On the road again
This will be the last post for a few weeks, at
least until I return from North Carolina and yet another pair of
transcontinental jaunts across North America. No images this time - just words
and a few thoughts on a few matters - political and personal. See y'all in
September.
This post is sans images - not a first for me but
certainly breaking the usual mold.
The past week has been all geared toward being gone for about a month - I've mowed the yard, edged and trimmed the flowering sections of the yard, moved the last of the boxes which belong out of our bedroom to someplace upstairs and have tried to offload a bunch of stuff from my iBook so it can assume its alternate personality of road-warrior machine.
On Tuesday we had "Seattle Night Out," a reasonably long-standing tradition in this town whereby - in this case - 720 neighborhood blocks held potluck parties, bonfires, and in general got to know each other better or renewed neighborhood friendships. The event has been sponsored by the Seattle Police Department as a means of providing neighborhood awareness and giving the citizens and their fire and police departments a chance to socialize under more normal conditions. Our block captain - the Canadian who formerly worked for Dairygold and owns about half-the-block across 39th Avenue from me - blocked off the ends of the block at the start time of 7:00 pm and set up picnic tables in the street for everyone to place their food on. We had a huge turnout - several additional blocks had requested they join our block and that was okayed. All told there were about a hundred folks from 37th to 41st Streets from Elmgrove to Monroe Streets who gathered. Most came between 7:00 and 7:30 pm but there were some late arrivals. There was a true cornucopia of food, most of it homemade.
I made German potato salad (diced and cooked potatoes, crumbled bacon, homemade French dressing), Katherine made chocolate butter cookies, I also had made four gallons of sun tea (put the tea bags in a gallon container - 10 per gallon - and add cold water and sit out in the sun for three to four hours - makes the BEST iced tea) and brought a Chilean and Washington State Chardonnay pair of wine bottles. Our across-the-street neighbor and the block captain's wife both made blackberry cobbler - both good. There were Swedish meatballs, some Greek grape-leaf thingies, lots of starches including more potato salads, lots of fresh greens, lots of local or homemade bread and a wide variety of cheeses, lots of fresh fruit. It was what I expected for a potluck from the Northwest. Had I been in Illinois or Iowa the entire makeup of the food tables would have been different. For instance, there would have been no homemade cold curry soup. Anyway, I had gone for a five-mile walk followed by my Alki-circuit 14-mile bike run so I could totally pig out - which I did.
It turns out that about one third of the hundred or so folks comprising the several blocks had actually moved into their homes after we moved into ours so we were - of the "newcomers" - the second oldest group in attendance. A lot of the block has been here forever, for sure, but it was nice to meet so many other "new" people. We moved in the First of September last year and there were probably at least three dozen others who have moved in after we did. We traded "where are you from" stories, "how do you like the neighborhood" comments and - given the time of the year - talked politics a lot. The entire set of attendees save one (our nurse neighbor) are relatively liberal anti-Bush types so we did have a rousing set of conversations going on about the whole concept of a "free" America and lots of comments about gay marriage and civil rights. There are, as expected, quite a few gay couples, both male and female, in the immediate neighborhood.
One thing which was really nice were all the positive comments about our house and the addition. I did run a couple of "tours" through the place and answered lots of questions about living in a place being renovated and cost and quality and things like that. As it turns out, our house addition has inspired quite a few of our neighbors to move forwards with their own plans for expansion. That's actually a really good thing since it means we've acted as a "seed" for neighborhood capital investment. I reminded everyone of how pleased I was with a truly local architect, local builder and all local subcontractors. Everyone who worked on the house actually lives within about 14 miles (furthest) and owns a home in the city. There are a lot of folks who were interested in my technical background and, as I've come to expect, everyone has an incredibly high and pure regard for NASA and the science and engineering which the agency has done or is doing. And, not surprisingly, everyone was dismayed and taken aback that the Hubble Space Telescope will be abandonned.
More than a few made the comment that the astronauts are fully aware of the risk. Oh, well, so goes the modern bunker mentality government under the corporate thumb of the Republicans. It's actually always been this way with a Republican administration. That mindset just doesn't understand what a culture is all about and how science and art enhance both a culture and the country its citizens live in. Okay, enough with my distaste for Republicans and bigots and narrowminded people, back to more pleasant things.
