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Very confusing messages and candidate.

GettyImages 2230161607 640x480.We all know Newsom is running for President. Come on… we can admit it.

Okay, so what’s his message?

His gerrymandering thing is concerning.

Although I secretly admit that if they redraw the lines, my community might get taken out of Judy Chu’s district and put back into a district belonging to someone who has a clue about where we are, and how our needs differ from the aristocracy in her core area.

That being said, Newsom is 100% wrong. Polls suggest that the people of California oppose his redrawing the lines at this time. We supposedly have a Fair and Impartial redistricting committee put in place by the California electorate to prevent this sort of thing.

That committee was voted for, by the people of California. “Fair and Impartial” has become a somewhat nebulous term these days, especially when it comes to our redistricting committee.

I believe that the lines were in fact gerrymandered in the last redraw. There appeared to be a concerted effort to slice up conservative Republican strongholds in the High Desert communities, and in the Central Valley.

Not that it mattered too much in the 2024 election. If you look at the votes that went for Trump in California, even the coastal cities were a lot redder than in past elections.

Newsom, in my opinion is wrong forcing this issue because he’s essentially saying to the people of California, “You didn’t do it right, so I’m going to defy your will, the California Constitution, and I’m going to do what I please,” I think there’s a term for that… 

In fact there are multiple terms for that, most of which are applied to President Trump every hour of every day. “Dictator”, “Tyrant”, “King”…

How is what Newsom’s doing any different? In a way it underscores that in California the voters only have an illusion of choice.

To me it says, “You the people are in control, only so long as you do things my way. If you defy me, I’m going to take away your control.” That’s not a functioning Democracy, or Republic. That’s the very definition of a dictatorship. Wait, isn’t that one of the things the Democrat party hates about Putin?

Honestly, it’s not a good look for a future President. I don’t care which political party you’re a member of.

Newsom suggested on a podcast with tech journalist Kara Swisher, that Trump was going to place ICE agents at the polls in the midterm election as an act of intimidation.

Wait. What? How is that an act of intimidation? I thought only citizens voted in our safe, free, and fair elections. Why would that be intimidating? Unless Newsom said something he shouldn’t have, implicitly admitting Non-Citizens were voting in our elections.

Noooo that can’t be true. Non-Citizens, illegal or not, would never vote illegally.

I suppose that what he meant to say was ICE presence could deter naturalized Citizens from voting. I could see that, maybe.

But I’ve never known a naturalized citizen who was the least bit hesitant to proudly show their proof of naturalization.

I know a number of people who went through the citizenship process. They’re Mexican, South American, Russian, Ukrainian, and Algerian. These are people I know personally.

Hell some of them I helped coach for their citizenship tests, and guess what? We threw them welcome parties to celebrate their achievement in becoming U.S. Citizens. One of these people I personally took with me to the polling location for a presidential election. It was his first time casting a vote in this country and I was honored to vote with him.

These folks went through the process, they waited their turn, and entered our country legally and with our blessing.

Newsom’s concern about ICE possibly being at the polls could be assuaged if California implemented Voter ID.

I do hope that some bright Republican campaign person takes that thought and runs with it. With voter ID in place, there’s no need to have ICE at the polling places is there?

Newsom told Politico that he believes Trump will run in 2028.

This is a presidential candidate?

Has he read the United States Constitution?

Just because his auntie has become fossilized in Washington D.C. doesn’t mean that Presidential term limits don’t apply. He claimed he’s been sent two dozen Trump 2028 hats.

So? Sure there are people who’d probably like to see Trump in office for 3 terms. However that’s not likely to happen because it would require amending the Constitution.  Changing the Constitution is a big deal and should never be taken lightly. I’ll stand up with a bunch of other people from both political parties to prevent that.

Not because I’m worried about Trump having a third term. But because If we open that door, I believe we open the door to amending or nullifying every other right or limitation of government power enshrined in the Constitution.

