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(01/03/2011) Reportage and interpretation by: Don Diego de la Puerta

LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life) Published

Right in the middle of Amazon.com (and somewhere in California Gold Rush Country) - Bil. Alvernaz announced the publication of his long-awaited book, “LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life).” This eBook is available immediately for purchase at Amazon.com. You can read sample sections of the book at Alvernaz.com. This book isn’t the same old story! You understand that right from the opening lines: “I’m talking to you! It is time to be who you really are supposed to be.” And, then it takes off from there, pulling in the reader for a fun, entertaining, and eye-opening experience.

This book is all about what you think you should think, what you really should be doing in life, and, most important of all, who you really want to be and what you want to do in life. This book doesn’t tell you the answers. Instead it allows you to “see it all” in terms of what will work best for you to find your way to be who you really want to be.

You can find out much more at the “LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)” web site, including how to get an autographed, Collector’s Edition Manuscript. You can also read another excerpt from the book right here called “Never Give Up!”

Here is an excerpt from the book ... The Preface:

I’m talking to YOU!

It's time to be who you really are supposed to be.

This book isn't the same old story. It "opens the door" for you to zero in on what really should matter in your life (exactly the way YOU want things to be). This book doesn’t “tell you the answers.” Instead, it allows YOU to “see it all” in terms of what will work for you to find your way to be who you really want to be. YOU will find YOUR answers to these kinds of questions:

What is life really all about?
What should matter in life?
Just what should you be doing?

And, that isn't all either. Here are some of the other topics:

Is there a God?
What does the devil really want?
What happens when you die?
Where (or, better yet, when) is the future?
What is the truth?
What happened to courtesy and kindness?
Stop eating like a pig!
What makes a marriage work?
An epidemic of stupidity!
The depth of your shadow ...
Are all women really witches?

"LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)" is all about YOU, what you think you should think, what you really should be doing in life, and, most important of all, who you really want to be and what you want to do in life. The words zoom you right to the edge of consciousness, giving cause to examine questions, many you hadn't even thought to ask ... and from all of that comes answers and solutions (you didn't even know you already knew), along with simple action plans to live your life the way you want to live it!

For all of those questions and "wondering about things" eating away at you, "LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)" is just what you have been looking for (even though you didn't know it). It is finally time for you to zero in on what is right for YOU ... not what other people think is best for you or what anyone else thinks you should do. No. What you will find in "LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)" is a way for you to pinpoint what life for you is really all about ... what you want and who you want to be.

What "LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)" does is greatly magnify your mental capacity and perspective (perception, too) so you determine exactly what is right for you ... and all without outside influences (you know, friends, relatives, and do-gooders) mucking things up. What you then have in your mind clearly illuminates a definitive answer to: Who are you?

The main goal of "LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)" is to get you to think about so much of what has otherwise been missing, ignored, stifled, forgotten about, and/or overlooked in your life ... all of which has been "bundled up" in questions you didn't know you already had the answers to. "Life: 101 (The Art of Life)" is specifically and exactly about YOU and what you want your life to be ... all of which can start happening immediately with "LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)."

This book is all about a personal value proposition so you start looking at life in terms of "What is in my best interests?" This IS NOT a “self-help” book ( unless you want it to be). This book ignites your intellect as it relates to so much of what you just know “isn’t quite right” in your life. Working your way through this carefully constructed “play of words” reorients your mental aptitude for you to be and do whatever you choose.

You definitely want to read this book ... it was written specifically for you (as you already know).

(11/1/2011) Reportage and interpretation by: Bil. Alvernaz

Never Give Up!

The following is a copyrighted and protected excerpt from “LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)” by Bil. Alvernaz and it is presented here as yet another example of what you will find in this book. You can find out much more at the “LIFE: 101 (The Art of Life)” web site.

