4/002/12 ANOTHER LOST DOG FOUND, AND ANYBODY BUT JIMMY CARTER

GOOD START TO THE DAY

Monday, 8:00 AM, 40 degrees F, wind N, calm.  The sky is partly cloudy and the barometer predicts sunshine.  It will be a good day for yard work.
    Last night we got a call from Paul and Joanne, whom we had been with at the Larsen’s Friday evening, to tell us that their  nine year old black and white speckled English Pointer, who looks very much like Buddy, had disappeared about 2:00 PM yesterday in the woods in the vicinity of Old Hwy K and Bloom Rd. where they were still staying, at the Larsen’s Sugar Bush. She ran off on a hot trail in the woods and evidently got lost. 
    Paul asked if he could borrow a compass, which I took out to him, along with an area plat map, as he thought he would have to make a search in the morning.  As it turned out, someone picked her up on Little Sand Bay Road heading towards the lake, and called their home number and left a message. There’s thousands of acres of rough country out there so we all were relieved there was no need for a search on foot. Katie was returned safe and sound and after a good supper went to bed as though nothing had been amiss.  We are pleased, as we have been through all too many lost dog scenarios of late.   
    The first daffodil is blooming in our yard on the south side of the house.  I predict that with any warm sunny weather at all there will be at least the start of a good display by this coming weekend.
    Yesterday, while talking with a client on the hill near the Catholic Church, I heard and saw what at first I thought were geese flying northwest.  Next I assumed they were sandhill cranes but as they got nearer I could see they were not cranes, whose long legs trail behind them as they fly.  Suddenly it became apparent that they were the native whistling swans, huge, stately and powerful in flight.  There were about seventy-five of them in one huge V.  I believe that is the first and only time I have seen a whole flock of swans actually in flight, rather than just  a few skimming across the water.  My camera was in the truck, but a photo would probably not have done them justice anyway.
    Tomorrow is the Wisconsin Republican primary election.  It is an open election in which any registered voter can vote.  We have considered all the candidates and will vote for Romney.  For us, Ron Paul is too radical, Gingrich is too mercurial, Santorum is too inexperienced, and Romney is the most experienced in both business and government and appears to be a problem solver and eminently sane, both qualities of great importance in a leader who will bring some sense of unity to our fractured polity and deal effectively with global issues.
    As far as his supposed lack of empathy is concerned, it is my experience that “empathy” in a politician is usually insincere anyway (read FDR and JFK for starters); and I don’t need or want a priest, a bartender or a psychiatrist (all great empathizers) as a president.  Above all, anybody but another Jimmy Carter.