Like the right to free speech, freedom from unreasonable search & seizure, to bear arms, and anything else a President or political party finds inconvenient.

We saw in the Biden administration, and during COVID, that there are people who would, without hesitation, abridge our freedoms. We know now that censorship (a clear violation of the First amendment,) was in fact being applied to social media, & internet information sources by our Government. We know this from testimony in congressional hearings.

Even with the Constitutional protections in place, there are breathtaking examples of misuse of power. Those misuses are not limited to the Biden Administration.

Biden’s people were just more rabid, and less subtle in how they tried to take our freedom.

Don’t get me wrong, I have questions and concerns about the Constitutionality of some of Trumps Executive Orders, and if he’s over-reaching the boundaries of his office. I’m also not particularly thrilled about the white house ballroom, and I personally don’t like all the gold leaf he’s applied to rooms in the White House.

That’s not based in politics, it’s a matter of taste and I think it looks tacky. But that’s my opinion. I prefer quiet contemplative spaces and gold sparkling everywhere is distracting to me.

I believe Trump is as prone to all the same mistakes that power and wealth bring as anyone else. Technically he’s “Nouveau riche” so I’ll make allowances for his flashy style. I’m eternally poor, so flash is not in my repertoire.

Thursday and Friday in the wake of the latest school shooting, we have people demanding to take gun ownership away from all Americans. Yet, most of the recent school shootings have been carried out by a very select and specific group.

A group I should add that enjoys considerable legal protection and who actively attempts to censor all dissenting opinions, under the watchful eye of a particular stripe of media & government officials who are interested only in virtue signaling.

These people are not howling for gun control to be safe, they don’t care about children or even who is doing the shooting.

They want the kind of censorship and oppression that’s becoming commonplace in the UK, where grannies can be arrested for saying they like bacon at a muslim protest. Where little girls are arrested for defending themselves against rape in Scotland.

Scotland!?!

Of all places I’d never have expected a little girl to be arrested for defending herself. I’d have expected her to be hoisted up on the shoulders of burly men in full clan colors, taken to the town square and having the mayor say “Good on you lass.”

But nope! She’s arrested for protecting herself, only because some scum migrant thought he was entitled to have his filthy way with her. Had it been anyone but a muslim migrant she’d be sitting home with her parents having a cup of tea. Why? Because politicians keep virtue signaling and making excuses that Muslims don’t understand they’re not supposed to rape women or little girls. What happened to “Believe all women?” Or that violence against women mustn’t be tolerated? Or that sexualization of children is bad?

All that goes out the window, when politicians, any politicians, can use the situation to virtue signal. Usually, they’re virtue signaling to a group their either fear, or that gives them some perceived advantage with a voting block.

Newsom claims he’s getting tough on crime, yet refuses to fully fund proposition 36. He claims it would be too costly and the state is running a deficit. Proposition 36 passed in a landslide. Something over 60%. It was the will of the people, you know, that “Democracy” Newsom claims to represent…

It essentially reversed a soft on crime stance that permitted theft up to a certain dollar amount without being a felony. So, go to your local Target or Walmart with a calculator, stay under $900 or so and steal as much as you can. Just stay under the limit and you’ll be out of jail, if you’re caught, within hours.

At the same time, Newsom is spending millions on his gerrymandering scheme “Defending against an existential threat to Democracy.” 

Let me get this straight, he’s denying democracy, to “defend” democracy?

He’s doing this over Texas redistricting to improve representation of a two party electorate? Texas politics is not something I’m at all conversant in. But if Texas is un-gerrymandering its congressional districts in an attempt to create more balanced Congressional representation, isn’t that a good thing?

Don’t even get me started on Newsom’s messaging on X. He’s all over the map!

Maybe Newsom really is a “Lizard Person” He’s certainly acting like a chameleon hanging on a flatscreen TV.

