Sorry
I promised a rant on the Kim family but there's nothing really to rant about now, I still hope the wife sues the state and wins big time. Oregon really fucked up, the road that was supposed to be closed wasn't, and wasn't thoroughly searched from the beginning and no one has a good reason for why. In any event people that don't actually reside in Oregon need to understand something, this state has the most piss-poor signage of any state I've ever visited. Unless you know exactly where you're going chances are you'll end up lost. Freeway signs are posted in obscure locations, but offer no further direction. Many roads are completely unmarked, or have obscure numbers that don't match in anyway to maps. Freeway markers and most exits are posted right BEFORE one must exit. I'm sorry but I don't give a shit about seeing the name of the exit I just missed, but it would be helpful to tell me what is coming.
This is the first problem, the second problem is that most people don't understand the elevation of the mountain passes here, and that even going to the coast, you're likely to see snow anytime during the months between October and April. The Kim family was smart enough to burn tires, and breast-feed the baby and older daughter until help could arrive. It's a shame the husband left the car to do "the guy thing" and try to save his family. Many here blamed him! It's true. How can you blame him? A man died on that same road, years before the Kim tragedy during a freak winter storm, shouldn't someone have known and thought enough to search it thoroughly?
Maybe it's because they were from California but I'm sorry if you have to hire your own rescue crew that's pretty fucking miserable. Don't forget, it was private helicopters that found the wife. Alive. It was also private helicopters that located the body of her husband. Dead.
News Since Then
Oregon did try to redeem themselves by attempting to rescue the hikers lost on Mount Hood. Most people here, despite hearing the optimist story of the teens lost on the mountain for a week, figured it was a lost cause from the beginning. Still, we all sat glued to our televisions when word came that they found one of the hikers. Unfortunately he was likely dead for days before he was found. Of course this also renews for Nanny state-like calls to protect people from being stupid. I'm tired of people whining about this kind of shit, if you go up there you need to protect YOURSELF. Period. If it means paying the fifteen dollars for a locator device and you decide you don't want that well then too fucking bad.
Now, it's likely we'll never know what happened to those three men but what we do know is despite what their families said about them being well prepared the truth was they weren't. Again that was unfortunate. Winter can come very quickly to places like the Cascades and Sierras and most people don't understand that despite how many times they are told the story of the Donner party. Obviously it can still happen today.
2006 went out like a lion; well at least it seemed as much on December 15, when we were slammed with hurricane force winds. Yes, hurricane force winds. Two trees behind our house were completely uprooted, another shattered like glass, and the forth and fifth were felled due to the high 70 mph gusts. Did I mention all the trees were 120 foot Northwest Red Cedars? Oh, I must have left that part out. Needless to say after a sleepless night, the boys were rewarded with a day off and early start to their winter break from school. Courtesy of mom, not the local school district who apparently didn't care that no one was able to sleep or half the staff at my children's school didn't come to work…don't get me started.
Despite the early exit from school the children had fun and I was fairly relaxed since I had finished everything before the kids were off. All the cards were mailed, the packages sent, presents wrapped and house decorated. Christmas came and went without a single picture being taken…god we suck.
By New Years all the decorations were down, except for the ones in front of our house but that's Rainbird's job and he shrugged it off.
Two Double O Seven
We rang in the New Year with a party and I won't go into all the details but lets just say I hate the witch down the street with a passion, especially when I caught her in my bathroom admiring (cough, bullshit, cough) my bathroom curtains. We have two other bathrooms that were empty so there was no logical reason for the witch to be in my bedroom to use the bathroom there. I think she wanted to steal my Battery Operated Boyfriend or "BOB" for short. Next year maybe I'll leave some really strange BDSM type stuff around there.
God On Speed-Dial
Good old Pat Robertson is at it again, he must be having ratings issues or watching too much Jericho because he's made another prediction. Something about major US cities being leveled by a nuclear blast. Anyone else think that he smoked too much peyote? I think someone he knows must have a deal on some bomb shelters or something, it just smacks of the Y2K thing when he was hawking generators and spreading fear that the whole country to grind to a halt, computers would crash, those fancy doors on the Enterprise wouldn't swish, and planes would drop from the skies.
How much of that happened? Um, none. Did his god warn him about 9-11? Um nope. Last year he predicted a tsunami would strike the US coasts, but later back peddled to say it was flooding. I guess when September comes and goes without us getting blown up, he'll say it was because of the brilliant leadership of Dubya.
Can't We All Just Get Along?
I'm sure that's what Dubya thinking now that congress has been handed over to the democrats. Maybe now that his side isn't in control he'll care more about "healing" the country.
© 2007 Whimsical Ranter
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