Not Just Another Routine Bike Ride

Today I went for a bike ride around our neighborhood. Since getting this bike a week or 2 ago, I have been trying to remember to bring my cartridge of pepper spray/mace with me.

Ever since getting bit by a local dog while on a walk last August, I always carry my protection with me should the need arise that I have to use it.

Since bicycling is a rather new part to my routine, I have been forgetting to grab it before heading out for a bike ride.

Unfortunately I forgot to take it today and it was today that I could have used it and would have used it.

Let me backtrack for a moment and refresh our memories.

Last August while on a walk, I had this big brown Lab run charge me and latch onto my arm. The dog had previously made aggressive gestures towards me but this is was the first time that it actually bit me and broke the skin.

I called animal control and they responded, took a report, took photos and then went looking for the dogs owners.

I did not know the owners name other than the woman's first name and that they lived in the general area of another neighborhood that is fairly close to our neighborhood.

At some point in time, after Animal Control personnel spoke to the owners, the female owner stopped by our place to check in on me ...to make sure that I was ok and to offer to pay any medical bills associated with the dog biting me...which there were none.

During this discussion, the female owner of the dog told me that this type of incident would never happen again and that their dog would always be on a leash when walking in our neighborhood.

Unfortunately she only kept her word about 30-40% of the time. The rest of the time, this dog whose name is Barney, would walk and run freely when with his owners in our neighborhood.

This never really became an issue because my walks never coincided with Barneys walks....at least until today.

So here I am...minding my own business and riding my bike in our neighborhood.

Guess who comes charging towards me without being on a leash and with his owners about 200-250 feet behind him.

Yep...sure enough it was the dog that had bit me last year...Barney.

Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't have my pepper spray/mace cartridge on me.

It was one of those coulda, woulda and shoulda moments.

All I could do was keep peddling and moving forward, shaking my head in disbelief and hoping that Barney wasn't hungry right then and there.

Barney came right up to me in an aggressive fashion but did not try to get a hold of me this time.

I pulled my bike up to where Barneys owners were.

I looked right at the female owner and stated that I thought that she had promised me that she would not let her dog run freely while walking in our neighborhood in order that I would not get bit again.

This lady told me that Barney has not been allowed to run freely in the neighborhood.

HELLO!!!!...what was that big brown furry thing that just charged at me while you were lallygagging 200 feet behind him. **Please excuse the spelling on lallygagging if it is wrong. I think this is the first time I have ever used that word in a written sentence. Actually I can't remember ever seeing it written anywhere else either. So if it is spelled wrong, how about just giving me a free pass on it...after all the word is lallygagging.

This was when the male owner decided that he wanted to really get involved in this conversation.

To kind of put it in a nutshell...the male owner of Barney decided to get in my face and I mean IN my face, jutting his pot belly out so that it made contact with me and promptly told me that he did not like my attitude, that it was my fault that I got bit last time, that he did not like the way I handled the situation last time...he did not like the fact that I called Animal Control on the dog. He told me that I should have gone looking myself for Barneys owners rather than calling animal control.

I tried to explain to this guy that I am the one that got bit by his dog and I asked him why is it that he is pissed off at me???!!! I also tried to explain to this numb skull that I couldn't look for Barneys owners because I did not know them at all and that I only had seen them in our neighborhood..which is not where they live. The only thing I had for a name was the female owners first name.

I was later told where Barneys owners might live and passed the info onto the Animal Control Officer.

For some reason this guy could not understand the logic of it all. To me it was pretty darn simple...your dog bit me thus it is NOT my job to search all over the place to find its owners so that we could "discuss" the incident and how you did not have control over your dog...it should be noted that the female owner was present when Barney bit me last year and the dog was not on a leash. It is you....the dogs owners responsibility to find me, the one that your dog bit and play nice with me in hope that I don't file some type of civil proceedings against you.

These are the same people that stated that the dog bit me because I wore glasses and on another occasion told me that Barney bit me because they had some type of run in with a police officer while Barney was present.

Huh???

This guy just kept running his mouth spouting off things that made no logical sense at all and he actually believed what he was saying as being gospel. One of the absolute best lines that came out of his mouth was "don't look at my dog and you won't get bit"...hmmm...I must have missed the bus that this guy was on..you know the one that dropped us off back at our Elementary School. Sounds just like something a kid would say..."stop looking at me" or "Mommy make Joey stop looking at me".

Well...after both of us throwing some f*** bombs at each other along with a few other pleasantries thrown in for good measure, we went our own separate ways. I know that the cussing was not the most mature way of handling the situation but you what happens sometimes when testosterone runs amok.

