It's August, already! Wasn't I going to do all kinds of exciting things this summer? Wasn't it supposed to BE summer this summer? Instead, the fog and overcast in the morning, socks and jacket required. If I was at the cabin, it would be summer, but I've got this flu, as if it's midwinter. I am feeling better, thanks to my trusty drops, which my husband says are from geranium plants. If I'd known that, I would have just eaten some on my patio. I have friends who have fun ideas, but I'm not sure I'm well enough. Maybe next week. My zombie state will have to continue a while longer.
My friend brought her little dog home from the vet hospital yesterday. It is to be seen if he will ever use his hind legs again, and he's so young. I'm praying the surgery ultimately has relieved his spine enough that he can heal and walk again. He's such a lively little fellow.
I was reading in the paper about an accident in Mount Lassen Park up north. A wall fell on two children and killed one of them. The rangers knew it was unstable, but had not put a warning out. What a horror for the boy's family, and how easily preventable. Yet we know the parks are underfunded and understaffed, and everywhere are places that should be fixed or closed but aren't. Where our cabin is are so many dangers and so little staff that it's a miracle more people aren't killed. They assume they're in Disneyland, but they are in a space funded or not by them, and the numbers of people are overwhelming, each of them demanding more than ten times the rangers could possibly handle. The rangers contract out to a corporation to get most of the functioning done, and it's amazing they do as well as they do. My heart breaks for the little boy and his family, trusting nature, the park service, and feeling they are protected, until the moment they realize there are holes in the walls, chinks in the armor, no invisible hands waiting to save innocents. I think parks should be closed if they are not kept up. And that would perhaps put pressure to fund and staff these wilderness places adequately to keep such tragedies from occurring.
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