About 10 pm, one of the ladder trucks from Engine Company 37 (about eight blocks up the street from us) showed up with a crew ready to party. They hooked up their pumper to the hydrant and were giving anyone who wanted to a chance to try out the nozzle end of a three-inch canvas pipe. About fifty people, half kids and half adults, tried their hand at controlling a high-power adjustable spray thousand-dollar nozzle. Including me. It was an absolute freakin' total fun thing. I had one of the fireman leaning against my back since I was somewhat underweight to be controlling the nozzle end but did get a chance to spray several neighborhood kids who decided they wanted to dart back and forth in front of the spray. I had the nozzle for probably five minutes - a little longer than some. The fire crew kept this up until everyone had their chance and then they joined us for some food and neighborhood talk. That was really good and I told them that I thought their station house was one of the nicest I've seen in the city. It's a Spanish hacienda-style and has a red "37" neon sign on the front. They commented that each station house has a "personality" and theirs is one of the more visible and busy in the city and the individuals who request transfers there are a bit more outgoing than some of the station houses. That was really kind of neat to hear about the internal fire department lore.
About eleven most of the folks packed up their containers and gathered their pets or children and headed back to get ready for another day. I stayed with a few until the last and helped clean up - it being my street after all. So, my first block party was a rousing success and I got to meet some interesting neighbors. There are at least two others who have musical ambitions - one a guitar player who gigs on occasion with some other neighbors - and another an organ/piano player who has a really nice setup in his basement. I suspect that if I get any good with the drums and wish to participate there will be close-by musicians I can play with. Nice to know and one more advantage of living in an area where people get outside a lot and talk a lot. In DC it seemed that everyone couldn't wait to get home and escape into their pod, close the door and do whatever. Partly it's obviously the result of the exceptional weather Seattle has - no one really wants to stay inside; partly it's the result of what I'm guessing is an East Coast tradition of "minding one's own business" and not socializing. Whatever it is, I'm really enjoying the free chatter and conversation and much more open attitude the average "joe" seems to have out here. Definitely fits my style more than the Eastern reticence I came from.
Wednesday I biked up to Ballard to see Todd Schulte's house, which he is renovating and which he uses to keep his crew employed when he's in transition from one building job to the next. The ride to Ballard is one I've now done quite a few times and it took me a little less than ninety minutes to bike the 14 miles from my house to Todd's. I had lunch with Aaron and Joe, using Todd's bratwurst from his frig and his grill for the main course and the three of us totally pigged out on a big bag of Tim's Cascade Style chips. They are excellent potato chips - easily as good as Grandma Utz's homestyle. I've discovered that the trick for a really good potato chip is to fry them in peanut oil along with having them be a bit thicker than the usual Lay's variety. Anyway, after the hour lunch I made my way to leave so as to not interfere with the actual work. Just as I'm about to get on my bike Todd rolls in (he'd been at our house earlier while I was biking to his house). He gives me a more extensive tour of his 1905 house and what he's done and what it looked like previously. He's redone about half-a-dozen of his neighbor's houses on the same block and made the comment that he really needed to do this as much for his business as for he, his wife and their 15-year old son. I was somewhat pleased that he was so happy with the fiberglass deck he'd done for me that he used the same company to do an upstairs deck on his house with the same fiberglass treatment. I didn't realize it at the time, but my house was his "test" case for whether or not the fiberglass decking was "up to snuff." Obviously it was and I'm quite pleased with the work done on our balcony.
I was practically home from what was a 28-mile ride when I'm biking along 30th Avenue SW toward home and fate deals me another of what I've come to realize are fate's random "interesting" moments in my life. Without going into endless detail suffice to say that a leashed 60-pound pit bull type dog jumped about five feet to grab my right ankle in its jaw and rip my sock off and tear some flesh off my ankle and rather interestingly bruise my ankle with the force of the attack. Yes, attacked by a dog on public property. After a relatively short discussion with the owner and his complete lack of concern and care over either my injury or the nature of his animal, I noted his address (this was in front of the owner's house) and told him that I was "calling the cops." Seattle has probably more animals per capita than any other big city in this country. Not surprisingly it also has a very detailed and well-thought-out set of municipal codes which define both what the owners can and should do and what their animals can and should do. The converse of that is there is a well-defined set of violations - which I had thought were equally well known.
