdistan, was consistent with my political views,’’ he told the Globe. “These were all things that I was promoting, and in fact, have brought considerable benefit to the people of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan oil industry, and also to shareholders.’’

It is not illegal or unheard of for former US officials to do business with people they worked with during their time in government. But ethical questions often arise when such dealings become public.

Some analysts said yesterday that Galbraith stood to gain personally from language that he helped draft for the Iraqi Constitution when he was advising Kurdish leaders during negotiations with Iraqi and US officials in 2005. They said his business ties should have been publicly disclosed at the time.

“Galbraith has been such a central person to the shaping of the Iraqi Constitution, far more than I think most Americans realize,’’ said Reider Visser, a historian of southern Iraq and who edits the Iraq-focused website, www.historiae.org. “All those beautiful ideas about principles of federalism and local communities having control are really cast in a different light when the community has an oil field in its midst and Mr. Galbraith has a financial stake.’’

Galbraith said in a telephone interview that Kurdish leaders knew of his oil interests, but he was not under any obligation to tell the US and Iraqi officials involved in the negotiations.

The controversy is the latest twist in a high-stakes struggle between Iraq’s Kurds and the central government over oil, the biggest source of the nation’s wealth. In December, the government plans to auction 10 undeveloped oil fields believed to contain reserves worth about $3 trillion at current prices.

It is also another chapter in the storied life of a man who has played many powerful roles.

Galbraith, the son of famed Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, lives in Vermont and mulled a run for governor there earlier this year. Instead, he took a job as a top United Nations official in Afghanistan, but was fired late last month after accusing his boss of covering up election fraud to protect President Hamid Karzai.

Iraq has been a main focus of Galbraith’s career.

His ties to Iraqi Kurdistan date back to the 1980s, when he traveled there as a staffer for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to research Saddam Hussein’s genocidal attacks on Kurds. Galbraith’s research bolstered support for a US no-fly zone that allowed Iraqi Kurds to set up their own de facto government. In 1993, Galbraith was appointed US ambassador to Croatia, where he became even more deeply convinced that some ethnic minorities should be allowed to govern their own affairs.

In late 2002, as the Bush administration began preparing to invade Iraq, Galbraith worked as a professor at the Naval War College and gave advice to then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz on how to handle problems in Kurdistan. But within months of the invasion, Galbraith left the US government and became one of its critics.

In speeches, meetings with US officials, and articles in the New York Review of Books, Galbraith said Kurds should be given maximum autonomy and should have the right to develop their own oil fields, free of control by Iraq’s central government.

But the same time, Galbraith was quietly entering into business deals that gave him a financial stake in the positions he was advocating. In late 2003 and early 2004, he worked as a paid consultant to Kurdish politicians, advising them on legal language they should seek to insert into Iraqi laws to keep future oil development under their control. Later, in 2005, he advised them again on an unpaid basis.

On June 23, 2004, Galbraith and his son, Andrew, registered a Delaware partnership called Porcupine, which entered into a business arrangement with DNO, a Norwegian oil company, according to company documents and a statement recently circulated by Porcupine.

Two days after Porcupine was established, the Kurdistan Regional Government signed a contract to develop Kurdistan’s first oil field with DNO, ushering in a potential economic windfall for the semiautonomous region. DNO eventually struck oil, and currently owns a 55 percent stake in the Tawke field.

But Iraq’s central government has refused to accept the legality of its agreement, creating a heated standoff that has stopped the flow of oil from Kurdistan in recent days.

Rumors of Galbraith’s financial dealings in Iraq have swirled for years. But the level of his involvement was not publicly known until last weekend, when Dagens Naeringsliv, Norway’s largest business newspaper, reported that Porcupine was seeking compensation from DNO in a closed-door arbitration proceeding in London.

Ben Willey, a DNO spokesman, said the company had been “introduced to the Kurdistan opportunity back in 2003 and 2004 by a third party’’ he declined to name. He said the Kurdistan Regional Government gave that third party a 5 percent stake in the DNO deal in 2004, but that the contract was renegotiated last year and “somebody lost out.’’

Now, Willey said, that third party is asking for compensation from DNO, which is set to export roughly 43,000 barrels a day from Kurdistan, earning approximately $30 million annually. Dagens Naeringsliv, said that besides Porcupine, a wealthy Yemeni businessman is also seeking compensation.

Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who closely follows Iraq, said the DNO deal could pose an ethical problem because Galbraith “played a significant role’’ in helping to draft constitutional provisions that gave the Kurds control over 100 percent of new oil development.

But Galbraith said yesterday his role in the constitutional negotiations was unpaid and informal, and therefore he was under no obligation to disclose his business interests to the US or Iraqi governments. He also said confidentiality agreements prevented him from publicly disclosing details of the business.

Galbraith said he did make a full disclosure to the UN before his recent job in Afghanistan. A UN official, however, said he was hired over the objections of some officials who believed he was too close to Kurdish leaders seeking to break away from Iraq, a UN member state.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Berada di sebelah utara dusun dasan baru, goa ini sekaligus menjadi pembatas antara dusun dasan baru dengan dusun nyangget. Goa ini merupakan tempat berlindung masyarakat dasan baru dari serangan penjajah belanda maupun jepang. Juga di gunakan sebagai tempat penyimpanan hasil panen agar tidak di rampas oleh penjajah. Goa ini di perkirakan memiliki kedalam sekitar 200m. Namun sekarang mulut goa ini sudah mulai sempit karena tertimbun tanh.ke part2

A couple of days ago we had some nice sunny weather, so for a break I took Raven down the road to the 100-acre woods. Raven was feeling her oats and all over the place. I decided to strike off off-trail to wander around and see what I could turn up. So often you encounter things that you either wouldn’t have noticed from the trail, or don’t happen to be near enough to the trail to be seen. This happened to be one of them. Raven had hurried up into a swath of deciduous trees, mostly maples, not far ahead in the forest. I thought I could hear the sounds of something climbing up a tree, and thought perhaps she’d cornered a raccoon. As I drew nearer, I just caught a glimpse of a prickly porcupine butt disappearing into a hollow in the huge maple. Despite trying to tell Raven that she wouldn’t have a lot of fun playing with a porcupine, and the porcupine didn’t want to play with her, besides, she continued to stand at the edge of the tree and whine (which is how I know it’s a “I want to meet you!” and not “What the heck is that scary thing??”, which elicits some barking, or “Omigod something evil is coming this way!”, which causes her to puff up her hackles and growl; she doesn’t seem to have a setting for “I don’t want you here, go away or I’ll chase you!”, at least that we’ve ever noticed).

Back in the spring Dan and I encountered a porcupine in Frontenac Provincial Park that scurried up a tree and sat, allowing me to get a few shots. Comparing those photos to this individual, it looks like this guy may have had a run-in with something else recently, perhaps a coyote or somebody’s dog. Its rump and upper tail are missing all the pale-coloured quills that are its primary defense, leaving a dark brown patch. After a few moments waiting in the tree cavity hoping we’d go away (we weren’t, I was trying to find a better vantage point where I could get a photo of the fuzzy bit of quills poking out of the cavity, since I’d missed getting a photo of him going in), he decided perhaps he would be a bit safer higher up in the tree, and hauled himself out again to climb up a bit farther. We left him alone after snapping this photo, much to Raven’s disappointment. If you’re interested in more of the life history of porcupines, visit my spring post.

Clenching my fists and breathing heavily. 2 hours into arranging a dinner appointment with porcupine and nothing confirmed. This is getting stupidly ridiculous:
a)    Why ask for preferred time,
b)    Why ask for preferred place,
c)    Then replied she would like another place instead,
d)    Then the final nonsense is that she couldn’t confirm now because she need to get her kids some toys
I knew it is her way of getting back at me. How many times I have to endure before she call it even.

Welcome to the jungle (fake plastic one!)

Hey, I actually made some progress today – feels good! You know how sometimes, despite best intentions, time just flitters away? Well, today I managed to make use of every minute – profitably even. The printer has been in communication and apart from getting the title of Joe’s book wrong on the spine, she seems to be doing a reasonably good job. We’re not quite there yet but the finishing post is in sight. Then there will another book to be dealt with but with less involvement from me as it is in Hungarian. It’s the story of Joe’s early life of terrible poverty in Budapest in the late 30s and during the war. My job will be lay-out and embedding pictures. Sneaky things, pictures. They drift away when you’re not looking and bury their captions under piles of text. Actually I’m going to take the whole text and dump it into MS Publisher where it will be more controllable. Sorry for the techie stuff.