Never Give Up – EVER! – No matter how bad or hopeless things look or how completely lost and hollow you feel, you a) have to keep moving forward in your life; and 2) just keep trying over and over and over again. The reason this topic relates to courtesy and kindness is because when those two commodities are missing from the equation (whatever that might be), the tendency for most people is to “get down” on themselves. That then affects (effects) your attitude, perspective, and spirit. And, that can, more often than not, lead to somewhat of a “downward spiral” where you pretty much , give in, give up and just figure “What’s the point?”

But, you simply MUST NOT ever look at life that way. Imagine the possibilities and then do what you can to “make things happen” (as well as making a difference).

Something that happened in baseball late in the season of 2011 is one of the absolute best examples of how and why you should never ever give up, no matter how “down” you get. It has been said many times that baseball is life and life is baseball. This is a perfect example of that, too. It also illustrates the point about never giving up and, most definitely, believing in yourself, knowing you can, indeed, do what you want to do. But, you have to try. And, not just half-heartedly either. You’ve got to give it everything you’ve got!

The Saint Louis Cardinals were 10 1/2 games out of first place in the wild card race going into the end of August. Everyone figured it would be another forgettable season for this team that had been to the World Series seventeen times, winning it ten of those times. Then, for the next six weeks to the end of the season, each and every member of the team gave it everything they had, never ever giving up. They played each game, according to them, “like it was Game 7 of the World Series.” They played excellent baseball, all while Tony La Russa, the Cardinals Manager, managed the team in his usual unconventional “try anything to see if works” way. A lot of things (and breaks) went their way, but had they not ignored everyone counting them out, none of those breaks (or luck) would have mattered.

LaRussa summed it up this way, “We literally played every game like it was the last game of our life!”

When the season was over, they played their way to first place in the wild card standings (clinching a playoff spot on the very last day of the season, thanks to the Atlanta Braves losing yet one more game). That was the good news. Now, waiting for the Cardinals in the first round of the playoffs was the Philadelphia Phillies who had put up the best record in baseball for the year. Against all odds (and one of the best pitching rotations ever in baseball), the Cardinals beat the Phillies in five games ... all when everyone kept saying the Cardinals didn’t have a chance.

Next up, the Cardinals had to play the Milwaukee Brewers in a seven game series for the National League Pennant. Again, everyone counted the Cardinals out. Everyone, except the Cardinals themselves (and so many of their fans who believed the team could do it). And, the Cardinals, in fact, did DO IT. They beat the Brewers 4-2 in the series and were now going to the World Series.

Waiting for the Cardinals in the World Series was the Texas Rangers who dominated their way to a second, consecutive American League Conference title, beating the Tampa Bay Rays and the Detroit Tigers (who everyone had said wouldn’t even make it to the playoffs). The Rangers were the heavy favorites, but the Cardinals were playing good, solid, fundamental baseball. The Cardinals believed in themselves and they went out and played that way, again playing each game like it was the seventh game of the World Series ... and now they were in the World Series!

The first five games of the World Series were anything but “baseball as usual.” The series started with two games in St. Louis. The Cardinals took Game 1. The Rangers then won Game 2. The next three games were in Arlington, Texas. In Game 3, Albert Pujols hit three home runs (in a game score that was 16-7!), tying a World Series record. The Rangers took the next two games. So they headed back to St. Louis for Game 6 with the Rangers ahead 3-2 with only one more game to win for the World Series title. And, yet again, the Cardinals were “counted out,” with everyone expecting the Rangers to “take it all.” But, the Cardinals weren’t quite done yet.

Game 6 lived up, as well as added new meaning, to the phrase “a game for the ages.” Even the most hardened (or jaded) baseball fans, reporters, analysts, and just about everyone else instantly agreed that the 4 hour and 33 minute Game 6 that ended in 37 degree weather in the 11th inning (that stretched into the early morning hours of the next day) will be remembered as one of the best, if not the “best of them all,” baseball games ever played – EVER!

In the early innings, the Cardinals made unforgiveable errors (the kind of hapless mistakes that Little Leaguers are prone to make ... the ones that make you scream out in exasperation at the TV while you are watching the game). And, the Rangers made “I wish I could get that one back” mistakes, too. They had two errors (more, if the score keeper hadn’t been so kind acknowledging “hits” for the Cardinals), none of which anyone was talking about at the end of the game. Tim McCarver, the FOX TV commentator said, “What just happened here?”

