IN CONGRESS. July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

WE hold the Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that when any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Rights of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.

He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized Nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Fireworks and a (relatively) calm dog

It's really nice to have a dog that doesn't cower and shiver in terror when the fireworks, or thunder, start up. Not that I didn't love our other dogs, but Sadie has no problem with the fireworks - mostly. When it gets too loud or too close if a neighbor is setting them off, she does bark at it. I think she's just warning them not to get closer.

Happy fireworks night to everyone.

I should have just said

It’s time to start this thing up again.

That mess I posted yesterday was a bit self-indulgent and self-pitying. I was just trying to figure out how I got to July without more to show for it. I suppose those are all valid reasons, and of course I know I am not as bad off as a lot of people, but I could have just kept all that to myself.

OK. Forward.

It’s time to start this thing up again

Where the heck did June go? Oh well.

Briefly, it’s been a heck of a year, which is part of the reason I haven’t been around here. There was too much to do.

Sick from December into January
Took through March to recover to a point somewhat less well than I was in November
In the middle of that our sump pump literally burned out filling the basement with smoke and water, eliciting a call to get the thing replaced
Then we got a dog
Spent a month recovering from that but it wasn’t her fault
In the midst of that, the new sump pump went screwy – a design flaw the plumber managed to fix (I hope permanently)
But we had a flooded basement again
The basement has been wet since December and just dried out in June
I really don’t have the energy to take care of the amount of water we had, not quickly anyway, so it was a bad time for a long time.

So here I am in July – a month I have a strange relationship with.

Time to start anew. Have I said that before? Well, at least the basement is dry so now I can start a new phase – cleaning out all of the stuff that got destroyed. At least it’s a definable goal.
Onward and upward – or at least not backwards. Sideways, I’ll settle for sideways right now, with maybe a little forward.

We got a new dog

Short version: we got a mini long haired dachshund named Sadie.

She’s from a rescue foster home, about 3½ years old, 8½ pounds and maybe 6 inches tall. I originally designated her a new resident of the household. She’s welcome to be a full-fledge member – she has to get used to 4 cats and I’ll leave that up to her (well, with some help). They need to get used to her, too. I am assuming that the best will happen and things are going well so far.

Of course, I have to get used to a dog in the house again, which is more of an issue than you might imagine for a variety of reasons. And I have never been around let alone had a dog as small as this. She really is a micro-mini long-haired dachshund. Of course, the only word to describe her is adorable.

For the most part she is well-behaved and very smart. A major problem is that she has been abused by possibly more than one person who bear a superficial resemblance to me. Fortunately she adores my wife and has from the first day. Once we get past the fear – and she is already learning that while I may look like the other men I don’t act like them – things will get better.

She is also territorial about my wife’s lap – which has already been claimed by one of our cats, so there are some issues there. That about sums it up: she has issues.

There’s also the fact that she has a condition apparently not uncommon in dachshunds called dry-eye. The people who had her before the rescue pretty much ignored it. Sadie needs eye drops 3 times a day and they never bothered. So she was untreated and in pain with eye infections and couldn’t see half the time – I wonder why she was a bit snappish?

Oh well, I suppose we’ll all live. At times like this I like to quote Ensign Pavel Chekov: “I’ll live, but I won’t enjoy it.” Which is just a joke because eventually everything will be just fine.

You know, I see her, but it is hard to believe that there is a dog this small in the house.

Mondays

I have a problem with Mondays. Even though I am not working, I am bound by the work schedules of the people that I deal with – mostly doctors, but others as well. That means that I see weekends pretty much the way that everyone else does. There is also a very strongly ingrained pattern of behavior after decades of living a typical workweek schedule.

That means that Mondays are still that first day of the week when I need to get into gear.

This first week of January has been a Monday.

Blech. At least I feel as if this cold is finally lifting.

Onward! Or, the self-motivational post, sort of.

OK, I admit that I am slacking off. That’s what happens when there’s a weekend after a holiday. Everything seems to be waiting for Monday to begin. I did a few chores, but mostly I just slept this weekend. Hence the wee hour of the morning posting.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. Not for any philosophical reasons, I just never get around to it, so there’s no waiting to start in on them. I just make plans. I need to keeping working on my recovery – which means moving on to the new things I was about to get to when I got sick for most of December; I need to read; I need to write; I need to learn; I need to create.

There, that’s a sketch of a plan/resolutions for the new year onward – with additions and edits and course corrections along the way.

I wish for everyone a good start to the first week of 2010 and a good year to follow.