For instance, it is completely against the law for an animal to bite a human being whether the animal is on public or private property. I called the non-emergency number and asked what do I do if I've been bitten and attacked by a dog. The response was "you call 911." So, I dial 911 and tell the dispatcher that I've just been attacked and bitten by a dog and give her my address and the address of the dog's owner. She gets the fire department on the line and after giving them relevant information gets the police department on the line and after informing them of what they needed she gets animal control on the line. By the time I hang up there's a fire truck with medics from (yes) station 37 in front of my house. They take blood pressure, pulse, and examine my ankle, telling me that for the time being I should just wash it with antiseptic soap and observe to see if it gets worse and if it does to visit Harborview (city hospital) and if not to go easy until the bruises heal. They leave and simultaneously the police cruiser arrives and the guy takes down a report and tells me to wait until animal control arrives since the issue is more with animal control than the police at this point.
Animal control arrives and the guy takes pictures of the sock and my ankle, has me fill out an affidavit with my version of what happened and then heads to the owner's house to serve him with a law violation warrant which carries a $269 fine. He says that the guy can pay or contest. If he contests we'll be in Seattle municipal court in about a year but usually they just pay. He also says that the address has no previous animal violations but that the guy may have moved there recently and once he interviews him and gets his name they'll run his name through the system to see if he's been in violation before. Three strikes and the animal is declared a "dangerous" animal and can have one of three things done. The first is the owner can agree to leave the city and keep the animal outside of Seattle city limits. The second is the owner can agree to having the animal contained in a Seattle animal control facility especially designed for dangerous animals (think of it as an animal prison). The third is that the animal will be put down by animal control.
Personally I was in favor of putting the animal down immediately. The attack was sudden, unprovoked and while the dog was under leash control. To me, that defines dangerous animal right there. I also agreed with the animal control guy that it was admittedly a rare event. I've probably had personal encounters with upwards of 400 dogs since I've moved here and previously they were all positive and resulted in no injury or even threat. This was the first dog incident I've actually ever had in my life so the ratio of good dogs to bad dogs is clearly very high. But, one bad dog doesn't spoil the barrel, but by the same token, one bad dog should not be allowed on the loose or anywhere near other animals or humans. The ankle will heal - I've had equally bad bike accidents which ripped the flesh and bruised my ankle as much. I think the suddenness of the attack, the unprovoked and unannounced nature of the dog's reaction coupled with the owner's complete lack of concern distressed me more than any pain or blood or lost sock. I can only assume that the owner either has had this experience with his dog before or shouldn't be owning any animals. I'm also hoping that the $269 fine will wake the guy up, but following my discussion with him I'm not that optimistic that the guy actually has a clue or cares. In that case this will happen again and eventually he'll face more severe consequences.
Of course the thing which hurt more than the bite, the attack, or even the clueless owner's response, was the blow to my perpetual pollyanna approach. Once again I'd been living in a dream world where dogs and their owners are good, nice, convivial, social and non-threatening and non-attacking. Once again I'd been rudely awakened from my daydream by reality and once again I was crushed psychologically - a state I'm constantly finding myself in despite all the reality and its habit of intruding into my dream. I'll get over it and I suppose everyone could say that it's really a minor event in the grand scheme of things - except that in my life minor events ARE the grand scheme of things. Everything is comprised of a series of little things which together make a whole. Sure, this is a dust mote on the marble table of life and it was probably an eventuality given how often I'm outdoors and how many neighborhoods I travel through -sooner or later I was bound to encounter at least one ill-bred or beastly dog and clueless owner. But you know what, I'm still surprised by it and still disappointed and still hurt inside because of it. Just my nature to remain open and trusting and believing the best in everything. Which, of course, I have immediately embraced yet again. And, regarding Fate's remarkable play with my life - yet another instance of things one reads about in papers or hears about but which never seem to happen to anyone in particular - except that they happen to me.