First the Rangers were ahead, then the Cardinals went ahead 2-1 with a homerun by Lance Berkman (who would play an incredible role not just in this game, but in the series ... Berkman, the guy the Houston Astros “got rid of” and the guy the Yankees were too stupid to keep on their team after his one year with them saw a resurgence of his career).

The Rangers then tied the game in the second inning and went ahead in the fourth. This early part of the game was where the sloppy play produced errors and caused you to figure the Rangers were going to steamroll right over the Cardinals to win and take the World Series title.

By the sixth inning it was all knotted at 4-4. And, this is where the “wild ride” was about to begin, especially on the part of the “Power Ranger’s” bats. There was no doubt the Rangers were in complete control of this game. Or, so everyone thought.

The seventh inning saw the Rangers put three more runs to now lead 7-4. The Cardinals put another run in the eighth inning to make it 7-5, but it definitely looked like the Rangers were going to win. The Ranger dugout was all smiles. But, over in the Cardinals dugout you didn’t see despair. What you saw were expressions of “we can do this!” It was just another situation like they had been through for the past two months to get to this point. And, you could just see it in their faces ... they were not giving up. No way! No how!

So now comes the bottom of the ninth inning with the Cardinals still behind 7-5, three outs away from losing the game (and the season being over). The Cardinals get two men on base who, if they scored, the game would be tied. Only now there are two outs and David Freese is up to bat against a closing pitcher who throws 100 mile per hour “lights out” pitches.

David Freese is a “home town boy” who grew up rooting for the Cardinals. He was a great baseball player in high school and had what looked to be an impressive career in baseball ahead of him when he just quit baseball. Finally, he went back to “playing ball” and eventually worked his way to the big leagues to play on the Cardinals. Now he stood in the batter’s box with two strikes against him in the bottom of the ninth inning – one bat swing away from being forever remembered as “the guy who lost the game” for the Cardinals. It’s unfair, but that’s just the way things work in baseball (and all sports).

Then magic started happening for the Cardinals. On an outside pitch that was pretty much impossible to hit, David Freese, in his words, “put a good swing on it” and smacked a two-run triple (it was just short of being a home run that would have won the game). That tied the game! Again, looking at the dugouts told the whole story. The Rangers who had been “up” were in shock and disbelief. The Cardinals were, well, they were being the Cardinals doing what they had been doing for so many games up to this point, looking as determined as ever. They would not give up. This was the first time in World Series history that a team came back like this in the ninth inning to extend the game to extra innings.

So now it was on to the tenth inning when Josh Hamilton who was playing hurt (with either a groin injury or a sports hernia) came up to bat. Hamilton was the American League’s Most Valuable Player the previous year and he was “the guy who hit home runs!” And, even though his production was down being that he was playing hurt, at this point, in this moment, on the biggest stage in baseball, he HIT A HOME RUN.

At this point in this game you started feeling like if you saw this in a movie, you wouldn’t believe the plot line. This was right out of the Natural with Roy Hobbs showing he was the greatest baseball player who ever lived. And, you had several guys in this game doing just that.

There was a runner on base when Hamilton hit his home run, so now, in the top of the tenth inning, the Rangers were ahead by two runs AGAIN. Now the Cardinals were faced with “coming back” yet again. You just knew it couldn’t happen ... that is, until you looked in the Cardinal dugout. All you saw was resolve and a sense of purpose. If destiny ever had a face, it was these Cardinals, all of them together, along with La Russa, of course.

Yogi Bera said it best, “It ain’t over til it’s over.” He also said, “Baseball is ninety percent half mental.” That would be the NEVER GIVE part in all of this. When it comes to the mental part of baseball, David Freese summed it up this way, “This is the same game you played as a kid. There is nothing different, except now a whole lot of people are watching. But, you have to see the ball and hit the ball.” And, that is what he did ... and was about to do again.

