Dog Park II. . . I think

  

Sometime  ago I decided to start sharing our dog park adventures. We have been to dog parks in Nevada, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California. Sure, it's fun for the dogs but do you know the amount of quality times we have spent as a family?! We are talking about hundreds of hours of family-only time. Plus when we are traveling going to the dog park motivates us to see parts of the communities we visit that tourists don't normally find themselves.

Take this dog park in a New Orleans suburb. It was definitely in an area not frequented by tourists but it had a perfect view of Lake Pontchartrain, the huge body of water with a 30 miles bridge.You can kind of see it in the photo but the cars are staring out on the water. It wasn't the biggest dog park but any dog park with agility obstacles makes Henry happy. We made a few visits over 2 trips to the Big Easy, talked to some nice people and admired the view. It is hard to see in the photo but it over looks a very flat lake if there is such a thing. As much as I enjoy being back in Las Vegas I miss the proximity we were to New Orleans...what a cool place...and weird.

We just got back from the dog park on Warm Springs and Eastern. Going to any park as a family with a couple of mutts is a Sunday night spent well. Nothing like enjoying a nice crisp evening working on those familial relationships while putting our tax dollars to work. So...if you have a pup, make a memory and take it to the dog park.

Say it ain't so...

 

I am a soldier. I enlisted in the army when I was 17, only a junior in high school. I have served this nation for more than 13 years and plan on serving until they make me take the uniform off for good. During my time in the service I have encountered some of the best (and worst) men and women this country has to offer. Though I have never met him, General David Petraeus is one of the best officers produced in the modern army.

Though he left the army for the CIA 14 months ago his career spanned more than 37 years. He was a West Point grad, married his college sweetheart, earned a PhD from Princeton, became an Army Ranger, took an M-16 bullet in the chest during a training accident and has always been a "PT (physical training) Stud." He literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency in a pretty successful attempt to deal with Iraq and became one of the most widely respected officers in the army. He was known as a scholar warrior, a soldier who was impeccable in his soldier skills and a brilliant academician. Yeah, he is one of my heroes.

So I was pretty bummed out when I was running on the treadmill at the gym and saw the story that he resigned as director of the CIA after it was discovered he had an affair with his biographer. The biographer was a journalist who followed him around Afghanisatn for a year wrriting his story. She was also a West Point grad and when I saw her interviewed several months ago it was obvious that like me, he was one of her heroes.

He explained, "After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours." I guess it is commendable he is owning up to his mistakes but why are so many of my heroes terribly flawed?! Martin Luther King Jr. was a notorious philanderer, Ghandi had all sorts of disturbing characteristics, Abraham Lincoln was far from perfect and don't even get me started on Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.

I guess that is what makes their human existence plausible, these are imperfect people doing extraordinary things. But hey, I'm an imperfect guy and who knows, maybe I might do something extraordinary in my life just like my heroes. So maybe their mistakes make them more human, more like me? At any rate I don't want to judge someone on their mistakes, no matter how serious, when their whole lives were full of so many accomplishments and so much to admire.