One neighbor asked me something along the lines of making sure that I didn't go out looking for trouble - I assured her that I didn't have to look for trouble because trouble always has a way of finding me and it's always just when I've put that thought out of my head. There's a great Ry Cooder song entitled "Trouble, You Can't Fool Me," which has the line - "Trouble, you can't fool me, I see you behind that tree" <http://www.lyricsdownload.com/ry-cooder-trouble-you-can-t-fool-me-lyrics.html >. But, often I'm just not looking at the tree and trouble strikes. Like I said, 'tis my Fate to encounter Trouble as often as I do. Guess Fate likes me because I recover quickly and turn pollyanna again so fast.
Given that, I'm sure my transcontinental trip and beach reunion and transcontinental trip back will be uneventful, but also given that I'm going to be about a thousand times even more cautious and aware on this set of trips than I usually am. Have a fun August, I'll be back in Seattle on/about September First and will report. The trip East includes yet another jaunt through Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, the Wind River Range, and yet another old US Highway which I can follow for days - US 36. It doesn't go through any towns of note but it does cross in a straight line from Denver all the way to Kentucky. That will be fun and I'll have a great time on the backroads of Middle America. The beach vacation will be great fun. I haven't seen my brothers or cousins in three years. The trip back to Seattle with Adam will be yet another grand adventure through Canada and across the northern shore of Lake Superior - one of the greatest stretches of highway on the continent, by the way. If you haven't yet seen anything of the Northern Lake Superior area - you owe it to yourself to do that. Endless hundreds of miles of blue water, clear and scraped rock which represents the earliest solid earth of the North American continent, and an unbelievable stretch of Birch forest - yes forest!! Not to mention the wonderful warm and friendly nature of the Canadians in that section of Ontario and Manitoba. We'll then drop back into the US for yet another trip through the Badlands, Black Hills, Devils Tower and this time we'll come home to Seattle taking the way northern route - US Highway 2 and State Highway 20.
See you in September.
Chas
<<
in the odd event that someone wants or needs to get me -
I'll have my cell phone with me the entire trip - that number is
202-316-3574
>>
And, to my friends at the weblog and photo and photoblog meetups - sorry I'll be missing the August meetup and I'll plan on a house-warming party for all of you when I return - no one liked my date of September 11, though, alas.
The past week has been all geared toward being gone for about a month - I've mowed the yard, edged and trimmed the flowering sections of the yard, moved the last of the boxes which belong out of our bedroom to someplace upstairs and have tried to offload a bunch of stuff from my iBook so it can assume its alternate personality of road-warrior machine.
On Tuesday we had "Seattle Night Out," a reasonably long-standing tradition in this town whereby - in this case - 720 neighborhood blocks held potluck parties, bonfires, and in general got to know each other better or renewed neighborhood friendships. The event has been sponsored by the Seattle Police Department as a means of providing neighborhood awareness and giving the citizens and their fire and police departments a chance to socialize under more normal conditions. Our block captain - the Canadian who formerly worked for Dairygold and owns about half-the-block across 39th Avenue from me - blocked off the ends of the block at the start time of 7:00 pm and set up picnic tables in the street for everyone to place their food on. We had a huge turnout - several additional blocks had requested they join our block and that was okayed. All told there were about a hundred folks from 37th to 41st Streets from Elmgrove to Monroe Streets who gathered. Most came between 7:00 and 7:30 pm but there were some late arrivals. There was a true cornucopia of food, most of it homemade.
I made German potato salad (diced and cooked potatoes, crumbled bacon, homemade French dressing), Katherine made chocolate butter cookies, I also had made four gallons of sun tea (put the tea bags in a gallon container - 10 per gallon - and add cold water and sit out in the sun for three to four hours - makes the BEST iced tea) and brought a Chilean and Washington State Chardonnay pair of wine bottles. Our across-the-street neighbor and the block captain's wife both made blackberry cobbler - both good. There were Swedish meatballs, some Greek grape-leaf thingies, lots of starches including more potato salads, lots of fresh greens, lots of local or homemade bread and a wide variety of cheeses, lots of fresh fruit. It was what I expected for a potluck from the Northwest. Had I been in Illinois or Iowa the entire makeup of the food tables would have been different. For instance, there would have been no homemade cold curry soup. Anyway, I had gone for a five-mile walk followed by my Alki-circuit 14-mile bike run so I could totally pig out - which I did.