Okay, the Cardinals come up in the bottom of the tenth inning. And, the get the first run to make it 9-8. Again, with two outs they are down to their last strike with Lance Berkman at the plate. Berkman loops a single to center field and the runner on second comes in to tie the game. Now, for two innings in a row the Cardinals, again one strike away from losing the game, have come back from being two runs down. It had never been done before and now the Cardinals had done it twice. Could there be a better example of never giving up?

With a man on third base the Cardinals had the winning run only 90 feet away from home plate. And, then the inning ended! On to the 11th inning. The Rangers were not able to score. And, then real magic happened for the Cardinals. David Freese is the first batter to come to the plate. It was amazing enough that he hit a two run triple in the ninth inning, but now everyone was looking at him as the guy who, with one swing of the bat, could win the game. But, that couldn’t happen, could it?

In the movie “Tin Cup” Roy MaAvoy’s quote is the only one that fits here, “When a defining moment presents itself, you either define the moment or the moment defines you.” How many times has an individual in any sport been presented with such an opportunistic situation as David Freese found himself in there in St. Louis, in the 11th inning, after midnight in 37 degree weather ... with all of his team mates leaning forward in the dugout to watch and just about everyone in the capacity crowd standing?

And, then it happened. On a 3-2 pitch, Freese clobbered the ball to dead center field, 427 feet away (in 37 degree weather when the ball isn’t supposed to “carry” that well) for a “walk off” homerun that will be long remembered as legendary. The only thing missing in this right out of the movie “The Natural” was the exploding grandstand lights. The entire Cardinals team was jumping up and down, waiting for Freese at home plate, just like in the movie.

And the Cardinals, who so many had thought just couldn’t win the game, did win! Not only did the Cardinals never give in or give up, they just wouldn’t believe they were going to lose! They believed in themselves and just didn’t listen to any of the “noise.”

There were other memorable World Series home runs: Bill Mazeroski (Game 7, 1960), Carlton Fisk (Game 6, 1975), Kirby Puckett (Game 6, 1991), and Joe Carter (Game 6, 1993). And, there was also Kurt Gibson (whose knees were so bad he could hardly walk, let alone run) who hit an extraordinary World Series home run (Game 1) in 1988. Gibson limped to the plate with a runner on first base. On a 3-2 count, Gibson hit a home run to win the game in a “trot around the bases that is now part of baseball lore, just like Freese’s triple and home run will be.

Now came Game 7, after the Cardinals had trailed five times in Game 6 with everything looking like they were going to lose. And, what other team could it be than the Cardinals to hold the record for the most World Series Games 7s. Out of the eighteen times they have been to the World Series, the Cardinals would now be in their eleventh Game 7, more than any other team.

Game 7 started out with the Rangers scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. In the bottom of that inning, it was David Freese, in what looked to be a continuation of Game 6, who hit a two-run double to tie the game. Those two runs were all that the Rangers would score in what turned out to be pretty much an “ordinary” baseball game.

The Cardinals added four more runs and in the top of the ninth a fly ball was caught in left field to end the game and “cinch things up” for the Cardinals to win the World Series! This was their eleventh title, second only to the New York Yankees (who have 27 World Series titles).

And, on the matter of the Yankees or even the Red Sox and Phillies, this 2011 World Series was exciting and memorable ... without them!

No one believed the Cardinals could get to the playoffs, but the Cardinals did. And, they just kept on believing. Way back in August, when the Cardinals were 10 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers, Bud Selig, the Commissioner of Baseball had a chance to meet with Tony La Russa. In an effort to encourage La Russa and “pick up his spirits,” the Commissioner congratulated La Russa on his "great year." Without missing a beat, La Russa instantly responded with, "Oh, we're not done yet!"