After riding home and telling Veronica what had just occurred, it was decided that I should call the Sheriffs office and file a report. One reason for doing this was that there were 2 of them and just 1 of me and who knows what story these people could come up with. And another reason to file a report was because of their attitude about the whole dog bite incident and there continuing to allow Barney to run free in our neighborhood.

I felt it would be best for some type of official documentation on both of these points.

I did not realize it at the time the whole incident occurred but the entire incident was observed by another person that lives in our neighborhood.

So to wrap this whole story up...a police report was filed, the officer was going over to talk to these people about the legal and civil ramifications of their actions or lack thereof.

I bet you that if this guy didn't like the way I handled the initial dog bite issue, I can pretty much bet you my weeks allowance that this guy will be even less thrilled with the way I handled things this time.

So after the Officer left our place, I decided to get back up on my bike and do a couple of more laps around the neighborhood.

But this time I made sure that I grabbed my pepper spray/mace canister.

No more coulda, woulda or shoulda's for this guy.

The Ghoulish Grinch That Stole Halloween

This is the time of year that I really enjoy.

I usually get a kick out of decorating our place for Halloween.

Last year I spent many hours locating and getting all of our Halloween goodies out of their respective bins and boxes. They were pigeon holed everywhere.

I have a bunch of Halloween goodies....everything from the usual figurines to larger doll like characters, strobe light, 4 foot black light and a smoke machine just to name a few of the things that I utilize during this time of year.

And if I had the money, I would probably have a ton more Halloween items.

We had all of our decorations out last year for about 2 weeks and then put them all away and moved our attention towards preparation for Christmas.

After spending several hours locating, pulling out and then placing our decorations where they would be seen the most from those that might notice them from the outside, I then went through the tedious process of moving many of the items around because we only have a certain number of windows that face the front of our place.

After getting everything just right, the night of Halloween came and went without a single soul or ghoul visiting our place....I take that back...there was a couple at the end unit that had a new born baby and another little girl that stopped by quickly before heading to a more profitable Halloween candy neighborhood. That particular couple has moved since last Halloween.

Our neighborhood has a limited number of permanent residents and that makes it very unlikely that anyone would want to go out of there way to stop by and go trick or treating at maybe a couple of residences that might or might not have candy. There just isn't that big candy payoff that there would be in other locations.

Sure I personally enjoy seeing the decorations but I get more of a thrill having others stop by and enjoy all of the work that was put into making the place somewhat scary.

With Halloween only a little more than a week away, I have decided to fore go getting the place decorated for Halloween. I just don't have the interest this year to spend the amount of time it takes to get everything out and put up and not have anyone else being able to see it much less stop by and visit us.

It just isn't worth the effort...at least this year. Maybe when we get more neighbors or some kids around...or maybe when we move to a new location.

But for this years Halloween....no kids...no trick or treaters...no decorations and no candy.....

BOO HUMBUG!!!

The Sighting

This morning I was in our 3rd floor kitchen washing a cup out.

From the kitchen window we have a great view of the marshlands that are directly behind our place.

I was looking out of the window and saw what I thought was some type of brownish colored rock/boulder.

Unfortunately I did not have my glasses on at this time but after going downstairs and grabbing them, I returned upstairs and gave this object a closer look.

To my delight I saw a rather large deer...at least large compared to the other deers that I have seen in our immediate area. This deer was just laying down and relaxing in a large patch of trees and brush that kind of formed an island in the marshland area. This particular patch of land seemed to be just high enough to keep dry when the tide is in.

I must have stood there for 15 minutes just watching this deer and taking a few photos of him.

Since Hurricane Irene has come through, we have only seen 2 other smaller deer that used to frequent the piles of cracked corn that I would pile outside of our 1st floor computer room.

We saw those 2 deer about 2 weeks ago but have not seen them since they last stopped by looking for something to eat.

Of course I didn't have the piles of cracked corn out there waiting for them because I had run out. And of course after seeing them, I made a special trip to Walmart just to get them a couple of large bags of the cracked corn. And of course....after putting the piles of cracked corn out for them, I have not seen them since and the cracked corn piles are in the same condition that I had left them in almost a week ago.

So I was really happy to see that there was at least one deer in our immediate area.

With the rutting season getting ready to start soon, I am sure that the deer will be out looking for something to eat after they get done with all of their frolicking and deer duties completed.

Here are a few photos that I took of this relaxing deer. I apologize for the lack of sharpness on the photos. Unfortunately I took through our windows which have mesh screens that make photo taking tough.