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Happy Labor Day Weekend

It’s been a couple of weeks for me.

Not really rough, but tiresome.

Last week, the Fraud Department of one of my credit cards contacted while I was on the way to the car service people. Someone was trying to book a 4K stay at a luxury resort in Wyoming using the card I’d just pulled out of the safe for the car repair.

Great!!! Just what I needed. More annoying was that Apple and CarPlay won’t let you press or select any numbers while driving. 

Know what that means? If you’re stuck in traffic and have something like this happen, you can’t get through the fucking phone tree. “Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… Please make a selection… I didn’t hear anything, Goodbye!”

I haven’t found out if it’s a setting I can change in the phone or if this is some “New” feature. I turned off CarPlay, dug my earbuds out of my pocket, put them in, then dialed the number again. This time I could press buttons and was breaking the law doing it. I also wasn’t able to use the fancy built in functions in my damn car like hands free interfaces and the Microphones and speakers built into the car.

Very annoying! What are business people who are reliant on entering extensions, or even pressing 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for Hindi, 4 for Farsi supposed to do? There are people that make a living going from client to client all day long. How are they supposed to call a client to say they’re hung up in traffic and will be an hour late?

Unintended consequences! Someone didn’t think this through.

Did a quick search and it appears this is some bullshit thing that the car manufacturers did. BMW, Kia, Ford, Hyundai, Subaru, and others customer’s are all bitching about it in IOS 18. I’d seen it once before, and had also noticed I couldn’t scroll through my contacts list anymore either.

Sometimes Siri, and the BMW voice recognition just doesn’t understand what you’re saying due to traffic / road noise. Try getting Siri to understand you while you’re sitting next to an Idling big rig, or someone in the car next to you rattling your teeth with their overly amplified bass music. That happens all the time in epic Southern California traffic jams.

What’s the point of a safety feature that forces you to be unsafe to accomplish a simple thing like make a phone call, or call your next client whose name you kind remember but not exactly?

I swear to God, I’m sick of living in “nanny world”.

If I can’t use my phone driving with a fully integrated hands free system then what’s the point of having a damn phone with me all the time? Honestly, maybe going back to land lines with answering machines wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

I guess having CarPlay installed in the car isn’t that much of a priority anymore. If it’s this broken why bother? Maybe I’ll disconnect from CarPlay and see if my system will allow just a bluetooth or wired connection to work properly.

Sounds like an interesting experiment for sometime this weekend.

Anyhow, the 4K charge was declined, and all the other charges were declined/reversed as well. I might be on the hook for $50 but thankfully that’s it.

The person I finally got to talk to after navigating the phone tree, entering zip code, account numbers and all the rest of the bullshit to verify I was indeed a person, was actually helpful. They closed the account then issued a new card which arrived FedEx the next day.

I still have no idea how that number got out into the wild. The card had been in my safe for over a year, and wasn’t being used for any recurring payments. In fact I hadn’t charged anything on the card for at least 18 months.

The situation was handled but really hacked me off.

I checked all the other accounts and found no unrecognized charges.

Today, I was notified that one of the credit reporting agencies had a breach of 4 million records Name, address, phone number, SS number, DOB, and literally everything else a credit reporting agency has access to, probably including account numbers.

Thrilling!

So be mindful out there, check those transactions, especially over this holiday weekend. I sincerely hope that the fuckers trying to take a luxury vacation on my dime get screwed or worse.

I’d personally like a few hours with them, in a good old fashioned S&M dungeon. Believe me, they’d not have a good time. I’d make Torquemada look like an amateur. At least when I was done, they wouldn’t contaminate the gene pool any further. Testicle paté anyone? I feel pretty much the same way about the call scammers too.

To get a feel for what I’m saying, watch the movie “The Beekeeper” No S&M but the protagonist burns a bunch of telephone scammers shit down. It’s very satisfying!

