I hit a deer this morning. I'd driven down the hill to the Post Office and to make a long distance call and was driving back. I could see two small deer (yearlings?) on the other side of the road so I slowed way down 'cause they're pretty unpredictable. Sure enough, just before I pulled even with them one decided the woods on the other (my) side were safer and darted in front of me. THUD!
I was doing about 20 mph at that point, down from about 50 mph. When I looked in the rear view mirror I couldn't see anything. I clearly hadn't run over the top of it (Sally would have jumped) so I'm assuming it got knocked into the ditch. Do I go back and see if it's dead?? Uhm...what if it isn't? Now what do I do? So I decided that given the fact I hit it square with the center of Sally it probably didn't survive.
The damage to Sally: the front bumper is even more bent up now than it was. It was going to get replaced anyway so that's no big deal.
We have a lot of deer here - I saw a group of about six 1/2 mile further up the road - so this was bound to happen.
I just wish their parents did a better job of training them regarding crossing the road, especially when there are vehicles coming.
Do you want to hire someone who doesn't know the difference between square feet and linear feet? And who doesn't specify fence height in their ad?
Proverbs says that "in much counsel there is wisdom" so I've been talking to several people with expertise in some aspect of Pam's recent medical issues to figure out what we should do next. After consulting with them I called the "Grievance Line" at the hospital again today (got a recording yesterday and no return call) and got a real person.
I have met the behemoth that is corporate medicine and it's an ugly beast with protecting its butt as a high priority.
At this point I don't have a lot of confidence that this is going to go simply or at a reasonable pace. But I can be patient if I have to so we'll set what seems to be a reasonable expectation given what I was told and hope that we have some resolution by 2019. At least now the process is in motion, even if it is at their mercy.
53% of the land in Oregon is owned by the federal government. They lease some of that land back to private companies and individuals for use. A lot of that forested land used to be leased to logging companies who harvested timber and then, per govt. regulations, replanted it with seedlings so that it was a renewable resource. A Douglas Fir seedling is ready for harvest 30 years after planting. Large sections of forest could be harvested in a rotation that meant there was always logging going on and trees reaching maturity for next year's harvesting.
Then the environmentalists decreed this deforestation (??) threatened native species by destroying their habitat, bringing logging industry in western Oregon came to a near standstill. Loggers lost their jobs, but of greater impact: the mills that supported entire towns closed down. Western Oregon is dotted with once-thriving rural towns that are now mired in poverty because of closed mills. And they have no other options for industry and employment.
The ripple effect of the death of the timber industry meant counties suddenly lost their tax base. Mills and the thousands they employed provided the taxes that funded schools and infrastructure. So southwestern counties like Douglas and Josephine are almost dysfunctional. Josephine closed down its Sheriff's department several years ago because it couldn't fund it. Douglas County is looking at doing the same thing next fiscal year. The schools are a mess because buildings can't be repaired and teachers can't be paid a salary that keeps them; they move to other places - often out of state - that pay much better.
In an interesting twist a study done last year showed that the Spotted Owl, the creature that became the rallying point of the environmental activists because of its declining numbers, did not disappear because of the habitat loss that led the feds to shut down logging on govt. owned land. It turns out an eastern owl expanded its natural habitat into the west. Because this eastern owl is bigger and competes for the same food source it pushed out the Spotted Owl.
Of course the good people of western Oregon won't get their timber jobs back and the counties won't recover their lost revenue. Like the Spotted Owl they're losers and have to deal with it.
BTW, at least in western OR widespread poverty increases drug use, especially the cheapest drug, meth. Without a sheriff's department to provide law enforcement outside of the cities big enough to have their own police department you can guess what happens.
You can find a list of the amount of federally owned land for each state here.
On the way home from church Sunday I stopped to buy a whole roasted chicken and tonight I'll have the last of four meals off that bird. I add some frozen veggies (I heat them up first; I'm not that hopeless) and some macaroni salad I also got at Meyer.
Tomorrow night I'll go to Countryside for a small pizza again and that will take care of Thursday and Friday's dinner. Then I just have to figure out what to do for Saturday and Sunday.
Our church keeps a freezer stocked with frozen meals people have made and yesterday I stopped by to pick up two they said they had for me. One is a pan of lasagna that would feed a family of eight for a month! The other is a pasta/meat soup. Both of those require prep that exceeds my culinary skills so I'm saving them until Pam gets home. Plus, that means she won't have to cook dinner for the first month or two.
Monday evening!!!!!
How 'bout this one? I took it at the Circus Circus hotel when we stayed there a few years ago and a weekend getaway. It's an older hotel that I can't recommend on any level. It's also among the cheapest on the strip, so now you know why I chose it.
Vary bad.
One of the reasons I continue to blog is that I think it helps me improve my communication skills. I obviously don't proofread these posts and write in a stream-of-consciousness manner, but as I'm writing a sentence I think about how it sounds. Am I choosing words that are interesting and efficient? Does the word order create a sentence that flows and reads easily? Does it effectively communicate the thought in my head? (that's the hardest part)
I also think that writing with a mind to quality helps with my verbal communication. I find it easier to pull up words that work well. When talking to the dr. Monday I used the word harbinger. I don't know where that came from and I didn't choose it; it just came out.
This might surprise those who read this drivel - that I actually think about the form as I'm writing. If so, imagine how bad it would be if I wasn't thinking about it!
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