After winning Game 7, in an interview La Russa told of another night in mid-August when nothing was going right in a game that the Cardinals could easily have given up on, but the fans wouldn't give up on the team; and, in fact, those fans quite literally willed the Cardinals to win that night. La Russa said that changed everything. From there on out, the Cardinals defied all odds, did the impossible, and just kept on winning, despite what anyone said, right on up to taking the World Series title. ... And, it was all because they never gave up! Even when they were down to their last strike (TWICE!) in Game 6 and it seemed unfathomable that they could even make it to the next batter, the Cardinals believed they could do it ... and they did it!

One other thing ... La Russa manipulated a lot of "moving parts" in unique, unconventional, and questionable ways to outsmart the other guys (as he has always done with his “no guts, no glory” approach to baseball) and it all led to them winning games. There was a lot of people second guessing La Russa, but every one of his players and coaches credit La Russa with the one of a kind genius to have "pulled all the right strings" to actually pull it off and win the World Series. And, therein lies a critical factor in all of this. La Russa's team didn't win the World Series because they had the best team. They won because each person figured out a way to maximize their potential. That and looking at the same things in inventive ways is what never giving up is all about.

And, one other thing La Russa said is, "It's a long season. If you watch the history of baseball, teams come back. And, sometimes they could have come back but they give in or give up." So there you have it. Never give up!

In baseball (and any sport) there will always be the “analysts” and so many others who “talk, talk, talk,” predicting what is going to happen. Sometimes they are right, other times they are wrong (at which points they carefully explain how things “went the other way”). But, no one really knows what will happen. That is why they play the game! Odds don’t mean anything (unless you want to let them influence your attitude and will). What has happened before in other games, with other people (along with a universe the statistics), none of that matters (unless you want it to).

What matters is each individual “going out there” and giving it all an individual has to give ... while not paying any attention to what anyone says about anything. For it is in the “playing of the game,” not standing on the sidelines watching, where things happen!

No matter how it looks “in the game” (i.e., whatever you are doing or thinking about doing), give it your best and see what happens. If you just give up, of course you won’t make it. Giving it all you’ve got doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make it. But, hey, approach anything you do from the perspective of “giving it all you’ve got” (and then some) and you won’t believe how great (and alive) you’ll feel.

The Texas Rangers didn’t give up either, but they lost. And, that is probably the best part of this story. You’re not always guaranteed to win (as Nolan Ryan, President of the Texas Rangers, found out). But, you have to “play the game.” Otherwise you’re going to be “just standing there” watching life go by! They say that the next best thing to winning the World Series is losing the World Series!

This quote from the baseball movie “Bull Durham” says it best about baseball (and life): "A good friend of mine used to say, ‘This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.' Think about that for a while."

(01/03/2011) Reportage and interpretation by: Skeeter WordPlay

Email Going Away? NOT Anytime Soon!

Out “there” on the Computing Landscape (and then some) - Email is a constant part of our lives. Even with all of the texting and instant messaging, email is still “there” every single day - at home, work, and play. And, while some know-it-all prognosticators are harping “on and on” about how Facebook’s revamped “email look” (among others) spells doom for plain ‘ole regular email, don’t bet on it!

Most businesses and a significant legion of individuals still “run” on email, despite spam and all of those forwarded emails that harken back to the “old days” of FAX “junk mail.” Try doing an online order (including the followup, tracking of packages, and questions/concerns) without email. Or, what about account updates from banks and credit card companies ... to mention just a few examples of how important and useful email still is?

Maybe its time to look at where email came from and how all of this got started (long before texting and instant messaging came into vogue).To look at the beginnings of email, we need to take a quick look at just how this whole “Internet thing” got started ...

Thanks to the efforts of individuals at MIT and UCLA, ARPANET (The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), TELNET and the X.25 protocols led to networking “systems” in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Basically, this was when very smart people “strung together computers like soup cans” in various places so they (and their computers) could talk to each other. This was the beginning of networking as well as the Internet ... and email naturally evolved from there.

What’s really interesting about the beginnings of email is that messages were transmitted directly from one computer connected directly to another. This was pretty much like what goes on now with instant messaging or texting where you are directly “connected” to the person with whom you are communicating. Then came email servers that provided a place for you to send or to check for your email, sort of like an electronic version of the P.O. Box at the post office. Only you didn’t have to leave your keyboard to “check mail.” At this point, electronic mail was text based.