It turns out that about one third of the hundred or so folks comprising the several blocks had actually moved into their homes after we moved into ours so we were - of the "newcomers" - the second oldest group in attendance. A lot of the block has been here forever, for sure, but it was nice to meet so many other "new" people. We moved in the First of September last year and there were probably at least three dozen others who have moved in after we did. We traded "where are you from" stories, "how do you like the neighborhood" comments and - given the time of the year - talked politics a lot. The entire set of attendees save one (our nurse neighbor) are relatively liberal anti-Bush types so we did have a rousing set of conversations going on about the whole concept of a "free" America and lots of comments about gay marriage and civil rights. There are, as expected, quite a few gay couples, both male and female, in the immediate neighborhood.
One thing which was really nice were all the positive comments about our house and the addition. I did run a couple of "tours" through the place and answered lots of questions about living in a place being renovated and cost and quality and things like that. As it turns out, our house addition has inspired quite a few of our neighbors to move forwards with their own plans for expansion. That's actually a really good thing since it means we've acted as a "seed" for neighborhood capital investment. I reminded everyone of how pleased I was with a truly local architect, local builder and all local subcontractors. Everyone who worked on the house actually lives within about 14 miles (furthest) and owns a home in the city. There are a lot of folks who were interested in my technical background and, as I've come to expect, everyone has an incredibly high and pure regard for NASA and the science and engineering which the agency has done or is doing. And, not surprisingly, everyone was dismayed and taken aback that the Hubble Space Telescope will be abandonned.
More than a few made the comment that the astronauts are fully aware of the risk. Oh, well, so goes the modern bunker mentality government under the corporate thumb of the Republicans. It's actually always been this way with a Republican administration. That mindset just doesn't understand what a culture is all about and how science and art enhance both a culture and the country its citizens live in. Okay, enough with my distaste for Republicans and bigots and narrowminded people, back to more pleasant things.
About 10 pm, one of the ladder trucks from Engine Company 37 (about eight blocks up the street from us) showed up with a crew ready to party. They hooked up their pumper to the hydrant and were giving anyone who wanted to a chance to try out the nozzle end of a three-inch canvas pipe. About fifty people, half kids and half adults, tried their hand at controlling a high-power adjustable spray thousand-dollar nozzle. Including me. It was an absolute freakin' total fun thing. I had one of the fireman leaning against my back since I was somewhat underweight to be controlling the nozzle end but did get a chance to spray several neighborhood kids who decided they wanted to dart back and forth in front of the spray. I had the nozzle for probably five minutes - a little longer than some. The fire crew kept this up until everyone had their chance and then they joined us for some food and neighborhood talk. That was really good and I told them that I thought their station house was one of the nicest I've seen in the city. It's a Spanish hacienda-style and has a red "37" neon sign on the front. They commented that each station house has a "personality" and theirs is one of the more visible and busy in the city and the individuals who request transfers there are a bit more outgoing than some of the station houses. That was really kind of neat to hear about the internal fire department lore.
About eleven most of the folks packed up their containers and gathered their pets or children and headed back to get ready for another day. I stayed with a few until the last and helped clean up - it being my street after all. So, my first block party was a rousing success and I got to meet some interesting neighbors. There are at least two others who have musical ambitions - one a guitar player who gigs on occasion with some other neighbors - and another an organ/piano player who has a really nice setup in his basement. I suspect that if I get any good with the drums and wish to participate there will be close-by musicians I can play with. Nice to know and one more advantage of living in an area where people get outside a lot and talk a lot. In DC it seemed that everyone couldn't wait to get home and escape into their pod, close the door and do whatever. Partly it's obviously the result of the exceptional weather Seattle has - no one really wants to stay inside; partly it's the result of what I'm guessing is an East Coast tradition of "minding one's own business" and not socializing. Whatever it is, I'm really enjoying the free chatter and conversation and much more open attitude the average "joe" seems to have out here. Definitely fits my style more than the Eastern reticence I came from.
