Update/Vent

Sep 28^th,
Emotions:
I am really not happy at the moment.  So yesterday they closed the road off and did a tree planting ceremony (ceremonial two shovelfuls of dirt sort of thing, i.e. lame.) and then did a walk the repaired road thing, when they were all finished they officially opened the road.  So lots of lookie lou’s and tourists started showing up and stopping to gawk at and take pictures of the slide, where are they parking? Where our driveway is going to go (oh yeah, the construction folks had assured us we would have a drive way well before the 27^th, nope. . . ) and then we got to repel boarders for a few hours.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
    So we got the security folks who will at least be trying to stop this for a while longer to put barricades down there so people can’t use our drive as tourist parking. That seemed to help so we felt okay going to a friend’s party for the rest of the day.  I got to play D&D for the first time! And I mean the old advanced D&D. Had a fabulous time. Really did, and the host even printed out a site copy sort of like those we get at SCA events, but this one was just hilarious.
  So today I went out to where our driveway currently ends, about 200-300ish from the road and I can see just in the little time I am there, well over a dozen people stop and gawk and take pictures.  They are stopping just across the road from where the end of our driveway will be, some of them cross the road to gawk at and take pictures of our side of things too.  And this irritates me to no end.  I am normally a mellow pleasant sort of person but wow.  It’s a graveyard, not a tourist attraction! Even when they don’t come onto our land it’s still just, I mean 43 people died and these folks are treating it like Disney land.  I was not close to our neighbors , but clubs of people coming out to what is still private land with metal detectors to and I quote “Get the good stuff” or to play tourist seems terribly disrespectful and, and,  *is *  I want to run down there and shout at them, things like “This is our home, go away!” or “This is a graveyard, not a tourist attraction!”  or even something simple like “BOG OFF!”.  I can’t even the last time I shouted at someone in anger.
  Artemis is still missing, still mad about that and no one seems to care. . . . . . . .
We have started to look for a new stock dog puppy.  It’s not that we want a new dog to replace her in our hearts, we are still hopeful we might possibly get her back, somehow.   But we need a stock dog, we are losing chickens and rabbits left and right.  We had a flock of 14, yeah 14! young chicks newly loosed by their mom, some kind of predatory killed 10 of them over the course of a few hours.  The rest scattered, we were only able to save 1, one out of 14! We have never, ever, ever had losses like that.  Over a decade now of having chickens and we have never had something like that happen before. 
  As fried as I am feeling it’s not all bad news.  We have actually been able to have a little bit of company in the past few weeks.  So far 4 pairs of people have made it through the police state the way to our house has become (keep your papers on you at all times!).  Those are the only people we have had visit in the whole six months since the slide.  We’ve got our wood stove in now. (Yay heat! Fire! Possibility of cooking inside it when it’s raining!)  And we are definitely going to get solar! We are working on a contract now for that.  And we are getting some help so we won’t be in debt for the next 6 years to get it either.  So yay!
  The county is messing with us about the creek they took from our land, we have a signed contract that says they will put it back, they don’t want to honor it, because it’s not convenient anymore.  *sigh*
  I am not a naturally suspicious person, but I am quickly getting to where I won’t believe anything from pretty much anybody official unless I see it with my own eyes.  And there are some people I might not even believe if they said the sky was blue. (probably be all grey with clouds)
  I am probably going to get a drivers license soon my learners permit will be up on Oct 10^th so I am working really hard on polishing my skills. I am pretty sure I will do just fine. I get to drive me and my dad part of the way home from my work on the days I work.
  I am now feeling much less fried now, between writing this and taking a quick break to split some wood. (Its amazing how good it feels to wield a large axe (maul) and break wood into small pieces feels when your mad.) 
  Let the dead rest in peace.
Its strange, some people I have no problem being down there, or around the slide, the families and loved ones of those who died are welcome, as are those who truly want to learn from this.  There have been geologists from literally around the world who have come down to be geeks.  They try to be serious, but really they are kind of thrilled.  Like kids who have been given a candy store. And not only can I not blame them I am rather happy for them.  This is more rare even then a once in a lifetime opportunity for them.  This hill went farther faster than anyone had thought it could go. Way farther faster. The geologists knew it was going to go eventually, one of those it could happen tomorrow it could happen in 10,000 years sort of thing.  But, the catastrophic slide report expected it to go less than ¼ as far as it did and thought that if it went crazy, crazy far out it might make it twice that.  So this thing went over 4 times as far as they expected it would go, and more than twice as far as their worst case scenario, and they don’t know why.  And when those geologists come up here they have sort of this gleam in their eyes.  A mystery to be solved and so much to learn.  Being a geek myself although of a different sort seeing them like that just makes me happy.