On through the 1970s, email was primarily used for military, government, and scientific purposes. Then in the 1980s, with the advent of MCI Mail, Compu-Serve, The Source, and America On-Line (AOL), email was on its way to becoming mainstream. And, this is where the story gets personal for me, because I was right there at the beginning of it all ... I got my first email account (when it was still referred to as “electronic-mail”) with MCI Mail in 1982. I was one of the first subscribers and I even introduced it to people (including “showing them the ropes”) I worked with at PC Magazine and USA Today when I was writing feature articles for them.

And, you paid for each email you sent!

That’s right! Just like with postage stamps, you paid for each email. This was all before the Internet took on a life form of its own ... when companies could easily control what was going on. So, you were charged for email.

Here is how it worked with MCI Mail. You opened up your account (no cost for that, but there was an annual fee of $18.00). Then to send or receive emails, you dialed in to a toll-free number via your modem (Hayes Modems were the leader in those days). I initially signed on at 300 baud. Not long after I signed up for MCI Mail, we were accessing email at the blinding speed of 1200 baud. Then 2400 baud that quickly led to 9600 baud (and it just kept escalating from there on up to the “maxed out” range of 56000 baud ... of course, at that point we were all discovering T1 lines!). Oh, and each time you wanted “faster speeds,” you had to buy a new modem!

Now what MCI Mail offered was a) sending emails back and forth; or b) creating an electronic message and having it then sent through the post office; or c) even sending a telegram. It was pretty cool. Here is what it cost to send each email message:

up to 500 characters (not words, but characters) cost 45 cents.
501 to 7500 characters cost $1.00.
each additional 7500 characters was another $1.00.
to send an MCI letter (up to three pages) through the post office cost $2.00 ($5.50 for international).
overnight letters cost $8.00 (international costs ranged from $12.00 to $30.00).
four hour letters (to be hand delivered) cost $30.
Telex dispatches were 25 cents to 43 cents.

Now at the time we didn’t really complain about these costs (my monthly MCI Mail bill ran between $60 and $150), because it was so incredible to “send mail” and have it “there” the minute you send it ... just like today with email that we pretty much take for granted. Back in those days, we never took it for granted because it was so revolutionary. There were other ways to send email without any cost, mainly through local Electronic Bulletin Boards (I ran several of those) using the FidoNET system. But MCI Mail for me (and many other people) was just so quick and slick to use. Oh, and we made sure we had our “Electronic Mail” address on our business cards, too! That really impressed people and let them know you were technology savvy.

So then came the mid-1990s when the Internet exploded into our lives ... tied to the launch of Microsoft’s new operating system Windows95 and Microsoft’s MSN (the Microsoft Network) where your computer desktop could now be connected to the world. And, as if all of that weren’t enough, we even had the new CD ROM drives that could store LOTS of data. It should be noted that when Windows95 was released, you could still get the program disks in 3.5 inch floppy versions (there were 19 of them!) ... more and more people, however, were going with the CD version that only required one CD.

I know for me, I’ll never, ever take email for granted (despite those spam messages and email “overload”). Email is still a wonderful communications tool. And, email documents so much more than you realize until you want to go back and look at the sequence of events (for approvals or anything else you might want to document).

And, when it comes to the Internet that has now firmly wrapped its tentacles around our intellect, think about it. The entire world is now “catalogued all “nice and tidy,” completely at our disposal by just “clicking some keys” on Bing or Google (or any other search engine you might choose to use). Now we can find out anything about anything ... tie email to all of that and WOWSERS ... what technological marvels and tools we have to use ... and, so much of what we find on the web gets “forwarded” on by, you guessed it, EMAIL!

(04/10/2010) Reportage and interpretation by: Skeeter WordPlay

Thoughtful Layoff Notice

Seattle, WA - Text from a CEO’s message to his staff: “I’ve accepted the fact that Obama is President and that our taxes will increase in a BIG way. To compensate, we must now lay off 60 employees. So, this is what I did.

