I Think I Made the Wrong Choice

Okay, a bit of background info and scene sketching:

My neighbor who resides across the street is an asshole. I mean, he literally came banging on my door one day, screaming so close to my face that I could smell his putrid breath and feel his spittle hitting me. That whole ordeal was about a car that he thought was parked too near his property ... not on his property, just too close.

It was apparent to me that day that he has no problem terrorizing women. I am not easily manipulated, but when he did this it was terrifying! I just went auto-pilot and went to move the car. My instinct was to get this taken care of a.s.a.p. so that he would go away and I could retreat into my home. That fucking bastard really had me upset. THEN, to top it off, I got a call the next day saying he had complained that my dog had attacked him on several occasions and needed to be put down. That was my warning to keep my dog in check. (My dog NEVER did such a thing) When he did that, it felt as if he was making sure that I know that he is in control and will fuck with my life, if he deems it necessary.

He is married and I was relaying the whole story to my partner that I am sure he beats his wife. I mean, if he is comfortable enough to terrorize complete strangers, then I'm sure he's more than comfortable knocking around his wife behind closed doors. Makes sense, right? Hopefully this fully fills in the background info.

I live in a small mountain town that is commutable to a major metropolitan area. The road on which I reside is a dirt road and my neighbors houses are spaced out rather nicely. This is the woods, people. Sound carries out here ... one dog bark and it sounds sooooo loud. Anyway, hope the scene is sketched.

Yesterday:

When I got home from work, as I was getting out of my car I could hear yelling. Angry yelling. The noise was coming from assholes house. I could hear crashing and screaming by both he and his wife. He was calling her every name in the book and berating her. She was crying and screaming about the "whys" and the "pleases" ... The normally long walk to my front door took an extra long time as I was eaves dropping, and debating in my mind about whether or not to call the cops.

I opted not to call the cops for two reasons ... 1) I am afraid of this man and feared he would know it was I who called the cops ... thus bringing retribution in the form of possibly poisoning my dog or calling the authorities about his "attacks" 2) I've known women in abusive situations, and until they are ready to leave, they usually deny the happenings to the police ... so, what was the point?

This morning I feel guilty about not calling. That, and I am angry at myself for allowing my fear of this man to stop me from doing what I believe is right. I truly believe I made the wrong choice. Next time I will call the cops ... I hope.

Malnourishment by Way of Gluttony

Here in the good ol' U.S. of A. it isn't uncommon for people to find out they are lacking in some essential nutrient necessary to be healthy. I live in a nation that is overrun with obese people (hey, I'm not finger pointing, I'm no skinny Minnie by any stretch of the imagination), alcoholics, drug addicts, sex addicts, gambling addicts, shopaholics ... well, you see my point? The USA is a nation full of people who like to overindulge. Sadly, I also fall into that category on occasion. (like me and the booze at the recent camping adventure)

In response to this, I've made a concerted effort to eat things with ingredients I can either pronounce, or Google search to see if it's really a food item. I make as much from scratch as possible ... and read the labels on EVERYTHING I eat. I am not a vegetarian, but I don't eat meat too often. Part of that is because I only buy all natural, organic, free range, never been injected with chemicals, really frickin' expensive meat ... the budget won't allow for too much of it, and that's okay ... meat isn't necessary every day of the week.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea ... this whole rant began because I was pondering the gluttonous lifestyle in this country, and began typing with no real aim. Another point I wanted to make was that once you start label reading, you can see how "they" sneak corn syrup and MSG into as much as possible. It's no secret that those two ingredients are far from healthy. That and all the aspartame that they laden "diet" foods with. I've got an idea!!! How about people stop starving their bodies with empty calories and eat real foods. In that process you will feel sated due to the actual nutrition in real food, and your body will stop feeling so hungry!! Why are you hungry? Because you're filling yourself up with CHEMICALS!!!

Soylent green is people!!!

This concludes my poorly structured rant. Thank you.

Back and Relaxed

I'm back from the woods! I am refreshed, revived, re - everything ... and it feels good! In spite of the fact that I live in the woods all the time, it's easier to relax when I'm dwelling in a tent. I think something about being at home makes me feel the burden of projects that still need to get done ... so I went camping and left all the burdens at home. Ahhh ...