Starting with the credit card, an unexpectedly expensive car repair, and dealing with various aspects of the medical profession I need the long weekend. I’m not working, if I was also dealing with the stresses of a job, I’d be a complete nut case.

“I’m getting too old for this shit!” To quote Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon” 

I think I’m going to turn off the technology and take a techno-break for the next few days.

If you’re looking for a good binge show and you’ve got Amazon Prime, I can recommend “The Terminal List” everyone gets what’s coming to them, deservedly so. It’s another pretty darn satisfying series.

Time for me to pack it in.

Have a great long weekend.

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First Doctor’s appointment at this age

They gave me a minimal dementia test. They asked me to draw a clock after asking me to remember three words.

Yawn!

The young lady administering the test had a problem, (she was quiet, but obviously concerned,) when I started drawing the clock. Then she added that the clock show show 11:10.

I guess she thought I was having a problem when I started drawing the numbers.

I started with twelve, then 6, then 3, then 9, at the four cardinal points inside the circle. Then I added 1,2 then 4,5 then 7,8 then 10, 11.

When I started, she looked a little confused. I paused for a second or two. Visualizing the clock as I wanted it to appear. Then I started drawing. At that point she realized I wasn’t nuts, I simply had a plan. I drew the hands hour shorter and minute longer, indicating the requested time.

Then she asked me the three words. I gave them back in alphabetical order, then asked her if I was supposed to give them back in the order she said them.

She just smiled. 

My memories are apparently functional. As is planning, and visualizing.

All of this was with me running on empty. I’d walked the dog his 2.5 miles, showered, shaved, and had not eaten or had coffee with any sugar in it. It was 11:00 am and I had been really growly when I showed up for the appointment. It took over an hour to get there, traffic was stupid heavy.

Plus after spending 2 hours fighting their stupid web site on Sunday, I was annoyed they didn’t have the data available.

This was not a good combination. Me hungry, bordering on hangry and yet more stupid legal paperwork. They of course wanted an emergency contact. Which experience has shown me is a soft pedal way for them to target someone else if the bill isn’t paid.

I guess I’m overly suspicious.

I really don’t trust the medical profession anymore.

I liked the Dr. but as is in all visits these days, he had to play with his computer a lot. I was about to fire him. But then he actually examined me. He executed a good save.

I told him about a previous doctor I’d fired precisely because all he did was play on the computer the whole appointment. He seemed taken aback by that. I pay for a doctor’s expertise in medical matters not computer science. This is a “benefit” of the Obamacare BS and also the medicare system.

Doctors, even good ones, spend more time in filling out shitty online forms than they do hands-on with their patients.

He was suggesting blood work, and reminded me that it was time for a colonoscopy. Great! That’s going to be a problem. I’m going to need to have someone take the time to transport me on “The Day” Grrr.

I’m considering that when I have this done, I’m not going to be put out. There have been too many reports of medical people hitting IVs with vaccines they think a person should have.

I pushed back on the colonoscopy and he said I could do the home kit but if analysis was inconclusive I’d have to do the full thing.

The problem I have with doctors, particularly in the case of colonoscopies, is that if they find something, usually they’ll find it, then they’ll make another appointment to take care of it, then they’ll make another appointment to recheck that they fixed the problem, on and on. Until you say “Enough!“

If the doctors are already there, and they see the problem, they should fix the problem. But they don’t make as much money that way.

The Doc also suggested an ultrasound of my aorta. Yeah, I smoked so apparently in men It increases the risk of an aortic rupture. It’s probably worthwhile.

I don’t want to get sucked into the endless cycle of doctors, and medical appointments defining what’s left of my life. That’s not quality, it’s the final indignity of a life enslaved by working for the illusion of a retirement full of sunsets and travel.

——— Update 8/28 ———  

Okay,

I’m done with this Doctors office.

1) They’ve been spamming me to fill out a satisfaction survey since I left their office yesterday. I suppose I could fill out their survey saying that I was dissatisfied. I doubt seriously that it will change a damn thing.

