I have only owned one iguana in my lifetime. His name was Iggy and he was acquired due to my own bad judgement from my boss at the college where I taught continuing education computer classes for some 20 odd years.

Now it seems that Iggy got along grandly in his reptile enclosure even though the entire room reeked of lizard excrement. It was the winter months and I ran a oil filled radiator on high in the room as well as keeping a 'heat stone' in the enclosure for him to rest upon.

He never struck me as being uncomfortable with this arrangement. He would get a a lot of baby spinach and other mixed greens sprinkled with a calcium supplement powder along with fresh water every day. He consumed these things with apparent gusto.

I cleaned his enclosure about once a week or when it became heavily soiled as it did periodically. I devised a good methodology for quick and efficient cleaning using a lot of white vinegar and water on the back porch. I then dried the thing with a heat gun I used to use on shrink wire wrap tubing.
 

After a year or so I encountered some neighbors who were from Puerto Rico who inquired as to whether they might take ownership of Iggy along with his enclosure and other accessories in use to feed him and clean his environment.

I thought about it and having never wanted in actuality to acquire a lizard anyway I turned everything over to them.

On a chance visit some weeks later I discovered a fairly substantial pile of bones in their yard along with what appeared to be lizard skins and I inquired as to where Iggy was. They then admitted that they consumed him for a family meal one weekend and that Iggy was no more. It was also obvious that Iggy wasn't ever the only main course, either.

This was quite a shock for me personally as I had never intended for Iggy to become a food animal. I thought he would remain the companion animal that I viewed him as being. So much for what I thought.

Today is National Iguana Awareness Day, held each September 8 annually as a vehicle to promote the iguana as pets.

So if you acquire an iguana you no longer want you may or may not wish to pursue whether it will end up as a pet ... or food with the new owners up front. Had I done this I would have handled matters differently.

I had bad dreams of him being dispatched and prepared for cooking for a long time afterwards. I suppose it is just deserts for such irresponsibility in reptile ownership. You see, though I didn't really like Iggy very much I was in it for the duration.

Alas poor Iggy I knew him well Horatio.

Rest in peace.
 

You are what you are and you is what you is.

From You Are What You Is
Frank Zappa
1981

In my personal case, reading isn't really what it is for most recreational readers. I stopped reading recreationally shortly after my hitch in the Navy was up because I became immersed in the path to subject matter expertise in an effort to earn a living post military service.

First it was anatomy and physiology for a long while. Then it became LAN, WAN, client-server, AI, 4GLs, and expert systems for the duration. That which began evolved to something totally different.

Today is National Read a Book Day. It happens each September 6 as a vehicle for all book lovers to indulge in their favorite hobby allegedly without guilt. I would never feel guilt as a consequence of reading.

Reading for pleasure is a strange notion for me given the fact that everything on my bookshelf is highly technical and without wands, fantasy, or lovey dovey.

While I consider recreational reading a fine diversion and endeavor it simply has not ever been a luxury for which I had adequate time. The last recreational reading I did was aboard the USS MacDonough somewhere in the North Atlantic reading Stephen King's Salems Lot.

It scared the crap out of me.

Everything since then has been something I needed for a certification exam or to teach a class.

Yes, required reading makes Dave a dull boy otherwise. I find I relate less to others because we have increasingly less in common due to those pursuits essential to my life. That in a nutshell would be the reading of some technical tome.

I don't read for others. Oprah and her book club couldn't get the time of day read to her by me. She is just another dullard who preys upon the public to their squeeling and grunting delight.

Happy National Read a Book Day. I hope you get to read everything you do because it's something you want, not something you need.
 

Until about a week ago I was a very charitable human being. This was prior to my good nature being taken advantage of by a hispanic female. She defrauded me in the checkout at Walmart and I will never return there for this reason.

Yes, I should have been much more careful, but I was ignorant to the ways of these hispanic invaders. I am now much more aware and ...

Decidedly less charitable.

The Walmart parking lot has become a place for exploitation of their customers.

They do not protect the customer from panhandlers. We must protect ourselves. Then I find out that it is not illegal to panhandle in South Carolina. Therein lay the problem in toto.

Today International Day of Charity. It originated in Hungary via a civil society initiative marking the death of Mother Teresa.

It's been picked up by the United Nations who are the biggest exporter of illegal aliens on the planet. This coupled with the lying ass black UN bastard Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who would just as soon misrepresent himself and the World Health Organization as look at you make for evil bedfellows who should be shunned by the world.

The UN thinks the rest of the world should take in the riff raff from all other countries. The democrats hold this as well. I for one will never come under their purview. I doubt that I will ever be the kind, gentle, caring charitable individual I once was. You asked for it. You got it.

Yeah, I've been known to have a second helping of dessert periodically.

I don't really need a special day to do it. Depending on what the dilection is makes or breaks the deal. I have been known to sit and eat the better part of a serving dish full of bannana pudding in all my glorious gluttony.

While the formal definition of 'dessert' refers to a sweet eaten at the end of a meal, the unabashed Dave dictionary says the dessert is merely a sweet to consumed ... whenever.

The origin of Eat an Extra Dessert Day remains unknown. Only those results which we illustrate when we partake of those meal toppers prepared for us either with or without a preceeding meal.

Cake, brownies, pie, cookies, ice cream, and the more exotic varieties are all there to tantalize the consumption of everyone.

Some of us are even blessed with natural born cooks, bakers, and confectioners in our midst as well.

Desserts are a food which has been around tantalizing our taste buds since time immemorial. Sometimes the memory of a particular taste attracts us most of all.

Sometime the spectacular visual appeal of that construction of ingredients is the attraction. Regardless they are there and we are here so get out there and eat some fattening dessert foods when you can.