On day one, while we were setting up the tent, the larger of my two dogs killed a baby chipmunk. I was being a responsible pet owner, I swear. I had him tied up securely ... but what's a dog to do when the critter comes within reach? He killed it ... didn't try to eat it ... I think he wanted to play with it. Minimal scolding ensued, along a proper cremation of the remains.

Also, about 150 yards or so from where we set up camp, I stumbled upon the remains of a deer. Now when I say "remains", I'm not referring to a dead body. Nope, nature doesn't work that way. I mean I found a section of the vertebrae, a leg bone, and another unidentifiable bone. That sucker was picked clean. I thought it was kinda cool, but then it made me nervous about lurking mt. lions and all.

I drank entirely too much whilst sitting around the campfire ... all nights. I got a sunburn that hurts like hell. I can't wait to do it all again.

**UPDATE**

The "lost tribe" I wrote about a couple of weeks ago ... turns out they weren't undiscovered. A photographer made the story up in order to stop logging in that area. Meanwhile, it was posted all over the place ... by reputable news sources. They aren't all being so quick on spreading the fact that it's a hoax (according to this article) because they think it puts their credibility in question. Well ... duh!

See Ya Next Week!

I'm going into the woods with a tent, my dogs and my significant other. Getting away from it all, so to speak. Going to live like folks in refugee camps do ... that's what we Americans call a good time. (I must credit the show "Six Feet Under" for likening camping to refugee camps) Kinda gives a whole new meaning to Tom Petty's song ... who knew it was about camping? Ha! Have a good weekend all!

A True American Psycho

Evidently a man beat a toddler to death on the side of the road last night. It's not even like he beat him to death ... to put it more accurately, he slapped, punched, kicked, threw and stomped the child to death. Passers by tried to stop him, but he shoved them aside and kept on beating. The police came and ended up shooting him dead on the spot, as he deserved, because he wouldn't stop when they arrived. This story is so screwed up! What the hell??? I'm going out on a limb here, but this guy had to be on some sort of drugs, right? I mean he beat the child to the point that DNA testing will have to be done to identify the body. Who the hell does that? This proves my point ... people suck.

That Didn't Take Long ... or Did It?

Well, it's been three glorious days of my not whining. Entirely too long, or so the Universe has thought. So, with no further ado ... on with the whining!

I swear to the fucking gods, today I had a conversation with a friend who believes that AIDS can only be spread by BLOOD to BLOOD contact. I told her semen contains the virus ... she promptly told me that it could only be spread by semen if the other person HAD A CUT THAT IT IS EMITTED TO. Ummm ... where the fuck has she been? She also made sure to mention that she had a friend who died of AIDS ... a woman ... and to that I replied, "I've had 6 close friends who have died of it. She promptly interjected ... "You don't have to be gay or lesbian to get it" ... NO SHIT SWEET HEART!!!!

When I argued the point about semen carrying HIV, she made sure to tell me that when she "was in medical school" they went over all of that. Ummmm ... she didn't go to fucking medical school ... she's and herbalist ... and apparently a stupid one!!! FERCHRISTSAKELADY ... this AIDS thing and all the facts about it is all old news!!!!

I can put up with a ton of shit from friends ... really, I can. I've put up with liars (yup, as long as I can predict the lies pathological liars don't scare me, they are interesting as hell and one day I may write a book about the few true ones I have known), pedantics ( hey, we all know everything about something, right?), egoists (yes, dear, the world revolves around you), alcoholics, addicts, narcissists ... the ones I can't stand, however, are the ones with the "ohmygodiamavictim" syndromes ... that and the assholes ... oh, did I mention the IDIOTS!?!?!?! I believe this person entered into that category by way of the HIV/AIDS discussion tunnel. I may very well cut her out of my life because of this. Honestly.

Too Invigorated to Whine

I haven't posted in a few days because, in spite of the fact that I am surrounded by idiots and the state of the world as a whole pretty much sucks, I've been in a good mood! Over all, my own little world is pretty excellent right now and I just can't complain. Well, I guess I can, but it would be forced and, well, I'm pretty much committed to sincere whining only.

Just as the Manager has bird nests in his gutters, I have a robin's nest right outside my bathroom window. I can watch the daily progress of the baby while brushing my teeth. I've become so obsessed with this little guy that I'm sure to be driven to tears when he flies away ... or gets eaten trying to learn to fly. Either way, I'll be sad.