2) I asked the Nurse or whatever she was, in-office if the Doctor could add one more test to the battery of tests he’d ordered. She said she’d ask and there’d be a modified lab order in their portal. Haven’t seen that yet.

3) The doctor issued another RX for a combo med I’ve been taking for years, but we’d discussed reducing the amount of one of the components, with the goal of getting off or minimizing the medication. The RX he issued is the exact same dosage. I noticed the error before I headed to the pharmacy and instead of going through the nightmare of the pharmacy, I sent a message via their patient portal noting that this wan’t what we’d discussed and that in any event I’m not going to do 30 day RXs if it’s decided that there will be no change to the med. I want 90 day supplies.

4) As I mentioned above, the Doctor asked about colonoscopy. I told him I was not particularly interested. He said that we could do the “poo in a box” version then make a determination about doing the necessity of the full monty version. This morning, I get a call from an Indian (Dot not Feather) demanding that I call him back to schedule my upcoming colonoscopy.

5) Nowhere in their portal is there mention of making arrangements for the aortic ultrasound.

In other words, this is exactly what I will not do. I will not slave myself to the medical industrial complex so they can destroy my quality of life with endless tests, appointments, and medications, while they milk insurance fees.

I’m not angry about getting old, I refuse to live in terror of the next phase of aging or the next mega disease. I will not relinquish my life to yet another bunch of assholes telling me how to conduct my life.

I spent my adult working life enslaved to corporations and people who saw me as a easily replaceable cog or stepping stone to their goals. I sure as hell am not willing to allow myself to be enslaved to the medical profession and I will never allow these healthcare professionals to “COVID” me again.

Obviously these people or this practice is too damn busy to pay attention. If they can’t pay attention on minor issues, can I trust them to pay attention in the event of a major issue?

As a courtesy, I went to their website to cancel the October follow-up appointment to review the medication changes and lab results.

Since the medication changes weren’t made, and nothing else discussed in the appointment was as we discussed I’m not going to need to be at an appointment now am I?

Their system wouldn’t let me cancel the appointment without providing an explanation.

That was probably a mistake on their part. Because it was pretty much the only way for me to tell them what I thought.

I filled their demanding little box.

Wrong RX. (not what was discussed in appointment.)

Got a call from some unintelligible person demanding to schedule my upcoming colonoscopy (not what was discussed in appointment.)

I lost my other half of 34 years in 2023 due in part, to similar lack of precision / failure to listen on the part of a hospital, and the medical group where he was a patient. My feeling today is exactly the same as when I was dealing with his care. He was not just another body, and neither am I.

I do not want the remainder of my life, however long or short that may be, circumscribed by endless tests, labs, appointments, medications, and insurance billing opportunities.

Your staff and the Doctor are all very nice. You’re all doing your jobs as dictated by policy, procedure, and prevailing medical guidelines. I understand this, but I’m a person who is quite good at taking care of myself. I’m also a minimalist.

Biology in general, and Human biology, specifically appear to operate far better with a light touch. My experiences with medical intervention have generally resulted in poorer, rather than improved outcomes. 

I have zero desire to live a repeat of what the medical profession put the light of my life through in his last years. 

I’m going to take a step back, or a breath, then determine what I want to do, and how I want to do it. Even if that means filling out yet another ream of paperwork to see a physician.

Should I decide to go forward with the lab work, I’ll make an appointment to review the results.

FYI, My choice to cancel an appointment should not require a MANDATORY explanation.

The whole time I was writing that, I kept hearing Jerry telling me to “be nice”.

Then I remembered why I’d always maintained a doctor in Orange County. I’ve kept the Doctor in San Diego for the same reason.

It’s because the doctors, all of the doctors I’ve ever tried to work with in the San Bernardino area were sloppy just like this bunch appears to be. The doctors I dealt with for Jerry were, with one exception, the worst.