I walked through our parking lot and found 60 ‘Obama’ bumper stickers on employee cars; and I decided these folks can go. They voted for ... change, so I gave it to them. I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic!

(04/05/2010) Reportage and interpretation by: Bil. Alvernaz (bil@alvernaz.com)

A Dog Story

Austin, Texas - Once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, a creature comes into your life and becomes an extension of your very existence. For me, that was Trixie, an Australian Shepard (blue merle) who found her way into our lives in the summer of ‘89. We brought her home at eight weeks old for our son. But, from the very first day, Trixie picked me. She was a constant companion of mine, so much so that I often called her “Shadow.”

Australian Shepards are smart. Trixie had a “vocabulary” of 400+ words and she knew hand commands, too. The one instance that best illustrates how smart Trixie was took place early one summer’s morning. We always went for a walk in the mornings before I left work. Well, instead of jaunting along with me to head out into the orchards where she loved to run, this one day Trixie sat down by where we had our garbage cans just behind the old barn on our ranch. I tried everything to get Trixie to move. All she did was keep looking at the garbage cans and then out to the county road at the end of our long driveway. She wouldn’t budge — I finally had to pick her up and take her into the house ... and then I headed for work.

Well, that night when I got home, I realized I had forgotten to put out the garbage cans out by the road for pick up. It had been a holiday week and I lost track of the days. Then it hit me about Trixie’s strange behavior that morning! Trixie had sat by the garbage cans and kept looking back and forth between the cans and the road to where I usually put the cans. I said to myself, “Nah! Couldn’t be.” But the next week on Thursday (garbage pick up day) I pretended to forget again and sure enough, Trixie did the exact same thing. Then, as I took the garbage cans out to the road, she darted all around me, in her sheep dog, herding style, almost like she was saying to me, “See, this is what I was trying to tell you last week!”

New_Picture We have dozens of stories like that from a life time with Trixie. Above all else, she was always “there,” just happy to be with us ... until one day, when we got home from work and saw that obviously something was horribly wrong. Trixie was trying to get up and couldn’t. She had been hobbled more and more by age as each month went by over the previous two years. She had been eating less and losing weight ... Helplessly, we watched the sparkle in her eyes fade day by day. Sadly, she became an “old dog.” But still, she was our sweetheart and we helped her do whatever she wasn’t able to do for herself. Things had reached the point where she would wait for us to help her get up or down ... and we were always glad to do that.

On this day of October 19th, 2005, things were different. After all of the times, over several years, when Trixie always managed to bounce back from adversity, this time Trixie was in dire trouble. I could see it in her eyes. Her two front legs hung were limp, with her unable to move them. I found that out when I tried to help her stand. She couldn’t. She just looked at me with a lost, empty look on her face. And, that’s when the “end of the road” revelation hit me like a freight train ... and this would be the day we just hadn’t ever wanted to think about. Bil_and_Trixie_catalog_photo-th

On the way to Round Rock Animal Hospital we stopped at Trixie’s favorite park - a place we had been to a million times with her. I carried her to one of her favorite spots by the late and put her on the grass. She sniffed at the breezes swirling all around us. Then she looked at me with a look I’ll never forget ... it was like she was saying, “It’s time to go.” I think I went by the park just on the hopes that something might change. I was glad I did, because somehow it just seemed like the right thing - last thing - to do. Once at the animal hospital, Dr. Sundbeck examined Trixie as she lay on her side, pretty much unable to move. She weighed only 32 pounds, down from 43 pounds a year earlier at her last annual examine when we had gotten medication for her hip problems. Diana and I felt sick, empty feelings into the depths of our souls. There was no doubt what needed to be done.