Wednesday I biked up to Ballard to see Todd Schulte's house, which he is renovating and which he uses to keep his crew employed when he's in transition from one building job to the next. The ride to Ballard is one I've now done quite a few times and it took me a little less than ninety minutes to bike the 14 miles from my house to Todd's. I had lunch with Aaron and Joe, using Todd's bratwurst from his frig and his grill for the main course and the three of us totally pigged out on a big bag of Tim's Cascade Style chips. They are excellent potato chips - easily as good as Grandma Utz's homestyle. I've discovered that the trick for a really good potato chip is to fry them in peanut oil along with having them be a bit thicker than the usual Lay's variety. Anyway, after the hour lunch I made my way to leave so as to not interfere with the actual work. Just as I'm about to get on my bike Todd rolls in (he'd been at our house earlier while I was biking to his house). He gives me a more extensive tour of his 1905 house and what he's done and what it looked like previously. He's redone about half-a-dozen of his neighbor's houses on the same block and made the comment that he really needed to do this as much for his business as for he, his wife and their 15-year old son. I was somewhat pleased that he was so happy with the fiberglass deck he'd done for me that he used the same company to do an upstairs deck on his house with the same fiberglass treatment. I didn't realize it at the time, but my house was his "test" case for whether or not the fiberglass decking was "up to snuff." Obviously it was and I'm quite pleased with the work done on our balcony.
I was practically home from what was a 28-mile ride when I'm biking along 30th Avenue SW toward home and fate deals me another of what I've come to realize are fate's random "interesting" moments in my life. Without going into endless detail suffice to say that a leashed 60-pound pit bull type dog jumped about five feet to grab my right ankle in its jaw and rip my sock off and tear some flesh off my ankle and rather interestingly bruise my ankle with the force of the attack. Yes, attacked by a dog on public property. After a relatively short discussion with the owner and his complete lack of concern and care over either my injury or the nature of his animal, I noted his address (this was in front of the owner's house) and told him that I was "calling the cops." Seattle has probably more animals per capita than any other big city in this country. Not surprisingly it also has a very detailed and well-thought-out set of municipal codes which define both what the owners can and should do and what their animals can and should do. The converse of that is there is a well-defined set of violations - which I had thought were equally well known.
For instance, it is completely against the law for an animal to bite a human being whether the animal is on public or private property. I called the non-emergency number and asked what do I do if I've been bitten and attacked by a dog. The response was "you call 911." So, I dial 911 and tell the dispatcher that I've just been attacked and bitten by a dog and give her my address and the address of the dog's owner. She gets the fire department on the line and after giving them relevant information gets the police department on the line and after informing them of what they needed she gets animal control on the line. By the time I hang up there's a fire truck with medics from (yes) station 37 in front of my house. They take blood pressure, pulse, and examine my ankle, telling me that for the time being I should just wash it with antiseptic soap and observe to see if it gets worse and if it does to visit Harborview (city hospital) and if not to go easy until the bruises heal. They leave and simultaneously the police cruiser arrives and the guy takes down a report and tells me to wait until animal control arrives since the issue is more with animal control than the police at this point.
Animal control arrives and the guy takes pictures of the sock and my ankle, has me fill out an affidavit with my version of what happened and then heads to the owner's house to serve him with a law violation warrant which carries a $269 fine. He says that the guy can pay or contest. If he contests we'll be in Seattle municipal court in about a year but usually they just pay. He also says that the address has no previous animal violations but that the guy may have moved there recently and once he interviews him and gets his name they'll run his name through the system to see if he's been in violation before. Three strikes and the animal is declared a "dangerous" animal and can have one of three things done. The first is the owner can agree to leave the city and keep the animal outside of Seattle city limits. The second is the owner can agree to having the animal contained in a Seattle animal control facility especially designed for dangerous animals (think of it as an animal prison). The third is that the animal will be put down by animal control.