In 20+ years working with my doctor in OC he never made a mistake with prescriptions, or procedures, and with the exception of a dermatologist, (who are all basically shithead frat boys of the medical profession,) he referred me to the best specialists, meaning they knew their shit and were on the ball, when I needed them.

In part I think it was because the folks he referred me to, were the same people he went to for his care. (He was always searching for a decent dermatologist too.)

I actually fought with Jerry about changing doctors when he first started having problems. I wanted him to go to an Orange County doctor, specifically mine. Jerry had mentioned things in the years prior to him starting to have problems, which concerned me about the local practices. I felt that if he saw my Doctor, he’d be referred to the “right” specialists and would get better care.

I know that sounds elitist and effete.

Jerry didn’t want to have to travel that far. In the end, it might not have made a difference, but I doubt I’ll ever change my opinion that poor lackadaisical medical care led directly to his death.

Now, I’m going to try to rescind all the legal documents one must sign to see a fucking doctor, and at the same time make sure this practice cancels any authorization requests for additional tests. It may be insurance money, but damn if I’m going to let that money be spent wastefully.

Then I’ll work on finding another Doctor, or I’ll keep the guy in San Diego at least until I get the rest of my life sorted out.

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Well now I’ve got their attention.

Microsoft Word Logo.Microsoft increased their “Personal” subscription price for Office 365 from something like $65 to $99 per year.

I’ll admit that’s not a lot of cash.

The problem is I barely used Microsoft software.

Outlook wasn’t any better than the mail client supplied with MacOS. The Apple email client works instantly and easily across all Apple devices. For its faults, it is reliable and doesn’t require for you put your contacts on Microsoft servers to be blasted across all their properties like LinkedIn and such.

In the entire time I’ve had Microsoft office, I don’t think I ever used PowerPoint for anything personal. I used it at work, but not at home. Excel, got more use, but not enough to justify the cost.

Word was about the only application I used with any frequency. As Word has evolved, it’s become less pleasurable and more annoying to use. So I wasn’t using it as much either. I was using Pages, Ulysses, or Scrivner. The latter two are configured more for writing things like stories. They’re clean and focused on their purpose. 

As I looked at the renewal. I realized it was the same price for 4 applications on a Mac as the price for what? 6 applications on Windows, and that I was really only using 25% of the Mac applications, I decided not to renew.

I made the decision about a month ago. The expiration date came & went. I’ve removed the Microsoft applications from my devices and now, I’m getting email notifications saying my subscription has lapsed and I should re-subscribe immediately to regain the benefits provided by their products.

Nope. Not interested. I’ve got a decent desktop publishing application, and Apple’s Pages for word processing documents. What Word or Pages couldn’t or can’t do, the desktop publisher can. Apple’s Numbers, and Keynote handle spreadsheets and presentations.

I’ve never used Keynote either. Nothing against it, I just don’t do that kind of presentation thing. I could, but why? I’m not presenting anything to anybody these days.

All the Apple apps read Microsoft formatted documents, they can output Microsoft compatible files and PDF documents if I need to share something, and they’re free.

Plus, I just saved 3 GB, (4 GB if you count Outlook which I’d purged a long time ago,) of space on my internal drive.

The Apple products all have the ability to back up versions, and like the Microsoft versions can save their data to cloud based storage. In the case of Microsoft, they insist that you use their cloud and refuse to turn on backups of documents unless the document is saved in their cloud.

Apple products likewise prefer to save their documents in the Apple Cloud which is end to end encrypted, and which through the use of Apple’s AFP system are encrypted in the cloud so that supposedly, even Apple can’t hack them.

I never much liked Microsoft’s cloud solution either and therefore didn’t use it.