Diana and I knew what was going to happen before we even walked in the door to the animal hospital that Roxanne held open for us as I carried Trixie in ... a place she had always loved scampering into to see what treats she might get. Dr. Sundbeck said that he could give Trixie IVs and help her be comfortable, but there just wasn’t much else that could be done. I knew Diana couldn’t find the words, so, amid the tears, I managed to say, “We need to let Trixie go.” Dr. Sundbeck nodded in agreement and from that point on everything happened in a surreal slow-motion kind of way. As Dr. Sundbeck gave Trixie her final shot, a certain calm came over me. There was nothing bad or terrible about what happened next. Trixie was then set free to run in the bright, white sunshine of eternity.

What stands out most for Diana and me when we look back, more than anything else, was how peaceful and beautiful those last moments were with Trixie. There really wasn’t much of a decision to make about being there with Trixie to the end, as hard as it was, because we knew we had to be right there looking into Trixie’s eyes as she slipped away, finally free of all the pain.

It wasn’t hard to look into Trixie’s eyes in those final moments. We wanted to be right there with her. We petted her and saw her looking at us as we said farewell to our old friend, after seventeen years together. She let out a sigh and that was it, as a drop, almost like a tear, fell from her nose. We stayed with Trixie for a long while. There was sadness in our hearts, but Trixie lived a good, long life. She was a Frisbee Dog and always loved to play with a ball. There was so much of a life time with Trixie that flooded my mind, even up to now ... but in an instant, it was all over.

It seemed like the end of the world, like nothing I have ever faced (or probably ever will). But I know we would be heart sick if we hadn’t been with Trixie to the very end. In the days that followed, we reflected on those last minutes which turned out to be so precious and meaningful ... mainly because we were there to the end with Trixie who had always been there for us.

AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN IN LIFE ... IF YOU JUST LET THEM OCCUR ...

MVC-003F-th So we walked away, leaving Trixie behind for the first time ever, and we headed home to an empty house that screamed out in deafening silence ... someone was missing. Just three weeks earlier Trixie had wandered off one evening. It took hours to find her in a wooded area. I wasn’t going to stop looking that night until we found her. She always came home with us. But not this night. Everything was so empty and different.

Trixie had been with us 17 years and all of a sudden (even though we were expecting her time to come and had thought we were ready for it) now she was gone. And we were definitely NOT ready for it. The finality of Trixie not being there left a gigantic hole in my heart and Diana’s heart. We watched baseball, trying not to think about it. Then, just a few hours after the chapters in our life with Trixie ended, the phone rang.

Diana and I were watching baseball, trying not to think about Trixie when the phone rang. It was a guy named Earl. We had met him a year and a half earlier on the side of the road where he was selling Australian Shepard puppies. By the time we stopped that day, he had sold the entire litter. So I had given him my number and told him to call me the next time he had some puppies. Well, on this night, his comments still reverberate in my mind. The first thing he said was, “You wouldn’t know anyone looking for registered, pedigree, Australian Shepard puppies, would you?” I just paused and looked over at Diana.

I took a deep breath and told Earl we had lost Trixie just a few hours earlier. Earl said, “When that happens, you gotta get right back on the horse!” The next day we met Earl at an Exxon station in Salado, about 40 miles north of Austin, near the Stage Coach Inn ... and as soon as we saw his two eight-week old puppies, Diana and I knew we wanted both of them. Thus, Sparky (the white male) and Sheba (the chocolate colored female) became part of our lives. And, all less than 24 hours after we lost Trixie.

However it came about that Earl called us on that first night without Trixie, and that Earl just happened to have two puppies for us, well, we just aren’t asking any questions at all. The only way to explain what happened that night is it that was meant to be.

We had been thinking for a long time about getting another dog (knowing we would lose Trixie at some point), which is how we met Earl in the first place. However, we just never “got around to” getting another dog. We had mixed feelings about how a new dog or puppy would affect Trixie, even in her old age. But when you look at the sequence of events, in terms of how Sparky and Sheba found their way to us, you just have to believe there were “other forces” at work.

Sparky and Sheba do not replace Trixie. Actually, Trixie lives on in our hearts through these very dogs, because we see so much of Trixie so often in Sparky and Sheba. I think about Trixie a lot. She was that one dog that only comes along once in a life time.