Personally I was in favor of putting the animal down immediately. The attack was sudden, unprovoked and while the dog was under leash control. To me, that defines dangerous animal right there. I also agreed with the animal control guy that it was admittedly a rare event. I've probably had personal encounters with upwards of 400 dogs since I've moved here and previously they were all positive and resulted in no injury or even threat. This was the first dog incident I've actually ever had in my life so the ratio of good dogs to bad dogs is clearly very high. But, one bad dog doesn't spoil the barrel, but by the same token, one bad dog should not be allowed on the loose or anywhere near other animals or humans. The ankle will heal - I've had equally bad bike accidents which ripped the flesh and bruised my ankle as much. I think the suddenness of the attack, the unprovoked and unannounced nature of the dog's reaction coupled with the owner's complete lack of concern distressed me more than any pain or blood or lost sock. I can only assume that the owner either has had this experience with his dog before or shouldn't be owning any animals. I'm also hoping that the $269 fine will wake the guy up, but following my discussion with him I'm not that optimistic that the guy actually has a clue or cares. In that case this will happen again and eventually he'll face more severe consequences.
Of course the thing which hurt more than the bite, the attack, or even the clueless owner's response, was the blow to my perpetual pollyanna approach. Once again I'd been living in a dream world where dogs and their owners are good, nice, convivial, social and non-threatening and non-attacking. Once again I'd been rudely awakened from my daydream by reality and once again I was crushed psychologically - a state I'm constantly finding myself in despite all the reality and its habit of intruding into my dream. I'll get over it and I suppose everyone could say that it's really a minor event in the grand scheme of things - except that in my life minor events ARE the grand scheme of things. Everything is comprised of a series of little things which together make a whole. Sure, this is a dust mote on the marble table of life and it was probably an eventuality given how often I'm outdoors and how many neighborhoods I travel through -sooner or later I was bound to encounter at least one ill-bred or beastly dog and clueless owner. But you know what, I'm still surprised by it and still disappointed and still hurt inside because of it. Just my nature to remain open and trusting and believing the best in everything. Which, of course, I have immediately embraced yet again. And, regarding Fate's remarkable play with my life - yet another instance of things one reads about in papers or hears about but which never seem to happen to anyone in particular - except that they happen to me.
One neighbor asked me something along the lines of making sure that I didn't go out looking for trouble - I assured her that I didn't have to look for trouble because trouble always has a way of finding me and it's always just when I've put that thought out of my head. There's a great Ry Cooder song entitled "Trouble, You Can't Fool Me," which has the line - "Trouble, you can't fool me, I see you behind that tree" <http://www.lyricsdownload.com/ry-cooder-trouble-you-can-t-fool-me-lyrics.html >. But, often I'm just not looking at the tree and trouble strikes. Like I said, 'tis my Fate to encounter Trouble as often as I do. Guess Fate likes me because I recover quickly and turn pollyanna again so fast.
Given that, I'm sure my transcontinental trip and beach reunion and transcontinental trip back will be uneventful, but also given that I'm going to be about a thousand times even more cautious and aware on this set of trips than I usually am. Have a fun August, I'll be back in Seattle on/about September First and will report. The trip East includes yet another jaunt through Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, the Wind River Range, and yet another old US Highway which I can follow for days - US 36. It doesn't go through any towns of note but it does cross in a straight line from Denver all the way to Kentucky. That will be fun and I'll have a great time on the backroads of Middle America. The beach vacation will be great fun. I haven't seen my brothers or cousins in three years. The trip back to Seattle with Adam will be yet another grand adventure through Canada and across the northern shore of Lake Superior - one of the greatest stretches of highway on the continent, by the way. If you haven't yet seen anything of the Northern Lake Superior area - you owe it to yourself to do that. Endless hundreds of miles of blue water, clear and scraped rock which represents the earliest solid earth of the North American continent, and an unbelievable stretch of Birch forest - yes forest!! Not to mention the wonderful warm and friendly nature of the Canadians in that section of Ontario and Manitoba. We'll then drop back into the US for yet another trip through the Badlands, Black Hills, Devils Tower and this time we'll come home to Seattle taking the way northern route - US Highway 2 and State Highway 20.
See you in September.
Chas
<<
in the odd event that someone wants or needs to get me -
I'll have my cell phone with me the entire trip - that number is
202-316-3574
>>
And, to my friends at the weblog and photo and photoblog meetups - sorry I'll be missing the August meetup and I'll plan on a house-warming party for all of you when I return - no one liked my date of September 11, though, alas.
Posted: Thu - August 5, 2004 at 08:58 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM