I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when I overhead the tax director of my company complaining to the controller about his kids’ attitudes. He was saying that he watches family TV his 12-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy each night, and has noticed that they have nothing good to say about anyone. And that it makes him “kinda sad.” He went on to say that we have the same problem in this office. I snorted coffee up into my sinuses when I heard that.
Why do people have so little to say about others in this office that isn’t negative? Let me break it down for you.
There are eight executives, all men. There are five women. Of those, six of the executives (the “highest” of them) never say a negative thing about anyone in this office that I’ve ever overheard. Of the rest of them, two of the men and four of the women are all bitchy gossips who take great joy in saying nasty things about everyone that isn’t part of their little clique. Do the math. Where do I stand? I’m not one of the Big Six and I’m not part of the clique. I am, however, often the target of the clique.
I’ve learned many things about myself from the all-knowing clique. For example, I’m a lesbian. That was a big shock to me. I am simultaneously a lesbian and have several boyfriends, which was also quite a shock to learn. I am also too fat or too skinny, depending on what purpose it serves. I dress badly. I have bad skin and bad hair. I walk too loudly. I have weird fingernails. I eat bizarre food. I drink too much coffee (at a whopping one cup a day that they know of). I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m too tall. I have a funny accent. (I have an accent?) I don’t often take lunch breaks, which apparently makes them look bad. I wear colors that don’t go with my skin tone. I don’t spend enough money on shoes.
One of the more telling things is that all of the women have complained that I’m single. The married ones complain about the responsibilities and stresses that they deal with that I get to avoid. The single ones are apparently angry that I’m single and not attempting to “remedy” that. After all, they feel that their life isn’t complete because they aren’t married. So why am I not trying as hard as they are to get married? Could it be that (gasp!) their goal is one that I don’t feel is worth reaching for? Is it that (gasp again!) I am not validating their issues for them by claiming solidarity?
So yeah, I have nothing nice to say about my coworkers because they treat me like garbage. I like my bosses. In fact, they are the reason I’m not job hunting. My “team” is certainly not what will keep me here.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
My coworkers are very fortunate that I am not even more unbalanced than I am already.
I’m baffled.
I have a job. I’ve been in my current company for four years. I’ve been in multiple types of accounting jobs since 1996. I have a degree. I get stellar performance reviews.
And yet…
My coworkers treat me like I’m an idiot. They’re constantly telling me things I need to do – which I have typically already done. They’re constantly telling me (and my boss) that I’ve made mistakes – which someone else made or that I made because the person tattling on me gave me bad information. They tell lies about me behind my back that they don’t realize get back to me. They “explain” things to me that I actually explained to them first. They insult me to my face, or whisper loudly to one another so that I can hear what they say about me.
And yet…
When they have a problem with one of the programs we use, especially Excel, they ask me how to fix it. When an unidentified payment comes in, they ask me what it is. When they don’t know how to send a payment out, they ask me. When they need foreign exchange rates, they ask me. When their computer does something wonky, they ask me how to fix it before calling IT. When they need coding on a transaction, they ask me. When they can’t figure out how to reconcile an account, they ask me.
And yet…
They congratulated me when I took over my former boss’s job two years ago, but they complained to the controller that I didn’t deserve it. When I was moved into a window office, they went en masse into the boss to try to get me removed. They don’t finish tasks that I need to complete my work on time, but they complain when I can’t make my deadlines. They won’t give me information I need, but I drop everything when they have a question. They don’t ask me to go to lunch or coffee or to get bagels, but complain to my boss that I won’t socialize with them. They whine that I don’t contribute, but ignore me when I do.
Would someone like to explain this to me? Because I am clearly not understanding something.
I have a job. I’ve been in my current company for four years. I’ve been in multiple types of accounting jobs since 1996. I have a degree. I get stellar performance reviews.
And yet…
My coworkers treat me like I’m an idiot. They’re constantly telling me things I need to do – which I have typically already done. They’re constantly telling me (and my boss) that I’ve made mistakes – which someone else made or that I made because the person tattling on me gave me bad information. They tell lies about me behind my back that they don’t realize get back to me. They “explain” things to me that I actually explained to them first. They insult me to my face, or whisper loudly to one another so that I can hear what they say about me.
And yet…
When they have a problem with one of the programs we use, especially Excel, they ask me how to fix it. When an unidentified payment comes in, they ask me what it is. When they don’t know how to send a payment out, they ask me. When they need foreign exchange rates, they ask me. When their computer does something wonky, they ask me how to fix it before calling IT. When they need coding on a transaction, they ask me. When they can’t figure out how to reconcile an account, they ask me.
And yet…
They congratulated me when I took over my former boss’s job two years ago, but they complained to the controller that I didn’t deserve it. When I was moved into a window office, they went en masse into the boss to try to get me removed. They don’t finish tasks that I need to complete my work on time, but they complain when I can’t make my deadlines. They won’t give me information I need, but I drop everything when they have a question. They don’t ask me to go to lunch or coffee or to get bagels, but complain to my boss that I won’t socialize with them. They whine that I don’t contribute, but ignore me when I do.
Would someone like to explain this to me? Because I am clearly not understanding something.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Ongoing crap
About 2 years ago, my boss quit his job and moved to a new company. Before leaving, my boss specified that I should be the one to take his job, that nobody else would understand it. I was given most of his work, all of the international accounting. People in the department complained that I got his work in spite of the fact that they didn't want it and didn't know how to do it.
It was a huge amount of work that I'd never done and for which I received no training. It was all related to intercompany transfers and foreign exchange. If this work was not done correctly and on time, my company could not file their financial statements correctly and on time. I learned on the job. I did it right and I did it on time in spite of the lack of training and the fact that I was still doing my old job at the same time.
I got no raise and no promotion for doing this, which was by all accounts a monumental feat. People expected me to fail. I disappointed them.
They said that they were going to hire a new person who would be taking some of my work off my hands to get my workload down to that of one person. That never happened.
A few months after I took on my boss's job, we hired a new person. He took one account reconciliation off my hands, but that was it. The rest of what he took on was offloading work from a woman who was going to be taking maternity leave. She went on leave and came back, but she never took back any of the work that was offloaded from her.
At the end of last year, my new boss left the company. She arranged for me to move into her old window office. Everyone had a fit. They went en masse to the tax director to complain, and he went to the controller on behalf of everyone else to say that I shouldn't be allowed to have the office. The controller told them to get over it and that it was the right thing to do. You see, none of them wanted the office, but they didn't want me to have it, either. See a pattern here?
I've "fixed" most of the processes I handle and pared down the work from a two-person job to a one-person job, automating a huge number of things that used to be manual. I rarely make mistakes, and the rework that I end up doing is usually because I'm fixing someone else's errors.
It is now two years later and I still haven't gotten a raise or a promotion. I didn't get a raise the year I took on the job, and last year they "didn't give raises" - except that I know they did give them to some people. They seem to forget that I have access to that information. In spite of a stellar performance review, I got nothing.
Now, the guy that they hired to take some of my work (and who never did, through no fault of his own) has been promoted to an analyst position (which they never mentioned to me). I'll be taking work on from him, probably including what I offloaded to him a year and a half ago. They aren't hiring a replacement for him.
I was told that this could work out to my benefit, but what I see happening is exactly what happened two years ago - a ton of work will get dumped on me and I won't be compensated for it, and my co-workers will still hate me and treat me like garbage no matter what I do.
I'm a little tired of this crap.
It was a huge amount of work that I'd never done and for which I received no training. It was all related to intercompany transfers and foreign exchange. If this work was not done correctly and on time, my company could not file their financial statements correctly and on time. I learned on the job. I did it right and I did it on time in spite of the lack of training and the fact that I was still doing my old job at the same time.
I got no raise and no promotion for doing this, which was by all accounts a monumental feat. People expected me to fail. I disappointed them.
They said that they were going to hire a new person who would be taking some of my work off my hands to get my workload down to that of one person. That never happened.
A few months after I took on my boss's job, we hired a new person. He took one account reconciliation off my hands, but that was it. The rest of what he took on was offloading work from a woman who was going to be taking maternity leave. She went on leave and came back, but she never took back any of the work that was offloaded from her.
At the end of last year, my new boss left the company. She arranged for me to move into her old window office. Everyone had a fit. They went en masse to the tax director to complain, and he went to the controller on behalf of everyone else to say that I shouldn't be allowed to have the office. The controller told them to get over it and that it was the right thing to do. You see, none of them wanted the office, but they didn't want me to have it, either. See a pattern here?
I've "fixed" most of the processes I handle and pared down the work from a two-person job to a one-person job, automating a huge number of things that used to be manual. I rarely make mistakes, and the rework that I end up doing is usually because I'm fixing someone else's errors.
It is now two years later and I still haven't gotten a raise or a promotion. I didn't get a raise the year I took on the job, and last year they "didn't give raises" - except that I know they did give them to some people. They seem to forget that I have access to that information. In spite of a stellar performance review, I got nothing.
Now, the guy that they hired to take some of my work (and who never did, through no fault of his own) has been promoted to an analyst position (which they never mentioned to me). I'll be taking work on from him, probably including what I offloaded to him a year and a half ago. They aren't hiring a replacement for him.
I was told that this could work out to my benefit, but what I see happening is exactly what happened two years ago - a ton of work will get dumped on me and I won't be compensated for it, and my co-workers will still hate me and treat me like garbage no matter what I do.
I'm a little tired of this crap.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Lake Susan Jane, Josephine Lake, Chain Lakes hike - August 23-26, 2010
Day 1 - Trail from Stevens Pass parking lot to Josephine Lake, about 4.5 miles.
Gain about 750 feet in 1.5 miles to the Cascade Crest on a steady grade. You can see the Bulls Tooth from this vantage point.
Decend about 400 feet with views of the valley and power lines, then regain about 300 feet to Lake Susan Jane at about 3.5 miles.
Lake Susan Jane is a small C-shaped lake that sits in a cirque of talus falling from the surrounding peaks. I noticed at least two decent campsites, one of which was out on a little peninsula in the lake. The trail gets a little steeper after Lake Susan Jane as it approaches the junction with the Icicle Creek trail. There's a reedy pond with a small campsite just after the switchbacks up from Lake Susan Jane.
When you reach the Icicle Creek junction, hang a left. There are a few small ponds surrounding the north end of the lake, and there's a great viewpoint looking down a sheer cliff to Josephine Lake. There were no campsites that I noticed, but I wasn't looking for one there. The trail gains a little altitude before falling to the far lake shore at the south end of the lake. There are two campsites on the south shore before reaching the outlet. If you follow the trail to the toilet, go straight up instead of turning left to the toilet. There's a large site that could easily accomodate two tents. Further down, directly up from the day-use area of the lake is a second smaller campsite that has only one level area for a tent. After crossing the outlet (the source of Icicle Creek) you can find at least three campsites along the southwest shore of the lake, at about 4.5 miles.
Josephine Lake is a very pretty, nearly round lake surrounded by very steep shores. There weren't many people there when I was there, but it was mid-week in late August, which generally has very unpredictable and unpleasant weather. It was in the mid-70s in the daytime and upper 40s at night while I was there, so I was very lucky.
I took the first campsite that I found, the one behind the toilet. Unfortunately, someone before me didn't have much respect for the site. There was a large amount of garbage piled in an illegal fire ring - campfires are not allowed within 1/2 mile of the lake. I camped there anyway because I liked the location, I liked the log with two seats carved into it, and I liked the breeze passing through the site that kept the bugs down. There were some raccoons sifting though the garbage in the fire ring while I was trying to sleep, but otherwise it was a quiet night.
Day 2 - Josephine Lake to Chain Lakes
I left Josephine Lake fairly early. I reached the junction with Whitepine Creek junction very shortly, about .4 miles down from Josephine. Two more miles of easy downhill hiking and I reached the junction with the Chain Lakes trail. There are two campsites near the Icicle Creek/Whitepine Creek junction and one about 100 yards north of the Icicle Creek/Chain Lakes junction, so I could have camped at any one of these if the sites at Josephine Lake had all been occupied.
The trail from Icicle Creek to Chain Lakes starts out very steep, gaining 1,000 feet in 1 mile. Luckily, the tread is good. It isn't rocky or muddy, just a bit of loose dirt and duff. At about the 4,800 foot contour, the trail levels off for a while. You gain another 800 feet in about 1.5 miles, but most of the gain is at the end, so you get a bit of a break. You enter the lake basin after about 11 miles from the car, about 5,600 feet.
As I entered the lake basin, I saw the first of the Chain Lakes. Then I saw the Bulls Tooth. Then a Red-Tailed Hawk flew past me, then I saw a fish jump. It was a nice beginning. I walked along the shore of the first lake, looking for a campsite, but I saw none. The first site I saw was occupied, but I never saw anyone in it - just their tent. I took the second site I saw, about half-way down the second lake, just below the face of the Bulls Tooth.
After I set up camp, I took all of my water bottles and my water filter, and Duncan and I went exploring. We went a little way up the trail to Doelle Lakes and then came back and went down to the third lake. Then we went back to the second lake to filter enough water for the evening and the trip back on the next day. We had dinner and retired for the night.
Day 3 - Chain Lakes to Josephine Lake
The intent upon waking was to hike all the way out to the car, but my left knee decided it didn't want to play anymore after the steep hike down from Chain Lakes, so I stopped at Josephine Lake for another night. I wanted the same site that I'd had two nights before, but someone had taken a huge shit in the middle of the site and left several wads of toilet paper behind, so I took the site down from it, near the outlet.
There were only four other people at the lake, a group of fishermen camped in one of the sites on the southwest shore. I ate lunch and played with Duncan for a while. The fishermen left at about 4:00 pm, so I had the lake to myself. I decided to finally explore the rest of the lakeshore, since I wouldn't be disturbing anyone. Duncan wanted to take his tennis ball, but I made him put it down before we left. When we got to the fishermen's camp, I found their illegal campfire still burning. I put it out with several bottles of water from the lake, dismantled the fire ring, and threw fresh dirt over the burned area to hide it, and so that it wouldn't be so easy for the next people to build a fire.
After looking around that shore, I headed back to the site above mine and cleaned it up. I used Duncan's poop bags to clean up some douchebag's pile of shit and toilet paper. Then I removed that fire ring and tried to make it look like there'd never been a campfire there. I bagged up all of the garbage, but I couldn't pack it out - I didn't have room in my pack - so I hung it like a bear bag near the toilet in hopes that a ranger would see it and remove it.
When we got back to camp, Duncan couldn't find his tennis ball. We looked everywhere but couldn't come up with it.
I spent the night at Josephine Lake totally alone. It was fantastic.
Day 4 - Josephine Lake to Stevens Pass
There were a few clouds when I woke up, but it was essentially nice weather. While I was packing, Duncan suddenly lifted his head. He looked around, then bolted off into the underbrush. I thought he was going after a chipmunk. A few seconds later, he came back with his tennis ball. He apparently finally remembered where he left it. He's a very smart boy.
We did the 4.5 mile hike out in about 3 hours.
Half an hour down from Stevens Pass, it started to rain.
Pictures of this hike can be seen here.
Gain about 750 feet in 1.5 miles to the Cascade Crest on a steady grade. You can see the Bulls Tooth from this vantage point.
Decend about 400 feet with views of the valley and power lines, then regain about 300 feet to Lake Susan Jane at about 3.5 miles.
Lake Susan Jane is a small C-shaped lake that sits in a cirque of talus falling from the surrounding peaks. I noticed at least two decent campsites, one of which was out on a little peninsula in the lake. The trail gets a little steeper after Lake Susan Jane as it approaches the junction with the Icicle Creek trail. There's a reedy pond with a small campsite just after the switchbacks up from Lake Susan Jane.
When you reach the Icicle Creek junction, hang a left. There are a few small ponds surrounding the north end of the lake, and there's a great viewpoint looking down a sheer cliff to Josephine Lake. There were no campsites that I noticed, but I wasn't looking for one there. The trail gains a little altitude before falling to the far lake shore at the south end of the lake. There are two campsites on the south shore before reaching the outlet. If you follow the trail to the toilet, go straight up instead of turning left to the toilet. There's a large site that could easily accomodate two tents. Further down, directly up from the day-use area of the lake is a second smaller campsite that has only one level area for a tent. After crossing the outlet (the source of Icicle Creek) you can find at least three campsites along the southwest shore of the lake, at about 4.5 miles.
Josephine Lake is a very pretty, nearly round lake surrounded by very steep shores. There weren't many people there when I was there, but it was mid-week in late August, which generally has very unpredictable and unpleasant weather. It was in the mid-70s in the daytime and upper 40s at night while I was there, so I was very lucky.
I took the first campsite that I found, the one behind the toilet. Unfortunately, someone before me didn't have much respect for the site. There was a large amount of garbage piled in an illegal fire ring - campfires are not allowed within 1/2 mile of the lake. I camped there anyway because I liked the location, I liked the log with two seats carved into it, and I liked the breeze passing through the site that kept the bugs down. There were some raccoons sifting though the garbage in the fire ring while I was trying to sleep, but otherwise it was a quiet night.
Day 2 - Josephine Lake to Chain Lakes
I left Josephine Lake fairly early. I reached the junction with Whitepine Creek junction very shortly, about .4 miles down from Josephine. Two more miles of easy downhill hiking and I reached the junction with the Chain Lakes trail. There are two campsites near the Icicle Creek/Whitepine Creek junction and one about 100 yards north of the Icicle Creek/Chain Lakes junction, so I could have camped at any one of these if the sites at Josephine Lake had all been occupied.
The trail from Icicle Creek to Chain Lakes starts out very steep, gaining 1,000 feet in 1 mile. Luckily, the tread is good. It isn't rocky or muddy, just a bit of loose dirt and duff. At about the 4,800 foot contour, the trail levels off for a while. You gain another 800 feet in about 1.5 miles, but most of the gain is at the end, so you get a bit of a break. You enter the lake basin after about 11 miles from the car, about 5,600 feet.
As I entered the lake basin, I saw the first of the Chain Lakes. Then I saw the Bulls Tooth. Then a Red-Tailed Hawk flew past me, then I saw a fish jump. It was a nice beginning. I walked along the shore of the first lake, looking for a campsite, but I saw none. The first site I saw was occupied, but I never saw anyone in it - just their tent. I took the second site I saw, about half-way down the second lake, just below the face of the Bulls Tooth.
After I set up camp, I took all of my water bottles and my water filter, and Duncan and I went exploring. We went a little way up the trail to Doelle Lakes and then came back and went down to the third lake. Then we went back to the second lake to filter enough water for the evening and the trip back on the next day. We had dinner and retired for the night.
Day 3 - Chain Lakes to Josephine Lake
The intent upon waking was to hike all the way out to the car, but my left knee decided it didn't want to play anymore after the steep hike down from Chain Lakes, so I stopped at Josephine Lake for another night. I wanted the same site that I'd had two nights before, but someone had taken a huge shit in the middle of the site and left several wads of toilet paper behind, so I took the site down from it, near the outlet.
There were only four other people at the lake, a group of fishermen camped in one of the sites on the southwest shore. I ate lunch and played with Duncan for a while. The fishermen left at about 4:00 pm, so I had the lake to myself. I decided to finally explore the rest of the lakeshore, since I wouldn't be disturbing anyone. Duncan wanted to take his tennis ball, but I made him put it down before we left. When we got to the fishermen's camp, I found their illegal campfire still burning. I put it out with several bottles of water from the lake, dismantled the fire ring, and threw fresh dirt over the burned area to hide it, and so that it wouldn't be so easy for the next people to build a fire.
After looking around that shore, I headed back to the site above mine and cleaned it up. I used Duncan's poop bags to clean up some douchebag's pile of shit and toilet paper. Then I removed that fire ring and tried to make it look like there'd never been a campfire there. I bagged up all of the garbage, but I couldn't pack it out - I didn't have room in my pack - so I hung it like a bear bag near the toilet in hopes that a ranger would see it and remove it.
When we got back to camp, Duncan couldn't find his tennis ball. We looked everywhere but couldn't come up with it.
I spent the night at Josephine Lake totally alone. It was fantastic.
Day 4 - Josephine Lake to Stevens Pass
There were a few clouds when I woke up, but it was essentially nice weather. While I was packing, Duncan suddenly lifted his head. He looked around, then bolted off into the underbrush. I thought he was going after a chipmunk. A few seconds later, he came back with his tennis ball. He apparently finally remembered where he left it. He's a very smart boy.
We did the 4.5 mile hike out in about 3 hours.
Half an hour down from Stevens Pass, it started to rain.
Pictures of this hike can be seen here.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Camping
I left home Sunday morning and headed for the Salmon La Sac campground north of Roslyn. Its a very nice campground. My site was near the Cooper River. It was big and had lots of trees. I set up my tent and proceeded to do nothing but read a book and eat and occasionally take Duncan down to the river for two days. I fell asleep in my hammock. I had smores. It was camping. Most of the other campers left on Sunday afternoon so it was nice and quiet, especially after the people with the whiny naked argumentative kids left.
This morning, I got up and packed up my campsite and drove up to the Deep Lake trailhead. We got about two miles up the trail and I vomited off the side of the trail. No idea why. So since vomiting while hiking is contraindicated, I came home without finishing the hike. I couldn't even stop and drink some water and see if I felt better because of the hideous bugs on the trail. I was getting eaten alive even though I kept moving. It was pretty miserable.
That now makes three times in a row that I've felt sick while hiking. On the Navajo Pass trail, I laid on my backpack next to the trail for about three hours waiting for my stomach to settle down and trying to decide if I should leave. I woke up nauseated at Hyas Lake and bagged out on continuing up to Marmot Lake. And now I'm puking in creeks that run down to the Cle Elum River. People drink that water. I hope they filter it first.
This morning, I got up and packed up my campsite and drove up to the Deep Lake trailhead. We got about two miles up the trail and I vomited off the side of the trail. No idea why. So since vomiting while hiking is contraindicated, I came home without finishing the hike. I couldn't even stop and drink some water and see if I felt better because of the hideous bugs on the trail. I was getting eaten alive even though I kept moving. It was pretty miserable.
That now makes three times in a row that I've felt sick while hiking. On the Navajo Pass trail, I laid on my backpack next to the trail for about three hours waiting for my stomach to settle down and trying to decide if I should leave. I woke up nauseated at Hyas Lake and bagged out on continuing up to Marmot Lake. And now I'm puking in creeks that run down to the Cle Elum River. People drink that water. I hope they filter it first.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The So-Called Vacation So Far
I was supposed to be gone right now, but as usual things didn't work out as planned.
I left work Friday and went hiking. I found a nice campsite by Hyas Lake. So far, so good. Duncan ran like a crazy dog in the shallow water, barking at a rock that was sticking up out of the water. (It may have been an alligator. He just wanted to be sure.) We went to bed. Duncan kept seeing or hearing or imagining monsters in the woods, leaping up and growling at the trees while pushing me away from the tent flap (to protect me?). I went to sleep eventually. I woke up sweating in a 49 degree tent. Not good. I don't sweat noticably unless I'm exerting myself or it is over 80 degrees. I was nauseated and had a terrible headache.
On Friday I had a brief chat with the couple staying at the Fish Lake campground guard shack. They said that the trail to Marmot Lake was partially gone because of an avalanche. The idea of crossing avalanche debris with a crazy dog on a leash and a 45 pound pack on a very steep slope with no room for error while feeling less than reasonable didn't appeal to me at all, so I made an executive decision and decided to go home.
I still feel a little queasy, but otherwise I seem fine. I'm heading back to the area today. I have a campsite booked. I'm going to camp at the campground tonight and have a campfire and smores and Buffalo Trail Bourbon read a book in a hammock or listen to my iPod or play a Zelda game on my DS. Duncan's going to play in the river and roll in the dirt and eat a rawhide bone and threaten the squirrels. We're going to find a geocache or two. I'm going to continue feeding the bugs with the remainder of my blood. I'll probably renew my sunburn. It'll be like heaven, except for the itching.
Tomorrow we're doing the Deep Lake hike, which is a 14.5 mile hike. I've done it before, but somehow I thought it was only about 10 miles. I was in better shape back then, I think. Depending on how I feel when we get to the lake, we may continue on up to Lake Vicente. I have all day, so I'm not terribly worried about time. After the hike, we're staying at the campground again, so I don't have to worry about driving home after doing that to myself. Another campfire, more smores, more Bourbon, maybe some Cheezy Poofs. Like heaven again, but with even more itching and possibly even more scratched-open bug bites.
When I go backpacking, I take as little as I think I can get away with. For car camping, my only limit is car space. I'm taking TWO chairs, as if I need two chairs! Actually, one of them is a chaise that I can sleep on. Camping without sleeping on the ground! Who knew it could be done! I have a giant tarp to put down as a floor to keep from tracking dirt into the tent. I'm taking a bed for Duncan. I've got my hammock, just in case. A pillow, for gods' sake! I get a pillow! I've got a case of water, a full bottle of Bourbon, two bundles of firewood, and a couple of changes of clothes. Extra food, snacks, a book. I wouldn't have taken any of this on a backpacking trip. I may do this more often - car camping with day hikes more and backpacking less.
My trunk is packed solid and I still might be forgetting something.
I left work Friday and went hiking. I found a nice campsite by Hyas Lake. So far, so good. Duncan ran like a crazy dog in the shallow water, barking at a rock that was sticking up out of the water. (It may have been an alligator. He just wanted to be sure.) We went to bed. Duncan kept seeing or hearing or imagining monsters in the woods, leaping up and growling at the trees while pushing me away from the tent flap (to protect me?). I went to sleep eventually. I woke up sweating in a 49 degree tent. Not good. I don't sweat noticably unless I'm exerting myself or it is over 80 degrees. I was nauseated and had a terrible headache.
On Friday I had a brief chat with the couple staying at the Fish Lake campground guard shack. They said that the trail to Marmot Lake was partially gone because of an avalanche. The idea of crossing avalanche debris with a crazy dog on a leash and a 45 pound pack on a very steep slope with no room for error while feeling less than reasonable didn't appeal to me at all, so I made an executive decision and decided to go home.
I still feel a little queasy, but otherwise I seem fine. I'm heading back to the area today. I have a campsite booked. I'm going to camp at the campground tonight and have a campfire and smores and Buffalo Trail Bourbon read a book in a hammock or listen to my iPod or play a Zelda game on my DS. Duncan's going to play in the river and roll in the dirt and eat a rawhide bone and threaten the squirrels. We're going to find a geocache or two. I'm going to continue feeding the bugs with the remainder of my blood. I'll probably renew my sunburn. It'll be like heaven, except for the itching.
Tomorrow we're doing the Deep Lake hike, which is a 14.5 mile hike. I've done it before, but somehow I thought it was only about 10 miles. I was in better shape back then, I think. Depending on how I feel when we get to the lake, we may continue on up to Lake Vicente. I have all day, so I'm not terribly worried about time. After the hike, we're staying at the campground again, so I don't have to worry about driving home after doing that to myself. Another campfire, more smores, more Bourbon, maybe some Cheezy Poofs. Like heaven again, but with even more itching and possibly even more scratched-open bug bites.
When I go backpacking, I take as little as I think I can get away with. For car camping, my only limit is car space. I'm taking TWO chairs, as if I need two chairs! Actually, one of them is a chaise that I can sleep on. Camping without sleeping on the ground! Who knew it could be done! I have a giant tarp to put down as a floor to keep from tracking dirt into the tent. I'm taking a bed for Duncan. I've got my hammock, just in case. A pillow, for gods' sake! I get a pillow! I've got a case of water, a full bottle of Bourbon, two bundles of firewood, and a couple of changes of clothes. Extra food, snacks, a book. I wouldn't have taken any of this on a backpacking trip. I may do this more often - car camping with day hikes more and backpacking less.
My trunk is packed solid and I still might be forgetting something.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
252 Days Later
On October 26th, 2009, I got my two right-hand wisdom teeth removed.
My first wisdom tooth extraction was back in the olden days. I was still living in Port Orchard, which puts it sometime between 1992 and 1996. I was getting a crown on the tooth right in front of my top left wisdom tooth. It was a fully erupted wisdom tooth. They yanked it while I was numbed up from the crown work. No big deal. Didn’t feel a thing. However, I reacted as though they were trying to kill me. In the few seconds that they were pulling on it, I apparently tried to escape up over the back of the chair. I swear, I heard it pulling out. There was popping and squealing. It did not make me happy. It didn’t need stitches, I didn’t need painkillers, and it didn’t have any complications. Still, it freaked me out a little. The idea of having a tooth casually pulled with your consent is a little disturbing.
The second extraction went nowhere near as smoothly. The lower left wisdom tooth was impacted; the root was fused to the bone and curved backward. They gave me tranquilizers to take before the extraction. They told me that on that dose, most men just sleep though it. No such luck for me. I metabolize medications pretty quickly, and the tranquilizer wore off before they even started. It took them an hour to get the tooth out. There was crunching and drilling and pulling. I had tears running down into my ears. The doctor’s hands hurt by the time it was over. I had to throw away the shirt I wore because I couldn’t get the blood stains out of the neckline. Two days later I was fine, but I decided that I was never going to be conscious for another wisdom tooth removal.
I put off the final two wisdom teeth extractions for nearly 5 years. I was a bit traumatized.
Did you know that if you have impacted wisdom teeth, sinus pressure can make your gums bleed? Yes indeed.
Did you know that if you have one cusp of a wisdom tooth showing through your gums, you can get infections down in there? Yes indeed again.
So in October, I started having problems with my head. New problems. You know, because I didn’t already have enough problems in my head. I had a horrible pain in the back of my jaw. The top right wisdom tooth was so far impacted I couldn’t feel it with my tongue. It was essentially in my sinuses. The bottom one was infected. I went to the dentist, picked up a prescription for antibiotics, and scheduled the surgery.
Two weeks later, I went in for the extractions. They won’t let you drive after you’ve come out of general anesthetic, so I had to recruit a friend to skip out of work and drive me to and from the clinic. I hate asking people to do things for me, so that was nearly enough to make me put off the whole thing, but I knew I had to get it done. Repeat infections like that can cause bone loss. I didn’t really want to risk that.
I love general anesthetic. It is like magic. I don’t respond badly to it like some people. I go in, I chat with people doing stuff around me, and then I suddenly wake up and it is time to go. I don’t get queasy, and it took me maybe a minute to stop being wobbly on my feet. My friend drove me home. We sat around for a while, chatting while I changed the bloody gauze pads every few minutes. I felt fine. I didn’t feel any real discomfort, but I could tell that my lip was a little torn up. I’m guessing it got stuck between my teeth and a tool or someone’s hand and got pinched. I was unconcerned.
I had taken a week off to recover, thinking that I’d be fine in a day or two, then I’d have a couple of days to kill before going back to work. It didn’t quite work out that way.
Day one, I was fine. I had plenty of soft food in the house, and plenty of Percocet. Sleepy time, doggy attention, cats in my face.
Day two, I was wondering why I still couldn’t feel that side of my lip or chin. I was warned in advance about how close the bottom tooth was to the nerve that runs down my chin, and decided it was probably related. Maybe the tissue was swollen and putting pressure on the nerve. Whatever.
Day three, I was getting a little worried. I started doing the warm salt water swishing thing they tell you to do when your mouth is torn up and I made a startling discovery. If I closed my mouth and put a little pressure on the salt water, it would come put my nose. The upper wisdom tooth socket went directly into my sinus. I couldn’t create a vacuum in my mouth. It made swallowing interesting, too. It didn’t hurt, and it was kind of amusing, so I figured it would heal. My real concern was the bottom socket. It was starting to hurt, and the Percocet wasn’t working anymore. I wasn’t sure if I was just being a big baby or if there was a real issue. I decided to wait until morning and call the doctor.
Day four, I was in agony. I called and told them that I couldn’t wait another day for a follow-up appointment. Something was wrong. They told me to come in immediately. It turns out I had dry socket. When you have a tooth extracted, a blood clot should form in the socket to protect your nerve and bone, and to guide the growth of new bone and gum tissue. If you have no clot, it is called dry socket. I had exposed nerve and bone in my mouth. There’s only one thing they can do for dry socket. They shoot you full of local painkillers and then pack the socket with clove-oil soaked gauze. Clove oil is apparently one of the only things that will kill nerve pain. It is very effective and tastes wonderful. (No, really. It reminded me of Christmas ham.)
For the next several days, I was in every day or two to have the packing removed and replaced. It kills the pain, but it also keeps the hole from closing up as quickly as it should.
After about a week, the socket developed… a flavor. It didn’t taste like cloves, and it had a texture to it. I went in for the usual replacement packing, and they determined that I had an infection in the bone. They gave me more antibiotics and painkillers and sent me on my way.
At this point, I still couldn’t feel my lower lip or chin, and I was still eating soft food. I couldn’t open my mouth all the way. I couldn’t chew anything. I lost about 15 pounds over the next few weeks.
At the end of three weeks of pain killers and dry socket treatment, my doctor recommended taking another week off of work to get extra sleep and help me heal a little faster. Luckily I had a ton of sick time racked up and a great boss who had no issues with me doing that. After another week off and more changing of the packing, we finally got the socket to where I could do without painkillers and without the packing. I was left with a giant hole in the back of my jaw that I had to rinse out with a syringe after each meal. The hole was still so big four weeks after the extraction that shining a flashlight into my mouth cast shadows of the edge of the socket onto the bottom of the socket. It was a very big tooth, and it left a very big hole.
The socket was finally healing and I was off the painkillers, but I still couldn’t chew solid food. I went to a jaw specialist, who told me that I had a lot of swelling from the wrenching they gave my jaw while I was unconscious. He prescribed Dexamethasone (a steroid to reduce swelling) and a tranquilizer to help me sleep. Two weeks later, I could eat normally again.
It has been 252 days since the extraction. I still have a hole in my gums big enough to stuff a grain of rice. I still can’t entirely feel my right-hand bottom lip or chin. If I touch my chin, I feel it in my lip. If I run a finger across my chin, it tickles horrendously all over the bottom half of my face. If I get something cool on my lip, it feels like something freezing is on my chin. The same thing happens with warm things; I get an over-inflated sense of heat. My nerves are still rewiring, so they exaggerate what they feel, if they feel anything at all. My chin constantly feels like I’m pressing two very cold fingers to it. The lip feels paralyzed, but it isn’t. Sometimes when I’m talking I’ll talk as though it really doesn’t move, and I have to catch myself and try to talk normally. I can’t really feel my upper or lower gums, which makes chewing, brushing, and flossing that side a little weird. I’m told that all of this could have been avoided if I had gotten my wisdom teeth removed when I was in my teens, when my bones and the roots of the teeth were softer, and the healing process would have been faster. Too bad nobody mentioned that to my parents at the time.
My doctor says that there’s a possibility that I’ll eventually get all of the feeling back. It could be years. On the other hand, maybe my brain will just give up trying to get it back together and I won’t notice that I don’t feel it anymore.
Either way, I’m happy that all of my wisdom teeth are finally gone. Hopefully I won’t have to have anything else extracted. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to start this whole process again.
My first wisdom tooth extraction was back in the olden days. I was still living in Port Orchard, which puts it sometime between 1992 and 1996. I was getting a crown on the tooth right in front of my top left wisdom tooth. It was a fully erupted wisdom tooth. They yanked it while I was numbed up from the crown work. No big deal. Didn’t feel a thing. However, I reacted as though they were trying to kill me. In the few seconds that they were pulling on it, I apparently tried to escape up over the back of the chair. I swear, I heard it pulling out. There was popping and squealing. It did not make me happy. It didn’t need stitches, I didn’t need painkillers, and it didn’t have any complications. Still, it freaked me out a little. The idea of having a tooth casually pulled with your consent is a little disturbing.
The second extraction went nowhere near as smoothly. The lower left wisdom tooth was impacted; the root was fused to the bone and curved backward. They gave me tranquilizers to take before the extraction. They told me that on that dose, most men just sleep though it. No such luck for me. I metabolize medications pretty quickly, and the tranquilizer wore off before they even started. It took them an hour to get the tooth out. There was crunching and drilling and pulling. I had tears running down into my ears. The doctor’s hands hurt by the time it was over. I had to throw away the shirt I wore because I couldn’t get the blood stains out of the neckline. Two days later I was fine, but I decided that I was never going to be conscious for another wisdom tooth removal.
I put off the final two wisdom teeth extractions for nearly 5 years. I was a bit traumatized.
Did you know that if you have impacted wisdom teeth, sinus pressure can make your gums bleed? Yes indeed.
Did you know that if you have one cusp of a wisdom tooth showing through your gums, you can get infections down in there? Yes indeed again.
So in October, I started having problems with my head. New problems. You know, because I didn’t already have enough problems in my head. I had a horrible pain in the back of my jaw. The top right wisdom tooth was so far impacted I couldn’t feel it with my tongue. It was essentially in my sinuses. The bottom one was infected. I went to the dentist, picked up a prescription for antibiotics, and scheduled the surgery.
Two weeks later, I went in for the extractions. They won’t let you drive after you’ve come out of general anesthetic, so I had to recruit a friend to skip out of work and drive me to and from the clinic. I hate asking people to do things for me, so that was nearly enough to make me put off the whole thing, but I knew I had to get it done. Repeat infections like that can cause bone loss. I didn’t really want to risk that.
I love general anesthetic. It is like magic. I don’t respond badly to it like some people. I go in, I chat with people doing stuff around me, and then I suddenly wake up and it is time to go. I don’t get queasy, and it took me maybe a minute to stop being wobbly on my feet. My friend drove me home. We sat around for a while, chatting while I changed the bloody gauze pads every few minutes. I felt fine. I didn’t feel any real discomfort, but I could tell that my lip was a little torn up. I’m guessing it got stuck between my teeth and a tool or someone’s hand and got pinched. I was unconcerned.
I had taken a week off to recover, thinking that I’d be fine in a day or two, then I’d have a couple of days to kill before going back to work. It didn’t quite work out that way.
Day one, I was fine. I had plenty of soft food in the house, and plenty of Percocet. Sleepy time, doggy attention, cats in my face.
Day two, I was wondering why I still couldn’t feel that side of my lip or chin. I was warned in advance about how close the bottom tooth was to the nerve that runs down my chin, and decided it was probably related. Maybe the tissue was swollen and putting pressure on the nerve. Whatever.
Day three, I was getting a little worried. I started doing the warm salt water swishing thing they tell you to do when your mouth is torn up and I made a startling discovery. If I closed my mouth and put a little pressure on the salt water, it would come put my nose. The upper wisdom tooth socket went directly into my sinus. I couldn’t create a vacuum in my mouth. It made swallowing interesting, too. It didn’t hurt, and it was kind of amusing, so I figured it would heal. My real concern was the bottom socket. It was starting to hurt, and the Percocet wasn’t working anymore. I wasn’t sure if I was just being a big baby or if there was a real issue. I decided to wait until morning and call the doctor.
Day four, I was in agony. I called and told them that I couldn’t wait another day for a follow-up appointment. Something was wrong. They told me to come in immediately. It turns out I had dry socket. When you have a tooth extracted, a blood clot should form in the socket to protect your nerve and bone, and to guide the growth of new bone and gum tissue. If you have no clot, it is called dry socket. I had exposed nerve and bone in my mouth. There’s only one thing they can do for dry socket. They shoot you full of local painkillers and then pack the socket with clove-oil soaked gauze. Clove oil is apparently one of the only things that will kill nerve pain. It is very effective and tastes wonderful. (No, really. It reminded me of Christmas ham.)
For the next several days, I was in every day or two to have the packing removed and replaced. It kills the pain, but it also keeps the hole from closing up as quickly as it should.
After about a week, the socket developed… a flavor. It didn’t taste like cloves, and it had a texture to it. I went in for the usual replacement packing, and they determined that I had an infection in the bone. They gave me more antibiotics and painkillers and sent me on my way.
At this point, I still couldn’t feel my lower lip or chin, and I was still eating soft food. I couldn’t open my mouth all the way. I couldn’t chew anything. I lost about 15 pounds over the next few weeks.
At the end of three weeks of pain killers and dry socket treatment, my doctor recommended taking another week off of work to get extra sleep and help me heal a little faster. Luckily I had a ton of sick time racked up and a great boss who had no issues with me doing that. After another week off and more changing of the packing, we finally got the socket to where I could do without painkillers and without the packing. I was left with a giant hole in the back of my jaw that I had to rinse out with a syringe after each meal. The hole was still so big four weeks after the extraction that shining a flashlight into my mouth cast shadows of the edge of the socket onto the bottom of the socket. It was a very big tooth, and it left a very big hole.
The socket was finally healing and I was off the painkillers, but I still couldn’t chew solid food. I went to a jaw specialist, who told me that I had a lot of swelling from the wrenching they gave my jaw while I was unconscious. He prescribed Dexamethasone (a steroid to reduce swelling) and a tranquilizer to help me sleep. Two weeks later, I could eat normally again.
It has been 252 days since the extraction. I still have a hole in my gums big enough to stuff a grain of rice. I still can’t entirely feel my right-hand bottom lip or chin. If I touch my chin, I feel it in my lip. If I run a finger across my chin, it tickles horrendously all over the bottom half of my face. If I get something cool on my lip, it feels like something freezing is on my chin. The same thing happens with warm things; I get an over-inflated sense of heat. My nerves are still rewiring, so they exaggerate what they feel, if they feel anything at all. My chin constantly feels like I’m pressing two very cold fingers to it. The lip feels paralyzed, but it isn’t. Sometimes when I’m talking I’ll talk as though it really doesn’t move, and I have to catch myself and try to talk normally. I can’t really feel my upper or lower gums, which makes chewing, brushing, and flossing that side a little weird. I’m told that all of this could have been avoided if I had gotten my wisdom teeth removed when I was in my teens, when my bones and the roots of the teeth were softer, and the healing process would have been faster. Too bad nobody mentioned that to my parents at the time.
My doctor says that there’s a possibility that I’ll eventually get all of the feeling back. It could be years. On the other hand, maybe my brain will just give up trying to get it back together and I won’t notice that I don’t feel it anymore.
Either way, I’m happy that all of my wisdom teeth are finally gone. Hopefully I won’t have to have anything else extracted. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to start this whole process again.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
What up, dog?
Duncan is refusing to go to the bathroom in his own yard. I have a theory about this. His urine is tainted with the smell of antibiotics. Maybe he doesn't like it, or maybe he views this as a sign of weakness and doesn't want to advertise that he is in a weakened state to the local rabbits, squirrel, and crows. If they knew, they might gang up on him and retaliate for chasing them out of his yard.
I know he can catch rabbits, I've seen him do it twice. I've never seen him catch a squirrel, but he's gotten close enough to panic them and me. I have no idea what his issue is with the crows. He chases them and barks at them. He knows about the birds that are nesting on the ground in his yard, but all he does is check the nests every day and leave them alone. That suggests that it isn't birds that he objects to, but specifically to crows. I found a very large chunk of his hair in the middle of the yard one day that could have been torn out of him by a crow. Maybe that explains it. Who knows.
The upshot of this is that I have to take him for a walk every three or four hours to get him to pee. He's got a quarter of an acre but won't use it.
I took him out this morning for a circuit around the 'hood. On the way home there was a yard full of kids. One of the girls saw Duncan and said, "Oh, look at the dog!" and they all started to come to Duncan. Duncan, of course, was very happy for the attention. All four of the kids were petting him and saying how cute and pretty and fluffy and happy he is. The smallest of them, a little boy maybe four or five years old, was at eye level with Duncan, a few inches away, running his hands down Duncan's face and jaw and saying what a nice dog he is. The oldest girl said that Colin, the little boy, had only touched one other dog in his life because he's afraid of dogs. As we walked away, I heard her running into the house, yelling to her mom that Colin had just petted a dog. Duncan seems to have this effect on people who are afraid of dogs. They just can't resist his cuteness.
A little further on along a trail outside of the neighborhood, he stopped to smell at something next to the trail. I wasn't paying much attention, but I did notice that he was very intently smelling whatever it was, not casually sniffing at it. He was taking very deep breaths and seemed a little tense. Then it hopped out from under his nose. It was a baby bird that didn't seem to be able to fly. It hopped fine, and its wings seemed fine, but it obviously couldn't fly. I couldn't catch it and I wouldn't have known what to do with it if I could have caught it. Chloe would probably have killed it. Duncan would probably have let it clean his teeth. It hopped off into some underbrush. Hopefully it will be OK, but I doubt I'll ever know for sure.
I know he can catch rabbits, I've seen him do it twice. I've never seen him catch a squirrel, but he's gotten close enough to panic them and me. I have no idea what his issue is with the crows. He chases them and barks at them. He knows about the birds that are nesting on the ground in his yard, but all he does is check the nests every day and leave them alone. That suggests that it isn't birds that he objects to, but specifically to crows. I found a very large chunk of his hair in the middle of the yard one day that could have been torn out of him by a crow. Maybe that explains it. Who knows.
The upshot of this is that I have to take him for a walk every three or four hours to get him to pee. He's got a quarter of an acre but won't use it.
I took him out this morning for a circuit around the 'hood. On the way home there was a yard full of kids. One of the girls saw Duncan and said, "Oh, look at the dog!" and they all started to come to Duncan. Duncan, of course, was very happy for the attention. All four of the kids were petting him and saying how cute and pretty and fluffy and happy he is. The smallest of them, a little boy maybe four or five years old, was at eye level with Duncan, a few inches away, running his hands down Duncan's face and jaw and saying what a nice dog he is. The oldest girl said that Colin, the little boy, had only touched one other dog in his life because he's afraid of dogs. As we walked away, I heard her running into the house, yelling to her mom that Colin had just petted a dog. Duncan seems to have this effect on people who are afraid of dogs. They just can't resist his cuteness.
A little further on along a trail outside of the neighborhood, he stopped to smell at something next to the trail. I wasn't paying much attention, but I did notice that he was very intently smelling whatever it was, not casually sniffing at it. He was taking very deep breaths and seemed a little tense. Then it hopped out from under his nose. It was a baby bird that didn't seem to be able to fly. It hopped fine, and its wings seemed fine, but it obviously couldn't fly. I couldn't catch it and I wouldn't have known what to do with it if I could have caught it. Chloe would probably have killed it. Duncan would probably have let it clean his teeth. It hopped off into some underbrush. Hopefully it will be OK, but I doubt I'll ever know for sure.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Lessons in canine first aid
Duncan got bitten by a dog at the dog park on Monday.
On Tuesday, I took him to the vet. They shaved the area, gave me antibiotics, and told me to keep the area clean and use Neosporin on it.
On Wednesday, I went to work and came home to find that he had been out all day. The shaved area was sunburned and looked terrible. I put aloe on it and some topical anesthetic on it to keep it from bothering him.
It didn't work, of course.
I woke up Thursday morning to find that he had licked the area raw, and it was infected. I sent an email to my boss telling him I was going to work from home that day, then called the vet and made an appointment. That visit resulted in a bottle of antiseptic wash, a tube of antibiotic cream, and an Elizabethan collar for Duncan. I'm working from home until I can leave Duncan without worrying about the collar or him licking his wound open again.
Duncan is a great dog. I have to clean this raw scabby area twice a day, which I know hurts him because he shakes the whole time, but he doesn't try to get away. When I hold up the cone to put it on him, he just sticks his head right in and lets me tie it to his collar. He acts like this is nothing new. It's amazing. He does get a little anxious after the wound cleaning, probably because it hurts, so I give him a Benedryl and he calms down.
Poor Duncan has a hard time navigating around the house with the collar on. He runs into things and catches the edge of it, then has to work out how to get un-caught. He has a hard time catching and picking up his toys, but he's gotten very good at flicking them at me with the edge of the collar. It's kind of sad watching him flick the collar up to put his head down and pick up a toy before the edge of the collar comes back down and blocks him. But it's kind of funny, too. I feel bad for laughing. He also can't seem to catch his toys if I toss them to him, so they just land in his cone. When I take him out, I have to put a T-shirt on him to keep dirt off the wound and keep it from getting sunburned more. I have to tie the waist of the shirt up in a little knot to keep him from peeing on it, and it makes him look like that gay guy on skates in Reno 911. He lets me put the shirt on, and he never tries to take it off. My poor doggy.
One of Duncan's favorite things to do is scratch his muzzle on my leg or the couch, and he can't do that with the cone on. I do it for him.
I'm going to rearrange my furniture in my bedroom tonight so that he can get around more easily in there. He got stuck on a bedside table last night and got a little panicky before I could get him unhooked. The last thing I want is to stress him more than he already is.
On Tuesday, I took him to the vet. They shaved the area, gave me antibiotics, and told me to keep the area clean and use Neosporin on it.
On Wednesday, I went to work and came home to find that he had been out all day. The shaved area was sunburned and looked terrible. I put aloe on it and some topical anesthetic on it to keep it from bothering him.
It didn't work, of course.
I woke up Thursday morning to find that he had licked the area raw, and it was infected. I sent an email to my boss telling him I was going to work from home that day, then called the vet and made an appointment. That visit resulted in a bottle of antiseptic wash, a tube of antibiotic cream, and an Elizabethan collar for Duncan. I'm working from home until I can leave Duncan without worrying about the collar or him licking his wound open again.
Duncan is a great dog. I have to clean this raw scabby area twice a day, which I know hurts him because he shakes the whole time, but he doesn't try to get away. When I hold up the cone to put it on him, he just sticks his head right in and lets me tie it to his collar. He acts like this is nothing new. It's amazing. He does get a little anxious after the wound cleaning, probably because it hurts, so I give him a Benedryl and he calms down.
Poor Duncan has a hard time navigating around the house with the collar on. He runs into things and catches the edge of it, then has to work out how to get un-caught. He has a hard time catching and picking up his toys, but he's gotten very good at flicking them at me with the edge of the collar. It's kind of sad watching him flick the collar up to put his head down and pick up a toy before the edge of the collar comes back down and blocks him. But it's kind of funny, too. I feel bad for laughing. He also can't seem to catch his toys if I toss them to him, so they just land in his cone. When I take him out, I have to put a T-shirt on him to keep dirt off the wound and keep it from getting sunburned more. I have to tie the waist of the shirt up in a little knot to keep him from peeing on it, and it makes him look like that gay guy on skates in Reno 911. He lets me put the shirt on, and he never tries to take it off. My poor doggy.
One of Duncan's favorite things to do is scratch his muzzle on my leg or the couch, and he can't do that with the cone on. I do it for him.
I'm going to rearrange my furniture in my bedroom tonight so that he can get around more easily in there. He got stuck on a bedside table last night and got a little panicky before I could get him unhooked. The last thing I want is to stress him more than he already is.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Renton Off-Leash Dog Park - Some dogs bite
On June 21st, 2010, at about 6:15 pm, I arrived at the Renton Off-Leash Dog Park. I entered the gate and let my dog, Duncan, off his leash. While he ran up to the group of dogs standing with the group of people, I walked over to the people. Duncan stopped in front of two dogs, an elderly Norwegian Elk Hound and some kind of a hound mix. Duncan’s posture was his normal greeting posture with a dog he didn’t know: leaning backward on his hind legs, slightly crouched to show submission, head up to show curiosity, fast wagging lowered tail, flattened ears, averting his gaze to be non-threatening. They were all sniffing each other for about 2 seconds when the Elk Hound lunged and snarled at Duncan, biting him on the side.
I was still walking toward the people and I was watching Duncan, so I saw it happen. Melissa, owner of Zoey the Black Lab, also saw it. The owner of Bruiser heard Duncan yelp but didn’t see it happen. The owner of the Elk Hound neither saw nor heard this happen. The dogs were out of his line of sight, behind him to his left, about 15 feet away. He was chatting up Jax’s owner and was totally oblivious to his dog’s behavior. Melissa turned to me with wide eyes and covered her mouth in an “oh my god, did you just see that?” kind of move. I said to Melissa, “Why is my dog limping?” She replied, “Maybe he stepped on something?” She sounded doubtful.
This entire exchange took place in about 15 seconds after letting Duncan off his leash.
Duncan’s movement, which wasn’t really a limp, was caused by the bite on his side. He was clenching in pain, but since he walked it off a few seconds later I didn’t check it out immediately.
About five minutes later, the owner of the Elk Hound commented, “sometimes he growls at other dogs, but it doesn’t mean anything.” Yes, it means something. It means his dog is aggressive. The owner is either blissfully unaware of this or he likes that his dog is aggressive and won’t address it. The ASPCA website describes his dog's behavior this way: “Dogs can display an “aggressive pucker.” They move their lips forward over their teeth and exhale air so that their lips look puffy and large. You can sometimes even hear them breathing heavily. This display is often accompanied by a wrinkled forehead. A dog who looks like this is saying, “Don’t come any closer.”” Source Duncan didn’t have time to get this signal from the dog.
Just before we left the park, Duncan was playing fetch with Mickey and Georgia’s owner. I noticed that when the man tried to scratch Duncan’s sides, he’d try to avoid being touched on that side by dancing away and curving his body to that side to shield it and showing anxiety behavior: panting, head down, ears down, and wagging his entire body back and forth. After we got out of the park, I looked over his side and found the bite mark. The vet was closed, so I cleaned up the wound with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin.
In the morning, I made an appointment with the vet and took Duncan in to be checked out. They shaved the wound to look for punctures, then prescribed Amoxicillin and more topical Neosporin. Puncture wounds associated with dog bites are very dangerous. Canine teeth can push bacteria deep within the tissue and cause life-threatening infections. The wound clearly shows five teeth marks: the left canine made the worst part of the wound, but you can also clearly see where the four front teeth gouged his skin. The area around it is noticeably bruised. Only one canine tooth made contact, which shows that the dog came at Duncan from an angle – behind him to his right. Duncan was bitten from behind while trying to escape and he didn’t retaliate.
The next day, I went back to the dog park to talk to the owner. His reaction was predictable. He got very hostile and unreasonable. He was too busy formulating defenses to hear anything I tried to say to him. He tried to intimidate me, shouting at me. He just went on and on, making excuses, denying it, and blaming Duncan.
1. He said it didn’t happen. Clearly it happened; there are witnesses and an obvious bite wound.
2. He said his dog didn’t do it. Again, there were witnesses. Two dogs were near Duncan when this happened, the Elk Hound and the hound mix. The hound mix was on Duncan's opposite side, and also backed away when the Elk Hound lunged forward. Incidentally, both dogs belong to the same man.
3. He said he’s been coming to this park for years and never had a problem. That’s a lie, and if it was true it would be irrelevant. The park was established last year. It isn’t even two years old. Regardless of how long you’ve been frequenting a dog park, it does not justify your dog biting another. In addition, “never having a problem” does not correlate exactly with “there will never be a problem.”
4. He pointed out that I haven’t been coming to this park for very long. True, it is possible that I’ve been frequenting the park for a month or two less than him. This is also irrelevant. If it had been my first time at this dog park, it would still be irrelevant.
5. He said his dog has never bitten a child. First, this isn’t a child. Second, that’s irrelevant. He’s never bitten a lot of things. There’s a first time for everything.
6. He said his dog has never bitten another dog. How does he know that? He didn’t know his dog had bitten my dog right behind him because he wasn’t watching his dog. Maybe this has happened before and the other owner didn’t notice or chose not to mention it, knowing that this owner would be irrational about it. And again, the “first time for everything” rule applies.
7. He said Duncan must have provoked it. My dog ran up to the group of dogs and stopped to greet them, and got bitten for it. If that is enough of a provocation to his dog to get bitten, his dog clearly has an aggression issue, which should be treated with training.
8. He said that this is something that dogs “just do.” So if it is something that dogs “just do,” why hasn’t it happened more often? The answer is simple: dogs don’t just bite each other to draw blood and cause deep bruising. They might nip and snarl for whatever reasons, but biting is a big leap from no-contact demonstrations. Normally dogs signal their intention first. Duncan got enough of a signal to turn and try to escape the bite, but it wasn’t enough of a signal.
9. He said, “What am I supposed to do, stop bringing him to the park?” I never suggested any such thing. I suggested that he pay attention to his dog and try to understand and address bad behavior. (The fact that his dog snarled and bit a dog 15 feet from him and the other dog yelped in pain and he heard nothing indicates that he is not paying attention to his dog.) I believe this was a perfectly reasonable request, which he did not hear because he was too busy being defensive and angry that someone would speak to him of this. He was clearly indifferent that his dog had bitten another dog; his focus was on reducing my concern to insignificance. I did not suggest muzzling the dog, keeping the dog under control on a leash, or refraining from bringing the dog to the park – all of which would have been considerations for me if our positions had been reversed. I also did not demand a reimbursement for the vet bill, which was fully half of what remained in my checking account, the balance of which has to last me another week and a half. If my dog had bitten another dog, I would have immediately offered to pay the vet bills. I believe that is what good people do – they hold themselves accountable and accept responsibility for their actions and by extension the actions of their dogs.
I tried to point out to him that he needs to be aware of his dog’s behavior so that he knows he needs to deal with it, but he was too busy arguing with what he thought I was saying to hear or understand what I was actually saying. Here’s the reasoning:
1. You need to be aware of your dog’s behavior. If you don’t know what your dog is doing, you can’t take care of the dog properly. If your dog was “provoked” to bite another dog by being submissively greeted, you need to know this so that you can question why it happened. You’re not going to know this if you’re too busy chatting with the other people. You can watch your dog and still talk to other people.
2. You need to understand your dog’s behavior. Why would this happen? Duncan is known around this park and other parks as a very friendly, well behaved, polite dog. He doesn’t bark, he doesn’t growl, he doesn’t chase aggressively, he doesn’t fight over toys, he doesn’t jump on people. He runs to each dog and person in the park in turn and greets everyone, looking for someone to play with. A dog trainer of nearly 50 years has repeatedly told people in my presence that if their dog doesn’t get along with Duncan, it is because there is something wrong with their dog. So why would this dog bite him? It could be several things. Perhaps the dog is going blind or deaf on his left side and he’s defensive when approached from that side. Perhaps he’s in pain from arthritis. Perhaps he has an infection or wound. Perhaps (and this is my guess) the dog is simply an aggressive dog.
From the RUFF website (found at http://www.rentonoffleash.org/Dog_Park_FAQs.html), his dog qualifies as aggressive: “An "aggressive" dog, as RUFF defines it, is a dog that causes physical injury to another dog or human, or consistently threatens, bullies, or intimidates dogs or people, and whose behavior cannot be controlled by its owner.”
3. You need to address your dog’s behavior. Assuming that this is a new behavior for the Elk Hound, the owner should question what could trigger such a huge change in behavior. The best way to find out is to take him to the vet. Most health issues are treatable. Some, like deafness or blindness, are not medically treatable in all circumstances, but a dog can be conditioned to be less defensive of their weak side if the owner is aware of the problem and works with the dog.
If it isn’t a health issue, it is a training issue. Aggression can be trained out of dogs. I’ve seen it done, repeatedly and successfully. If he doesn’t know how to do it, he needs to find someone who does and get some training of his own. The first step is, of course, for him to be aware of and objective about his dog’s behavior so that he can acknowledge that there is an issue to be addressed. Blaming the other person’s dog won’t solve anything.
Even if Duncan had legitimately provoked this dog, the bite was an extreme reaction that would be addressed by a responsible dog owner. This man dismissed the incident out of hand. Dogs provoke each other all the time at the park, but they don’t get bitten for it. A friendly greeting is not a provocation. If the problem is not addressed it could happen again, and it may not turn out so well. Chances are that Duncan will be fine. What if my dog had been a smaller or slower-moving dog that couldn’t escape? A bite from an Elk Hound is a very big bite to a smaller dog. Now that this has happened one time, the owner should know that it can happen again, especially if he chooses to ignore the issue out of misplaced pride, arrogance, and machismo.
I was still walking toward the people and I was watching Duncan, so I saw it happen. Melissa, owner of Zoey the Black Lab, also saw it. The owner of Bruiser heard Duncan yelp but didn’t see it happen. The owner of the Elk Hound neither saw nor heard this happen. The dogs were out of his line of sight, behind him to his left, about 15 feet away. He was chatting up Jax’s owner and was totally oblivious to his dog’s behavior. Melissa turned to me with wide eyes and covered her mouth in an “oh my god, did you just see that?” kind of move. I said to Melissa, “Why is my dog limping?” She replied, “Maybe he stepped on something?” She sounded doubtful.
This entire exchange took place in about 15 seconds after letting Duncan off his leash.
Duncan’s movement, which wasn’t really a limp, was caused by the bite on his side. He was clenching in pain, but since he walked it off a few seconds later I didn’t check it out immediately.
About five minutes later, the owner of the Elk Hound commented, “sometimes he growls at other dogs, but it doesn’t mean anything.” Yes, it means something. It means his dog is aggressive. The owner is either blissfully unaware of this or he likes that his dog is aggressive and won’t address it. The ASPCA website describes his dog's behavior this way: “Dogs can display an “aggressive pucker.” They move their lips forward over their teeth and exhale air so that their lips look puffy and large. You can sometimes even hear them breathing heavily. This display is often accompanied by a wrinkled forehead. A dog who looks like this is saying, “Don’t come any closer.”” Source Duncan didn’t have time to get this signal from the dog.
Just before we left the park, Duncan was playing fetch with Mickey and Georgia’s owner. I noticed that when the man tried to scratch Duncan’s sides, he’d try to avoid being touched on that side by dancing away and curving his body to that side to shield it and showing anxiety behavior: panting, head down, ears down, and wagging his entire body back and forth. After we got out of the park, I looked over his side and found the bite mark. The vet was closed, so I cleaned up the wound with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin.
In the morning, I made an appointment with the vet and took Duncan in to be checked out. They shaved the wound to look for punctures, then prescribed Amoxicillin and more topical Neosporin. Puncture wounds associated with dog bites are very dangerous. Canine teeth can push bacteria deep within the tissue and cause life-threatening infections. The wound clearly shows five teeth marks: the left canine made the worst part of the wound, but you can also clearly see where the four front teeth gouged his skin. The area around it is noticeably bruised. Only one canine tooth made contact, which shows that the dog came at Duncan from an angle – behind him to his right. Duncan was bitten from behind while trying to escape and he didn’t retaliate.
The next day, I went back to the dog park to talk to the owner. His reaction was predictable. He got very hostile and unreasonable. He was too busy formulating defenses to hear anything I tried to say to him. He tried to intimidate me, shouting at me. He just went on and on, making excuses, denying it, and blaming Duncan.
1. He said it didn’t happen. Clearly it happened; there are witnesses and an obvious bite wound.
2. He said his dog didn’t do it. Again, there were witnesses. Two dogs were near Duncan when this happened, the Elk Hound and the hound mix. The hound mix was on Duncan's opposite side, and also backed away when the Elk Hound lunged forward. Incidentally, both dogs belong to the same man.
3. He said he’s been coming to this park for years and never had a problem. That’s a lie, and if it was true it would be irrelevant. The park was established last year. It isn’t even two years old. Regardless of how long you’ve been frequenting a dog park, it does not justify your dog biting another. In addition, “never having a problem” does not correlate exactly with “there will never be a problem.”
4. He pointed out that I haven’t been coming to this park for very long. True, it is possible that I’ve been frequenting the park for a month or two less than him. This is also irrelevant. If it had been my first time at this dog park, it would still be irrelevant.
5. He said his dog has never bitten a child. First, this isn’t a child. Second, that’s irrelevant. He’s never bitten a lot of things. There’s a first time for everything.
6. He said his dog has never bitten another dog. How does he know that? He didn’t know his dog had bitten my dog right behind him because he wasn’t watching his dog. Maybe this has happened before and the other owner didn’t notice or chose not to mention it, knowing that this owner would be irrational about it. And again, the “first time for everything” rule applies.
7. He said Duncan must have provoked it. My dog ran up to the group of dogs and stopped to greet them, and got bitten for it. If that is enough of a provocation to his dog to get bitten, his dog clearly has an aggression issue, which should be treated with training.
8. He said that this is something that dogs “just do.” So if it is something that dogs “just do,” why hasn’t it happened more often? The answer is simple: dogs don’t just bite each other to draw blood and cause deep bruising. They might nip and snarl for whatever reasons, but biting is a big leap from no-contact demonstrations. Normally dogs signal their intention first. Duncan got enough of a signal to turn and try to escape the bite, but it wasn’t enough of a signal.
9. He said, “What am I supposed to do, stop bringing him to the park?” I never suggested any such thing. I suggested that he pay attention to his dog and try to understand and address bad behavior. (The fact that his dog snarled and bit a dog 15 feet from him and the other dog yelped in pain and he heard nothing indicates that he is not paying attention to his dog.) I believe this was a perfectly reasonable request, which he did not hear because he was too busy being defensive and angry that someone would speak to him of this. He was clearly indifferent that his dog had bitten another dog; his focus was on reducing my concern to insignificance. I did not suggest muzzling the dog, keeping the dog under control on a leash, or refraining from bringing the dog to the park – all of which would have been considerations for me if our positions had been reversed. I also did not demand a reimbursement for the vet bill, which was fully half of what remained in my checking account, the balance of which has to last me another week and a half. If my dog had bitten another dog, I would have immediately offered to pay the vet bills. I believe that is what good people do – they hold themselves accountable and accept responsibility for their actions and by extension the actions of their dogs.
I tried to point out to him that he needs to be aware of his dog’s behavior so that he knows he needs to deal with it, but he was too busy arguing with what he thought I was saying to hear or understand what I was actually saying. Here’s the reasoning:
1. You need to be aware of your dog’s behavior. If you don’t know what your dog is doing, you can’t take care of the dog properly. If your dog was “provoked” to bite another dog by being submissively greeted, you need to know this so that you can question why it happened. You’re not going to know this if you’re too busy chatting with the other people. You can watch your dog and still talk to other people.
2. You need to understand your dog’s behavior. Why would this happen? Duncan is known around this park and other parks as a very friendly, well behaved, polite dog. He doesn’t bark, he doesn’t growl, he doesn’t chase aggressively, he doesn’t fight over toys, he doesn’t jump on people. He runs to each dog and person in the park in turn and greets everyone, looking for someone to play with. A dog trainer of nearly 50 years has repeatedly told people in my presence that if their dog doesn’t get along with Duncan, it is because there is something wrong with their dog. So why would this dog bite him? It could be several things. Perhaps the dog is going blind or deaf on his left side and he’s defensive when approached from that side. Perhaps he’s in pain from arthritis. Perhaps he has an infection or wound. Perhaps (and this is my guess) the dog is simply an aggressive dog.
From the RUFF website (found at http://www.rentonoffleash.org/Dog_Park_FAQs.html), his dog qualifies as aggressive: “An "aggressive" dog, as RUFF defines it, is a dog that causes physical injury to another dog or human, or consistently threatens, bullies, or intimidates dogs or people, and whose behavior cannot be controlled by its owner.”
3. You need to address your dog’s behavior. Assuming that this is a new behavior for the Elk Hound, the owner should question what could trigger such a huge change in behavior. The best way to find out is to take him to the vet. Most health issues are treatable. Some, like deafness or blindness, are not medically treatable in all circumstances, but a dog can be conditioned to be less defensive of their weak side if the owner is aware of the problem and works with the dog.
If it isn’t a health issue, it is a training issue. Aggression can be trained out of dogs. I’ve seen it done, repeatedly and successfully. If he doesn’t know how to do it, he needs to find someone who does and get some training of his own. The first step is, of course, for him to be aware of and objective about his dog’s behavior so that he can acknowledge that there is an issue to be addressed. Blaming the other person’s dog won’t solve anything.
Even if Duncan had legitimately provoked this dog, the bite was an extreme reaction that would be addressed by a responsible dog owner. This man dismissed the incident out of hand. Dogs provoke each other all the time at the park, but they don’t get bitten for it. A friendly greeting is not a provocation. If the problem is not addressed it could happen again, and it may not turn out so well. Chances are that Duncan will be fine. What if my dog had been a smaller or slower-moving dog that couldn’t escape? A bite from an Elk Hound is a very big bite to a smaller dog. Now that this has happened one time, the owner should know that it can happen again, especially if he chooses to ignore the issue out of misplaced pride, arrogance, and machismo.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
BP, the oil spill, and the liability cap
So, I'm wondering.
The oil spill is now up to... what? About 60,000 barrels a day? Sure, they're collecting a bit of the oil, and setting fire to some of the oil, but the rest of it is ending up killing wildlife, habitats, and jobs. BP makes more money than God, so why is there a cap on their liability? Doesn't a cap just push the company to make the cheapest decision?
More to the point, what's cheaper - letting the oil spill run its course and doing the cleanup, knowing what it will cost them? Or fixing it? What if fixing it will cost more than the liability cap on the cleanup?
Considering that they've made decisions in the past that were the cheaper, not better, decisions, I'd be afraid to let them make a choice on this. (I'm sure we've all heard about the Three Little Pigs analogy and how it was used in a meeting discussing a decision they made.)
The oil spill is now up to... what? About 60,000 barrels a day? Sure, they're collecting a bit of the oil, and setting fire to some of the oil, but the rest of it is ending up killing wildlife, habitats, and jobs. BP makes more money than God, so why is there a cap on their liability? Doesn't a cap just push the company to make the cheapest decision?
More to the point, what's cheaper - letting the oil spill run its course and doing the cleanup, knowing what it will cost them? Or fixing it? What if fixing it will cost more than the liability cap on the cleanup?
Considering that they've made decisions in the past that were the cheaper, not better, decisions, I'd be afraid to let them make a choice on this. (I'm sure we've all heard about the Three Little Pigs analogy and how it was used in a meeting discussing a decision they made.)
Monday, June 14, 2010
What? You again? Yeah, me again.
I was trying to log in to MapleStory today with an account that I haven't used in some time, and it wouldn't let me. I tried to reactivate the account, and it said a reactivation link had been sent to my email address. I tried to log into the email address and I couldn't remember the password. It eventually let me in, and I found an email referencing this blog. I had forgotten it.
See what happens when you have too many login IDs and passwords in your life?
Anyway, I haven't blogged in ages because I've been busy and didn't care much. Not much to say, really, and Twitter generally provides enough space for any passing thoughts I have, but it is nice to have this option. Woo, options.
Things haven't changed much since the last entry. Got my degree, still with the same company, still living where I was living. I was seeing someone for a short time before I decided that was a mistake. I got a dog, which was entirely not a mistake. I also got another cat, which was yet another not a mistake. Clearly, I do better with my relationships with animals than I do with people. Shock and surprise.
As for what's going on... well, I'm stressed out over the BP oil spill. I'm stressed out over money. I'm stressed out over my increasing migraines and sinus headaches. I'm stressed out that the kitten stresses out the older cat. I'm stressed out about my mom's health. I'm stressed out over the whole wisdom teeth debacle that took place in October 2009 and from which I have yet to recover. I can't decide if I want to change jobs. I can't decide if I want to change careers. I can't decide if I want to go back to school. I can barely motivate myself to get out and go hiking. I'm sick of hearing about the World Cup. I rarely geocache. Is geocache a verb? Should I say "I rarely go geocaching"? Whatever. So to escape, I play MapleStory and take Duncan, my fantastic dog, out for walks and to the dog park. He makes me happier.
Yeah, I think that covers things for now.
See what happens when you have too many login IDs and passwords in your life?
Anyway, I haven't blogged in ages because I've been busy and didn't care much. Not much to say, really, and Twitter generally provides enough space for any passing thoughts I have, but it is nice to have this option. Woo, options.
Things haven't changed much since the last entry. Got my degree, still with the same company, still living where I was living. I was seeing someone for a short time before I decided that was a mistake. I got a dog, which was entirely not a mistake. I also got another cat, which was yet another not a mistake. Clearly, I do better with my relationships with animals than I do with people. Shock and surprise.
As for what's going on... well, I'm stressed out over the BP oil spill. I'm stressed out over money. I'm stressed out over my increasing migraines and sinus headaches. I'm stressed out that the kitten stresses out the older cat. I'm stressed out about my mom's health. I'm stressed out over the whole wisdom teeth debacle that took place in October 2009 and from which I have yet to recover. I can't decide if I want to change jobs. I can't decide if I want to change careers. I can't decide if I want to go back to school. I can barely motivate myself to get out and go hiking. I'm sick of hearing about the World Cup. I rarely geocache. Is geocache a verb? Should I say "I rarely go geocaching"? Whatever. So to escape, I play MapleStory and take Duncan, my fantastic dog, out for walks and to the dog park. He makes me happier.
Yeah, I think that covers things for now.
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