Excerpt from a review of the finale of Game of Thrones in the Washington Post by their TV Critic, Alyssa Rosenberg, "As a fan of the TV show, I felt battered into submission. This season has been the same story over and over again: a lot of tin-eared writing trying to justify some of the most drastic story developments imaginable, as quickly as possible."

Okay. I do have an excuse. We had a house full of kiddos and one of them was on a blow-up in my office, so, I waited for him to go to school which made my desktop available. It is Tuesday, May 21, 2019, and I suppose I should be feeling sorry for the fans of a show called Game of Thrones. It plays on HBO and I have never seen one episode. I have, of course, seen the photos and various coverages over the years, but, I could not even begin to explain what it is all about. I know they typically look like characters from the Vikings period and there are dragons involved. My point? The finale was last Sunday evening. Some 19.3 million folks watched it. I don't know exactly why but the fanbase went bonkers on Monday morning because they were so disappointed in the last show of the series. Social media was zonked with all of their lamentations and threats. Many said they would cancel their subscription to HBO. Here I am, knowing nothing about the show, but, the meltdown of the fans, well, that was a pretty interesting thing to behold. One video that was posted was of a young lady who was trying to explain her sadness but you couldn't really understand her because she was sobbing so loudly. I also saw where a counseling group had set up a fee-based service just for those who were not able to cope. Their help was to be doled out by the minute and it included for an extra fee a Skype or FaceTime session with a practitioner to help soothe the troubled heart and mind. I remember the day Elvis died and all the tears flowing in downtown Houston. I'll never forget one of the metro buses came by and a lady had her face against the window and it was fogged up and wet from her sobbing. I think maybe this Game of Thrones situation was something akin to that. Like I say, I was not a watcher of the show, but, I am definitely a watcher of the culture.

I don't want to send a wrong signal here. We do try to watch our favorite programs too. We are fans of NCIS and we do watch it in its regular run and even see many of the reruns. We are also fans of many of the Masterpiece series on PBS. We tried to catch all of the Queen Victoria series and many others as well. Our most recent favorite is the cop show, Live PD. I mention this so that I'm not picking on the Game of Thrones fans. I would hope that I could move on if any of the series I watch ended. Speaking of attachments, we recently had lunch with some old friends we had not seen in a number of years and the conversation turned to our new puppy, Mr. Bentley. The lady told us how she was devastated when they had to put her dog down a few years ago. She had a serious issue with depression and anxiety as a result. I am very fond of our new pup, but, I do not want to get attached to the level that I could become disabled if something happened to him. I can remember growing up, we always had dogs around. They lived outside. We lived inside. We fed and watered them. They were never mistreated. However, when one of them passed away for whatever reason we moved on down the road. I'm not sure how my story will play out with Mr. Bentley, but, I do hope I can maintain some sense of balance. Just me. You do it the way you think best.

I say that because I am the one who has made it clear for the past 40 plus years that I did not want an animal of any kind. And, especially, one who would be kept in the house. Trying to be honest here, I did, on occasion, say I would enjoy having a dog that loved to ride with me in the old pickup. Obviously, we have become examples of those who were thought of as being strong in our determination not to ever have a dog, but, nonetheless, we have Mr. Bentley now. A lady recently told her daughter-in-law who was visiting from Michigan, "These are the people I told you about. No one would have ever believed they would have a dog. Now they are crazy about their little Mr. Bentley." I cannot deny the truth of that statement. Mr. Bentley is that dog who loves to ride in the old pickup. If I leave his leash off and rattle my truck keys he flips out. He knows he is going to ride in the truck. I unlock the passenger side and he jumps up into the cab. He then has his front paws on the dashboard waiting for me to come around to my side. When I get in he is all over me waiting for me to get the window down and get buckled in. We drive around the subdivision and he lays his front paws on the window frame and sticks his head out to catch the wind. He loves it. The wife says this is why he is spoiled rotten. It does make a body wonder. It really does. Have a great rest of the day and may God bless each one. Amen. ....More later.