I got an awesome photo of an elk with her newly born baby! The backside of the mother is still stained red from the recent birth and the baby is sooo small! It's on my cell phone, however, and I've not enough knowledge to get it onto my computer and then onto this here blog. I'm working on it!! I'll post it as soon as I figure it out.

I must have a humming bird nest in my yard too, because I hear them flying around in the very early a.m. and in the evenings. I have no feeders for them, so I'm guessing the reason I see them at those times of day is because they're commuting to and from work ... or food and such. I could be wrong, but that's okay.

My yard is a gnarly mess that needs some weed whacking, but I guess that's the luxury of living in the woods ... weeds are okay. I just need to shorten them enough so that the smaller of the two dogs doesn't get lost. He needs a nice bare spot to do his business where the predators that abound won't snatch him up!

Anyway, I'll be back when I'm not so high on life!

I Challenge You All

I believe that altruism is really close to being dead. It seems these days as if more and more folk do good deeds so that the rest of the world will see it and be so impressed by these actions. So, my challenge to you all is ... go do something really frickin' awesome to better the world (volunteer somewhere, give a meal to a homeless person, give back the money if a cashier makes an error in your favor, pick up litter somewhere ... anything) ... then don't tell a single other person about it. Keep it to yourself. Trust me, it feels better than the "atta boy" you get from your friends ... if it doesn't, then I've proven my point about altruism dying out.

Okay, I suck ... I'm Down With That

**Please note that parts of this post were inspired by Complainaway**

There are some people in the "real world" who have been giving me a bunch of crap about my recent post celebrating the hell a former friend is experiencing. My response to them is generally an explanation about how it's the truth about how I feel and I can't control how I feel. They then say they understand that, "but did you have to air it on the 'net?" Um ... it's my blog, I can write what I want.

Let me explain something here. I absolutely do celebrate internally when some people have their lives crumble. Not all people, mind you. There are people out there who seem to take everything for granted. EVERYTHING! People who must have, have, have. They feel entitled. They are greedy, stingy bastards and they constantly have to keep up with the other folk in their suburban 'hood. These are the types of people who only give of their time and money to charitable causes for no other purpose than to look good.

These are the people who make me smirk when they get horrible diseases, have plumbing disasters in their homes, have deaths of family members or pets, and then cry out, "why me?" Well, let me tell you why ... because you are no better than anyone else and you are no more deserving of the "perfect life" than anyone else. We all have ups and downs ... this is called life sweethearts ... DEAL WITH IT!!! Rather than feeling like a victim, be happy that you don't live in, oh, Darfur, Iraq, China, Myanmar, South Africa ... the list goes on now, doesn't it? Shut your privileged North American mouth and be glad you don't have to worry about where your next meal is coming from.

This ends my rant.

Kids These Days

Have you heard about Alisha Dean? She's a 13 year old girl who portrays herself as a 19 year old divorcee on her myspace page. She had sex with two different men, lying about her age, and now they are both in jail. Personally, I think she looks rather young, but one of the men was 22, still wet behind the ears himself. I understand how he could be easily duped. However, the law is the law, and if they must be in jail, so be it. I do feel that the parents should be responsible about part of this though. They still admit that she "still stays out late" and that her myspace page is still up and running ... although it now says she's 16, still a lie. If she were my child, she'd be so grounded! No internet, no phone, no t.v, no anything!!! Her idiot father said, "those laws are in place because children make bad decisions" ... ahem, hey asshole, the laws aren't there to replace your parental duties!!

On the opposite end of the spectrum, this happened. A judge in Texas ordered a stepfather to paddle his step daughter in court. Now, the story doesn't say what, exactly, the child did, but maybe if Alisha Dean had gotten a paddling or two in her life, the whole thing could've been avoided.

The Grudge Goes On

Is it wrong that I am celebrating the fact that on the 40th birthday of a woman I hate (and wish dead after tons of suffering) had to have her cat put down? Even if it's wrong, I am still elated by her misery. I know all the psychobabble crap about if I'm still that angry then it's just the fact that I cared so much blah de blah blah ... but I'm still happy about it. Now I can't wait until she discovers the fact that her husband is cheating on her. Ha ha bitch , that's karma!