This leads me to wonder about maintaining Windows on my Mac. Most of the apps that I routinely use are available on the Mac, so the reason for maintaining VMWare and running Windows is greatly diminished. VMWare having been sold and their subsequent moves regarding VMWare Fusion (the Mac VMWare) also calls into question the necessity to allocate 40GB of disk storage there. I don’t recall the last time I fired up VMWare or the Windows system. It’s Windows 11 which is okay, but there’s not much point in having it, if I’m not going to use it.

Thinking about it, and that my job search is going nowhere, maybe I should just back it up to the NAS and flush it from my Mac. If I need it, I can pull it from the NAS, if I don’t need it, It won’t be taking up space needlessly and I’ll know the answer.

Besides, it might be better to do away with VMWare and instead go to Parallels in the event that I need Windows on the Mac. Perhaps a better solution would be that if due to employment needs, I need a Windows machine, I just buy a cheap assed Windows laptop. Those are a dime a dozen.

This may be a stepping off point from Microsoft for me. They have nothing that I can’t get elsewhere. I have to point out that Pages, opens native Word docs faster than Word does on my Mac. That’s pretty darn interesting.

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Don’t worry my dogs are friendly…

“Don’t worry my dogs are friendly…” Said the guy opening his car door, letting his 2 dogs run off leash at the trail head a week or so ago.

Both dogs ran barking and snapping, directly at me & Jesse (who I had on his leash). One caught my pups jaw with a tooth then went for his throat and legs. The other came at me snarling & trying to bite me. I dropped the leash so Jesse had free motion and I had both hands to defend myself.

Jesse is amazingly fast and agile. He got a piece of his attacker and had blood all over his mouth and face while their owner was yelling & threatening me as though somehow I or my dog were at fault.

Fortunately, there were plenty of witnesses and a sign that clearly said “NO DOGS OFF LEASH”. When the authorities arrived, the witnesses all pointed at the dudes dogs as aggressors giving statements. Jesse & I were sitting on a tall rock. He was still on guard but was a good boy while I rinsed his wounds with water from our hydration pack. I was able to clean, assess, and dress his wounds on the spot. (Put together a dog first aid kit. It pays to be prepared!)

A Ranger brought Jesse his bandanna lost in the fracas, approaching very gently and quietly. He climbed up on the rock with us & Jesse nuzzled him to put the bandanna back on.

“That guy is trying to claim your dog is aggressive and mean,” he said as he retied the bandanna.

“I’m just not seeing it, his dog is pretty chewed up though. He’s demanding you pay the vet bill. Don’t worry, he’s not got a leg to stand on, he’s getting a hefty ticket right now. How’s this fella?” He gave Jesse some ear scritches.

“He’s okay, it think. There’s a cut from a tooth on his jaw, a couple of small punctures on his leg and another puncture near his shoulder towards his neck. They’re minor. I’ve cleaned ’em & hit ’em with antibiotic ointment. I’ll watch him for the next few days. He’ll be at the vet if he’s not healing or I find anything worse when we get home.” 

“Good,” the Ranger said, “Would you like me to hold the leash while you clean up the wound on your leg?” Jesse gave the Ranger a lick, asking for more ear scritches.

I was so worried about my pup, I hadn’t noticed I’d been injured and was bleeding pretty good. I rinsed my wound, & grabbed the human first aid kit from the pack to fix myself up.

The Ranger smiled, “Nice to see someone prepared even if 99% of the time they don’t need to be. You guys walk this trail a lot. I’ve never seen a vehicle, would you like a ride home?”

Folks, there’s a darn good reason to keep your dog on a leash. It’s as much for their safety as it is for others. You have no idea how far from home someone is, or if they, or their dog is old or has bad knees/other health conditions. Keeping control of your dog is super important so everyone can have a nice walk/hike.

That being said, drop the leash if your dog is attacked. They know what to do, and a former street dog like my pup knows how to end it pretty quick. 

Neither of us will have lasting physical damage & we got a ride in a ranger’s truck home. So that’s off our bucket list.