Although the weather was rather dreich (good Scots word) again today but we went for a walk in the woods. Charlie was with us as usual but we got him ever so confused by walking the wrong way round the loop we usually take. We were pretty well at the halfway point when I noticed, strolling towards us, a big fat porcupine. He certainly didn’t look particularly alarmed by our presence but Charlie saw him and immediately bushed right up like a Hallowe’en cat and I thought we might be in for trouble. Wanting to save our kitty from a painful injection of porcupine spines, and ourselves from a painful vet bill for removing them, we further confused the cat by reversing our direction and leaving the porcupine to go about its leisurely business. No wonder so many get squished on the road, they go so slowly.

Our pricky pal, Pete, the Porc

It was a busy day around the Bradford/Winsor Nature Zoo. Two pretty deer were in the garden this morning, chomping apples again. Ginger/Oliver turned up for dinner this evening and as I reliably always do, I laid out a fine repast for him at which he launched himself enthusiastically. I guess I gave him too much and he left some on his plate for later there was a hell of a racket just outside the living-room window. I knew Charlie was outside so I wondered what he’d got himself into and hurried to find three raccoons in the porch fighting over Ginger/Oliver’s leavings. I despatched them rapidly so no time for cameras and cute raccoon shots. Have you seentheir fingernails? Also they have a nasty habit of pooping while they eat. Not this time, I’m glad to see.

The evening has been spent working out menus for the Thanksgiving weekend. Planning is necessary when you can’t just pop to the store for something you forgot. Jamie, Angela, Deklin and Magnus the Golden come on Friday. First visit for the new baby. I’m excited

“From me to you Wednesdays” is gonna be a new segment for this blog where I tell you random tips and quotes and stuff (like vids and pics) on Wednesdays.

Tips from me to you:
-When hiding dead bodies inside someone’s cars, always put an air freshener on the rear view mirror for free.

-If you’re own a stuffed toy animal company, don’t make stuffed porcupines fluffy. Parents would sue you when their kids touch a real porcupine thinking they’re soft.

Quotes from me to you:

-”I wonder if the aliens are edible…”
-Gordon Freeman (Ross Scott)
Freeman’s Mind Episode 16
(http://bit.ly/42vPW7 )

As a veterinarian, I’m often asked, do any dogs scare you?   Like Rottweilers?
Or Pit Bulls?  And the answer is forever “no way!”  I’ve had two questionable moments with Rottweilers.

I should not have been at work the first time.  I had 103F fever, and the Rottie’s parents dropped his leash as he dove across the exam room to greet me.  Judging by the pallid look on my face, the dad assured me,”Oh, he would never hurt you.”

I barely managed a feeble,”That’s not what I’m worried about,” when he launched his paws around my neck and licked my face from chin to forehead.  I felt so weak I stumbled against a counter that was thankfully right behind me!

“Oh, sorry. We didn’t realize how strong he could be.”

Seriously?

The second time I had a close encounter of the Rottweiler kind, I was examining a lovely, dusty, axle-grease covered coupla junk-yard Rotts.  The male was twice as big as his lady friend, and I sat on the floor between them to perform the examination.

Again,”He’d never hurt a fly, Doc. But don’t tell the car thieves that he’s a pussy-cat.”

No sooner did I rest the stethoscope on his lady friend than my peripheral vision became disturbingly blocked.  He licked the right side of my face so fast, I didn’t have time to blink!

Ever have your cornea licked by a small, domestic buffalo? Ow!

That brings me to the two Rottweiler brothers who lived in the woods in Maine.  Let’s call them Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum.   This dynamic duo met Mr. Porcupine in the back yard.

Brother One attacked the porcupine and got 30 quills to the face, while Brother Two watched and then decided he needed some pain, too! Bam!  40 quills in 40 seconds!

I sedated the brothers, one after the other, and painstakingly removed 70 quills from their muzzles.

Einstein would have absolutely loved these 2 statistical anomalies, (if not only for the mathematical curiosity) but also the shear anecdotal quality.

So, guess who was back at my office a mere 4 hours later?  Not one, but both Rottweiler brothers with faces full of quills again, twice in the same day!!

All for one and one for all! Viva la Porcupine!

Jon Lajoie is MC Confusing, MC Insecure, MC Public Urination, MC Fatigue, Chorus Guy, MC Doesn’t Know What Irony Is, MC Get Sidetracked Easily, MC Lethal Weapon 1,2 & 3, MC Lethal Weapon 4, MC Shit My Pants Frequently and MC Final Verse in the WTF Collective.  This is truly ridiculous but I can’t hate I know he means well.